Les L.E.S.
By late May of 2020 a daily scene was playing out beneath the Manhattan bridge in Chinatown. Skaters would scale the barriers surrounding the Lower East Side Coleman Park (“L.E.S.”) bucking the statewide social distance mandates and skate until the cops inevitably appeared; at which point their natural instincts to scatter and run from the police would prevail. Cuomo had recently relaxed restrictions around outdoor activities like tennis but skating hadn’t made the list, not that anyone was waiting for permission anyway. As the wobblies say “Direct action gets the goods.”
I don’t share this to wade into the debate about morality, pandemics and conspiracy. It’s more a reminder that this soon to be olympic sport has its legacy in anarchists and pirates. Kids who often head out into the streets to test themselves and find a sense of worth and belonging that is often absent in school or home life. Laws of property ownership and physics be damned.
Like so much in skating, L.E.S. began with outlaw origins, as a DIY set up on a basketball court (a double set that’s still there today) beneath the Manhattan Bridge. Since 2018 I’ve been making pilgrimages to it, regardless of the season or the temp. I like to go early in the morning when the trains and traffic are loud but the park is mostly just us old folks who rise before 10am. Skate for hours until my limbs are rubber and sweat soaks my shirt or freezes to my skin. Then if I have nowhere to be, I’ll push through the streets of Chinatown, get some food and coffee and go back and just sit and vibe. Like a pilgrim at the Bodhi Tree.
These are pics and videos I’ve take over the years set to the words of the late, Nuyorican Poet Miguel Pinero . An outlaw in the literal sense who transcended the struggles of growing up in the Lower East Side to become a renowned poet and playwrite. They’re not my words and not my feelings cause it’s not my history, not my place; but I think about them and this area and all the history of those who came before when I’m there. Hope you enjoy.
A Lower Eastside Poem
by Miguel Pinero
Just once before I die
I want to climb up on a
tenement sky
to dream my lungs out till
I cry
then scatter my ashes thru
the Lower East Side.
So let me sing my song tonight
let me feel out of sight
and let all eyes be dry
when they scatter my ashes thru
the Lower East Side.
From Houston to 14th Street
from Second Avenue to the mighty D
here the hustlers & suckers meet
the f****ts & freaks will all get
high
on the ashes that have been scattered
thru the Lower East Side.
There's no other place for me to be
there's no other place that I can see
there's no other town around that
brings you up or keeps you down
no food little heat sweeps by
fancy cars & pimps' bars & juke saloons
& greasy spoons make my spirits fly
with my ashes scattered thru the
Lower East Side . . .
A thief, a junkie I've been
committed every known sin
Jews and Gentiles . . . Bums & Men
of style . . . run away child
police shooting wild . . .
mother's futile wails . . . pushers
making sales . . . dope wheelers
& cocaine dealers . . . smoking pot
streets are hot & feed off those who bleed to death . . .
all that's true
all that's true
all that is true
but this ain't no lie
when I ask that my ashes be scattered thru
the Lower East Side.
So here I am, look at me
I stand proud as you can see
pleased to be from the Lower East
a street fighting man
a problem of this land
I am the Philosopher of the Criminal Mind
a dweller of prison time
a cancer of Rockefeller's ghettocide
this concrete tomb is my home
to belong to survive you gotta be strong
you can't be shy less without request
someone will scatter your ashes thru
the Lower East Side.
I don't wanna be buried in Puerto Rico
I don't wanna rest in Long Island Cemetery
I wanna be near the stabbing shooting
gambling fighting & unnatural dying
& new birth crying
so please when I die . . .
don't take me far away
keep me near by
take my ashes and scatter them thru out
the Lower East Side . . .
*Pinero passed away in 1988 and his ashes were indeed scattered in the Lower East Side.
