Harlem

Coffee break. We are parked in front of a bakery. Regulars continue to come by the Winnebago to pick up condoms. A few homeless teenage prostitutes are willing to be interviewed. We see toddlers walking around the destitute street where the Winnebago is parked.  Most of the toddlers are accompanied by siblings who are only a few years older.  There is no parental supervision.   For these children, it is not unusual to be on the streets by themselves close to midnight.

We are on our way again, Bronxbound.

Hunts Point, Bronx.

As we arrive in Hunts Point, George explains to us that this is one of the worst sections  of New York City. We drive on through bleak, empty streets of this industrial area; eventually small figures begin to stagger out of the darkness. A very young girl, strung out on crack asks us for a sweater. She wears only a summer dress in the middle of winter.

We encounter mother and daughter prostitute teams. The ladies receive hygenical kits containing wipes for cleaning after contact with their clients. After they have gone, George tells us that, out here, there is no access to lavatories and/or heat.

George is familiar with some of the prostitutes; some are new to the area. He talks to all of them. Some feel safe enough to enter the Winnebago while others will only venture to the window. A hungry woman wolfs down the rest of a sandwich that I find in my bag.

A lone boy, not yet seven years old, walks his dog.

We drive on.

Queens

As we enter the area known as the children’s stroll, George tells us about the different prostitution zones of the City.  In this neighborhood, we see pimps. A brawl starts. George does not interfere, he does not even call the police. His sole purpose here is to distribute condoms. He  tells us  that he can only help the child  prostitutes that we see working the street if he maintains a neutral relationship with the pimps. In this area we can not do interviews. As we watch the girls walking the street, George tells us that most of them are not even  15 years old. We see them getting into cars with as many as three men. Some of these children disappear and are never heard from again.

The police are nowhere to be seen in this area.

Safe Space Outreach Mobile Unit

On a regular basis the volunteers and employees of Safe Space visit the areas of New York City that are most ridden with sexually related crimes. The outreach vehicles are fixtures in many of the City’s neighborhoods, they reach out to teenagers in need.

Christopher Street, West Village, Manhattan

Friday, 10 p.m. A Winnebago, emblazoned with the large graffiti logo of Safe Space is parked by the side walk. The door is open. We watch young people entering the vehicle, receiving free condoms. Most of them are between 12 and 25 years of age. Many are homosexual, transvestites, or on their way to becoming transgendered. They stroll along the sidewalks of the far-West Village, some of them looking for tricks. When a police car appears on the street their clients disappear.

West Side Highway

During the drive up the West Side Highway, to the Bronx, we talk to George, the driver of the Safe Space vehicle. George is 6 foot tall, 43 year-old Latin American.  A former drug addict and gang member, he was incarcerated for many years after being  convicted for several shootings and knife stabbings. Today George is clean. During the day he is a case worker for H.I.V. positive youngsters. On the weekends he drives the Safe Space Outreach mobile unit.

George is a lifelong insider to the the streets of New York. He is familiar with the stories of many of the individuals who approach his vehicle. For him, the work is fun.  He loves the people on the streets and all are beautiful to him. On his nightly runs, George encounters the same fantastically aparelled  characters. While working, he listens to sports on the radio and curses with gusto when the Yankees don’t perform.

His co-pilot, a young articulate man tells us how he ended up with his job at Safe Space. He and his family were threatened by gang members. The police recommended that he disappear for a while so that his family would not be endangered. Safe Space provided shelter and hired him as a case worker. We see him distributing blankets, condoms and small hygenical kits. He is also trained to perform on site H.I.V. tests. Both let us know the hardest part of the job is to tell the kids they have tested positively

From Cherry McCutchen of Safe Space, we learn about youth diagnosed with H.I.V. in New York City and the minimal assistance that they receive from the government, such as   S.R.O.s (Single Room Occupancies) These are mostly dismal single rooms in squalid hotels. During the week, George works in the S.R.O. hotels. He describes for us what life is like in the S.R.O.s; loansharking, drugdealing and crime are rampant.

In 2003 I received a call from the organization Safe Space. (www.safespacenyc.org).

This organization helps children and teenagers from broken homes with allocations and counselling, as well as therapeutic programs to help them deal with their experiences of abuse and neglect. They needed a fund raising video to show at one of their gala events. While producing the video I learned about the different activities of Safe Space and the environment they serve.

The distress I was encountering was deeply shocking. I felt compelled to inform a larger audience about the desperate circumstances in which tens of thousands teenagers and young adults live on the streets of New York City. As I started videotaping it became obvious that I needed to to produce a film that could justify the cause of street children in New York. ‚Safe Space’, ‚Sylvia’s Shelter’ and ‚The Neutral Zone’ agreed to collaborate with me in my efforts to document their work and granted me permission to conduct interviews on camera.

Lost in the Crowd’ was an ongoing production, shot between 2003 and 2009.

The film is intended to honor the work and personal involvement of the volunteers and counselors who work on the streets. I hope it shows how their simple gestures of kindness affect the youth who survive each day under brutally harsh conditions.

Following are a few of the observations I made when I was riding around with the Safe Space outreach van:

A grey, unobtrusive one-family home. Young women enter and leave, some are carrying infants. This is a safe house, a shelter for girls under eighteen years of age, who have been removed from their parents’ homes because of abuse and/or neglect. Due to the severity of the abuse that they have experienced in their homes, these children are not yet emotionally prepared to enter a conventional foster house. This particular safe house not only meets the material needs of these young women, but also provides a supportive environment in which they draw strength from their shared experiences.

Because these teenage girls are often the victims of sexual abuse by adoptive parents, many reappear several times in the shelter, and at times prefer a life on the street to a new and potentially abusive foster situation.

Hello,

our doc is almost ready. The sound design is coming together and lyrics are being written for the final song. We are also editing a new trailer. Watch out for it, it’s going to be up soon!

So here is the video of the discussion described earlier. Essentially it’s a discussion of weather the homeless LGBTQ should have their own shelters or if they should share shelters with the straight homeless. The problem is that often the LGBTQ will get beat up and abused because of ther sexual orientation, but is it possible to educate the straight homeless about the LGBTQ homeless and solve the problem that way?
See the discussion here and feel free to participate in the discussion by leaving a comment.

This video shows the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgendered, Questioning) homeless putting out pillows on the sidewalk to give a visual reference of where these youth will sleep in the future if the government cuts all funding for the shelters.

This is an interview with one of the hosts of the rally, Lucky Michaels is telling us why this cause is important to support.

Another video from the LGBTQ Rally at City Hall is up on youtube, you can watch it here.

We have had some uploading problems lately, but that will get fixed tonight and more videos will be up ASAP
We also recorded a video of this discussion at the rally weather the homeless lesbian gay bi-sexual and transgenders should have their own shelters or if they should live with straight homeless people. It’s an interesting discussion that is definitely worth a look, that will be up soon.

So finally the movies and photos are up from the fantastic Legendary House of Ninja vouging performance at the Goldman Sonnenfeld Audiotorium in Manhatten, where they performed march 17, 2009.
I think the material speak for itself, so without further ado… Here’s The Legendary House of Ninja!






Images from the event can be seen on Flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/susigraf/sets/72157616435567610
If you need more of the Legendary House of Ninja, you can visit their myspace page at: http://www.myspace.com/elementsofninja.
Some of the members can also be seen in the Lost In the Crowd Documentary.

We went to the rally at the City Hall today. Serious stuff was going on, and the government wants to cut the funding for the homeless shelters for the transgendered, lesbien, gay, bi-sexual community, which means the homeless are going back out on the streets.
Check out the videos and the photos from the event, and hear Lucky Michaels talk about the cause!
The photos are on Flickr: Homeless rally at city hall

The first video is up on youtube now, the rest will be up very soon!

The 2009 Night of a Thousand Gowns, with the 3 finalists from the RuPauls Drag Race, these videos show each of Bebe Zahara Benet, Rebecca Glasscock and Nina Flowers performances.