Vern Liu, FarTooCanadian in New York

Vern Liu, FarTooCanadian in New York

∞ By Voltaire de Leon

Now, for something more inspiring.

A feature of this column will be interviews with the  ‘nugen’ (New Generation)  of ‘hyfies’ (for Hyphenated Filipino as my daughter once called herself instead of the cumbersome Filipino-Canadian) . Let’s roll.

She could be the reason so many New Yorkers, like Stephen Colbert, became such a Canadaphile  and  why they’re moving up to Canada for good.  Heading home after the usual frenetic day at the office, they may have just tuned in to  87.9 fm  FarToo Canadian ‘s “More Than Just Loon Calls and Moose Music, Eh?” and learned from for the first time that Neil Young is Canadian and so was ‘Tragically Hip.’
http://www.villagevoice.com/bestof/2001/award/best-way-to-hear-canadian-music-493839/

But enough from me, let’s hear from Vern herself. We were chatting on Skype.

We begin with Veronica ‘Vern’ Liu.

Veronica Liu, of the Word Up Community Bookshop, at the United Palace Theater in Washington Heights, where Word Up’s books are being stored.
Photo courtesy: Karsten Moran for The New York Times

Voltaire:  Your handle is Far Too Canadian. I suspect you miss Toronto, but what does that mean?

Vern: I did a radio show when I first moved to NYC for college, and played only Canadian music and had Canadian guests to talk about vaguely Canadian topics.  That was a long time ago! It was called Far Too Canadian. So that’s where the email address came from. At the time I only had a school email address  though had the fartoocanadian handle for radio show stuff  so when I left college and needed a non-school address, it stayed with me http://www.villagevoice.com/bestof/2001/award/best-way-to-hear-canadian-music-493839/

Voltaire: The name also says your’re  too Canadian at the core that you’ll never be a New Yorker.

Vern: Well, I didn’t think too much about Canada before—until I moved away from it.The radio show angle was a little bit of a gimmick—but then, as sometimes happens, I got a little carried away then got REALLY into Canada for a while (Not that I don’t care about Canada anymore!  I still am interested in things happening at home, in Toronto particularly. It’s home.)  But at this point NYC is also home. In a few years, I’ll  have been here half my life.

Voltaire: In that respect , you’re more Canadian than the average Canuck in college. Why did you leave Toronto for New York?

Vern:  I found all these notebooks recently, of these nerdy lists I used to make when I was 10, 11, 12, and besides listing all the movies I’d ever seen at the time, and with who, and where, there were also all these lists of movies that took place in New York, TV shows that took place in New York, songs about New York, etc. So obviously as soon as I move to New York I start doing the same thing about Canada.
Though I was interested in many things, I did have a particular interest—at the time—of pursuing a career in theatre. Not at definite commitment to the idea, but a very likely maybe.  And so that put New York schools something on my radar.  I also liked New York a lot anyway.

Voltaire:  Last year, I came here  looking for Word Up but at that time you were moving. What is Word Up and how did that idea come about?

Vern:  (Took too long typing this:)

Word Up is a volunteer-run community bookshop arts space in Washington Heights (Northern Manhattan), operated by local residents, featuring new and used books in English, Spanish, and Russian, and a place where we host a lot of events, including readings, concerts, movies, theatre productions, workshops, community meetings, after-school programs, etc. . . .

Voltaire:  Feels like a community hub…

Vern:  It was originally a one-month project—but the neighborhood gave it great support, and many people were coming in and saying it should stay forever! And so the group that had helped start it by faciliating the connection to the landlord—Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance—asked for an extension, which was granted, and we had another 2.5 months (bringing us to the end of September, when we were originally supposed to close mid-July 2011). Then a petition started up . . . local politicians were calling up the landlord . . . and we got another extension till the end of November.  Then we entered a 6-month lease, December 2011 to May 2012.  [After having 5.5 months rent-free on Broadway!]  A new landlord took over partway through the lease  …

Voltaire:  That’s  unheard of…

Vern:  …honoured the rest of that lease  said we could stay month to month with slightly increased rent  We started these new terms June 1, 2012  We held a 10-day Birthday Fund Drive from June 7–16 (leading up to our first birthday June 17), with the aim of having a very fun ten days of programming to help offset the rent increase  The kickoff was a talk with Junot Díaz on June 7  etc.  it was great fun  the rest of June was great too  Make Music New York, a ton of other events  Then on July 2  we got 30 days’ notice! On July 9, we had a meeting with local representatives, to see what could be done. A bit of pressure from media and political offices yielded an extra month

Voltaire:  30 days to move? Is that usual?

Vern: Well, we had an unusual agreement  Very below market rent

Voltaire:  I’m not up on Manhattan rent … only that it’s the priciest this side of the Atlantic.. Can you be more $ specific?

Vern: Vantage Residential  gave us the favourable deal through their communiity office. But the new landlord inherited this all and didn’t feel the need to keep up something that had started with Vantage.  The asking price for the spot we were in was, at one point, $9,800.  Not at a corner, but near a corner  Broadway.  Very close to the A train.

Voltaire: But even for an out –of-the-way block in New York,  that’s very  good for an  annual rent, even much better than Toronto

Vern:  monthly

Voltaire:  Oh…

Vern: 9800 is too much for a bookstore that had only planned to be a temporary project, but that turned into a whole volunteer-run organization, especially when much of our mission is to make sure the books are affordable to much of our neighbourhood.  So we moved out August 31, 2012  and have had stuff stored in a few different places  including all over my apartment also the United Palace–  the 3rd largest theatre in Manhattan—so they have a big basement, ha ha. But I am sure they didn’t think we’d be down for this long. They have been generous with the space, but are itching to have it back.  There are thousands of books stored down there.  The picture in The New York Times photo shows only part of what is stored there .

Word Up at July 26, 2013 Opening

(Read NY Times Jim Dwyer for the madcap night thriller on the ongoing adventure of Word Up. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/nyregion/in-washington-heights-a-bookstore-that-knows-how-to-make-the-show-go-on.html)

Vern: Our new spot is 2113 Amsterdam Avenue @ 165th Street. The two programs that we have going through  Seven Stories Institute are both things that I have started, the after-school program Voices: Our Young People Speak, which I co-developed through SSI with People’s Theatre Project (another Washington Heights based org), and Word Up.  The stuff in Dwyer’s piece is all about the old spot.  We just signed the lease on the new spot 2 weeks ago.  Oh, I guess 3 weeks ago now  Not even 3 weeks ago.  So we don’t have anything in there now, are about to start some light renovations.

Vern: The neighbourhood has enthusiastically helped push what Word Up can be. At our height we had 80 volunteers at one time, and have had well over 100 since we started. Our core volunteer collective, doing that backend work beyond staffing shifts, is about 20 people at the moment, though was about 30 when we had the store. We had 1,200+ perform over the course of the year when we were open—not counting open mics. Lots of books circulated, lots of neighbors came to see shows and participate in events. Then, since we have been closed, we have continued to pop up everywhere around the neighborhood. In June alone we’ve had 8 events in collaboration with other local groups. For our Indiegogo campaign to raise money to reopen, more than 800 people contributed online and offline. So, it’s more like the neighborhood won’t let it die! Which is a great reason to keep something going.

Voltaire: A Canada-born and raised New Yorker edits the Seven Stories Press starts and acts in an all volunteer Word Up collective and the Young People Speak — and all with neighbourhood support and obviously the creative energy of the core 20.

Vern: Our Voices: Our Young People Speak program  involves the teens reading from Howard Zinn’s A Young People’s History of the United States  (we will expand the book selection in the coming year)  and writing about their own lives  then they gain theatre skills and work all the writing and improvising into a performance  and we also publish a book of the writings

The other groups in the neighbourhood that we have worked with regularly is also a great list—arts groups, social services groups, civic-minded collectives, individual writers/artists, presses, and neighbours. And the local businesses who have supported us with in-kind love is also a great list  (Seven Stories Press is a whole other company—I am one editor there, though there are a few others. I think the staff of SSP is about 10?)

Voltaire:  Who make up the core to keep Word Up together?

Vern: Emmanuel Abreu, photographer and videographer, does a lot of the promotion; Sandy Jimenez, an illustrator and comic book artist who has worked closely with the political comics magazine World War 3 Illustrated for many years, who also works in the magazine industry, is on the SSI board; Will Glass, musician, has helped a lot with events and our real estate search; Mary Ann Wincorkowski, fashion designer, does a ton of admin stuff and a lot of our design; oh, there are so many people, hahaha . . .  All those people do so much more than 2 lines could ever give them credit for   I can’t believe there is such a solid, competent group of VOLUNTEERS in existence.  Other organizations who have occasional volunteers sometimes express that they can’t believe how “with it” some of the work is being done by volunteers. It blows me away all the time. Everyone seems to do this in order to connect to neighbours, to the neighbourhood.

Voltaire:  I was quite struck by that Dwyer article. I was used to this kind of fellowship in the small barrios in the Philippines where everyone is assumed  to contribute to, say, a fiesta happening… and even here in Toronto, when we produced the play Alos. There was tons of volunteer work without which none of that was possible.  It was really good talking to you and the pics are amazing. Thank you so much. Your mom is rightly proud of you. — Voltaire (wave)

Vern: Thanks for chatting!  Let me know if you need anything else  and when you are next in nyc.  I don’t know if you are on the Word Up mailing list but if not I can add you for more news.

For more pics of Word Up:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/64630411@N05/8139964429/