"Once There Was A Village is the authentic account of a period by a survivor...Kapralov's background-and gifts as a writer-make him the right annalist for the East Village." -The Village Voice
"Actually Kapralov is talking about two villages; the one in Russia where he was born and New York's East Village where muggings were at one time so bad that returning vets said they felt safer in Vietnam." -Kirkus
The Lower East Side has a long and powerful history of diversity, struggle and creativity, a history that has largely been ignored. And in these times of gentrification and economic elitism this history has been replaced by a historical perspective focused on rampant drug use, violence and poverty that is used to justify the exclusion of the people who have lived in the LES for years. Armed with a desire to challenge representation and highlight the strength of the people and the movements they initiated for equal rights, fair and decent housing, more open spaces and community gardens and a quality of life free of oppression from the police and City Hall, La Lutta has begun production on a documentary that challenges the current view that the LES was saved by gentrification from the squatters, homesteaders and community garden owners and captures the reality of life in the LES, then and now. The documentary will cover the time period 1960 through the present. La Lutta is working in collaboration with long time community activists like Chino Garcia of CHARAS, artists like Seth Tobocman and Yuri Kapralov, musicians like RICANSTRUCTION and a host of others that give the Loisaida its vitality and spirit.
Currently, La Lutta New Media Collective has received the rights to Lower East Side artist/activist Yuri Kapralov's book, Once There Was A Village. La Lutta will incorporate elements of this book into the documentary.In addition, Seth Tobocman has granted La Lutta permission to use his art work and illustrations. Recently, Seth released a new collection of his work titled War in the Neighborhood published by Autonomedia.
Working with noted photographer, artist and activist Jamel Shabazz and Shabazz Entertainment, La Lutta is currently completing the new media documentary Back in the Days: A Time Before Crack. Back in the Days is an examination and in depth reflection focusing on the East Flatbush, Brooklyn community during the 70's. Looking through the lens of Jamel Shabazz and his group of friends, this documentary explores the lives, families, community, and loss that kept this community and group of people united and strong. The film takes an unflinching look at how crack destroyed community, ripped families apart, led to the incarceration and in many cases the death of a whole generation of people--primarily Black and Latino. Working with La Lutta creative activist and collaborator VAGABOND from the band RICANSTRUCTION helps to bring this project to a new level. Promoting the greatest struggle of all--the struggle to have your voice heard and to be respected.
Yuri Kapralov was born in the Caucasus and came to the United States in 1949. He has lived in the East Village, New York City, since 1965. Kapralov has exhibited his paintings, pen-and-inks, and piano constructions in New York and San Francisco, and ran the East Village's Sixth Sense Gallery from 1982-1987. He is the author of a novel, Castle Dubrava, published by Dutton in 1982, as well as more than one hundred short stories mostly about the East Village.
Please check out Akashic Books if your interested in purchasing Once There Was A Village. www.akashicbooks.com
