s
you enter the beautiful Union Theological Seminary at 121st
and Broadway in Harlem, you might expect to see an exhibit of religious
paintings reflecting the cloistered life – not an exhibition titled "A
Life on the Streets,
A Life on Canvas: Memoirs of an Anti-Poverty Activist" by Ronald
Casanova, whose life has been anything but cloistered.
Yet, when you arrive at the lovely, peaceful James
Chapel where the exhibit is hung, the vaulted space feels totally right
for these works reflecting the life of this man who’s been truly forged
in the fire.
Ronald
Casanova, known to his friends as Cas, lives in Brooklyn, where he is
the Coordinator for the Poor People's Economic and Human Rights Campaign
New York Chapter. He is also the Founder of Artists for a Better
America. His art is autobiographical, depicting his life and influences
as a homeless person organizing a social movement to end poverty.
Cas was born in New York City of African American and
Puerto Rican heritage. When he was three, Cas’ mother died, and his
father put him in an orphanage. At age eight, he began running away and
living on the street. By the time Cas reached twelve, he was an
accomplished burglar; at sixteen, he was in prison. As his life
continued, much of it was spent either incarcerated or homeless. Drugs
and alcohol played a major part in his existence.
Then came June 1989. That month would change Cas'
life forever. Tompkins Square Park, which had always been a homeless
camp, became politicized – and Cas, a squatter, right along with it. For
the first time, he began thinking in terms of fighting for the rights of
other disenfranchised people, not just looking out for himself.
Cas
was soon thrust into a leadership role in the Tompkins Square uprising,
which led to his becoming a spokesperson for the National Union of the
Homeless. Things took off from there, and Cas has been organizing ever
since. Even when he discovered that he was HIV positive, instead of
flagging in his efforts, this, too, became a part of his advocacy.
As to how he became a painter, Cas says he first
became interested in art when he was about eight years old, hanging
around 42nd Street. His first "models" were the girlie
magazines.
As
he grew up, people asked him to do artwork for them. "Like when I was in
prison," he said, "people asked me to design letterheads and envelopes
to use to write to their girlfriends. I realized I could make a little
money for cigarettes and other things since I didn’t have any family to
come and visit and give me anything."
Cas spent a lot of time either reading or drawing
because his cell was a very ugly green, and he liked to hide the walls
with colorful pictures. "Then, people started asking for my paintings,"
he said. "They would send them home to their girlfriends, wives, and
families."
When asked what effect his painting had on him at
that time, Cas responded that though he hates to use the term, it was
"therapeutic" because "I was able to escape from my cell and from my
loneliness. I would become so involved in my painting that I wasn’t
really in that cell."
After he was released, Cas kept painting because in
the drab world he lived in, "If I didn’t paint beauty, I didn’t see it.
It was probably out there," he explained, "but because of my morbid
life, I needed some beauty and color, and painting helped me find that."
Cas
noted, too, that his paintings have evolved over the years as his life
has evolved. For instance, at one point someone told him he should paint
his life story. He did a series of 14 paintings, all of them very angry.
They depicted things like himself in a straitjacket being taken to the
state hospital for the criminally insane. All of the subjects were very
dark, so the colors were dark, very different from the colors in his
paintings now.
"Now I’m older and I appreciate my life a lot more,
so I’m back to expressing beauty," Cas said. "Every now and then there’s
a dark moment because of all the poverty and homelessness I see around
me. I do my political activism through my art. I also tell my story, and
I try to spread joy through my colors."
Ronald Casanova is the author of Each One Teach
One: Memoirs of a Street Activist. He is in the process of writing
another book to be entitled, Each One Teach One: HIV and Me. His
exhibition will be on display until November 25th at Union
Theological Seminary at 3041 Broadway at 121st Street. For
more information, call (212) 280-1523.
