NYC NOW - June 16, 2023: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: June 16, 2023

Another top Mayor Adams appointee is stepping down. Plus, we look back at the life and legacy of John Romita Sr., the artist responsible for Spider-Man and The Punisher…just to name a few. And finally, why New York City’s LGBTQ bar scene is doing so well while others nationwide seem to be on the decline.

Good evening and welcome to NYC now. I'm Jenae Pierre for WNYC. The senior spiritual advisor to New York City Mayor Eric Adams is stepping down. Fernando Cabrera, the influential Bronx pastor and former council member, announced he's resigning. His is the latest of a dozen recent high-profile departures from the Adams administration. The mayor received pushback from activists in 2022 for appointing Cabrera, who at the time had to apologize for previous. anti-gay remarks.

A spokesperson for City Hall says Cabrera is leaving to continue his work as a pastor and will remain a close advisor to the Adams administration. Stay close. There's more after the break. One of the preeminent artists from the so-called Silver Age of Comics passed away this week. John Ramita Sr. was a New Yorker, born and raised. Just like Spider-Man, The Punisher,

and so many of the other artists he created and worked on over his decades at Marvel and other comic publishers. His son, John Rameda Jr., is also a major comics artist. He talked with WNYC's Sean Carlson about his father's many contributions to the art form and American pop culture. To many of our listeners, your dad was an artist who created and designed characters at both Marvel and DC. He's best known for drawing Spider-Man in the 60s and 70s. He had a hand in creating Wolverine, The Punisher, and Luke K. among others. But who was he to you? He's a guy that taught me how to have a curveball, and that was almost as much importance to me

as learning how to draw Spider-Man's eyes properly. It was so much more than just the art. I was talking to my brother about the fact that when it rained on the weekends in the summertime, we would watch old movies together, and he would tell us what was about to happen. And the scenes on the waterfront have stuck with me forever since. That's the part I remember is how much time he spent with us. And then he taught us so many things. It was more than just the art mentor to me. And yet he never forced anything on me as far as art went.

He told me, I'm not going to tell you what to do. You come to me and ask me a question. If you do something wrong, I'll proactively act that way. So the man was just, he did everything right with my brother and me. It was fantastic. And like I said, as much as he helped with my art world life, he was that way with all aspects of our lives. He was a brilliant man.

Like so many of the early comic book greats, your dad was a New York City kid. What did he tell you about growing up and how it led him to the industry? And why did so many New Yorkers join Marvel MDC in those early days? That's a great question, the latter part of that. He just made it sound as if this was our world. When New York City became part of the Marvel universe, so to speak, and a character, he said these newspaper articles would show you the buildings. And he said, in the best camera in the world, you're too wise.

Pay attention. Look how to draw that. building. Look how to draw this building. That's where Peter Parker grew up, that kind of, and he was always getting into my head that this imagery that we lived in was what was important to show and convey as realism, as opposed to the fantasy of Gossom and Superman's world. So that was part of the education of what I got from him. And it helped because New York City became a character. It was brilliant. I loved every second of it. And I could feel like I was involved. And later on, when Stan Lee would tell me the balance between fantasy and reality is what makes Spider-Man so great, it made perfect sense to me. I think some of your dad's most iconic images. And like you said, New York City is front center. It's a character. You got Spider-Man swinging through Midtown skyscrapers, a quiet Mary Jane moment in Farsall's Queens or Kingpin, the villain brawling in Hell's Kitchen. How did being a New Yorker influence his art? I don't know if it was a personality thing or not. But I don't know.

I think because the city around him and us is so ever present, where he's brought up, it was the brick buildings and the people with their elbows on their windowsills, looking out at the street, watching stickball games in the street, that is something that can be infused in the art because it's gritty. It became a part of the characters. And the characters became a part of the city. And I think, without him saying it, I learned from that. The Daredevil in Hell's Kitchen, Spider-Man, and Queens, that's the kind of thing that made you feel

like you were in a real world, even though it was fantasy. I feel like this is akin to asking somebody who their favorite child is, but did he ever tell you who were his favorite characters to draw and what he was proud of us of over the course of his career in comics? I'd say Spider-Man overall, whether it was his favorite to draw or not, but that character became part of the family because of working with Stan on it in that run that he had. We would go up to Connecticut to visit the grandparents. and on the way he would ask us,

how do I get out of this situation? Spider-Man's caught here. What do you think? I don't know if he was being a wise ass or if he was seriously asking for assistance. But what it was was an education, especially for me, not my brother. But it was for me because I learned that you can tell a story, and he loved the storytelling aspect of it. So I've got to say Spider-Man because it became part of the family.

I swear he's a sibling. In addition to inspiring millions of people with his art, But as we said, he's inspired you to become part of the next generation of artists. Can you tell us more about how he influenced your career and the current generation of comic book artists? The part about having a father as brilliant an artist as I had. He said there's always somebody big and better, stronger, and smarter and a better artist than you deal with it. Because if you don't, you're never going to get better. If you accept the fact that there are better people than you, you'll try to get better.

If you think you're great, you're never going to get any better. How true. Yeah, totally. What it affected me was that it gave me a goal. post to reach for. What it made me want to do is do it as well as he didn't, even if I didn't get there yet. But the other artists in the field, you have to ask them, but as far as I'm concerned, he brought the beauty of real life to superheroes, draw beautiful figures in fantasy situations. And I think that's what affected a lot of the artists in the business. That's John Ramita Jr., son of the legendary comic book artist John Ramita Sr., talking with WNYC's

Sean Carlson. are on the decline nationwide, but not in New York City. The Big Apple is actually bucking that trend, and the city is seeing an increase this year. Reporter Jordan Gaspore looks at why New York City's LGBTQ bar culture is doing so well. Brittany Spears is playing over the loudspeaker at the Stonewall Inn,

a Greenwich Village bar that ignited the gay liberation movement. For many, the durable pop star is a gay icon, and a suitable soundtrack to celebrate the resilience of New York City's LGBTQ bars, even after the pandemic forced so many venues to close. But now that we have dating apps, who needs bars? Gregor Mattson is a professor at Oberlin College, an author of the new book, Who Needs Gay Bars? Bar hopping through America's endangered LGBTQ-plus places.

He says they represent something important. There are precious few places that recognize our history as part of, of American history. And bars are often the places where these civil rights cases originated. Mattson says that across the country, 45% of LGBTQ bars have closed since 2001, with bars catering to lesbians and people of color, closing at a faster rate. But Mattson's research also found that New York City has at least 48 LGBTQ bars. That's up from 36 in 2019. He attributes that to the city's concentration of wealthy residents and tourism. New York City bars were some of the most successful at crown funding during pandemic.

When you are a tourism mecca, not only are you drawing from the 8 million greater New Yorkers, but hundreds of millions of people come. Jack Jen Geisking is writing a book about the history of lesbian bars. Geisking says LGBTQ residents and tourists alike visit places like Stonewall because they want to be a part of history. Once you get to New York, there's an actual kind of gayberhood economy that you're supported in. And so you go out and you want to be part of these places. We think of what it means to be gay. Where would you find other gay people?

You go to a gay bar. You go to a gay neighborhood. So it's the complete package. New York City has a rich LGBTQ history. And the events that took place at Stonewall inspired the first Pride March in 1970. And now it's clear that history is helping to assure that the city's LGBTQ bars not only survive, but thrive. That's reporter Jordan Goss Porre.

Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. We hope you have a great weekend, especially if you plan on celebrating Juneteenth. Just a heads up, we won't be dropping the usual three episodes on the holiday, just one in the middle of the day. So stay tuned for that. We want to recognize our wonderful production team. It includes Sean Boutich, Ave Carrillo,

Audrey Cooper, Leora Noam Cravitz, Jared Marcel, and Wayne Schulmeister, with help from the entire WNYC Newsroom. Our show art was designed by the people at Buck, and our music was composed by Alexis Quadrato. I'm Jene Pierre. We'll be back Monday.