In Brooklyn and the rest of America, a movement for Bernie Sanders
As the sun began to set on the hottest day of a New York heat wave, a group of about 60 people crowded into a dark, scantily air-conditioned Bushwick loft, their gazes directed toward a wrinkled bed sheet that had been pressed into service as a screen.
“I apologize for how hot it is in here,” said host Steve Panovich, who stood beneath the bed sheet glistening with sweat.
“Feel the burn, man!” yelled a guy in the perspiring crowd. But what he meant was “Bern,” as in Bernie Sanders. The gathering wasn’t one of the usual parties that 36-year-old Panovich, a member of local art punk band The Library Is on Fire, usually throws at his home. It was one of the 3,500 events held across the United States on Wednesday night, organized by supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Guests at the Bushwick Loft Party for Bernie Sanders!, hosted by Steve Panovich. (Photo: Alyssa Bereznak/Yahoo News).
These nationwide meetings — held in coffee shops, businesses and apartments from Fargo, N.D., to Sanders’ native Brooklyn — were meant to kick off local volunteer efforts for the independent socialist senator’s Democratic presidential campaign. Other events in New York included a “teach in” co-hosted by Carlen Altman, an actress who has appeared in the Web show “High Maintenance,” and singer Tennessee Thomas, at her shop and event space Deep End Club. Earlier that afternoon, Sanders had tweeted that more than 100,000 people had RSVP’ed to an event.
From a house party in Washington, D.C., Sanders spoke to the groups by livestream video, with a speech addressing the nation’s growing economic inequalities and racial tensions. It filled his longstanding promise to ”beam himself into every living room” through the Internet, according to Sanders’ digital director Kenneth Pennington.
“It is not acceptable that the rich get richer and everybody gets poorer,” Sanders said on Panovich’s bed-sheet screen. “That while we see a proliferation of millionaires and billionaires, we have more kids living in poverty than any other major industrialized society.”
Sanders speaking from a gathering in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Katherine Frey/The Washington Post via Getty Images).
The sheer volume of people who turned out on Wednesday is evidence of Sanders’ growing grassroots fanbase, which is rooted in a strong digital following. In the first 24 hours after he officially launched his campaign on April 30, 35,000 people sent him donations online, according to the Washington Post. In about three months, Sanders has raised $15 million, mostly from people donating less than $200 each, “not the billionaires,” as his website so proudly states.
At Panovich’s party, evidence of this DIY spirit was on full display. His kitchen wall was covered with patches of burlap that he’d silk screened with phrases like “Feel the Bern” and “Bernie is bae” — slang for one’s significant other.
Silk-screen prints made by Panovich. Guests were asked to donate $2 to Sanders’ campaign per patch. (Photo: Alyssa Bereznak/Yahoo News).
“That one is the one that everyone wants,” Panovich, who learned how to silk-screen logos for the punk bands he played with in high school and college, told Yahoo News. “I’ll probably make a bigger version of that and put it on a T-shirt.”
Elsewhere, Kyle Forester of the Brooklyn-based band Crystal Stilts attended a Sanders event in the East Village and shared a song he dedicated to the candidate.
Loris Jones-Randolph, a 26-year-old Bushwick resident, emailed the campaign the moment she heard Sanders was running and asked what she could do to help before it even had an infrastructure for volunteers.
“I was like, ‘Excuse me! Excuse me!’” she told Yahoo News. “I was annoying as s—.”
Amid discussions of Sanders’ political stances, guests compared him to his main opponent, Hillary Clinton. The former first lady and secretary of state is a powerful candidate with national name recognition, but many were wary of her insider status.
“I’ve heard lately that some people think voting for Bernie is voting against feminism, because it’s not Hillary,” said Dani Slocki, a 24-year-old Bushwick resident. “It’s a misconception of feminism.”
Others described their fondness for his genuine personality.
“He seems like a human,” said Brian Sweeny, who founded a yoga, music and spiritual space in the same Brooklyn neighborhood. “I can only hope that if we elect Bernie to the White House, he’d be more truthful to the American people [than other politicians are].”
From left, Loris Jones-Randolph, Brian Sweeny and Dani Slocki. (Photos: Alyssa Bereznak/Yahoo News).
Panovich also used the gathering to sketch out future campaign efforts, some of which he took from the Bernie Sanders subReddit page. These included a “Chalk the Block,” campaign, for which they’d “basically write ‘vote for Bernie’ on the sidewalk,” and weekend events during which they’d hold signs on every street corner in Manhattan. “There are a lot of street corners,” he said (approximately 12,000), “but it’s an idea.”
The entrance to Panovich’s Bushwick, Brooklyn, loft. (Photo: Alyssa Bereznak/Yahoo News).
Though Panovich first learned about Sanders as a Vermont politician, he can’t deny that his Brooklyn roots have appeal.
“He came from a working class, immigrant family, and I think that influences him,” He said. “Plus, the accent is pretty cool, too.”
Chrysanthe Tenentes contributed reporting.
