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Library

Josh Cohen

June 23, 2024

|

Hudson, NY

Song

Recorded by

Ollie Schwartz

This interview is available in-person only. Please get in touch if you would like to listen.
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Summary:

This interview was conducted on a hot summer day at the narrator’s home in Hudson, NY on June 23, 2024. The narrator, and his large fluffy 11-year dog Kasha, were in the house that day making it through an 8 day early heat wave. Joshua Cohen was born in Morgantown, West Virginia, went to college in Western, MA at Hampshire College, and lived in NYC until moving to Hudson. Upon meeting his former spouse in NYC, they moved to upstate NY and purchased several acres of land, with the intention of creating a community space for outdoor education supporting queer families. The land has not yet been fitted out with infrastructure for extended stays, and after his divorce, the land transferred into the hands of a friend. Joshua remains living in Hudson, and the land parcel remains an aspirational project and place he visits with his daughter. Throughout the interview he described many themes including: being a renter in Hudson and experiencing displacement, moving to the region and becoming part of his local community network, the process of having children as a queer person, what his life is like now as a divorced queer parent of a child in middle school, his belief in the importance of outdoor experiential learning, his work as an environmental advocate, and his experience as a parent through the acute COVID-19 pandemic.

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Themes:
New York City
,
LGBTQ+
,
Parenting
,
Youth
,
Environment
,
Covid-19
,
Change and Gentrification
,
Interviewer Bio:
Ollie Schwartz

Ollie Emmes Schwartz  (no pronouns) is a trans, disabled, white, ashkenazi libra. Ollie was born a third generation Lower East Sider, and currently lives with the quiet and the queers in the rural hill towns of Western, Massachusetts on unceded Nipmuk and Pocumtuck lands. Ollie's work lives in the lineage of movement chaplains and those who work to mend broken chains in our tradition. Ollie’s current work is as the founder of Pushcart Judaica, a project that uplifts Jews on the fringes for the sake of supporting spiritual practice that reflects liberatory values, ethical craftways, and de-assimilation. When Ollie is not running Pushcart they are aspiring to identify bird calls, dip candles, avidly read, and move more slowly through our ever-accelerating world.

Additional Info:
Interview language(s):
English
,
Audio quality:
Medium

Audio Quality Scale

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Medium - There is background noise, but the narrator is audible.

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Permissions: 

This interview is hereby made available for research purposes only. For additional uses (radio and other media, music, internet), please click here to inquire about permissions.

Part of this interview may be played in a radio broadcast or podcast.

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