Fw: IRA UPDATE PLEASE READ

[Robert Yarra]

Ira is up against it. Please do what you can.

All the best,

Bobby Yarra

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: ondi mcmaster <omfi...@gmail.com>
To: colleen...@yahoo.com; shiv mirabito <shiv...@hotmail.com>; Orlando Palacios <kk...@earthlink.net>; Sylvie/Wayne <foh...@earthlink.net>; florian...@freesurf.ch; nin...@tiscali.it; Susan Anton <susan...@hotmail.com>; Robert Yarra <bobb...@yahoo.com>; Juan Puntes <j.pun...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wed, July 28, 2010 10:18:45 AM
Subject: IRA UPDATE PLEASE READ

Dear All, some maybe new to this info & others may be tired by it. I need your help that is why I am writing,

Since last week the story has gotten all more complicated...If you have any positive proactive aid please contact me directly 917.539.7965. Please refrain from skepticism and criticism. There is no time for that here.

UPDATE:

for those that need more info about Ira: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_Cohen

Ira COHEN was holed up in a UWS tiny hotel since tuesday the 20th($1200 a week and thats cheap NYC) while most of his creme de la creme archives were removed from his apt premises for the exorbitant cost of $10,000 to insure the Corporate landlord that his apartment would be properly fumigated this past monday 26th( btw which happened but didn't wholly work!!!!) against bedbugs... Ira's landlord is holding Ira solely responsible for the whole building, should they move anywhere else anytime soon.

By now we should all know the vermin are rampant in urban centers across the U.S. ("...nearly 11,000 calls about bedbugs were made to new york city's 311 help line, compared with 537 in the fiscal year 2004. The number of confirmed infestations has also risen sharply, to 4,084 last year from 82 six years ago.")

I picked Ira up yesterday on the 27th for what I thought was a victorious day of returning him to his home after the fumigation. We paid a cleaning crew $300 to come in and clean up all the fumigation dust, Raphael was right beside them all cleaning for 4 hours breathing in the toxicity. I brought Ira into the apt at 4:30pm after spending the day with nowhere to be( in a movie theater then a cafe). I went out shortly after we arrived to buy new sheets, new towels and the like. When I returned, Ira was sitting in the chair he always sits in, he was talking on the phone to a friend and I saw 2 bedbugs climbing on that chair. I had to immediately remove Ira from the premises with a distraught Raphael and his aged aid besides, we sat in the lobby for 3 hours trying to figure out where to take Ira. No one had offered anything anywhere, we had a crisis. All hotels were booked. We had no $ because thousands are already spent. Absurdly I had already bought Ira a new $800 couch which couldn't be delivered. Raphael and I both live in 5 floor walkups with no AC, these were inconceivable options, not one friend in all of this was around to say "bring him to my house." So at 8:30pm last night we found a different hotel this time at $250 a night for 2 nights on the UWS so his nurse aid has a place to spend the night with him and give him proper care(insulin et al). We now have to call the prep crews back in to at the landlord's newest demands to pull up the carpet and now throw all of the furniture(including the antiques away and cart off the remaining framed to be unframed artworks to storage). Our new cost for all of this is somewhere around $20,000. You can retort all this safely from behind your computers but the only way Ira will be able to maintain his tenant status with the landlord is by complying with these options. 

You can rise up and think of positive ways to raise money for Ira. We have his films available for showing at gatherings/benefits as people keep suggesting to me but I do not have the time on top of all of this to plan a benefit in 2 days. Wish I was superwoman.Can you help? Do you know off any agencies to apply for immediate grants? Any generous friends who may be appeased with a signed photograph for a grand donation?

HE CANNOT AFFORD ALL THIS. HE HANDLES IT WELL BECAUSE HE TRUSTS THAT WE ARE TRYING TO HELP HIM. THERE ARE NO LAWYERS TO FIGHT BECAUSE WE ARE TALKING ABOUT 2-3 DAYS IN WHICH THIS MUST ALL HAPPEN.WE NEED SOMEWHERE FOR IRA TO STAY FROM TOMORROW MORNING 11AM.????????? This is our critical mass - ????? if we cannot pay. The end of Ira at home at 106th street which will surely be the end of IRA COHEN. His son is distraught and broke, his sister has a husband who is invalid from a stroke and is doing her best to care for Ira in between, not one friend visited him last week in that previous hotel. 

I have only raised $6500 and the most generous donations of $1000 came from one of Ira's newest friends in the UK, a poets in need grant of $3500 raised by M.R. and by MY friends who don't even have a connection to IRA. I do not overlook those friends of Ira who have nothing and even sent in $10-$50 --- you know who you are. The rest simply turn a blind eye saying its always something with Ira or I have my own problems. I sent out my fundraiser email to 1200 people I am appalled by the ego-ic community of artists. 

PLEASE help, any amount of donation is appreciated. We need help to make sure we can pay this and make sure Ira can return to his home in peace and his archives are treated and returned in good condition.  Please help if you will. No act of kindness or generosity is overlooked. 

Please pass this on through your networks to generous souls who appreciate what Ira stood for his whole life, ENLIGHTENED CULTURE!!!!

There is a great quote by a great poet I share with you all: "Generosity is not giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is giving me that which you need more than I do."

Author: Kahlil Gibran

I may also post some artworks/services for auction on this site if anyone cannot give money. I will accept such offers on the behalf of IRA.There is no end til we reach our goal. Please send images details and reserve amount to my email below.

if you want to pay by credit card, I suggest paypal choose "personal" and they do not take a percentage: arte...@earthlink.net to send a check by snail mail: The check should be made out to JANICE HONIG, Ira's sister who is handling a bank acct for him. You can send it direct to her as well: Janice Honig 45 East 89th street #22e NY, NY 10128 Tel#2129873806 or to me: Ondi McMaster 52 Bank street #5 NYC, NY 10014 Ira can be reached by phone but we ask since he is anxious and disturbed by all this to speak softly on the subject, tickle him don't taunt him. Please email me at omfi...@gmail.com for more info on how to reach him directly.