When Reggie texted me saying that we should canvass for Zohran Mamdani, I said yes immidately. Well I said, “yaassss” but same thing. It was on a sunday, smack middle of the heat wave blazing across the United States. (East?) Sunday was also the day Nana came over after quitting his “job” with Patricia from the book stand. He arrives at 10am in front of the Brooklyn Museum and begins to set up a table to sell books that once stood stacked in a real building. I forgot the name of the book store but they have an instagram.
He quit because Patricia is annoying and she does not pay adequately for Nana’s time and labor. The first time I met Patricia, I knew right away that I could not work for her. But Nana somehow tolerated her enough because for him, it was not about the pay. He loved the books, and granted, Patricia had a mean collection of books—from Tony Morrison to Greek tragedgies, to vintage children’s books, and science fiction, she had a great collection of books that you could buy discounted. Plus Nana liked meeting all the people who came by the stand. I mean, sure that is nice, but being paid fairly is even more “nice.” Anyway, Patricia and Nana had another tense day, but this time involving Nana’s sister, so he decided not long after that he was with Patricia. So he quit on a Sunday.
And it was ass hot on Sunday. Nana and I walked my neighbor’s dog for two hours and then Citibiked from Hunter’s Point to Sunnyside in Queens. This was one of those rare moments when I severely overestimated my own stamina. First of all, this hot ass weather exposes who you really are. This heat will burn you inside and out. Now from a bike Sunnyside is not that far away from me, its about twenty minutes but there are no protected bike lanes. More of a “share the road” situations. And I am trailing so behind Nana, regretting not taking an e-bike, and it still so stinking hot out, and it’s mostly low steep uphill in Sunnyside with a one small dip by the bridge on Borden ave. (?)
Nana and I get to the park where the Zohran Mamdani stand is. Both of us clearly see the tent with the volunteers but we walk right past them because I wanted to go to the sprinklers. I felt like I was going to have a heat stroke but the sprinklers in this park (name) saved me last minute. My face was so red, or more like a deep pink, and once my face get’s to that point, I know I’m cooked for the rest of the day, especially staying outside in this heat. Little did I know that being outside vs inside made no difference today. It wasnt just the heat but the humidity. My hair remained wet for the rest of the day. The combination of the sprinklers, my sweat, and humidity left me feeling wet for the rest of the day.
The hardest part of canvassing in NYC is actually trying to get into the building. Once we were assigned our “turf” or the list of buildings with registered Democratic voters, we had to figure out how to actually get in front of the doors these voters were out. We decided to first go to a small residential building with a typical NYC entrance: a locked door that can be unlocked by the residents. Theres usually a list of apartment numbers with coordinating names. In New York, if you are locked out, you press every button to try to get in. But this time, we got lucky. Someone was coming into the building so we just, you know, let ourselves in.
Most of the time, people don’t answer the door. But surprisingly, the ones who did answer the door, had already planned to vote for Mamdani. Reggie was determined to check off all the voters on the app that one of the volunteers told us to use in order to determine how many voters are for Mamdani.
The rest is all the same.
Knock, knock.
Knock, knock.
Knock, Knock.
warm socks cold feet 