Nathaniel: What is your room like?

Aliya: But not all good art speaks for itself.

It’s…It’s like McDonalds, but this is what it is, this is corporate America. But let me tell you a story, I am a poet and I lived in a car. I lived in car in Miami beach and I used to write poetry for the prostitutes there and they took pity on me and they fed me rice and beans. These were beautiful girls, beautiful women. And that was real.

Sighs. Agian. You are going to learn a lot of things on a journey I invite you to journey

Aliya: What do you think was on this site before Home2Suites?

I believe you can take a journey far and come back to your local places, and there are journey that are local, there are journeys that when you ask a question, it invites you on a journey. And if you want to not just do the journey. I mean you are on a journey from Florida. You are on a journey from North Carolina. You are on a journey from Vancouver. And right now, you three are budding on the same field. But you want to know something ? one day those buds are going to sprout, and those sprouts are going to go with the win and you are going to be on far away fields.but you know something? you had to come together as raindrops on a window pane so that you could create that force. Because each of you needed the throttle from each other. there you go. So you have been invited on a journey.

A whorehouse. (laughs) Nathaniel: What will be here in 20 years? More of the same. Its progress. It was a ghetto, now people want to be here, as everything gets more expensive...what do you call that... All: Gentrification. Nathaniel: Is that a good thing? Well yeah, that’s what it is, just progress. You guys are part of that. Artists moving into places like this. I have a connection to art, especially to old art, I like to touch the canvas I like to touch the panel, I like to touch the frame I like ask myself what the artist would have thought I like for that energy to transcend from generation to generation, because that's how I started writing poetry, I was possessed by spirits. And I look for the signs and the spirits showed me the sighs and that is how I decided to go or do. And here is a project I did in nicaragua, you see. (shows phone) Will: What would you do, If you ran a hotel like this, what would you put in each room? Ahhh...that is a good question. Well, why don't save a bit of money and I will show you. Write it down and that will give you your answer. Go to San Qua... I'll give you an answer. Do you really want the answer? (all of us): Yeah If you want the answer to that question, then you have to take a journey. How is that? Listen Listen. If you really want answers to things in life, it doesn’t just happen by scratching your balls and your head, and asking what do you think, ok I'll put it in writing...next project... Life, you need to take the journey. Like I showed you, I took the journey. I went to Spain Central America, all that. I went to Nicaragua, because Victor Real was a poet from Nicaragua. I have to go to his birthplace. I had to make it down there to write a poem in his birthplace. I had to work to save the money to make it down there, a 20 year old girl she asked me for a dollar. This is another chapter of my life. What I said was that you don't need a dollar, you need some dignity and a job. So I spent 7 years getting her a job. So to answer that question about the hotel: there is a town called San Juan Del Sur and its in Nicaragua. And you have to read about the town and all that. And in San Juan Del Sur there is a boutique art Hotel called Atlantic City. ALL: (Laughs) So you go to Atlantic City hotel in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua. I built that hotel. I put everything in there. Everything in there I put in there, if you want to know what I would do with a hotel then you have to go there the San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua. When you go there and you see the murals and you see the art, I will answer that question. Aliya: Why did you call it Atlantic City? Again, Again. If you want to know the answer to that then you need to make the journey.

Aliya: Do you believe in journeys that are local, do you have to go very far?

Aliya: Alright then. Well I think we have a materials budget for that. What do you mean budget! You don't do things on a budget! You do things on...what's the word I want to choose...it's more than a budget.... it's Aliya: tab. No. If you believe in a budget, then you are restrained by the budget. If you do things because there is no budget...there is a word for it, I can't think of the word right now...I can't think of the word right now. Will: It would be really cool if team home2 suites took off for a month. Why a month? Why not a year? I will give you a story. Here is another story. We talked about the art center in Minnesota. I had a friend named Jeffrey, a great artist. He was a sketcher. I will show you something he did. for the last 7 years, I go to Caribou coffee in Minnesota...

Lazaro Poeta Poem The Mirror ­I smiled in the mirror this morning, She gestured back with grace, Aged with freckled chrome, She is my confidant and friend. She speaks of mothers adages, Silver haired and plumed, Carded of fine porcelain forged of brittle bone. As any old crone wrinkled well, Dowered with provincial adverbs, She sheds light of ages past, Notorious of disbelief. This morning is different, For the musk of morning dew, Speaks plenitude in this confessional, Free of reigns and solitude.

HOTEL GUEST HISTORICAL CONTEXT FOR HOME2 SUITES BY HILTON MANHATTAN VIEW LONG ISLAND CITY CONTENT BASED ON OCTOBER 2015 INTERVIEW WITH HOME2 SUITES GUEST: LAZARO POETA

produced for HOTEL WARS, a month long artistic investigation of Long Island City’s hotel industrial complex intiated by Flux Factory. Brochure produced by Aliya Bonar, Nathaniel Sullivan, and Will Owen Special thanks to Marlon, Miguel, Elliott, Lorna, Katie, & Damien for speaking with and inspiring us.

“Oh it is going to be

be a lot more serious than it is now... In every way. ”

“I don’t see the

future like we saw it back in the day. With flying cars. We are going to get some cool things, but our feet are going to be on the ground. New York, is improving, cleaner, renewed. That’s like the main thing.”

“There is no city

like this. You see construction, improvements. When Laguardia gets the new airport, there will be an airtrain, so it’s going to be busy here. More hotels, more businesses. To be honest with you, as many hotels as there are in New York, there are not enough. Every Weekend we are sold out. Every day. Not enough hotels here.”

HOTEL EMPLOYEE HISTORICAL CONTEXT FOR HOME2 SUITES BY HILTON MANHATTAN VIEW LONG ISLAND CITY CONTENT BASED ON OCTOBER 2015 INTERVIEW WITH HOME2 SUITES NIGHT DESK MANAGER, MARLON

produced for HOTEL WARS, a month long artistic investigation of Long Island City’s hotel inductrial complex intiated by Flux Factory. Brochure produced by Aliya Bonar, Nathaniel Sullivan, and Will Owen Special thanks to Marlon, Miguel, Elliott, Lorna, Katie, Damien for speaking with and inspiring us.

“In 2005, Dutch

Kills underwent a rezoning study that was initiated by the Dept of City Planning. The rezoning would prioritize residential growth in Dutch Kils and established building height limits making it difficult for large hotels to be built. The rezoning … took 3 years to pass as the city completed an environmental impact study. in that short 3 year time 11 hotels were built.”

“...so the 2008

rezoning, once it was passed, prevented further hotel developmentbut the damage had already been done.”

“I’m excited to

see how it affects the neighborhood. Already there are 2 new restaurants that have opened up so there’s definitely some change, but it’s still an uneven development”

LIC ARTS ADMIN HISTORICAL CONTEXT FOR HOME2 SUITES BY HILTON MANHATTAN VIEW LONG ISLAND CITY CONTENT BASED ON OCTOBER 2015 SPEECH BY CARINA, FLUX FACTORY RESIDENCY DIRECTOR

produced for HOTEL WARS, a month long artistic investigation of Long Island City’s hotel inductrial complex intiated by Flux Factory. Brochure produced by Aliya Bonar, Nathaniel Sullivan, and Will Owen Special thanks to Marlon, Miguel, Elliott, Lorna, Katie, Damien for speaking with and inspiring us.

“...How long

ago was that lot empty?...hold on let me ask gramps. ..OK yeah he says about 6 or 7 years it was an empty lot before they built HOME2.”

“Before it was an

empty lot there were just two people living in a house there. A cuban guy, and a ... wait, hey gramps what was that lady? Puerto Rican or Dominican?...”

“Well, it’s good that the new hotels are there because they provide jobs in the area.”

“...No, It’s just the opposite, most of the people that stay in the hotels are tourists and they never come in here to the deli.” “ ...Yeah, she was Boricua, yeah Puerto Rican.”

LIC RESIDENT HISTORICAL CONTEXT FOR HOME2 SUITES BY HILTON MANHATTAN VIEW LONG ISLAND CITY CONTENT BASED ON OCTOBER 2015 INTERVIEW WITH MIGUEL, LIC DELI AND GROCERY EMPLOYEE AS TRANSLATED FROM SPANISH BY WILL OWEN

produced for HOTEL WARS, a month long artistic investigation of Long Island City’s hotel inductrial complex intiated by Flux Factory. Brochure produced by Aliya Bonar, Nathaniel Sullivan, and Will Owen Special thanks to Marlon, Miguel, Elliott, Lorna, Katie, Damien for speaking with and inspiring us.