Declaraţia publică a lui Voicu Rădescu, patronul clubului Green Hours Jazz Cafe

( A public statement from Voicu Radescu, owner of Green Hours Jazz Cafe – scroll down for the English version)(photo by Diana Kiss)

Voicu Rădescu, patronul de la Green Hours, este în momentul de faţă victima unei înscenări judiciare puse la cale de unii asociaţi temporari, în scopul obţinerii spaţiului în care funcţionează, de 18 ani, clubul.

Green Hours este primul club de jazz unde am cântat vreodată, şi am continuat să cânt acolo în ultimii 18 ani, şi sunt onorat să-l număr pe Voicu Rădescu printre prietenii mei. Toţi cei pe care îi cunosc sunt de acord că a făcut multe pentru muzica de jazz din Romania (TOŢI muzicienii români de jazz au cântat în Green), cât despre teatrul independent, în ceea ce ne priveşte, aproape că l-a inventat. Dar nu despre asta este vorba acum.

În speranţa că justiţia îşi va face datoria în ciuda presiunilor economice sau politice de tot felul, îi dau cuvântul lui Voicu: “Mergem mai departe!”

ENGLISH VERSION:

Voicu Radescu, the owner of Green Hours Jazz Cafe is at this moment, the victim of a judiciary frame-up concocted by some of his temporary associates. Their ultimate goal is to obtain the space where Green Hours has been functioning for the last 18 years.

Green Hours is the first jazz club where I played, and I kept performing there for all these years. I feel honored to count Voicu Radescu among my friends. Most people I know agree that he has done a lot for Romanian jazz (ALL Romanian jazz musicians played in Green Hours). And, as far as we’re concerned, he practically invented independent theater. But this is not what the post is about.

With the hope that justice will prevail, in spite of all kinds of economic and political pressure, here is Voicu’s statement:

(I translated it myself, and I hope it conveys the exact meaning of what he wrote)

A Public Statement by VOICU RADESCU

My name is Voicu Radescu, I am 57 years old and I’m the Executive Director of Green Hours jazz-café and of the “LUNI” theater from Green Hours. In the wake of the events, I’d call them dramatic, which have happened to me personally, and to the Green Hours club (some of them are already public knowledge), I consider it necessary to make a public statement where I present to the artists who perform in the club, to the club’s clientele and to the mass media the situation, the way I see it at this moment.

A VERY SHORT HISTORY:

I am the main associate and the Executive Director of SC Alvotida Comert si Servicii srl since its founding in 1991. My company has a sole point of work, in Calea Victoriei 120, sector 1, Bucharest. This company includes:

Green Hours 22 jazz-café, the oldest jazz club in the country

Green Records, the only music label owned by a Romanian club

and

The LUNI Theater, Romania’s first independent theater.

Green Hours is actually a bar that regularly features theater plays and jazz concerts, and my activity consists in the organizing and the coordination of the three entities listed above.

During its 18 years of existence the club hosted thousands of concerts and theater plays, which involved hundreds of artists. A few days ago, on September 1, 2012, even under these strange conditions, we managed to celebrate the club’s birthday with a jazz concert featuring musicians Luiza Zan, Albert Tajti and Michael Acker.

CONTEXT

With the passing of years, it became harder for me to run the bar effectively while also organizing the theatrical and musical events in Green Hours, therefore I successively asked several friends/acquaintances for help, trusting them to take care of the bar’s activity for longer or shorter periods of time. At the beginning of 2011 I started looking for a solution for outsourcing the bar activity to a specialized company.

In these circumstances, I met Florentina Racoviteanu, who was introduced to me as a qualified and experienced person (she had previously worked as a manager for some bars, of which the latest, Tago Mago, had just ceased its activity) and Daniel Emanoil Gregory (Hardila), about whom I knew that he was the owner of several known clubs and bars from Bucharest (El Comandante, El Dictador, El Grande Comandante, La Historia, Junior etc).

They appeared to be interested in taking over the bar business and proposed a type of undertenancy contract for the club spaces, strictly for bar-related activities. We struck the deal and, as of February 2011, they started actually coordinating and managing the bar, and, later, the whole “inner kitchen” of the club. For this, they founded a company called SC Green Fusion SRL.

Their main contractual obligation was – in exchange for the profits they made from the food service activity for which they had the exclusivity – to pay a rent that we had agreed upon and also a fixed percentage of the administrative expenses for the building in Calea Victoriei, 120. Another obligation they had was maintaining the specificity of the Green Hours club, which had functioned there for more than 16 years.

Unfortunately, a few months after the contract was signed, this collaboration had started to suffer. Green Fusion’s repeated delays in paying the rent led to serious financial difficulties for Green Hours, especially concerning paying our due rent to the owner of the building (later, I found out that I was not the only one to experience these delays, which was usual for my partners’ modus operandi).

We also had to repeatedly talk about the necessity of subordinating the bar activity to the cultural events, since I was not willing to make any compromises concerning this, out of respect for the artists and for the public.

Thus, after too many discussions, notifications and short spells when I believed our relationship will go back to normal, I reached the conclusion that our collaboration had to end and I communicated this to our partners. By doing this, I also apparently became undesirable for Mr.Daniel Emanoil Gregory (a character on the rise) who insinuated that he’s very well connected in both the business and political circles.

Moreover, as it has now become obvious, Green Hours’ location had become more interesting than I had thought…

CONFLICT

On July 26, 2012 (one day before the deadline in the notification I sent to Green Fusion SRL expired), at about 16.30, 5 policemen from SIF (police precinct) Sector 3 (3rd district) entered the cultural department’s offices at Green Hours in Calea Victoriei, 120. They had a search warrant issued by the General Prosecutor’s Office in Bucharest (file nr.3045/P/2012), stopped our activity and, after 2 hours of searching, confiscated accounting documents, notes, deeds and the three computers in our offices.

A few moments after their entrance in the Green Hours offices, I realized there was a possibility that this search could be the result of a frame-up. What, I wondered, are policemen from the 3rd District doing in our club, which is in the 1st District? When asked about this the policemen answered that they didn’t know any details about the litigious situation between me and the under tenants and they were only interested, as a consequence of a complaint, in the artistic events organized by Alvotida and the profits from said events. They headed straight to the shelves where we kept the documents about the theater plays and concerts.

Since then, very late and with much difficulty, it has been confirmed that the complaint – – actually the charges – had been brought by Florentina Racoviteanu, the manager of Green Fusion, the same person with whom we collaborated, for such a long time, in activities which, all of a sudden, had become of great interest for the police.

This was the beginning of something that had already started to look like a B-movie with bad mobsters – except this time I was part of it.

CLIMAX

This “movie” continued with events that unfolded impetuously, with barratry and abuse which led to my apprehension for 24 hours. This took place at the 3rd District police precinct, on August 29, in the afternoon. It was, they said, a routine interrogation, but its scenario was supposed to impress me, and it did: handcuffs were thrown on the table; the timing was deliberately chosen to make sure I had to spend the night in a police cell etc. The next day I was taken by the policemen to the prosecutor who signed the paper through which I was summoned before the court, with a proposal for my apprehension for 29 days.

The next day, at about 3 PM, I was in a courthouse. In about an hour and a half I was free again, thanks to the plea by my lawyer, Mr. Doru Viorel Ursu and to the fact that the judge decided to repeal the proposal for my arrest (I will not forget the name of this magistrate, either…)

I CONCEDE:

…that, due to my mostly disorganized inner nature, I was never adept at bureaucratic activities and failed to “upgrade” myself and keep up with the changes in our society. This, unfortunately, led to mistakes and irregularities in my activity as a manager, for which I’m ready to take the blame.

In this sense, I’m ready to “reset” my inner self (as a dear friend once begged me – I don’t think it’s too late at any age) by understanding that order and proper procedures are really necessary even when dealing with cultural, even bohemian-style activities.

I DON”T CONCEDE:

… that my lack of orderliness (which might also be an inner trait) and the organizational and bureaucratic deficiencies caused by it are enough to mark me as anti-social or dangerous to the general public and justify the intention of arresting me for 29 days.

IN THE FUTURE:

My lawyers will handle these abuses and my defense in the ongoing investigation of my activity.

Personally, I hope I will not be prevented from continuing the cultural and artistic activities at Green Hours, the Green Records label and the LUNI Theater. Anyway, those cannot be undertaken by El Comandante etc.!

… and I’m proud that:

Green Hours was the first artistic club in our country and probably the most tenacious of them.

Though it is officially a business, Green Hours always functioned as an NGO, all “profits” – besides the necessary expenses for my own civilized livelihood – were used to finance the ever-growing number of artistic and cultural activities, involving, as time went by, an ever-growing number of artists.

For the national and international appreciation of what Green Hours and the LUNI theater have become, thanks to the artists’ achievements. Their freedom of creation and wish for self-fulfillment were permanently supported by the cultural entities I represent.

For the last 18 years, Green Hours contributed to growing an ever more discerning audience for quality music and theater.

Green Hours proves, by its existence, that society needs artists and their output for its own fulfillment.

There are important prizes won by “the Green Hours artists” and the LUNI theater itself, among which:

1999: Great Prize for “AZI MA…UBU” after Jarry and Special Prize for Acting (Coca Bloos) at the HUMORROR Festival.
2001 and 2002: Prize of the Young Actor’s Gala – Group Section, for „Zi ca-i bine” by Wil Calhoun, directed by Florin Piersic jr. and „DESEURI”(after Teatru Descompus by Matei Visniec), directed by Ana Margineanu
2003: Prize For Creation in Independent Theater – awarded by the Romanian Ministry of Culture
2004: Project Fringe AWARD – at ESB Dublin Fringe Festival, for the plays „Aici Nu Se Simte” and „Oase Pentru Otto”, by Lia Bugnar, directed by Alexandru Dabija and Lia Bugnar, respectively (presented in English)
2004: The title of “Most Important Independent Theater Event For 2004”, awarded by CIAC and Toaca Foundation
2005: Best Broadcast for 2004, awarded by Radio Bucharest for the broadcast “Asculta cu Voicu” (“Listen With Voicu”)
2005: Excellence Award for 2004, awarded by the UNITER (Romanian Theatrical Union) Senate at the UNITER Awards Gala
2006: BEST PLAY – Relationship Drama, awarded at the LONDON FRINGE REPORT AWARDS to a production by LUNI Theater, „The Sunshine Play” by Peca Stefan – which had participated, in 2005 to the Dublin Fringe Festival.
2011: Fringe NYC – Overall Excellence Award in Video Design: Cinty Ionescu

Last but not least, especially during the current context of aggression against Green Hours, I’m proud that in the club’s 18 years of existence we never needed specialized protection, with bodyguards.

Green Hours and the LUNI Theater mean an independent entity, self-financing, which never benefitted from outside funds except for the grants it obtained in order to participate in international events where they were invited or for specific cultural programs.

In times when potentates and future potentates have been grabbing whole pieces of the country – by actions which were on the edge of the law or completely outside it – for their own immediate profit, by hook or by crook, I tried to imagine my own personal way of living as interestingly as I could, in a cultural and pleasant way for myself and, hopefully, for those around me. This is how Green Hours came into existence.

This is what “The Change in ’89” meant for me.

This is what hard-earned liberty and free initiative meant for me.

Friendly yours,

Voicu Radescu

P.S. Thanks for the “mouthful of oxygen” I received when reading the reactions of the artists, of the public and of the press, after having being released from the 24-hours arrest.

WE KEEP GOING!