Victory Henkin. Feisty hermit, scoundrel of the South, long-winded nitpicker, charlatan entertainer of the highest caliber…wait, sorry…it’s this darn AI…

I guess we’re gonna have to write this by hand...

Victory Henkin, profound intuitive, artistic chimera, generous visionary, queer elder, and dear friend (just don’t call him an oracle) needs your help. After decades of chronic pain, serious injury, and major surgeries, Victory is suffering. While in New York, Victory encountered a series of falls. A close friend and medical professional was present and realized with panic that these weren’t coincidence – that this was a one-way direction and it was moving fast. He had reached an event horizon.

With some research and consultation, clear, decisive action became urgent and necessary. A titanium butterfly in his spinal column is collapsing and as a result, his balance has been severely impacted. Surgical repair is extremely risky and a practical non-reality.

Physical therapy and strength training to improve balance was initiated and a dramatic recovery has begun. However, Victory has Medicaid insurance, which provides very limited coverage for the necessary treatment. The majority of his treatment (physical therapy, personal trainer, massage, acupuncture) is out of network and as we all know, insurance, say it with me, “won’t cover out of network”.

Private help is needed and we are raising money to help support the effective physical treatment and recovery of this extraordinary man.

FINANCIAL NEEDS

MEDICAL TREATMENT

MEDICAL TREATMENT TOTAL: $11,600

MEDICAL EQUIPMENT

MEDICAL EQUIPMENT TOTAL: $6,500

EXPERIMENTAL TREATMENT FUND

EXPERIMENTAL TREATMENT FUND TOTAL: $10,000

OVERALL TOTAL: $28,100

SOME HISTORY, SOME CONTEXT, SOME VIC IN HIS OWN WORDS

“It was 2011 or 2012 when I had two operations, they were almost a year apart. The first one was on my neck and that was fusing cervical 2, 3, and 4. And the second operation was a laminectomy, which is cutting a piece of your spine out so your spinal column can expand, and that was L-1,2,3,4, and 5. And S-1, 2, and 3. And so the problem that I’m having at the moment unfortunately is that the titanium butterfly that they put in on c2, 3, and 4 has begun to collapse onto c5 and there’s almost nothing they can do. There’s an operation they can do but if even the slightest thing goes wrong, I become a paraplegic. And it is so extraordinarily unfeasible at this time that it’s just not gonna happen.

“C5 has a lot to do with balance, and that’s my main problem right now. Fortunately, the therapy I’ve been doing with Jared has been outrageously effective. It’s gotten the most amazing result. Plus my friend Harold demanded that every day I go with him for a walk. And so we did it, and every day we do 4 square blocks or 5 or 6, the last time he was here we did 7 blocks. I can’t do it alone, it’s a little chancey for me. So I’ve been asking people when they can come by during the week and walk with me. And this has done fabulous things for me – even though it’s only been a week I can already see the results. And Jared’s therapy is like a miracle. It used to hurt so much that I couldn’t sleep. Now he goes in all around it, puts in deep needles, and pulses electricity. We’re really making progress.

“As soon as I finish with him, I go directly to a different PT, which is more about working out with weights and so forth. We’re rounding this out and it’s getting there. That, plus I’m taking two art courses. It’s very good news, I’m very happy at the moment. Maybe even more than happy, I feel that I am becoming physically better. And that is the huge difference that this has made.

“The reality is that when you get older, what happened when you were younger really begins to show. And so that’s what I’ve been dealing with. And am dealing with. And will continue to deal with until I’m dead.”

WHY YOU?

Occasionally, life circumstances force you to think new thoughts. Sometimes life itself asks you questions.

What is dignity?

What is family?

Victory is childless, with limited familial support. His story is an extraordinary one with friends, allies, colleagues, sistren and brethren all over the world. For those of us who have been so especially lucky as to have Victory in our circles, we are being asked these questions. To consider this man family is one of life’s greatest privileges – a direct conference of honor by association. It is a staggering blessing. The karmic bill is due.

We are asked not just what it means to have family, but to be family. How do we offer diverse and meaningful support to our family?

In English we speak about family using possessive verbs. We have family, our family, my family, my sibling. It’s a noun, which means it receives. In other languages the word family itself is a verb. It, like all love, is the action itself. Receiving is giving. The Original Lenape name for The Hudson River is “Muhheakantuck” – the river that flows both ways.

If you can afford to donate, please do. It will be appreciated immensely and spent responsibly on an exceedingly worthy cause. I’m told this remains one of the approved uses of American currency.

All funds will be used to further the express goals of eliminating chronic pain as completely and permanently as possible, strengthening balance, and maximizing comfort, ease, and harmony.

VIC’S STORY

Victory Henkin was born on April 17th, 1944 at Henroten Hospital in Chicago.

In 1965, at the age of 21, he was helping a friend who was rehabbing The Beacon Street Theater. They turned the lights out to close the theater, someone said “will you grab that flat” and unfortunately, there was a large hole in the stage floor. Victory fell, back-first, ten feet down onto a pile of broken up concrete and bricks.

“I was young, I was vibrant, I could get up so I did and I went to the hospital. I couldn’t’ get x-rays because I didn’t have insurance at the time. They said no x-rays, there’s nothing we can do.

“I went home. It took me 3 months before I could walk. It took me six months before I could recover and then I was back to my old life. Young, vibrant, and alive. The 60s.

“This was the 60s, there was no Obamacare, there was no care. No insurance, nothing. Eventually this led to a spinal fusion surgery but this was 45 years later. That’s how it happens. You can have an injury when you’re young but when you get into your 70s and especially at my age…”

Victory spent the rest of the 60’s (which to him ranges from ‘64/’65 to ’75) traveling and living coastally. New York, Florida, Santa Monica, San Francisco. He worked a short stint in education then transitioned to art galleries, pornographic movie theaters and brothels, then gay bathhouses.

“I would describe that period as florid. It was, like, red hot. I had a wonderful time. My family was scandalized. They were just...scandalized. What I said to them was ‘I don’t remember that you pay my income for the year. I don’t remember ever receiving any income from you to live on.’ They just shut their mouths. And never, ever mentioned it again.”

It was San Francisco in 1967 or ’68 when a friend asked him to help move a bookcase. Victory demurred, mentioning his weak back. His friend insisted, said it’s not moving far and it’s not so heavy. The minute Vic raised his arms and attempted to help, his back went out severely. “I don’t know why at that point I didn’t listen to my inner voice. The consequences were very unpleasant.”

In ‘78 or ’79, Vic moved to New Orleans (no one knows the real date). After a tantalizing first visit as a “roadie” for experimental synth band Qualitative Release, followed by a rogue snowstorm and a promise to return, Victory bought a ford station wagon, packed up his belongings, and drove to New Orleans to start a new life.

“I just blossomed in New Orleans. Heat, humidity, decay. It was like home, it was like who I am. It was magic. Every breath was an incantation into the wonder of life. I was 34 or 36. It was a new life. And I totally reinvented myself.”

In the 80’s he began his silk business.

“I was very well known as an artist who hand-dyed original motifs in fabrics, silk and wool. Silk, I hand painted and processed from beginning to end, motifs - they call it surface design. And as my art mentor said, I was known from coast to coast to coast, ‘cuz I did all three coasts.

Back in the day I was a somebody. Now I’m just a somebody else.”

He made a name for himself as a costume designer, master of textiles, and fashion connoisseur.

“And there were for a long time not very good artists – dots, squiggles, triangles. And one of my theories is that AIDS decimated the gay population, a lot of artists, and there were no mentors. And so the ones coming up had to go back to triangles, dots, and squiggles because they had no mentorship. They had to go back because all the mentors were dying!

“And I know about not good art because that’s what I make. It’s weird, it’s not necessarily good. People go ‘oh, uhh…there’s nothing like that!’ And for me, that’s all the validation I need.

“In New Orleans back in the day we had an extraordinarily developed arts scene. And club scene! So I was painting silk and for decades I was part of the arts community. I had more communities than that but we all knew what we made, what we did, what our arguments were, who they were with. We knew everything. Who was on dope, who was gonna die soon, we knew it all. And we still partied. And the arts scene shifted.”

As a member of the arts community, Victory always kept a lot of guests. Five days out of the week he would host dinners of no less than 6 people out on his balcony on Frenchman street. Anyone who has had a meal prepared by Victory can attest, these must have been princely feasts.

Vic started reading tarot in the 60’s “back in Chicago with Lily. It was the resurgence of mysticism and everyone was doing it. And Lily was no slouch. She got herself a Rider-Waite deck and she was reading them. And it was like:

‘shall we order pizza?’

‘what kind?’

and she would take the cards out. And so I picked them up.”

It was in the late 90’s when, after a crushing breakup and years of winding down the silk business, Victory took what was scheduled to be a 3-month trip to Asia.

“I traveled for 2 years. And I was in-depth reading peoples cards and doing what I do the entire time I was there. And I changed a lot of people’s lives, did a lot of readings, got a couple, learned mo’ betta.

“In the 2000’s I was reborn. I came back, I started that new life. I became Victory the tarot reader. And I started that life. I didn’t get insurance till I was 65. Medicare. Never had any insurance of any kind before that - it just never fit into my budget. It was around 2011, 2012 when I had my operation.”

Since the early 2000’s, Victory has worked as an intuitive and medium, supporting individuals by helping them to gain what he would call “insight into the obvious.” His sessions are empowering, humanizing opportunities for clients to better understand themselves, their needs, their actions, and their breadth of choices.

He lives in the hot, wet, dumpster of New Orleans in the Marigny district.