Jovanni Valle, aka “Jovi Val,” first made headlines after he was struck in the face with a broken glass bottle in a New York City bar, reportedly because he was wearing one of President Donald Trump’s signature “Make America Great Again” hats. Shortly thereafter, he joined Gavin McInnes’ Proud Boys hate group. (Valle would later be expelled from and disavowed by the Proud Boys.) He interwove himself with the so-called “alt-lite.” Then, somewhere along the way, he slid hard into white nationalist extremism.
Over the course of the last year, Valle has attended and organized rallies alongside far-right activists and white nationalists. He spoke at the Washington, D.C., sequel to the Unite the Right white supremacist gathering in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a neo-Nazi murdered counter-demonstrator Heather Heyer in a vehicle attack. Valle has shared photos of himself alongside Augustus Invictus, a failed Florida candidate for Senate who rebranded himself as a voice for the “alt-right.”
Yesterday, Valle and a collection of activists using pseudonyms announced an event called “Fash Bash” that they say will take place in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania, and streamed on a YouTube channel called “Goyz in da Hood.” The event was first noticed by One Peoples’ Project when Valle posted—and then deleted—an announcement about the event on March 2, 2019. The event coincides with Adolf Hitler’s birthday and is meant to celebrate him. The current event advertisement features Nazi officers in the background and the announcement video displays various symbols, such as the Valknot, that have come to be associated with white supremacism, and features an edited supercut displaying images of Nazi Germany set to techno music.
Valle appeared on the livestream announcing the event in front of a Confederate flag.
“Jovi has been instrumental in getting this to happen,” one host said.
Another added, “He was the one who originally came up with the idea.”
On the stream, hosts announced that the event would feature Jan Lamprecht from the white supremacist site History Reviewed,and said that at some point during the event the attendees “might go J-Walking,” referring to the practice of street-preaching anti-Semitism. He also announced that the event would feature a book-burning. One host said that they had already put up thousands of dollars to plan this “Fash Bash,” adding that it would take place on one of his friends’ private property, which he noted is not far from the Aryan Nations compound.
They also noted that only “light alcohol” would be served, and that drugs and “degenerate behavior” would not be tolerated.
“The idea is that this is a family get-together,” Valle said. “I told you guys, we’re not getting high on 4:20. We’re getting Sieg Heil on 4:20.”
Valle added later that his goal for the event is to change public perceptions about neo-Nazis.
The event appears to be coordinated with the New Jersey-based European Heritage Association (NJEHA), which is a small, but explicitly white supremacist organization. On its website, the organization posted: “Our creed can be summed up by fourteen simple words; we must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children.” The “14 Words” is the world’s most iconic white supremacist slogan. Members of the group attended Unite the Right 2.
Current Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio said, regarding Valle’s cozying up to unabashed fascists since he was ousted by the Proud Boys, that “maybe they’re giving him some type of love that someone else didn’t give him.”
h/t One People’s Project
