Elijah Blumov
Central Park: Personality and Culture
My focus is to garner and synthesize information regarding Central Park’s usage as a public forum for cultural activities, and the way that the environment of Central Park has shaped the New York cultural landscape.
Ottar, Berta. “Central Park Rumba: Nuyorican Identity And The Return To African Roots.” Centro Journal 23.1 (2011): 4-29. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Mar. 2015.
This academic essay focuses on the role of “Central Park rumba” in the formation of the “Nuyorican” cultural identity in the 1960’s and 70’s. Central Park’s ability to serve as a centrifugal force in creating immigrant cultures amidst the chaos of urban life has long been one of its allures, and to explore this facet by focusing on a particular community I believe is prudent in explaining this phenomenon.
Rosenzweig, Roy, and Elizabeth Blackmar. “The Park and the People: A History of Central Park”. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1992.
A celebrated academic work, dubbed an “exemplary social history” by Kirkus reviews, this book is an authority on the history of Central Park, with an emphasis on the social dynamics therein and the Park’s effect on the New York populace. This caters to my topic, and will prove constructive to composing an educated and broad overview of Central Park’s sociocultural significance.
Taylor, Dorceta E. “The Environment and the People in American Cities, 1600s-1900s: Disorder, Inequality, and Social Change.” (Duke University Press, 2009), section 3
Taylor’s book focuses on the class dynamics and conflict, urban cultural forces, and environmental philosophy surrounding Central Park and its history. Its generous timeframe will allow for an in-depth analysis of historical progression as relates to the park’s evolving effect on the New York populace.
Kuhn, Francis X. “Performing Mississippi In Central Park.” Southern Quarterly 50.1 (2012): 110-126. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Mar. 2015.
This essay highlights and chronicles the annual “Mississippi Picnic” which has been held every year in Central Park since 1980. This festival represents a fusion of Northeastern and Southern idioms, and Kuhn analyzes this relationship as well gender and race roles within its context. This idiosyncratic event and its analysis will be a good springboard to discuss Central Park events and the cultural diffusion which occurs therein.
Venning, Dan. “Shakespeare and Central Park: Shakespeare Under (and with) the Stars.” Forum for Modern Language Studies 46.2 (2010) 152-65. Academia.edu. Web. 9 Mar. 2015
“Shakespeare in the Park” is a long celebrated institution of Central Park, and is famous nation-wide as an example of high culture in the public sphere. Venning’s essay discusses theatrical performance at the Delacorte Theater, and the role that this institution has played in diffusing Shakespeare into the milieu of Americana culture. Central Park serving as a platform for this cultural exchange is significant, and as such, this is yet another source to draw upon when discussing the Park’s ability to create a cultural dialogue.
Sevilla-Buitrago, Alvaro. “Central Park Against The Streets: The Enclosure Of Public Space Cultures In Mid-Nineteenth Century New York.” Social & Cultural Geography 15.2 (2014): 151-171. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Mar. 2015.
More so than the other sources, Buitrago’s essay focuses on aspects of urban sustainability, sociology, and the infrastructural sculpting of urban culture. Class and sociospatial theory is emphasized, as well as the influence which Central Park had in shaping urban communities. The issue of the working class utilizing “public spaces”, and the vitriol that they suffered from the bourgeois is critical in a discussion of Central Park as a catalyst for cultural development and interclass dynamics.
