alinashen

alinashen

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Harlem Streets

0
11 years
by in Neighborhood Visits

I arrived at the Schomburg Center, a library dedicated to Afro-American texts to meet Alicia Butler, who would be our tour guide for the day.  The weather was pretty gray and rainy, which did nothing to add to my excitement of the experience.

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It was interesting that I remembered this tour to be marketed as a food tour, yet we started at a library.  This center, however, is a very iconic part of Harlem.  At the same time, the Harlem Renaissance, arguably the period that frames Harlem as a cultural enclave, was not so much about academic records but on dance, dynamic literature and neighborhood vibes.

The tour was quite long for such a rainy day, and we covered many blocks in around two hours.  We went to many historical sites, including the Abyssinian Baptist Church.  This church was formed in protest of segregation over two hundred years ago.  It seems like many structures in Harlem (at least on this tour) were created in reaction to discriminatory exclusion from the state or other organized groups/institutions.

I did not have any soul food at Sylvia’s Soul Food Restaurant because the prices were above my preferred range of food.  I was actually pretty surprised because the raw cost of frying a chicken and putting it on a waffle (in my opinion) is much lower than what it was priced to be.  Thinking back to the mindset I had about expensive soul food reminds me of a certain bias in food pricing and expectations.  Italian food, which is just as cheap to produce, can cost a lot of money.  Some might argue that it is because of the care and expertise put into arranging and preparing the food, but then why did I think twice about eating fried chicken for ten bucks?

I had always thought Apollo Theater was a movie theater, but it is actually a stage space, existing for over a hundred years. They even have “Amateur Night,” to engage their community.  The idea that so many of these Harlem landmarks had been around for hundreds of years complicates the idea of gentrification.  When we walk down to 120th ST, where there are new houses and expensive neighborhoods, we should really think about who these new structures will benefit the most.  How “worth it” is to preserve all of these buildings with history and value for the current community?

Shades of Light Black

0
11 years
by in Neighborhood Visits

At first glance, Inwood seems gloomy.  This is maybe a reflection of the cloudy sky and rainy weather.  It is uncharacteristically cold for this time of year and the clouds almost seem to connect with the wet concrete.  When waiting for other students near Starbucks, which people leave with outstandingly pink wrappers, we (the early arrivals) spotted a rack of books covered by a sheet of plastic.  It was an unmanned book swap.  The books that were left were old travel books or advice on pregnancy, but the appearance of the book swap showed a strong sense of trust in the neighborhood.  Right there, across from a commercial coffee shop, was proof that the Inwood community had strong community values.

As we walked through the streets, I noticed the landscape of squat buildings and brick apartments.  On the side of the road was a free newspaper dispenser (I am guessing this neighborhood is proud of its literacy).  To my surprise, the publication inside was in Spanish.  At that exact moment, Professor De began to talk about how the neighborhood used to be have a dominantly Spanish community but that it was currently undergoing a cultural shift.  Later, we saw the Irish pub, apparently one that had lasted through the changes, and the scenic parks.

The first park we viewed was not too impressive.  It was a sandy base with what seemed to be a real live cannon.  However, as a community piece, I could not imagine it to be more than a dog park.  The last park we viewed, however, had winding paths like Central Park, possibly for the same reason (to appear larger).  We saw several cliffs that seemed so far removed from Manhattan, with waves crashing down below.  Inwood is right next to the Harlem River, and the rock surface was surprisingly steep.  We were on the bridge looking below for a bit and we noticed that someone had sadly lost their soccer ball which was wedged between two stones.  Although the ball may have indicated that there might have been youth playing soccer in dangerous locations, we did not pass too many people on our walking tour.  The people that we passed were mostly older folks (it was early in the weekday morning), or people walking their dogs.

Although I did not get to go to the Dyckman House, sitting outside gave me a sense of the history.  The history that was exhibited (for $1 each) seemed largely capitalized and taken advantage of, which made me wonder who they were marketing this attraction to.  The outside was well manicured and the hedges were trimmed in a way that definitely did not stay true to its historical roots.  The signs were a bit cracked and weathered and the tour guide did not seem particularly enthusiastic to see our group (maybe because we needed a reservation?)  However, the house was well-maintained and the tour guide eventually let us see the house in smaller groups.

Eyes on Bangledesh

0
11 years
by in Immigration Stories

The photographs that had the most appeal to look at and analyze were the ones in the series on the matriarch and the domestic servant.  The two were isolated on the family couch and the issue was more or less contained within a domestic sphere.  The pair with the giggling younger servant and the matriarch wearing denim jeans was an interesting depiction of modernization in Bangladeshi families.

The only exhibit with no people (the urbanization one) was also a paradox.  Although there were no people, the photographer showed the results of people hauling sand onto the shore and the tire lots where many people worked and lived.  The photograph even managed to show hope in the football flags raised above the tires.

I volunteered at an event in this space last night where writers and poets brought works of fiction to read in front of certain photographs.  While they did not exactly hit on the origin and artist meaning behind the photographs, the sentiment was really spot-on.  The woman who read in front of the piece on the domestic workers and the matriarchs spoke about dichotomies in her own life that were similar to that of having someone cleaning your home but never sitting on your couch.  She spoke about the idea of practicing labor law but going to a restaurant where, just behind the back doors, underpaid and overworked laborers were snapping string beans.

The photography space was also really family oriented, which surprised me.  A lot of artwork is unaccessible, both physically and intellectually.  But yesterday night, there were the curator’s relatives placing used water bottles on the stand with the photographs of the mother with iodine-deficiency, or young children fighting loudly about who got to take pictures of the speakers.

Golden Venture: Widening the Context

0
11 years
by in Blog posts, Immigration Stories

The documentary filmmakers were very thorough, including multiple perspectives and across decades of activity.  The researchers were definitely very thorough, even including personal details of the man with the pet bird who visited the detainees every single week for several years.  It makes me wonder what they excluded from the film, and how the information they chose shaped the story.

The documentary is definitely unique in that it dedicates a large portion of air time to interviewing the undocumented immigrants.  The emphasis on the personal lives of the lawyers and the Chinese passengers of the Golden Venture was an interesting choice.  The documentary took the time to humanize and empathize with them, struggling at a bad time and bad place.  It almost made the documentary seem like a good guy vs. bad guy kind of dilemma.

I wish the film had included more about American context, besides 9/11 and other acts of terrorism.  Instead of seeing the Golden Venture as just an isolated incident, it would be interesting to connect the newcomers with the undocumented group that already exists in New York.  They might have included organizations and family members of undocumented immigrants.  The film also did not emphasize how terrible the living conditions were for the undocumented immigrants that stayed in America.  The narrator gave a brief overview of the hours and the housing but did not emphasize the terrible conditions.

Census-ible Inquiry

1
11 years
by in Census Data

The Census always makes makes me think of all the undocumented responses that may affect the study.  I have heard of workshops in which community organizations arrange for citizens to fill a census form, but in isolated areas, there surely are not enough of these organizers.  A statistic that reflects the undocumented demographic is in the bar graph, dating from 1970-2011.  The majority of the foreign-born population in 1970 are European while in 2011, the Latin America and Asian American foreign-born population has significantly increased in New York.  After the mid 1960s, an act actually opened up immigration from the Asian continent, bringing in an influx of Asian migrants.  However, Asian immigrants around this time did not believe in the efficiency or utility of state or federal government and would possibly not want to volunteer personal information.  This discrepancy may point to the activity of community organizations and their objectives over time.  Community organizations would remind citizens that the greater representation of a demographic, the more likely politicians and policies will try to benefit them.

Other statistics made me think of geographic stratification.  Although foreign-born Mexican Americans were 28.2 percent of the population, where would they be geographically?  And what would this say about their general visibility?

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