Professor Prabal De, CCNY 2014
Lizzy Elliott
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Posts by Lizzy Elliott
Touring Harlem
010 years
Little by little, I have been trying to acquaint myself with the diverse, and often overlooked, culture and history of Harlem. It began with an oily introduction of fried chicken on waffles at Sylvia’s Restaurant on Lenox Ave—whether this really qualifies as the beloved “soul food” of African-American culture I really don’t know—and has continued in our recent tour of Harlem’s historical sites.
Whenever someone from my town asks where I go to school I can almost always anticipate their reaction to my reply, Harlem? Really? It’s undeniable that there’s an inherent assumption amongst certain “Westchesterites” that any thing beyond 125th street is a danger zone. Sure, I wouldn’t recommend hanging about in St. Nicholas Park after midnight, but I feel there’s so much of the city people are missing out on by skipping Harlem. And after our walking tour on Friday this has become far more apparent. As our guide talked us through several blocks of Harlem, she discussed the Lafayette Theatre, the Tree of Hope, the still-thriving Apollo Theatre, and the various nightclubs and theatres that turned the area into a cultural hub throughout the early 1900s (Harlem Renaissance!) and fed my appreciation for the borough’s history.
Yet perhaps what’s even more unfortunate than the general lack of appreciation for Harlem’s history, is the city’s failure to protect the buildings that comprise its cultural antiquity. When we arrived at the former site of the Lafayette Theatre, I was sad to see it had been replaced with rising condominiums, buildings that the city would profit from at the detriment of destroying an important historical site. The Lafayette Theatre (pictured below) was the first New York theatre to desegregate, and later welcomed an all African-American cast. I fear it’s not an exaggeration to say that the city has begun to financially displace its own culture—a poignant example being the destruction of Five Points in Queens just last year, giving higher priority to luxury apartments over historical sites that could be restored with worthwhile investment.
All in all I really enjoyed our informative tour through Harlem, despite my dismay at the obvious neglect of so many of the buildings we visited—prior to this tour I doubt I would have recognized their historical significance! I truly hope that the gentrification of the borough in the near future doesn’t mean the annihilation of what remains of its former glory.
Belonging in Bangladesh
010 years
The exhibit Eyes on Bangladesh, albeit small, was not lacking in its visual rendering of a complex and beautiful culture. While I know little of the history or culture of Bangladesh, many of the works on display gave me a snapshot of what life is like in the chaotic—yet beautiful—country.
I was particularly attracted by the visual narrative Belonging, by Munem Wasif. I felt he successfully translated the nuances of the people of old Dhaka, from the stoic expression of a man getting his beard trimmed to those animated by a chaotic street festival, into an intricate story that portrays the overwhelming sense of community and tradition in the antiquated part of an otherwise modernizing city.
Munem’s photographs translate what would likely be prosaic day-to-day scenes, to visual “poems” that capture the melding of public and private life in Puran Dhaka. Munem’s artistic interpretation is particularly striking in a scene where a man seems to be simply cleaning out metal bowls in the street. Instead of using this mundane activity as a documentation of the “struggles of an impoverished city” or some convoluted idea of social repression in old Dhaka, Munem seems to to propagate its intrinsic beauty. In my perspective the photograph plays out like a beautifully intricate ballad; the man’s body language framed by bold contrasts which are artfully matched in his surroundings, and the birds composed like dancers around the water, comprises a chaotic but well-harmonized scene. In this, I believe Munem was able to capture the essence of old Dhaka, and allowed spectators like myself to understand (and even feel part of) the foreign traditions of Bangladesh.
Image sources:
http://www.munemwasif.com/
What is a “New Yorker”?
010 years
by Lizzy Elliott
in Blog posts
“We all have a million anecdotes of what typifies New Yorkers,” says the Director of the population division of the Department of City Planning, Joseph Salvo. I can’t help but agree with him, especially after glancing at the statistics from his talk with Macaulay Students a couple of weeks ago. There is such a complex amalgamation of cultures in New York- packed into NYC alone, that no single anecdote could possibly represent a “New Yorker”.
So I started to think about where I’m from, asking what typifies someone from Westchester County? The results, according to Census Data, were not wholly surprising. Irvington, New York: 2.77 square miles, 87.1 % White, and a median household income of $123,226. Clearly it’s not so difficult to deduce the identity of a typical “Westchesterite”. While these statistics are not representative of my town’s entire population, they do not fail to show its unfortunate lack of diversity—and the location of a large portion of the unpopular “1%”. Manhattan of course has its fair share of wealthy elites, yet its overall diversity is truly unparalleled by New York’s surrounding counties. With a 37.2% Foreign-born population in 2010, NYC is harboring immigrants from all over the world who contribute to the growing identity of the elusive “New Yorker”.
Sources:
http://www.census.gov/
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/02/nyregion/02experience.html?_r=0
