yejoonseo

yejoonseo

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Holy Schist

0
10 years
by in Neighborhood Visits

This tour of Harlem truly opened my eyes to the culture and past of the area.  It is actually surprising that, although I live in the dorms and attend CCNY, I have never really bothered to walk around the area.  Something about the area always felt ominous or simply not welcoming.  However, here comes the tour guide in all her joy and passion about the area.  Her pictures and most definitely her attitude brought some life into my slept-for-4-hours brain very early in the morning.  Although it seemed like we were walking around in circles stopping at places in an ineffective manner, I truly enjoyed the experience of being able to see what Harlem was.

Two things I liked the most were the apartments that were grouped together with an alleyway to connect them all instead of a backyard and the tree of hope.  The neighborhood of houses is honestly a very good way to organize buildings and it make me wonder why there aren’t more with the same layout.  The alleyway is not only good for the cleanliness of the streets but also to bring a group of people together in the neighborhood.  The tree of hope has a nice story behind it which I never heard of before.  It is kind of sad to know that the tree is gone and is now only a plate of steel in the middle of a busy street.

And… I never knew that Shepard Hall (?) was made of schist.  Seems irrelevant but fun fact?

Eyes on Bangladesh

0
10 years
by in Immigration Stories

The most interesting part of the exhibit was the first set up that was explained to us.  The set up included two pillars with pictures on each one, facing a foggy window with an audio track playing.  What struck me most was not the message behind the art and what it meant, but the implication that art still exhibits hidden messages through visual representations and metaphors.  Most of the other parts of the exhibit were all photographs, so the message is clear.  However, for a piece of art such as the one described, requires more abstract thought and attention to detail.  Although I am not implying that the others are worse in any way, but I enjoy the analysis of art and what specific things represent, especially with the first piece in the exhibit.  The setup also adds a three dimensional aspect to the message as opposed to a two dimensional picture.  The placing of each pillar was very exact and the audio truly taps into the emotional aspect of the art.  The background information helps to understand what the artist intended to do but the work of art is still beautiful regardless.

The information from the exhibit was basically new and I never knew about these conditions in the country of Bangladesh.  It opened my eyes to more than just New York City.

Golden Venture Thoughts/Reviews

0
10 years
by in Immigration Stories

The documentary successfully described the Golden Venture story with details that further augmented the reality of immigration into the United States.  As the story is interwoven with personal accounts from four Chinese immigrants that survived on the Golden Venture, (Gullin Chen, Yan Li, Arming He, Kaiqu Zheng) the desire to immigrate to New York is easily understandable.  However, the documentary also reveals the backlash people had against immigrants and how unforgiving immigrant laws can be in the United States.  More than half of the immigrants who came aboard the Golden Venture was deported back to China, where they possibly were persecuted for illegally escaping.  In the case of Yan Li, he was deported back to China and then faced forced sterilization.  The risk of illegal immigration is extreme but the fact that some take the risk regardless is astounding.  The addition of all the real clips directly from the incident as well as news reports about it made the documentary much more legitimate.  Overall, the documentary sheds light on this Golden Venture incident and the desperation immigrants have that makes them disregard even sterilization for freedom in the States.

Richer yet Poorer

1
10 years
by in Census Data

There is a recent problem that has been bothering me for a while. I continue to hear about the gentrification of New York City, but I never understood how it began. However, Joe Salvo’s data has brought some light into the sudden changes to the cultural melting pot of New York City. NYC has always been known as a city where immigrants thrived. With the Statue of Liberty as our symbol, the continual richness of culture has remained. Yet, in the past few years, Harlem, Bed-Stuy, and Chinatown have all suffered from cultural gentrification. Looking at Salvo’s data, over the past few years, more people from within, instead of outside of America have immigrated to New York City. This struck me as an important point that could be the reason for the cultural deconstruction. With the recent decline in support for foreign immigration less immigrants reside in NYC. The economic issues also pushes for a nation to support its own people, particularly wealthy ones. This explains the increased amount of inner immigration to NYC. But, by choosing to maintain the economic stature of NYC, the cultural ideas of the slums have disappeared. The cultural identities of those foreign immigrants have now been eradicated, erasing a part of NYC’s diversity and uniqueness.

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