Author: Alexandra Sanoulis

Last night, we went to see the play “The Jungle”, based on the true story, at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn. Formerly a church, the space was transformed into the most realistic remake of the jungle that refugees from multiple different countries including Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Sudan, Syria, Palestine, and many other countries built on their own. Before being brought to my attention, I was never aware of the fact that the jungle existed, or the extent to the severity of the refugee crisis happening in the world. As you can imagine, having suddenly learned about this situation all at once, in addition to having the situation put to life before me at the viewing of the play, it definitely took an emotional toll on me. I had no idea what to expect before seeing the performance but in the end I was amazed by the entire show and completely moved by the messages sent out through it. I shed tears, I laughed, I was scared but also happy at times throughout the course of the play. It was probably the most powerful and moving show I have seen in my life, and I am thankful for having the chance to see it alongside my classmates as well.

One of the most powerful parts of “The Jungle” for me was when the French wanted to demolish the jungle, or the refugee camp, and the refugees had the chance to relocate. Most of them agreed to relocate, however Salar, the Afghan restaurant owner, felt he had put in too much hard work to forget about his restaurant that he built with his own two hands and start a new one. Salar told his most loyal helper in the restaurant that he should relocate with the others, because he deserved the chance to make it to the UK one day. In the end, all the members of the jungle stuck together with Salar and stood by him even when the police came in ready to demolish the camp site and the restaurant. This scene really struck me because although the refugees could have just relocated peacefully, they chose to stand together no matter what, and it gave me the sense that they were a real family.

Throughout the play, the refugees stuck together and created unity within the jungle, even though they were not from the same place. They created a family with members from all different countries and religions, and never let their differences get in between their unity. I feel this was one of the many powerful things about the jungle in itself. This play was truly an eye opener to me to the refugee crisis and allowed me to acknowledge and thank God for the life I have and to never forget the struggles others have gone through and continue to go through each day. Despite the horrible refugee crisis that all of these people were experiencing, they made the most of their situations and stayed true to their faith and beliefs through it all. There is so much to take out of the story of the jungle, and I am so glad I got to see the performance of the play because it was truly amazing.

The shows I saw at the Jewish Museum opened my eyes to the fact that art is such a broad term, because everyone has a different vision that comes to mind when envisioning art. The type of art that I experienced at the Jewish Museum at “Chagall, Lissitsky, Malevich: The Russian Avant-Garde in Vitebsk, 1918-1922” and “Martha Rosler: Irrespective” was definitely more experimental art than other pieces of art I’ve experienced throughout the course of this class. The pieces I saw were all both experimental and political works of art in their own ways.

“Point n Shoot” by Martha Rosler is an example of both avant-garde art and political art. In this piece, a picture of President Donald Trump is shown with names in the background of colored-Americans who have died because of police officers or while in police custody, and without the police officers themselves receiving any sort of punishment for it. The main writing in the art is in red letters across the entire picture which is a quote from Trump where he says “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK? It’s like incredible.” This work is a mimesis of a campaign rally which captures an image and text from this moment in time at the campaign rally.

Because the color of the words spoken by President Trump are red, which is usually a color that symbolizes violence, blood, or evil things, along with the picture of Trump that is shown, which is an unflattering photo, leads me to conclude that Rosler wants to portray Trump in a negative way with this work of art. In addition, the words being quoted by Trump are ones which make him look like a bad President who does not care about the people of this country, and only cares that he has enough people voting for him so that is enough. I feel the message that she intended for it to hold was that had there been stronger gun control laws, maybe so many minorities would not have lost their lives from police officers to begin with. In this work, President Trump clearly does not believe in stricter gun control laws, considering he gives people listening an image of himself shooting somebody in the middle of Fifth avenue. I think this work is trying to change the way viewers look at gun control, if they do not already believe that we need more control over it, and that the lives of these minorities which were taken are important and always will be. Although this is what I got out of this work of art, this is something that is always open to the interpretation from its viewers, and I feel that is an aspect that was definitely a major point of Rosler’s intentions with this piece.

On Thursday, it was an exceptionally beautiful November day, so I decided to take a more adventurous route to school rather than just getting off at the usual 23^rdStreet stop.

I began my walk as I got off the N train at 34^thStreet Herald Square, and exited to find myself in front of the Macy’s that takes up an entire block. I stopped for a moment to figure out where I was considering this subway station has so many exits, and saw that I was on 34^thstreet between Broadway and 7^thAvenue. As I was looking around I noticed all the Christmas decorations that had been put up at Macy’s and other stores like Old Navy already. I knew that these would be only the beginning of the grand Christmas decorations to be put up at Macy’s and the rest of the storefronts of this area, but it still brightened my day because of how much I enjoy the holiday season. As I walked towards Broadway alongside of Macy’s, I heard Christmas music being played from the outside of the store to go along with the storefronts that had been put up.

As I got to the corner of Broadway and 34^thstreet, I had the same overwhelmed feeling I have every time I am in that area. Being that it is one of the busiest areas in the city, I stopped to watch all the different people crossing the streets, coming in and out of H&M, Macy’s, and other stores in this intersection. Many of the people I saw were tourists which I concluded based off of all the different languages I heard people speaking as they walked past. I also saw some elderly couples with shopping bags, enjoying the beautiful 55 degree November day. As I walked up the block, I smelt the most amazingly sweet smell which was also a familiar smell for me. I looked up and realized it was a Waffles and Dinges stand, and for a second I contemplated getting one but I decided not to because it was too sweet to have as a casual treat.

I had meant to walk down 6^thavenue, but after about 2 blocks I realized I was walking down Broadway. The split between Broadway and 6^thavenue confuses me every time, and I always end up walking down the wrong path each time I am there. As I walked down, I noticed multiple fruit stands and bodegas, and I noticed the men working these stands. I wondered to myself how they were able to create a sustainable living off of selling fruit, snacks, drinks, and other things on the streets of NYC for a living, but then I remembered that my grandfather had actually had his own hotdog stand on 6^thavenue himself. I missed my grandfather and often thought about him and the life he built for my father, and how my father had built a life for me as my grandfather had done for him.

I kept walking, and found myself in front of the Flatiron building. I stopped to look at the sunglasses being sold on the sidewalk, but convinced myself to stray away because I didn’t intend on buying any and I hate getting the seller’s hopes up. I saw two women wearing Mickey Mouse ears, posing for a photo with the Flatiron building serving as the background of their photo. Seeing this reminded me of the fact that a year ago, I was on my senior trip in Disney World doing the same exact pose in front of Cinderella’s Castle with my friends which brought back some good memories. Realizing 40 minutes had passed, I had to end my walk because my class was starting soon, but I really enjoyed this time and it allowed me to clear my head from all the stress I am under. I plan to take as many walks as I can before the cold is too harsh for me.

This past Monday, I attended a reading and author talk of the book “A Massacre in Mexico” at the New York Public Library on 42^nd St and 5^thAvenue at 6:30. After class, I headed on the train uptown and arrived here. The building itself was very grand as I discovered since the building takes up almost 3 blocks. I entered and security checked my bag upon entering and leaving as well.  The room was quite long but not too wide, and there were 2 sections of rows of chairs with an aisle separating them, and a little stage towards the front where the speakers were. The audience of this event consisted mostly of young adults but there were also some older people there as well.

Upon coming to this reading, I did not know anything about what massacre this book was referring to, but I actually learned a lot from this experience. The author of the book is from Mexico, and her name is Anabel Hernandez. She originally wrote this book in Spanish, and the other speaker, John Washington translated her book into English which he told us as he began the event.  Since it is a lengthy book telling a story of an event that occurred going into extreme depth about the underlying details of all aspects of this massacre, the majority of the event was less focused on reading parts of the book itself, and more focused on a discussion of the book. But, because they could not read the whole book, the author gave a quick but detailed summary of the book. Because she is from Mexico and Spanish was her first language, I found her English sometimes hard to understand, and when she said the names of places in Mexico she visited or Spanish names of people she encountered while writing, it sometimes threw me off because her Spanish accent overpowered the words for me since they were already unfamiliar to my ears. John Washington’s role in the event was to read certain parts of the book in which he wanted the author to elaborate on and tell us more about, which he did a wonderful job in bringing many great areas of the book to attention and into greater detail.

From what I was able to understand from attending this event without prior knowledge to the book is that this book is about the Tlatelolco Massacre which happened in October of 1968. The author of the book explained how she wrote it because she was a journalist and wanted to write about how corrupt the Mexican government was and the fact that they have gotten away with things like this massacre. She told us how the Mexican government and military has an extreme amount of power which allows them to get away with murder, including the kidnapping and killing of her own father. Because she had a strong motive to want to expose the Mexican authorities, she decided to find out what exactly happened for the military to to murder 43 innocent students. She told us about her experiences and how no witnesss wanted to speak to her because they were afraid of themselves being killed for telling her anything and how she had to gain the trust of people in order to get information. She told us how many journalists, including big time journalists, would not take on this story because of how fearful they were, but she felt it needed to be addressed.

This event opened my eyes to a massacre that I knew nothing about before, and exposed me to the corruption of the Mexican government that I never knew existed. Anabel Hernandez was extremely passionate in speaking of her experiences and reasoning for writing this book and it has persuaded me to read this book eventually because I would be interested in reading the story in full detail. Hernandez also gave me insight on the craft of writing as a journalist, and the fact that as a journalist, you do not just write, but also travel, interview people, research, and act as a detective in a way to put things together. I also feel that attending a book reading can be very helpful when reading something on a topic you aren’t familiar with, because you are able to ask questions about it during a Q/A session rather than be alone and confused. Additionally, one of the fathers of the 43 students murdered was actually in attendance and he had a translator thank all of us for coming and caring about the cause, which made me feel really happy I was there in a way to support the families of these students. Overall, I had a great experience at my first literary reading and discussion event, and I hope to attend more because I feel they are great ways to learn about things you have never knew about before and open your eyes to what has happened and is still happening in the world.

Photograph taken in NYC by Vivian Maier, 1954.

This picture is one taken by a famous street photographer named Vivian Maier. Vivian Maier was born in New York City in February of 1926 and lived until April of 2009. As the child of a French mother and Austro-Hungarian father, she spent a portion of her life going back and forth between Europe and America, before eventually settling in the U.S again in 1951. This is when she began photographing the streets of New York City until around 1956, when she moved to Chicago and worked as a nanny, but continued to practice street photography during her free time.

This picture, which to my knowledge has no name, was taken in New York City in 1954 and was able to capture my attention from the moment I saw it. The studium in this picture, is this young boy probably around the age of four, who is petting a cat on the street. I found the punctum to be the warm expression on this cat’s face. Street cats are often thought of as feistier than the stereotypical cuddly house cat, therefore it intrigued me to see this cat looking so satisfied to have this boy petting it. When I look at this picture, I can almost feel the purr of the cat which would signify the happiness the cat feels. This cat is calm, and does not feel she needs to be guarded in the presence of this boy. It seems as if she is comfortable with the boy and that maybe this is part of a daily routine. However, this arises my question of whether this boy and the cat really are comfortable with each other, or does it just so happen he is petting a friendly street cat? It could very well be that the boy feeds this cat, so she returns to see him each day as if she were his own cat. But, with no description to the photo, I cannot be sure of the relationship between this boy and the cat. The real reason I felt that this particular aspect of the photo was the punctum and also why it really animated me is because I have 2 cats of my own, and I also foster cats and kittens. So, as you can imagine, I am very familiar with what is happening here. It just so happens that the cat in this picture looks similar to one of my own house cats, and the expression on this cat’s face is one I have seen on my own cat many times. The expression on this cat’s face animates me because of this, and allows me to picture myself petting my cat while hearing and feeling the soft purring in which she produces as I pet her.

As I walked out of Washington Square Park, I was immediately drawn to this piece of art done on a brick wall around the corner from the park. The street was a short, but wide one-way street, with a construction project going on in the middle of the street, which caused traffic to be moving a little slow. My first thoughts when I noticed the mural was that it was truly just a beautiful painting of a bear, but as I looked deeper into it, I noticed many other details. I think what originally drew me to this mural was the fact that it was a painting of an animal, and I have grown up in a household where we strongly admire all types of animals, so I thought it was cute in a way whereas many people might see a bear and associate it with fear. The painting is done on a brown brick wall, surrounded both left and right by red bricks. Because the wall where the painting is done is brown, that means the background of the painting is brown, however the artist offset the darkness with pops of blue and orange tones. On the neck of the bear appears to be a pattern that reminds me of an Aztec styled pattern including blue, red, orange, and yellow in it. The bear has thick, long, fur with 3 strips of color bleeding down and eventually dripping off his front paws. The 3 colors which stem from the Aztec pattern in the neck of the bear and bleed down to the paws are blue, orange, and yellow. The bear’s paw has claws that look more like long fingernails rather than claws, which I found strange because most portrayals of bears’ paws are short and nubby and don’t involve such long claws. Finally, surrounding the bear are triangles coming out from all around, which look more like triangular metal blades protruding out of the perimeter of him. What I loved most about this mural is that it ultimately allowed me to escape being in the confinements of NYC just for a few moments and envision myself in a more rural, natural setting. I really enjoyed this mural because of this, and after all, it’s not every day that you get to experience a bear in NYC!

After my lovely escape into nature, I visited the Grey Art Gallery at NYU. The current gallery being featured here is a photography gallery called NeoRealismo: The New Image in Italy, 1932-1960. Upon entering the gallery, I wasn’t very familiar with this topic, due to the fact that I had never closely studied it. As I first began walking through the gallery, which was also the first art gallery I have been to, I experienced a spacious room filled with evenly spaced, framed photographs on white walls. Because of the fact that all the photographs in the gallery appealed to the same NeoRealismo theme, I was able to receive the impression through the pictures that the Italians were very hardworking people. Had this not been a gallery completely dedicated to this theme, I probably would not have been able to find as much meaning towards the photographs, especially from the photograph I chose, because the pictures would have made less sense to me. In addition, these photographs altered the space for me because I was surrounded by photographs of the everyday tasks of the working-class Italians in this time period so I was able to get a feel for what their lives consisted of. The reason I got this impression was because most of the photographs in the gallery were pictures of the Italian people working. The picture I chose, called the Il Dopopranzo Delle Mondine, shows two women, one sitting on a sheet with a basket looking tote bag in between her legs, and one standing up handing a glass of what I assume to be water to the woman sitting. Since both women have their hands on the glass, I received a warm feeling, almost like a sense of community from these women. The woman standing has a wrap around her hair and the woman sitting is wearing a sun hat. Behind the woman sitting there is a bike sitting upside down, and beyond the two women appears to be a field. I decided to look further into the name of the photo, and I learned that it translates to “the afternoon of the mondina”. Once again, I had to dig a little deeper because I had never heard of a “mondina” before, but it was also to my discovery that a mondina refers to a rice weeder, specifically in Italy’s Po Valley.  Once I found this out, it explained what these two women were doing in a field. It was of no surprise to find out that the moninda were very hard workers, who worked long hours in the hot sun for very low pay. Overall, I really enjoyed this gallery and being able to learn more about a topic which I was not well informed about before coming.

This painting, “The Sleeping Gypsy”, was painted by the French painter Henri Rousseau in 1897.  It is an oil painting done on a canvas. It is found hanging on the fifth floor at the Museum of Modern Art in Midtown. The dimensions of the painting are 4’3″ x  6’7″.

What immediately strikes me about the lion in this painting is the way its eye is wide open, staring right at one who is observing the painting. The lion is not the typical warm, honey brown color that comes to mind when one thinks of a lion, but rather a darker, more chocolate color which sets the nighttime theme of the painting. Something else that strikes me about the lion is the way its mane falls forward, rather than backward. Typically, when thinking of a lion one may picture the mane falling the opposite direction of its face. The mane also appears to be quite stringy and fine, but also fluffy. The way the lion is standing and looking at the observer is almost as if he was walking and froze as he realized he was being watched, almost like someone tip-toeing in the nighttime, being careful not to wake the sleeping gypsy up. The lion also does not depict the stereotypical “King of the Jungle” sort of picture often thought of when one thinks of a lion, but rather more of a cowardly, and maybe even shy lion. The gypsy in the painting appears to be sleeping peacefully, but at the same time firmly gripping a stick which one may assume she keeps for protection in the event that she needs it.