Interviewed by Katie Uva
Today on the blog, editor Katie Uva talks to Jeffrey Gurock about his recent book, Parkchester: A Bronx Tale of Race and Ethnicity. In it, Gurock combines his personal experience growing up in Parkchester with research into the history of this planned community in the Bronx, and offers an interpretation both of Parkchester’s uniqueness and what it reveals about the broader city.
Read MoreInterviewed by Deborah Hamer
Today on the blog Gotham editor Deborah Hamer speaks with Danny Noorlander, associate professor at SUNY-Oneonta, about his new book Heaven’s Wrath: The Protestant Reformation and the Dutch West India Company in the Atlantic World, religion in New Amsterdam and the Dutch Republic, and what is on the horizon for his next book.
Read MoreJesse Hoffnung-Garskof, interviewed by Tyesha Maddox
In the late nineteenth century, a small group of Cubans and Puerto Ricans of African descent settled in the segregated tenements of New York City. Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof’s book presents a vivid portrait of these largely forgotten revolutionaries and reveals the complexities of race-making within migrant communities and the power of small groups of immigrants to transform their home societies.
Read MoreJohanna Fernandez, interviewed by Beth Harpaz
One of the most influential groups of the radical ’60s was the Young Lords, an organization of poor and working class Puerto Ricans that began as a street gang and rose to confront the racism of institutions from government to religion. Johanna Fernandez, a professor of history at Baruch College, traces their roots and tells the story of their rise and fall in The Young Lords: A Radical History.
Read MoreEvan Friss, interviewed by Kara Murphy Schlichting
Evan Friss’s latest book explores how bicycles and bicyclists shaped the city’s social, economic, infrastructural, and cultural politics.
Read MoreInterviewed by Katie Uva
Today on the blog, Katie Uva interviews Jen Jack Gieseking about their mapping project, An Everyday Queer New York, a companion project to his book A Queer New York: Geographies of Lesbians, Dykes, and Queers, forthcoming in 2020. Jack discusses the challenges and opportunities in mapping as a way of understanding lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ+) history in general, and the history of queer women and trans and gender non-conforming people (tgncp) in particular.
Read MoreInterviewed by Pilar Jefferson
One of the most thought provoking pieces to share and discuss with visitors since Urban Indian: Native New York Now opened at the Museum of the City of New York in late September has been “Flag” by Dennis Redmoon Darkeem. Hanging in the center of the north wall of the gallery, it sits a little apart from the posters and flyers around it, and the bold colors and patterns of the large rectangular work draw viewers in. The quilted fabric pieces that form the work create visually engaging aesthetic contrasts, and those same colors and patterns draw questions of deeper meaning from the viewer. Are the blue stars on a white background an inversion of the American flag? What is the source of the strip of checked green yellow orange and black fabric that cuts across the piece, bisecting it?
Read MoreAdapted from writing in Voice of Queensbridge: Stories from the Nation’s Largest Public Housing Development
By Molly Rosner
In the fall of 2018, a group of LaGuardia Community College students embarked on a year-long project to document the experiences of New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) residents. This project was funded by the Robert D. L. Gardiner Foundation. These stories were aimed at enriching the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives’ NYCHA collection, which until this project only reflected the agency’s perspective on public housing. The vastness of public housing in New York City necessitated that the students focus on one public housing project and Queensbridge Houses, the nation’s largest public housing development, were selected due to abundant documentation of the development, and its vicinity to the college.
Read MoreToday on the blog, editor Prithi Kanakamedala sits down with artist Walis Johnson to discuss her current work, The Red Line Archive Project, which activates conversations about the personal and political effects of redlining using her own family’s story growing up in Brooklyn.
Read MoreToday on the blog, editor Katie Uva talks to Erin Wuebker, Assistant Curator of the Brooklyn Historical Society's new exhibition, Taking Care of Brooklyn: Stories of Sickness and Health. The longterm exhibition, on view until June 2022, examines 400 years of Brooklyn's history through the lens of public health.
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