Mapping New York Literary History Project
Welcome to Mapping New York Literary History, a digital literary history project produced by Lehman College English majors in concert with English professor Bret Maney. To begin exploring our interactive project, open this post.
Sadness and the City: A Look at Allen Ginsberg’s “My Sad Self”
By S. R. | I stood at a window, maybe ten stories high in a vacant office building, resting my fingers against the glass, pressing lightly, as if to test the strength of the barrier separating me from them. Them—the faces I could almost make out. The looks of sadness and joy I could almost […]
“A Something Not Found Elsewhere”: American Identity in the Catskill Mountains
By Ciara O’Neill | If you live in New York and like to travel around the state like I do, then you have most likely become pretty acquainted with route I-87. This past weekend, after waiting for a dreary week of rain to finish, I took this highway north to visit The Thomas Cole Historic […]
A Home Deferred: Revisiting Langston Hughes’ Harlem Brownstone
By Kevin Cepero | Have you ever heard of what happens to a “dream deferred”? Well a home deferred is no different. Harlem, a large section of the borough of Manhattan, is predominantly a black neighborhood. It has been home to thousands of black families since they migrated north during the early twentieth century. Due […]
Mystery on 35th Street: Searching for Rex Stout’s Brownstone
By Melanie I. Hernandez | In 1996, a bronze plaque was placed to pay tribute to mystery novelist Rex Stout’s seventy-two Nero Wolfe stories at 454 West 35th Street in New York City. Stout’s protagonist, Nero Wolfe, was a private investigator who solved crimes that the New York Police Department and FBI couldn’t. He did […]
Ginsberg and “Kaddish”: The End of it All in the East Village
By Oluwaseun Eleyinafe | Allen Ginsberg’s former apartment building, 170 East Second Street, was built in 1899. It is a Beaux Arts building that joins comfort with an older East Village style. Ginsberg lived in the apartment from 1958 to 1963. And while Ginsberg fans can’t gain visit the apartment today, it is alluringly described on […]
“Pitcher, Catcher, Fielder, Batter”: The Poetry of Yankee Stadium
By M. R. | Like most of the world, I have never stepped foot inside Yankee Stadium and watched the talented baseball players give their all to win against their opponents. Instead, I have imagined what it is like as I hear the roar of the crowds from eight blocks away while watching the stadium […]
Ellis Island: Almost in “the Land of the Free”
By M. M. | When you leave the Ellis Island ferry, the main immigration building consumes your entire view. Red brick walls with tan trim, a terra cotta roof, and teal chimneys, and large, floor-to-ceiling windows with green frames reflect the architectural styles of the nineteenth century. A red iron and glass portico lines the […]
The Black Yankee: Jay-Z on Fame, Social Hierarchies, and the Yankee Hat
By L. S. | Yankee Stadium is the diamond-shaped, seven-story home field of the New York Yankees, located at One East 161 Street, in the Bronx. Seating approximately 50,000 people, the Stadium—and the New York Yankees—are staples of the Bronx community, so much so that the team is affectionately known as “The Bronx Bombers.” The […]
“The Red Record” on 20th Avenue and Bay Ridge
By J. S. | You’ve heard the stories. You may have even lived through them. We’ve certainly glamorized those times in spite of how dangerous they were. New York City during the 1980s was no walk in the park. It was downright scary. The birth of the AIDS epidemic left a portion of its population […]
“Queen of Snark”: Dorothy Parker and How She Made Her Name at the Algonquin Hotel
By J. S. | The Algonquin Hotel, located at 59 West 44th Street, is one of literary New York’s most important places. The building, which opened as a hotel in 1902 and was designed by Goldwin Starrett, is marked as a New York City Historic Landmark. It was named for the Algonquin tribes that used […]
Bruno and The Garden: A Story of Professional Wrestling’s Greatest Champion and His Rise From Humble Immigrant To Sports Icon
By G. R. | When walking down the streets of Manhattan, you may get lost in all of the tall buildings and crowds, but there is no missing Madison Square Garden: that special round building with an entire subway system beneath it. Those bright lights surrounding the enormous monitors outside that show the upcoming events […]
The Nuyorican Poets Café : Home of Passionate Souls
By NF Coundol | Have you ever found yourself in a place where you feel like you just belong? Have you ever wondered what took you so long to find that place? From the moment I stepped into the Nuyorican Poet’s Café, located on 236 East 3rd Street in New York City, I felt as […]
The Audubon Ballroom: Malcolm X’s Final Chapter
By E. P. | The Audubon Ballroom, now named The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center, is located at 3940 Broadway between 165th and 166th Streets in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan in New York City. When going through the plate-glass doors, you see a full-size Malcolm X statue standing […]
Douglass’s Next Stop: Freedom In New York City
By D. W. E. | My destination, 339 West 29th Street, is in the Chelsea section of Manhattan. It seems like an ordinary address, but this is no ordinary place. When I arrived at my destination, to my shock, I didn’t feel as if I was standing in front of something so important to history. […]
Washington Irving’s Sunnyside: The Making of a Legend
By. D. Cruz | Originally hailing from New York City, Washington Irving moved to Tarrytown in 1835 when yellow fever spread and it was unsafe to stay in the city. In the years ahead, Washington Irving began to refurbish the two-story cottage located at 3 West Sunnyside Lane. After returning froma diplomatic mission in Spain, […]
In Remembrance of Fallen Soldiers: The “Dough-Boy” and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “May Day”
By C. R. | The “Doughboy,” a statue memorializing American soldiers who died in World War I, is found in the Bronx on Mosholu Parkway and Marion Avenue. Two soldiers and an eagle cast in bronze stand atop a pedestal about five feet tall. One soldier, helpless, lies on his side, while the other stands […]
Entwined Legacies: Piri Thomas and Spanish Harlem
By D. R. | Spanish Harlem has been home to countless authors, artists, musicians and actors. It encompasses 96th Street up to about 140th street from Pleasant Avenue to Fifth Avenue. It is the prototypical urban environment with high crime and constant police sirens. However, there is a charm about it and if you grow up here […]
La Marqueta: The Puerto Rican’s Past, New York City’s Present, And the Multiethnic Future
By Luis Machuca | Imagine for a moment that you could sink your teeth into a delicacy that has the ability to transcend space and transport you to a tropical island. That’s the kind of marvelous treasure that La Marqueta has to offer. La Marqueta is a marketplace and retailer established in 1936 by Mayor […]
“Reflecting Absence”: The World Trade Center Memorial Fountains
By Najee Johnson | The twin reflecting pools are located at the World Trade Center and are surrounded by five buildings. As a representation of the twin towers’ absence, the memorial fountains are placed at the former footprints of the North and South towers. The pools give New Yorkers, tourists, family and friends an opportunity […]
America, Can You Hear Them now?
By A. C. | At times, there’s an insatiable effort to neutralize the spirit of people. It’s cruel to ask someone to be less them, and consequently become more of something else. In Women Native, Other, philosopher Trinh T. Minh Ha states that “it’s a positivist dream of a neutralized language that strips off all its singularity […]
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Sojourn in Morningside Heights
Fitzgerald must have walked by Butterfield’s statue many times while worrying about Zelda, rejection letters, and his unfulfilling work downtown. In fact I, I like to think that he had a fondness […]
American Psycho: The Silent Insanity that Neighbors Us All
By Amy Catano | In Bret Easton Ellis’s novel American Psycho (1991), Patrick Bateman is the insanely neurotic antihero who must have the best of the best. Among his many material possessions, he owns an apartment on the Upper West Side that should be sufficiently capable of causing envy among his peers. When I decided […]
Waltzing out of The Lowell: Dorothy Parker’s Sojourn in an East Side Hotel
By Jalissa Cintron | Quickly splashing up the subway station stairs, I run in between drops of rain up Lexington Avenue. I soon find myself at The Lowell Hotel on 28 East 63rd Street, at Madison Avenue in New York City. Looking up, beyond the seventh floor, I cannot see. The sky is heavy and […]
A Dream Deeply Rooted: Remembering King on the Banks of the Harlem River
By H. H. | The elegant bronze statue of Martin Luther King, Jr. is smooth to the touch with alterations in color due to oxidation. Engraved below the statue is an excerpt from the world famous “I Have a Dream Speech” that solidified his place in history. The statue of Dr. King was created in the […]
Edgar Allan Poe’s Home in the Bronx
By Abigael Hazell | The Bronx, a residential section of New York City, has a few historical gems for history and literature enthusiasts sprinkled throughout the borough. Fans of literary author Edgar Allan Poe will be thrilled to know his home is open to visitors, easily accessible by bus or train. Since I am a […]
Taking Wing in Spanish Harlem: The Dos Alas Mural
By S. F. | Getting off the 6 train that runs on the Lexington line, I see construction signs all around and many bodegas. I am in Spanish Harlem, home to many Hispanics. As I walk to the street mural called “Dos Alas,” I pass through a neighborhood filled with a diverse crowd of people. […]
‘Creepy’ Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
By K. R. | Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, which opened in 1849, is home to American writer Washington Irving’s final resting place, and the town in which it lies is the setting for one of his best known tales, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” When I visited the cemetery in early May of this year, I noticed […]
Frederick Douglass’ Legacy Lives On in West Harlem
By K. T. | There are several renowned monuments throughout the United States that honor Frederick Douglass, a former slave who became one of the country’s most unforgettable African-American leaders. Recently, I had the privilege to visit the memorial located on West 110th Street and 8th Avenue (Central Park West and Frederick Douglass Boulevard) in […]
A Mississippi Man With New York Aspirations: Richard Wright in Greenwich Village
By C. A. | Standing between a luxury building and short narrow townhouses, 82 Washington Place seems almost out of place amid these structures and with the NYU freshmen dorms rounding out the other corner. But that’s the beauty of New York City. Streets filled with all types of buildings and housing their own history […]
150 Years On: Recrossing Brooklyn Ferry
By Kiki Melvelle | The trip on the East River Ferry was like no other trip that I had taken before with my children. I mean, we had been to Disney World, the place of every child’s dream, but even Disney World had not produced the excited reaction that I got when we boarded the […]
The 135th Street YMCA: A Gathering-Place for African-American Luminaries
By Theresa Carter Grant | A towering beacon of red and brown brick with its recognizable red and white neon sign, the 135th Street YMCA has long been a monument in the Harlem community for African-Americans, many of whom came to New York from the South to escape Jim Crow laws, overwhelming oppression, and racial division. This […]
Slavery in New York: Hunts Point Burial Ground and Jupiter Hammon
By A. C. | The Hunts Point Slave Burial Grounds in the Hunts Point section in the Bronx is located on the tip of Hunts Point Avenue and Longfellow Avenue. The surrounding neighborhood is mostly auto body repair shops, chop shops, and other industrial businesses. One side of the park, along Longfellow Avenue, is busy with […]
The Tombs of Melville and Bartleby
By A. C. | Inside the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx lies American novelist Herman Melville. He is remembered for his great literary works such as Moby Dick and Bartleby. His tomb is located on Plot Catalpa, Section 23, and his tombstone is engraved with the traditional name, birth, and date of decease as well […]
Faith, Freedom and Riverside Church
By K. J. | Riverside Church is an immense building located at 490 Riverside Drive New York, NY. The congregation began in 1841 as a Baptist church. It wraps around four blocks with separate entrances, one on Riverside Drive and another on Claremont Avenue. The church features a sanctuary and main worship space that features […]
Stonewall: A Fight that Lasted a Lifetime
By A. O. | The Stonewall Inn, also known as Stonewall, is a gay bar located at 53 Christopher Street in New York City. It is one of the most important sites leading to the gay liberation movement and is still used today to support gay and lesbian rights (Stonewall Inn). In 1969, the original […]
Harriet Tubman: Our Northern Star
By N. F. | “Aye lemme hold a Tubman!”—That might be a common future phrase. 103 years after her death, Harriet Tubman will be placed on the $20 bill. Would she be proud? That’s not for us to decipher, but one thing for sure is African-Americans were quick to create the Harriet Tubman meme. Just […]
A True Cock and Bull Story of Lower Manhattan
By S. G. | The Charging Bull, cast in 1989, currently stands in Bowling Green Park, which is located on Broadway and Morris Street in the historic financial district, in Manhattan, New York City. This massive bronze bull stands in the middle of the street, body leaning to one side in an aggressive stance—a main tourist attraction […]
The ‘S Marvelous and ‘S Wonderful Morgan Library
By A. M. | The Morgan Library, opened to the public in 1924 and the former home of Pierpont Morgan, is located on Madison Avenue and 36th Street in the Murray Hill district in Manhattan. Entering the large, vertically lined, bronze-gated door immediately provides the feel of stepping back into history. The Rotunda, the first […]
Frank O’Hara’s Plaque
By G. G. | I am not an avid traveler by any means; my expeditions have been limited to adventures in movies, books and poetry. Frank O’Hara’s works are known for their diary-like quality, and through them you can explore New York. When I got on the train with my friend one Saturday our destination […]
The Soul Food of Sylvia’s Restaurant
By A. D. | When I first arrived to Sylvia’s Restaurant in Harlem, New York, there were many things that came to mind: the smell of all the fresh dishes arriving at the table and people singing along to the music assured me that this was going to be a great visit. I also noticed the […]
Welcome to Baxter Street: The Five Points Neighborhood
By U. J. | Baxter Street is located in the Five Points neighborhood, which was densely populated with people, structures and debris in the 1800s. The street is known to have housed African Americans, Irish, Italians, and other poor immigrants. These groups had fled their homes in Europe or the South to look for better lives […]
“The World Was Wide Enough”: Hamilton & Burr
By A. J. | Recently, I visited the dueling grounds in Weehawken, NJ, where Aaron Burr shot Alexander Hamilton in July of 1804. I made my visit on a rainy and cloudy Friday afternoon. Aside from three to four other people around the site and in Hamilton Park, located right next to it, the area was deserted. The bleakness […]
Jackie and Pee Wee: An Embrace Against Racism
By F. R. | Brooklyn, New York is home to one of New York City’s most iconic locations, Coney Island. On Coney Island, you find attractions such as the Coney Island Beach and Boardwalk, the New York Aquarium, Luna Park, the Cyclone rollercoaster and the original Nathan’s Famous. If you walk down Surf Avenue, past […]
Ode to Orchard Beach
By Maritza Lopez | Orchard Beach, also known as the Bronx or Puerto Rican Riviera, is a man-made beach situated along the Long Island Sound in Pelham Bay Park. It spans 115 acres and is over a mile long with a promenade that allows beachgoers to walk up and down the beach without having to […]
The Cover Girl in the Bay
By J. N. | Skin made of bronze while standing 305 feet tall. This goddess watches over me day and night. Weathering any storm, she battles the elements. A symbol of liberty and freedom, she stands not just me but for all the world to see. Her beauty admired by most. She is the fairest of them […]
The Hall of Fame for Great Americans: Emerson, Irving and Washington
By E. V. | A New York City landmark designed by the architectural firm of Stanford White, the Hall of Fame for Great Americans is located on the leafy campus of Bronx Community College high above the Harlem River. The architectural style of the landmark, created in 1900, is Classical Revival. Right behind it stands […]
DeWitt Clinton: Then and Now
By Ronal Cedano | At first glance, DeWitt Clinton High School on Mosholu Parkway and Paul Avenue looks like a college campus because of its large baseball field, football field, and main building. On Paul Avenue you can find other schools that lead up to Clinton like Lehman College and the Bronx High School of Science. […]
The Timeless Invisible Man
By D. P. | The Manhattan borough of New York City is home to many hidden gems. On 150th Street and Riverside Drive in Harlem, the “Invisible Man” sculpture is one monument worth visiting. Weighing 5,000 pounds and standing 15 feet tall and 10 feet wide, this rectangular bronze structure celebrates Ralph Waldo Ellison, the […]
The Summer White House: Teddy Roosevelt on Long Island
By G. M. | Among the dying words of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, were: “I wonder if you will ever know how I love Sagamore Hill.” Sagamore Hill, Roosevelt’s long-time home, nicknamed the “summer white house,” is located in Oyster Bay, a mere 45-minute drive from the Bronx. Roosevelt described his home as […]
Christopher Columbus Finally Reaches China(town)
By A. V. | There is a park located on 67 Mulberry Street in Manhattan, New York, close to the Brooklyn Bridge. It was designed by Calvert Vaux in the 1880s and was opened in 1897. Known alternately as Mulberry Bend Park, Five Points Park and Paradise Park, it was renamed in 1911after Christopher Columbus, […]
From Rat to Umpire: A Central Park Journey
By C. C. | It is often bypassed and ignored—after all it is just a rock. Most of the people who actually stop to see and admire it are tourists. More than half of them accidentally come across it while visiting Central Park. Umpire Rock is known to be a schist rock and is located […]
Displaying Christopher Columbus’ Monument in Central Park’s Literary Walk: What Are We Really Celebrating?
By Brandie Failey | Among the many monuments that line Central Park’s Literary Walk, there is a statue of the explorer Christopher Columbus. Huge and eye-catching, it inevitably makes you want to take a closer look at it. Columbus is standing with his arms outstretched while in one hand he holds what appears to be a […]
“Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places”: H.P. Lovecraft in Brooklyn
By Zayna Marjieh | Isn’t it unsettling…that we can walk by a seemingly ordinary place and be completely oblivious to its extraordinary history? 169 Clinton Street in Brooklyn, New York is a completely unremarkable building. It blends into the Brooklyn cityscape like a grain of sand […]
The White Horse Tavern: A Writer’s Reprieve
By Kejana Ayala | Stepping into the White Horse is like stepping into the past. After being bombarded by antique white horses, from the marble-headed figurines to the engravings on the windows and light fixtures, you are then caressed by the original wood and design that imbues this neighborhood watering hole with a classical literary […]
Ulysses S. Grant: National Hero and Literary Extraordinaire
By E. V. | The Grant Memorial Tomb, situated on the corner of Riverside Drive and W. 122nd Street in Manhattan, is the final resting place of President Ulysses S. Grant, who was in office from 1869-1877. Grant Memorial Tomb is a marble and granite building constructed with a dome at the top. The building has an […]
The Bethlehem of Hip-Hop
By D. P. | By popular consensus, 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, in the Morris Heights neighborhood of the Bronx, is regarded as the birthplace of hip-hop culture. The visitor to this address will find that 1520 Sedgwick Avenue sits in the middle of a mess of roads and waterways: Robert Moses’ Cross Bronx and the Major […]
West Side Story: The Classic Made Present
By Kejana Ayala | Whether or not we’ve seen it, we all know about Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins’ film adaptation of West Side Story (1961). A classic retelling of Romeo and Juliet based on Arthur Laurents’ musical, the film has echoed in our American culture for over fifty years through its tunes and romantic storyline and the […]
A Review of Nueba Yol
By Elaine Vasquez | “Nueba Yol de mi fantasia, porque New York es otra cosa.” – Balbuena When I was a little girl in the Dominican Republic, my dreams about America were distant from the reality. White people with green or blue eyes was all I pictured. Big streets, snow, tall buildings, tons of food and […]
Review of Entre Nos
By Luis Machuca | The aspirations, ambitions and ultimate disenchantments resulting from this country’s make-or-break reality are things that transcend national backgrounds and intimately resonate through many a dispersed migrant group. The Latinization of New York and other metropolises in the United States has unfolded with rather consistent uniformity in the various Hispanic subgroups. According to […]
Review of The Puerto Ricans: Our American Story
By Maritza Lopez | At the beginning of the documentary The Puerto Ricans: Our American Story, opera singer Justino Diaz sings, in his signature baritone voice, “En Mi Viejo San Juan” (“In My Old San Juan”) with tears in his eyes. A song known by Puerto Ricans, it expresses the diaspora of Puerto Ricans living […]
The Next Track will Leave You Breathless: Rihanna’s “American Oxygen”
By Eileen Sepulveda | While standing at the bus stop on a wintry, windy night scrolling down my Spotify librería and clicking on the most recently played, Rihanna is at the top of my list. Besides being a big fan of most of her albums with her bold, sassy lyrics and sexiness, she is truly one of […]
Review of Eddie Murphy’s Coming to America
By Nad | African drums booming in the background. Singers chanting “Awemoway, Awemoway.” The camera circumnavigates the forest. Nah, this ain’t The Lion King. This is Coming to America.
Hunter/Lehman College’s Band of Sisters
By D. C. | What we know as Lehman College today was originally the Bronx campus of Hunter College. Female students would take classes at the Bronx campus for two years and then complete the rest of their education at Hunter College in Manhattan. During the decade before the beginning of World War II, only […]
Ota Benga: The Pygmy in the Bronx Zoo
By Faydelin Stoddart-Smith | In the early twentieth century, a human was exhibited in the same cage as monkeys in the Bronx Zoo. The Monkey House, also known as the Primate House, was a popular location at the zoo. It once housed grey-handed night-monkeys and apes, including a famous orangutan named Dohong. However, due to […]
