Sadness and the City: A Look at Allen Ginsberg’s “My Sad Self”

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

“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

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

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

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

“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”

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

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

“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

“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

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

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

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

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

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”

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

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 […]

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