This is my blog for my 2010 trip to New York City. I am currently seeking my M.A. in Literature at the University of Texas at El Paso. I play in a band called the Stanton Street Collective and we integrate spoken word poetry,improvisation,and storytelling into our performances. "The World is MORE than just a stage / its an open jam session for the world to engage!" -- Rich M. 
Day 2: May 27, 2010.
The apparition of these faces in the crowd ;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
Riding on the train for the first time (as was most people’s experience) can really be an action worth examination. It really is amazing to be able to go underground in one part of the city and within moments emerge into an entirely different part of the city. Ezra Pound’s poem is brief yet powerful enough to signify the moment in which an experience/image becomes another image in the eye of the observer. As I stood up on one train looking out the window into another train passing by I was suddenly struck with the lines of Pound’s poem and felt an immediate connection with the images presented in those modernist lines. In a non-fully-explainable way the subway haunts me – and I’m okay with that.
The first full day in the city was action-packed and involved quite a bit of history worth note. I woke up to see overcast skies through the bedroom window and since there is often music in my head it was hard not to make a connection. It really shouldn’t have, but I had Petula Clark’s voice stuck in my head as I was getting ready for the day ahead. Clark’s line, “Just listen to the rhythm of a gentle bossa nova” played over and over since I equated the falling of rain with a gentle bossa nova. With a morning bagel and tea it was a nice start to the day.
We walked as a class down the Lower East Side of the city and as we took in the sights of the various buildings on our path we attempted to contextualize the city as a place of constant change and movement. This could certainly be personified in the treatment of buildings and creation of landmarks. One prime example is to view the ways in which various groups have moved in and around areas of the city. By the late 19th century and 20th century millions of Jews from Russia, Poland, Austria-Hungary and the Balkans came to the United States in search of a new life and the result was a large community on the lower east side working with the hustle and bustle of the new world. As an example, much of the lower east side today is a contemporary China town housing many businesses and shops of the Chinese-American community. Of course, many of the older buildings and sites still remain from older times and are still in use today.
One example of this is the preservation of the tenement houses in which many of the early workers had to live and work throughout the years. In this case, many found themselves working in the garment industry as it underwent many changes including the introduction of the standard size and the hiring of immigrants by companies which resulted in a massive growth of workers in the tenement buildings in the lower East side. What resulted were the sweatshops of the lower east side in which the immigrants were packed into small spaces and forced to work long hours just in order to make a living (after all, they were paid by the piece). Many of these conditions would be found in the literature, journalism, photography of the time including Abraham Cahan’s writing and maybe more direct in the photographs of Jacob Riis. The fact that these portrayals of immigrant life led to campaigns for reform indicates the importance of the type of activism implemented for a community based on human concerns. Sadly, during a historical tour of a tenement building we discussed how even today some of the problems still exist concerning sweatshops in the garment industry.
It is in this way that many of the buildings in New York hold a place between times; in which two buildings adjacent to one another can come from completely different periods. This is the case in which walking right through areas which have undergone gentrification and have more modern buildings. It would make it really easy to walk right by a building of historical significance such as the one in which Ira Gershwin was born. Perhaps more amazing is the Elridge St. Synagogue which is a remarkable building that stands out in an otherwise predominant Chinatown. During a tour of the synagogue we again explored the immigrant history of the neighborhood and the importance of community in the creation of this very beautiful and important building which is still in use to this day. What I found remarkable about this building was not only the architecture but the history of community and transformation associated with it, including the transition from the old world to the new world for early immigrants. One artifact presented to use was an initial constitution of the church in which it was set up as 1). House of Prayer 2). House of Study and 3). a house of assembly. This “Constitution of Congregation” is just one example of this transition and a Hanukah menorah with an Eagle on it could also be seen as a symbol of the movement into a new identity.
In addition to these areas, we attempted to survey several of the culinary places of interest in the lower East side. Because of a rush we were only able to pass by Yona Schimmel Knishes and Russ and Daughters restaurants but I certainly hope to check them out during my free time in the city. We did so happen to enjoy lunch at the famous Katz’s Delicatessen on 205 E. Houston St. (For all of the Texans reading, I should clarify that this is Houston pronounced how-ston and not hue-ston). I believe the restaurant lived up to its fame and seemed to have a friendly staff despite the large numbers of customers. As it was stated in the film When Harry Met Sally, “There’s nothing more New York than Katz’s –“ perhaps this may just be the case considering its continued presence since 1888.
To reflect on the time spent in the lower East side, it certainly seemed to be the case that the city is always in a state of transformation; sometimes good (the creation of the Elridge St. Synagogue) and the bad (gentrification and loss of cultural landmarks). To view a block park once used as a place of prostitution and peddling now used as a playground and a congregation for the community is an odd way to look at Whitman’s poem “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.” What was looked out in the past in one way is something completely different; to see it each way is both rough and hopeful. There is a hope to preserve the knowledge, the history of our people and the insistence on history can teach us many things about our contemporary moment.
We build. We tear down. We build. We try to remember --
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The remainder of the night was spent viewing Tennessee William’s play The Glass Menagerie as it was presented by the Roundabout Theatre Company and directed by Gordon Edelstein. It may have not been a Broadway play but it still had its powerful moments including a strong performance by Judith Ivey as Amanda Wingfield. I will provide a more in-depth review in future postings but I thought the adaptation of this well-known play didn’t exactly capture the spirit of the original play as I understood it. What really fascinated me was the minimalist use of stage and the way in which space was negotiated by the actors.
Overall, our first full day in New York City as a group of students and researchers was packed with all sorts of relevant information regarding the way in which New York has been constantly changing and adapting to the various people and external forces pushed on it by the time. Because of the immensity of New York as both a place for growth and as a spot for people to come to the United States one most really understand this past to enjoy the rich cultures behind its creation and onward into new experiments in the upcoming centuries.