Fun & Global, 9/28-10/4

So you may be asking yourself, amidst the stress of school work and club life, "What can Global NYers do this week?" Well, I have a couple ideas for you which could serve as stressbusters or just plain entertainment:

1. Sikh Film Festival (http://www.sikharts.com/film-festival.html) - Saturday, Oct. 4th - An affordable, fun, and cultural experience. Great for those of you interested in discussions of religion, multiculturalism and film. Also great for anyone just looking for something to do!

2. Havana @ Umbrage Gallery (http://umbragegallery.com/) - Thru Oct. 31 - Free exhibit in DUMBO Brooklyn, showcase of some of the most important photographs in the history of Cuba's Revolution. Black and white images remembering and commemorating the Revolution's 50th anniversary.

3. Multimedia NYC @ MCNY (http://www.mcny.org/exhibitions/current/timescapes-a-multimedia-portrait-of-new-york.html) - Visit the Museum of the City of NY for several AWESOME exhibits, including a 25-minute multimedia experience tracing NYC's historical growth. It's a $5 suggested entrance fee, but if you say you're "a neighbor", they waive the suggested fee. I may go on Thursday or Friday.

If you explore any of these options If you write about your experience, pass it to me, and I'll post it on the blog. Or, if you take part in any other cultural/global experience here in the City, let me know. I'd love to include it in the blog.

HEAR YE! HEAR YE!!

NYC MEDIEVAL FESTIVAL!

This Sunday, Sept. 28th, join your GNY! stream leader Jarett as he leads a group up to beautiful Ft. Tryon Park, in the most northeasternly corner of Manhattan, to enjoy a day of jesters, minstrels, jugglers, medieval music, and general Middle Age enjoyment!!

We'll hopefully head up there rain or shine. Check out the forecast here. If the rain is too bad, though, we'll cancel the trip.

The event is completely free (you bring your metrocard) and takes place from 1130am-6pm. We'll head up there as a group, meeting in the Goddard Lobby @ 2pm. You can leave the event whenever you want...but you may want to stay for the day's finale - A JOUST!!

Everyone is invited - all floors, all streamers, all Goddardites. Bring your friends!

Check out the official website here for more information: http://www.whidc.org/home.html

Dr. Dent's Update

Global NY hits the ground running in search of Monuments, Landmarks, and Memorials

By Goddard Writing Faculty member Dr. Michelle Dent

The Global NY stream at Goddard Residential College recently finished its first series of site visits to a host of New York landmarks. Some of our destinations were to iconic monuments of the American Dream. At the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island we quoted favorite scenes from our earlier screening of The Godfather: Part II, and as we waited on long lines and crowded ferry boats, we felt ourselves transported back to a time when New York Harbor was packed with anxious and hopeful newcomers. Yet, through our time-traveling, we were also made more aware of the contemporary rituals of security checkpoints that have become a part of our current travel landscape. With helicopter surveillance in the harbor and hi-tech screeners at Lady Liberty’s threshold, we wondered amongst ourselves about the ways in which this iconic “gateway” has changed in our lifetime. Later in the week, on a unique a podcast walking tour sponsored by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, we visited historic landmarks of heroism and grief such as the East Coast Memorial for WWII servicemen, the Merchant Marines Memorial, and the Irish Hunger Memorial. By the time we arrived at Ground Zero, the poignancy of these lesser known memorials created a compelling frame of reference. We contemplated the seven-year anniversary of the September 11^th attacks while overlooking the site from within the marble opulence of the World Financial Center. The complexity of this hallowed ground, which continually is blurred with commercial and political interests cannot be underestimated.

Some of our other site visits were to monuments that are so off the beaten path that a large part of the experience was taken up in simply finding our destination. Did you know, for example, that there is a section of the Berlin Wall on display in Battery Park City? It not, then welcome to the club – you are not alone! But Global NY takes great pride in the fact that its stream members persevered, so if you’d like directions, or photos contact our blog or our Facebook group for the inside scoop. We rounded out this calendar of events with a trip on the 7 train to the Queens Museum of Art in the Flushing Meadows Park, the site of not one, but two former World’s Fairs (1939/1964). At the Queens Museum, we toured the Panorama of the City of New York, with NYU Writing Professor Blagovesta Momchedjikova, who wrote her doctoral thesis on the massive scale model. We are currently arranging a Panorama talk-back with Dr.Momchedjikova where we will also discuss her essay “My heart’s in the small lands: Touring the miniature city in the museum.” Our trip to the Panorama was arranged in collaboration with Goddard Writing Faculty Marion Wrenn, and the Writing New York Stream. Global NY is especially grateful to Dr. Wrenn for organizing our post-Panorama nosh at the scrumptious Delhi Palace Indian Restaurant in Jackson Heights.

Thanks to the awesome energy of my Global NY partners, our fabulous Grad RA Jarett Gilbert and our gracious and all-knowing CDE Ty Crisman. And remember, Global NY is nothing without YOU, its Residential College members, so a big shout out to the entire stream for such great spirit and intellectual curiosity. Here’s to more traipsing around the city in the weeks and months to come!

Queens Panorama

Saturday morning at 10:30am, Goddard's Global NY!ers will be departing from the Lobby to check out Queens, Brooklyn's neighbor to the north. It is the largest of the 5 NYC boroughs (see if you can name them all by now!) and the 2nd-most populous. Noteworthy areas in Queens include:

Shea Stadium, home of the NY Mets

The Queens Panorama, a model of NYC
Jackson Heights,
Home to large Subcontinental and Hispanic communities

Astoria,
Land of the Greeks

There is so much to see, touch, taste, smell (and feel??) in Queens. All you need to do is explore. I recommend one day taking the train to Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Ave (E-F-G-R-V) or to Steinway (R) or to Astoria-Ditmars Blvd (N-W) and exploring.

What big event is happening soon in Queens??
THE JACKSON HEIGHTS FILM & FOOD FESTIVAL
It's super CHEAP, too...so check it out!

Here are some resources to find out other programming in Queens:

http://www.qgazette.com/Current/Community_Calendar/
http://queens.about.com/
http://www.queenslibrary.org/index.aspx?page_id=126&section_id=12&branch_id=A

A very global update.

Looking for fun, cultural things to do this month? Well, you're in NYC - so they're everywhere! You just have to know where to look...

Check out these events:

Mexico Now Festival - September 8-15
The Great Irish Festival - September 13
Jackson Heights Film and Food Festival - September 13-21
Mariachi Festival - September 22

Brazilian Films - each Thursday at the BEA
Various Armenian events

Sometimes it's just as easy as seeing what countries are celebrating their independence day. Try going to that kind of ethnic restaurant on that day - there's bound to be a celebration afoot.

Additionally, visit NYU's Center for Multicultural Education and Programs (CMEP) or even some of the cultural studies departments here on campus. They will have event information laying around or on their websites, i.e. free flamenco, a guest speaker, or an art gallery.

Finally, you can always come to Jarett and ask what's going on in NYC. If he doesn't know, he'll help you find out.

PODCAST PARTAY!

The weekend before their walking tour of Ground Zero and the World Financial Center, Global NY!ers took to the streets of Lower Manhattan to do a walking tour on their own...or in soaking wet groups! Listening and following a podcast tour from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, here are some of our Goddard Global NY!ers and great Monuments they visted, from the bronzed roots of the sycamore that protected St. Paul's Chapel from 9/11 shrapnel, to a piece of the Berlin Wall (that was never exposed to West Germany), to the Irish Hunger Memorial.

GREAT JOB!

Welcome Week Review

Tuesday, August 26

East Village Walking Tour

While the East Village Walking Tour was not an official Global NY! event, it was a great opportunity for all Goddard residents, as well as Global NY!ers, to explore the beautiful East Village, most of which is created on reclaimed river. It is an area renowned for its history of immigration and dynamic social movements. We took in - amongst other sites - La Plaza Cultural, Astor Place & Cooper Union, the East River Promenade, Little Tokyo/St. Mark's Place, Little Ukraine and Tompkins Square Park.


Wednesday, August 27
Screening: The Godfather, Part II

To prepare for our trip to Ellis & Liberty Islands, we held a
screening of "The Godfather, Part II", the Oscar-winning sequel about the Corleone mafia family. We enjoyed the images of immigration in Robert DeNiro's portrayal of Vito Corleone, who came to the US from Sicily via Ellis Island. Vito's story provided a great example of the struggles most immigrants faced - in their home country, getting through Ellis Island, and establishing themselves in NYC.


Friday, August 29
Ellis & Liberty Islands

So, when you're in New York City and you want to see monuments to immigration, symbols of America's "Melting Pot", where do you go? THE STATUE OF LIBERTY, of course! And Ellis Island! So that's what we did. It was an enjoyable day trip to experience first-hand the path of immigrants coming in from Europe in the late-1800s, early-1900s. Students were able to draw upon the East Village Walking Tour and "The Godfather, Part II" to more completely understand the importance of monuments in creating, preserving and promoting the timeless GLOBAL character of NYC.

Sept. 7th - Ground Zero Tour

On September 7th, the Global NY! stream will be heading out on their 2nd excursion in New York City, visiting the site of an atrocity which has completely reshaped inter-cultural dynamics in our new millennium. The attack on the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001, left a huge gap in the landscape of lower Manhattan and in the hearts of many Americans. However, the collateral damage has proven to be, in fact, global in nature. Not only were the families of those involved in the attacks (both attacker and attacked) greatly effected, but so too was everyone else. The increase in tension between ethnic communities in the United States, superficial discrimination against those of Middle-Eastern descent, and the escalating levels of paranoia dependent upon the US government and global terror attacks all led to a high degree of uncomfortability, even in one of the world's most diverse cities. The bombing's fallout produced several other important items and events which have shaped the post-9/11 world: Patriot Act, Homeland Security, the global War on Terror, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and the War in Iraq. As we tour the void left by the 9/11 World Trade Center attack, let's think about what has filled that space. What were and are the implications for post-9/11 immigrants? How have the relationships between individuals and ethnic communities changed? How has NYC adapted since the attacks and how has that effected the City? Keep in mind your own stories, the stories of others, current events, policy changes, and what we experienced while at Ellis and Liberty Islands.

Some links:
Immigration and Insecurity
Professors Analyze Global Effects of 9/11
Presumed Guilt
Department of Homeland Security