Museo Del Barrio: 104th St and Fifth Avenue

Last night I finally motivated to go to the Museo Del Barrio (the museum is free Wednesday evenings from 6-9p and every third Saturday), and boy was I glad that I did.  I will admit that I was a little intimidated walking from the subway to the museum (perhaps it was all in my head), and I was glad that I was going during the day (and made a mental note to leave before dark).  I turned my rings around on my hand, held my head and gaze straight ahead, and walked with purpose and determination.  No one bothered me, but I was very conscious of all the people loitering in the streets and in the parks by the projects.

The museum and the staff are very welcoming.  I had made a last minute decision to attend, and not only did I get to join a gallery talk led by a NY artist, Adam Pendleton, of the museum's Luis Camnitzer exhibition, but I (along with about a hundred other visitors) got to experience their weekly Wednesday night live performances.  It was a unique experience that I would highly recommend to those who are open to trying new and different activities.

I don't think I would have appreciated all of Camnitzer's art nearly as much without joining the tour.  Pendleton had prepared quotes from Camnitzer and tour participants had a chance to first tour the exhibition on our own, forming our own opinions, and then discuss various pieces with Pendleton, fellow visitors, and Deborah Cullen, Director of Curatorial Programs.  For me, it elevated the somewhat stiff, commercial, typographically plain works.  Through discussion, I was able to appreciate how Camnitzer uses language to underscore issues of power and commodification (see "Signature by the Slice" at left), exploring the relationship between images, objects, and texts.  We discussed the futility of trying to communicate exactly when each individual brings their own perspective and experiences to any communication.  I particularly loved the "Windows/Ventanas" piece that consisted of a "window bricked-in with concrete and books."  This piece says so much... books are a window to the world, yet they are limited, perhaps forming a prison.... (see above right)  Truly innovative.

The modest permanent collection at the museum is also worth a walk through.  I was drawn to the untitled piece by Karlos Carcamo who provocatively placed a red bandana and a blue bandana in flag frame holders, the way an American flag would be.  It was an interesting commentary on the allegiances that gangs exact from members.

The "Action Actual," in-house performance art was introduced with a welcoming DJ in the lobby (this week was DJ Pampa) and drink specials in El Café.  There were performances of all types including interactive creation with Susana Cook, a political short film by Cuban soldier/artist Adonis Flores walking through Havana in daisy-covered fatigues (see left), "reverse archeology" by Beatrice Glow, fortune telling entitled "Praxis" by husband and wife team Delia Bajo and Brainard Carey, and the list goes on and on.  If you get a chance to attend one of these special Wednesday evening free performance events, you'll be in for a novel, fun experience.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden: Eastern Parkway Station on Washington Ave

Japanese Tree Peony Garden, with flowers the size of melons

My favorite flower is the peony--the "king of flowers."  And currently the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) Japanese Tree Peony Collection (a gift from the people of Yatsuka, Simane Prefecture, Japan after September 11, 2001) is in full bloom and glorious.  I know if I had gone to the BBG in the last week or two, I could have caught the cherry blossoms at their height, but to me, well, nothing beats a peony.  I took an inordinate number of peony pictures (with which I will not bore you all--ok, just one more--see right), but really, I just kept turning around and seeing yet another bloom that was too gorgeous for words.  You can check what is currently in bloom at BBG's Current Blooms.

I also took the time to check out the BBG's website to see if there were any events or tours that I could join, and lucky for me, in celebration of NYC Wildflower Week and in honor of it's 100 year anniversary, curator/gardener Uli Lorimer led a free tour of the Native Flora Garden, highlighting indigenous flowers and plants, such as the aquatic Golden Club (Orontium aquaticum) (see left) and the yellow lady-slipper (once plentiful but now rare due to human and deer activity), that are native to the 100 mile radius of NYC.  Uli gave us an up-close and personal view of some amazing local plants, cutting some samples and letting us hold and smell plants like the Shooting Star (which shoots out pollen at a force of up to 30 Gs when certain bees hit the right chords) (see right).

He also showed us the Solomon's Seal (which smelled like soap) (see photo at left of plant branch and row of flowers turned upside down); the May Apple (which spread through rhizomes and had cute, round flowers under big flat leaves (see right); and the Squaw Root (which is a parasitic plant that lives off of the sugars created by neighboring trees and that is only visible above ground in the spring in time to drop seeds from their yellow cones).

He also pointed out some endangered plants like the S1 (meaning fewer than 5 exist in the state) Coast Violet (see left), a recently (April 2011) fallen Scarlet Oak that died after being weakened by fungal disease, as well as the BBG's oldest tree, which is a 125 year old magnificently gnarled Black Cherry (see right).

After the hour-long tour, I took the garden map and went through most of the highlights of the 52 acre garden.  In addition to my favorite tree peonies, the Louisa Clark Spenser Lilac Collection was in full splendor as were the Annual Border of tulips (some of which were the size of my palm!).  Also worth a long meander was the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden (with its ducks, turtles, and carp) and the Osborne Garden (with its formal Italian, wisteria-draped pergolas) (see above left).

I also thought that the BBG was particularly innovative with the way they featured fragrant plants in raised beds for the visually impaired to read about in braille and touch and smell.  They also creatively displayed over 80 flowers, herbs and trees in the Shakespeare Garden with poetry or quotes from Shakespeare's works that featured these plants (see right).

My tour ended with the Steinhardt Conservatory, which shows over 8,000 plants grown in climate controlled desert, tropical, aquatic, and warm temperate pavilions as well as a special bonsai museum (the oldest one I saw was 310 years old!).  Well actually my visit ended with a little plant shopping in one of the two gift/plant shops where I purchased air plants (yes, no dirt needed), which were highlighted in the tropical pavilion and a succulent, which was shown in the desert pavilion. 

While the three subways is a bit much for me (I probably won't go back any time soon unless I'm invited to a wedding there or I decide to visit the Brooklyn Museum, which is at the same subway stop), I will say that if it was just a little more convenient I would seriously consider taking one or more of the several classes the BBG offers.  Classes are offered in, among other things, floral arranging, landscape painting (Can you imagine a more inspiring locale?--see photo above left of Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden), poetry writing, composting, plant identification, drawing, tai chi, and, of course, gardening.  Definitely worth a look, visit BBG Classes.

The Arsenal: 5th Ave and 64th St

Muralist Allen Saalburg painting front lobby in 1936

I've walked by the Arsenal in Central Park numerous times and never really gave it much thought until yesterday, when I attended a class there.  The Arsenal has a diverse past and has numerous present functions (check out Arsenal History for more info).

As you might imagine from the name, the Arsenal was first built (overseen by then-comptroller and later President Millard Fillmore) as a repository for munitions in the early 1850s by the State of New York. Within a few years of completion, it was taken over by the City as an administrative building.  Over the years, the Arsenal functioned as, among other things, a police precinct, the American Museum of Natural History (before that was constructed on the Upper West Side), a menagerie (with gifts/loans from the likes of P.T. Barnum and General William Tecumseh Sherman (whose bust is at Grant's Tomb--see my prior post on Grant's Tomb for a photo)), and weather bureau (now at Belvedere Castle--see my prior post on Central Park for more info). 

Lobby Mural at Present

But by the early 1920s the Arsenal was in disrepair and considered a blight on the City and Central Park.  After a 2 year renovation, which was followed by another in the mid 1930s (see photo above and at right--then and now), the Arsenal became command central to Commissioner Robert Moses who expanded the parks system to an unprecedented level (parks acreage increased 3 fold during his terms, which ended in 1960).

The Arsenal is currently the home to the City of New York/Parks & Recreation, the City Parks Foundation, the Historic House Trust, the New York Wildlife Conservation Society, the Parks Library, and the Arsenal Gallery.  Whew!  That's a lot of functions.  Unfortunately, the Arsenal is looking a little "administratively seedy" again, but hopefully it will get more visitors and folks will feel inspired to restore it (like the Armory just a few blocks away--please see my prior post on the Armory)

Since the early 1980s, the central room on the third floor of the building has been used as an austere gallery. Eight to ten exhibitions of art or photography are mounted annually.  Currently there is a photo exhibit of Chinese artist/dissident, Ai Weiwei, who was incarcerated on April 3, 2011 for questioning accepted national beliefs.  See photo at left of the artist with his Dog Head sculpture, part of his "Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads" that questions the differences between what is real and what is fake and subtly questions China's national identity.  I haven't gotten a chance to go by there yet, but the sculptures are supposed to be at the Pulitzer Fountain 5 blocks south of the Arsenal (in front of the Plaza Hotel).  I'm looking forward to getting a chance to see this art up close.  Another benefit of living in NYC...amazing art accessible to the public everywhere!

Citizen Pruner Course at The Arsenal: 5th Ave and 64th St

Moving from a suburban house in LA, where everyone had at least a little plot of grass and a few trees, when I first moved back to NYC with my dog I sorely missed nature.  The first winter back here I complained vociferously about being tired of trying to find a little patch of dirt where Biscuit could do her business (she is now a well-adjusted City dog and goes right to the curb and goes on asphalt).  Over the last several years, I have come to appreciate not only the parks of the City, but also the trees (overseen by the Department of Parks) that line the streets (overseen by the Department of Transportation) so when I found out that I could perhaps do something in support of these trees, I was "all in."  Today was the first day of my Citizen Pruner class and I am really enthusiastic about what I may be able to do for the trees in NYC in the future.

Did you know that there are some 5.6 million trees in the five boroughs (there are about 8 million residents)?  Or that currently there are approximately 592,000 trees lining City streets (planned to increase to 800,000 by 2017 under the Million Trees NYC initiative)?  While during the first 2 years after planting a tree is "under warranty" from the contracted gardeners, after that, the trees are very much on their own to "make it in the big City," with a little help from Citizen Pruners, volunteers, and good samaritans.



The Citizen Pruner course (locations vary, but mine is at The Arsenal in Central Park -- see above photo) consists of 4 evening sessions and a full Saturday field session topped by a final exam.  If everything is completed successfully, I will be a licensed Citizen Pruner for five years with the ability to help the trees that line our City streets.  I am very hopeful and feeling inspired.  Maybe I can make a difference in this concrete jungle....

For more information about Citizen Pruner and other Trees NY programs, check out Trees NY Info.

Tenement Museum: Orchard and Delancey Streets

The word "tenement" brings to mind dirty and dark over-crowded spaces, perhaps lacking indoor plumbing, and impoverished immigrants.  The tours at the Tenement Museum in the lower east side do not white-wash the realities from 97 Orchard Street, which was built as a tenement apartment for 20 families in 1863 and operated through 1935.  Rather, they provide a fuller picture of what it must have been like to live there throughout the years.

I took the "Getting By" tour (one of several available--check out the various tour descriptions and times at Tenement Museum) and learned about 2 tenant families living in the house after the crash of 1873 and the after WWII and during the Great Depression. 

It was truly humbling to see an apartment re-created to the early years of the building.  Visiting the restored homes of the German-Jewish Gumpertz family, we heard about the patriarch abandoning the mother and 4 children during the Panic of 1873.  Through public documents, the museum researchers were able to find out that after the father disappeared the youngest child died before reaching his second birthday.  However, the story was ultimately one of triumph.  The mother/homemaker was able to secure a loan, start a sewing business and raise her three other children to maturity.  An interesting addition to the story is that about a year and a half ago, a visitor to the museum who is a historian/genealogist was able to identify that the Gumpertz father had moved to the mid-west and died there in his 70s.

The second apartment on the tour was one that was the home of the Italian-Catholic Baldizzi family, who lived through the Great Depression. What was so special about this part of the tour was that the the museum was able to contact the daughter who grew up in the apartment (recently deceased but who had been living in Brooklyn, NY) and have her record her memories of living in this apartment.  You really can get a sense of what it was like for this family four to live in the 3-room apartment with shared toilets down the hall (at least an improvement from the 4 outhouses that the Gumpertz family used -- see left).  Also quite heartening was the clear expression of the Gumpertz's American pride.  Remember in WWII the US joined the Allied Forces so the Gumpertz family had to decide whether to support America or Italy--they adamantly chose their adopted home, the US.  You can see a faded embroidered pillow of the American flag in the main living room and the prominent picture of FDR in the corner.

After the tour, I was tempted to go on another tour, but time was running short so instead I watched some of the 30 minute informative film made by the History Channel at the visitor center (very unassuming and easy to miss -- see right; they are building a new larger one currently across the street) and then headed home.  What a great afternoon "re-living" history.

Morris-Jumel Mansion (2 of 2): 162nd St & St. Nicholas Ave

Sylan Terrace, Historic Carriage Houses North of Morris-Jumel Mansion,
Recent Set of HBO's Mob Series, "Boardwalk Empire"

The independent corporation that manages the Morris-Jumel Mansion not only brings history to life by taking care of this historical mansion, but they provide educational tours, student programs, book discussions, theater performances, and writing workshops.  I think they strive to inspire and support visitors' imaginations and minds.

I attended a historical fiction writing workshop just to try something new.  The instructors from Uptown Writers were very encouraging, talked about aspects important to writing historical fiction (like extensive research), and had all the participants take a shot at using something from the mansion to inspire a short writing.  I must say that these creative mental muscles were sorely atrophied in me, but with a little excitement and trepidation, I tried my hand at the 20 minute exercise.

I picked a special piece of furniture in Eliza Chase's (Eliza Jumel never had children of her own but adopted her sister's daughter and son as her own) bedroom.  This metamorphic desk/chair (see right) was patented by Stephen Hedges in 1854 and could be opened, top flipped open in half (as shown) forming a seat inside the table on wheels, or it could be closed and the top flipped closed to be a more traditional side table.

Here's an excerpt of what I wrote to hopefully help you get inspired to try something new:

William was locked in.  There was no other way to get him to concentrate on his lessons so it was just as well.  Aunt Eliza dropped him into the metamorphic desk-chair and hooked the contraption closed.  There were no comforting cushions, but then again it wasn't made for comfort.  He felt the hard edge of the seat dig into the backs of his thighs as he shuffled himself and the whole desk-chair unit toward a window.  Perhaps he could catch a glimpse of Milton's boy in the garden.  If only he could finish his letters.  Then Aunt Eliza would let him out, flip down the top and shut the desk closed.  She would pat his shoulder and tell him he was a good boy for working so hard and that as a reward he could go outside and play.  Then he'd be free....

Morris-Jumel Mansion (1 of 2): 162nd St and St. Nicholas Ave

The Morris-Jumel mansion was built in 1765 (the oldest remaining house in Manhattan), by British Colonel Roger Morris and his wealthy American wife, Mary Philipse (whom it is rumored captured George Washington's interest when he was 24), as their summer home.  Known originally as Mount Morris, this northern Manhattan estate stretched from the Harlem to the Hudson Rivers and covered more than 130 acres. Loyal to the British crown (Mary was one of only three women accused of treason to the revolutionary cause during the American Revolutionary War), the Morrises eventually returned to England after the American victory.

During the war, the mansion's location on the second highest point in what is now Manhattan provided indispensable views of the Harlem River, the Bronx, and Long Island Sound to the east, New York City and the harbor to the south, and the Hudson River and Jersey Palisades to the west, and proved to be a strategic military headquarters for George Washington (see photo at left for view of his recreated bedroom/office and notice the pillow and bundle on the floor that was for Washington's constant attendant and servant, William Lee) and then the British (and Hessian mercenaries).

President Washington and his family returned to the Mansion on July 10, 1790, and dined (in the room shown at right) with members of his new cabinet. Guests at the table included future Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson as well as founding fathers Alexander Hamilton (later killed by another resident of the mansion--Aaron Burr) and Henry Knox. It was thought that President John Quincy Adams was also present at this dinner, but recent research has proven otherwise.

The next notable residents of the mansion was Stephen Jumel and his wife Eliza.  Eliza was quite a character, and the telling of her life brings a bit of the Harlequin romance or soap opera to the house.  It is known that she and her family were evicted from Providence, RI for running a house of ill-repute.  In other words, it is believed that she was a prostitute.  When they moved to NYC, Eliza strategically decided to become an actress (considered tawdry and low class work back then) so that she would be thrown in the path of rich men.  All worked in her favor when she met Stephen Jumel and convinced him to marry her  and make her "an honest woman" when he thought she was on her death bed.  "Miraculously" she made a full recovery and they married.  She tried to convince NYC society that she came from a noble French family and demanded to be called Madame Jumel, but NYC wasn't buying it.  Although they enjoyed her grand parties, few really befriended her.  Even her claimed bedroom set from Napoleon Bonaparte (perhaps purchased at auction although Eliza claimed they were gifts from Napoleon himself) did not really impress NYC high society (see photo at left of Eliza's bed which was thought to have been a gift from Napoleon to Josephine).

After Stephen's death, Eliza ran his business and was surprisingly success (quite a feat when women of the day had little in economic rights).  She was so successful that she attracted the attention of Aaron Burr, then former Vice President and well-known ladies man (but perhaps most famous for having killed Alexander Hamilton in a pistol duel).   

Aaron Burr had run up a great deal of gambling debt and decided at age 77 he could make all of his financial troubles disappear with this union (see Aaron Burr's bedroom in above right photo).  For her part, Eliza thought she would certainly rise in social status by marrying a former Vice President.  They were married in the front parlor of the house (pictured above) and had a reception in the beautiful octagonal room at the east end of the house (pictured at right).  

Unfortunately, it quickly became clear to Eliza that Mr. Burr was squandering her money so within a year she filed for divorce (scandalous at the time).  Amazingly, on the morning when the divorce was to become finalized, Mr. Burr had a freak accident and stepped on a pitch fork and died.  So rather than being a divorcee, for her later Grand Tour of Europe with her grandchildren when Eliza was 80 (see photo of painting at above left), she was introduced in the French court as the widow of the former Vice President. What an amazing survivor she was!  All toll, she lived in the mansion for 55 years, passing here after suffering in the end of dementia, at the age of 90.

For more information on the mansion, its history, architecture or residents, please visit Morris Jumel Mansion.  There are also educational workshops, children's programs and other interesting things that are also definitely worth a look.  I really enjoyed the historical fiction writing workshop I attended (and about which I will write next).