This mutant tree plant grew at astounding speed from a minuscule sprout to its current 3-meter height in the back common yard of our East Village residence. What is this exotic species? A Brazilian transplant? A prop bred for the rain forest scene in the film remake of "The Illustrated Man"? An experimental hybrid grown for the sequel of "Avatar" or a new "Doctor Who" episode? A Triffid? Consider this: the plant is growing from a hole in the concrete wall, with no apparent soil or water for nutrients.
[She] dedicated her life to providing childcare to the working parents of the Lower East Side. Since she worked so hard to help the community, and she was short in size, many called her the “Little Missionary,” hence the name of the school. At the turn of the century, children often roamed the streets of the Lower East Side while their parents worked long days in factories.
Sara Curry organized a program in her own apartment on Avenue C, and provided children with reading lessons as well as healthy food in a safe, clean environment. In 1901 the building at 93 St. Marks Place was purchased with the help of generous benefactors. On any given day, 200 children were cared for in this wonderful building, still a haven for children to this day.
Sara Curry was famous in her time, and was featured in many publications including Harpers Weekly and Fifty Years on the East Side, by Rev. John Robertson Henry. Through her tireless efforts she made numerous friends in the business community and was able to enlist the support of several very wealthy families.
In addition to providing child care, Miss Curry fed the poor in the neighborhood and often gave her own clothing or shoes to those without. She organized cooking, sewing and child care classes for the mothers. She organized meetings to help families with their problems, and helped to steer parents towards sobriety and economic responsibility. A summer house in Rye, donated by benefactors, was for many years a haven for children to escape from the sweltering heat of the city.
Miss Curry died in 1940.
Perfect corner 2-bedroom loft facing Thompkins [sic] Square Park. Condo finishes, floor-to-ceiling windows, and exposed brick throughout. Open kitchen with Viking range, Bosch dishwasher, and poured concrete coutertops. Individual climate control in every room, marble baths with radiant floor heating, separate laundry room. Boutique Pre-War elevator building.
MAN ALL HANDS 280 EAST 2ND STREET, MULTIPLE DWELLING FIRE ON ROOF,
— FDNY (@FDNY) October 3, 2013
MAN ALL HANDS 280 EAST 2ND STREET, MULTIPLE DWELLING FIRE ON TOP FLR, UNDER CONTROL
— FDNY (@FDNY) October 3, 2013
[T]he new spot will celebrate Southern foodways through dishes like caramelized brisket meat loaf with smoky plantain crème, sunchoke and house-made ricotta “tater tots” and Carolina Gold rice risotto with butter beans and pickled egg yolk.
Tuesday, Oct. 8, 7:30 p.m. at The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS)
ON THE EAST VILLAGE, STREET ACTIVISM AND THE GENTRIFICATION OF THE MIND — A discussion of Sarah Schulman’s life, writing, and the history of East Village activism, art, and the gentrification of the imagination between Sarah Schulman and Benjamin Shepard.
Does social change come from institutions or from grassroots movements? And what of the legacies of AIDS, housing, and gardens activism in New York’s East Village? Did the city create these changes or did activists? And what is the legacy of these struggles? Will the efforts of regular people be lost to the gentrification of the imagination or can regular New Yorkers create their own history and institutions?
Schulman is the author of 16 books, most recently "The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination" (U of California Press) and "Israel/Palestine and the Queer International" (Duke University Press). She is co-producer with Jim Hubbard of the documentary feature film UNITED IN ANGER: A History of ACT UP, which they will be screening in Moscow at the end of October. Sarah is Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at the City University of New York, College of Staten Island and on the advisory board of Jewish Voice for Peace.
MoRUS is at 155 Avenue C between 9th and 10th Streets. There is a $5 suggested donation for each event, but no one will ever be turned away for lack of funds.
As we reported on Monday, the Rite Aid at 516 E. 14th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B closes at the end of this month... to yield to a new 8-parcel development on this block.
"The flying is spectacular, and of course it connects you back to nature in a way that many of us in the city don't have," said van Dalen, who moved across the Atlantic from Holland as a young boy, following World War II.
Van Dalen, who has always felt a deep connection to his birds, took up pigeon keeping after learning it from his father and his brothers when they lived in Holland.
Name: Sally Young
Occupation: Mixed-Media Artist, Political Activist and Preservationist, Photographer
Location: Sixth Street and Avenue B Community Garden
Time: 10:30 AM on Friday, 9/27
I’ve been in the East Village since 1980. Although I’ve lived in different apartments, it has always been in this neighborhood. I first came to New York in the 1970s to visit from my home in Detroit. A lot of artists were coming to New York at that time, a period in which you could actually come and buy lofts for 30 to 40K.
I came here to simply be an artist and I fell in love with this city. I had had a solo show in Detroit, but when I arrived in New York, I started designing costumes for theatre and dance troupes, which I did successfully throughout the 1980s.
I first ended up on the Bowery and First Street in 1980. The Bowery was pretty crazy at that time. People [living on the street] were burning wood in barrels to stay warm, and there were a lot of bums. I had no heat or hot water in my apartment, nothing but a wood-burning stove. I collected firewood at night with my daughter who was then 3-years old. I remember walking down Bowery … also right at the corner of Houston Street and the Bowery was a place that sold live chickens.
New York was really, really edgy and very exciting at that time. There was a lot of crime. You really couldn’t turn your back on anything because it would be taken. But the bums along the Bowery never bothered you; they were just hanging out. You know, they’d set up ‘living rooms’ with couches, end tables, and table lamps even though they had no electricity … just these random living rooms on the sidewalk made from stuff that was pulled from the garbage.
In 1981, I moved to Fourth Street and Avenue B, and though a real slumlord owned the building, I sometimes had heat and hot water. My rent was higher than others who had lived there longer, but those people were getting harassed. There was one woman, Carmen, who used to go around the building slamming a baseball bat in the hallways and in the stairwells all the time, saying, ‘Mother-fucking landlord.’ People were writing graffiti all over the building’s interior walls that said, ‘Lynch the landlord; Fuck his wife.’ [One of the reasons renters were so upset was because] the owners were placing junkies in the building in order to harass the renters.
Tenants started organizing. And even though I had moved to a new apartment, I still had friends in the building, so I helped out. There were a lot of artists and older folks there at that time. I was photographing the building and keeping a record of the violations because we were going back and forth in court.
We got together one day to try to get rid of the junkies. All the tenants gathered together out front. [At that time] there were marches all over the place. Everybody was getting involved. It wasn’t the way that it is now — where people move into the building and they are paying very high rent, and there’s a very big difference between them and you.
At that time, even though we were paying more rent (maybe $300 a month) other people were paying much less, like $100. We were trying to help our neighbors who were very afraid. They were getting eviction notices and some didn’t speak English. They were being harassed. Many times I went to court to help explain things and make sure that they didn’t get ousted from their apartments. We were all trying to take care of each other.
Dave is a creative writer who lives inside the iconic Astor Place Cube in New York City. The cube's 8X8 panels add up to 64 square feet which adds up to 512 cubic feet. For Dave, who is 5'8", that is plenty of space to move around, write, cook, sleep, work out and even play guitar. Dave uses a bicycle generator to power up the lights and a handful of electronic gadgets.
The video appears to be an elaborate advertisement for WHIL, a company that promotes meditation in the business community, started by Lululemon Athletica founder Chip Wilson and his wife Shannon (a logo for WHIL appears at the end of the video.)
