Photoville – the annual photography show in NYC – has photographic banners up in St. Nicholas Park, visible from St. Nicholas Avenue at 133rd Street. The show presents visiting cards – mass produced photographs of Black Americans in elegant clothing.
These 19th century photos show a Black middle-class that had fought to uplift themselves and their families in the aftermath of the collapse of Reconstruction and the surge in white terror that targeted any display of Black pride or success.
The exhibit is technically ‘over’, but likely to remain for a few days more. Make sure to walk by.
Free Films on Randall’s Island
Come early before the movie at 6 PM for Picnic & Play – we will have fun free activities including lawn games, crafts and more! Limited free snacks will be available.
Films will begin at sunset (8 PM)
Location: Fields 39 & 40, near the Randall’s Island Connector
Photoville – an annual outdoor celebration of photography has a couple of sites in Harlem:
Location number 8 on the map (above) is on the esplanade walking and biking path along the East River, between 97th and 98th Streets.
The photography represents an afro-futurist vision of presence in an imagined, retro future. The images are complemented by text from writers and thinkers on the Black role in both the imagined and actual future.
Lola Flash, entitled her series syzygy, and notes that:
My soul is hopeful for a divine future where we are finally able to run anew
For more, see the Photoville website. This project is up until early December.
Estimated number of adults who, on average reported having consumed one or more sugary drinks per day, divided by all adults in the area; expressed as a percent. Sugary drinks include soda, sweetened iced tea, sports drinks, fruit punch, and other fruit flavored drinks. (One drink equals 12 ounces). Diet soda, sugar free drinks, 100% juice, and seltzer are not included.
Source: New York City Community Health Survey (CHS)
Photoville in East Harlem
Head to the East Harlem waterfront (the Esplanade) between 100-102nd Streets to see a free Photoville exhibit of photography:
Enter on 96th, 103rd, or 111th Streets.
Free Bike Helmets
Free bike helmets for you or your kids! Saturday at 54th and 11th Ave. 11:30-2:30.
Manhattan Democratic chair Keith Wright doored cyclist in Harlem, fled scene: ‘It’s his fault for running into my door’
Prosecutors in Manhattan have charged the borough’s top Democrat with dooring a cyclist in Harlem and fleeing the scene, according to court papers.
Keith Wright, the current leader of the New York County Democrats, opened the door to his BMW around 9:15 p.m. Aug. 26 while parked on Fifth Ave. and E. 138th St., hitting an oncoming cyclist, according to the criminal complaint.
After the cyclist fell from his bike and lay injured in the street, Wright sped off without leaving his name, number, or insurance policy — or offering to bring the victim to the hospital, prosecutors said at Wright’s Friday arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court.
When authorities tracked down Wright almost two weeks later, the former Harlem state assemblyman fessed up and agreed to surrender.
“I was about to open my car door while he was riding an electric bike. It is his fault for running into my door,” Wright told NYPD Det. Lamount Deaderick, according to the complaint.
“I told him to go to the hospital. I did not exchange my information with him. I asked for his information but he did not give it to me.”
At the arraignment, Wright pleaded not guilty to two counts of leaving the scene and was released by a judge. He’s due back in court Oct. 10.
It’s illegal in New York to open a car door into the path of another road user, and “dooring” has claimed a number of New Yorkers’ lives in recent years.
And in April 2018, Juan Pacheco, 57, was pedaling down LaSalle St. near Broadway in west Harlem when the driver of a Nissan Quest threw open his door, fatally throwing the father of three from his bike onto the road.
The image (above) from The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is of Wesley A. Williams, a Black mail carrier/driver from 1915. Wesley was photographed under the presidency of Woodrow Wilson, a notoriously racist American President who re:segregated the Post Office (from Vox – https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2015/11/20/9766896/woodrow-wilson-racist):
Easily the worst part of Wilson’s record as president was his overseeing of the resegregation of multiple agencies of the federal government, which had been surprisingly integrated as a result of Reconstruction decades earlier. At an April 11, 1913, Cabinet meeting, Postmaster General Albert Burleson argued for segregating the Railway Mail Service. He took exception to the fact that workers shared glasses, towels, and washrooms. Wilson offered no objection to Burleson’s plan for segregation, saying that he “wished the matter adjusted in a way to make the least friction.”
Both Burleson and Treasury Secretary William McAdoo took Wilson’s comments as authorization to segregate. The Department of Treasury and Post Office Department both introduced screened-off workspaces, separate lunchrooms, and separate bathrooms. In a 1913 open letter to Wilson, W.E.B. DuBois — who had supported Wilson in the 1912 election before being disenchanted by his segregation policies — wrote of “one colored clerk who could not actually be segregated on account of the nature of his work [and who] consequently had a cage built around him to separate him from his white companions of many years.” That’s right: Black people who couldn’t, logistically, be segregated were put in literal cages.
I, of course, don’t know what Wesley’s take would be on our current president and his efforts to sabotage the US Postal Service in order to give him an electoral advantage, but I hope that in Wesley’s spirit (if you are going to vote by mail) that you vote as early as possible, and as carefully as possible, in order to insure that your vote counts in 2020.
This image is a part of Photoville – this year an outdoor exhibition of photography throughout the 5 boroughs. See: https://photoville.nyc/exhibitions/ for more information.
The photo of Welsey is featured in St. Nicholas Park.
Billy Eckstine
Photoville’s exhibit on 145th Street at Bradhurst features a number of wonderful images of mid-century Black America. Billy Eckstine was ‘a neighbor’, living at the corner of 5th Avenue and 126th Street:
25th Precinct Officers and Community Council Clothing Giveaway
