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 Gotham,
N.Y.— What was colonial New York really like? What was
the hot dog cart of the 19th century? What site in Brooklyn
recently divulged artifacts of slavery? At a first-ever Gotham
History Festival at the Graduate Center on October 5-7, historians
debate such matters and many myths and realities of New York,
from New Netherland to the present. (New York City History
Week, October 8-14.)
The Gotham History Festival was presented by CUNY’s recently
founded Gotham Center for New York City History, in cooperation
with virtually every history-oriented institution in the five
boroughs. It celebrates New York City’s magnificent but
under-appreciated historical resources by drawing together
a broad variety of participants—buffs and teachers, preservationists
and academics, historically-curious residents and visitors.
Aptly, the site of the free three-day series of over 100 panels,
papers, exhibits, and film screenings is the Graduate Center’s
historic former B. Altman Building.
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| A
street scene in colonial days; above, a fight about to
break out in the rough-and-tumble Five Points section
in 1827. At the Gotham History Festival, historians will
debate myths and misunderstandings about New Netherland
of yesterday and New York of today. |
"Finally,
our civic history fans will have a festival of their own,”
said Mike Wallace, the Pulitzer-winning co-author of Gotham:
A History of New York City to 1898 and Director of the
Gotham Center, part of the Graduate Center of CUNY. “For
ten days, we’re going to showcase the city’s amazing
stories, demonstrating history’s power to entertain and
illuminate. Then, in two years time, we’ll do it again:
we intend to make the Gotham History Festival a biennial feature
on the metropolitan scene.”
To open the Festival, film-maker Ric Burns hosted the showing
of portions of the final segments of his PBS documentary New
York: A Documentary Film (see sidebar). Also featured is a
labor history exhibit, “Ordinary People, Extraordinary
Lives,” a New York book fair, and a theatrical performance.
One topic
explored was the gangs of Five Points, seen here in 1827.
In the mid- 19th century, Five Points, today home to NYU dorms
and the criminal court system, was the city’s most notorious
neighborhood. On Saturday at 7:00 p.m., film-maker Martin
Scorsese  talked
about re-creating Five Points for his forthcoming film "Gangs
of New York." There will also be a panel discussion on
Oct. 6 called “The Gangs of New York—More than a
Movie.”
For more information on the Festival, visit www.gothamcenter.org.
Ric Burns’s
massive New York: A Documentary Film reaches its climax on
PBS this fall, and among the experts seen on camera is CUNY’s
venerable political scientist and cultural historian Marshall
Berman.
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|
Mayor Abe Beame, whose
archives reside at LaGuardia Community College, with a
stroke of headline-writing genius. |
A teacher
at City College, the Graduate Center, and the Center for Worker
Education for 30 years, Berman isthe author of The Politics
of Authenticity, All That’s Solid Melts into Air,
and Adventures in Marxism. His current work-in-progress
is One Hundred Years of Spectacle: The Metamorphosis of
Times Square, to be published by Random House.
The final
two segments of the epic tale of Gotham, totaling 4-1/2 hours
and airing on September 30 and October 1, examine “The
City of Tomorrow” (1929-1945) and “The City and
the World” (1946 to the present).
A harrowing period in New York City’s history (and CUNY,
in particular), the financial crisis of the late 1970s and
early 1980s is one of the events covered in the finale of
the Ric Burns documentary.
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