One of the oldest break-up lines comes from Vergil's Aeneid.
Some say that there's nothing like being single in New York City—certainly, like no other place, New York offers a slew of ways to take some time to focus on yourself, to do all of those things which a relationship held you back from, to fulfill your ambitions to your heart's content... and this is extremely valuable. Nevertheless, after spending too much time wrapped up in your own routines, you may find that things may reach the point where you can't even imagine a life which properly accommodates for another. And especially for those who actually want love, Love, with a capital 'L' becomes something altogether unreal, existing in the realm of fantasy—you may find yourself running the risk of becoming the 'incorrigible fantasist' ala Quentin Crisp, who in his memoir The Naked Civil Servant describes himself, quite shudderingly—
Quentin Crisp, that Incorrigible Fantasist. Image ID: 1661014
"[as] an incorrigible fantasist, auto-eroticism soon ceases to be what it is for most people—an admitted substitute for sexual intercourse. It is sexual intercourse that becomes a substitute—and a bad one—for masturbation."
In general, love can be tough for even the most willing if you're not at least going to let others in to your life, to part with yourself, if only just a bit. In a certain sense, love requires that you forget oneself temporarily to eventually realize yourself through someone. After all, one who is all ambition, all take and no give, will find it difficult to love someone meaningfully.
On the subject of love and ambition I am reminded always of the Latin poets (of course!) Who would not shed a tear at the parting of Aeneas from Dido as he is spurred on by the gods to found Rome? Aeneas, with those famous lines, insists that it is not by his own choice, but by the will of the gods that he seek Italy...
"Desine meque tuis incendere teque querelis:
Italiam non sponte sequor."
...which seem to neatly sum up the triumph of ambition (or duty) over love. Yet, despite Vergil's vivid portrait of Dido in wild torment over the loss of love, it's Catullus's portrayal of Ariadne in Poem LXIV which is for me the most heartbreaking, yet soberingly didactic in the lesson it teaches lovers...
Theseus's conquering of the Minotaur in Daedelus's famous Labyrinth is one of the most well known episodes in the Classical tradition. And we must not forget, his success was due to Ariadne's giving him a ball of string to mark his path so that he would not become lost in Daedelus's maze, where the Minotaur resided. After the slaying of the Minotaur, Theseus takes Ariande away with him, allegedly to start a future with her, to start a domus, a household. Then, in a moment of perfidiousness akin to Aeneas's (though much worse, I think), Theseus abandons Ariadne in her sleep on the island of Naxos. Catullus's poetical rendition of Ariadne's lament in Poem LXIV as she is witness to Theseus's departing ship is a true tear-jerker, especially since she gave up her home, her family, everything, for the sweet love of Theseus.
"[...] ut linquens genitoris filia vultum,
ut consanguineae complexum, ut denique matris,
quae misera in gnata deperdita lamentatast,
omnibus his Thesei dulcem praeoptarit amorem,
[...]"
Catullus writes this poem as someone well-versed in being scorned by another. His celebrated love of Lesbia, to whom much of his poetry is dedicated, eventually turned sour. Marion L. Daniels in her essay "Personal Revelation in Catullus 64" makes the convincing case that his depiction of Ariadne's abandonment was an attempt on Catullus's part to exercise grief over Lesbia's abandonment of himself. The poem opens with the marriage of Peleus and Thetus, the parents of Achillies (oh, when the deities would not scorn to marry mortals!)
Much like the narrative which unfolds with the shield of Achilles in Homer's Illiad, a pictoral embroidery given to the couple at their wedding leads the reader on a journey which narrates the tale of Theseus and Ariadne. In the juxtoposition of Peleus and Thetis with Theseus and Ariadne, we are given a long lasting love built out of peitas and a focus on the domus contrasted with love of fleeting passion. All the motions of love are acted out, but Theseus's personal ambition eventually proves stronger than his love for Ariadne. In stark contrast, our immortal Thetis deigned to marry a mere mortal, Peleus. How sweet.
According to Ovid's 'Metamorphosis', Bacchus would later immortalize Ariadne by the 'Corona Borealis'. Image ID: 1110485
What I love about Catullus's poem is the rough justice Theseus receives for his lack of consideration towards poor Ariadne. Ariande's ill wishes are eventually fulfilled in the suicide of Theseus's father, Aegeus, which occurs as a result of the same forgetfulness Theseus exercised by neglecting the care owed to Ariadne. Theseus was meant to display white sails to indicate victory to his father upon homecoming—in a moment of forgetfulness, he neglected to change the sails from black to white, you see... So, it was his same lack of consideration and forgetfulness which Theseus paid Ariadne, which in turn ends up in the death of his own father—Aegeus in a powerful symbolic gesture, lunges from the seat of his familial domus—and thusly, Theseus suffers deeply from his own unfailing inconsideration...
"sic funesta domus ingressus tecta paterna
morte ferox Theseus, qualem Minoidi luctum
obtulerat mente immemori, talem ipse recepit."
What can be difficult above love is that it often requires giving away a little of your ambition for the sake of your relationship with another. Yes! To scorn the high seas, to not accept that bigger paycheck, to not move across the country for that spiffy job, to realize what you have with someone may be truly worth giving a little of yourself away...
I have a soft spot for Tibullus—he leaves ambition and its ravishes to other people, those who in their constant striving for self aggrandizement are led to abuse others. In his Poem X 'Against War', the poet says that the one who first went to war was of iron himself...
"Quis fuit horrendos primus qui protulit enses?
quam ferus et vere ferreus ille fuit!"
At the root of aggressive ambition is the greedy coveting of goods, gold, jewels, the fine fabrics of Cos... and, may I be so bold as to suggest, other lovers? Tibullus inderstands regardless ambition to be what drives one to war, among other things... like the lock on the door, and the guard dog in the yard...
"hinc clava ianua sensit
et coepit custos liminis esse canis."
...and of course, behavior like leaving ones you allegedly loved stranded at Naxos despite their getting you out of a jam. For shame! Away with those evils! To do nothing but love. He goes on to praise the productivity of peace, for that which then flourishes is nothing if not a labor of love itself. This ideal lazy love is embodied in Tibullus's lines for Delia in Poem I, which begs that others may seek a fortune by conquest, if only his love for Delia remains sound...
"Divitias alius fuluo sibi congerat auro
et teneat culti iugera multa soli, [...] non ego laudari curo, mea Delia : tecum dum modo sim, quaeso segnis inersque uocer."
Which is why Tibullus remains, for me, the true poet for lovers... and what happened to Ariadne at Naxos? Well, she ends up betrothed to Bacchus, god of wine and revelry—so much more fun than Theseus! What's more, Bacchus promises Ariadne the sky... and delivers...
Stella's Star Sentinel is the newspaper that aspiring Stella creates. She loves expressing herself via words, and she longs to be a successful newspaper reporter some day. She uses her new typewriter to record her stories... any she has many. The KKK is in town, and they have set fire to the Spencers' house. They have over a dozen kids, and local residents rush to help—African American and white alike. She reports the story.
Stella, her brother, Jojo, and her parents struggle to survive in the segregated southern United States in the 1920s. Some of the white folks get along with blacks, but not all of them. Stella enjoys speaking with Paulette, whose father is in the Klan. A sign hangs over Dr. Packard's office that announces: White Patients Only. Dr. Packard refuses to treat black people in distress, even if they might die.
This is the era of the Depression when many people are suffering... black and white. However, black people suffer startling abuse at the hands of some whites, unfortunately. And there are the Jim Crow laws.
Brooklyn Navy Yard Employment Center offers this FREE program that provides 5 weeks of training in skills manufacturing employers are looking for, plus job placement assistance.
Course work includes:
Construction Blueprinting Reading
Tool Usuage/Small Engine Repair
Forklift & OSHA Certification
Basic Electrical
Math and Measurement
Resume Assistance
Customer Service
Interviewing Skills
To apply you must meet ALL of the requirements below:
18 years or older
Be either unemployed or underemployed
NYC Resident
Eligible to work in the U.S.
Available full-time (Mon.-Fri., 9 am - 5 pm)
Consent to a drug screening
Able to pass a reading and math test at the 6th grade level
Brooklyn and NYCHA residents strongly encouraged to apply
To apply, attend an information session on Friday, September 4, at 2 pm.
This past month in New York City, political issues have surrounded the Painted Ladies of Times Square like googly-eyed tourists with cameras on selfie sticks. The uproar fittingly abides the municipal brouhaha over the last 100 years that has possessed the behavioral pressure cooker of Times Square. 'Twas ever thus that vice, unlicensed peddling, mass crowds, and tabloid fever constitute the Glittering Gulch, The Big Stem, the Blaze Bowtie.
The Painted Lady. Image ID: 1200778
Historical research using newspapers and government resources shows numerous examples of city brass and ink-smudged quill-slingers alarming the public over the commercial activity of New York street life.
“Gone are the Apple Marys,” lamented the NY Times in 1923, “and the woman with the baskets festooned with pretzels.” These “nomads of the hawking industry” were shoved from the curbs of Printing House Square and Wall Street by “the organization of merchants in specified zones,” and “the fixing by ordinance of districts in which unlicensed street vendors are not allowed to peddle” (NY Times, Aug 19, 1923).
Pretzel Vendor. Image ID: 79779
“The latest effort,” noted the New York Herald Tribune in 1932, “to weed out fakers and hawkers from New York streets reminds the sociologist that the crop is perennial.” The reporter cites “economic conditions” of the burgeoning Depression as instigators of the “pitch men,” whose “foisting of valueless merchandise” includes rubber balls that don’t bounce, toy balloons that don’t fly, “discarded factory machine needles” demonstrated with sleight-of-hand to mend women’s stockings, and squawking devices which mimic the sound of songbirds and roosters. Though technically illegal in the blocks of Times Square, hawking is rampant on the Flamboyant Floodway, with pitch men pocketing up to $25 a day, or $435 in 2015. The Forty-Second Street Property Owners Association objected to the “craft vendors” hoodwinking passersby by “comparing their merchandise with that of regular stores” (NY Herald Tribune, Apr 17, 1932).
Two years later, the Broadway Association of merchants and property owners, agitated by “sidewalk loafers, lobby dancers, rubbish droppers, peddlers, panhandlers, and clip joint steerers,” activated a semi-annual cleanup of the Bright Light Zone by the NYPD, “for the benefit of tourists and taxpayers.” Squadsmen in “Whalen blue shirtsleeves” used nightsticks like pushbrooms, and enforced Chapter 23, Article 3, Section 23 of the Code of Ordinances against the likes of 700 unemployed musicians whom routinely milled, gabbed, loitered and lounged between West 47th and 48th Streets” (NY Herald Tribune, Jul 5, 1934). Years before, the Ordinances had already made it illegal for “peddlers, hawkers, and venders” to “use or suffer or permit to be blown upon or used, any horn or other instrument” to “cry his or her wares.”
NYC Street Peddlers. Image ID: 806175
The Painted Ladies find a more vivacious precedent in the performers of the old Times Square burlesque house, which “popular but often frowned-upon stepchild of the show business” was assailed by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in the New Deal Deco 1930s. The Mayor shut down all licensed burley houses as a “menace to public morality;” demanded that theater operators submit a code of ethics that would regulate performances; compared the burlesque acts to “sewage” at an annual meeting of the American Civil Liberties Union; and imposed a language ban which made it illegal to use the word “burlesque” on all signage or promotional material related to the venues.
Eltinge Theater, West 42nd Street. Image ID: TH-56721
As women who exercise public toplessness in NYC today do not break the law unless they pursue a commercial intent other than tips, in the 1930s it was legal for “girls on the stage to be naked from the waist up if they do not wiggle.” Burlesque houses exploited this discrepancy, outwardly conforming to the new regulations but continuing to suffer into the 1940s, when theaters like the Eltinge and Republic, on Forty Deuce, promoting “Frolics” and “Follies” under the language ban, were again shut down. (New York Herald Tribune, May 3 & Jul 18, 1937, Apr 12, 1942; Variety, Dec 15, 1937) .
The NY Herald Tribune described a “New Clean-Up Drive” in 1939, anticipating the gargantuan crowds of visitors to the city for the World’s Fair. A new state law made “begging, singing, dancing in subways, streetcars and buses” a crime. Similar to signs in the Times Square pedestrian plazas today warning tourists that it is an optional and uncoerced act to tip Elmo, Spider-Man, or the Naked Cowgirl, “placards requesting passengers not to give alms or buy articles or services from peddlers” were put up in subways and bus stops at a cost of $900,000, funded “largely by the sales tax” (NY Herald Tribune, May 14, 1939).
Mayor LaGuardia Clean Up. Image ID: 1680167
In 1947, the Times reported on another “crackdown” on street peddlers, citing an estimated 1,000 arrests made by the NYPD each month. Thirty years later, when Ed Koch signed two anti-street peddler bills, there was an estimated 800 unlicensed street vendors operating in town (NY Times, Sept 8, 1979).
When panhandling in New York subways and public places was ruled a form of free speech by U.S. District Judge Leonard B. Sand (who is played by actor Bob Balaban in the current David Simon HBO series Show Me A Hero), the Chief of the NYC Transit Police was 2015 Police Commissioner William Bratton. The NY Times quoted the skepticism of transit officers whom were “not certain exactly what constitutes panhandling under the law and are reluctant to take action against people who have no other means of support except begging” (NY Times, May 12, 1990).
Last week, the Times noted that the Painted Ladies—brushstroked in red, white, and blue by an unofficial manager and bodyguard—are “mostly immigrants” and “many speak little English.” The increased front-page attention was causing the women paranoia about “officers from the Labor Department who were said to be around.” When the same newspaper in 1896 wrote about Flower Boys, “the peddlers who sell roses and violets along Twenty-third Street and Fourteenth Streets, at elevated stations, and along Broadway, Fifth Avenue, Park Row, and Sixth Avenue,” the gaslight era reporter explained that “they are all Greeks… know very little English,” and live in a “dilapidated tenement” in four rooms occupied by thirty to forty young men. The “master of the premises” is “George the Greek,” who, “when Spring comes… wends his way to Bleecker Street and inspects the newly arrived Greek immigrants, who find temporary lodgings in that part of the city,” and “picks out several score of those who know the least English and the least about the value of American money.”
A similar, if less adolescent, stable of vendors in 1946 operated out of a former café in a “dirty little building” on West 41st Street and 8th Avenue. These men sold chestnuts from pushcarts on the street, and the illegal but generally unhassled racket was puppeteered by “Angelo, King of the Chestnut Stabbers” (NY Herald Tribune, Nov 27, 1949).
As the below two headlines prove, there is a routine precedent of civic solutions to headline headaches:
In the most populated city in the U.S., defined by constant change, the traces of unchanging patterns found in local history collections and reflected on the cover of the morning’s city tabloids are, for the reference librarian, an intellectual ripsnorter.
City Laws
For information about city laws and government proceedings, or legislative actions by the state of New York, the below subject headings, guidelines, texts, and hyperlinks may be useful to navigate.
The Common Council was a legislative body formed by the mayor and officials selected from the Board of Alderman, which in colonial New York assumed a gallimaufry of duties, including "to regulate commerce and public safety, monitoring strangers, setting the price of bread, drawing up the rules of the city market, and controlling ever-present hogs" (Encyclopedia of New York City / Jackson). From 1686, when for a spate Boston was the capital of the Dominion of New England—including New York—to 1898, when the city consolidated into what would become the five boroughs, the Common Council and Board of Alderman shifted authority according to several successive charters, and eventually morphed into what is today the lawmakers and district representatives of the City Council.
Chamber of the Board of Aldermen. Image ID: 804937
FindLaw is a thorough online database where New York Penal Codes are freely searchable.
And surely see the guide on Local Law Research put together by the Municipal Library downtown at 31 Chambers Street.
Tabloids & Times Square
The history of Times Square demands its own research guide. For this post, the Times Square clippings files in the Milstein Division collections provided excellent traction to the subject, in addition to keyword searches of New York City newspapers and the Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive available in ProQuest databases. An outside point of entry to information on shifts in crime in the neighborhood since 1990 is the crime statistics database COMPSTAT (“Computer Comparison Statistics”) tabulated by the New York Police Department. However, clotheless body art panhandling is not one of the enumerated offenses.
NY Press Patrol. Image ID: g00c72_001
The sensationalization of the Painted Ladies has also notched the belts of the city’s top two tabloids as if showdown gunslingers at high noon. The Daily News initially triggered the topless turbulence and the Post counter-squibbed with an undercover expose, perhaps less for municipal morality or feminist fanfare than headline hullabaloo.
NYPL digital databases feature only recent issues of each scandal sheet:
However, select date ranges of the forefather of the New York Post, which originated as the New-York Evening Post, are searchable at America’s Historical Newspapers (1801-1876) and 19th Century Newspapers (1890-1898).
The Library of Congress free online newspaper resource Chronicling America includes a detailed publication chronology for individual titles:
New York World journalist Nellie Bly, who once faked insanity to go undercover and investigate conditions at Bellevue Hospital and Blackwell's Island. Image ID: 1121847
Maria Tanasichuk was loved by her sister, Sharon, her dear friend, Darlene, and her son, B. J., until his tragic death. Then, Maria went on a mysterious trip, and she was never seen again.
Maria's marriage to David was happy at first, but misery soon eclipsed any love they had for each other as David's violence and drug use sucked up all of their money. David was a hoplophile; guns and other weapons populated his house. He killed animals with his bare hands, then strung them up near school yards for kids to be horrified by. People who knew him and crossed him tended to end up dead or missing. He even had the words, Death Dealer, tattooed on himself in the Greek language.
Detective Cummings was determined to put a stop to David's wild behavior. He tried to sweet talk David into confessing to Maria's murder even though she was missing and no body had been found. Twenty hours of conversation with him yielded no such result. Finally, the investigative team brought cadaver dogs from Maine (MESARD) to search the wilderness surrounding David's home for Maria's remains. The team had to wait for weather conditions to be favorable for the dogs to catch the scent of decay. A few inches of grass growth and spring weather were optimal. Then, the handlers and dogs started their morbid task.
According to the Department of Labor, Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.
Labor Day Parade, Union Square, New York, 1887. Image ID: G91F182_026F
The post presents a brief overview of the history of Labor Day and with a focus on the mystery: Whose idea was it? Two heroes emerge in the legend of Labor Day and their names sound alike. One is Peter J. McGuire, an official in the American Federation of Labor and organizer of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. The other is Matthew Maguire, a machinist from the Knights of Labor.
This year, the Department of Labor is going to try to find out from workers across America who is the founder of Labor Day. Please read the blog post linked above and cast your ballot for who you think is the real Father of Labor Day.
Virginia Jaspers was a baby nurse in the 1950s. She was at least six feet tall, and she weighed over 200 pounds. A physically looming presence, she did not have a gentle touch with babies. She was also inexplicably weepy at times, and she did not seem to have much of a life outside of her job.
Nevertheless, overburdened and overwhelmed parents turned to Jaspers in order to make their lives easier. They overlooked any reservations that they may have had about her style of interaction with their babies and her sometimes strange ideas about baby care (eg, mixing cereal into formula). In some cases, they were warned about Jaspers unacceptable child care practices, but they failed to heed the warnings.
The result, of course, was that the babies suffered. They were brutalized by the hands of the baby nurse. She shook them until their brains were battered and they had massive internal bleeding. She threw babies into their cribs when they troubled her with their cries. However, people were mighty careful about making accusations against Jaspers. After all, she was the daughter of an ex-Senator.
I have questions about all of the dialogue being true. It is an interesting literary device, but I do not know how much of the dialogue can be verified as actually having occurred.
So, we present seven more scary tech stories—this time, for grownups.
The Word Exchange by Alena Graedon
Naysayers have been predicting the demise of the printed word for decades… so what happens when those predictions come true, and our handheld devices can read our minds?
Spiral by Paul McEuen
A physics professor incorporated real-life technology into this sci-fi thriller about a new “doomsday weapon” that takes biological warfare to new and scary frontiers.
Cat’s Cradleby Kurt Vonnegut
Ice-Nine instantly turns water to solids, at a higher temperature than ice freezes—so, if it spreads, it would mean the end of life on earth. One of Vonnegut’s most readable books, and the perfect satire for lovers of dystopian fiction.
The Internet Is Not the Answerby Andrew Keen
Facts can be scarier than fiction. In this new work of nonfiction, Keen explores the downsides of our constant connectivity, from the Internet’s earliest days in the 1960s to the present.
Ripper by Isabel Allende
An online role-playing game bleeds into a real-life series of murders, and a teen gamer is called into service to help solve the crime. A fun, tingly change of pace from Allende’s magical realism.
Prey by Michael Crichton
This tale of nanotechnology gone very, very wrong tells the story of eight scientists kept captive in a desert lab by a swarm of malevolent particles. The book was first released in 2002 and reprinted over a decade later, partly because of its continued (frightening) relevance.
Who Owns the Future? by Jaron Lanier
The book explores the negative impact of digital network technologies on the economy and particularly the middle class, citing challenges to employment and personal wealth while exploring the potential of a new information economy.
Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your picks, so leave a comment and tell us what you’d recommend.
It’s nice to see you at Reader’s Den! This month we are reading The Human Body (2014), the second novel by author Paolo Giordano and which Anne Milano Appel has translated. You may know his award-winning novel The Solitude of Prime Numbers (2010), which tells the coming-of-age story of two outcasts who overcame traumatic experiences in their early years. In the next couple of weeks, we will discuss trauma from a different perspective. Within this account, we will be looking at the psychological impact of comradeship, family, and war taken on by a platoon of Italian soldiers based in Afghanistan.
Reviews of The Human Body:
“The first page indicates that the platoon’s experience was particularly horrible...but the fact that the mission runs off the rails is almost secondary to the beauty, texture, and acuity with which Giordano captures the day-to-day routines of the soldiers, and their efforts to make sense of both their lives in Italy and their military assignment.” —Publishers Weekly
“As the title suggests, the book is less about military heroism than the devastating human impact of combat. Well-observed and compassionate, this is a memorable look at imperfect people in extreme circumstances.” —Kirkus
So, please join me in reading The Human Body and post below any comments that you may have.
Archival research is always surprising. No matter how much I think I know about a given set of archival sources, I am never quite sure what I will find. Over the last decade, databases have made it increasingly easy for research to mine printed books, newspapers, and even transcribed manuscript sources through keyword searches. This has made research easier and more efficient. But the better databases get, the more often researchers find exactly what they are looking for, which means sources surprise them less frequently. In an odd way, then, the easier it is to find sources, the more we might miss. The rise of databases has made archival research all the more important for challenging historians’ assumptions and working hypotheses.
Richard Henry Lee Portrait. Image ID: 1553467
One of the most surprising letters I have recently come across is held in a small group of Richard Henry Lee correspondence. The Virginian is probably most famous for introducing the resolution on June 7, 1776 “That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown,” which the Continental Congress officially adopted on July 2nd. Lee continued to serve in Congress during much of the Revolutionary War and again during the 1780s. In 1787, he was elected to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, but he declined the appointment and became an outspoken Anti-Federalist. Though he opposed the new Constitution, when it went into operation in 1789 Lee served as a United States senator.
That June, Lee wrote a letter to his son-in-law and cousin, Charles Lee. Most of the letter is about senatorial machinations over a bill regulating customs duties and creating the various offices—“Collectors, Controllers, naval officers, surveyors”—to enforce them. The Constitution had created a skeleton of the national government, but the first Congress still needed to establish executive departments—Treasury, State, and War—and a judicial system. Charles Lee wanted one of these new jobs. Having spoken to President Washington about the bill, Richard Henry Lee assured his son-in-law that “it seems probably your wishes for any one of them will be gratified.” It was somewhat surprising to find Lee so readily trying to garner patronage appointments so soon after his opposing the Constitution, without which these offices would not have existed. We sometimes imagine the whole revolutionary period appears as an extended constitutional crisis, when statesmen debated philosophical principles about government. The letter is a good reminder that the founders were, at a basic level, all politicians, and the Constitution created a bevy of new opportunities to hand out patronage.
But the letter gets interesting near its end. Turning away from politics, Lee wrote that “I find here [Philadelphia], linens for shirting negroes, of two kinds; & much cheaper than any thing of the kind in Virg[inia].” One option was brown linen made in Connecticut. The “best bargain,” though, was “thick strong white German linen.” He “got 250 yds of it for my people.”
Richard Henry Lee to Charles Lee, Jun 7, 1789. Image ID: 5247933
It is no secret that the North played a major role in the broader slave economy. Yet historians have only recently begun to systematically demonstrate the degree to which the entire American economy revolved around slavery. As they have, slavery has appeared less like the South’s peculiar institution, than the nation’s foundational institution. Northern factories not only turned southern cotton into finished goods, they also made the clothes and shoes slaves wore, and many of the tools they used on plantations. Slave labor and capital from the slave economy even undergirded the rise of elite northern universities. Slavery’s economic influence was felt everywhere.
On its own, this letter does not tell us much that we did not already know. That said, it is a bit jarring given when and where it was written: Lee headed north to the nation’s capital as part of a grand experiment in republican self-government, and in the process created new connections that made his plantation more efficient and profitable. Certainly some collections document the slave economy in detail, but many others, like Lee’s letter, contain only passing references. Most of these passing references are not findable through keyword searches in the online catalog. No amount of digitization will change that. There are simply too many collections and too many pieces of paper to even conceive of describing the Library’s holdings at the item level.
Digitization will, however, make these sources more widely available and aid historians in reconstructing some long hidden sinews of the slave economy. Evidence, like this letter, about the interregional connections fostered by slavery is probably strewn throughout the NYPL’s early American manuscript collections. Historians who were not looking for evidence on this topic will undoubtedly find it anyway. In turn, these references will illuminate the relevance of the inter-regional slave economy to other issues that otherwise might have remained disconnected.
The best history reveals paradoxes. It unearths counterintuitive patterns. Unexpected sources should continue to drive historical writing. And so historical research needs to retain its ability to surprise researchers. As text-searchable printed sources continue to proliferate, the temptation will grow to forego more cumbersome archival work, and the travel that often comes with it. Digitized manuscript sources preserve the air of mystery and uncertainty that is central to archival research, but allow researchers to experience it in their bedroom, their office, or their local coffee shop. In the end, perhaps the perceived weaknesses of manuscript digitization—that it just beams sources out into cyberspace—are actually its strengths.
About the Early American Manuscripts Project
With support from the The Polonsky Foundation, The New York Public Library is currently digitizing upwards of 50,000 pages of historic early American manuscript material. The Early American Manuscripts Project will allow students, researchers, and the general public to revisit major political events of the era from new perspectives and to explore currents of everyday social, cultural, and economic life in the colonial, revolutionary, and early national periods. The project will present on-line for the first time high quality facsimiles of key documents from America’s Founding, including the papers of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. Drawing on the full breadth of the Library’s manuscript collections, it will also make widely available less well-known manuscript sources, including business papers of Atlantic merchants, diaries of people ranging from elite New York women to Christian Indian preachers, and organizational records of voluntary associations and philanthropic organizations. Over the next two years, this trove of manuscript sources, previously available only at the Library, will be made freely available through nypl.org.
New Partners, Inc. will present a recruitment on Tuesday, September 8, 2015, 10 am - 1:30 pm, for Home Health Aide (5 F/T, P/T openings) at Flushing Workforce 1 Career Center, Flushing, NY 11355.
SAGEWorks Workshop - LinkedIn Essentials: Strategize to Maximize Your Potential, will be held on Tuesday, September 8, 2015, 6 - 7:30 pm at the Sage Center, 305 7th Avenue, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10001. SAGEWorks assists people 40 years and older in learning relevant, cutting-edge job search skills in a LGBT–friendly environment.
Enrollment Now Open! SAGEWorks Boot Camp. This two-week long, intensive training course will provide participants with essential skills to lead them toward job placement. The first session starts on Monday–Friday, from September 28 to October 9, 9:30 a.m.–2 p.m. Participants must attend every day at the SAGE Center, 305 7th Avenue, New York, NY 10001. SAGEWorks assists people 40 years and older in learning relevant, cutting-edge job search skills in a LGBT–friendly environment.
FDNY Outreach will present an Information Session for career opportunities as: EMT, Paramedic, Firefighter, on Wednesday, September 9, 2015, 10 a m - 2 pm, at Queens Career Center, 168-25 Jamaica Avenue, 2nd Floor, Jamaica, New York 11433.
King Teleservices, LLC will present a recruitment on Wednesday, September 9, 2015, 10 am - 3 pm, for Customer Service Representative (50 openings), at New York State Department of Labor - Workforce 1 Career Center, 250 Schermerhorn Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201.
New York Life Insurance Company will present a recruitment on Friday, September 11, 2015, 10 am - 2 pm, for Financial Services Professionals (5 openings) at Flushing Workforce 1 Career Center, 138-60 Barclay Avenue, 2nd Floor, Flushing, NY 11355.
The New York City Employment and Training Coalition (NYCE&TC) is an association of 200 community-based organizations, educational institutions, and labor unions that annually provide job training and employment services to over 750,000 New Yorkers, including welfare recipients, unemployed workers, low-wage workers, at-risk youth, the formerly incarcerated, immigrants and the mentally and physically disabled. View NYCE&TC Job Listings.
Digital NYC is the official online hub of the New York City startup and technology ecosystem, bringing together every company, startup, investor, event, job, class, blog, video, workplace, accelerator, incubator, resource, and organization in the five boroughs. Search jobs by category on this site.
St. Nicks Alliance Workforce Development provides Free Job Training and Educational Programs in Environmental Response and Remediation Tec (ERRT). Commercial Driver's License, Pest Control Technician Training (PCT), Employment Search and Prep Training and Job Placement, Earn Benefits and Career Path Center. For information and assistance, please visit St. Nicks Alliance Workforce Development or call 718-302-2057 ext. 202.
Brooklyn Workforce Innovations helps jobless and working poor New Yorkers establish careers in sectors that offer good wages and opportunities for advancement. Currently, BWI offers free job training programs in four industries: commercial driving, telecommunications cable installation, TV and film production, and skilled woodworking.
CMP (formerly Chinatown Manpower Project) in lower Manhattan is now recruiting for a free training in Quickbooks, Basic Accounting, and Excel. This training is open to anyone who is receiving food stamps but no cash assistance. Class runs for eight weeks, followed by one-on-one meetings with a job developer. CMP also provides Free Home Health Aide Training for bilingual English/Cantonese speakers who are receiving food stamps but no cash assistance. Training runs Mondays through Fridays for six weeks and includes test prep and taking the HHA certification exam. Students learn about direct care techniques such as taking vital signs and assisting with personal hygiene and nutrition. For more information for the above two training programs, email: info@cmpny.org, call 212-571-1690, or visit. CMP also provides tuition-based healthcare and business trainings free to students who are entitled to ACCESS funding.
Nontraditional Employment for Women (NEW) trains women and places them in careers in the skilled construction, utility, and maintenance trades. It helps women achieve economic independence and a secure future. For information call 212-627-6252 or register online.
Grace Institute provides tuition-free, practical job training in a supportive learning community for underserved New York area women of all ages and from many different backgrounds. For information call 212-832-7605.
Please note this page will be revised when more recruitment events for the week of September 6 become available.
Page from the original souvenir program of Golden Dawn
Golden Dawn (1927) is one of those musicals that has been almost completely erased from histories of musical theater. Those who are just familiar with the title will generally know it from the 1930 Warner Brothers film adaptation—available on DVD—of the same name. On the surface, the obscurity of this musical is quite puzzling. Oscar Hammerstein II co-wrote the show with composer Otto Harbach. It premiered a month before Hammerstein’s seminal work Show Boat and falls in the middle of Harbach’s prolific body of work from the 1920s. The musical was selected to open the new Hammerstein Theater, built by Oscar in honor of his father, and its premiere was a gala New York City affair. Golden Dawn also had its share of scandal. According to the New York Times, as part of a long-standing dispute with Hammerstein, ticket vendors were discouraging potential buyers from the show and directing them to other plays. And, for those enamored of film star trivia, a young Archie Leach—later known as Cary Grant—had a small role, his second on Broadway, as the character Anzac, an Australian soldier.
In terms of where it falls within the careers of its creators and the economic history of Broadway, Golden Dawn surely qualifies as something to remember. However, there is a reason the show has been shoved into the closet, and that reason is its plot and its deeply troubling depictions of race. Whereas Show Boat is distinctively American, tracing out a history of entertainment in the United States and using race relations as one of its frames, Golden Dawn displaces American concerns about race by situating the plot in eastern Africa—presumably Kenya—and focusing on World War I-era British and German soldiers as they relate to the native population.
Neither the script nor the plot outline available at the Billy Rose Theater Collection at The New York Public Library specifically states where the action in Golden Dawn takes place. East Africa is the extent of the precise information given. However, since the city of Mombasa, the capital of Kenya until 1905, is mentioned as a place with which several different characters in the musical are quite familiar, that the action of the musical is set in Kenya is a reasonable guess.
The first act of Golden Dawn is set in 1917, when the British navy blockaded German-controlled Tanganyika and when German and British land forces engaged in a series of incursions and counter-incursions across the region. The second act takes place in 1919, just after the Treaty of Versailles had assigned the German colonies in Africa to the victorious British and French, permitting those imperial powers to further configure the territories of their colonial administrations.
The plot for Golden Dawn is as follows: The time is 1917 and the German army is currently in control of East Africa; they use English prisoners of war to work on rubber plantations. Relationships between the two groups, however, are civilized and mutually respectful, as a newcomer to the camp, Lt. Steve Allen (played by Paul Gregory), quickly learns. Indeed, the prisoners of war are allowed to frequent a local bar, run by a native woman by the name of Mooda (portrayed by Marguerite Sylva, in blackface). Her daughter, Dawn (played by soprano Louise Hunter), is light-skinned, which, it is argued, signifies the presence of some Arab blood in her ancestral past. Dawn, one character argues, must be a genetic throwback. To the local witch doctor, however, her light skin means that the god Mulunghu has selected her for his virgin bride. Mooda embraces this idea, as it will keep her daughter safe from men forever. But Dawn and Steve are drawn to each other; Dawn becomes caught between her duty to her people and her love for Steve. For his part, Steve must overlook the fact that although Dawn looks white, she is African. As various characters make plain, African women are for dalliances, not love and marriage.
Shep Keyes (played by Robert Chisholm wearing dark makeup) is the fourth major character in this drama; described in the script as “an Askari Sergeant,” Askari being a generic term applied to local East Africans who served in European colonial armies, he and his whip—and there is an entire song dedicated to his whip—serve as overseers to the native workers. Shep believes himself to be stronger and better than any white man and he too desires Dawn. He also knows Mooda’s secret (which will be revealed in act two). After Steve and Dawn spend a night together, the German commanding officer sends Steve back to England in a prisoner exchange in the hopes that he will come to his senses about loving an African woman. Crushed, Dawn commits herself to Mulunghu, Shep is left frustrated, and the curtain comes down on the first act.
When act two opens, it is 1919. A devastating drought is ruining the crops and the native population blames Dawn. Shepreveals to everyone that two years ago he spied on Steve and Dawn: he knows that she did not keep her promise of virginity to the god and now Mulunghu is punishing everyone as a result. Shep hopes that Dawn, fearing for her life, will pledge herself to him, but she refuses to do so. In the meanwhile, Steve has made his way back from England. He has also discovered Mooda's secret: Dawn is not her biological daughter, but actually the child of her lover and his wife, both of whom were white. After her lover abandoned her for his wife, Mooda had kidnapped their baby in revenge At the last moment, with Shep threatening to rape and kill Dawn as she continues to refuse him, Mooda kills him with a crucifix, a clap of thunder is heard signifying the end of the drought, and Steve arrives on the scene in time for Dawn to run into his arms. The curtain falls.
Though the action takes place entirely in Africa and none of the characters are American, Golden Dawn clearly reflects and reinforces racial stereotypes and racist fears representative of America in the 1920s. There are two major examples in the play. The first racist trope is that a black man who considers himself equal is white men is villainous--a trope or archetype embodied by the character of Shep Keyes. In the plot and character outline for the musical, the description of Shepis worth quoting at length. He is “a negro of dominating force with some little education. His cleverness, his shrewdness, his fists and his whip have made him the leader of the colored workers. He arrived about a year ago, from nowhere. He seems to know a great deal about America and has been known to utter such words as ‘Harlem,’ ‘135th street,’ ‘Pullman Porter’ words quite beyond the intelligence of the native African negro.” The libretto is not quite so explicit, but clues are dropped. Hammerstein and Harbach write Shep's lines in dialect, a la Jim in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, for example saying “come on here honey” and regularly replacing words such as “that” with “dats.” Further, he mentions having traveled across the world, "learning as he goes." While these elements are all problematic individually, combined, the character's attitude, actions, and words, position Shep as a caricature of Marcus Garvey. The Jamaican-born Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association in Harlem in the 1920s. He vehemently critiqued and linked together European colonialism in Africa and racism in America. Indeed, his criticisms of the United States were so highly charged that the US federal government took a keen interest in him. In 1922 Garvey was indicted for mail fraud, sentenced in 1923 to prison, and began serving his sentence in 1925. In November 1927, his sentence was commuted and Garvey was deported to Jamaica. Golden Dawn opened on Broadway on November 30, 1927, which, while obviously coincidental, helps reinforce the parallel. The contrast between the characters of Shep Keyes and Joe from Show Boat is useful here. Joe, based in the rural South, poignantly acknowledges the pain of racism in “Ol’ Man River,” but he never threatens the social fabric. Shep, with his hinted-at urban roots, attempts a direct assault against accepted social norms and is clearly the villain as a result.
The second major example of how Golden Dawn reflects the racial attitudes and fears of some white audiences during its time is central to the entire narrative: the play’s dramatic tension relies on the scandal, according to the mores of the time, that a black woman could possibly be chaste, loyal, beautiful, and therefore loved by a white man. There are multiple conversations involving Steve, and about Steve, regarding the impossibility of him truly loving an African woman, although the word miscegenation is never mentioned. Yet the musical is very careful to lay clues to Dawn’s true heritage—Shep Keyes and Mooda have an early conversation about a secret involving Dawn—so the complication of a mixed-race romance is neatly resolved when it is revealed that Dawn is no tragic mulatto or devious black Jezebel, but is instead a white woman born of white parents. Any “African” mannerisms she has exhibited were learned, and not reflective of her "true" heritage. In the racist world of Golden Dawn, the races will remain forever separate as long as white Americans remember their European colonial heritage and black Americans are—forcibly, like the character of Shep Keyes—reminded of their destiny to be colonized. Again, a comparison to Show Boat is instructive. Dawn anticipates the tragic, mixed-race character of Julie from Show Boat. But, as a white woman, Dawn is allowed the happy ending forbidden to Julie, who can only pass as white. Even so, the audience of Show Boat is encouraged to feel sorry for Julie and to understand her sorrow in ways that are not encouraged with Shep Keyes in Golden Dawn.
Golden Dawn, while subsequently overshadowed by Show Boat, was no flop. Nonetheless, considered today, the musical is obviously problematic on multiple levels, and the lack of any revivals of the show is not necessarily a bad thing. However, the study of non-canonical musicals like Golden Dawn remains crucial to how we understand the genre as a whole. Such shows not only demonstrate the ways in which artists like Oscar Hammerstein and Otto Harbach evolved in terms of their craft, they also help to reveal the complex and often contradictory ways in which Americans in the twentieth century attempted to understand a changing social landscape.
About the author
Dr. Kate Edney is the Graduate Program Director for the MA in Heritage Studies Program, and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities at Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts.
A note on the libretto from Doug:
The images of the libretto are provided with the kind permission of the rights holders FOR RESEARCH USE ONLY. You may not use this historical script for any kind of performance. Unlike most of the images in our Digital Collections which are taken by professional photographers with equipment specially selected for archival digitization, these images were taken by Doug Reside with a Canon T3 camera.
As summer breathes its last gasp and the buses start their engines, young children might be facing down their first days of school with some serious anxiety.
Check out six stories that might help calm the nerves of the 5+ set.
Ready and Waiting for You by Judi Moreillon
Bright paper-collage artwork and fold-out pages invite a multicultural cast of kids to get ready for their school to open its doors.
First Day at Zoo School by Sarah Dillard
Animals have back-to-school jitters too—and when an introverted alligator meets an extroverted panda, things don’t go smoothly at first.
The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn
Give kids a secret way to carry your love with them with this sweet tale about a raccoon starting kindergarten.
How to Be a Friend by Laurene Krasny Brown
Ease kids’ social anxiety with this nonfiction guide to early friendships, which also does a little troubleshooting about potential problems to nip in the bud.
School Buses by Allan Morey
It’s the journey, not the destination: Get kids who ride the bus ready and excited with this nonfiction, photo-heavy book.
Albert Starts School by Eleanor May
In this math-centric book, Albert the mouse learns how to behave at school (and the days of the week).
Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your picks, so leave a comment and tell us what you’d recommend.
¿Sabías qué? Un tercio de la población de Nueva York es latinoamericana, y los dominicanos son el grupo inmigrante más grande de la ciudad. Además, hay más dominicanos en Nueva York que en cualquier país del mundo exceptuando la República Dominicana (US Census). De las siguientes celebridades dominicanas, ¿Sabías qué?
Pedro Martínez es el más reciente beisbolista en llegar al Hall de la Fama por sus superiores marcas de lanzamientos.
El beisbolista Alex Rodriguez ha sido dos veces ganador de los Guantes de Oro y nueve veces de los Bates de Plata. También es rompedor de récords de jonrones y considerado el líder de jonrones de todos los tiempos.
El bateador de jonrones Sammy Sosa fue el primer jugador nacido en el extranjero en llegar a la meseta de la liga mayor de los quinientos jonrones y recibió honores por el alcade de Nueva York Rudolph W. Giuliani, quien le dio las llaves de la ciudad y declaró el 17 de Octubre de 1998 el día de Sammy Sosa. (NYC.gov)
Juan Luis Guerra, el cantautor y músico, ha ganado varios premios Grammys y Billboard en las últimas décadas por sus exitosos lanzamientos musicales. El músico Johnny Ventura ha sido también ganador de premios Gammys por sus populares ritmos criollos.
La República Dominicana se considera la cuna de los beisbolistas más talentosos (Baseball Almanac).
La Republica Dominicana tiene una población de un poco más de 10 millones de habitantes y ha estado experimentando un continuo crecimiento económico desde el 2005 (OAS). El país es de ingreso medio “con la economía más grande de Centroamérica y el Caribe” (Banco Mundial).
Un delegado de la República Dominicana, en conjunto con otros delegados de la India y Dinamarca contribuyeron con la redacción de la Declaración Universal de Derechos Humanos y “lucharon por conseguir que los derechos se expresaran en un lenguaje neutro y se reconocieran explícitamente los derechos de la mujer.“ (Departamento de Estado de los Estados Unidos)
Celebrando la Dominicanidad presentamos la siguiente lista de las historias más recientes que hemos recibido por autores y personajes populares provenientes del país para adultos y niños:
Albert Pujols: a la cumbre! Tania Rodríquez González
Presenta la vida y carrera deportiva del beisbolista quien ganó tres veces el título de "Jugador Más Valioso" mientras jugaba para los cardenales de San Luis. Para Niños.
El arma secreta
José M. Fernández Pequeño
Obra ganadora del Premio Nacional de Cuento 2013 en la República Dominicana y Medalla de Oro 2014 en los Florida Book Awards presenta nueve historias que muestran el impacto de lo inesperado y el despertar de la conciencia. Para adultos.
Así es como la pierdes
Junot Díaz
Una colección de historias que abordan el amor y el desamor al igual que la pasión y la traición. Para adultos.
Bachata: amargue y pasión Carlos Pérez Guante
Enfoca los primeros desarrollos de la música y baile de este popular género musical dominicano . Para adultos.
El buen ladrón
Marcio Veloz Maggiolo
Esta novela reimpresa y ganadora del Premio William Faulkner está protagonizada por personajes bíblicos. Para adultos.
El canto del agua
Nelly Rosario
Esta destacada obra, recientemente disponible en formato electrónico, presenta historias entrelazadas de tres generaciones de mujeres que cuentan sus sueños y luchas. Para adultos.
Un coronel con cuatro patas: (como vive el Dictador Trujillo) Rosa Elena Cabiedes
La autora describe sus experiencias durante su estancia en Santo Domingo cuando era regida por el general Leonidas Trujillo. Para adultos.
De cómo tía Lola salvó el verano
Julia Alvarez
Tres niñas están de visita con su padre por una semana durante el verano, pero Miguel está triste porque no tiene un amigo para compartir, hasta que llega la Tía Lola. Para niños.
Enigma Alicia Armando Almánzar Rodríguez
Dos novelas policíacas de amor y suspenso. En la historia de “Alicia”, el protagonista se obsesiona con la foto de una mujer. En la novela “Enigma”, se desata una investigación sobre el supuesto suicidio de un joven rico. Para adultos.
Los estragos de la sombra: novela Nelson Medina de Óleo ¿Podrán los hechiceros y adivinos ayudar a solucionar los problemas de los personajes de esta historia? En las páginas del libro quizás encontrará la respuesta. Para adultos.
Mañana te escribiré otra vez: Minerva y Manolo: cartas Minerva Mirabal
Correspondencias recopiladas por la hija de la heroína atestiguan el profundo afecto que existió entre la pareja, como también la determinación de su lucha compartida por liberar al país del régimen del dictador Trujillo. Para adultos.
Maquito Cafemba y sus andanzas: desde Ciudad Trujillo hasta Vietnám Rafael A. Martorell
El autor, un periodista de profesión, habla sobre su niñez en el pais y relata sus experiencias y conocimientos sobre varios acontecimientos. Para adultos.
Marassá y la nada
Alanna Lockward
Una novela sobre el significado cultural, psicológico y político del acto de cruzar la frontera haitiano – dominicana. Para adultos.
Mi vida como playboy Porfirio Rubirosa “Una autobiografia de Porfirio Rubiosa, nacido en 1909 en Santo Domingo. Se caso con la hija de le dictador Trujillo, vivió en Paris por varios años, ocupo algunos cargos menores en la carrera burocrática: subsecretario de Estado de la presidencia y de Relaciones Exteriores, y diputado al Congreso Nacional. Se divorció y volvió a casar cinco veces más. Fue nombrado embajador dominicano en Argentina y luego en la Habana.” (Libros Latinos) Para adultos.
El pacto de Guani Virginia Read Escobal
Eva, una niña indígena, se lleva una gran sorpresa después de descubrir que pertenece a una tribu que celebra una extraña tradición. Para niños.
Primavera roja: (sangre en Jarabacoa): noveleta Rios, Anthony
(Diario Libre)
El gran cantautor debuta con una novela policíaca llena de misterio, suspenso, e intriga. Para adultos.
Robinson Canó: a la cumbre!
Tania Rodríquez González
Presenta la vida y carrera deportiva del notable jugador de baloncesto de los Yankees de Nueva York. Para niños.
Sábado de ranas Farah Hallal
Obra que obtuvo el Premio Nacional de Literatura Infanto Juvenil Aurora Tavárez Belliard cuenta la historia de Enrique y Elisa, dos hermanitos que esconden unas ranas en su cuarto y luego se ven envueltos en un gran aprieto que solo las pequeñas ranas ayudarán a resolver (Diario Libre). Para niños.
Salto al cuento
Niurca Herrera
Diecisiete historias que abordan “temas humanos de todos los tiempos y de diferentes culturas” y reflejan las vivencias del autor. (El Nacional). Para adultos.
Para obtener una lista general que incluye recursos acerca de otros personajes significativos, música, historia y cultura de La República Dominicana actualmente disponibles en La Biblioteca oprima este enlace.
He aquí otros sitios informativos sobre eventos y celebridades de la República Dominicana:
From The White Stripes to The Dead Weather, The Raconteurs to his solo albums, Jack White has proven himself time and again to be one of the most stylish guitarists and vocalists in American rock. Alongside Daphne Brooks, Greil Marcus, and Dean and Scott Blackwood, White joined us in 2013 to discuss the rich tapestry of talent recorded on Paramount Records, from Ma Rainey to Buddy Boy Hawkins. For this week's episode of the New York Public Library Podcast, we're pleased to present Jack White on music and freedom.
Jack White, Daphne A. Brooks, and Dean Blackwood LIVE from the NYPL
As he spoke of Paramount Records artists, one word that White returned to over and over again was freedom. He identified one song that particularly encapsulates this spirit of freedom, Jelly Roll Morton’s Steamboat Four's "Mr. Jelly Lord," both because it's structurally and lyrically unemcumbered:
"That track, 'Mr. Jelly Lord,' right there, you can see a moment in American history. This is post World War I, this is, this song just screams freedom to me. There’s not a word said in the entire song. Imagine to be able to impact people with an instrumental nowadays. In a way this is sort of the dubstep of its time, you can actually connect with people and play this instrumental where they’re ignoring time signatures, it’s completely free, this is not John Philip Sousa, or orchestral music, or opera. I can imagine parents not liking their kids listening to this for the freedom that’s displayed in the musicianship in it. It didn’t need to say a word. The title is arbitrary, you know, it’s just total freedom, I think."
White also noted Ethel Waters' "Ain't Gonna Marry," a song that embodies sexual freedom far beyond its time:
"That track is I think really important. Because again we have to remember this is a bold statement. This woman’s not going to marry or settle down. To put that on record and sing it out loud. That’s a lot of freedom. This is 1923 and I used to always say how important I always thought that Loretta Lynn’s 'Don’t Come Home Drinking with Loving on Your Mind' was in the sixties. This is forty years before that, singing basically the same things, she’s singing lines like, you know, 'caught you making love to my best friend.' These are pretty bold statements, a very feminist approach, and this was totally allowed to happen, this was allowed to be recorded, allowed to be put on record and sold by men. Whatever the purpose they had, to move units or whatever it is, a great bold feminist statement comes out of it, which is so beautiful."
Other Paramount tracks provide a vision of freedom in which the lyrics' insistence on the singer's purity supersede the actions and circumstances that might otherwise taint character. This is so in "Mama's Angel Child" by Sweet Papa Stovepipe.
"I picked this one because this is sort of what I want to happen for you, if you listen to a pile of music, not just this grouping of music, whatever it is, but if it’s a set, if it’s an album, whatever, I’d hope for you to have this moment that I had with this song, because this sort of drew me in and said we have to do this because this is the diamond in the rough for me personally. It’s just one of those tracks that when you hear it I felt like I wish I had written that, I wish—or he’s speaking for me, or he’s speaking for everybody. And I think it’s because he—the song’s called 'Mama’s Angel Child,' but he keeps saying this phrase, 'I’m my mama’s baby child.' And just instantaneously, the fact that that’s the title, the title’s been changed, maybe it’s a misprint, I don’t know, but the fact that he keeps saying, 'I’m my mama’s baby child,' makes me feel like he’s about to break down crying every time he says that, and that ultimately he’s never going to get back to that moment when he was loved so purely as that. And everything else in this story, he can tell you anything—'I climbed this mountain or I dated this person, I killed this other man or whatever, say whatever you want, I’m still going to say the phrase, ‘I’m my mama’s baby child,’' and to me I think that’s probably the most beautiful thing I could find in all of these recordings, the hundreds and hundreds of recordings through Paramount, the novelty songs, the gospel songs, this track to me was the most beautiful."
You can subscribe to the New York Public Library Podcast to hear more conversations with wonderful artists, writers, and intellectuals. Join the conversation today!
“...As my collection grows, I’m realizing it’s impractical to have so many books when you’re moving around all the time. Luckily I can usually count on the library to have whatever I want.”
Chastity Belt was formed by four friends attending Whitman College in Washington state, and later relocated to the DIY-minded Seattle. The band's music reflects this melancholy climate, with moody lyrics and understated guitars. On their March 2015 releaseTime To Go Home, lead singer Julia Shapiro pleadingly asks "Why do I try?" and a few songs later repeatedly declares "I don't care" on the succinctly titled tracks "Why Try" and "IDC," respectively. Chastity Belt may seem down, but they're not out—the ennui is often juxtaposed with an upbeat melody, and there's a playfulness behind the sad veneer. On the opening track "Drone," the line "He was just another man trying to teach me something" was a sentiment I related to all too well, and that relatability carried on throughout the duration of the album. How excited I was to learn that this line was taken from a popular book! Read on to learn the source, as well as guitarist Lydia Lund's bookish habits, and rock 'n' read forever!
What role did libraries play in your youth?
My dad was a librarian and took me to libraries all the time as a kid. He would read to me almost every night before I could read on my own, so we went through a lot of books.
What was your favorite book growing up and why?
I loved the BFG. I just felt like Roald Dahl had the best sense of humor. He totally got what I wanted as a kid: something goofy, slightly crude, and a little dark.
Has any one book in particular had a lasting effect on you?
I really love The Lord of the Rings. Now when I recollect scenes from the books, I almost feel like I can re-access the feeling I had when I first read it. My best friend and I would imagine mythical worlds when I was in middle school, so I was in total awe when I discovered The Lord of the Rings. The world was so thought out and extensively described, that I felt a sense of magic simply in the fact that Tolkien could even fathom such a thing.
What is a classic that you've never gotten around to reading but would like to one day?
I've picked up East of Eden several times but have never gotten past the first few pages. Hopefully one day I will.
What genre do you prefer? Are there any you can't get into?
I don't really know much about genres but I generally like books that are pretty introspective. I loved The Catcher in the Rye when I was young and I like reading autobiographies. I also tend to like works that have a strong connection to place, occasionally with an environmental bent, like Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Dreams and Gary Snyder's essays.
What are you currently reading? If nothing at the moment, what was the last book you read?
I'm reading Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams. She's an amazing author and speaker, such a passionate and thoughtful woman. I really admire her.
While on tour are you able to get much reading done?
Luckily I don't get carsick when I read in the car, so I am able to read. Mostly though we listen to podcasts so we're all on the same page.
Do you do any other writing aside from songwriting?
A fair amount of journaling. There's lots of time in the van for that on tour.
Have any specific authors, books, and/or poems influenced your songwriting in any way?
I think all of us read How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti and found it pretty profound and enjoyable. Chastity Belt's song "Drone" adapts a line from the book: "He was just another man trying to teach me something."
Do you prefer physical books, e-books, or no strong opinion either way?
I prefer reading physical books. But as my collection grows I'm realizing it's impractical to have so many books when you're moving around all the time. Luckily I can usually count on the library to have whatever I want.
Do you have a library card? If so, which library system are you a member of?
So many kids are sexually abused every day. Many of their abusers post photographs and videos online, some of which are streamed live via Webcam. Some pictures are freely traded over the Internet and email, while others are found on web sites that charge fees for the lascivious visuals that are categorized by the child's age, gender and other factors.
Luckily, many talented and dogged police officers are on a mission to curtail the horrible abuse of children and to rescue them from further abuse. Due to the awesome assistance of Microsoft staff, police have been developing databases to enable them to catch offenders. Viewing child pornography, more aptly termed "child abuse images," since most porn stars are paid and willing, is a crime. Kids can be rescued from hours of pouring over photographs and researching the most minute details, such as the barcode on a label of goods. Calling the manufacturer can reveal where that particular shipment was sent. In some photos, the adult and child faces are exposed, and sometimes something simple such as a school uniform can be traced to a certain city. Also, IP addresses from abuse streamed live can lead to the capture of predators and the rescue of the innocent.
Most viewers of child abuse images also engage in hands-on abuse of kids. Unfortunately, the network of child abusers reinforce each other by creating a community in which abuse is the norm and favored, and they encourage and teach each other. There are chat rooms devoted to child abuse, and many vacation spots that are known for lax child abuse laws, such as Bangkok, Thailand, and Jamaica, attract predators. Some abusers meet online, then meet in person in order to trade secrets and victims.
Sexual predators, of course, strive to stay one step ahead of the law. They have become savvy enough to blur background images and obscure faces. However, their need to gloat and improve their status in the child abuse image world sometimes inevitably leads to their downfall. Some child predators commit suicide when their crimes are revealed, and some are victimized by others in prisons.
The twenty-fourth installment of the Kinsey Millhone detective series enters the top 5 this week, along with a new mystery set in Three Pines, and some romance for a single mom in the town of Thunder Point.
#1 Recommendations for readers who enjoyedX by Sue Grafton, more sociopathic serial killers:
#5 Recommendations for readers who like Jack Reacher (Small Wars by Lee Child), you may also enjoy:
¿Sabías qué? Un tercio de la población de Nueva York es latinoamericana, y los dominicanos son el grupo inmigrante más grande de la ciudad. Además, hay más dominicanos en Nueva York que en cualquier país del mundo exceptuando la República Dominicana (
