| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
The
War at Home over the War Abroad
Lecture by Mike Wallace, Director of the Gotham Center for NYC History
Battles
in New York City between Germans and Jews, Blacks and Italians, Catholics and
Protestants, Communists and Liberals, Wall Streeters and New Dealers in the Decade
before Pearl Harbor. Thomas
Paine Memorial Lecture co-sponsored with the Center for Inquiry-Metro New York
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
The
Bobbed Haired Bandit: A True Story of Crime and Celebrity in
1920s New York
February
27, 6:30 - Rooms 9204-9207
Book Talk and signing with
authors Stephen Duncombe and Andrew Mattson
Ripped straight from the headlines
of the Jazz Age, The Bobbed Haired Bandit (NYU Press) is a tale of flappers
and fast cars, of sex and morality. In the spring of 1924, a poor, 19-year-old
laundress from Brooklyn robbed a string of New York grocery stores with a "baby
automatic," a fur coat, and a fashionable bobbed hairdo. Celia Cooney's crimes
made national news. The Bobbed Haired Bandit brings to life a world of
great wealth and poverty, of Prohibition and class conflict. With her husband
Ed at her side, Celia raised herself from a life of drudgery to become a celebrity
in her own pulp-fiction novel, a role she consciously cultivated. She also launched
the largest manhunt in New York City's history.
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 The
Subway on Film
March 8, 6:30 - Recital Hall
An
evening of short films starring the New York City transit system, including
One Track Mind (2005, 30 minutes)--Jeremy Workman; Daybreak Express
(1953, 5 minutes)--D.A. Pennebaker; Brooklyn: Among the Ruins (2005, 14
minutes)--Suzanne Wasserman; Wonder Ring (1955, 4 minutes)--Stan Brakhage;
and Gnir Rednow (1955, 6 minutes)--Joseph Cornell. Q and A afterwards
with Directors Suzanne Wasserman and Jeremy Workman. The subjects of their films,
Phil Copp and Paul Kronenberg, will join them.
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 Five
Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires
March
14, 6:30 - Recital Hall
Book talk and signing with author Selwyn Raab
The
Mafia. Cosa Nostra. Wise Guys. Goodfellas. Often romanticized, the Mafia families
are one of the most powerful-and ruthless-organizations in the world. Names like
Luciano, Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese, Lucchese, Gotti, and others are legendary,
as are their crimes, and their secrets are deep, spanning over a century on two
continents.
Selwyn
Raab has covered the Mafia for nearly forty years for The New York Times
and other newspapers and TV. He is an expert on the inner workings of the vast
criminal empire that is Cosa Nostra.
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
On
the Town: One Hundred Years of Spectacle in Times Square
April
3, 6:30 - Rooms 9204-9205
Book talk with Marshall Berman On
the Town (Random House) is a unique look through the lens of the ideas and
works of art that inspired-or were inspired by-Times Square's allure. Interleafing
his own recollections with astute social commentary, Marshall Berman reveals how
movies, graphic arts, literature, popular music, television, and of course, the
Broadway theater have reflected Times Square's voluminous light to illuminate
a vast spectrum of themes and vignettes. Marshall Berman is Distinguished
Professor of Political Science at City College of New York. He is the author of
The Politics of Authenticity: Radical Individualism and the Emergence of Modern
Society and All That Is Sold Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity.
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
The
New York Fiscal Crisis and Its Legacies
April
19, 6:30 - Rooms 9204-9207
A panel discussion focusing on new perspectives on the Fiscal Crisis
Speakers
include:
Julian Brash, "Invoking Fiscal Crisis: Its Uses and Misuses in Contemporary
New York City Politics" Brash is a Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology at the Graduate
Center of the City University of New York;
Miriam Greenberg, "Fiscal Crisis,
Image Crisis, and the Branding of Neo-liberal New York in the 1970's and Today"
Greenberg is Assistant Professor of Media and Urban Studies at Pratt Institute
in Brooklyn, NY;
Michael Spear, "An Obstacle to the Development of an Urban
Progressive Political Agenda? The New York City Municipal Unions and the 1970s
Fiscal Crisis" Spear is currently a visiting assistant professor in history at
the State University of New York - Oswego;
David Harvey, "Situating the New
York City Fiscal Crisis in the History of Neoliberalism." Harvey is Distinguished
Professor of Anthropology at the Graduate Center.
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 Gotham
Poetry and History
May
4, 6:30 - Auditorium
The kick-off
for the People's Poetry Gathering, which will take place at CUNY over the following
weekend. This forum will highlight some of the relationships between the
work of New York City-based poets who expressed a personal and collective vision
of the City, the period they wrote about, and the social history unfolding at
the time, featuring poets reading poems from different eras in New York and scholars
commenting on the poetry. Scholars and poets include: Bob Holman, Philip
Lopate, Carmen Boullosa, Elisa New, Al Filreis, and David Levering Lewis. Co-sponsored
with City Lore
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 Does
Place Matter on the Lower East Side?
June
15, 6:30 - Auditorium
Always in a class by itself, today's Lower
East Side is beginning to look just like any other place, on the surface at least.
Join four scholars of the Lower East Side as they dig deep into the neighborhood's
history. Does the Lower East Side have a special makeup that New Yorkers should
protect? Its fascinating places may hold some clues. Speakers include:
Harriet
Cohen, Lower East Side housing activist and Director of Programs for the Lantern
Group, Former Policy Analyst for Housing and Homeless for the Manhattan Borough
President's Office and current Chair of SPARC (Seward Park Area Redevelopment
Coalition);
Orlando Plaza, community activist, doctoral candidate at NYU and
owner of Camaradas Restaurant in el barrio, "a worker's public house where camaraderie
is built";
John Kuo Wei Tchen, historian and Director of the Asian/Pacific/American
Studies Program at NYU, author of New York Before Chinatown, co-founder of the
Museum of Chinese in the Americas;
Suzanne Wasserman, historian, documentary
film maker, and Associate Director of the Gotham Center for NYC History.
Co-sponsored
with Place Matters (a project of City Lore and the Municipal Art Society) and
the Vernacular Architecture Forum
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
Familiar
Haunts: Reel New York Film Screening
June
22, 6:30 - Recital Hall
Join us for a special sneak preview of
REEL NEW YORK, Thirteen's annual summer independent film and video festival.
Now in its 11th season, REEL NEW YORK continues to explore the many facets
of New York and the New York experience through the lens of local makers. As varied
and compelling as the city itself, this year's line-up include narratives about
urban gardens, street art, subway stations, elevators, and the nostalgia of lost
luncheonettes and roller coasters. Tune-in Thursdays, beginning June 29th through
August 24th. Tonight we will screen a series called "Familiar Haunts" including
the following films: Ghosts of Grey Gardens (Director Liliana Greenfield-Sanders);
Under the Roller Coaster (Director: Lila Place); and Grand Luncheonette
(Director: Peter Sillen). Co-sponsored by REEL NEW YORK, Thirteen/WNET's
local independent showcase View
Fall 2005 Forums | 
