Culture of New York City

Any one landing in New York City from the LaGuardia Airport, is going to find themselves at East Elmhurst. They will be greeted by single family homes who front lawns are decorated with green grass patches, it is quite the opposite image one would expect to see when landing in New York City. They might be taken aback when they realize they are seeing the Manhattan skyline at a distance from where they are standing, in East Elmhurst. While the skyline views are breathtaking, so is the…

of New York City, I think of bright lights and tall skyscrapers in Times Square, despite growing up in Queens where an extension of the Big Apple still lingers. After taking this class, my perspective of New York dramatically changed. In our assigned class reading “American Notes” by Charles Dicksons, he states in New York there were no "Punches, Fantoccini, Dancing-dogs, Jugglers, Conjurers, Orchestrinas, or even Barrel-organs." It was very hard for me to dismantle the idea of New York City…

Marital Strife in Eat a Bowl of Tea and Falling Man Though separated by different time periods, areas of New York, and even cultures, the novels Eat a Bowl of Tea by Louis Chu and Falling Man by Don DeLillo are similar in their depiction of the marital crisis. In the novel Eat a Bowl of Tea, the main character Ben Loy lives in Chinatown in the 1940s with his wife, who is having an affair with his cousin. In the novel Falling Man, the main character Keith lives in lower Manhattan in 2001 (post-…

flooded urban areas like New York City. The “native” Americans skeptics of immigrants resulted in the assimilation of many immigrants because of the threat they caused. The out-casting of immigrants in large cities by the “native” Americans led to the formation of immigrant neighborhoods in order to have a sense of community. The condensed outdated apartment buildings in the neighborhoods had multiple families living one floor. Immigrants believed that they would flourish in the new land of…

pink! Like a rose, New York City is the perfect mix of beauty and pain. The weaknesses and strengths of the…

In the novel Geographies of Home, written by Loida Maritza Pérez, there are copious references to New York City and its importance to the plot of the story. Published in 1999, the novel follows a Dominican family in its migration to NYC and the challenges they face. As readers, we see problems involving Lliana, Marina, Rebecca, Papito, and Aurelia. Between rape, violence, and abuse, Pèrez does a great job incorporating Brooklyn into the plot of the story. A lot of the wild stories written about…

During the 19th century, New York was an average populated area that will then multiply its population at an incredible rate. It was throughout this period that New York experienced revolutionary change. According to historian Kenneth T. Jackson, “in 1800 New York had only 100,000 people and by 1900 it had 50 times as many people”. The documentary begins by telling the life of Walt Whitman as a child born in long island who enjoyed playing baseball in the vacant fields. The documentary talks…

The Bronx has many locations where graffiti can be noticed. The grand concourse, a major route in the Bronx is home to many of the graffiti locations in New York. For instance, The Andrew Freedman home is a landmark for New York City and is located at 1125 Grand Concourse, Bronx, NY. The house was many graffitti (artwork) on its boundary wall and in the inside as exhibitions. During 1924-1983, the Renaissance Palazzo styled Andrew Freedman home served as a beautiful location for the elderly. In…

Hip-Hop, today, is one of the most influential subcultures in popular culture, and its music is considered to be one of the most popular and powerful genres. In it’s origins, It gave voices to the youth of the 70’s and 80s, and gave them relevance in a world that otherwise wouldn’t through their paintings on New York subways that went “all-city”. Youth and even other, older, individuals with voices that were unheard were eventually heard through all means of Hip-Hop as well. The Hip-Hop movement…

One City/ One Book project has been very popular in cities all around the United States because it really brings reading alive and gets everyone involved. The concept of a project like this is to really bring everyone together and help show other sides of cultures and ways of life. The project has done more good than bad because most cities have adopted it as a tradition. But, that wasn’t the case in New York because in an online article on the New York Times website it told how the city…