Year: 2017

November 13

1002 – English king Ethelred II launches massacre of Danish settlers 1775 – American Revolutionary forces capture Montreal 1789 – Ben Franklin writes “Nothing . . . certain but death & taxes” 1839 – First US anti-slavery party, Liberty Party, convenes in New York 1841 – James Braid first sees a demonstration of animal magnetism,...
Holland Tunnel opens in 1927

EYES TO THE SKY November 13 – 26, 2017

Make it a habit, teach it to the young: lift your eyes to the sky and linger there a moment whenever you go outdoors. Whether to take a breath of fresh air or on your way somewhere, cultivate a three-dimensional view of your surroundings; include the sky in your awareness. Where the heavens meet the...
Position of the stars of the Summer Triangle rising in May. Vega, top; Deneb lower left; Altair right. Thick, cosmic dust clouds block our night-time view of the Milky Way, creating what is sometimes called the Great Rift or Dark Rift, where stars are born. Image via NASA

Then and Now: Family Ties Run Deep in Community Struck by Tragedy

A Local Mom Finds More Hope Than Horror in Recent Attack, Recalling Her Father’s Role in 2001, As She Sought a Place for in Local School for Her Daughter (Editor’s Note: This is the personal narrative of P.S. 89 parent Jeanne-Marie McEnerney, whose connection to Battery Park City spans three generations.) In August 2013, after...

Transformer: Native Art in Light and Sound

You won’t find turquoise and silver in the new exhibition at the National Museum of the American Indian. This is a stunning show that transcends conventional ideas about Native art, offering a series of glowing rooms lit in unusual ways, each an immersive space of potent color and sound. Take time to absorb each presentation;...
Raven Chacon's Still Life #3 (2015) is a multi-sensory exploration of belief and the understanding of the Diné creation story

November 10

1202 – Fourth Crusade: Despite letters from Pope Innocent III forbidding it and threatening excommunication, Catholic crusaders begin a siege of Zara (now Zadar, Croatia). 1580 – After a three-day siege, the English Army beheads over 600 people, including papal soldiers and civilians, at Dún an Óir, Ireland. 1766 – The last colonial governor of...

Duty, Honor, Country

Jack Morrow is, in statistical terms, a member of Lower Manhattan’s tiniest minority. The Gateway Plaza resident is one of the very few Downtown dwellers who is also an active duty member of the United States armed forces. In this case, Major Morrow serves in the U.S. Army, in which capacity he is currently deployed...
Lower Manhattan resident and career U.S. Army officer Major Jack Morrow, shown here as a First Lieutenant on patrol in Ar Ramadi, Iraq.