The BroadsheetDAILY ~ 5/21/21 ~ Alliance Presents Downtown Live Performance Festival This Weekend

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Lower Manhattan’s Local News

Acting Out

Alliance Presents Downtown Live Performance Festival This Weekend

The Downtown Alliance, in partnership with The Tank and En Garde Arts, will present Downtown Live—a free, outdoor performance festival in Lower Manhattan this weekend (Saturday and Sunday, May 22 and 23). Shows will be offered at three open-air venues (see locations below), from noon through 8:00 pm. Tickets are free, but required—and must be reserved in advance for social distancing and pandemic precautions. To R.S.V.P., please browse: TheTankNYC.org and/or EnGardeArts.org

Participating artists include multiple Obie Award and Pulitzer Prize winners, as well as emerging voices, such as playwright/actress Kaaron Briscoe; playwright/actor David Greenspan; hip-hop, spoken word and performance artists Baba Israel and Grace Galu; and popular downtown music and storytelling duo James and Jerome.

Words of Hate

Bias Crime at Borough of Manhattan Community College

The window outside an art exhibit honoring the military service of African-American soldiers was defaced with graffiti containing racial epithets on Sunday evening. The exhibit is housed in the Shirley Fiterman Art Center of Borough of Manhattan Community College, located at the corner of Barclay Street and West Broadway.

The work, entitled “In the Line of Fire,” is by Mildred Howard, a prolific mixed-media and installation artist, whose work consistently draws on a broad range of historical and contemporary experiences, and emphasizes her commitment to issues of social justice and community activism. The installation consists of approximately 60 life-size figures made from cut-out sheets of plywood that have been silkscreen-printed with the image of a single repeated figure in a World War One-era uniform — a young African American man in his teens, who was a distant relative of Ms. Howard. To read more…

‘Fixing A Hole Where The Rain Gets In…’

Cost of Roof Repair at Asphalt Green Goes Up by Half a Million Dollars

The Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) has increased its budget for fixing a leaky roof at the Asphalt Green Community Center by slightly more than $500,000, which will bring the total cost of the ongoing project (which requires replacing the terrace that overlooks the ball fields) to approximately $8 million.

At the April 28 meeting of the Authority’s board, BPCA vice president for real property Gwen Dawson explained, “this contract was originally awarded in March, 2019… At the time of inception, the only electrical work contemplated for the project was temporary removal of existing conduits. But after excavation, several conditions were found to require additional electrical work.” To read more…

Considering a Gap Year

Fewer Local High School Students Apply for College Financial Aid

In what may augur a lingering social impact from the COVID-19 pandemic, data compiled by a national clearinghouse for information about college applications and admissions shows that five local high schools, either located in Lower Manhattan or else attended by large numbers of students from this community, have seen a drop-off in financial aid applications by graduating seniors.

This is a sobering indicator, because it almost certainly means that fewer of these students are planning on attending an institution of high learning next fall. These five schools all boast graduation rates at or near 100 percent and—in a typical year—send all (or almost all) of their graduating classes on to college.

Matthew Fenton

Valorizing Velocipedes

Multiple New Bikes Lanes Coming to Lower Manhattan, Adding to Growing Local Network

The City’s Department of Transportation will begin this month implementing a plan—first approved in the spring last year, but delayed by the onset of the pandemic coronavirus—to add more bike lanes to the Lower Manhattan’s streetscape.

Two new physically segregated bicycle thoroughfares will be constructed in the next few weeks: a southbound connection linking Varick Street to West Broadway, and a northbound route via Church Street and Sixth Avenue.

Also coming soon is a protected section of Centre Street—a stretch that will connect Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan to Tribeca and Chinatown. To read more…

Eyes to the Sky

May 17 – 30, 2021

Look west to Gemini’s Castor and Pollux and to Mars, Mercury and Venus

As twilight deepens tonight, beginning around 9:30pm, locate the crescent moon in the west mid-way between zenith and the horizon. Below the moon, a juxtaposed pair of bright stars stands out. Known as the Gemini twins, yellowish Pollux is on the left and blue-white Castor on the right. A ways to the left of Pollux find luminous Procyon the Little Dog. About the same distance to the right of Castor find Capella the Little Goat, brightest of the foursome.

Double star Castor photographed moving in space and time. Image courtesy of New Mexico-based astrophotographer Kent DeGroff.

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PUBLIC NOTICE:

Be advised that more dates have been made available for the vaccination program the Conrad Hotel.

May 21: https://vaccinefinder.nyc.gov/locations/847

May 24: https://vaccinefinder.nyc.gov/locations/848

May 28: https://vaccinefinder.nyc.gov/locations/849

Goldman Sachs, alongside American Express, has partnered with New York City and CVS Health to offer a COVID-19 vaccination program at the Conrad Hotel. All lower Manhattan residents and employees who meet the eligibility requirements are welcome to schedule appointments for the Pfizer vaccine.

Eligibility Requirements

In order to qualify for the COVID-19 vaccination program, individuals must be aged 16 years or over and be a resident of New York State OR work/study full-time in New York State.

Scheduling and Location Details

All who meet the eligibility requirements can schedule appointments on the New York City COVID-19 Vaccine Finder by selecting the Conrad Hotel location or use the following links.

The West Thames courts are open for play.

Today’s Calendar

Friday May 21

7PM

Wagner Park

Singer/songwriter Terre Roche leads this weekly singing program with the beautiful backdrop of the setting sun in NY Harbor. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned crooner, the singing circle is perfect for mellow melodies and healthy harmonizing. Participants are expected to bring their own equipment: blankets, instruments, water, etc. Masks required. Participants must maintain six feet of physical distance between households. All programs will be held in accordance with New York State reopening guidance. Battery Park City Authority

7PM

Tribeca Performing Arts Center

The Writers in Performance workshop is designed to give writers the opportunity to explore performing their written pieces. Whether they are playwrights, poets, monologists, writers of prose, or spoken word artists, this workshop gives the writers an opportunity to create a performance piece out of their writings. Workshop participants are chosen on the strength of their writing plus either performance ability, or willingness to explore that aspect of creativity. The workshop mixes professionals with students. The workshops were conducted during the fall 2020 via Zoom. The pieces were videotaped on stage, camera, people’s phones, Zoom, and an animation. Free

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The Battery Park City Authority asks that the public not interact with or feed the urban wildlife in the neighborhood’s parks and green spaces, and at the waterfront.

9/11 Victim Compensation Fund Report

More Survivors than Responders Now are Submitting Claims

The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) has released its annual report for 2020, which documents some significant developments.

Over the course of its ten years of operation thus far, the VCF has awarded $7.76 billion to more than 34,400 individuals who have suffered death or personal injury as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and their aftermath. The vast majority of these injuries take the form of illness caused by exposure to toxic materials that were released by the destruction of the World Trade Center.

TODAY IN HISTORY

May 21

Clara Barton

878 – Syracuse is captured by the Muslim sultan of Sicily.

1260 – Kublai Khan of the Mongol Empire sends his envoy Hao Jing and two other advisors to the Song Dynasty court of Emperor Lizong of Song; while attempting to negotiate with the Song in order to resolve their conflict, Hao Jing and his fellow emissaries are imprisoned by order of the high Chancellor of China, Jia Sidao.

1602 – Martha’s Vineyard first sighted by Captain Bartholomew Gosnold

1758 – 10 year old Mary Campbell was abducted from her home in Pennsylvania by Lenape Indians during the French and Indian War. While captive, she lived among the family of Chief Netawatwees in the Ohio Valley and was freed six years later in a famous release of captives orchestrated by Colonel Henry Bouquet at the conclusion of Pontiac’s War. Pontiac’s War was a united Indian effort to push the settlers back to the Atlantic but failed miserably. Mary Campbell was a child taken captive during the competition between Britain and France, an adolescent among the Indians as they attempted to reassert their rights to the American landscape and a woman among colonists as they fought to free themselves of the British empire.

1819 – First bicycles (swift walkers) in US introduced in NYC

1846 – First steamship arrives in Hawaii

1881 – American Red Cross founded by Clara Barton

1894 – 22-year-old French Anarchist Émile Henry is executed by guillotine

1906 – Louis H Perlman patents a demountable tire carrying rim for cars

1927 – Lindburgh lands in Paris after first solo air crossing of Atlantic

1929 – Automatic electric stock quotation board installed at the NYSE

1932 – First transatlantic solo flight by a woman Amelia Earhart lands in Ireland

1951 – The opening of the Ninth Street Show, otherwise known as the 9th Street Art Exhibition – a gathering of a number of notable artists, and the stepping-out of the post war New York avant-garde, collectively know as the New York School.

1968 – Nuclear-powered sub USS Scorpion, with 99 men, reported missing is later found at the bottom of the ocean off Azores

1969 – Robert Kennedy’s murderer Sirhan Sirhan sentenced to death: later commuted to life imprisonmnet

1970 – National Guard mobilizes to quell disturbances at Ohio State U

1972 – Michelangelo’s Pietà in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome is damaged by a vandal.

2004 – Sherpa Pemba Dorjie climbs Mount Everest in 8 hours 10 minutes, breaking his rival Sherpa Lakpa Gelu’s record from the previous year.

1927 – Lindburgh lands in Paris

Births

1471 – Albrecht Durer, Nornberg Germany, Renaissance painter/print maker

1688 – Alexander Pope, London, English poet (Rape of the Lock, translation of Homer) (d.1744)

1780 – Elizabeth Fry, Quaker minister/prison reformer/nurse

1898 – Armand Hammer, industrialist (Occidental Petroleum)

1904 – Fats Waller, [Thomas Wright], jazz singer/composer (Ain’t Misbehavin’)

1921 – Andrei Sakharov, Moscow, physicist, human rights worker (Nobel ’75)

1951 – Al Franken, former US senator, comedian/writer/actor

Deaths

1542 – Hernando de Soto, dies while searching for gold, near Mississippi River

1935 – Jane Addams, a founder of ACLU (Nobel 1973), dies at 65

1992 – Mrithi, gorilla (Gorilla in the Mist), dies at 24

2000 – Sir John Gielgud, British actor (b. 1904)

2003 – Alejandro de Tomaso, Argentine-Italian racing driver and car manufacturer (b. 1928)

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