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Showing posts from July, 2015

The Real NYC Part 15 - Festival de Loiza

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Loiza is a small town on the north coast of Puerto Rico. It is one of two towns that were founded by the descendants of slaves. Their African heritage continues in evidence today. For more information on the town you can see my blog entry  here . In New York City there is a group of Puerto Ricans who trace their roots to Loiza and years a go the formed Los Hermanos Fraternos de Loiza . Every year for the past 37 years, this organization and the  Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute  hold a three day festival in El Barrio to celebrate the Afro-Latino culture of Loiza. This is a wonderful party with cultural displays, music, dance and food. this year I had the honor to cover one day of the event. The full name of the festival is The Festival de Santiago Apostol, but it is commonly known as the The Loiza Festival of El Barrio. For those of you who don't know El Barrio, it is the area of East Harlem going north from 96th street and east from 5th ...

The Real NYC Part 14 - The Harlem Book Fair

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The publishing industry in the United States has always underrepresented writers and readers of color. It still does today. But if you really want to know what is happening among African American writers and readers go the Harlem Book Fair. Started in 1998, The Harlem Book Fair is a celebration of much that is happening in the literary world of African American lives. This is a two block long celebration of reading and writing. Most of the authors are self-published, or published by small independent presses. I would break them down into four categories - Children’s Books, Urban Lit, Political/Historical and Self-help. What you find here are books that just do not appear in Barnes & Nobles or any other large store that caters to the latest commercial successes.    Along with space for authors to sell their books, The Harlem Book Fair also has indoor panel discussion on many topics. Many of the non-fiction panels were covered by CSPAN2 - BOOKTV , this year cove...

The Real NYC Part 13 - Arthur Ave - NYC's REAL Little Italy

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Part of the selection at Mike's Deli Tourists will go down to lower Manhattan looking for Little Italy, but those in the know will head to the Bronx. Just west of The Bronx Zoo is the Belmont neighborhood, and the heart of Belmont is Arthur Ave ( see map ). This is the neighborhood that has given us Dion and the Belmonts, Chaz Palmenteri and Joe Pesci. For me it has always been the home to some of the best Italian food in NYC. Arthur Ave. Market In 1940 NYC opened the Arthur Ave. Retail Market. And indoor space for 117 vendors to move their carts off of the street. Today that space is taken by about a dozen stores. Among these is Peter's Meat Market - voted NYC's best butcher in 2012 by the NY Daily News. Piles of sausage Half a lamb If you are visiting at lunch time i would suggest stopping at Mike's Deli/Grecco's in the Market. The sandwiches are huge and the prices are reasonable. Mike's special combo Mike's also...

The Real NYC Part 12 - The Daily Forward

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Recently I was in Chinatown to meet some friends for lunch. After eating a wonderful dim sum meal and catching up, I walked up East Broadway towards the subway. I quickly encountered the sight above. This is not a directional sign, at least not for drivers. This building was, for many decades, the home of The Daily Forward . The Daily Forward was a daily newspaper printed in both English and Yiddish for the NYC Jewish community. It was founded by people who left the Socialist Labor Party to join with the Social Democratic Party of the U.S.A. The Forward had a left-leaning editorial point of view from its formation in 1897 through to today. At its height The Forward had a circulation of over 250,000 in English and the same in Yiddish. Today it is published in a weekly English and bi-weekly in Yiddish. In 1912 The Forward built a 10 story office and publishing building at 175 East Broadway. Today that building has been converted into very expensive condos, owned probably by peop...

The Real NY Part 11 - Hudson River Museum

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Just north of The Bronx in the city of Yonkers is a really nice little museum that I like to visit. The Hudson River Museum sits on a beautiful piece of land overlooking the Hudson River. The Hudson River Museum opened in 1922 as the Yonkers Museum of Arts and Science in the Glenview Mansion. The museum housed a collection of artwork that mostly represented the history of the Hudson Valley, along with exhibits on natural science that included an elephant. The  Glenview Mansion was built in 1876 for the family of John Bond Trevor and financier. His family moved here from the Union Square area. Union Square NY by William Hahn 1878 The Trevor family lived in Glenview mansion until Mrs Trevor died in 1922. At that time the city of Yonkers bought the mansion and its surrounding grounds and created the Yonkers Museum of Arts and Science. For 65 years the mansion was the entirety of the museum. Glenview Mansion In 1969 the Hudson River Museum opened its ...