The Urban Memory Project

Park Slope UMP begins

Rebecca — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 14:33:34 +0000

For its eighth year UMP is partnering with Park Slope Collegiate to explore the history and issues facing the borough of Brooklyn. This year the emphasis is on students learning how to gather and synthesize primary source historical research to inform them on how different neighborhoods develop. So far the students have examined fire insurance maps of the Park Slope neighborhood and are currently decoding historical census records.

Stay tuned for more information, as students begin to examine the course of the area today, including discussing the impact of the new Barclay’s stadium!

A Snip and a Snap

Rebecca — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 12:05:32 +0000

Al Criscillo was a barber on Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg for 54 years. Starting in the 1960s he offered a free photo with every first haircut, the result being a large archive documenting Brooklyn patrons through the years. The resulting collection of photographs is currently on display at the City Reliquary Museum where they are housed as part of the museum’s collection.

Brian Rose’s “Time and Space on the Lower East Side” and UMP’s latest exhibit of LES photographs

Rebecca — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 17:40:32 +0000

Check out Design Arts Daily’s interview with photographer, Brian Rose, about his project Time and Space on the Lower East Side – a series of photographs capturing the Lower East Side in the 1970s and 2000s. Rose discusses his connection to the the neighborhood, and muses on the constant change that defines life in the city.

UMP’s latest project presents students’ photographs of their Lower East Side at the Seward Park Library, 192 East Broadway, NYC, with an opening reception this evening: Tuesday, June 12, 2012, from 6 – 7:30pm. Free to the public.

Seward Park Library, 192 East Broadway, NYC, 3rd Floor (click for Google Map)

LES Student Photography Exhibit 6/12 – 8/24

admin — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 18:20:17 +0000

Join us at the Seward Park Library at 6pm, June 12 to celebrate the opening of a two month-long exhibit of student photographs of the Lower East Side.

Students at the Lower Manhattan Arts Academy (LoMA), and their teacher, Maria Zagoreos, worked with the Urban Memory Project for over ten weeks to study the history and current issues facing their school’s neighborhood. The students hit the streets with their cameras to document the current state of the Lower East Side, specifically what they felt might disappear, what they saw changing, and the neighborhood’s character.

Opening reception: June 12 6pm- 7:30pm

Seward Park Library, 192 East Broadway, NYC, 3rd Floor (click for Google Map)

Exhibit will be displayed June 12 – August 24

A Neighborhood’s Star Turn, Courtesy of a Librarian

Rebecca — Wed, 23 May 2012 12:15:48 +0000

Seward Park Library’s Sean Ferguson, organizer of the Lower East Side Heritage Film Series, is highlighted in this terrific New York Times Article. Ferguson, a friend of UMP, has worked with us to present “The Seward Park Branch and the Neighborhood it Serves,” to our students and supporters. The film documents the LES neighborhood in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s in home movies taken by librarians, capturing a Lower East Side in transition. Ferguson shows the film at the start and end of the series, which takes place at the Seward Park Library: 192 East Broadway, NYC, the second Tuesday of each month from September — June.

Community Interviews – Lower East Side 2012

Rebecca — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:11:09 +0000

On April 16, 2012 LoMA students and neighborhood residents gathered at the Seward Park Library to exchange ideas, stories and perceptions of the Lower East Side. At the meeting were representatives of various LES communities: Long time residents; preservationists; journalists and photographers, and artists, all of whom had strong personal connections to the area. Students and residents discussed such topics as neighborhood change, immigration and gentrification, and shared ideas for what they felt is the “greater good” for the area. The event was rewarding for all participants, and left the students feeling informed, connected and prepared to share their insights with others.

Lower East Side 2012

Rebecca — Tue, 01 May 2012 16:41:07 +0000

Students at the Lower Manhattan Arts Academy (LoMA), and their teacher, Maria Zagoreos, have been working with UMP for the past ten weeks to study the history and current issues facing their school’s neighborhood. After studying the immigrant history of the area, students had the opportunity to meet with urban planner, John Shapiro, from Pratt Institute, who detailed for them the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area plans that will transform the community in the coming years. Armed with this knowledge, the students then hit the streets with their cameras to document the current state of the Lower East Side, specifically what they felt might disappear, what they saw changing, and the neighborhood’s character. These photographs will be the basis of the students’ exhibition, displayed at their school, the Henry Street Settlement Abrons Arts Center, and the Seward Park Library. Stay tuned for more details!

1939 World’s Fair Images

admin — Tue, 01 May 2012 16:31:16 +0000

Yesterday Gothamist posted a snippet pointing out the 1939 World’s Fair Opened 73 years ago this week. Head over to Gothamist to check out a sweet set of images from the fair.

Check out the videos below for more insight into the fair:

Photographer: Andrew Lichtenstein

Rebecca — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 11:31:34 +0000

Andrew Lichtenstein visited with our students on Monday to discuss the students’ recent photographs of the Lower East Side, and to share with them his own. Lichtenstein, a documentary photographer, is a native New Yorker who works on stories of long-term social concern. Over the last decade he has concentrated on photographing in America. The work that he shared with our students came from series he made in the East Village and the Lower East Side in the 1990s. The images of tent cities in Tompkins Square Park, riot police, and a variety of portraits of squatters, bar-sitters and neighborhood characters captured an era of Lower East Side history that existed before the students were born, and with which they were unfamiliar. Andrew’s visit with us showed us all an intimate and visually engaging portrait of the neighborhood, and added a useful layer to our developing story of the area. For a look at some of Andrew Lichtenstein’s photographs, click here.

Video: What is Affordable Housing

Rebecca — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 20:34:59 +0000

The Center for Urban Pedagogy created this video as an education tool to teach students and community members about the true meaning of affordable housing. UMP just used the video in conjunction with a school visit to the Lower Manhattan Arts Academy (LOMA) by John Shapiro, Chair, Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment, Pratt Institute, to encourage students to consider what affordable housing really looks like in NYC. Students learned about the latest development plans to affect the Lower East Side, and then hit the streets with cameras to document the changing neighborhood.