New York City is perhaps one of the most famous and fetishized locales. It is the site of Law & Order, the star of Jay-Z’s hit single “Empire State of Mind,” and one of many heroines in John Ashbery’s long poem, Flow Chart. So what’s the big deal?
This course will explore (and write about and through) a wide variety of different New York “texts.” We will begin with E.B. White’s notion that “on any person who desires such queer prizes, New York will bestow the gift of loneliness and the gift of privacy” (Here is New York). Together, will we then explore various landmarks (literary, cultural, and countercultural) of the city—from Samuel R. Delany’s Times Square to Jay-Z’s Bedford Stuyvesant, to Hart Crane’s Brooklyn Bridge. Other possible sites/subjects for discussion include: buildings/building the city (Frank Lloyd Wright, Vito Acconci); graffiti & public art (Basquiat, Wild Styles); and crime & gentrification (Gladwell, Rudyland, Robert Frank’s photographs).
Through a wide variety of readings and writing assignments, a focus will be placed on the connection between ideas, place, and human culture. This course will emphasize both the process and product of academic writing through in-class writing assignments, weekly response papers, rough draft workshops, self and peer edits, and individual conferences with me.
Tuesdays & Thursdays, 2:55PM to 4:35PM
Location: Field Building (23rd Street), Room 712
Professor E. Kaufman
Email: [email protected]
Office Hours: Tuesdays/Thursdays, 12:30PM to 2:00PM or by appointment
Office Location: VC 7-290K
New York!!
Hello everyone, how’s it going :)? We all live in this amazing city of ours, New York. I was born in Yemen but came to NY when I was only five years old and was raised here. I honestly wouldn’t have had it any other way. I love this place so much, even with all its beautiful grittiness . Instead of continuing to write about New York, what I wanted to do for this blog was to show New York at its best through videos that I thought were pretty darn awesome.
This is the video I told the class about when a podium was set up in union square engraved with the words “say something nice” watch what happens
This is another video that was shot in grand central. My friend was actually in this one, not as the actors but as a bystander and she was freaked out for a bit
This video was pretty hilarious. The mirror!! Just watch the New Yorkers’ reactions
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This one was pretty crazy, No Pants Day 2012!! Thank god I stayed home that day
Throughout all of these videos including many others not up here, New Yorkers show their true side. Their kindness, their acceptance, their sense of curiosity, their sense of humor and so much more. Like come on not many places would tolerate the things that happens in New York and that’s a beautiful thing. No matter your language, color, or background at the end of the day we are all New Yorkers.
Yeah we all love New York