Selected Past Events back to Summer 2005

Livable Neighborhoods Workshop
Mar. 29, 2008, 1-3pm
Brooklyn College
Place Matters workshop on protecting cultural assets for the Municipal Art Society Planning Center's project to create a neighborhood sustainability and livability agenda.

Community History: Puerto Ricans & African Americans in Postwar New York
Mar. 5, 2008, 6-8pm
Martin E. Segal Theatre, The Graduate Center
Film screening by Lillian Jimenez on visionary leader Antonia Pantoja, and panel with the historians Craig Steven Wilder, Dartmouth, and Marci Reaven, City Lore/Place Matters.
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Place Matters leads a "Jane's Walk"
September 29, 2007, 12noon-1:30pm
Free Neighborhood Walking Tours To celebrate the legacy of urban activist and writer Jane Jacobs, the Center for the Living City at Purchase College organized free neighborhood strolls that emphasized the walkable and diverse nature of New York City.  Place Matters' tour explored  an East Village landscape that still exists today because the Cooper Square Committee mobilized in 1959 to save local homes and businesses from a Robert Moses urban renewal plan stretching from E. 9th St. to Delancey, from Bowery to 2nd Avenue. The activists not only stopped the bulldozers, they created one of the first community-initiated plans to build low-cost housing, improve their neighborhood, and keep it integrated.
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Place Matters & the Governors Island Family Festival
Saturday, June 2nd, 12:30-4pm. Opening day for Summer '07
As part of the Family Festival sponsored by the Governors Island Alliance, Place Matters and Hester St. Collaborative ran the "Design Your Dream Park" station for kids. Their designs will be given to the designers chosen to design the Island's new parkland.
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Place Matters & the LIVABLE NEIGHBORHOODS PROGRAM Workshops
May 5 & 19, 2007, 8:30am-4:30pm, Hunter College Center for Community Planning and Development / Sponsored by the Municipal Art Society Planning Center 
Day long seminar for New Yorkers who want a voice on how their communities develop and grow. Workshop on historic preservation and protecting cultural assets offered by Marci Reaven of City Lore/Place Matters and Lisa Kersavage of the Municipal Art Society

NY Trivia Night for Hidden New York  
May 9, 2007, 7-9pm, Lolita Bar 266 Broome Street
Sponsored by City Lore and the LES Tenement Museum's New York Book Club

Trivia night featuring questions from the Place Matters book, Hidden New York: A Guide to Places that Matter.
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Tour of the Weeksville Heritage Society and Barthe frieze at the Kingsborough Houses
April 7, 2007, 1pm, Crown Heights, Brooklyn

A Municipal Art Society-sponsored tour of this landmarked cluster of 19th-century woodframe houses--an artifact from the pre-Civil War African American community of Weeksville, plus a visit to the remarkable Richmond Barthe frieze installed on the grounds of a nearby public housing project. Tour organized to feature two of the sites profiled in the Place Matters book Hidden New York: A Guide to Places that Matter.
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Tour of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen
February 3, 2007, 10am , 20 West 44th St.

A Municipal Art Society-sponsored tour of this landmarked building and historic organization. Tour organized to feature one of the 32 sites profiled in Hidden New York: A Guide to Places that Matter--Place Matters' new publication. The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen has been in continuous operation since it was founded in 1785 by the master craftsmen of the city to provide mutual help and cooperation. By 1820, the Society had established its library for apprentices and a tuition-free school.
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Your Guide to the Lower East Side: Place Matters installation
May 1-June 22, 2006, Lower East Side Tenement Museum, 97 Orchard St.

Installation of Place Matters' new place-marking signage system for the Lower East Side. The signs feature individual guides who are current and former residents of the Lower East Side. Each sign tells one of their stories and is connected to a particular place in the neighborhood. While the stories are individually distinctive, they span languages, cultures, and generations, revealing collective experiences and common histories. The project is in association with the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and the coalition of local organizations and individuals known as the Lower East Side Community Preservation
Project, convened to collect, preserve, and share local history.
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Does Place Matter on the Lower East Side? A forum
June 15, 2006, 6:30-8:30pm, CUNY Graduate Center, 365 5th Ave

Always in a class by itself, today's Lower East Side is beginning to look just like any other place, on the surface at least. Join four scholars of the Lower East Side as they dig deep into the neighborhood's history. Does the Lower East Side have a special makeup that New Yorkers should protect? Its fascinating places may hold some clues.

Sponsored by City Lore, The Gotham Center for New York City History, and the Vernacular Architecture Forum

Speakers:
Harriet Cohen, Lower East Side housing activist and Director of Programs for the Lantern Group;
Orlando Plaza, community activist, doctoral candidate in history at NYU, and owner of Camaradas Restaurant in El Barrio;
John Kuo Wei Tchen, historian and Director of the Asian/Pacific/American Studies Program at NYU, co-founder of the Museum of Chinese in the Americas;
Suzanne Wasserman, historian, documentary film maker, and Associate Director of the Gotham Center for NYC History.
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City Building: Vernacular Architecture Forum conference
June 14-17, 2006

Place Matters co-sponsored the 27th annual conference of the Vernacular Architecture Forum which met in New York for the first time in 2006 to consider how the everyday landscapes of our city have been shaped, reshaped, and sustained over time. Events included a keynote speech by architectural historian Andrew Dolkart, called
New York: Vernacular City," at Shephard Hall, CCNY on June 14, 2006; "Does Place Matter on the Lower East Side?" A Place Matters forum, at the Gotham Center for NYC History on June 15th; neighborhood tours in lower Manhattan, the Lower East Side, Harlem, Sunnyside, Jackson Heights, and Flushing on June 16th; and paper sessions and roundtables at Columbia University on June 17th. 
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New Strategies for Preservation and Planning: Focus on Fulton Steet Mall
Forum presented by The Planning Center of the Municipal Art Society
Feb, 9, 2006, 8:30am, The Urban Center, 457 Madison Ave

Presentation of a new report on Fulton Street Mall by Vicki Weiner of the Pratt Center for Community Development and Randy Mason of Minerva Partners, asking how the significant past and lively present of this important public space can be incorporated into the redevelopment of some of the most important real estate in Downtown Brooklyn. Panelists responding to the report's findings included Place Matters Director Marci Reaven; Judith Saltzman of Li-Saltzman Architects; Michael J. Burke, Director of the Downtown Brooklyn Council; and Al Laboz, Partner at United American Land, LLC and Chairman of Fulton Street Mall Special Assessment District.
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From Mambo to Hip Hop: Music and Survival in the South Bronx
Work-in-progress screening of City Lore's new film
Dance on Camera Film Festival, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Jan. 13, 2006, 8:30pm, Walter Reade Theater

Directed by Henry Chalfant and produced by City Lore, the film developed out of a three-year initiative by City Lore's Place Matters project (in partnership with The Point CDC) to document and present the musical heritage of the South Bronx. The film tracks the people and places that made the South Bronx a creative crucible for the development of Latin music and hip hop. 
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Celebration of the Life and Work of Walter Thabit
Dec. 9, 2005, 5:30 PM, The Urban Center, 457 Madison

Walter Thabit (1921-2005) was one of the most significant urban planners of his generation. In a career covering five decades he greatly influenced community and advocacy planning and the civil rights movement. He helped to save New York City neighborhoods from slum clearance bulldozers, fought for and built low cost housing in neighborhoods around the city, and pioneered the partnerships between planners and citizens that gave rise to community-based planning.

Sponsored by the The Cooper Square Committee & Planners Network, with the participation of Place Matters. 
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Mott Haven: Incubator of Latin Music
Nov. 16, 2005, 7pm

Bus Tour led by Mike Amadeo along with Elena Martinez and Roberta Singer of Place Matters/City Lore, covering the South Bronx neighborhood surrounding Casa Amadeo where so much Latin music was created and performed. Sponsored by The Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture.

Casa Amadeo is the longest running Latin music store in the City and a treasure-house of Latin sounds and music history. In recognition of the store's significance, Casa Amadeo was listed to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001, nominated by Place Matters. See our homepage exhibit Mambo to Hip Hop. 
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Promoting and Protecting Places that Matter in New York City
llustrated talk by Marci Reaven, Director of Place Matters

Fridays @ One Programs
Sponsored by the New School Institute for Retired Professionals. Open to the public.

Nov. 11, 2005, 1pm, Wollman Hall, New School, 66 West 12th Street NYC
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Interpreting Urban Public Space: Interdisciplinary Strategies Panel Discussion
Wednesday, October 26, 6:30-8pm, The Urban Center, 457 Madison Avenue

During the last 15 years, a variety of small organizations and collaborative projects have formed nationwide that attempt to use urban spaces as canvas for social, historical, and political interpretation. This panel will consider how interdisciplinary public art, installations, and interpretive projects engage people in the process of neighborhood development and redevelopment

Sponsored by Place in History and the Municipal Art Society of New York

Panelists:
Lize Mogel, Artist
Chris Neville, Artist and Historian, past member of REPOhistory
Marci Reaven, Historian and Director, Place Matters Project
Damon Rich, Creative Director, Center for Urban Pedagogy
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Is Eminent Domain Necessary for Neighborhood Redevelopment?
Manhattanville: A Case Study Panel Discussion
Oct. 20, 2005, 8:30-10am, The Urban Center, 457 Madison Ave.

Panel discussion about the area of West Harlem called Manhattanville, where Columbia University intends to expand its campus. Community Board 9 and local groups have spent years documenting local history and planning for community improvements. Now they're trying to promote their vision for Manhattanville, and raise questions about beneficiaries and losers should Columbia move forward using tools such as eminent domain. 

Sponsored by the Municipal Art Society Planning Center
Co-sponsored by Place Matters

Moderator: Jonanthan Bowles, Director, Center for an Urban Future
Panelists:
Maritta Dunn, Executive Director, Manhattanville Area Consortium of Businesses
Pat Jones, Manhattan CB 9, 197-A Plan Committee Chair
Ron Shiffman, Professor, Pratt Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment
Walter South, Manhattan CB 9, 197-A Plan Committee Vice Chair
Eric K. Washington, Author of "Manhattanville: Old Heart of West Harlem"
Anne Whitman, President, Hudson North American

Many thanks to the Hamilton Heights-West Harlem Community Preservation Organization, Community Board 9, and The City College Architectural Center for helping to organize the forum.
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Miracle on Second Ave Walking Tour
Oct. 2, 2005, 11am - 12:30pm

Tour explores an East Village landscape that still exists today because the Cooper Square Committee mobilized in 1959 to save local homes and businesses. Activists not only stopped urban renewal bulldozers, they created one of the first community-initiated plans to improve their neighborhood, then fought for decades to implement it.
Leader: Marci Reaven, Director, the Place Matters Project.
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Marking Time on the Bowery Panel Discussion
Sept. 7, 2005, 6:30-8pm
The Urban Center, 457 Madison Ave.
Sponsored by the Municipal Art Society and Place Matters

An expert panel of speakers will address the history of the Bowery, how the street is changing, and what should be done to preserve its character. Speakers will bridge the past and present to consider the Bowery's fascinating role in the development of the city -- as a place where poor and working class New Yorkers found lodging, where many forms of popular culture were created, where small businesses could group and thrive, and more.

Moderator: Kent Barwick, President, Municipal Art Society
Panelists:
Andrew Berman, Executive Director, Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation Dan Czitrom, Professor of History, Mt. Holyoke
Peter Kwong, Professor of Urban Affairs, Hunter College
Shari Siegel, Building Director for The Andrews, Common Ground Community
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Slumming It: Myth and Culture on the Bowery Film Screening and Discussion
Aug. 23, 2005, 6:30 - 8pm
The Urban Center, 457 Madison Ave.

Presented by Place Matters and the Municipal Art Society

Director Scott Elliott's documentary traces the rich, 200-year history of the Bowery, and examines how this renowned street and its denizens helped New York become the archetypal modern metropolis. Featuring interviews with historians and present-day residents, and lots of rare archival footage.

The director will be present to answer questions after the screening, and special guest Marc Fields will also join us. Author of From the Bowery to Broadway: Lew Fields and the Roots of American Popular Theater, (Oxford Univ. Press, 1993), Marc will set the mood with a short story of two fictional Bowery characters -- a teen-age pair of would-be variety artists -- who traipse up the Bowery in 1879, from Chatham Square to Houston St. ("the Mile of Cheap Thrills"), trying to get hired as performers. The El thunders overhead, and a non-stop multi-cultural carnival is in progress, as they pass dime museums, pawn shops, minstrel shows, saloons, shooting galleries, apothecaries, and more.
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CBGB: A Place that Matters Exhibit

On view July 18 - Sept 14, 2005, The Urban Center, 457 Madison Ave.

Sponsored by Place Matters and the Municipal Art Society
Photos drawn from the new publication, CBGB and OMFUG: Thirty Years from the Home of Underground Rock, Harry Abrams, 2005. Many thanks to editor Tamar Brazis and CBGB advocate Kabi Jorgensen

Exhibit of photographs that captured the celebrated bands that played at CBGB, a club widely considered the birthplace of American punk rock.