Weekend, Friday-Sunday, October 4-6, 2024 – A PHOTO EXHIBIT AND HISTORY LESSON

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ROOSEVELT ISLAND:

ART AND MEMORY

GALLERY RIVAA

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2024

7:00 P.M.

&

A PHOTOGRAPHY & HISTORY WALK

GALLERY RIVAA

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2024

6:30 P.M.

EVENTS SPONSORED BY:
THE NY PUBIC LIBRARY
GALLERY RIVAA
ROOSEVELT ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

FRIDAY-WEEKEND OCTOBER 4-6, 2024
ISSUE #1322

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8TH @ 7 P.M.

Roosevelt Island: Art, Memory, and Community | Panel Discussion

Tuesday, October 8th @ 7 PM, RIVAA Gallery

Join us for a discussion in conjunction with the current photographic exhibition, Roosevelt Island: The Vision Revisited. RIVAA will bring together three distinguished panelists, who through their talent and remarkable efforts, have contributed to the beauty and quality of our built environment on Roosevelt Island.

 – Amanda Matthews is a sculptor and creator of The Girl Puzzle, a tribute to groundbreaking investigative journalist Nellie Bly. Through her reporting, Nelly Bly changed how mental illness was treated in this country.

– Gina Pollara, Executive Director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park from 2006-2013, oversaw the construction of the memorial designed by architect Louis I. Kahn to commemorate the 32nd President of the United States.

– Susan Rosenthal, President and CEO of Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) from 2016-2020, conceived the idea of a monument to Nelly Bly.

– Chris Vail, exhibiting photographer of Roosevelt Island: The Vision Revisited will moderate.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13TH, 6:30 PM. GALLERY RIVAA

Chris Vail is a documentary and news photographer.

Some of the work displayed on this site is part fo a project on regional Mexican music. It started as a photo essay for the LA Times on music in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The research for that assignment opened up a rich world of traditional music where the different genres of Mexican son vary by geographic location and historical influences.

Chris currently lives on Roosevelt Island in New York City.

FROM A SUBSCRIBER

The eagles of the original Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan have had a celebrated history – particularly since the beginning of the historic building’s demolition.  On the initial day of Penn’s ‘deconstruction’ in 1964, the eagles were the first things removed from the structure.  Several were ceremonially lowered from their perches above  Seventh Avenue and dutifully photographed for the newspapers and TV. 

 This media event was intended to symbolize the “magnificent” progress the new  Madison Square Garden Center would mean to New York but instead – sitting on the pavement and looking a bit angry – they immediately became emblematic of all the city was to lose with Penn Station’s demolition.

Photographs of those earthbound eagles from that fateful day appeared again and again over the next twenty years.  When Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan opened his first hearing on moving Penn Station to what is now Moynihan Train Hall, he sat between two pictures: one of the ruined fourteen story ticket lobby and the other of one of those eagles.

Some remarkable photojournalism work was done documenting the demolition of Penn Station – but I have always believed those stone eagles, shorn of the building for which they were made, did as much (or more) to galvanize support for replacing the facility than any other single thing.  That’s a proud accomplishment for a proud bird.

guy ludwig laudisi
October, 2024
Westview

CREDITS

CHRIS VAIL PHOTOGRAPHY

JUDITH BERDY

All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.

Copyright © 2024 Roosevelt Island Historical Society, All rights reserved.Our mailing address is:
rooseveltislandhistory@gmail.com