History.Workshoppin’: Issue 5 (April 2025)
Still a heavy time throughout NYC and the nation of late. I write this thinking of Mahmoud Khalil, and Rumeysa Ozturk, and the innocent men renditioned to El Salvador, and the chilling effect their capture and detention, without charge or trial, is causing. And I am also thinking of the Smithsonian, including our own branches at Cooper-Hewitt and the National Museum of the American Indian, in the wake of the “let’s make the Smithsonian a pile of junk” EO, and the recent dingdongery of trying to basically wreck the economy. How much ruin of lives, of livelihoods, of families, of people’s entire worlds, of histories and cultures, will be dismantled in the name of petty, moronic segregationists?
But I also write this thinking of last Saturday, when I joined my synagogue for what I thought would be a decently attended rally near the library and ended up a march, almost entirely self-sustained, from 42nd Street all the way down 5th to Madison Square. Hopefully an action that leads to more — more activism, more intergenerational coordination, more getting out in the streets even when they were blocked off by peers with bikes. (And hopefully it leads to fewer colds like the one I’m trying to kick, which I very well may have gotten on a cold, misty day, and I waffled between masking for health reasons and staying unmasked for what I thought were bold antifash reasons. Alas.)
I suppose time, and efficacy of counteractions, will only tell what comes of this period. It’s draining to carry this around all the time, as I’m sure it is for many of you reading, but I’m trying my best to hold on to the flickers of hope and joy amid the rage.
On to the tours and stuff.
Coming Up Next
Along with the below, I have the unveiling of Quenching Brooklyn’s Thirst, aka the tour I’ve been previewing in the archives section on and off these past few issues, coming up in as part of Jane’s Walk 2025. (Just announced today, and featuring a brief shoutout to yours truly in the announcement ‘sclusie in Time Out New York. While it may not be the most financially prosperous that the tour I’ve become most known for is the one I can’t legally do for money, the cachet of it all is nice.)
Anyway, I’m still cracking this walk — my alpha test last weekend led me to cut a whole chunk and connect the two remaining pieces with a trip on the C train — so it will still be in its pilot stages. But come join on Saturday, May 3, at the world premiere at 1 pm, or the likely slightly better late show at 6 pm, to see what comes of this!
After that, I have a special weekend of tours celebrating my second-favorite day every year in Bay Ridge, and a very queer month of tours for Pride (see y’all in Gay Ridge June 8!).
April 2025
4/19, 2:00 p.m.: The Bridges of Gowanus: Rezone Remix
4/26, 2:00 p.m.: The Lower East Side: History and Foodways
May 2025
May 17–18: Bay Ridge Constitutionals, four fixtures of The Lost Theaters of Bay Ridge before and after Saturday’s Viking Festival and Sunday’s Norwegian Day Parade (use code NORWAY25 for $18.14 tickets for these tours)
May 31, 2:00 p.m.: Quenching Gotham’s Thirst
June 2025
June 4, 5:30 p.m.: Twilight Tours: Greenwich Village
June 8, 10:00 a.m.: Green-Wood Cemetery
June 11, 5:30 p.m.: Twilight Tours: Greenwich Village
June 18: 5:30 p.m.: Twilight Tours: Greenwich Village
June 19, 2:00 p.m.: Frederick Douglass in Brooklyn
June 21, 2:00 p.m.: Lost Theaters of Brooklyn
June 22: I celebrate the summer solstice (kinda) with three tours from morning to sunset (use code RUNAROUND for half-off tickets for those tours):
10:00 a.m.: Green-Wood Cemetery
2:30 p.m.: Meatpacking District/Chelsea
6:00 p.m.: The Bridges of Gowanus: Rezone Remix
June 25, 5:30 p.m.: Twilight Tours: Greenwich Village
June 28, 3:00 p.m.: Greenwich Village
June 29, 3:00 p.m.: Meatpacking District/Chelsea
Stuff I Wrote
A bumper crop of reviews (1999’s Compensation, the new doc Endless Calls for Fame, the sweet little romance Step Back, Doors Closing, and the return of “Nic Cage doing weird stuff in a movie they don’t deserve to have him in” with Gunslingers), an awful lot of festival coverage (three! review! dispatches!), and that GoodFellas piece I promised y’all. And while I’m not in the latest issue of the zine, do check it out! Coming up next: I’m featuring 1993’s The Wedding Banquet as part of MovieJawn’s Queer Window series, reviewing the all-new remake of The Wedding Banquet, and (at some point, whenever HBO announces a release date for Pee-Wee as Himself) I champion and analyze the documentaries of one of my favorite directors, Matt Wolf, through the lens of (mostly queer) obsession.
Something from the Day Job
For the last eight months or so, I’ve been leading development of a new, free AP African American Studies Guide. Building a study guide from scratch has been a massive undertaking (especially with, y’know, the aforementioned petty segregationists about), but a truly rewarding one. And I’m very excited to note that it’s out starting today, featuring over 400 resources, primary and secondary, from ancient Africa to Afrofuturism and everything in between, and with more on the way. I’m particularly fond of the new videos (the set with Jeff Chang on the history of hip-hop is a highlight), essays from a slew of scholars (like this one on Black is Beautiful by Elizabeth Carmel Hamilton), and especially proud to bring about a dozen works of art from the MTA, from Jacob Lawrence to Faith Ringgold to Nick Cave, to students and teachers all over the world. Hopefully every kid who uses this guide gets a 5 and is inspired to learn more.
Not “Goodbye,” Just “See You Later”
This is, I guess, taking the place of the sensory stimuli this issue (though shoutout to that new Bon Iver/Dijon/Flock of Dimes track, which had me goofily grinning and dancing in the kitchen the moment it started). I went to Sea & Soil’s moving party on Sunday, the umpteenth time I’ve visited in the twoish years since they moved from slinging sandwiches on the outskirts of the Grand Army Plaza greenmarket to their own storefront at President Street off Columbia. It’s basically the platonic ideal of a great sandwich place: worker-owned, sliding-scale, omnivorous but with plenty of veg and vegan options on fresh-baked bread, a great pastry cabinet, and a somewhat accessible public restroom. The only possible challenge was the location itself. But I’ve loved trekking from the Union Street R, the Carroll Street F/G, or the boat to Pier 6 or Atlantic Basin whenever I had a hankering for the Lucy, the Isaac, the Iz, or whatever Noah and Nilda and Gaby came up with of late. By my count, over twenty-one months Sea & Soil became host to three book club meetings, a bunch of post-textile recycling drop-off lunches, a handful of meals before combing the shelves at my beloved Freebird Books up the street, and my 32nd birthday party. All somewhat magical, in that a tiny storefront that held maybe ten people at once in the part of Brooklyn dotted with gardens and cut off by the BQE, the Battery Tunnel, and the harbor, could bring such joy. And last Sunday was no exception, with the worker-owners making sandwiches with whatever they had left (the Sunday donuts were long gone, but I snagged Chrisinda a brownie) and tag-team schmoozing with the regulars. Here’s hoping S&S’s move to spot TBA in Cobble Hill keeps the magic going, and soon. (And hopefully I finally make it to pizza night, because I could never make a Friday trip to the CSWD happen.)
Hope to see you in the streets soon! I’ll be back in touch in early June. Until then, consider forwarding this newsletter to a friend, and stay safe out there.