all the things I did in (1) summer of 2021.

May 25: Bryant Park

eople watching at Bryant Park, with the sun on your skin, is very soothing. It gets hot.

May 26: The Morgan Library and Museum

Where I first saw “Feast for the eyes”, a photography book dissecting a timeline of food-related photography and attitudes. It was being sold for $60, and I bought it off Amazon a short time later for $38.

We saw plenty of David Hockney drafts of his models and muses. It’s jarring to see love and devotion in that way - over the course of his career, he kept returning to the same personalities. I loved his depictions of experience as well, with the selective red dominating the scene and the short asides he wrote to the viewer.

May 27: The Whitney Museum

The Whitney Musuem is a great way to burn a few hours. This time in particular there was a huge exhibit of Julie Mehetru art: fascinating labors of lines and swirls. Something that stood out to me was one of the short passageways to the outdoor roof exhibit space, which was being used to demonstrate the sounds and sights of a forest landscape. The room was washed in bright green with simple text on the wall:

“TO CONVERT CRICKET CHIRPS TO DEGREES FAHRENHEIT, COUNT THE NUMBER OF CHIRPS IN 14 SECONDS, THEN ADD 40 TO GET THE TEMPERATURE.”

his musuem also reignited my appreciation for Edward Hopper. I like the chunks of color he uses - they’re closer to how I believe we experience colors and textures yet still fine enough to make me look like a bobblehead to catch all the texture in the light.

I nearly cried when I walked into the Dawoud Bey exhibit. His photos were alarming in how stark they’re positioned, but the section regarding teen perspectives reached me deeply. A lot of the time teenagers are perceived as immature or “unfinished” in their course to adulthood, but the short blurbs next to each portrait demonstrated their clarity of thought.

May 31: First Park

I visited this small walled park alone and saw a giant appreciative wall for Scientists and Immunologists. Two giant hands contained a glowing vial with the Cadeucus of Hermes in fiery white. A delighted but almost mad expression is on the scientist/immunologist’s face. When I visited again with a friend a few days later, it was painted over to be used as another canvas for someone inspired by Basquiat/Samo.

June 2: The New Museum: Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America

This exhibit featured a video component that drove me to tears. It was filmed and edited in a way that instantly reminded me of how I see memories: not as long events or fulfilled actions, but as snippets spliced together. At the time, my mother was still alive, but I have always struggled with the grief of a terminal diagnosis. I cried because I could remember and see all the good memories we had together. It is so striking to imagine that a handful of days later I would be traveling back to Georgia to say my goodbyes.

The exhibit itself was also very moving. It spoke directly about the suffering of Black lives in America and the deep effects of police culture on African Americans. The mediums of art were, as usual, most interesting to me: I especially loved the car installation and the dramatic, floor-to-ceiling stands on the fourth floor.

June 4: Pier 3, Empire Fulton Ferry State Park, 11:20 PM EST

June 6: Grand Bazaar Flea Market, Lincoln Center (The New Lawn), budding architects’ walk to 1st Street, The Church of St. Paul the Apostle near Fordham University Lincoln Center campus, The Church of Saint Mary the Virgin near Times Square, St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church near St. Mark’s Place, Special Special store

June 10: Long walk from home to Battery City Park

June 12: The Hare Krishna Festival in Washington Square Park

June 18: McSorley’s Bar near St. Mark’s Place

June 19: The American Museum of Natural History, Central Park Great Lawn, Neue Galerie, Albertine

June 20: Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral

June 22: Pottery Night!

June 25: Surprise Party for our good friend :)

June 26: (Biking/) Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and through Little Italy/Chinatown... also collecting a lot of Tony’s Chocolonely on the way!

June 27: MoMA PS1... “I wanna get well” by Gregg Bordowitz, the Niki de Saint Phalle exhibit, and a Black Trans Liberation memorial hall

The HIV/AIDS epidemic was the first way that I have understood the issues that LGBTQ+ face in America. I *think* that I’m pretty open to other gender identities but that is speaking from the privilege of someone who has never had that challenged. In my short lifetime, I’ve only understood a handful of the ways people love people. This collection on Bordowitz’s life, activism, and relationships was such a open window into the feelings and anxieties LGBTQ+ people felt during this time, and still feel. It was especially haunting to understand in the context of what Big Pharma can do during a global pandemic. When you compare and contrast these two major public health events, it is so clear what the barriers to access were: discrimination and hatred.

The Black Trans Liberation memorial hall nearly had me in tears, too. The pictures of the women and their ages made it so clear and so devastating. The statistics show that young Black trans women are at a significantly greater risk of being victim to a crime, especially a violent one. Those women died and were targeted because of their gender identity and history. I would not consider myself an activist, but I am in the process of being educated. This is history to be learned and taught and acted upon.