Pat Taub
Memorial Day in Manhattan
Alice Neel
Last weekend I traveled to New York City to take in art and New York’s scenic walks. The weekend’s pounding rain curtailed some of my plans, but my mission to see the Alice Neel Exhibit at the Met was not thwarted by the rain. Below is the painting, “Marxist Girl,” from 1972. Neel, a life long peace and justice activist, frequently painted radical artists. This woman in the painting projects a bold confidence.
Ghost Forest
Another highlight of my NYC trip was viewing Ghost Forest, the installation of dead trees in Madison Square Park by artist and designer Maya Lin, who also designed the Vietnam Memorial in Washington. Ghost Forest consists of 49 dead cedar trees intended to raise awareness of ecosystem die-off due to climate change. Walking through the trees was a very sobering experience.
Encountering the Queen
I also had a chance to be photographed with Queen Elizabeth during her stop over at the teashop, “Tea and Sympathy,” located in Greenwich Village. The Queen was mum on the subject of grandson Harry.
The Booksellers
This week I watched the fascinating documentary, The Booksellers on Amazon Prime. The film offers a behind the scenes look at Manhattan’s rare book world, stretching from the turn of the century when book stores thrived in New York up to the present, where in spite of the dwindling number of book stores in Manhattan, there is still an audience for rare books. If you love books, eccentric book store owners and vintage bookstores, you should be enchanted by this documentary.
Carol Anderson
Yesterday I watched a powerful interview with writer and sociologist Carol Anderson, author of White Rage, discuss her new book, The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America. Anderson examines the racist roots behind the Second Amendment. She argues that it was crafted to ensure that slave owners could quickly crush any rebellion or resistance from those whom they’d enslaved in reaction to rising numbers of freedom-seeking Black militia following the end of slavery. Anderson stressed, “This isn’t an anti-gun or a pro-gun book. This is a book about African Americans’ rights.” Anderson contends we are now living under “Jim Crow 2.0”
