|
CUNYBMCC uploaded a new video
(1 week ago)
|
|
| |
|
|
CUNYBMCC uploaded a new video
(1 week ago)
The first thing Christian Belena noticed about the e-mail that landed in his in-box last October was its unusual blue font. But what really hooked ...
more
The first thing Christian Belena noticed about the e-mail that landed in his in-box last October was its unusual blue font. But what really hooked his attention was the source. The sender was one DeeDee DiBenedetto, a Louisiana-based private investigator whose client—an amateur historian named Martin Gauthier—was hoping to locate the mortal remains of a long-dead Louisiana politician. She thought Belena could help.
A liberal arts major at BMCC and self-confessed history addict, Belena jumped at the request. The politician in question was Joshua Baker—the last military governor of Louisiana, he says. After he died in 1885, his body seemed to have disappeared. Gauthier had spent nearly three years researching, cataloguing and identifying the resting places of Louisianas governors going back to 1803. He had records for all but six; Baker was among the missing.
Preserving history
DiBenedetto had contacted Belena because she thought Baker might be buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, a National Historic Landmark in Brooklyn. Belena had worked there as a volunteer researcher and still led guided tours. He knew the place inside and out.
I was determined to help Martin and DeeDee, Belena says. I know firsthand what its like to lose your history. I see it all the time with the destruction caused by overbuilding in New York and, after the tragedy in Louisiana a few years ago, I wanted to help them preserve that little bit of history. If Baker was buried in Green-Wood, I knew I could find him, he says.
Packing a camera and laptop, Belena drove to Green-Wood where he pored through the archives and found a handwritten ledger confirming Bakers whereabouts. It took me about an hour and a half to find his grave, which had been badly weathered, he says. The letters were barely legible. But there was no doubt hed found his man. Savoring the triumph, Belena photographed the stone and sent the pictures along with copies of the documentation to DiBenedetto. Case closed.
Changing careers
For Belena, few pursuits are more enjoyable than exploring the lost byways of history—especially the history of New York City. After graduating from high school, I joined the Navy and was stationed in Italy for a while, he says. My fascination with history—which Id inherited as a child from my parents—was stoked by visits to ancient ruins in places like Rome and Pompey. Following his discharge, he returned to the States and embarked on a career in graphic design and desktop publishing.
The work provided a paycheck but little satisfaction. What he really wanted to be was an historian—something I hadnt given myself a chance to do when I was younger, he says. But first he would have to return to school and earn a bachelors degree, and in 2007 he enrolled in BMCC as a part-time student. He was 38 and married, with two children; sacrifices would be necessary. I told my wife Amanda this was something I had to do, he says. She was totally supportive.
Two semesters away from graduating, Belena has maintained a near-perfect GPA while continuing to lead private tours at Green-Wood and write prolifically for academic journals. His account of the search for Joshua Bakers burial place—co-written with DiBenedetto and Martin Gauthier—has been accepted for publication in a leading national history magazine. Eventually, he plans to earn a doctorate in history and teach at the college level, while continuing to immerse himself in the study of history.
The opportunity to be part of the search for Joshua Bakers remains taught me what it truly means to be part of an historic discovery, Belena says. But what mattered most of all was the feeling of helping someone regain a part of their history.
less
|
|
| |
|
|
CUNYBMCC uploaded a new video
(2 weeks ago)
Elspeth Brown always knew she was destined to be a dancer. She took her first lesson at age three, trained at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theaters conser...
more
Elspeth Brown always knew she was destined to be a dancer. She took her first lesson at age three, trained at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theaters conservatory through high school, and performed with the company before moving to New York in 2001 to continue her career.
Then 9/11 happened.
A critical juncture
I was in the World Trade Center at the time, she recalls. While I was able to get out safely, I thought, This is a sign. I need to reassess my life and figure out what I really want to do.
And, just like that, she decided to stop dancing.
All Id ever known was ballet, and that was fine—but I knew there was something else lurking, she says. Id always had a strong curiosity about science, philosophy and literature. So, in 2002, she enrolled in BMCC.
Not surprisingly, while delving deeply into the schools science and liberal arts offerings, she also took several speech and theater courses. What struck me was how demanding and academically rigorous my professors—especially Kenneth Antrobus and Alkis Papoutsis—were. They never allowed any of their students to settle for accomplishing less than they were capable of. They were amazing.
For Brown, college was a revelation. I found I was actually pretty good at school and had no regrets about giving up dancing, she says. My feeling is that even if theres something youre supposed to do, you sometimes need to let it go for a while to see it from another perspective and understand its value.
After graduating in 2004, Brown went on to Hunter College. I had more confidence in myself now, and realized I did miss dancing, she says. At Hunter she majored in theater and minored in dance, and met some amazing people from diverse backgrounds, just as I had at BMCC. Meanwhile, the college and dance sides of my life began to coalesce—something that wouldnt have happened if Id just kept dancing.
Easing back
When Brown graduated from Hunter magna cum laude in 2008, she knew it was time to get back to dancing. She started slowly, performing with small troupes and reaching out to other dancers. Last year, she founded Eyes of a Blue Dog—a primarily modern dance company that melds classical forms with jazz, hip-hop, African music and other genres. The name of the company comes from a short story by the Colombian writer Gabriel Maria Marquez. His writing is about dreams and magical reality—how we all want to be somewhere but dont always know where were going, she says.
Eyes of a Blue Dog made its debut last winter with a highly imaginative work called White Noise that explored the dichotomy between movement structure and the sounds it created alongside the ambient noises of the room, she says. The troupe has also created new works for arts festivals such as the Hatch Presenting Series and Steps on Broadway.
I dont think any of this would have happened if I hadnt gone to BMCC first, Brown says. That experience really prepared me for Hunter and life afterward. It taught me that I could go wherever my path led, and make whatever I wanted of it.
less
|
|
| |
|
|
CUNYBMCC uploaded a new video
(2 weeks ago)
Rescued from Oblivion
November 20, 2009
Interview with Professor Rosemarie Reed.
Not long after the fall of the Soviet Union, Rosemarie Reed produced...
more
Rescued from Oblivion
November 20, 2009
Interview with Professor Rosemarie Reed.
Not long after the fall of the Soviet Union, Rosemarie Reed produced a radio show on Mikhail Gorbachev which caught the notice of an executive at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He told me if I secured the rights to turn the show into a film, CPB would fund it, recalls Reed, an adjunct lecturer in BMCCs English and Developmental Skills departments.
Reed had spent several years in radio but never ventured into film. Undaunted, she traveled to Russia, where she enlisted the cooperation of the former Soviet leader and made Conversations with Gorbachev, a highly acclaimed 90-minute documentary that was aired over PBS. Over the next few years, she went on to make two more films about Russian history, moved to Berlin—and then her focus shifted.
Women of Science
I read a biography of Lise Meitner, an Austrian physicist who lived and worked in Germany during the time of Nazi rule, Reed says. She and Otto Hahn discovered nuclear fission, but few people have heard of her. With funding from the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Reed produced a documentary on Meitner for airing on PBS. She followed up with a film on Irène Joliot-Curie, who, with her husband, is credited with the discovery of artificial radioactivity.
Like so many great women of science, Meitner and Joliot-Curie remain unsung heroes, says Reed. Irènes mother, Marie Curie, is widely known as a pioneer in the study of radioactivity, but few have heard of Irene, who shared a Nobel Prize with her husband. Lise Meitner is likewise consigned to unfair obscurity. She was on track to receive a Nobel, but lost out when she was exiled by the Nazis. Otto Hahn took the prize for himself.
Looking ahead, Reed hopes to bring other overlooked women of science into the foreground through her art—women such as Rachel Carson, a founder of modern environmentalism; 19th-century mathematician Ada Byron Lovelace, who collaborated with Charles Babbage on the first computer; and pharmacologist Frances Kelsey, who was responsible for banning the birth-deforming drug thalidomide from being marketed in the United States in the 1960s.
Reed is also working on a long-term project about Ravensbruck, the only German concentration camp built exclusively to house women. She recalls her first visit to the site: A friend had taken me there, and I wondered aloud what it would be like to stand in the field as the women whod been interned there had stood—starving, sick and freezing. On a frigid day, she removed her coat, boots and hat and found she couldnt bear the cold for more than a few minutes.
Women oppressing women
Then and there I decided to make a film about the camp even if it took me 10 years, Reed says. She travels to Ravensbruck regularly—to continue work on the film and also to conduct tours for visiting American high school and college students.
Not many people know about Ravensbruck—that it was designed expressly for women, and that it was a training site for female concentration camp guards, Reed says. This was a place where women killed other women and other womens children. Its an aspect of the Holocaust few people know about.
By her own admission, Reed didnt follow a conventional path into TV and film. Id never even gone to film school, she says. But I was fortunate to have access to friends and colleagues who worked in the field who were willing to teach me what they knew. I cant tell you how I made the transition, but somehow I did.
At least one of her Russian history films provided a segue into projects to come. It was about Anna Larina, the wife of Nikolai Bukharin, one of the founders of the Russian Revolution, Reed says. She herself figured importantly in the Revolution. During Stalins reign her child was taken from her and she was imprisoned for more than 20 years in a Soviet labor camp. Since then, Reeds work has centered around women—primarily women who have accomplished great things or suffered at the hands of oppressors. When I do these films, I enter history. Its a place I love to be.
less
|
|
| |
|
|
CUNYBMCC uploaded a new video
(2 weeks ago)
On September 11, 2001, Borough of Manhattan Community College earned the unfortunate distinction of being the only community college in the nation ...
more
On September 11, 2001, Borough of Manhattan Community College earned the unfortunate distinction of being the only community college in the nation to suffer the loss of a building—Fiterman Hall—due to a terrorist attack.
When World Trade 7 collapsed on 9/11, it fell against adjacent Fiterman Hall, located at 30 West Broadway between Barclay and Park Place, leaving a huge gash in the buildings southern and eastern facades. The site was coated in white ash, the building irreparably damaged, and the fast-growing colleges instructional space cut by one third.
Ironically, that month in 2001, The City University of New York (CUNY) and the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY) had just reached the end of a total rehabilitation of the building, including extensive asbestos abatement.
We were more than 90% complete, in a gut renovation of Fiterman Hall, when tragedy struck, said Paul Williams, DASNYs Executive Director, who spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony.
Fiterman Hall:
The latest milestone in Lower Manhattans comeback from 9/11 What followed was years of planning for a safe and efficient decontamination, deconstruction and rebuilding of Fiterman Hall, made possible with funding from New York State and City budgets, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the September 11th Fund, a property insurance settlement, and a community effort led in large part by New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.
This is a long-awaited day in the reconstruction of my Lower Manhattan community, said Speaker Silver. And it is an especially gratifying day for me, as the careful deconstruction and reconstruction of Fiterman Hall has been at the forefront of my efforts to bring my hometown community back from the devastation of September 11.
The severely damaged Fiterman Hall was razed to the ground this fall, 2009, with reconstruction slated to begin this month.
Fiterman Halls reconstruction will be the latest milestone in Lower Manhattans remarkable comeback, and its transformation into a vibrant, 24/7, family-friendly community, said Mayor Bloomberg. This new world-class academic building is an investment not only in Borough of Manhattan Community College, but in the students and faculty who will occupy the building and the people that live and work in Lower Manhattan.
Steve Fiterman, speaking on behalf of his parents, who donated the original building to CUNY for BMCC in 1993 said, I am deeply honored to participate in this historic groundbreaking on behalf of my mother, Shirley Fiterman, who couldnt join us today. But I want to convey how happy she is—and how happy my father Miles would have been—that Fiterman Hall will once again stand tall on the BMCC campus.
less
|
|
