New York Urban Explorers: Art, Food, Museums, Walks, etc.

The 1871 Great Chicago Fire - History Livestream - Hosted by Robert Kelleman

You’re invite to join us for an online/virtual lecture and film screening of The Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
This will be a two-part program.
Part one will be a history lecture and part two will be a film screening of The Great Chicago Fire: A Chicago Stories Special from PBS affiliate WTTW.

During and after the program you’re welcome to join in an online discussion with your fellow history lovers via Zoom.

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The Great Chicago Fire: A Chicago Stories Special
On October 10, 1871, Chicago awoke to an unrecognizable landscape: where 48 hours earlier there had been a vibrant city, now there was nothing but rubble stretched for miles on end. The Great Chicago Fire: A Chicago Stories Special brings to life this seismic event as never before, using vivid animations, elaborate re-creations, and interviews with historians and the descendants of eyewitnesses.

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The Great Chicago Fire burned in Chicago, Illinois, United States, during October 8–10, 1871. The fire killed approximately 300 people, destroyed 17,000 structures across roughly 3.3 square miles (9 km2), and left more than 100,000 residents homeless. The fire began in a neighborhood southwest of the city center. A long period of hot, dry, windy conditions, and the wooden construction prevalent in the city, led to the conflagration spreading quickly. The fire leapt the south branch of the Chicago River and destroyed much of central Chicago and then crossed the main stem of the river, consuming the Near North Side.
Help flowed to the city after the fire. The city government improved building codes to stop the rapid spread of future fires and rebuilt rapidly to those higher standards. A donation from the United Kingdom spurred the establishment of the Chicago Public Library.

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Winslow Homer & The American Experience - Thursday Night Art History Art History Series - Hosted by Robert Kelleman

We invite you to join us for a look into the fascinating life and career of iconic American artist Winslow Homer.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Winslow Homer is one of the most popular and important artists in American history. Following the Civil War the United States experienced increased industrialization and urbanization (the Gilded Age) yet Homer’s paintings captured the innocence of daily rural American life.

This is one of a series of educational and entertaining art history programs focusing on “the American Experience”, the history of the United States through the context of American art: painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, furniture, fashion, etc.
We’ll also periodically explore the relationship between American art history and a variety of other cultural mediums such as music, literature, dance, food, religion, economics, food, politics, sports, radio, television, film, plus much more!

Pollock Screening: Ed Harris As Jackson Pollock - Art History Livestream - Hosted by Robert Kelleman

Let's honor and remember one of America's greatest modern artists, Jackson Pollock, on the 70th anniversary of his death (August 11, 1956).
We'll be screening the 2000 film "Pollock", which features an all-star cast including Ed Harris in the title role.

The first portion of our program, approximately 15-20 minutes, will be a brief overview of the film, including its historical context, plot summary, things to look for, accuracy, etc.
The second portion of our program will be a full screening of the film.

During and after the screening we invite you to participate in a discussion of the film with your fellow art lovers via Zoom.

Paul Jackson Pollock (January 28, 1912 – August 11, 1956) was an American painter. A major figure in the abstract expressionist movement, he was widely noticed for his "drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a horizontal surface, enabling him to view and paint his canvases from all angles. It was called all-over painting and action painting, because Pollock covered the entire canvas and used the force of his whole body to paint, often in a frenetic dancing style. This extreme form of abstraction divided critics: some praised the immediacy of the creation, while others derided the random effects.
A reclusive and volatile personality, Pollock struggled with alcoholism for most of his life. In 1945, he married artist Lee Krasner, who became an important influence on his career and on his legacy. Pollock died in August 1956 at age 44 in an alcohol-related single-car collision when he was driving. Four months after his death, Pollock was given a memorial retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. A larger, more comprehensive exhibition of his work was held there in 1967. In 1998 and 1999, Pollock's work was honored with large-scale retrospective exhibitions at MoMA and the Tate Gallery in London.

Pollock is a 2000 American independent biographical drama film centered on the life of American painter Jackson Pollock, his struggles with alcoholism, as well as his troubled marriage to his wife Lee Krasner. The film stars Ed Harris, Marcia Gay Harden, Jennifer Connelly, Val Kilmer, Robert Knott, Bud Cort, Molly Regan, and Sada Thompson, and was directed by Harris.
Marcia Gay Harden won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for portraying Lee Krasner. Ed Harris received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his portrayal of Pollock. The film was a long-term personal project for Harris based on his reading of the 1989 biography Jackson Pollock: An American Saga, written by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith.

The 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in NY - Film History Livestream Hosted by Robert Kelleman

We invite you to join us for two documentary film screenings on the 1911 New York Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.

During and after the screenings there will be opportunities to discuss the films with your fellow participants via Zoom.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on Saturday, March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city, and one of the deadliest in U.S. history. The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers - 123 women and girls and 23 men - who died from the fire, smoke inhalation, falling, or jumping to their deaths. Most of the victims were recent Italian or Jewish immigrant women and girls aged 14 to 23; of the victims whose ages are known, the oldest victim was 43-year-old Providenza Panno and the youngest were 14-year-olds Kate Leone and Rosaria "Sara" Maltese.
The factory was located on the 8th, 9th, and 10th floors of the Asch Building, which had been built in 1901. Later renamed the "Brown Building", it still stands at 23–29 Washington Place near Washington Square Park, on the New York University (NYU) campus. The building has been designated a National Historic Landmark and a New York City landmark.
Because the doors to the stairwells and exits were locked - practice at the time to prevent workers from taking unauthorized breaks and to reduce theft - many of the workers could not escape from the burning building and jumped from the high windows. There were no sprinklers in the building. The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers.

Triangle: Remembering the Fire Trailer (HBO - 40 minutes)
From Emmy - winning filmmakers Marc Levin and Daphne Pinkerson, this 40-minute documentary recounts the horror of March 25, 1911, when young garment workers perished in the worst industrial accident in New York City history (up until 9/11), triggering widespread reforms and ushering in the birth of modern labor movement. In addition to riveting stories of heart break and courage told by descendants of several of the fire's victims and survivors, the documentary explains how the tragedy occurred in the wake of an earlier strike (initiated by Triangle employees) that unified some 20,000 garment workers, but ended violence and few concessions by labor leaders. The Saturday afternoon fire, in which workers were literally locked inside their workspace by management apparently worried about theft, galvanized the public's outrage against big business and its treatment of employees. It also forced Tammany Hall officials to work with the fledgling International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) to enact legislation improving safety, conditions and wages for garment workers -- a trend that climaxed in New Deal reforms twenty years later, and is the foundation of today's labor standards.