Walking Tours: Ben Shahn
In conjunction with the exhibition Ben Shahn’s New York: The Photography of Modern Times
Ben Shahn’s Lower East Side Sunday, November 19, 1 pm
Meet at Strauss Square (Essex and Canal Streets, at East Broadway)
Joyce Mendelsohn, New York architectural and social historian, will lead visitors in exploring the complex world of the Lower East Side in the 1930’s. Participants will discover—on the streets where Ben Shahn photographed—how the rise of trade unionism and Socialism, the immigrant struggle to preserve Jewish identity in the New World, and the role of the Yiddish press intertwined to create this unique neighborhood of almost seventy years ago. Reservations required; see below.
Ben Shahn’s Greenwich Village and Union Square Sunday, December 3, 1 pm
Meets at the Washington Square Arch (Fifth Avenue at Washington Square North)
Led by Bruce Kayton, historian of New York labor and the working class, this tour traces the social history of the Greenwich Village and Union Square neighborhoods where Shahn photographed, encompassing the sites of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, the Industrial Workers of the World, the first Labor Day parade, the socialist newspaper the New York Call, and the labor rallies at Union Square. Reservations required; see below.
Cosponsored by the Grey Art Gallery; the Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life, New York University; the Lower East Side Conservancy; and the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.