Every month Untapped Cities Insiders get to explore New York City’s most inaccessible places and attend exciting events hosted by the city’s leading cultural institutions, like our partners the Museum of the City of New York and the Brooklyn Historical Society. In the past, some of the activities Insiders have participated in include climbing to the top of the tower at the Jefferson Market Library, going inside the Little Red Lighthouse and touring the green roof of the Javits Center. Become a member today to gain access to our upcoming, free behind-the-scenes tours and special New York City events all year long! Here are the events Insiders can take part in this November:

November 2nd

Book Walk of the Financial District with “Holly’s Hurricane” Author Marie Carter

Join writer, editor, teacher, tour guide, and Untapped Cities Insider Marie Carter for a walking tour of Manhattan’s Financial District based on her soon to be released novel “Holly’s Hurricane.” On this tour designed especially for Insiders, you will cover hundreds of years of history in one hour while visiting various sites in Lower Manhattan. Along the way, you will hear excerpts from Carter’s new novel and have the chance to ask questions and discuss the topics raised with the author.
TOUR HIGHLIGHTS:

Stop at Fraunces Tavern and learn how Hurricane Sandy, working in the Woolworth Building, and listening to the Bowery Boys inspired “Holly’s Hurricane”
Learn about the real-life effects of Hurricane Sandy on Lower Manhattan
Discover the remnants of General Lovelace Tavern, a colonial structure
See Federal Hall and hear excerpts from the novel
Visit Bowling Green and Stone Street
Find out how the history of the book’s setting in Boston, England intersects with histories of New York City

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November 3rd

Festival Albertine at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy

Photo by Jess Nash courtesy of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy

Explore mental illness and how we can change our perceptions of normality and disease at the Festival Albertine panel discussion “Redefining Normality and Disease” with writers Siri Hustvedt, Laure Murat, artist Johanna Hedva and two representatives of L’Oiseau Mouche Theater Company. The discussion will be moderate by Sara Hendren and is part of an annual, five-day event hosted by Albertine Books. Albertine Books is a bookshop and cultural center operated by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the US. Inaugurated in 2014, Festival Albertine has become a vital summit for discourse between leading French-speaking and American thinkers.

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November 8th

“Activist New York: The Next Generation,” A Discussion at MCNY

Join journalist Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! and leading youth activists Brea Baker, Ramon Contreras, and Hebh Jamal to discuss the key mobilizations of our moment—from gun control to immigrant rights—and how they draw on a long history of protest. This event celebrates the Museum’s publication of Activist New York: A History of People, Protest, and Politics (NYU Press, 2018) and a new case study on the movement against the Vietnam War in the Activist New York exhibition. Museum curator and author of the Activist New York book, Steven Jaffe, will introduce the program.

“Nevermore: The UWS of Edgar Allan Poe with Esther Crain,” A Landmark West! Event

Image via Wikimedia Commons, Library of Congress

Join noted Gilded Age historian, Esther Crain, for a trip back through the mists to those years when Edgar Allan Poe wandered New York City. A gifted storyteller, Esther skillfully weaves together historical facts, anecdotes, and imagery of the time. Untapped Cities Insiders will learn about Poe’s start in Manhattan, his journey from Greenwich Village to the fields of the Upper West Side and how this “shy, solitary, taciturn sort of man” would ease his mind with long walks down through the woods to the not-yet-created Riverside Park and his observations on Manhattan’s development and the end of its rural, spacious charm.

November 9th

Guided Walkthrough and Curator Q&A at the New 5POintz Museum of Street Art

Go on a special tour of MoSA, the newest project by art collective 5Pointz Creates, led by MoSA Curator and 5Pointz Director Marie Flageul and New York City photographer and art educator Rachel Alban. MoSA, which stands for Museum of Street Art, is a site-specific installation housed in the new citizenM Bowery hotel. This “Vertical Love Letter to the Lower East Side” was inspired by icons of the neighborhood, and encompasses 21 works, with each floor dedicated to a single artist’s craft. The participating artists—all of whom were an integral part of the original 5 Pointz—represent seven countries and span ages 25-65. The tour will be followed by a Q&A session with Marie Flageul.

TOUR HIGHLIGHTS:

Private walkthrough of MoSA, the Museum of Street Art with curator Marie Flageul
Learn about the creative process behind the MoSA murals and their relation to the history of the neighborhood
Discover the history of 5Pointz, including the whitewash, historic court case, and evolution into 5Pointz Creates
Explore the relationship between 5Pointz and citizenM, a successful collaboration between the aerosol artist community and real estate hospitality
Q&A to follow with curator Marie Flageul

November 11th

Premiere Screening of “The Manhattan Front” at Anthology Film Archives

The Manhattan Front – featuring Madame Martha Held played by Lee DeLong. Courtesy of Polyvinyl Films

Untapped Cities Insiders are invited to attend the premiere screening of The Manhattan Front, an experimental, historical film about World War I and the Labor Movement in New York City. The film’s premiere at the Anthology Film Archives will coincide with the centennial anniversary of the World War I armistice on November 11th at 11:00am. Created by experimental filmmaker and Guggenheim Fellow Cathy Lee Crane, The Manhattan Front presents the true story of how America entered World War I with Crane’s signature aesthetic of fusing historic archival footage with fictional narrative. Much of the archival footage (from the National Archives in DC) of WWI and historic New York City has never been seen before, as it was recently digitally remastered.

November 13th

The Ultimate NYC Trivia Night at MCNY

The Museum of the City of New York is teaming up with the Gotham Center for New York City History for a night of trivia inspired by the city we know best. Put your knowledge of New York City to the test in categories spanning the city’s epic 400-year history, iconic “only in New York” places and moments, and the notable individuals who have shaped our fair city – for better or for worse. Prizes (and bragging rights!) will be awarded to the top teams. There will be a cash bar and your ticket includes Museum admission, so you can arrive early to explore (and study up on!) the museum’s exhibitions.

November 28th

“Remembering the 70s and 80s: A Bygone Brooklyn,” at the Brooklyn Historical Society

Attend a discussion on the history and culture of Brooklyn in the 1970s and 80s through the lens of street photography. “Remembering the 70s and 80s: A Bygone Brooklyn,” inspired by the gritty images captured in photographer Larry Racioppo’s new book, Brooklyn Before: Photographs, 1971-1983, will feature Racioppo others who remember Brooklyn as it was, including novelist and New York Daily News columnist Denis Hamill and journalist Tom Robbins of the Village Voice and New York Daily News. They will also be joined by Julia Van Haaften, founding curator of the New York Public Library’s photography collection.

November 29th

“Malls vs. Bodegas: Resisting the Suburbanization of the City,” at the Brooklyn Historical Society

Join Center for an Urban Future Executive Director Jonathan Bowles, author of Vanishing New York: How a Great City Lost Its Soul Jeremiah Moss, and Director of Economic Policy at the Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development Lena Afridi for a conversation at the Brooklyn Historical Society moderated by Vanity Fair contributing editor Paul Goldberger as they consider how to counteract the “mall-ification” of public space and commerce in New York City. While chain stores proliferate along neighborhood main streets, a simultaneous phenomenon of storefront vacancy threatens the character of New York City’s famously vibrant street life as landlords push out small business owners, holding out for higher-paying tenants.

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Untapped Cities Insiders Events for November 2018