Sketching the City The concept behind the current exhibition Sketching the City stems from the work of 19th century English writer Charles Dickens. Dickens is very well known in the English-speaking literary world and is best known for his very popular novels Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, and Great Expectations. In one of Charles Dickens’s early collections of short stories, Sketches by Boz, Dickens, under the pen name ‘Boz,’ wrote about the lives of contemporary Londoners. These short stories and even Dickens’s longer works do not convey an abstract or overly elaborate view of life, but instead show life exactly as it would be for an early 19th century Englishman and woman. In the fall of 2011, The Bronx Museum of the Arts and the British Council formed a partnership and held an open call to all New York City teenagers to ‘sketch’ – in the form of an artwork or writing piece – a scene that describes how they view New York City or their respective neighborhoods. Like Dickens’s works, the pieces selected for this art exhibition illustrate an everyday reality that is personal to its creator and yet still relatable to any viewer. These artworks exemplify the views and experiences of the fine artists, photographers, and writers of their respective communities, including the landscape, objects, and various members of their neighborhoods in New York City. Curators and Selection Panel The curators were selected from The Bronx Museum of the Arts’ Teen Council alumni. All curators and selection panelists have recently graduated from high school and are currently pursuing careers in the visual arts. Amanda Eubanks Travis Hewitt-Roach Latoya Weeks A special thanks to Katherine Casado for sitting on the selection panel. Dickens in Pieces - Teacher Workshop On Charles Dickens’s 200th birthday on February 7, 2012, high school teachers from all over New York City attended a professional development workshop as well as a birthday reception at The Bronx Museum of the Arts. Local Dickens expert and Seton Hall Universtiy professor Dr. Jonathan Farina conducted the workshop, “Dickens in Pieces” as a step-by-step process for teaching Dickens to high school students.
British Council and Dickens 2012 In 2012 the British Council worked on a global program of events across 50 countries to mark the bicentenary of Charles Dickens’s birth. In the United States, the British Council USA partnered with The Bronx Museum of the Arts in New York on Sketching the City, a project linking local communities with the modern legacy of Charles Dickens’s writing. Drawing inspiration from one of Dickens’s early works, Sketches by Boz, Sketching the City encourages high school students to use Dickens’s social realist writing and corresponding illustrations as a springboard for their own creative writing, photography and artist expression. As Dickens did in London more than a century ago, local teens have ‘sketched the city’ of New York, capturing the atmosphere of one of the world’s most dynamic, diverse cities. This zine collects together those sketches, showcasing a breadth of young talent and emulating a modernday New York ‘Sketches by Boz’.
The British Council is the United Kingdom’s international non-profit organization for cultural relations and education opportunities. We build engagement and trust for the UK through the exchange of knowledge and ideas between people worldwide. In the US, we increase recognition of the variety of higher education opportunities available in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and facilitate institutional collaborations between the US and UK. Through transatlantic artistic partnerships, we introduce Americans to high-quality, groundbreaking creative work from the UK and our climate change programs support a network of young leaders who are committed to tackling climate change globally and in their own communities. We also develop initiatives that give a voice to the next generation of leaders on both sides of the Atlantic, encouraging them to work together to explore solutions to current and future global issues. With offices in Washington, New York and Los Angeles, the British Council USA also builds global partnerships with US-based institutions to support our work around the world. For more information, please visit www.britishcouncil.org/usa.
Thank you to all of the participants, their families, their teachers, their mentors, and supporters for participating in the global celebration of Charles Dickens’s 200th birthday and exhibition Sketching the City. Winners For the Art & Writing Competition Malik Shaw in Art Ernesto Gonzalez in Photography Syeda Nusrath Wahid in Writing Runner-ups Jennifer Mejia in Art Alvaro Ceballos in Photograhy Syeda Nusrath Wahid in Writing
Sketching the City is an exhibition at The Bronx Museum of the Arts from March 30 - May 6, 2012.
1040 Grand Concourse Bronx, NY 10456 718-681-6000 www.bronxmuseum.org
Malik Shaw Bronx High School for the Visual Arts I am the City Stencil print
1ST PLACE ART
Dana Leahy Saint Vincent Ferrer Creation Train Colored pencil and oil pastel
Gus Yafcak Bard High School for Early College Chelsea Reflections Photograph
Chewon Kim Saint Vincent Ferrer My Neighborhood Acrylic
Raquel Corcino Bronx High School for Visual Arts The Angel Down the Street Photograph
Jade Blake Academy for Scholarship and Entrepreneurship Mr. Dickens at Wall Street, N.Y. Graphite
Jasmin Medina Academy for Scholarship and Entrepreneurship Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge Graphite
A Glimpse In Time Grains of time as fine as silver sand You hold them close; they slip past your hand Leaving the city still and clear Droplets of rain hovering like diamond tears Crimson buildings hold up the sky As citizens pause with glazed eyes Morpheus has come and cast his charm Frozen in time without any harm Leaves me to marvel and to delight Over small shops tucked in plain sight Or sulking branches raised with care And a community with both reserve and flair Peering through a window, I could see Students bent over books in groups of three These are the sights that would make you smile So why not stay in the Bronx for a while?
Syeda Nusrath Wahid St. Raymond Academy for Girls
1ST PLACE WRITI NG
Nicol Williams St. Raymond Academy for Girls Night Watch Photograph
Jennifer Cantada Saint Vincent Ferrer East Side Story Watercolor, pen, colored pencil
Alvaro Ceballos ELLIS Preparatory Academy View through my window Photographs
2ND PLACE PHOT O
A
Welcome Home
t noon, I was walking downtown on 5th Avenue. People turned to see me wearing some old ripped jeans and a long blue sweater, well a man’s sweater. Appearance, what would be New York City without fashion? I go to school, and everyone is worried about the latest Nike’s and Jordan’s, the newest clothes and if they belong to a famous designer, like Alexander McQueen or the newest Channel’s perfume that smells fantastique. Downtown New York is all about what you wear, like Carrie Latet once said “Pretty is the Queen that rules our land.” But does appearance, and the intent to be “pretty” ruleour city? I ask myself that question until I head down to get home. Uptown gives me a different feeling. Once I reach 225th street I pass the bridge connecting Manhattan and the Bronx. I feel that I finally blend in. I notice people wearing clothes that don’t combine, people with crazy hairstyles, groups of kids hanging in the corners, mothers holding grocery bags, smiles, smirks, the sounds of horns and of the train moving in its filthy tracks. I listen to the squeaky sound my sneakers make as I walk. In these dirty streets is where I feel free, where they are not pretense. Here I am not what I wear; I am who I dare to be. I don’t feel fear, or insecurity. I feel powerful, but a sense of caution still lingers in my head. I check my phone. One missed call from Mama, which means she’s already worried that I am not home. As I walk, Marble Hill is empty. But it’s ok! It’s mostly lonely at night. I walk and notice one of the biggest buildings in my block. This building brings back old sour memories; this is why I am not fond of it. In the summer, at the entry of this old pile of bricks there’s a man that sits in his wheelchair, his long beard resembles my grandfathers’ but his eyes. They are cold and resentful. To me? No, I hadn’t done anything bad to him, to life? Probably. He sits there and
drives young adults away from their road, he gives them false hope, and guides to a false haven. Drugs end up turning those youngsters into a pile of broken dreams. The streets are like an open mouth that swallows you in one direction. At night it seems like an abandoned, old street. The lamps that light my path make me feel safer, but under the broken ones, I can feel the coldness of the air and my body hurries reaching for light. Some people tell stories about ghosts; here people tell stories about angry men that hold guns. At the thought of drunken or dangerous men my heart accelerates with fear, and my pace quickens. A hand comes down on my shoulder, and I jump on place. I first notice the pain in my back, from carrying my heavy bag all this time. Then, the smell that comes from the garbage in the ground, and the smell of a perfume. In a time of fright my senses seem to expand, and I suddenly listen to the engine of cars and the bells moving in the top of the church. I feel the cold air under my sweater and as I turn around I embrace myself. I see his sweet smile first, and I feel safe. As a reflex I push him a little, “You scared me!” He smiles, “Did I? It’s your fault, you looked very thoughtful.” I look at him “haha very funny.” We stay in silence until I notice the light in my watch screaming at me that it’s already 9:20. “What are you doing at this time of the day outside, Luis?” he doesn’t smile. “I’m on my way home. Let’s go” he starts walking, without caring if I follow him or not. I sigh in silence and walk behind him. He doesn’t stop, he doesn’t talk. We are three buildings away from home. I give up. He didn’t used to be like this, but people change. They meet new people, they start to like new things you don’t like, beer or weed, for example. Then, relationships and bonds break. If I focus enough, I can feel the link between Luis and me breaking.
We face the front door and I climb one step and ring the buzzer for apartment number 6. Luis doesn’t press the one to his home, and I don’t press it for him. A minute later the door opens, and I push in the crystal door. I wait for him to make a motion, to say a word, but he does none. “Are you going up?” I ask, because there’s nothing else I can do. He walks in, and gives me a fainting smile. I can smell food wherever I turn my nose to, and feel the warmness once you are inside the building. We walk the first set of stairs and suddenly; I am facing apartment number 6. “You home!” Luis says rather happy which seems odd, I see him walking down the stairs again. “Hey! Where are you going? You live upstairs!” but I already know. He is going 3 blocks away to an old gray house that has all its windows broken and the door has to be rotten by now. Most people think is abandoned when they pass by it, but it’s not. In that house it’s where Luis lost its innocence and since then it became his fake haven. I look into his eyes trying to see the Luis I met 3 years ago, but that Luis isn’t there anymore. He gives me a blank stare, and turns and goes. His feet stomp in the marble floor, I still can smell his cologne, the door opens and then suddenly closes and I know I already lost him. I look at my door and I whisper, “Welcome Home!”
Lisbeth Bueno ELLIS Preparatory Academy
Gabriella Shull Bard High School Early College Great Unexpectations Photograph
Ernesto Gonazalez Bronx High School for the Visual Arts Urban Reflection Photograph
1ST PLACE PHOT O
Gabriella Shull Bard High School Early College Who Knows? Photograph
Cory Smith Bronx High School for the Visual Arts Red City Photograph
Genesis Suero Bronx High School for the Visual Arts Bronx Taxi Drive Graphite
Home Sweet Home Raven Hair and hazel eyes Golden curls and blue eyes Scarlet waves and emerald eyes Black skin, brown skin, and white Small and slim Tall with bulk A Sea of faces A wave of sounds Sprightly dialects and tantalizing aromas Cold sunlight and brisk winds Streaming rain and cool concrete A row of houses standing sentry Slender saplings dwarfed by brink giants Under a wide-rimmed sky Home Sweet Home
Syeda Nusrath Wahid St. Raymond Academy for Girls
RUNN ERUP WRITI NG
Jennifer Mejia St. Jean Baptiste El Barrio: Lexington Ave. Watercolor and pen
RUNN ERUP ART
Angelica Flores Bronx Academy of Letters Flowers Do Grow Here Photograph
Khine Win Bard High School Early College Graffiti Central Photograph
Tevin Brown Bronx High School for the Visual Arts My Town Graphic design
Angelica Flores Bronx Academy of Letters Dreams in Streets Photograph