Nick Brignola Interview by Monk Rowe - 7/28/1997 - Clinton, NY
Baritone saxophonist Nick Brignola talks about learning by ear, World War II memories, Paul Desmond, and diverse playing situations.
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The Queens and Brooklyn Nobody Knows: A Block by Block Exploration
November 15, 2016
The Fall 2016 Presidential Lecture Series:
“The Queens and Brooklyn Nobody Knows: A Block by Block Exploration”
A Lecture By Dr. William Helmreich
Distinguished Professor Of Sociology
The City College Of New York
The City University Of New York
Bill Helmreich walked 6,000 miles to write a book, The New York Nobody Knows. The goal was to capture the heart and soul of this great metropolis by speaking with hundreds of people from different walks of life. In this talk he will focus on two of the hottest boroughs, Queens and Brooklyn, to explore issues like immigration, community, ethnicity, and gentrification.
Bill will also talk about how he came to walk 121,000 blocks (that’s how big NYC is) and why walking is the best way to learn about a city he calls “the world’s greatest outdoor museum.” You’ll hear about the man with two boa constrictors wrapped around his neck, a man with a unique flower garden, a woman who decorated her home in a special way, a church that performed exorcisms on a regular basis, and a homeowner who placed 1140 stuffed toys in a cherry tree.
Dr. William Helmreich received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Washington University (St. Louis). He is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the Colin Powell School of Civic & Global Leadership at City College of New York and a Professor of Sociology at City University Graduate Center. He is also a Permanent Senior Fellow at Yale University. Helmreich served as Department Chairman for five years at City College and taught at Yale University before coming to CUNY.
A former Woodrow Wilson Fellow, Dr. Helmreich is the author or editor of 15 books, including The New York Nobody Knows: Walking 6,000 Miles in the City (Princeton University Press), winner of the 2015 Guides Association of New York City Inaugural Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Book Writing; The Brooklyn Nobody Knows: An Urban Walking Guide (Princeton University Press); What Was I Thinking: The Dumb Things We Do and How to Avoid Them (Rowman & Littlefield); The Things they Say Behind Your Back: Stereotypes and the Myths Behind Them (Doubleday and Transaction Books); Against All Odds: Holocaust Survivors and the Successful Lives they Made in America (Simon & Schuster); Contemporary Issues in Society (McGraw-Hill) with Hugh Lena & William McCord; and The Black Crusaders: A Case Study of a Black Militant Organization (Harper & Row).
Professor Helmreich is currently writing a five book series, one volume on each borough, for Princeton University Press. As a result, he has been walking NYC again. The first volume on Brooklyn appeared in October 2016. His lifelong interest in the Big Apple was sparked by a game he and his father played when he was a child, called “Last Stop.” Each week they would take a subway to the last stop and walk around the neighborhood. When they ran out of last stops, they went to the second, third, and fourth-to-last stops. As he put it “My father gave me the greatest present a parent can give besides love—the gift of time.” He has written for The New York Times, Newsday, The Los Angeles Times, and has appeared on Oprah, Larry King, CNN, CBS Morning News, and as a guest anchor on NBC TV News and has been profiled in the New Yorker magazine. A May 2016 segment of Sunday Morning News with Charles Osgood was devoted to his book about New York.