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Kathleen Hulser

Kathleen Hulser is an independent historian who manages cultural projects. She is curator at the New York Transit Museum. Hulser has recently worked on rewriting tours of Gracie Mansion and City Hall. She has taught history, urban studies and American Studies at Pace, New York University and the New School. She is currently working on a film/exhibition project about an early 20th century caricaturist, "Rediscovering Kate Carew."

Harlem Soundscape: The Bells of St. Martins

December 31, 2013 by Kathleen Hulser 2 Comments

bigbellBells ringing from a forest of steeples, horseshoes striking cobblestones, boat whistles in the harbor, Yiddische mamas scolding children from tenement windows. These are instantly recognizable noises that evoke a historical time and place, adding up to what today’s historians sometimes call a “soundscape.”

In today’s cities when the most characteristic sound may be the giant crash of falling brick walls as old buildings are demolished, soundscapes are a precious way of experiencing history outdoors. This heritage is particularly relevant in urban settings where so many layers of the city have gone missing. [Read more…] about Harlem Soundscape: The Bells of St. Martins

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Black History, Cultural History, Harlem, Historic Preservation, Music, Musical History, New York City, Performing Arts, Religion

Saved: Memories of a Lynching

October 22, 2013 by Kathleen Hulser 1 Comment

ChorusTreeQuietly, a line of singers circled a lone tree on the edge of the Harlem River, in the shadow of the 145th Street Bridge, late Sunday afternoon on September 29.  The group swelled in numbers as the shadows lengthened. Hums, moans, soft cries and low tones began to form a chorus of spirit noises as the performance “Saved” got underway. [Read more…] about Saved: Memories of a Lynching

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Black History, Civil Rights, Crime and Justice, Music, Musical History, New York City, Performing Arts, Public History, Theatre

Animal Fancy At The Armory Spring Show, NY

May 9, 2013 by Kathleen Hulser Leave a Comment

 Clinton Howell Gallery
Rosewood Lion. India. Clinton Howell Antiques

Lions, toucans, dolphins, dogs, cocks, — critters galore tread the echoing halls of the Park Avenue Armory in this year’s annual Spring Show, NYC of Art and Antiques.

Made of glass, paint, leather, rosewood, bronze, silver and precious jewels these fanciful creatures are testimony to the enduring pleasures of the animal kingdom as a theme in art and design. And since the ASPCA is the sponsor and even beneficiary of a portion of some sales at this year’s event, tracking the artistic fauna forges a trail through the riches of an extravagant spring ritual. [Read more…] about Animal Fancy At The Armory Spring Show, NY

Filed Under: History, New Exhibits Tagged With: Art History, Natural History, New York City, Nicholas Grindley, NYC, Spring Show

Free Love: Emma Goldman and Victoria Woodhull

February 20, 2013 by Kathleen Hulser Leave a Comment

Victoria Woodhull 1828-1927

Love was too important to be left in the hands of the state, thought Victoria Woodhull. And she said so, at Steinway Hall just off Union Square in New York City in 1871, speaking to a packed audience on the principle of “social freedom,” the code word for the right to choose your sexual partners.

“Yes, I am a free Lover, I have an inalienable, constitutional and natural right to love whom I may, to love as long a period as I can, to change that love every day if I please.” The audience went wild. [Read more…] about Free Love: Emma Goldman and Victoria Woodhull

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Crime and Justice, Gender History, Labor History, Political History, Suffrage Movement, Vice, womens history

Remembering Gordon Parks In ‘100 Moments’

January 17, 2013 by Kathleen Hulser 2 Comments

Gordon Parks bought his first camera in a pawn shop and got his first real photography job at the New Deal’s Farm Security Administration (FSA).”American Gothic,” his bold arrangement of a White House cleaning lady with a mop in front of a flag, got him in trouble on his first assignment.

As a multifaceted creative artist, Parks stacked up firsts again and again in a long career that has been seeing numerous tributes over the past year.  2012 was the 100th anniversary of his birth, and exhibits are still underway. [Read more…] about Remembering Gordon Parks In ‘100 Moments’

Filed Under: New Exhibits Tagged With: Civil Rights, Crime and Justice, Documentary, Film History, Great Depression, Harlem, Kathleen Hulser, New York City, New York State Museum, Photography, Schomburg Center

Harlem Blues: Last Party At The Lenox Lounge

January 14, 2013 by Kathleen Hulser 1 Comment

On New Year’s Eve the cigar smoke was thick on the sidewalk in front of the famed jazz club, the Lenox Lounge. Men in tuxes and women in clingy gowns stepped out of white stretch limos, three deep on Malcolm X Avenue, a.k.a Lenox Avenue in Harlem, as blue notes popped from the chromed doorway.

A huge bejeweled crowd could be glimpsed dancing and drinking through the wide octogon window. [Read more…] about Harlem Blues: Last Party At The Lenox Lounge

Filed Under: New York City Tagged With: African American History, Culinary History, Cultural History, Harlem, Harlem Renaissance, Historic Preservation, Jazz, Literature, Music, Musical History, New York City, Performing Arts

Sink or Swim? Post-Sandy Waterfront Restoration

December 26, 2012 by Kathleen Hulser 2 Comments

Scape Studio. Plan for Oyster Reefs in NY Harbor
As people blow dry the mold from basement walls and vacuum Sandy from corners and carpets, city activists gathered in a forum sponsored by the Municipal Art Society and Columbia University’s Center for Urban Real Estate, called “Sink or Swim: Waterfront Restoration in a Post-Sandy Era.”
[Read more…] about Sink or Swim? Post-Sandy Waterfront Restoration

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Climate Change, Disaster Management, Hurricane Sandy, Kathleen Hulser, Municipal Art Society, New York City, New York Harbor, Urban History

Discovering Columbus From Atop Columbus Circle

November 28, 2012 by Kathleen Hulser Leave a Comment

Columbus steers over Central Park
The enormous thirteen-foot tall explorer is steering the Santa Maria right over Central Park. Tatzu Nishi’s “Discovering Columbus” allows visitors to climb 75 feet up the column in Columbus Circle to see the famous statue up close. Nishi has surrounded it with a living room stage set, furnished with modern accoutrements from Bloomingdale’s, that gives a truly odd twist to the experience of seeing the pock-marked monument set atop a coffee table.
[Read more…] about Discovering Columbus From Atop Columbus Circle

Filed Under: New Exhibits Tagged With: Art History, Immigration, Indigenous History, Native American History, New York City

Kathleen Hulser: A Gertrude Stein Legacy Spat

November 21, 2012 by Kathleen Hulser Leave a Comment

Controversy over Gertrude Stein continues to fester and boil, even after the great public acclaim for the Metropolitan Museum’s The Steins Collect show. Michael Kimmelman’s review in the New York Review of Books (“Missionaries,” New York Review of Books, April 26, 2012.  also his July 12 letter in response to criticism) revived old charges that Gertrude was a Nazi sympathizer. Kimmelman gave an overview of the exhibition, which focused on the early years of the Leo and Gertrude Stein in the ebullient art scene in Paris. [Read more…] about Kathleen Hulser: A Gertrude Stein Legacy Spat

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Cultural History, Edith Wharton, Gertrude Stein, Kathleen Hulser, Literature, World War One

Sandy Update: The South Street Seaport Mess

November 7, 2012 by Kathleen Hulser Leave a Comment

As downtown Manhattan assesses damage, more specifics are being reported, especially in low-lying Zone A. The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY), which is running the South Street Seaport Museum ,says that the storm surge waters soaked drawers of metal type in the Bowne and Co., Stationers. [Read more…] about Sandy Update: The South Street Seaport Mess

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Crime and Justice, Hurricane Sandy, Kathleen Hulser, Museum of the City of New York, New York City, South Street Seaport Museum

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