By Led Black
September 23 – September 28
Ok folks, the first ever Uptown Lit Festival is going down on October 19th at the United Palace of Cultural Arts and Word Up Community Bookshop. What is Uptown Lit you might ask? Well, Uptown Lit is a day-long literary extravaganza that will take place in the very heart of our community. I’m talking such big names as United States Congressman Luis Gutierrez, political blogger Andrew Sullivan and many more will be on the panels that will take place throughout the day.
Speaking of Uptown Lit, yours truly has been chosen to moderate The Big Read, which is an initiative by the National Endowment of the Arts that aims to get communities reading and discussing selected books. The featured book is none other than Luis Alberto Urrea‘s Into the Beautiful North, which is an engaging read that puts immigration into proper perspective. Please stop by Word Up Books and pick up your copy so you can be ready for the big day. See you there.
In this latest episode of It’s about time: Conversations with New Yorkers about time by Arlene Shulman, Rita Rosenthal talks about what keeps her 102 years young. She lives in Washington Heights and is one of upper Manhattan’s oldest residents. CHALK is hosting a free Field Day for kids on Saturday, October 5th 2013 from 11am – 3pm at Highbridge Park’s baseball field.
WNYC reported that a vast treasure trove of photography documenting the Latino Experience in New York City from the archives of El Diario/La Prensa will be preserved, digitized and indexed by Columbia University. This week we also gave away free tickets to the New York City premiere of The House That Jack Built on Wednesday, October 2nd at 7:30 PM courtesy of ProyectoNext. Our Bronx contributor, Jenni Ruiza, penned an insightful and witty piece on how the MTV show Catfish killed online dating.
On September 13th and 20th, I had the honor of speaking to teens at The Future Project class at The College Academy, which is housed in the George Washington High School complex (549 Audubon Ave). The Future Project is an educational non-profit focused on putting Dream Directors in high schools across America.
Keep checking us out at www.uptowncollective.com.
Led Black
Editor-in-Chief
The Uptown Collective
The UC’s mission is to become “the” definitive, transformative and community-based force impacting the arts, culture, business and New York City’s overall perception of Upper Manhattan. Its objective is to reset, reboot and positively redefine Uptown’s artistic, political, cultural and business spheres via the online space as well the collective’s initiatives and functions.
