To me, awe means to hold space with deep respect intermingled with fear and/or wonder.
Four months into this walk on adventure and the natural world has inspired much awe. In New York City it was art, culture and the best (and worst) of human endeavour and connection that circulated awe through my veins.
My recently graduated adult daughter joined me for ten days and nights. A fun travelling companion - we embraced the busy footpaths, cocktail bars, parks, art museums, concerts, rooftops, dance floors, vintage shops and subways.
Some highlights of our ten days of summer in New York City:
Native New York - our first day on foot, we walked the backstreets of the Lower East Side, Chinatown and the Financial District to the southernmost point of Manhattan.
After a bagel pitstop, we reflected on the human history of an island that has held power over the colonial imagination for centuries and headed to the National Museum of the American Indian. The First Nations people of the Delaware Nation speak of the place, now known as Manhattan as Hay-La-Py-Ee Chen Quay-Hee-Lass “the place where the sun is born.”
An unforgettable installation called “City Spirits” by Wil Grant (Anishinabe) was installed at the building entrance. The etching depicts the layers of earth, subways and buildings of New York City. The artist description is:
“Whenever I go to the city I would always feel a sense of loss and a sense of despair. One day I realized why I was depressed. The earth has been buried and all the spirits of the past had been trapped underneath the concrete and steel. And it was their cries that I felt whenever I came to the city.”
The current exhibitions Native New York and Shelley Niro’s 100 Year Itch consolidated the power, respect and wonder for contemporary First Nations cultural expression and resilience.
United Nations Headquarters - being moved by the power of governance caught me by surprise. The centrality of art brought a sense of truth-telling, beauty and hope. I loved that there was “A Room of Quiet.” A small room that acknowledged that people of many faiths meet at the UN yet no faith symbols are allowed. A simple room for humans to speak the same language of silence and deep thought.
Central Park - in New York City there are only ever fleeting glimpses of pollution choked trees. The simplicity of walking around Central Park and eating cold watermelon was a joy.
Radio City Music Hall - the electric-awe of 6,500 people, in the largest purpose built live music venue in the world, for Kentucky’s rising country music star Tyler Childers. No bad seat in the house and a visceral empathy flowing in reciprocity with the audience as he told a story before his penultimate song of the night. A story of life as a touring musician - missing friends and loved ones birthdays, weddings and funerals but more importantly the time BEFORE the funerals.
Peak Restaurant & Bar - eating and drinking to celebrate graduation on the 102nd floor with the world at our feet. A mother and daughter talking about the past, present and future, how we all come to be who we are and connected as a family. After lunch we marvelled at the view and walked off the champagne buzz via the Highline downtown to the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Josh Kline “Project for a New American Century”
A jolting retrospective at the Whitney explores how climate change, emerging technologies and political deadlocks are shaping our work and life. (New York Times)
His recent video work brought to life the future of the working class when Manhattan is under water and broken by climate change. The fear and awe was a wake up call to our own personal responsibility to the earth and each other.
House of Yes - burlesque, music, performance art and dance culture. A joyous venue in Brooklyn inspired by human diversity and acceptance for all expressions of gender and sexualities. We loved the Dirty Circus early show, the St Germain champagne cocktails, dancing and garden chats until the wee hours.
MJ the Musical - with a tight focus on the legacy of Michael Jackson’s music and choreography the show on Broadway brought the house down with joy and wonder. The complexities of the man’s story being told is hard to grapple with though.
Walking, talking and eating tours of Greenwich Village and Hell’s Kitchen.
There can only be awe for the millions of migrants that have built the city. The storied lives of Italians in Greenwich Village and the Irish in Hell’s Kitchen. The poor, the working class, the artists, activists and family businesses. The voices of protest that shut down the local women’s prison. 10,000 souls buried under Washington Square Park and the importance of public space to democracy.
Places of ghosts of the guitars of Jimi Hendrix and the echoes of Baez and Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel and Billie Holliday. The site of an old late night jam venue, owned by the Brecker Brothers, that is now a posh dog hotel - where stockbrokers pay extra for their dogs to have a view over 7th Avenue. Independent theatre is hanging on by a shoestring with local rumours ablaze that Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is buying up the real estate that the theatres occupy.
We stayed in the Lower East Side, a neighbourhood steeped in migration and tenement history. The Historic Blue Moon Hotel, with its local characters and resident ghosts joining us in the lift was the perfect home to return to after long days and nights.
There are approximately 27,000 restaurants in New York City - we managed to try about 20 establishments and a pop up fish fry night market in Brooklyn. No hot dog though - I am not a fan of standing and eating, I make enough mess sitting down!
Cocktails, we were told, were invented during the prohibition era in Hell’s Kitchen - they disguised the taste of cheap spirits distilled illegally in the nearby abandoned warehouses. We tried many !
Fashion-wise….it is all about sandals and socks, the thicker and chunkier the better. Croc’s are in, as are knee high boots with ski socks peeking over the top.
Subway rides, graffitti, pop up galleries and designer vintage stores were common detours. Weed is legal and is passively inhaled every dozen or so steps mixed with the smell of street-piss.
My hard wired patterns of hyper vigilance came back to the fore walking in NYC, however my respect for the place overcomes the fear and my awe was full of wonder.
Watching - Gangs of New York and Klute (Apple TV) and Fear City (Limited Series Netflix).
Next - after a weekend regrouping in Boston and Salem, Nashville here we come!
#walkon2023 Step Count - accumulative total 1,111,436 (as at 12 August 2023)
Mmmm I’d like to chew over the MJ musical with when you get back.
And I have pink crocs, knee high boots and ski socks, maybe I don’t belong in Brisbane. 😝