Very Rococo

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With his left leg pointed forward and arms flung out at his sides, Alexander Hamilton, looks to be in motion. But for the next few months at least, the bronze statue will be imprisoned behind the mesh fence that surrounds the site of his historic home.

In June, for the second time in its lifetime, Hamilton Grange will be wrenched from its current site in Harlem, jacked up 40 feet, lifted over neighboring St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, and on to Convent Avenue. The 206-year-old building will be transported in one piece the few hundred yards down 141st Street to St. Nicholas Park, and transplanted on to a new site – which happens to be the last remaining pastoral acre of Hamilton’s estate.

The National Park Service estimates the process will take about two weeks. That’s if they can resolve a two-year dispute with community board members over which direction the building will face.

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A neon red window sign spelled out “Floridita Cuban Diner” to passing trade on Broadway. The door opened periodically letting in another hungry customer and also the sound of the 1 train as it rumbled past overhead.

“We have a lot of customers coming from New Jersey and the other boroughs, but we’re essentially a community diner,” said the restaurant’s owner, Mr. Raymon Diaz in a telephone interview.

The flagship restaurant of Mr. Diaz’s uncle, a pioneering Cuban immigrant, the Floridita has stood at the corner of 129th and Broadway for almost 40 years. But in future locals may have to go elsewhere to enjoy a papaya milkshake or plate of “mangu,” a Caribbean dish featuring mashed green plantains mixed with olive oil and vinegar.

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Published March 2008 in The Advocate

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See also the NYCity News Service

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Their eyes met for little more than a second. “Cool” J.C. Rocwell acted instinctively. He sprang from where he sat and fell into step with the white-haired passer-by. At 6’2”, Rocwell towered above his new friend.

“Hello buddy,” he said as he intercepted the man’s path and pulled papers from the black Polo Sport bag slung around his shoulder. He thrust the bundle towards the captive observer. “Let me ask you a question,” he said. “Do you like poetry?”

When Rocwell returned to the bench outside the Adam Clayton Powell State Office Building on West 125th Street, he clutched a crisply folded bill. He smiled, showing an expanse of pink gum and the quarter inch gap between his two front teeth. Then, just as spontaneously as his grin had appeared, his jaw slackened, his lower lip drooped and the smile vanished. His eyes recovered their former seriousness as he peered over the small, oval spectacles that rested midway down his nose.

“Did you just see that?” he said. “That guy just gave me ten dollars. You know why? He wanted to make a human connection.”

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Originally posted February 2008 on Annual Gymkhana

Some photos of Brooklyn Fashion Weekend:

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In a building between 55th and 56th on 8th Avenue, up four rickety flights of stairs, is Studio 4A.

This space is the new home for Santiago Steele’s weekly Argentine Tango class where dancers — and would-be dancers — gather together to listen to music and move with their partner in alternate slow-quick movements around the room. Classes have been held here for little over a month since the other studio space at Columbus Circle was closed down.

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Mr. Steele has been a dancer for ten years. He studied in San Francisco, spent time in Argentina and moved to New York to teach Tango in 2003.

“Argentine’s are in love with Europe,” said Mr. Steele of the European influence in Argentinean culture and dance. “There’s a joke that an an Argentine is an Italian who thinks he’s French but speaks Spanish.’”

The Argentine Tango, which evolved in Buenos Aires in the late 19th Century, is made up of elements from Argentine folk, African and Cuban Habernara dance.

The atmosphere that Mr. Steele tries to create at his dance classes is that of a neighborhood club. The studio, with it’s old wooden floor and jumbles of fairy lights strung out along the walls, certainly contribute to the atmosphere.

Mr. Steele said his classes are most popular with professionals in their 30s.

“People want to get away from it all. They want to learn something,” he said of the appeal of the Argentine Tango. “There’s a lot of fantasy about it.”