Good morning and happy Wednesday. I was glad I took my own advice and wore a hat, scarf and gloves yesterday — the sudden chill was a shock to the system. Today will be positively toasty, with temperatures rising from the mid-30s to 48 degrees this afternoon — and the sun popping out now and then to warm us for a few hours.
The New Group has secured a permanent home at St Clement’s Church in Hell’s Kitchen, launching renovations and a new era for the storied Off-Broadway venue. Read more…
SPONSORED POST
Pier 79 in Hell’s Kitchen will pilot ferry-to-e-bike package deliveries, aiming to cut truck traffic and support NYC’s Blue Highway plan. Read more…
What We’ve Been Reading
* Stories that might be behind a paywall are marked with a đź’°
Amazon lays off hundreds of workers at Manhattan West in Hudson Yards. (Crain’s💰)
New York bars are suffering from ever-increasing insurance rates. (Gothamist)
The owner of a fleet of e-bikes says Internet-connected tech could eliminate crashes and battery fires. (Streetsblog)
Kennedy heir Jack Schlossberg says he will run for Jerry Nadler’s seat in Congress. (New York Times💰)
Opening the doors on the history of Bloomingdale’s “sky carriages.” (Ephemeral New York)
Freeze Frame
I spent Tuesday evening at the Bronx Documentary Center listening to four extraordinary photographers — David “Dee” Delgado, Madison Swart, Carol Guzy and Victor J Blue — talk about their months documenting ICE detainments at 26 Federal Plaza. The discussion opened with Carol speaking beneath a projected image of a masked ICE officer — a striking backdrop for her reminder that “a photograph can be a powerful witness and an eloquent voice,” and that professional photojournalists “check bias at the door and let the photos speak.”
Victor brought a brief moment of levity, joking that he was glad Carol brought her four Pulitzers along, one for each panelist. But he quickly grounded the room, calling the courthouse coverage a rare moment in history when society can watch a country’s “disappearance machine crank up in real time,” and emphasizing that the photographers’ only mandate is to document “without fear or favor.”
Dee spoke with raw honesty about “pictures I wish I never had to take,” and about photographing people “who couldn’t speak for themselves.” Madison’s voice broke as she described families discovering detainments through her photos, and the painful shock of people who walk into court unaware that ICE is waiting for them in the hallway.
I left proud that these photographers — compassionate, exhausted and fiercely committed — are bearing witness to a chapter of our history that would otherwise unfold in darkness.
Happy birthday to Darik Bradley.
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