Day 10 NYC

In a break from tradition, Shirley and I spent a walking-card-free day today. We started at Little Island on the south east Hudson River bank.

Little Island was developed after Hurricaine Sandy badly damaged Pier 54 as it was then known. The Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation partnered with the Hudson River Trust to make Little Island a public space for every one, one that combined art and nature. Here’s an aerial photo from the Little Island website.

There’s an open space at the foot of winding, climbing paths that are bounded by flowers and lovely decorative grasses. Along the way you pass an amphitheatre where various talks and performances take place. At the top is a lookout with a view of Jersey City across the river.

The Whitney Museum is a hop, skip and jump away from Llittle Island so that was our next stop. We marvelled at Dawoud Bey’s The Birmingham Project which commemorates the 1963 murder of six black children by the Ku Klux Klan. His matching photos of a young person paired with someone who would be the age today of the murdered children are beautiful.

We also took in the Jasper Johns’ exhinbition Mind/Mirror. As you will see from my photos it was well attended, and as a retrospective it was fun to see the evolution of Johns’ art over his 65 years as an artist.

From the Whitney we headed through Greenwich village and on to Soho. Along the way we visited the Jefferson Market Garden, a small but lovely garden maintained entirely by volunteers. On this lovely New York day, several people were relaxing in the sun enjoying the beauty of this little garden in the middle of the city.

We couldn’t pass through this neighbourhood without paying homage to The Stonewall Inn, the site of the 1969 riots that gave rise to the gay rights movement in New York City.

Our path to Soho took us through Washington Square Park which is in the heart of the New York University neighbourhood. The Park was buzzing with young and older people, performers and pop-up vendors. I am including a photo taken with my iPhone a few evenings ago which shows the arch bathed in evening light. The park was just as lively then as it was today.

Here are two final images from today, once again showing New Yorkers enjoying themselves in the lovely weather. One more day in New York. This has been a fabulous trip!