92nd Street Y
Coordinates: 40°46′59″N 73°57′10″W / 40.7830°N 73.9527°W
92nd Street Y (92Y) is a multifaceted cultural institution and community center located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, USA, at the corner of E. 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Its full name is 92nd Street Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association (YM-YWHA). It is not part of the YMCA.
History and design
Founded in 1874 as the Young Men's Hebrew Association by German-Jewish professionals and businessmen, 92nd Street Y has grown into an organization guided by Jewish principles but serving people of all races and faiths.
92Y serves over 400,000 people annually and offers over 200 programs a day. Its 33 program areas include community outreach; lectures and panel discussions; Jewish education and culture; concerts featuring classical, jazz and popular music; humanities classes; dance performances; literary readings; film screenings; parenting programs; camps; a nursery school; fitness classes, a swim team, singles programs; seniors programs; and a residence program that rents rooms in the Y's main building at 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue.
Performances and spatial organization
92nd Street Y comprises eight programming centers: Bronfman Center for Jewish Life; Lillian & Sol Goldman Family Center for Youth & Family; Makor/Steinhardt Center; May Center for Health; Fitness & Sport; Milstein/Rosenthal Center for Media & Technology; School of the Arts; Charles Simon Center for Adult Life & Learning; and Tisch Center for the Arts. Its poetry center is called the Unterberg Poetry Center and has been led by prominent writers including American poet Karl Kirchwey who was director for thirteen years until 2000.[1]
The 917-seat Kaufmann Concert Hall, opened in 1930, is the home for concerts, performances, readings and lectures.
Individuals of note who have performed, lectured or taught at 92nd Street Y include (in alphabetical order):
- Alvin Ailey
- Edward Albee
- Alan Alda
- Trey Anastasio
- Kofi Annan
- Rae Armantrout
- Claudio Arrau
- Emanuel Ax
- Andy Borowitz
- Alfred Brendel
- John Malcolm Brinnin
- Yefim Bronfman
- Budapest String Quartet
- Truman Capote
- Jimmy Carter
- Bill Charlap
- Bill Clinton
- Aaron Copland
- Francis Ford Coppola
- Chick Corea
- Larry David
- Jeremy Denk
- Ani Difranco
- T. S. Eliot
- Lawrence Ferlinghetti
- Frank Gehry
- Ira Glass[2]
- Junot Diaz
- Leon Fleisher
- Richard Goode
- Mikhail Gorbachev
- Martha Graham
- Shawn Green
- Tim Gunn
- Mister G (children's performer)
- Rosemary Harris
- David Hazony
- Christopher Hitchens
- Dustin Hoffman
- Lorraine Hunt Lieberson
- Steven Isserlis
- Karl Kirchwey[1]
- Chaim Koppelman[3]
- Lang Lang
- Jaime Laredo
- Emma Lazarus
- Yo-Yo Ma
- Rachel Maddow[4]
- Norman Mailer
- Wynton Marsalis
- Steve Martin
- Vladimir Nabokov
- Robert Joffrey
- Andras Schiff
- Andrés Segovia
- Peter Serkin
- Patti Smith
- Janos Starker
- Sting
- Alfred Tarski
- Christian Tetzlaff
- Margaret Thatcher
- Dylan Thomas
- Tokyo String Quartet
- Dawn Upshaw
- Sarah Vaughan
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
- Matthew Weiner
- Elie Wiesel
- William Carlos Williams
- Anna Wintour
- Howard Zinn
- Pinchas Zukerman
Recent developments
In October 2008, 92Y opened a new performance space in Tribeca called 92YTribeca to bring together and inspire a diverse community of young people from New York City and beyond, including musicians, artists, filmmakers, performers, writers, educators, humorists, directors, speakers, sports enthusiasts and many others. 92YTribeca is located at 200 Hudson Street and features a performance stage with full bar for live music, comedy, theater, digital media, performance art, speakers and dance; a 72-seat movie theater featuring a variety of domestic and international films, shorts and digital media; a wireless cafe; serving fresh, local food and drinks; a lecture hall and rooms for talks, tastings, classes and more; and an art gallery offering rotating exhibits. Other programs include Jewish cultural events and celebrations, opportunities for community service throughout the city, and fun activities like summer softball in Central Park and whitewater rafting trips.
Notable residents
Notable individuals who have resided at 92nd Street Y include:
- Joseph Gurwin (1920–2009), a philanthropist who rented a room at 92nd Street Y for four years after arriving in the U.S.[5]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Alix Friedman (June 13, 2000). "POETRY CENTER DIRECTOR KARL KIRCHWEY LEAVES 92nd STREET Y". 92nd Street Y. Retrieved 2010-10-15. "92nd Street Y announces the departure of Karl Kirchwey, longtime director of the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center. Mr. Kirchwey will become Director of Creative Writing and Senior Lecturer in the Arts at Bryn Mawr College starting next fall. The Poetry Center is a program of the 92nd Street Y Tisch Center for the Arts, the Y's arts presenting division."
- ↑ 92nd Street Y (Whoa, Ira Glass Was Here Last Night for a Panel....
- ↑ Rackow, Marcia (Winter 2010). "Chaim Koppelman: Pioneering Printmaker and Teacher". Journal of the Print World 33 (1): 4. ISSN 0737-7436.
- ↑ News on News: Rachel Maddow Show Heading to 92nd Street Y
- ↑ Martin, Douglas. "Joseph Gurwin, Textile Manufacturer and Philanthropist, Dies at 89", The New York Times, September 26, 2009. Accessed September 29, 2009.
External links