EVENTS JULY 29, 2010
WHAT: AMBASSADOR BONNIE JENKINS, COORDINATOR FOR THREAT REDUCTION PROGRAMS IN THE BUREAU OF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY AND NONPROLIFERASTION WITH THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE TO SPEAK AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
WHEN: July 29th, 6:00pm
WHERE: Columbia University, Morningside Campus, International Affairs Building, Room 1512
CONTACT: For further information regarding this event, please contact Sydney Schwartz Gross by sending email to sms2134@columbia.edu or by calling 212-851-5916.
BACKGROUND: Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins serves as the Coordinator for Threat Reduction Programs in the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation with the U.S. Department of State. She previously worked at the Ford Foundation and served as a counsel to the 9/11 Commission. A retired Naval Reserve Officer, she completed a year-long deployment to CENTCOM during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
 
 
WHAT: BAREFOOT DANCING – COLONIAL COUNTRY DANCE
WHEN: July 29th, 6:30pm – 8:00pm
WHERE: Van Cortlandt House Museum (in Van Cortlandt Park), Broadway at West 246th Street, Bronx
CONTACT: Van Cortlandt Park Conservancy, 718- 430-1890
BACKGROUND: Join us for learn-as-you-go traditional dances with live music and cool, clean grass for your toes. Don’t be fooled by the period frock this troupe wears! These colonial dancers, although seemingly demure and proper, work up to a rollickingly good time.
 
This program is made possible by the Hill Schools.
 

EVENT JULY 30, 2010
WHAT: KOREA DAY
WHEN: 11:00am – 7:00pm
WHERE: Naumberg Bandshell in Central Park (Mid-Park from 66th to 72nd Streets)
CONTACT: For more information call (212) 448-1080, email koreadaynyc@newyork-network.com or visit www.koreadaynyc.org
BACKGROUND: Korea Day allows New Yorkers and tourists to experience the different aspects of Korean Culture.  The event will begin with the 60th anniversary of Korean War Commemoration.  There will be samples of food representing Korea such as Bibimbap, Bulgogi, Naengmyun (Korean style cold noodles), rice punch, and cinnamon punch, and traditional performances will be conducted with Janggo and Buk, including modern dance, electric violin, and jazz portraying modern culture.  Korea Day is sponsored by Korean Cultural Service NY, Agro-trade & Exhibition Center, and Korea Tourism Organization, with an accompaniment of Korean Cuisine Globalization Committee.

EVENTS JULY 31, 2010
WHAT: FESTIVAL OF THE AMERICAS
WHEN: July 31st, 10:00am -6:00pm
WHERE: Avenue of the Americas between West 42nd Street and West 56th Street
CONTACT: Call 311 for more information
BACKGROUND: This street festival is hosted by the Avenue of the Americas Association
 
WHAT: COPA NYC FINALS TO DETERMINE WINNER OF NYC MAYOR’S CUP IN SOCCER
WHEN: July 31st and August 1st
WHERE: Flushing Meadows – Corona Park in Queens
CONTACT: For more information about COPA NYC, visit http://www.nycgo.com/sports or http://copanyc.us/
BACKGROUND: The World Cup might be over, but soccer fever continues in New York City. Back for its second year, COPA NYC finals will take place Saturday, July 31, and Sunday, August 1. COPA NYC is an annual soccer tournament consisting of players from across New York City’s five boroughs representing their national and cultural communities. In partnership with NYC & Company, NYC Media and the United Nations, the COPA NYC champion will be awarded the NYC Mayor’s Cup and claim the title of best soccer team in New York City.
The amateur soccer tournament began on July 24 with 16 national teams. Four teams have now qualified for the semifinal matches: NYC Argentina, NYC Ireland, NYC Jamaica and NYC Poland. The tournament winner will be awarded the NYC Mayor’s Cup, earning the title of the best soccer team in New York City. Last year the title went to NYC Albania. Semifinals are scheduled to take place at 1pm and 3pm Saturday, July 31, at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. The final match will be at 4pm Sunday, August 1. Admission is free to all games.
 

EVENT AUGUST 3, 2010
WHAT: THE FLATIRON – THE NEW YORK LANDMARK AND THE INCOMPARABLE CITY THAT AROSE WITH IT
WHEN: 6:30pm – 8:00pm
WHERE: The Skyscraper Museum, 39 Battery Place
CONTACT: 212-968-1961
BACKGROUND: Alice Alexiou will talk about her new book that chronicles the story of the famous building that signaled the start of a new era in New York—and the unusual characters who played a part in its creation. Critics hated it. The public feared it would topple over. Passersby were knocked down by the winds. But even before it was completed, the Flatiron Building had become an unforgettable part of New York City. Built by the Fuller Company to be their New York headquarters, their president, Harry Black, was never able to make the public call it the Fuller Building. Head of the country’s largest real estate firm, Black made a fortune and lived out a high-profile, ostentatious life that led to divorce, collapse and at last, suicide.
 
The Flatiron chronicles not just the construction of the building, but the changing technology and culture that characterized New York at the dawn of the 20th century: Madison Square Park shifted from a promenade for rich women to gay prostitutes, photography became an art, motion pictures came into existence; jazz came to the forefront of popular music—all within steps of one of the city’s best loved buildings.
 
Alice Sparberg Alexiou is the author of Jane Jacobs: Urban Visionary. She has been an editor of Lilith magazine and has written for The New York Times and Newsday, among others. She is a graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and has a Ph.D. in classics from Fordham University. She lives in North Bellmore, New York.

EVENT AUGUST 4, 2010
WHAT: VISITING ARTIST TALKS – ANN CRAVEN
WHEN: August 4th, 6pm – 8pm
WHERE: New York University, Einstein Auditorium/Barney Building, 34 Stuyvesant Street
CONTACT: Tammy Brown - tammy.brown@nyu.edu
BACKGROUND: Having just closed out a major show at Maccarone in New York, other solo shows include CIAP, Hasseltl; Conduits, Milan and LHK, Paris. Craven lives and works in New York.“There is something unique about the energy that pervades these works,” curator Sarina Basta writes of Anne Craven’s work in the current issue of Flash Art, “…and the uncommon mastery of a unique aesthetic language and painterly process.” Craven’s exhibitions have the richness of an opera populated with animal characters conscious of having an audience and posing for it. The portraits are often derived from existing reproductions of fauna in calendars, cards and the covers of high-school notebooks, but with enhanced allure of paint strokes that have mindfully awakened them.
 
 
ONGOING EVENTS
WHAT: THOMAS JEFFERSON’S AUTOGRAPH COPY OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE ON PUBLIC DISPLAY
WHEN: Now until July 31st
WHERE: Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, New York Public Library, 5th Avenue at 42nd Street
CONTACT: More information about the exhibit can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/2ek5awv
BACKGROUND: Each July, we exhibit key documents related to the American Revolution. The centerpiece of the exhibition is Thomas Jefferson's autograph copy of the Declaration of Independence. In a brief video, William Stingone, Charles J. Liebman Curator of Manuscripts, explains what makes NYPL's copy special.  See the YouTube video about the exhibit here: http://tinyurl.com/28jehpt

WHAT: SEAPORT PAST & FUTURE
WHEN: Now until August 3rd
WHERE: South Street Seaport, Fulton Street at South Street
CONTACT: (212) 732-8257 and http://www.nyc.com/events/seaport_past__future.1039665/editorial_review.aspx
BACKGROUND: This free exhibit will take guests through The Seaport's centuries of growth and epic changes that have impacted New York City and the entire region. Achival materials showcase vintage streetscapes presented with the same views as they appear today allowing visitors to examine continuities and change over time at The Seaport. These momentous occasions will be demonstrated through multimedia features and scale models representing the district during these crucial moments in history and culminates with an architectural model of General Growth Properties' proposed plan for the new Seaport.
 
 
WHAT: “THE RUSSIA READER” – CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY FROM PETER THE GREAT TO PUTIN
WHEN: Indefinite
WHERE: NYU
CONTACT: Reporters wishing to speak with Editor Bruce Grant should contact James Devitt, NYU’s Office of Public Affairs, at 212.998.6808 or james.devitt@nyu.edu. For review copies, contact Laura Sell, Duke University Press, at 919.687.3639 or lsell@dukeupress.edu.
BACKGROUND: The Russia Reader serves as an introduction to the history, culture, and politics of the world’s largest country, from the earliest written accounts of the Russian people to today. Edited by Adele Barker, a professor of Russian and Slavic Studies at the University of Arizona, and Bruce Grant, an associate professor of anthropology at New York University, The Russia Reader incorporates song lyrics, jokes, anecdotes, and folktales as well as poems, essays, and fiction by writers including Pushkin, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoi, and Akhmatova. It also includes an account of the day-to-day scramble to make ends meet after the end of the Soviet Union, letters recording ordinary Russians’ reactions to the Revolution as events unfolded in 1917, and transcripts from the show trials of major Communist Party figures.
 
 FUTURE EVENTS
WHAT: SUMMIT FOR NEW YORK CITY
WHEN: October 21 and 22
CONTACT: For more information, updates, and registration, go to http://www.massummit.org/
BACKGROUND: The Municipal Art Society of New York is proud to announce the inaugural Summit for New York City, a unique gathering of civic-minded New Yorkers and leaders in the fields of urban planning, urban design, research and development, housing, and economics. This cross-section of accomplished thought leaders will gather on October 21 and 22 to discuss key issues and challenge the current thinking about New York City’s livability. The program, currently in formation, will include thought-provoking presentations, panels and keynotes, as well as smaller sessions that will enable the audience to participate more fully in the debate about our city’s future.