First-Year Writing Sem: Manahata Sites of Memory: From Past to Presence

Catalog description

Who is present that can inform our shared pasts in NYC? When Brazilian pop star Caetano Veloso sings Manahatã, can you feel the Lenape presence? Where were slaves sold? Where were the Underground Railroad stations? Are there any traces left of 19th-century Bengali peddlers in Harlem? Through critical close reading of texts and workshops of student essays, we will investigate the presence of our forbearers invisible in plain sight, many of whom pushed to create a city with a more inclusive character. Utilizing primary sources, fiction, essay, poetry, film, song, and site visits, the course will explore New York both as an historical place formed by displacements and erasures and as an imagined geography projected by collective dreams and nightmares about past and future.