Browsing by Subject "New York"
Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item The gritty city : representations of male youth in the works of Ferréz, Sacolinha, Junot Díaz and Ernesto Quiñonez(2014-05) Jacob, Eliseo Josué; Roncador, Sônia; Arroyo-Martinez, Jossianna; Leu, Lorraine; Afolabi, Omoniyi; Penna, João CamilloThis dissertation examines the ways in which Ferréz Sacolinha, Junot Díaz and Ernesto Quiñonez negotiate the global subordination of diasporic subjects in São Paulo and New York. Through a street aesthetic of the urban underworld, these four writers explore social inequalities tied to race and social class in the urban periphery. In São Paulo, Ferréz and Sacolinha use the public transit system to examine the contained mobility of residents of the periferia. Through encounters with criminality, Ferréz critiques the image of the criminoso associated with the marginal space of the periferia. Sacolinha analyzes systemic inequalities through the cobrador's use of the perua, which functions as a subversive tactic against governmental organizations. In New York, Junot Díaz and Ernesto Quiñonez address the marginalization of urban Latino youth on the streets of the inner city. Díaz complicates the fractured identity of Dominican American youth who experience stigma in relation to the U.S.'s black-white racial binary. By dissecting the relationship between crime and hegemonic social structures, Quiñonez traces Spanish Harlem residents' colonized, racialized status as Puerto Ricans in New York. In the literary works of the four authors, young protagonists roam the streets, maintaining a macho demeanor to conceal their insecurities and to appear to others -- and more importantly to themselves -- as tough individuals who will not crack under pressure. The aggressive, fearless attitude that they embody allows them to survive the inner city streets. They face an endless cycle of suspicion, racial discrimination and lack of resources, which limits their chances for social mobility.Item "I can turn karaoke into open mic night" : an exploration of Asian American men in hip hop(2013-05) Jackson, Tamela Teara; Tang, EricThe purpose of this report is to explore the ways in which Asian American men participate in hip hop culture, and what this participation says about their politics and representation in United States media and popular culture. This is done through an analysis of Freestyle Friday All Star, MC Jin, a Chinese American emcee from Queens, New York, as well as DJ Soko, a Korean American DJ from Detroit, Michigan. I argue that their participation is a desire for political power and creative visibility rendered on their own terms.Item Main Street remade : a case study of eminent domain use in Port Chester, New York(2013-08) Longobardi, Elinore Ann; Hoelscher, Steven D.In the late 1990s, looking to improve its fiscal situation, the Village of Port Chester, New York, decided to approve the redevelopment of a 27-acre site that comprised a large section of its downtown. The centerpiece of the 1999 plan was a big-box shopping center and multi-tier parking structure. To build the project, Port Chester used eminent domain to raze most of its South Main Street, along with adjacent blocks--an area already full of small shops and businesses. The village took this action in the name of “public good,” replacing the small-scale buildings and family owned businesses with big-box retail--including Costco, a Loews multiplex, DSW shoes and Bed Bath & Beyond. The village’s goal was to replace a “blighted” area (the term a vestige of legal and rhetorical constructs surrounding mid-20th century urban renewal) with a more upscale one--bringing in, as officials saw it, more tax revenue and creating jobs. This dissertation examines the mechanics and the consequences of this kind of large-scale land clearance, especially in the context of a small suburban municipality. Far from being an anomaly, the Port Chester project is an example of an ongoing trend: the use of eminent domain in the service of economic development, which we can see as a kind of present-day urban renewal.Item Too foul and dishonoring to be overlooked : newspaper responses to controversial English stars in the Northeastern United States, 1820-1870(2010-05) Smith, Tamara Leanne; Canning, Charlotte, 1964-; Jones, Joni L.; Wolf, Stacy; Thompson, Shirley E.; Forgie, GeorgeIn the nineteenth century, theatre and newspapers were the dominant expressions of popular culture in the northeastern United States, and together formed a crucial discursive node in the ongoing negotiation of American national identity. Focusing on the five decades between 1820 and 1870, during which touring stars from Great Britain enjoyed their most lucrative years of popularity on United States stages, this dissertation examines three instances in which English performers entered into this nationalizing forum and became flashpoints for journalists seeking to define the nature and bounds of American citizenship and culture. In 1821, Edmund Kean’s refusal to perform in Boston caused a scandal that revealed a widespread fixation among social elites with delineating the ethnic and economic limits of citizenship in a republican nation. In 1849, an ongoing rivalry between the English tragedian William Charles Macready and his American competitor Edwin Forrest culminated in the deadly Astor Place riot. By configuring the actors as champions in a struggle between bourgeois authority and working-class populism, the New York press inserted these local events into international patterns of economic conflict and revolutionary violence. Nearly twenty years later, the arrival of the Lydia Thompson Burlesque Troupe in 1868 drew rhetoric that reflected the popular press’ growing preoccupation with gender, particularly the question of woman suffrage and the preservation of the United States’ international reputation as a powerfully masculine nation in the wake of the Civil War. Three distinct cultural currents pervade each of these case studies: the new nation’s anxieties about its former colonizer’s cultural influence, competing political and cultural ideologies within the United States, and the changing perspectives and agendas of the ascendant popular press. Exploring the points where these forces intersect, this dissertation aims to contribute to an understanding of how popular culture helped shape an emerging sense of American national identity. Ultimately, this dissertation argues that in the mid-nineteenth century northeastern United States, popular theatre, newspapers, and audiences all contributed to a single media formation in which controversial English performers became a rhetorical antipode against which “American” identity could be defined.Item “Under the glorious inter-American flag of New York” : Club Cubano Interamericano and the process of Cuban American community formation in New York City in the early 20th century(2013-12) Hadjistoyanova, Iliyana; Guridy, Frank AndreThis report explores Club Cubano Inter-Americano’s history in order to show how it helped situate Cuban immigrants within the Anglo and Latino communities in New York City in the early 20th century, and it examines the ways in which immigrants balanced their island heritage with community building in the United States. The different parts of the report focus on the organization’s foundation, leadership, activities, events, and treatment of race. A historiography of similar social groups provides a necessary background of the overall structure and goals of Cuban mutual-aid societies. Although the question of race was never officially present in Club-related rhetoric, a number of similarities link its makeup and functions to an existing tradition of Afro-Cuban mutual-aid societies on the island and abroad. The analysis of the New York Club Cubano Inter-Americano provides a glimpse into a part of the Cuban migration in the United States that simply does not fit with the rest.