News

FDR’s Speech at the Official Opening of Sara Roosevelt Park On Immigrants and the U.S.

Sara D Roosevelt Park opened in 1934.

 

 

President Franklin D Roosevelt gave this speech around 1936 from this building’s balcony:

 

Hester Parkhouse

His speech (audio recording here):

“There are some experiences in this life that give one new strength, a new purpose, to carry on. Today at the Statue of Liberty and now seeing this great gathering I obtain inspiration to go on with the task that is mine. And I am very happy for the first time because I have not driven through here for two or three years to see this park which was named after my dear mother. When that was done I can tell you very simply that I don’t believe I have ever seen her more happy in all her life.

I am just come from the ceremonies at the Statue of Liberty I spoke there of the steady stream of human resources which the old world poured on our shores and out of which our American civilization has been built. Many of the people who came past the statue of liberty settled in this section of New York City. Here they wove into the pattern of American life some of the color, some of the richness of the cultures from which they came. Here they joined in that great process out of which we have welded our American citizenship. We gave them freedom. I am proud, America is proud, of what they have given to us. They have never been, they are not now, half-hearted Americans. The great majority of the new and the old do not confuse the word liberty with the word license. They appreciate that the American standard of freedom does not include the right to do things to hurt our own neighbors. They, who have never been so free before, rejoice in our freedom. Our liberty is warmed by the fire of their devotion.”

 

 

 

Stanton Parkhouse

Broome Parkhouse

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The Remote Theater Project and Next Year

 

Working With Our Communities to Help Us Knit and Move Forward – Together.

The Remote Theater Project

Who, along with the Chinatown Partnership’s Wellington Chen brought Little Amal to the neighborhood and this Park (see Little Amal walks into Sara Roosevelt Park)

Production in the works….

 

Working with Kim Fong and the BRC Senior Nutrition Center and Po Ling Ng and Open Door Senior Center

Meanwhile, meetings, poetry, drama and listening sessions continue with Asylum Seekers, Sara Roosevelt Park’s Homeless, Chinese elders, local residents. With Obie winning playwright Carmen Rivera.

Thank you to the genius of Director and Producer Alex Aaron

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The Level Up Project: Forsyth Satellite Academy’s Paula Walters Parker and Students & Pratt Institutes Keena Suh and Students

The Level Up Project or TLUP  Workshops for NYC High School Students. With Paula Walters Parker of Satellite and Keena Suh of Pratt Institute (and long-time Coalition partner on the Stanton Building).

Paula Walters Parker

The Forsyth Satellite Academy Staff

The Students.

New skill-building three-part, two-week workshops have been running since Fall 2020 as as part of the high school art curriculum atForsyth Satellite Academy. Our TLUP instructors will partner with Paula, Forsyth’s esteemed art teacher, to give students a basic understanding in the fields of natural dyeing and photography.

Astonishing work!

 

Keena Suh & Paula Parker

Read MoreThe Level Up Project: Forsyth Satellite Academy’s Paula Walters Parker and Students & Pratt Institutes Keena Suh and Students
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