The Arts In New York City

Author: Daniel Cherry

  • Daniel Cherry – Virtual Event Of Alexander Hamilton

    I decided for the first time ever, to watch Alexander Hamilton on Disney+. For me I had heard about it and even though I had heard such great things about Hamilton the musical itself and how ground breaking it was, I never once thought to take the time to sit down and watch it. I’m glad this class gave me a reason too however, because it really did live up to my expectations for it. Even without the in theatre experience which I don’t doubt is an experience that cant be created through my own screen, this musical was truly outstanding.

    To talk about the film in length would take a while since there is so much the film is about, however the really encaptivating story of how Hamilton started from nothing and through his effort, determination, and his sheer intelligence was he able to reach the top of the American government and contributed many great things to America. I think out of the entire Musical however, my favorite song was “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story”. It’s at this point of the story that we begin with people starting to recognize Alexander Hamilton and recognizing how Alexander Hamilton is sort of the forgotten founding father (well, before this musical came out.) On top of that the song is just beautifully written and one of the thing about the song that really speaks to me is how Eliza sings her parts at a slower pace, without really rushing in comparison to the other songs. To me at least it shows how carefully crafted these songs are, how these songs are engineered to tell a story just through the tempo themselves. From Alexander’s previous song “The World Was Wide Enough” where his tempo is fast throughout the song, signifying throughout the song how much he is rushing because his time is soon.

    It’s through these realizations about the music within the musical combined with my increased understanding of the arts from this course was I really able to appreciate the actual work of Lin-Manuel Miranda. Connecting it to the themes of our course, to the themes of understanding and diversity and identity. To see how people communicate how they moved through struggles, no different from how Alexander came from the bottom of the barrel to the top of the top. To see and visualize that through various songs and through that, to see how he moved in his life through Art itself. This semester has taught us how art is a medium for story telling in of itself and how all art is able to tell a story no matter the form it takes, and Lin-Manuel Miranda is able to do that with every character here, from the lyrics they sing to the way they say it, to the tempo and instruments used. During “The World Was Wide Enough”, when he cuts all of the song all together to hone in on his final moments before his death, to really drive that impact, which is something only an art could do.

    I really loved watching Hamilton and even though the experience could have been better in an actual theatre, that wasn’t enough to take away the hard effort that was put into Hamilton to make it the sensational musical it has been known for and lived up to the title for me.

  • Daniel Cherry – Quinceañera: Dress and Memory in Latine Culture Tour

    For this event, I had gone to Godwin-Ternbach Museum and had visited the Tour on the exhibition “Quinceañera: Dress and Memory in Latine Culture.” I honestly felt both somewhat embarrassed at the fact that for our initial time going there we had backpacks held out in front of us while other people were wearing suits, which led me to feel as though I wasn’t truly taking in what was meant here. I didn’t understand any of the significance for any of the dresses items on display other than the “Oh that dress is pretty!”. That’s why I felt it was important I go back a second time to actually understand and appreciate what is being laid out in front of me.

    The tour was interesting and enlightening, proving it to be much more beneficial to my experience to have an actual tour guide with me to provide me with the useful information about why each item on display held so much value to a Quinceanera and Latin American Culture by proxy of that. Our small group walked around both the bottom and top floors, and along the way our tour guide had detailed information about every single object on display and was ready to answer any questions that we had. Another fun interesting part was when our tour guide added their own little fun facts from their own life about Quinceanera’s into the event which made it more personal really.

    It really does reinforce the ideas that we learn in class with how diverse Queens is and how diverse it’s arts is within that. A Museum as we have discussed is a place to showcase art in of itself, and there is no denying the fact that a Quinceanera is both a coming of age event but can also with the amount of dedicated work and culture behind it can be seen as an art. This understanding of the word art serves to be an greater realization and application of the word as we learn in class. There is many different art forms that isn’t just drawings or painting, and many of these arts have cultural significance and impact than we can see at just a glance. That is a function of this class to analyze just that, what art does culturally and how many forms of art there are and how we can analyze them all to see what cultural roots they both have and contribute too, and to understand just how versatile the word “Art” is and what it can really mean.