Wrapping up our time in the classroom in May, class members agreed enthusiastic to visit the Tenement Museum and identified the field trip tours as semester highlights. The YSOS object work students did this semester was my favorite aspect of the course—I learned so much from the students.
The students all chose illuminating YSOS objects to contribute to the museum archive. YSOS is a project designed to bridge the past and present experiences of New Yorkers, to find common narratives that connect people across differences. These short submissions captured so much of students’ understandings of themselves and their family history. Students presented their YSOS objects in two ways: at the Imagining New York MHC conference and in class. The class presentation assignment invited groups of 3-4 students to creatively “remix” their YSOS in collective stories. Group members were encouraged to use their imaginations and creativity to consider the audience they wanted to reach to with their YSOS contributions and the best medium with which to reach such an audience.
The groups did fabulous, attractive, creative work. We were treated to group presentations in the form of a mini museum—“The Migration Museum”–; a museum exhibit entitled “Journeys of War” that highlighted the role of conflict in immigration; a newspaper dedicated to the push and pull of NYC immigration; a series of connected public service announcement posters about the opportunities and challenges of emigrating to New York; a food blog “Sweets and Stories: The Café Blog” that included advertisements and blog entries; and a guided tour, airport-themed, of New York immigrant experiences through recipes from across the globe.
To the very last submission, student YSOS submissions were excellent. As a result, I cannot choose one or two to highlight but can only thank the students for thinking so carefully about the role of immigration in their lives and in New York City past and present.
Kara Schlichtling
Associate Professor of History
Queens College
