We know everyone will join us for our virtual stroll around Roosevelt Island: Jane’s Walk 2021 – Street Furniture: Where Policy Meets our Bodies (sign up!). We see by our visitor logs that the internet is excited about Roosevelt Island by all the visitors to our entry about the Roosevelt Island Urban Plan. That’s awesome.
We wanted to highlight other Jane’s Walk 2021 talks focusing on Roosevelt Island:
Roosevelt Island: A Vibrant Sustainable Community
Led by Theodore Liebman, Architect at Perkins Eastman and Judith Berdy President of the Roosevelt Island Historical Society.
We will review the history of the island and its change from the infamous Welfare Island to today’s vibrant Roosevelt Island community and the 1969 Johnson Plan and its execution. We will review all the architecture, the restoration of landmarks, and sustainability features on the island, the tram and subway, the new Cornell Tech University and Four Freedoms Park created as a memorial to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and designed by Louis I. Kahn.
Criminalizing Queerness: A Glimpse into Roosevelt Island’s Disturbing Past
Led by Emma Dorfman, Life Jacket Theatre Company.
Roosevelt Island is known today for its high-rise buildings and ample green spaces, but it once housed hundreds of men unjustly imprisoned in the Welfare Island Penitentiary for “lewd and offensive acts which offend the public decency” (NY Penal Law 722, Section 690). This Zoom tour will show you how these queer pioneers- gay men, trans women, and cross-dressers- lived and loved 100 years ago, despite the relentless persecution they met every day.
