#garamkim

Wed Nov 07, 2018 - Day 30

The Last day! 

Oversleeping~ 

Cleaning & Laundry & Packing

6:00pm: Opening @ apexart

8:15pm: Dinner @ Petrarca Cucina E Vino

The last supper

Tue Nov 06, 2018 - Day 29

11:00am: Exit Interview + Lunch @ apexart

I could not believe that it’s been already 29days! And I took a video recorded exit interview with Abbie. We mainly talked about the challenge, the most I liked, and the change through this fellowship program. I felt a bit nervous, but it’s okay to talk with her. It’s time to look back over myself, and my lives. Sometimes I was surprised by finding my personality, which I didn’t know before or I didn’t expected. It was good to know myself well, what is my strong point or weak point, what I really like or hate. And I decided to make myself more flexible. I will miss this moment and people, and I know how it’s valuable for me. Oh, I don’t want to go back home ;-; (Thanks for all apexart team!) + Enjoyed the Lunch: I had a great dish (hummus and roasted vegetable with pita bread). Elizabeth was like a mom :) (She ordered, received, and distributed the lunch for all). I couldn’t believe it’s the good-bye lunch. I had a welcome lunch here at the first week and I also remember we talked about Korea’s Dunkin' Donuts, it’s like yesterday but it’s been about a month ago. (If they come to Seoul, I will be there with those donuts. It would be my pleasure. Whenever welcome to Korea!) And we talked about the election. (Today was the Election Day, and it was raining the whole day.) Now I am listening to the news CNN on air, Democrats take control of U.S. House! (I think the balance is the most important in the politics) By the way I love to watch the news of the results of the vote count on air. It’s a really exiting moment!

2:30pm: American Museum of Natural History

It’s a new schedule replaced by the weather (Thanks to the raining weather, and thanks to my schedule creator for the consideration) It’s amazing! I really enjoyed exhibitions there.

1) The Butterfly Conservatory: It reminded me Demian hirst’s work. That moment I was really exited, and I was surprised at his work. I really loved him who used to create amazing works.

2) Unseen Oceans I liked the entrance moving ocean wave effects by the beam projectors; it’s a photogenic place! I could build up my own sand mountains, and loved the 180-degree screen with life-size… animations?!? (I thought it’s a real movie while in the exhibition but now, I figure it out It’s not the real one.. um… a bit disappointed…)

3) Our Senses: An Immersive Experience

I could become a bee or snake (while I saw a garden with limited vision), I could communicate with elephants by hearing the spectrum of sound, And I could meet another Einstein here again!

Here is the introduction video of the exhibition (I liked this trailer): https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/our-senses

And now I’d like to introduce my competitors today. (So far, neither seemed to give ground)

and friends~

5:30pm: Pie at Four and Twenty Blackbirds

I had a piece of Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie and iced latte. (I asked what is the most popular before ordering), it was so delicious! Oh you are the American pie!

6:30pm: Celebrate PROTEST! The latest issue of Women’s Studies Quarterly @Interference Archive with Tracy Fenix I liked the place, which was full of archives, and books. The presentation was well organised. It’s meaningful and I could see many people were getting together. It’s good to know Tracy there. (Actually, I didn’t look through my schedule, so I didn’t know I would meet Tracy tonight, sorry Tracy!) I enjoyed talking each other than the presentation itself.

A gift from Tracy :)

Mon Nov 05, 2018 - Day 28

10:00am: Breakfast @ EVERYMAN espresso

Almond Croissant & Cappuccino~ yami!

11:30am: HARLEM TOUR DAY

A teenager threw an egg across the road without any reason, and it’s narrowly missing a passerby who was crossing the crosswalk. (What’s wrong with him…)

1) The Apollo Theater

2) The Hotel Theresa

First luxury hotel in Harlem. I tried to go inside, but the receptionist said that it’s not the hotel anymore.

3) Collyer Brothers Park

4) National Jazz Museum The museum was cozy. I like the old music score, which placed in the piano. (It’s rolling!) And I wrote down some Jazz music playlists which were in iTunes of the museum. Moreover, I met a Jazz musician (a pianist) there. His name is David Durrah, who has been to Korea for his concert. He said that he has a concert here soon, but I said I am leaving soon. And he asked me to find his music on Youtube.

5) Sylvia’s ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “The Queen of Soul food”, it’s the American restaurant with cute decoration. I ordered MIXED GREENS SALAD topped Grilled Shrimp. The corn bread before the main dish was so tasty, and the salad was great! By the way, the waitress was so amazing, she recommended her own dressing recipe and prepared it for me and she made me iced coffee (with a take-out cup) which was not in the list of menu, she knew all that I wanted! +and I was happy that I could listen to the music ‘I’m Not The Only One’ by Sam Smith while I had lunch.

6) Abyssinian Baptist Church

7) Schomburg Center for Research and Black Culture I liked the interior of the hall. And they had a good building structure, there was in the exhibition room, which exhibited the archive and several paintings and also shows the library downstairs through the windows placed in the corner of the center.

8) Harlem Hospital Center WPA Mural Look at the wall painting! I’ve never seen this kind of hospital, which has a huge wall painting exterior.

9) 135th Street – Harlem Walk of Fame

YMCA!

On the way to the subway, I found a beautiful park.

5:30pm: NYCCares Beading with VISIONS

It’s a special experience to bead a bracelet with person who is blind or has low vision. The process was to help those people to make their own jewelery. I was looking forward to this volunteering work, because I was confident to do this work, beading and making something. However, it’s so disappointed. First, I met a mean person there. When I was hard to find some beads to figure out the same color, one of the volunteers said to me it’s okay, they do not know anyway. I was really shocked. How so mean. And the team leader of here seemed to be irritable all through the hour, and spoke in the imperative mood. When the work finished, she even said good bye. She was the most unfriendly person I’ve met here, and I thought she doesn’t suit the role of this work. It’s so sad night.

Sun Nov 04, 2018 - Day 27

All day free day Oversleeping~ Macchiato @ EVERYMAN Espresso

Guggenheim Museum

Times Square Church

Dinner with a friend An @ Miss Ada

Sat Nov 03, 2018 - Day 26

9:00am: Breakfast

Pecan pie & milk 10:30am: Braille Study Group @ Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library

I went to Braille class, I had thought it would be boring, but I was so exited to learn the Braille alphabet! It was amazing, after learned the alphabet the tutor gave me some word quizzes with a Peg Slate, it was ‘babe’, ‘brick’, and ‘morning’. And she asked me if I could make a word, so I made her ‘thanks’. It was so interesting experience. When I left the class, she asked me when I could come again, I said I am leaving next Thursday and she was so glad I came here to learn Braille on weekend. She gave me a wonderful text paper written in Braille and with the Library logo lion as a gift. It’s so touched.

Here is the alphabet

And it’s the gift

12:40pm: Lunch @ SG

Having a lunch Shroomami~

1:10pm: Coffee @ Gotham coffee roasters

And new coffee place! I asked a late with less milk, the barista recommended cappuccino instead, so I took it. (It’s a flat white what I was looking for! Love it!) And one thing I like here NYC, there are some good coffee places where provide coffee not too hot, with good temperature to drink.

2:10pm: FHAA 1st Annual Diwali – Festival of Lights celebration @ Queens Library

What I’ve learned here most of events do not start on time. So, I thought I could go to the Queens library till 2:10. Surprisingly, it’s delayed 30min, and the main event started at 3:15 (not 2:00);;; And the music concert was a bit disappointed; the musician sang a famous pop song in Indian style remix.

6:00pm: Joe & The Juice

Pick Me Up~

7:30pm: Other Side of Wall Street (1609-1664) with Black Gotham

It’s started with distributing name cards to tourists. Each one has one name, and during the street tour the guide explained a story related to each person. The tour itself was not so interesting, but the tour guide was like an actress on stage. She has a good voice and gesture while she explained the stories although we were just standing or walking a street but it’s not boring. And interested in Black Gotham studio, they have also issued magazines and open their studio to the public once a week. But I think they need to reduce the fee for this normal street tour.

Fri Nov 02, 2018 - Day 25

7:00am: Breakfast

Bread & milk

on the way to ferry station (it’s an indoor interesting place!)

8:00am: NYC ferry from Wall Street Pier 11 to Red Hook

Perry with coffee.

9:00am: Compost at Red Hook Added Value Farm

I like the way people enjoying the work, they turned on the music during the labor, and talking to each other. And I didn’t expect I would face food garbage here. It’s a Halloween special. You cannot imagine how many pumpkins I chopped. (I felt sorry because they were cute) And I like their eco friendly process to make compost. The team leader friendly explained and was questioned. He said that the hurricane ‘Sandy’ changed everything. (It’s the sandy I was heard in Kepco). And the compost process reset, restarted from that moment. They had a volcano shaped compost system, which made mixed up with food garbage and wood fragments with coffee bean peel, they all from their community. Surprising this system is so scientific, it made heat itself inside, and release heat (co2) into the air on top of compost. In conclusion, it offset the bad smell too. (As a result, it possible they can be located near their neighbor such as high school, IKEA and community) I thought Korean Ministry of Environment should come and see.

12:30pm: Lunch @ Hometown Bar-B-Que

I ordered a brisket sandwiches. It’s not what I expected. But it’s really delicious!!!

1:30pm: Record Shop browsing

I bought one record! It’s cozy and lovely shop around second hand records! (Moreover they had a barbershop inside!)

it’s a speaker!

2:00pm: Pioneer Books

The Reanimation Library, it’s a small place but there were interesting books including independent art exhibition catalogs.

on the way home

4:00pm: taking a nap

I was so tired; I needed to take a sleep before the next schedule. 7:00pm: The Ecstasy of the False Positive

It’s mermaid special. The lecturer, Rich Pell is a museum founder of center for postnatural history. (I saw a picture and it’ looks interesting). He has an interesting point of view of mermaid, and has fundraised for the research. The place, Biotech Without Borders looked interesting, it’s a casual laboratory. By the way, a guest who was late for 30min, took her dog in the lecture, and she sit behind me, and I freaked out whenever the dog turn round under my chair, she talked to her dog keep silent, and the dog shook himself. (It’s raining outside). I could not concentrate on the lecture at all, and people too. I was upset by her manner without a shred of common sense.

Thu Nov 01, 2018 - Day 24

10:40am: Listen to Bowery Boys Chinatown Podcast @ Sweet Garden I had breakfast listening to the Pod cast in Sweet Garden

12:00pm: Exploring the streets of New York’s Chinatown with Bowery Boys It’s like exploring in China.

1:30pm: Lunch @ Shanghai 21 (only cash) I had Mapo Tofu (lunch special, with steamed white rice)

2:30pm: Museum of Chines in America

There’s free gallery admission on first Thursday of the month. I was interested in their exhibition of woodblock, and metal type blocks. It’s not big as much as I expected but looked well organised.

4:00pm: Tai Chi in Elizabeth Street Garden

Another closure! But Elizabeth Street Garden was beautiful. I got to know that the class wasn’t there today from the staff of the Garden. They said that although there’s no class, you could do your own Tai Chi yourself, but I said no. (Because I didn’t know what is Tai Chi…)

About the China day, today: Actually, it’s not so impressive because there are Chinatowns throughout Korea as well, even nearby my SASG residency and nearby my hometown. But I like the process: storytelling-> exploring locations-> Museum

5:00pm: MoMA PS1

Because I had some time until the screening, I headed to MoMa PS1. (It’s one of the places I wanted to go in NYC, I had the museum pass now, and it’s close from Union Docs) The place was interesting (the building reminded me my school in London, Chelsea College of Arts), but I was surprised the fact that I was not so much interested in the exhibition. (It might be… I had much more interesting adventures here for the last 3weeks.) And I had an iced latte and snack in the café.

7:30pm: Union Docs Screening: HERE AFTER Documentary

It’s popular. All tickets were sold out. But I was interested in the organisation, ‘Union Docs’ than the movie. Because the trailers and their program introduction before the movie, looked so interesting. Fortunately, it’s not so long, took about 1 hour. Now I am searching their website.

Wed Oct 31, 2018 - Day 23

5:00am: Breakfast

Woke up at 5. It’s really hard to wake up early. Before leaving home, I had a meal. (Last night I bought cinnamon pastry bread from Bread Bakery)

6:00am: NYC Cares- Breakfast Serving @ Crossroads

Arrived the church at 5:55 There were already a line of homeless, and they kindly let me know where is the entrance. For the first 30min, I made peanut better sandwiches. And served meals to guests. There are many kinds of people for the volunteer works, someone has worked for 20years, and another has done for 3years. They have come every Wednesday before going to work. It’s really amazing. The work ended at 8:45am. I felt good. 9:45am: 15min swimming @ my apartment

I was alone in the swimming pool again. 12:00pm: Lunch with Steven Rand @ Square Diner

I really enjoyed the lunch with Steven. We visited an American classic restaurant. I ordered Portobello mushroom salad, It’s tasty, but couldn’t finish all because it was so big (as always). We talked about the fellowship program, the artist creativity, and volunteer works. Steven said that we are doing volunteer works because we could learn from them. (It’s impressive) And talking about ‘artist’s savior complex’ was also interesting. He was the first person who calls the collectors “enemy”, who could say “why?” with the saying I cannot be creative as much as now when I become old. He said that people normally become conservative with advancing years. But artists should be different. (I need to think about “How keep my creativity”, “Entertain whom” and “What can I do with my works”.) He asked me if I understand this fellowship program; I could say I’ve been super upgraded :)

2:30pm:  Check in at apexart

Surprise! I can go to art museum! Apexart provided me free pass to MoMA, Metropolitan museum, and Guggenheim. So exited!   I got the final week schedule. I have mixed feelings. I will miss here and people.

3:30pm: Psychotherapy session with Nancy

I could not believe that it’s the last session. It was really lucky to meet her; during the session I could frankly talk what I thought and what I felt, so I could realize my change. I really appreciate the time with her. Thank you Nancy! 5:00pm: Halloween Horror stories @ BAKED

It’s boring; the storytellers were so serious and they were not prepared well. But the avocado toast was delicious.

7:30pm: Village Halloween Parade

It was amazing! People flooded in the street to watch the Halloween Parade. There were partly traffic controls, (so, it’s hard to get home) the Parade showed interesting performance, installation and costumes in various ways. I liked that people enjoyed Halloween, and it’s parade. I have felt how people exited from their costume, to decorations of home, shops & streets since I arrived here. Thanks to this, I was exited too. I hope that we could also have this kind of festival, which all people could enjoy and celebrate each other. It makes people really happy.

“You guys amazing!” /   “Thank you”