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On a chilly day this week we checked out the incredible holiday light display at Hudson Yards. More than two million white lights are featured throughout the shops, the Vessel (which has extended holiday hours), the Edge observation deck, and the outdoor areas. With Hanukkah starting this week, Hudson Yards is also celebrating with traditional sweets and treats and arts and craft activities. If you go, be sure to social distance and wear a mask!
Last week on December 4, 2020, Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis of the US District Court in Brooklyn ordered that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) must immediately fully reinstate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, reversing a memorandum issued this summer by Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf that restricted the program to those already enrolled. Judge Garaufis ordered that DHS post a public notice stating that it is accepting new, initial DACA applications with work permits that are valid for two years and that DACA recipients are eligible to apply for Advance Parole for international travel. Judge Garaufis also directed the government to notify immigrants eligible for DACA to let them know of the change.
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Point of Action by Studio Cooke John invites residents and visitors alike “to contemplate the experience of seeing one another—and being seen.” The installation consists of six-foot circles affixed onto the Flatiron Public Plazas that create nine “spotlights,” each with its own vertical metal lighted frame. Lights embedded on each metal structure illuminate and frame the viewer who can step into the spotlight and connect with viewers across the plazas. “We are at a threshold during this pandemic,” Nina Cooke John, Founder and Principal of Studio Cooke John, says. “Now that our eyes have been opened to realities that have been with us all along, how do we move forward? My hope is that Point of Action makes people think about how we connect to the people we see every day so that we can move forward together.” Point of Action is on view through January 1, 2021 in the Flatiron Public Plazas on Broadway, Fifth Avenue, and 23rd Street in Manhattan.
While we were enjoying a walk in St James’s Park on a delightful fall day, we came across these pelicans enjoying their own stroll. Pelicans were first introduced to the park in 1664 as a gift from the Russian ambassador, and now over forty live here. Current pelican residents include Isla, Tiffany, and Gargi, and recent additions include Sun, Moon, and Star. They all enjoy sunning on their favorites rocks and being fed fresh fish between 2:30pm and 3:00pm every day (though during the pandemic staff feed them away from public view). While the pelicans are free to roam they rarely go far from the lake. Which is probably just as well. Because, you know, social distancing and all. And, don’t worry, pelicans, we're not going to eat you. Sorry, turkeys.
US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) announced plans to implement a revised version of the naturalization civics test that will be effective for those who apply for naturalization on and after December 1, 2020. The civics test is one of the statutory requirements for naturalization. The revised test includes “more questions that test the applicant’s understanding of U.S. history and civics, in line with the statutory requirements, and covers a variety of topics that provide the applicant with more opportunities to learn about the United States as part of the test preparation process.”
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Ecuadorian artist Raúl Ayala collaborated with young student artists on the latest mural featured at the historic Houston Bowery Mall in downtown Manhattan. The mural honors Groundswell, an organization that encourages youth, artists, and community organizations to use art for social change. The mural, featuring surrealistic touches, reflects on the difficult times we are living in amid the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests against police violence and systemic racism and the global COVID-19 pandemic. Ayala describes the mural as “opening a portal” and is meant to have viewers think about “how we exist in relationship to each other, how we hold and take care of our individual, social, and cultural essence.” He adds: “For me, building imagination and sharing knowledge alongside a younger generation of artists is a great manifestation of the fruits of this shift. With this mural, we are also bringing intergenerational participation into a future that honors our past while actively creating a different path of existence.”
Last Saturday, major news organizations projected that former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris would win the 2020 presidential election. Their election comes after the Trump administration’s unrelenting attacks against immigrants, refugees, and the US immigration system over the last four years. In the coming days, we will be posting more about what changes to US immigration policy and law we might expect under a Biden/Harris administration. In the meantime, many Americans are celebrating this historic victory. Vice President-Elect Harris, the daughter of two immigrants, will be the first woman, the first African American woman, the first Indian American, and the first Asian American to hold the office of Vice President. In her victory speech last Saturday, Vice President-Elect Harris spoke of her mother: “When she came here from India at the age of 19, maybe she didn’t quite imagine this moment. But she believed so deeply in an America where a moment like this is possible. So, I'm thinking about her and about the generations of women — Black women, Asian, White, Latina, and Native American women throughout our nation's history who have paved the way for this moment tonight.”
As we draw closer to the final tally for the 2020 presidential election and reflect on how our fellow Americans voted, it’s an opportune time to revisit Dr. Eddie Glaude, the Chair of the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University, speaking about President Donald Trump and racism in the United States. Stay safe, everyone.
With only a few days left until the conclusion of the 2020 election, John Oliver discusses how the Trump administration has handled asylum seekers over the past four years, noting how the administration has been in this area “truly disciplined about being truly evil.” Oliver discuss how asylum is supposed to work and how the Trump administration has subverted it. He focuses in particular on the so-called “Migrant Protection Protocols” that the administration instituted that have led to asylum seekers living in makeshift camps in dangerous conditions where migrants face kidnappings and violence and how the administration has “all but shut off the pathway for many asylum seekers to enter the country.” Oliver says: “[T]he asylum process has never been easy, but this administration has made it absolute hell.”