"Here" by Santi Flores

The city of New York, home to people from hundreds of different countries and cultures, takes great pride in its diversity. The Garment District, a neighborhood in midtown Manhattan, is currently home to an art installation celebrating the unique “unity, diversity, and individuality” of “New Yorkers and visitors passing through” the city. Called “Here,” the installation consists of fourteen figures standing in the pedestrian plaza with hands raised high in the air, “as if to say ‘Here we are. We are moving forward together.’” The installation is by Spanish artist Santi Flores, who created each figure out of steel and painted them with unique designs and patterns on their “skin.” The larger-than life figures are a whimsical tribute to New York and the people who live in and visit the city.

Summer for the City at Lincoln Center

As summer starts, Lincoln Center, the world-famous performing arts complex, is bringing music, dancing, and celebration to New Yorkers with a slate of over 300 events lined up through August, including social dances on “New York City’s largest outdoor dance floor” under an enormous disco ball, a group wedding celebration for “folks whose weddings were canceled or diminished because of the pandemic,” and performances of live music, poetry, theatre, and dance. Throughout June, Lincoln Center is also celebrating Pride month, coloring the iconic plaza steps and fountain the rainbow colors of the Pride flag. They are also hosting series of free events celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community. Pride is a time for celebration, and this year is especially celebratory, as communities begin to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The “symbolic Pride colors flying high up in the sky and boldly sprawling across the main stairs” make a beautiful image of solidarity and support at one of New York City’s most iconic landmarks.

Corgis for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

Photos by Smita Daryanani

This year marks seventy years since Queen Elizabeth II took the throne, making her the first British Monarch in history to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee. The Jubilee celebrations, will include many events across the country including the Trooping of the Color followed by a Flypast, the Derby at Epsom Downs, Platinum Jubilee Beacons, a party at Buckingham palace, street parties all over the country, and a Pageant on Sunday to end the weekend. As part of the celebrations, and given the Queen’s love of corgis, a trail of larger-than-life corgi statues has been set up in London. Nineteen statues, each designed and decorated by a different contemporary artist, are eye-catching additions to the streets of central London around Buckingham Palace.