92nd Street Y
Encyclopedia
92nd Street Y is a multifaceted cultural institution and community center located on the Upper East Side
of Manhattan
in New York City
, United States
, at the corner of E. 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue
. Its full name is 92nd Street Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association (YM-YWHA). It is not part of the YMCA
.
-Jewish professionals and businessmen, 92nd Street Y has grown into an organization guided by Jewish principles but serving people of all races and faiths.
92Y serves over 400,000 people annually and offers over 200 programs a day. Its 33 program areas include community outreach; lectures and panel discussions; Jewish education
and culture
; concerts featuring classical, jazz
and popular music; humanities
classes; dance
performances; literary readings; film
screenings; parenting
programs; camps
; a nursery school; fitness classes, singles programs; seniors programs; and a residence program that rents rooms in the Y's main building at 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue
.
center is called the Unterberg Poetry Center and has been led by prominent writers including American poet Karl Kirchwey
who was director for thirteen years until 2000.
Kaufmann Concert Hall, a 917-seat theater, is the home for concerts, performances, readings and lectures.
Individuals of note who have performed, lectured or taught at 92nd Street Y include (in alphabetical order):
called 92YTribeca to bring together and inspire a diverse community of young people from New York City and beyond, including musicians, artists, filmmakers, performers, writers, educators, humorists, directors, speakers, sports enthusiasts and many others. 92YTribeca is located at 200 Hudson Street
and features a performance stage with full bar for live music, comedy
, theater, digital media
, performance art
, speakers and dance
; a 72-seat movie theater featuring a variety of domestic and international films, shorts and digital media; a wireless cafe; serving fresh, local food and drinks; a lecture hall and rooms for talks, tastings, classes
and more; and an art gallery
offering rotating exhibits
. Other programs include Jewish cultural events and celebrations, opportunities for community service throughout the city, and fun activities like summer softball in Central Park
and whitewater rafting trips.
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side lies within an area bounded by 59th Street to 96th Street, and the East River to Fifth Avenue-Central Park...
of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, at the corner of E. 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue
Lexington Avenue (Manhattan)
Lexington Avenue, often colloquially abbreviated by New Yorkers as "Lex," is an avenue on the East Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City that carries southbound one-way traffic from East 131st Street to Gramercy Park at East 21st Street...
. Its full name is 92nd Street Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association (YM-YWHA). It is not part of the YMCA
YMCA
The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...
.
History and design
Founded in 1874 as the Young Men's Hebrew Association by GermanGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
-Jewish professionals and businessmen, 92nd Street Y has grown into an organization guided by Jewish principles but serving people of all races and faiths.
92Y serves over 400,000 people annually and offers over 200 programs a day. Its 33 program areas include community outreach; lectures and panel discussions; Jewish education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
and culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
; concerts featuring classical, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and popular music; humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
classes; dance
Modern dance
Modern dance is a dance form developed in the early 20th century. Although the term Modern dance has also been applied to a category of 20th Century ballroom dances, Modern dance as a term usually refers to 20th century concert dance.-Intro:...
performances; literary readings; film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
screenings; parenting
Parenting
Parenting is the process of promoting and supporting the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood...
programs; camps
Summer camp
Summer camp is a supervised program for children or teenagers conducted during the summer months in some countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer camp are known as campers....
; a nursery school; fitness classes, singles programs; seniors programs; and a residence program that rents rooms in the Y's main building at 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue
Lexington Avenue (Manhattan)
Lexington Avenue, often colloquially abbreviated by New Yorkers as "Lex," is an avenue on the East Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City that carries southbound one-way traffic from East 131st Street to Gramercy Park at East 21st Street...
.
Performances & spatial organization
92nd Street Y comprises eight programming centers: Bronfman Center for Jewish Life; Lillian & Sol Goldman Family Center for Youth & Family; Makor/Steinhardt Center; May Center for Health; Fitness & Sport; Milstein/Rosenthal Center for Media & Technology; School of the Arts; Charles Simon Center for Adult Life & Learning; and Tisch Center for the Arts. Its poetryPoetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
center is called the Unterberg Poetry Center and has been led by prominent writers including American poet Karl Kirchwey
Karl Kirchwey
Karl Kirchwey is a prize–winning American poet who has lived in both Europe and the United States and whose work is strongly influenced by the Greek and Roman past. He often looks to the classical world for inspiration with themes which have included loss, loneliness, nostalgia and modern...
who was director for thirteen years until 2000.
Kaufmann Concert Hall, a 917-seat theater, is the home for concerts, performances, readings and lectures.
Individuals of note who have performed, lectured or taught at 92nd Street Y include (in alphabetical order):
- Alvin AileyAlvin AileyAlvin Ailey, Jr. was an American choreographer and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York. Ailey is credited with popularizing modern dance and revolutionizing African-American participation in 20th century concert dance...
- Edward AlbeeEdward AlbeeEdward Franklin Albee III is an American playwright who is best known for The Zoo Story , The Sandbox , Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , and a rewrite of the screenplay for the unsuccessful musical version of Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's . His works are considered well-crafted, often...
- Trey AnastasioTrey AnastasioTrey Anastasio is an American guitarist, composer, and vocalist most noted for his work with the rock band Phish...
- Kofi AnnanKofi AnnanKofi Atta Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006...
- Rae ArmantroutRae ArmantroutRae Armantrout is an American poet generally associated with the Language Poets. Armantrout was born in Vallejo, California but grew up in San Diego. She has published ten books of poetry and has also been featured in a number of major anthologies...
- Andy BorowitzAndy BorowitzAndy Borowitz is a comedian and New York Times bestselling author who won the first National Press Club award for humor. He is best known for creating the satirical website , which has an audience in the millions...
- John Malcolm BrinninJohn Malcolm BrinninJohn Malcolm Brinnin was an American poet and literary critic. Brinnin was born in Halifax Nova Scotia to two United States citizens....
- Jimmy CarterJimmy CarterJames Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
- Bill ClintonBill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
- Francis Ford CoppolaFrancis Ford CoppolaFrancis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
- Larry DavidLarry DavidLawrence Gene "Larry" David is an American actor, writer, comedian and producer. He is best known as the co-creator , head writer, and executive producer of the television series Seinfeld from 1989 to 1996, and for creating the 1999 HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, a partially improvised sitcom in...
- Ani DifrancoAni DiFrancoAni DiFranco is an American Grammy Award-winning singer, guitarist, poet, and songwriter. She has released more than 20 albums, and is widely considered a feminist icon.-Biography:...
- T. S. EliotT. S. EliotThomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
- Frank GehryFrank GehryFrank Owen Gehry, is a Canadian American Pritzker Prize-winning architect based in Los Angeles, California.His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions...
- Ira GlassIra GlassIra Glass is an American public radio personality, and host and producer of the radio and television show This American Life.- Early life :...
- Mikhail GorbachevMikhail GorbachevMikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
- Martha GrahamMartha GrahamMartha Graham was an American modern dancer and choreographer whose influence on dance has been compared with the influence Picasso had on modern visual arts, Stravinsky had on music, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.She danced and choreographed for over seventy years...
- Shawn GreenShawn GreenShawn David Green is a former Major League Baseball player.Green was a 1st round draft pick and a two-time major league All-Star...
- Tim GunnTim GunnTimothy M. "Tim" Gunn is an American fashion consultant and television personality. He was on the faculty of Parsons The New School for Design from 1982 to 2007 and was chair of fashion design at the school from August 2000 to March 2007, after which he joined Liz Claiborne as its chief creative...
- Christopher HitchensChristopher HitchensChristopher Eric Hitchens is an Anglo-American author and journalist whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the...
- Dustin HoffmanDustin HoffmanDustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
- Karl KirchweyKarl KirchweyKarl Kirchwey is a prize–winning American poet who has lived in both Europe and the United States and whose work is strongly influenced by the Greek and Roman past. He often looks to the classical world for inspiration with themes which have included loss, loneliness, nostalgia and modern...
- Emma LazarusEmma LazarusLazarus began to be more interested in her Jewish ancestry after reading the George Eliot novel, Daniel Deronda, and as she heard of the Russian pogroms in the early 1880s. This led Lazarus to write articles on the subject. She also began translating the works of Jewish poets into English...
- Yo-Yo MaYo-Yo MaYo-Yo Ma is an American cellist, virtuoso, and orchestral composer. He has received multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011...
- Rachel MaddowRachel MaddowRachel Anne Maddow is an American television host and political commentator. Maddow hosts a nightly television show, The Rachel Maddow Show, on MSNBC. Her syndicated talk radio program, The Rachel Maddow Show, aired on Air America Radio...
- Norman MailerNorman MailerNorman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
- Steve MartinSteve MartinStephen Glenn "Steve" Martin is an American actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician and composer....
- Vladimir NabokovVladimir NabokovVladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist...
- Patti SmithPatti SmithPatricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
- Margaret ThatcherMargaret ThatcherMargaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
- Dylan ThomasDylan ThomasDylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
- Elie WieselElie WieselSir Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE; born September 30, 1928) is a Hungarian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and...
- William Carlos WilliamsWilliam Carlos WilliamsWilliam Carlos Williams was an American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism. He was also a pediatrician and general practitioner of medicine, having graduated from the University of Pennsylvania...
- Matthew WeinerMatthew WeinerMatthew Weiner is an American writer, director and producer of television drama. He is the creator, executive producer, head writer, and show runner of the AMC television series Mad Men. He is also noted for his work on the HBO series The Sopranos, on which he served as a writer and producer...
- Anna WintourAnna WintourAnna Wintour, OBE is the British-born editor-in-chief of American Vogue, a position she has held since 1988. With her trademark pageboy bob haircut and sunglasses, Wintour has become an institution throughout the fashion world, widely praised for her eye for fashion trends and her support for...
- Howard ZinnHoward ZinnHoward Zinn was an American historian, academic, author, playwright, and social activist. Before and during his tenure as a political science professor at Boston University from 1964-88 he wrote more than 20 books, which included his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United...
Recent developments
In October 2008, 92Y opened a new performance space in TribecaTriBeCa
Tribeca is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York in the United States. Its name is an acronym based on the words "Triangle below Canal Street", and is properly bounded by Canal Street, West Street, Broadway, and Vesey Street...
called 92YTribeca to bring together and inspire a diverse community of young people from New York City and beyond, including musicians, artists, filmmakers, performers, writers, educators, humorists, directors, speakers, sports enthusiasts and many others. 92YTribeca is located at 200 Hudson Street
Hudson Street (Manhattan)
Hudson Street is a north/south oriented street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Running from TriBeCa to Greenwich Village and through Hudson Square, Hudson Street has two distinct one-way traffic patterns that meet at Abingdon Square, at the street's intersection with Eighth Avenue and...
and features a performance stage with full bar for live music, comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
, theater, digital media
Digital media
Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital form. It can refer to the technical aspect of storage and transmission Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital (as opposed to analog) form. It can refer to the technical aspect of...
, performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
, speakers and dance
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
; a 72-seat movie theater featuring a variety of domestic and international films, shorts and digital media; a wireless cafe; serving fresh, local food and drinks; a lecture hall and rooms for talks, tastings, classes
Class (education)
A class in education has a variety of related meanings.It can be the group of students which attends a specific course or lesson at a university, school or other educational institution, see Form ....
and more; and an art gallery
Art gallery
An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection...
offering rotating exhibits
Art exhibition
Art exhibitions are traditionally the space in which art objects meet an audience. The exhibit is universally understood to be for some temporary period unless, as is rarely true, it is stated to be a "permanent exhibition". In American English, they may be called "exhibit", "exposition" or...
. Other programs include Jewish cultural events and celebrations, opportunities for community service throughout the city, and fun activities like summer softball in Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
and whitewater rafting trips.
Notable residents
Notable individuals who have resided at 92nd Street Y include:- Joseph GurwinJoseph GurwinJoseph Gurwin was a Lithuanian-born American textile executive who became a philanthropist who contributed to Jewish causes in the United States and Israel. Gurwin arrived in the U.S...
(1920–2009), a philanthropist who rented a room at 92nd Street Y for four years after arriving in the U.S.