Art Loisaida Foundation & Tompkins Square Library hosts a Free Children’s Art Workshop. Paint plus more!

Saturday, February 27th, 2010
10:30am - 12:00pm

Tompkins Square Library
331 East 10th Street
Art Room - 3rd Floor

Art Materials gift of Materials for the Arts, Alex Weidler, Utrecht Art Supplies, Art Loisaida Foundation, & LAP Parents Group

Hello Families,

Got boxtops? Boxtops For Education clippings will be collected next Friday, February 26th. Please cut out, collect, and bring in to your classroom, the Boxtops For Education logos from food and products, such as Cheerios, Ziploc Bags, Yoplait Yogurt, Pillsbury and Betty Crocker baking goods, Kleenex, Cottonelle, Fruit Roll-ups, etc. Each clipping raises money for our school programs and classroom supplies. So, while you are visiting friends and families this vacation, look in their pantry for the products that carry the Boxtops 4 Education logo!

You may submit your Boxtops clippings in the envelope located outside of each classroom or the school office. Reminder: due date is Friday February 26th.

If you have any questions, please email Julia (Jonathan’s mom) at: jdm@masseyart.com

Tickets are on sale now and going fast! Some of the screenings are sold out, advance tickets are strongly encouraged. Check the calendars that came home in the back pack mail or go to:

http://www.gkids.tv/intheaters.cfm

Remember this once a year event is a great fundraiser for our school, get tickets through the website and select our school!

Catch What’s on Your Plate?, the documentary about kids and food politics that features THE NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOL, on national TV this February 7th, 2010!

Join families across the country for a Family Cook-In! on Sunday, February 7th and spend an afternoon learning with your kids about food - what it’s made of, where it come from and how to enjoy every bite.

First, download our Screening Toolkit. (http://whatsonyourplateproject.org/blog/takeaction/toolkit) It has all the stuff you need to have a fun and delicious Family Cook-In!

Second, watch What’s on Your Plate? at 2:00 p.m. on Discovery’s Planet Green. (Go to http:planetgreen.channelfinder.net to find your local channel.)

Third, check out the games and activities in our Screening Toolkit.

Fourth, cook and eat together! Get everyone in the kitchen chopping, stirring, pouring and baking. Then sit down together for some fresh and yummy home-cooked food.

Think food justice is too tricky for kids? Think again.

What’s On Your Plate? proves that not only can kids understand the issues, they can actually teach other kids about how they are what they eat.

The film follows two eleven-year-old multi-racial city kids as they explore their place in the food chain. Sadie and Safiyah take a close look at food systems in New York City and its surrounding areas. With the camera as their companion, the girl guides talk to each other, food activists, farmers, new friends, storekeepers, their families, and the viewer, in their quest to understand what’s on all of our plates.

According to Michael Pollan: “What’s On Your Plate? is exactly the film we need now.”

And Alice Waters says: “It was an amazing experience to hear kids talking about these issues. This movie can have a real impact on the way we think about what we’re eating.”

Don’t miss this chance to see this witty and provocative film on national television! Join in the conversation on how we can change what we eat, and in the process, change our world.

Visit our website for more information on the film and how you can get involved.

whatsonyourplateproject.org

Can’t make the Family Cook-In! broadcast? No problem. The film will be showing throughout the week, with additional broadcasts on:
Saturday February 6th, 2010 at 10 pm
Thursday February 11th at 11 pm
Friday February 12th at 7 am
Friday February 12th at 3 pm

While browsing through New York Public Library’s Digital Gallery, I came across this photo entitled, “Young women around tables reading, P.S. 63, Recreation Center, May 1911.” Joe Maller helped me confirm that this is our cafeteria area. In terms of the angle, it could potentially be the south-east corner of the building, but you see the number “7″ at the left edge of the photo? (Click on the image to see the larger image on NYPL’s site.) That’s for “EXIT 7″ which is on the north-west corner of the building as you can see in this photo Joe took, which means that those exit signs are 100 years old.

I’m not sure what exactly these women are doing, but they look about 20 years old, which would mean that they were born around 1890. If any of them were related to TNS students, they would likely be their great great grandmothers, or great great great grandmothers.

I also found a map of the school block from 1897. If you “zoom” in, you can see a lot more information. Our block is numbered 431, and above it, it says “Philip Minthorne”. As you can see on the right, our school building did not exist then, which is consistent with the fact that P.S. 63 was founded in 1905.

I found a book online that mentions the name “Philip Minthorne”. This is an old book that Google recently scanned, entitled “The Market Book” and it is described as “containing a historical account of the public markets of the cities of New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Brooklyn, with a brief description of every article of human food sold therein, the introduction of cattle in America, and notices of many remarkable specimens.”

Here is the relevant part of this book which describes what was happening in our neighborhood around 1787:

One of the principal market-women, who daily attended at this market both winter and summer, was Mrs. Frances Banta, (usually known as “Aunt Frankey,”) one of the daughters of Philip Minthorne, and a sister to Mangle Minthorne. On some eight or ten acres left to her by her father, near the present corner of Third Street and Bowery, she lived, and grew her produce or market truck. Her father, while living, had owned about 110 acres of land running along the east side of the Bowery Road, commencing from about First Street and running up to Fifth Street, thence in an easterly direction to the East River, taking in a part of the present “Tompkins Square,” which then was a salt marsh. This property old Minthorne divided up into nine parts, and bequeathed it equally to his nine children, when it afterwards became known as the “nine partners,” giving each one a slice or small front on the Bowery, which ran easterly, gradually increasing to a greater width, and ended in a Lane that ran parallel with and a little east of the First Avenue. The balance of this property on the east side of the Lane was at that period divided by another Lane which ran easterly, and was principally all meadow or marsh land. This was divided on the north side of the Lane into “nine parts,” and on the south side into nine other parts, and these three divisions were numbered, so that each had an equal share of both good and poor land.