Wfuv's Cityscape

In her novel Flying Jenny, Author Theasa Tuohy tells the story of barnstorming pilots who thrilled the public with their daring feats in cities large and small in the 1920s. Flying Jenny follows fictional character Jenny Flynn. She’s a 17-year-old pilot who’s based on real-life pilot Elinor Smith. While not as well known as Amelia Earhart is today, Smith did an amazing thing in October of 1928. She flew her plane under New York City’s four East River bridges. Theasa Tuohy joins us on this week's Cityscape to talk more about that story and her novel Flying Jenny.  

Betram L. Baker was the first black person elected to public office in Brooklyn. In 1948, Baker was tapped to represent Bedford Stuyvesant in the New York State Legislature. Baker broke racial stereotypes surrounding the Democratic Party at the time, pushed for equality in housing, and even widened opportunities for black athletes to play professional tennis. His grandson Ron Howell tells Baker's story in the biography Boss of Black Brooklyn, The Life and Times of Betram L. Baker. Cityscape producer Caroline Rotante talks with Howell on this week's Cityscape.

Every day thousands of vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists cross the Brooklyn Bridge. But, how much does anyone traversing the span know about its history? Photographer and author Barbara Mensch has lived alongside the Brooklyn Bridge for more than three decades. But, over time, she wanted to do more than simply take photos of the legendary structure. She wanted to dig into the minds and lives of those who built it. The result is her new book In The Shadow of Genius: The Brooklyn Bridge and its Creators. Barbara is our guest on this week's Cityscape.

From Sex and the City to Friends to When Harry Met Sally, New York City has been the backdrop for some of the most memorable and influential television shows and movies in history. Our guest on this week's Cityscape is Georgette Blau, the founder of On Location Tours. It's one of the world's largest TV and movie tour companies. Blau hatched the idea for her company after realizing she lived near the "deluxe" high rise apartment building of one of television's class couples, George and Louise Jefferson.

New York City is layered in history. It’s a history that fascinated the patriarch of one of New York City’s most prominent real estate families. Seymour B. Durst amassed a huge collection of New York memorabilia that was used to create a new book called New York Rising. It explores the development of the city from the 17th century to the skyscraper age. The editors of New York Rising, Kate Ascher and Thomas Mellins, are our guests on this week's Cityscape.

Battling violence in our communities might not be so different than combating an infectious disease. On this week's Cityscape, we're talking with two Bronx doctors who are involved with efforts to reduce gun-related injuries.

For anyone who has never experienced bias or prejudice, it might be hard to understand the true meaning of stigma. On this week’s Cityscape, we get an inside view of what it's like to live on the other side of stigma, and hear about efforts to break stereotypes about physical and mental differences.

In a city like New York, pizza is not hard to come by. But, over the past decade, two cousins have been making a big name for themselves in the competitive pizza scene here. Francis Garcia and Sal Basille are pretty much building a pizza empire one slice at a time. The cousins left the family business on Staten Island to open their own pizza shop in Manhattan in 2008. Since establishing Artichoke Basille Pizza in a tiny space in the East Village, Garcia and Basille have opened 13 other eateries and they continue to expand. Garcia and Basille literally grew up in the restaurant industry, from their great grandparents down, family members have owned everything from sandwich shops to bakeries to restaurants and pizzerias. The charismatic cousins have not only kept that traditional alive, they’ve taken it several steps further. They’re now franchising. And they’ve even starred in TV shows – one appropriately called Pizza Cuz. We recently caught up with Garcia and Basille at Artichoke Pizza on 10th Avenue in Manha

For a lot of people the holidays are the most magical time of the year, and one could argue that there’s no other place more magical than New York City during this time. From the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree to the elaborate window displays at stores like Macy’s and Saks Fifth Avenue, the city is bursting with holiday spirit. Photographer Betsy Pinover Schiff captures the distinctive and unexpected ways Christmastime is celebrated in the city in her new book 'Tis the Season New York. Betsy spent the six weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve photographing all five boroughs. Her book includes over 160 pages of photographs taken mostly at night. Some of the locations are extremely recognizable, while others are a little less traveled by. This week, we sit down with Betsy to hear all about her project.

When it comes to comedy in New York City, Gotham Comedy Club is about as elite for comedians as Lincoln Center is for ballet dancers. But not everyone that gets to grace Gotham’s stage is a celebrity, or even old enough to vote. On this week's Cityscape, we're checking out Kids ‘N Comedy, a program that teaches young people how to write and perform stand-up comedy. The classes are held at Gotham Comedy Club, and participants go on to perform sketches there before a live audience.

In today’s world where we can access our offices and apartments by simply typing a code into a keypad or swiping or tapping a card, a keychain full of keys is quickly becoming a relic of a bygone era. But, in New York’s Greenwich Village, one key-related establishment is still going strong. On this week’s Cityscape, locks and keys, including a visit to Greenwich Locksmiths and a chat with the curator of the Lock Museum of America.

In times of trouble or uncertainty, a lot of us turn to outside support for help -- a psychologist, a pastor, or maybe even a psychic. But what happens when a fortune teller costs you a fortune? Our latest episode explores that question.

In a digital era where you can quickly google search pretty much any recipe, the idea of flipping through a cookbook for inspiration in the kitchen may feel antiquated. But, for Bonnie Slotnik and many others, cookbooks are far from obsolete and offer much more than just recipes. Slotnik owns a vintage cookbook shop in the East Village of New York City. She moved to 28 East Second Street after being priced out. When you walk into Bonnie’s shop, it’s like stepping back in time to an internet-free world. Her store is filled to the brim with vintage cookbooks from around the globe. We recently sat down with Bonnie to talk about her history and love of cookbooks.

Inclusivity and understanding are the pathways to accepting and getting to know the people around us. This fall, WFUV's Strike A Chord Campaign is focusing its attention on autism acceptance. Listen to this special panel discussion produced in conjunction with BronxNet Television featuring: Amanda Friedman, the founder and executive director of the Atlas Foundation for Autism. The organization is dedicated to improving educational opportunities for autistic individuals through after-school, therapeutic, and other scholastic programs. Michele Sanchez-Stierheim, the founder and executive director of Spectrum Warriors, Inc. Spectrum Warriors helps families with autistic members who feel isolated to become a part of their community again. Florencio Flores Palomo, the founder and executive director of REACH Swim Academy. REACH offers swim lessons to autistic kids, giving them a safe space to socialize in small groups and get some exercise.

New York City can be a photographer's paradise. There's no shortage of people or places to capture in a photo, from the Flatiron Building to straphangers waiting on the platform for the A train. On this week's Cityscape, we're talking with two New York City-based photographers who capture their own unique perspectives of the Big Apple. Larry Racioppo is out with a new book called Brooklyn Before: Photographs, 1971-1983 and Herb Bardavid focuses on the city's elderly population in his project "Getting Old and Getting Out in New York City."

It’s been called the "miracle of World War II." This month marks the 75th anniversary of the rescue of more than 7,000 Danish Jews from holocaust. It was a heroic example of neighbors helping neighbors. The scholarship fund, Thanks to Scandinavia, recognizes the ordinary people who performed extraordinary acts in Scandinavia and Bulgaria during World War II to save the lives of their Jewish neighbors. Joining us this week to talk about this often untold story is Thanks to Scandinavia Executive Director Kelly Ramot and Denmark’s Consul General in New York, Ambassador Anne Dorte Riggelsen.

What does the word, “laser” bring to mind? An iconic spy movie, perhaps? In actuality, lasers aren’t just this glamorized phenomenon we’ve seen in movies like Mission Impossible and Star Wars. In New York City you can get up close and personal with lasers with the help of a man known as “Dr. Laser.”  Dr. Laser’s not going to fix your broken bones with powerful rays. What he is going to do is show you around the Holographic Studios, his laboratory for creating three dimensional images on East 26th Street in Manhattan. Dr. Laser combines art and technology to produce captivating installations. He showed Cityscape around his studio, and introduced us to his life of holography.

Restaurants come and go all the time in New York City. But Neary's, located in the Turtle Bay area of Manhattan, has stood the test of time. The classic Irish pub has been around for more than 50 years, and has served everyone from astronauts to presidents.  On this week's Cityscape, Julia Seebode interviews Irish immigrant and restaurant owner, Jimmy Neary. Jimmy shares his American Dream story - one that began a long time ago in County Sligo, Ireland.

Believe it or not, tattooing as we know it today has only been legal in New York City since 1997. On this week's Cityscape, we're delving into the past and present of tattoo culture in New York City.

When you look up the definition of masculinity, you get a short, simple definition -- “possession of the qualities traditionally associated with men.” But, what does that really mean? Author and journalist Thomas Page McBee works to answer that question in his new book Amateur- A True Story About What Makes a Man. The book follows McBee, a trans man, as he trains to fight in a charity boxing match at Madison Square Garden while struggling to untangle the relationship between masculinity and violence. Through his boxing training, McBee examines the weight of male violence, the pervasiveness of gender stereotypes, and the limitations of conventional manhood. McBee is our guest on this week’s Cityscape.