Christmas trees stack up at parks for ‘Mulchfest’
BY TODD MAISEL
Only a day after Christmas, the
holiday trees are starting to
gather at New York City parks
to be part of Mulchfest, the annual
holiday tradition of recycling Christmas
trees into mulch and potpourri with the
assistance of hundreds of volunteers.
Many of the trees dropped at city
parks on Thursday were leftovers from
tree sales or those who decide to take
their tress down early after Christmas.
More than 28,000 trees were tossed
into wood-chippers last year at parks
throughout the city and are converted
into new uses including mulch for gardens
and scented satchels to hang in
the home as potpourri. Residents will
be invited to take a big of mulch for the
backyard or a winter bed for a street
tree.
Chipping will begin on Saturday,
January 4 and January 11, 10 a.m. to 2
p.m. on both days.
Last year, L.J. Philip, a lead gardener
at Lakeside in the Horticulture department
of the Prospect Park Alliance,
worked with volunteers and park workers
to grind up trees of all sizes.
“People and NYC Sanitation bring
trees and we chip them — we use
them within the park, to spread mulch
around our trees so we are recycling
Residents walk past piles of trees already gathering at Prospect
Park.
them,” Philip said. “We use them
around our trees because they are great
for moisture, gives them nitrogen, suppresses
weeds, and also keeps them a
little warm in winter.”
Park offi cials reminded residents
to remove all lights, ornaments, and
netting before bringing the tree to a
Mulchfest site. Bags will be provided
if you wish to take some free mulch
PHOTO BY TODD MAISEL
home.
The Manhattan Mulchfest sites are
as follows:
Chipping
• Carl Schurz Park, East 86th Street
and East End Avenue;
• Central Park, West 81st Street and
Central Park West (at the bridal path);
• Inwood Hill Park, Isham Street
and Seaman Avenue;
• Riverside Park, West 83rd Street
and Riverside Drive;
• Stuyvesant Town, East 20th Street
at 20th Street Loop;
• Tompkins Square Park, East 7th
Street between Avenues A and B; and
• Washington Square Park, Fifth Avenue
and Washington Square North.
Drop-off only
• Bennett Park, West 185th Street
and Fort Washington Avenue;
• Bowling Green, South Plaza between
Broadway and Whitehall Street;
• Central Park, East 106th Street
and Fifth Avenue, and West 65th Street
and Central Park West;
• Corlears Hook Park, Jackson and
Cherry Streets;
• Highbridge Park, Dyckman Street
and Nagle Avenue;
• J. Hood Wright Park, West 173rd
Street near Haven Avenue;
• Marcus Garvey Park, East 120th
Street and Madison Avenue;
• Morningside Park, West 123rd
Street and Morningside Avenue;
• Union Square Park, East 14th
Street between Broadway and Park Avenue
South.
Volunteers can register with the
Mulchfest team at https://www.nycgovparks.
org/events/keyword%20
mulchfest%202020/
Chelsea exhibit explores life and poetry of Lazarus
BY GABE HERMAN
A new exhibit in Chelsea explores
the life of poet Emma Lazarus
and the history behind her
famous poem “The New Colossus,”
which appears on the Statue of Liberty’s
pedestal.
The exhibit was produced by the
American Jewish Historical Society,
and is at the Center for Jewish History,
at 15 West 16th St. It includes a detailed
replica of Lazarus’ sitting room
in her Chelsea home. There is an accompanying
curriculum offered that
teachers can use, and a poetry contest
where students are asked what poem
they would write today for the Statue
of Liberty.
Lazarus (1849-1887) grew up in
a Brownstone on West 14th Street in
Manhattan, and later lived in a Brownstone
on West 10th Street near Union
Square, where she wrote “The New Colossus,”
which includes the lines “Give
me your tired, your poor, Your huddled
masses yearning to breathe free.”
The poem is a sonnet that Lazarus
wrote in 1883 as a donation to an auction
to raise funds for construction of
a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty. A
plaque with the poem would be put on
a wall of the pedestal in 1903.
The exhibit includes a replica of Lazarus’ sitting room.
Large numbers of immigrants were
coming to America during the 1880s,
and not everyone agreed with the poem’s
welcoming sentiment, noted Annie
Polland, executive director of the
American Jewish Historical Society
(AJHS).
Lazarus was a fi fth-generation American
from a Sephardic Jewish family.
PHOTO BY SHAYNA MARCHESE
She was a part of wealthy circles, but
some would talk behind her back, Polland
noted. “She had experienced what
people call social anti-Semitism her
whole life,” she said. Lazarus was also
an advocate for Russian Jewish refugees
escaping persecution.
Lazarus was inspired by social activism
happening at nearby Union Square,
including the fi rst Labor Day parade in
1882, Polland noted, and by economist
Henry George, who sparked reform
movements and wrote about inequality
in society.
The origins of the exhibit go back
to notebooks of Lazarus poems that
AJHS has, which Polland said would
elicit strong reactions from people,
with many not knowing much about
her life.
“Her early life was steeped in education
and has roots in New York City,”
Polland said of Lazarus, who wrote a
200-page collection of poems at age
17.
Polland said she hoped the Lazarus
exhibit would inspire people to learn
more about her and the time period.
“We get in trouble when we think of
history as static,” she said.
We now take for granted the Statue
of Liberty being there and the poem
being part of it, “but we need to understand
that they came out of a particular
moment,” Polland said. That can be the
fun of educating people about it, she
said, adding, “how can something be
so famous and yet so little known.”
The Emma Lazarus exhibit will be
open through 2022, and more information
can be found at www.ajhs.org/
emma-lazarus-project-exhibition.
12 January 2, 2020 Schneps Media
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