Supporters cheer whereas Shirley Chisholm addresses the Democratic Nationwide Conference.
Picture credit score: Jo Freeman, Courtesy of Museum of the Metropolis of New York
CUNY college students, college, employees and alumni will go to the Museum of the Metropolis of New York on July 1 for an unique non-public tour of an exhibit whose topic, Shirley Chisholm, was one among our college’s most important and galvanizing graduates. It’s a part of our efforts to develop college students’ entry to town’s world-renowned arts and cultural world.
“Changing the Face of Democracy: Shirley Chisholm at 100” traces the life and legacy of this indomitable political torchbearer, who graduated from Brooklyn School in 1946 and went on to change into the primary Black lady elected to the U.S. Congress and, later, the primary to run for president.
The exhibit, co-curated by The Shirley Chisholm Mission at Brooklyn School, gives a possibility to discover a interval that was pivotal to the historical past of our metropolis and nation. In some ways, it’s a celebration of CUNY’s beliefs. It’s a tribute not solely to one among CUNY’s nice graduates however to the ability of training and civic engagement.
“I’ve always been drawn to her,” says Tahisha Fields, a Baruch School counseling main planning to affix the non-public tour. “She did a lot of activism around education, children, gender equality and equity for everyone. She accomplished a lot during times that it would seem impossible for someone of her background.”
Making the Arts Accessible
The occasion is one among many cultural actions organized every year by CUNY Arts, an initiative that integrates the humanities into pupil life and helps make town’s cultural establishments digital extensions of our campuses. I’ve joined college students on unique CUNY Day visits to The Met and the Museum of Jewish Heritage,, and have been in a position to go to the Brooklyn Museum with freshmen from Macaulay Honors School who get non-public entry for an evening each fall.
One other impactful program, the CUNY Cultural Corps, has partnered with tons of of arts and tradition organizations to supply greater than 1,300 college students with paid internships. We’re opening doorways to our college students, and we’re serving to to make the humanities and cultural sectors extra reflective of the range that defines each CUNY and New York.
CUNY campuses, in the meantime, have some 40 cultural facilities of their very own: artwork galleries and museums, performing arts facilities and various cultural venues just like the Louis Armstrong Home Museum operated by Queens School, the Kupferberg Holocaust Middle at Queensborough Group School and the Lehman Middle for the Performing Arts at Lehman School. And our faculties are all the time discovering inventive methods to broaden cultural horizons for his or her college students.
Fields, the Baruch pupil, appears to be like ahead to studying extra about Chisholm’s struggles and triumphs.
“I feel like she resonates because it doesn’t matter what your background, education or experiences are,” she says of Chisholm. “If you’re dedicated and have a vision, just hold true to it.”
Matos Rodríguez is the chancellor of The Metropolis College of New York (CUNY), the most important city public college system in the US.
