Summer Eats with the 607 CSA

The 607 CSA at City Tech

The 607 CSA has a new pick up location, right here at City Tech!

CSA is an acronym for Community Supported Agriculture. At the core, CSAs are one way local farmers can bring their goods directly to customers, often at a lower cost. The relationship is symbiotic, as CSAs are subscription based and typically paid for in a lump sum. This allows farmers to funnel those funds into supplying subscribers who are in turn guaranteed top quality produce, brought nearly to their doorsteps.

In Brooklyn, CSAs are still riding the wave of a recent resurgence. Driven, certainly, by the Covid-19 pandemic, but they have also historically been a way to support communities without sufficient options for fresh produce and high-quality meat and pantry staples. Many of the boroughs poorest, but most populous, neighborhoods are not on the radar of large grocery store chains and are usually far beyond the reach of farmers markets. We discussed this here in a previous blog post.

Though City Tech is located in bustling downtown Brooklyn, adjacent neighborhoods are still, technically, food deserts. The 607 CSA (and others) has been addressing this for years, with pick up locations dotted around Brooklyn’s landscape. Adding this new stop – available to our own faculty, staff and students – adds to efforts to close the fresh food gap. This model is particularly wonderful as the initial outlay of funds to join CSAs can be prohibitive for those most in need. The 607 allows you to pay per week, removing a barrier to access.

Students, staff and faculty can purchase weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly vegetable shares for pick-up on Tuesdays, 10-12:30pm. Please take a moment to complete this brief interest survey to get a better sense of our college community’s needs: https://forms.gle/1jWmfDL3hsP6Zr557

If you have questions, please contact Amanda Almond @ AAlmond@citytech.cuny.edu who will assist you on behalf of the Green Team.

The Green Team Members
Amanda Almond, Associate Professor of Psychology
Sean MacDonald, Associate Professor of Economics
Robert Walljasper, Associate Professor of Hospitality Management 

 

The NYCCT Archives

New York City Community College Arts & Sciences newspaper Vol. 34, No. 5

City Tech’s Ursula Schwerin Library houses our university’s physical institutional archives. We maintain a collection of historical materials from City Tech and its previous permutations as an educational institution: the New York Trade School, Voorhees Technical Institute, and the New York City Community College. Materials in the archive include student records, administrative memos, correspondence, yearbooks, photographs, videocassettes, ephemera, and regalia. The Vogel Ophthalmology Collection is also housed in the archives.

New York City Community College Arts & Sciences newspaper Vol. 33, No. 7

This list of material doesn’t accurately capture how unique a place the archives truly is. In addition to technical equipment from courses in heating installation and technical drafting, we also have materials that capture social and political events on campus like our collection of student newspapers which highlight the power of student organizing and collaboration. In the 1960s, student groups like the Modern Jazz Club hosted concerts and events that modern music lovers would pay dearly to see – legends like Nina Simone performed in the former Klitgord Auditorium (students paid as little as $1.50!). Shirley Chisholm, a CUNY Brooklyn College alumna and the first Black female Presidential candidate,  gave what was surely a rousing speech on our campus.

Festival of the Arts Fall 1968 & Spring 1969 Concert Series

Each time I receive a request from a researcher, family member hoping to find evidence of their relative’s time here on campus, or former student seeking information on a class on their transcript I am carried back through time. Flipping through our collection of materials – photographs of old Brooklyn and campus life in the 70s, course materials from the 90s, newspapers spanning decades, committee agendas and meeting minutes – is transformative. I am  always so pleased when I am able to find a yearbook photo or course description to help the person in need. And I am never happier then when I come across evidence that a notable historical figure once stalked these familiar halls.

Fun tidbits of City Tech history will be featured in the monthly City Tech Communications Newsletter. To find out more about what’s in our – your – archival collection, schedule a visit. Perhaps you’ll uncover the perfect piece to be featured next?

To arrange a visit, consult our visitation policy and complete the Archives Use Form. And check out our library research guide for additional information.

Call for Papers: Science Fiction and the Archive: The Seventh Annual City Tech Science Fiction Symposium

Call for Papers:

Science Fiction and the Archive: The Seventh Annual City Tech Science Fiction Symposium

Date and Time:

Tuesday, December 6, 2022, 9:00AM-5:00PM EST

Location:

Online via Zoom, Sponsored by the School of Arts and Sciences at the New York City College of Technology, CUNY.

Organizers:

Jill Belli, Wanett Clyde, Jason W. Ellis, Kel Karpinski, and Lucas Kwong

Continuing the explorations and conversations of the previous two symposia on “Race” and “Access” respectively, this year’s City Tech Science Fiction Symposium is focused on the idea of the “Archive.” The potential of the SF Archive as an inclusive and celebratory concept is increasing, and we hope this symposium will be a space to facilitate its expansion through our conversations and collegial debate. Of course, an archive (little a) can refer to practical considerations of Library-based Special Collections like those in the City Tech Science Fiction Collection and others, including the collected materials, cataloging, and providing access. However, we are also thinking of the Archive (big A) in terms of canonicity, cultural preservation, reading lists, and bookstore shelfspace. These latter considerations raise questions about what does and doesn’t get included within what we might call the SF Archive as well as who does and doesn’t get a say in those selections. Therefore, the SF Archive is a broadly based concept that encompasses Libraries and Special Collections and the larger cultural space of fandom, social media, and the marketplace, all of which involve the exchange of cultural capital, influence by different forms of gatekeepers, and conversations on many levels by different readers about what SF should be valued, recognized, and saved.

The SF Archive changes over time. Perhaps most exciting for the present are the many initiatives to excavate our shared cultural histories for SF that had been overlooked or forgotten but certainly deserving of inclusion, such those by writers of color, women, and LGBTQ+ persons; and efforts to bring global SF to wider audiences thanks to growing networks of readers and scholars versed in the original language of a text and those wanting to experience those stories through translation.

Also, Analog Science Fiction and Fact will announce the winner of their second Analog Award for Emerging Black Voices at this year’s symposium (https://www.analogsf.com/about-analog/analog-emerging-black-voices-award/).

We invite proposals for 10-20 minute scholarly paper presentations or 40-60 minute panel discussions related to the topic of Science Fiction and the Archive. Please send a 250-word abstract with title, brief 100-150-word professional bio, and contact information to Jason Ellis (jellis@citytech.cuny.edu) by October 31, 2022. Topics with a connection to the SF Archive might include but certainly are not limited to:

  • What is an/the SF Archive?
  • What is the relationship and interaction between SF archives as physical places and the larger concept of an SF Archive?
  • What constitutes the SF Archive?
  • Who decides what goes into the SF Archive?
  • What role does generation or age play in forming the SF Archive?
  • What media is included in the SF Archive?
  • How can the SF Archive be inclusive and representative?
  • What lineages or clusters of SF based around geography, country, language, identity, culture, etc are in or should be included in the SF Archive?
  • What barriers are there to building awareness or inclusiveness of an SF type within the larger SF Archive?
  • What role do digital technologies and social networks play in creating the SF Archive? How do these relate to other technologies of archive formation, including journals, magazines, zines, and conventions?
  • How are archives depicted in SF? What do these archives hold and what role do they serve within their respective narrative? Can SF depictions of archives serve as a model for the SF Archive?

Like last year  (https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWEFb3DcsZdnfTmMuoZN3sRXxe3VRojf1), the symposium will be held online as a Zoom Webinar. This facilitates a larger and wider audience. Therefore, there are no geographical limitations for participants, but the time for the event’s program will follow Eastern Standard Time (UTC-5:00).

This event is free and open to the public as space permits: an RSVP will be included with the program when announced on the Science Fiction at City Tech website (https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/sciencefictionatcitytech/). Free registration will be required for participation.

The event is sponsored by the School of Arts and Sciences at the New York City College of Technology, CUNY.

The Annual City Tech Symposium on Science Fiction is held in celebration of the City Tech Science Fiction Collection, an archival holding of over 600-linear feet of magazines, anthologies, novels, and scholarship. It is in the Archives and Special Collections of the Ursula C. Schwerin Library (Library Building, L543C, New York City College of Technology, 300 Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201). More information about the collection and how to access it is available here: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/sciencefictionatcitytech/librarycollection/.

Antiracist & Antioppression Work in (and beyond) the City Tech Library

The City Tech Library Antiracism/Antioppression Working Group was born out of our desire to craft a clear direction for the library’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and to name the specific goals and tasks we planned to implement in order to make those efforts impactful. It is open to all library faculty and staff, and works in support of our City Tech Library Diversity Commitment.

The Working Group has created and maintains this library guide to document and share resources both in and beyond the Library. We hope these resources are useful, and we welcome feedback.

Call for Papers: The Sixth Annual City Tech Science Fiction Symposium on Access and Science Fiction

The question guiding the Sixth Annual City Tech Science Fiction Symposium is: Who has access to the genre in terms of opportunities to create, enjoy, celebrate, identify with, and connect with others? Access, of course, is a shared concern of many historically marginalized and oppressed groups, including women, the disabled, LGBTQ+ persons, and the working class. Please refer to the Call for Papers for more details. 

Organizers Jill Belli, Wanett Clyde, Jason W. Ellis, Lucas Kwong, and A. Lavelle Porter invite proposals for 10-20 minute scholarly paper presentations or 40-60 minute panel discussions related to the topic of Access and SF. Please send a 250-word abstract with title, brief professional bio, and contact information to Jason Ellis (jellis@citytech.cuny.edu) by October 15, 2021

Issues of access were an important concern before the pandemic, but these were amplified and intensified in new ways, including library closings and book deserts. Reduced access to computers, Internet, and study spaces delayed or derailed important opportunities for many.

These issues with access before and during the pandemic extend to Science Fiction. William Gibson’s aphorism, “The future has arrived–it’s just not evenly distributed yet,” offers a conceptual lens for this. While Gibson’s use of the term “future” equates to the technoscientific, Science Fiction also represents many imagined futures, and those futures are not yet evenly distributed in terms of access to the genre for creators, readers, fans, and critics. 

Lack of access isn’t only a problem for those who might find enjoyment, meaning, and community through SF in the present; it may also affect the stories produced, the characters created, and the control of narratives. 

The Sixth Annual City Tech Science Fiction Symposium will investigate the theme of “Access and SF” and we will question together: what are the tensions between access and SF, what’s at stake and for whom, how to foster alliances, and how to achieve access for all. Also, Analog Science Fiction and Fact will announce the winner of their inaugural Analog Award for Emerging Black Voices at this year’s symposium. 

Topics with a connection to Access and SF include but are not limited to:

•    Access to Science Fiction for an Audience 

•    Access to Science Fiction as a Fan 

•    Access to Science Fiction as a Creator 

•    Access to Science Fiction as a Scholar 

•    Access to Science Fiction where Roles Collide 

•    Barriers to Access of Science Fiction for an Audience 

•    Barriers to Access to Science Fiction as a Creator 

•    Accessibility, Disability, and Science Fiction 

•    Technologies of Access and Accessibility that Relate to SF  

•    Access, Openness, and SF 

•    Affinity Politics and Intersectionality 

This event is free and open to the public as space permits: an RSVP will be included with the program when announced on the Science Fiction at City Tech website. Free registration will be required for participation. ​As with last year’s symposium, the on-going pandemic necessitates holding this year’s event online, too.

The Annual City Tech Symposium on Science Fiction is held in celebration of the City Tech Science Fiction Collection, an archival holding of over 600-linear feet of magazines, anthologies, novels, and scholarship. The City Tech Science Fiction Collection contains near-complete runs of major science fiction magazines and extensive holdings of science fiction anthologies, novels, and scholarship, including rare books and first editions. Additionally, there are significant selections of fringe texts, including mystery, horror, and the supernatural. It is housed in the Archives and Special Collections of the Ursula C. Schwerin Library. 

If you would like to inquire about the collection for research purposes, please read the library’s access policy for the City Tech Science Fiction Collection and contact Assistant Professor and Collections Management and Archives Librarian Wanett Clyde by phone at 718-260-5496 or email wclyde@citytech.cuny.edu.

Black Foodways Collection

The themes of food justice and activism have been in the forefront of public consciousness as we live through a pandemic. Our recent virtual exhibit, Sustainability & Self Determined Food Systems, examined the intersection of food justice and Black Power, and featured people rebuilding relationships to the land and reimagining food systems.

This Black History Month, our African American Studies department hosted a virtual event with similar themes. Environmental and food justice activist, Tanya Denise Fields’ conversation with City Tech’s Dr. Emilie Boone called to mind the library’s collection of texts related to Black foodways. We have been steady in our intention to acquire newly published works by Black authors as well as those about to Black culture. We are also fortunate to have many important out-of-print or difficult to find texts in our collection.

Though we are currently away from campus, please enjoy this selection of titles.

You may also wish to view:
Winter Holiday Foodways and Cookbooks, Part 1 of 2
Winter Holiday Foodways and Cookbooks, Part 2 of 2

The Fifth Annual City Tech Symposium on Race and Science Fiction

The Fifth Annual City Tech Science Fiction Symposium on Race and Science Fiction will be held on Thursday, Nov. 19 from 9:00am-5:00pm online via Zoom Webinar.

To participate in this free event, attendees will need to (1) Signup for a free Zoom account here (if you don’t already have one), and (2) Register here to receive access instructions to the Zoom Webinar. Participants may register any time before or during the event!

For those who would like to watch the event without registering, you can join the YouTube Livestream here.

In addition to the Zoom Webinar Chat and YouTube Live Chat, join the event conversation with the event hashtag #CityTechSF and follow on Twitter @CityTechSF.

As indicated on the program, some symposium content is pre-recorded to offer more time for discussion on the day of the event. Pre-recorded content includes author readings and full paper presentations. Some of this content is in production and will be posted soon.

Visit the collection’s OpenLab page for participant bios, the full program and additional information.

New York Archives Week 2020

NY Archives Week banner via https://www.nycarchivists.org/

This year, the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York will celebrate New York Archives week online. Though the NYCCT Archives is currently inaccessible as we continue to restrict access to campus while the city contends with Covid-19, Archives Week is a great opportunity to highlight our collection as well as introduce you to our new NYCCT Archives Research Guide.

The Archives contain historical materials from City Tech’s precursors: the New York Trade School, Voorhees Technical Institute, and New York City Community College. These collected student records, yearbooks, university catalogs, photographs, newspapers, and more can enrich a research project or provide detail of past coursework completed at City Tech . In Spring 2016 the City Tech Science Fiction Collection  joined the Archives. This collection has been used to support coursework in the English department and is at the center of an annual symposium.

Visit the new NYCCT Archives Research Guide for information about our visitation policy, how to view the Science Fiction Collection, to peruse our collections policy or to reach out the archivist. We look forward to welcoming you to the Archives in the future.

Until then, enjoy a selection of photos from when City Tech was the New York Trade School. The entire collection is available via Academic Works.

Students, likely studying carpentry, are shown working on the roof of a model of a house in a classroom at the New York Trade School.
Students in the Paper Hanging Department at the New York Trade School are shown in various stages of hanging paper. Black and white photograph.
Two students learning painting at the New York Trade School are shown here working on decorative designs. Black and white photograph.
An electrical classroom at the New York Trade School is shown here absent of any students. Black and white photograph that is yellowing and is torn in the upper left-hand corner.
A lithography student at the New York Trade School is shown working on a machine. Black and white photograph.

Sustainability & Self Determined Food Systems: A Virtual Library Exhibit

Image Credit: Soul Fire Farm, 2014

One of the unexpected outcomes of this wholly unexpected pandemic is the way it has fundamentally changed how we eat and share food. The pandemic has sparked a renewed interest in cooking and has changed the way restaurants, grocery stores, and community farms operate. Some of us are fortunate to have continued, uninterrupted access to fresh food. Others are struggling with food insecurity during a time when a lot of the systems in place to feed hungry New Yorkers have been disrupted. Still others are working in urban farms and in the food service industries that are trying to adapt to a new reality while keeping workers safe. 

The pandemic, and the lockdown on businesses and resources that resulted from it, has highlighted the unsustainability of the buy-rather-than-make mentality of the masses. It has also shone a light on the many New Yorkers who continue to live by an older standard, one that already includes many of the pandemic suggested shopping tips. Communities of color need no guidance on how to shop in bulk or stretch home cooked meals. Many of them continue practices from ancestral homes in the Caribbean or abroad while some maintain the roots of southern cuisine and food storage. 

This turn towards sustainability is reflected in the number of Black people reclaiming their connection to the land, looking backward towards the food justice lessons learned during the Black Power movement of the 1960s. During this time, the Black Panthers and other activist groups emphasized the importance of self-determined food systems and land rights. The ability to eat is the ability to live, so the Black Panthers prioritized providing for the most vulnerable and valuable with their revolutionary school lunch program.   

Image by Emory Douglas

First you have free breakfasts, then you have free medical care, then you have free bus rides, and soon you have FREEDOM! -Fred Hampton, Deputy Chairman, Black Panther Party, Illinois

It is impossible to disentangle food systems from systems of oppression—colonialism, slavery, and the exploitation of migrant workers, which is why conversations about food justice are multifaceted, global, and include discussions of issues like land reparations and indigenous sovereignty. Back in the 1970s, BIPOC activists advocated for boycotts of large agriculture conglomerates like Del Monte to expose how these companies profited from Apartheid in South Africa.

Image by the San Francisco Poster Brigade, 1977.

Indigenous communities across America are still fighting for stolen land and calling for decolonization; Black residents in Flint, Michigan are fighting for safe drinking water; Black and Latinx families in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx are demonstrating against environmental racism; migrant farmworkers and low-waged laborers in the meat processing industry are fighting for safe working conditions. We see these issues of inequity and resistance at work all over the country and here in New York, where communities of color are still likely to live in areas with more air pollution, less green space, and less access to healthy food. 

This harsh reality has resulted in a number of organizers dedicated to teaching their communities how to grow their own food at home. Introducing aquaponics, hydroponics and microgreens to city dwellers makes it possible for anyone with a few feet of space to start an urban garden. There are farmers working on a larger scale encouraging BIPOC to make a deeper commitment to land ownership and self determination by sharing their own experience with reclaiming land and the skills to make it fruitful. 

Through city organizations like Green Thumb, local chefs and farmers are hosting workshops at community gardens and community centers. They have adapted to the demands of the pandemic by moving the remainder of this year’s educational offerings online. Larger operations like the Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust and Soul Fire Farm in Troy, NY provide educational opportunities that help communities build new relationships to the land and reimagine food systems. Recent updates to their infrastructure have made it possible to expand and increase their online presence through Instagram and YouTube and has introduced them to a wider audience. 

There’s even a community farming initiative at CUNY, housed on the Kingsborough Community College campus in south Brooklyn. The KCC Urban Farm is a space for students and volunteers to learn about urban farming and “explore their roles in local and global food systems.” Fresh produce harvested from the farm is used in classrooms and distributed for free to students and families in need. 

Check out the resources below from the City Tech Library and beyond to learn more about the food justice movement and the BIPOC communities from Puerto Rico to New York to Iowa who are leading the way. 

Websites

Multimedia

Oral History with Fannie Lou Hammer (library login required for access);
Image Credit: Matt Herron, 1964

EBOOKS from the City Tech Library

Social Media

Happy Healthy Latina

Soul Fire Farm

Black Food Folks

KCC Urban Farm

This post was written collaboratively by Profs. Wanett Clyde and Nora Almeida