⌾Curio #35 - Pablo Neruda, New York Public Library & Afrik Bawantu
I’m now back in New York after being away for about seven weeks. It’s strange here. Shops are closed, everyone is wearing masks and people eye each other suspiciously. It’s too quiet. To describe a New York street as silent would have once seemed nonsensical and contradictory, like discovering a vegetarian hyena or fish that can’t swim. But these are oxymoronic times that we’re living in, where we’re “social distancing” and “alone together”.
Edward Hopper - Early Sunday Morning (1930)
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I went for a walk yesterday at lunchtime through eerily deserted streets until I reached the waterfront at Williamsburg overlooking Manhattan. It was a cloudless day and I had the view to myself. It was quiet but not peaceful; still but not calm.
The city that never sleeps has been dozing. I can’t wait for it to wake up.
Until next time,
Oli
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Pablo Neruda on Keeping Quiet
Few people have explored the virtue of silence with as much clarity or elegance as Pablo Neruda (1904-1973), the Chilean poet and diplomat who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. A friend of mine recently sent me his poem ‘Keeping Quiet’, which could not be more relevant for the current moment. The world might be on pause, but is still filled with distraction, restlessness and inner turmoil. Neruda’s poem is an attempted antidote — an invitation for stillness of both body and mind.
Gabriel García Márquez described Neruda as "the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language"
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Underlying the piece is the idea that by staying perpetually busy we forget to remember what’s most important. Neruda implores the reader to stop moving and embrace introspection as a way to escape the “sadness of never understanding ourselves.” If there were ever a time to read this poem, it is now.
Keeping Quiet
Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still
for once on the face of the earth,
let's not speak in any language;
let's stop for a second,
and not move our arms so much.
It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.
Fishermen in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would not look at his hurt hands.
Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.
What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about...
If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with
death.
Now I'll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.
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New York Public Library
This year marks the one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of one of my all-time favorite institutions, the New York Public Library. It was established in 1895 as a result of donations from some of the wealthiest philanthropists from the late nineteenth century, including John Astor, Andrew Carnegie, James Lennox and Samuel Tilden. The aim was to create an extraordinary building that reflected the city’s grand aspirations to become a global cultural hub. The Central Branch at 42nd Street and 5th Avenue was designed in the Beaux-Arts style, with a Vermont marble exterior and classical elements.
The Central Branch under late-stage construction in 1908
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The Central Branch opened on May 23rd, 1911 in a ceremony presided over by President William Howard Taft. Fifty thousand visitors entered the library on that first day. It was the largest marble structure ever built in the United States and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965 and a New York City Landmark in 1967.
Opening Day, May 23, 1911. The iconic lion sculptures had just been finished by Edward Clark Potter. They were named Patience and Fortitude in the 1930s by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia for the qualities he felt New Yorkers would need to survive the economic depression
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With fifty-five million items and ninety-two locations, the New York Public Library is the third-largest library in the world by catalogue size.
Source: Wikipedia
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My favorite area in the Central Branch building is the magnificent Rose Main Reading Room, of which American writer Henry Miller wrote:
“Working amidst so many other industrious students in a room the size of a cathedral, under a lofty ceiling which was an imitation of heaven itself…wondering what question I could put to the genius which presided over this vast institution which it could not answer. There was no subject under the sun which had not been written about and filed in those archives.”
Rose Main Reading Room
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As part of its one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary this year, the library released its top ten most borrowed books of all time. Which ones have you read?
Top Ten Most Borrowed Books of All Time at the NYPL
Source: NYPL
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Afrik Bawantu
If you’re feeling in need of something upbeat heading into the weekend, then I’d suggest listening to Afrik Bawantu, an irresistible afro-funk group formed in 2007 by Ghanaian vocalist and drummer, Afla Sackey. This unique band blends traditional Ghanaian rhythms with jazzy inflections and sizzling afro-beat grooves. The horn section is particularly epic. This fun track, Noko Hewon, was released in 2013.
“It matters not what you think, but how you think”
- Christopher Hitchens
Curio is put together by Oli Duchesne