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SUMMARY:Kate Walter writes about the Bliss Singers at Christmas\, Photos by SuZen
DESCRIPTION:Someday soon we all will be together\, if the fates allow\nVillage Star Revue\n>December 2025 \nLink to article \n By Kate Walter\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nI always had this fantasy about becoming an official tour guide in the Village. But I never got beyond taking friends on informal tours of Westbeth Artists Housing (my building) and leading them through the quaint cobblestone streets of the West Village. Instead\, I’m an armchair guide who hangs out in the active Facebook group “New York City Travel Tips\, Tours by Foot.” \nRun by professionals\, this group has more than 100\,000 followers. I like supplying answers and it’s fascinating to see what appeals to nonresidents. I quickly learned their New York is very different than mine. Never is that more obvious than when people plan a holiday trip. \n \nTourists want to experience Christmas in the city because it’s so “magical.” If I read the word “magical” one more time in this group\, I will scream. (editors note: I feel the same way about “beloved” and “iconic.”) \n\n \n\nThey all want to see the tree at Rockefeller Center. I have been there exactly once during my 50 years living in Manhattan because I had company who insisted upon this ritual. You couldn’t pay me to go back to that mob scene. \nOver the years I’ve created my own holiday rituals in the West Village\, a far cry from my Catholic childhood in New Jersey and singing in the girls’ choir at Midnight Mass. I still love singing and my favorite annual holiday event is caroling with the Bliss Singers in the lobby of Westbeth Artists Housing. \nI’ve been a member of the Bliss Singers (a community chorus) since it started in 2017. Led by Westbeth resident/jazz singer/music educator Eve Zanni and jazz pianist/composer Issac Raz\, we prep for this annual event way in advance. It seems we just get back from summer break and we are pulling up the holiday song lists. \n \n“It’s tricky to lead a group of people at different levels\,” said Zanni\, “and come up with songs that are accessible. The holiday singing is extra tricky because we have an interfaith group and even a few atheists.” \nZanni estimates the repertoire of this annual event is half traditional carols and the rest is popular holiday songs and a few jazz or pop standards. Besides traditional carols like “Silent Night” and “Joy to the World” and secular songs like “Frosty the Snowman” and “Jingle Bells”\, (with verses in Spanish)\, the Bliss Singers’ holiday repertoire includes “Ocho Kandelikas”\, a Hanukkah song in Ladino with a catchy beat. We also toss in “Imagine” and “All You Need is Love” by the Beatles as well as “Guantanamera” and “Dona Nobis Pacem” (done in rounds). \n“There is something for everyone\,” said Zanni. “Some people are uncomfortable with the body of carols for different reasons. Maybe they are Jewish or maybe they have a negative family history around Christmas. I think we address that by including a diversity of songs.” \n \nEveryone in Westbeth and their guests are welcome to make a joyful noise with their neighbors. The event draws an age range from bouncy kids to elders in wheelchairs. Even the staff joins in. The Bliss Singers’ hospitality crew sets up refreshments—hot apple cider and cookies—in the mail room off the main lobby. \nThe day of the event\, chorus members meet in the community room for a warm-up. We drop off our bulky winter coats\, then walk across the courtyard laughing and ringing our jingle bells. As we filter into the lobby\, we find our places with the altos/sopranos/basses/tenors. \nIssac Raz plays an electronic keyboard; he’s joined by Mark Nelms on standup bass. Donning her Santa hat\, Eve Zanni grabs her guitar and leads us in style. \n \nWe Bliss Singers are soon joined by Westbeth residents popping down from their apartments or coming back from shopping. I always love when people walk into the lobby\, see us singing\, and their faces light up with a smile. The staff emerges from the office and the security guards behind their desk join in too. This is the day for the chorus members to shine. \nWest Villager Michele Herman noted how much the group means to her. “I nervously approached the Bliss Singers class around eight years ago\, and now I can’t imagine my life without it\,” said Herman\, writer/writing teacher. (Herman also writes for this paper). “Not only have I overcome a lifelong phobia about singing in public\, I’ve strengthened my vocal cords through Eve’s excellent warm-ups\, found confidence and joy in singing alongside others with Isaac’s glorious piano accompaniments\, and made a whole community of friends. Caroling in the Westbeth lobby is an annual high point: we all get dolled up in our holiday best and sing our hearts out.” \n“This is event is unifying\,” said Zanni. “It’s a ritual of celebrating togetherness.” “My goal is to create new memories for people around the holidays and to help people celebrate the vital community that we now share.” \n \nSome years there are surprises\, like when a man no one knew emerged from the elevator with his violin and played along on every tune. (Turns out he was a musician visiting a resident.) \nI’ve had my own personal surprises related to musical memories. Since my family made a big production out of Christmas\, the holiday carries an emotional wallop with lots of nostalgia. When I was singing “The First Noel”\, I flashed back to walking with my school choir into the dark sanctuary on Christmas Eve\, our candles lit\, the church organ soaring. This was our opening hymn. \nWhen our pianist\, Issac Raz\, hits the tinkling notes of “Silver Bells\,” I’m transported back to my childhood and can picture my sister playing that cheery refrain on the piano in our living room. I can hear my mother calling to her from the kitchen\, “Play ‘Silver Bells.’” \nOne year\, we were practicing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” in the community room and we reached the line\, “Someday soon we all will be together\, if the fates allow.” I started crying as I thought of my faithful friend\, Sue\, who was dear to me but wouldn’t be near once more. She had died that past summer. It felt cathartic\, like an unexpected moment in a therapy session. \nZanni is a great believer in the healing power of song. That’s what motivated her to start the Bliss Singers. “The greatest therapy and integration of your humanity can take place through singing and singing with others\,” she said. “It gives you confidence and the vibrations tune our internal organs.” \nI don’t understand the science but I love this caroling event and I always feel uplifted after our weekly class. The Bliss Singers meet weekly on Friday afternoons from 4:30-5:30 p.m. in the Westbeth Community Room at 155 Bank St. \nThe Bliss Singers is funded by the Westbeth Artists Residents Council through an ongoing grant from the City Council office. (Thank you\, Erik Bottcher.) The workshop is free and open to the public. No experience necessary. \n\nAuthor\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nKate Walter\n  \nKate Walter is a NYC based freelance writer and author of two memoirs: Behind the Mask: Living Alone in the Epicenter ( 2021); Looking for a Kiss: A Chronicle of Downtown Heartbreak and Healing (2015). Her essays and opinion pieces have appeared in the New York Times\, Newsday\, New York Daily News\, AM-NY\, Next Avenue\, the Advocate\, the Village Sun and many other places. She taught writing at NYU and CUNY for three decades. Walter has documented her life in downtown Manhattan since 1975. She has been dubbed “that world’s Samuel Pepys.
URL:https://westbeth.org/event/kate-walter-writes-about-the-bliss-singers-at-christmas-photos-by-suzen/
LOCATION:Westbeth Lobby
CATEGORIES:past-events
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SUMMARY:Get to Know Your Neighbors: Elena Borstein\, SuZen\, and In Memoriam - Lucienne Weinberger
DESCRIPTION:March 28\, 2025 at 7pm\nWestbeth Community Room\n155 Bank St\n(Enter through courtyard)\nNew York\, NY 10014 \nA monthly event showcasing Westbeth artists \nElena Borstein  painter: “My new paintings are entitled”Resist” They grew out of a series which paid homage to Mexican architect\, Luis Barragan. That series I called “Color of Architecture” In recent work I react to migrants being imprisoned on our southern border\, separated from their children\, and now vulnerable to the corona virus.”  Westbeth Artist Page \nSuZen photographer\, multimedia Her photography has been exhibited in museums and galleries internationally and in numerous public and private collections. Recipient of numerous grants\, NYSCA funded a 40’ x 23’ painted mural of her photograph\, “Flowing Light\,” on 42nd Street across from the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Times Square. Retrospective at Westbeth Gallery  \nLucienne Weinberger explored the emotional connections in people with the use of color and free-form shapes. Over the years\, her work developed with two prominent directions: figurative imagery where iconic figures are brought to life with a dreamlike narrative\, including works on canvas and paper\, and fired clay sculptures using acrylic paints and collage mounted canvas. Westbeth In Memoriam
URL:https://westbeth.org/event/get-to-know-your-neighbors-elena-borstein-suzen-and-in-memoriam-lucienne-weinberger/
CATEGORIES:past-events
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240603
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SUMMARY:SuZen's Mural:  Searching for New York's Hidden Art
DESCRIPTION:Anna Kodé\nNew York Times\nMay 31\, 2024\nStanding in front of the Port Authority Bus Terminal on 42nd Street\, a person can easily experience a multi-sensory overload — red double-decker tour buses\, tourists asking which way the M&M store is\, flashy neon-colored billboards and the clanking and whirring of construction sounds. \nYet sandwiched in between two buildings — both over 10 stories tall with large glass windows — a sliver of a mural offers some tranquillity\, peeking through the noise and the lights. \nThe mural\, which depicts a New York cityscape through venetian blinds\, is the work of SuZen\, a 78-year-old multimedia artist who received a $10\,000 public grant for the piece in 1984. At the time\, the building was home to the notorious Show World Center\, one of the city’s largest sex emporiums that offered adult DVDs and peep shows. The shop has been described as “the McDonald’s of Sex\,” and for decades stood as a vestige of Times Square’s gritty past. \nSuZen never stepped foot inside\, never saw a shimmy or rented a video\, but because “the image has these blinds that you’re looking through\,” a business that hosted peep shows “seemed like a good match\,” she said. “It made me chuckle.” The piece — based on a photograph SuZen took from a beauty salon in Manhattan and translated into a mural by Jeffrey Greene\, the founder of EverGreene Painting Studios — stood as a faux window on Show World\, even after owners began converting the building into offices in 2018. \nThen last fall\, SuZen noticed that a taller building went up directly adjacent to it\, rendering her mural nearly invisible. \n“I was sad and heartbroken and upset. No one even notified me that this was happening\,” SuZen said. “Do we really need more glass buildings? There are so many empty buildings that I pass.” \nIn the ever-changing urban landscape of New York City\, where real estate is in extremely high demand\, there are myriad examples of development — or the tastes of the wealthy and powerful — overtaking public art. At the 5Pointz complex in Queens over a decade ago\, 45 murals — the work of 21 graffiti artists — were whitewashed by a developer that was later fined $6.75 million for violating the Visual Artists Rights Act. In 1989\, a 120-foot-long rusting steel sculpture in Lower Manhattan by Richard Serra\, the renowned sculptor who died earlier this year\, was torn down\, following backlash from employees who worked in the federal office building the piece was in front of. Last month\, New Yorkers mourned the loss of “Sherita\,” a pink dinosaur-esque figure on a billboard on Classon Avenue in Brooklyn. \nBut SuZen’s mural wasn’t painted over or removed. Its existence today is nothing short of miraculous — glimmering through the cracks of the city’s towers\, a reminder that some ghosts of public art are around us. Just look closer. I did. \n‘Much Protest and Not Much Success’\nThe Visual Artists Rights Act\, which was passed in 1990\, grants artists “the right to prevent any destruction\, distortion\, mutilation\, or other modification” of certain publicly displayed works. SuZen got in touch with a lawyer to see if her mural would be protected under the law\, but she was told that because her mural went up in 1984\, it didn’t apply\, she said. \n“I don’t know if it’s possible\, but it would be wonderful if we could relocate the mural\,” she told me. \nRichard Haas\, an 87-year-old artist living in Manhattan\, estimates that more than half of his works have been lost to shifts in the built environment over the years. Known for architectural and trompe l’oeil murals\, Mr. Haas has created works in New York\, Washington\, Cincinnati\, Boston\, St. Louis\, Miami and more. \nRead the entire NY Times article HERE
URL:https://westbeth.org/event/suzens-mural-searching-for-new-yorks-hidden-art/
LOCATION:New York Times
CATEGORIES:past-events
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