EXPLORE THE BRONX with IAN FRAZIER
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In-Person
Ian Frazier will be discussing the history of the Bronx in his latest book, PARADISE BRONX: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF NEW YORK'S GREATEST BOROUGH.
Paradise Bronx reveals the rich and tumultuous history of this amazingly various piece of our greatest city. From Jonas Bronck, who bought land from the local Native Americans, to the formerly gang-wracked South Bronx that gave birth to hip-hop, Frazier’s loving exploration is a moving tour de force about the polyglot culture that is America. Frazier shows us how the coming of the railroads and the subways drove the settling of the Bronx by various waves of immigration― Irish, Italian, Jewish (think the Grand Concourse), African American, Caribbean, Puerto Rican (J.Lo is one of the borough’s most famous citizens). The romance of the Yankees, the disaster of the Cross Bronx Expressway, the invention of rap and hip-hop, the resurgence of community as the borough’s communities learn mutual aid―all are investigated, recounted, and celebrated in Frazier’s inimitable voice.
Location: THE SAVOY (D Building / Savoy Manor Building, 2nd Floor)
AUTHOR BIO:
Born in 1951, Ian Frazier grew up in Hudson, Ohio. He attended Harvard where he wrote for the Lampoon. In 1974 he was hired as a staff writer at The New Yorker, to which he has contributed many humor pieces and longer works of reporting. He moved from New York to Montana twice: in 1982 and 1995. The total of seven years he spent there produced two nonfiction books, Great Plains (1989) and On the Rez (2000). In Missoula, Montana, he also began a third book, Travels in Siberia (2010). He completed it after many journeys over a twelve-year period, including a two-month road trip from the Baltic to the Pacific in 2001. He has twice won the Thurber Prize for American Humor, for “Dating Your Mom” (1985) and “Lamentations of the Father” (2006).