New York Today: Graduating From a Graveyard

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/21/nyregion/new-york-today-graveyard-masonry-program.html

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Updated, 8:18 a.m.

Good morning on this summer Thursday.

As classrooms around the city empty out for summer, we learned about a group of students who recently completed a more unorthodox curriculum: tending to a local graveyard.

The landmark Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn hosted 10 apprentices for a monthslong masonry restoration program, teaching the art of repairing and preserving historic monuments and buildings. After finishing the course, which began in March and was supported by the World Monuments Fund, the graduates are now adept at nursing old structures made of marble, granite, brownstone and brick.

“It’s not in high demand; everybody goes the typical construction route,” said Tiara Campbell, 24, a mason from East New York, Brooklyn, who discovered the program through Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow. “Concrete workers, carpenters, plumbers and electricians, that’s what everybody goes for, but what about the historic buildings?”

She and her cohorts worked on one of the more than 700 mausoleums in Green-Wood: the two-story marble Miller Mausoleum, one of the cemetery’s largest, built around 1870 for the congressman William Starr Miller II and his family, who owned the Fifth Avenue mansion that became the Neue Galerie.

Neela Wickremesinghe, Green-Wood’s manager of restoration and preservation, taught the delicate science of removing and reinstalling mortar joints (the material between stones that deteriorates over time), repairing and resetting stones out of line and using technical tools.

“We’re a national historic landmark, so we’re held to an incredibly high standard,” she said. “If we can impart that critical eye now, they’ll become better-trained restoration professionals.”

Ms. Campbell said that working on a centuries-old resting place demands meticulous attention and care. “Just think about it,” she said. “One good miss aiming a five-pound hammer at a chisel, and there goes your ancient stone.”

She told us that her dream gig would be traveling the world to breathe new life into forgotten or undiscovered historic structures.

“In a lot of construction you’re building from scratch, and I want to stay with something that has significant meaning and history,” she said. “It’s our foundation; it’s where we came from.

“We’re at a stage where everything is just technology, and that’s great, but where we came from, they were able to make this mausoleum of marble that weighs thousands of pounds without that, without the cranes and everything else.”

She added, “I want to be able to go back and realize our roots.”

Here’s what else is happening:

Hello, summer.

Our muddled morning will clear up shortly, making way for blue skies and a high of 82 to ring in the longest day of the year.

But Saturday’s looking wet.

• Hundreds of children who have been separated from their parents at the border have been quietly moved to shelters in New York. [New York Times]

• Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, has been suspended from ministry after credible allegations that he abused a teenager while he was a priest in New York. [New York Times]

• The new desegregation plan will require the city’s top middle schools to fill 25 percent of their seats with children who are low-income and have low test scores. [New York Times]

• A state judge overturned rules that would have allowed relaxed teacher certification at some charter schools. [New York Times]

• How are the marijuana laws in New York changing? We’ll explain. [New York Times]

• The retrial of the former state senator Dean G. Skelos began Wednesday with the prosecutor laying out the government’s case. [New York Times]

• City public schoolteachers will get paid parental leave beginning this fall. [New York Times]

• How do Times reporters use technology in their jobs and their personal lives? Our transit reporter weighed in. [New York Times]

• Could new high-rise buildings affect the Brooklyn Botanic Garden? Some community members are worried. [am New York]

• The Woodside branch of the Queens Library is set to receive $6.5 million for renovation work. [Sunnyside Post]

• Today’s Metropolitan Diary: “A Birthday Surprise”

• For a global look at what’s happening, see Your Morning Briefing.

• “Reclaiming My Pride,” a showcase of the creativity and charity in America’s L.G.B.T.Q. community, at One World Observatory in Lower Manhattan. 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., through Sunday. [$36]

• Plaza Theatrical presents “The Wizard of Oz” at Sobelsohn Playground in Forest Park in Queens. 6 p.m. [Free]

• “Immigrant Jam,” a comedy show starring immigrant stand-ups who “celebrate being from somewhere else,” at Q.E.D. in Astoria, Queens. 7:30 p.m. [$7]

• Outdoor movie night: “God’s Own Country” at 8 p.m. at Tony Dapolito Recreation Center in the West Village; “School of Rock” at 8:30 p.m. in Astoria Park in Queens. [Free]

• Writers from “The Daily Show” perform improv comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Hell’s Kitchen. 9:30 p.m. [$9]

• Yankees host Mariners, 1:05 p.m. (YES). Mets at Rockies, 3:10 p.m. (SNY).

• The World Cup continues! Denmark vs. Australia at 8 a.m.; France vs. Peru at 11 a.m.; Argentina vs. Croatia at 2 p.m. Here’s a guide for where to watch in New York City.

• Alternate-side parking remains in effect until July 4.

• For more events, see The New York Times’s Arts & Entertainment guide.

It’s as if the city is doing one big sun salutation: “Welcome, summer!”

Here’s how New Yorkers are celebrating the solstice — for free — across the boroughs.

With music: The annual Make Music New York festival transforms our outdoor public spaces into concert stages for over 1,000 performances, jam sessions and music lessons. A few highlights: “Harlem to Broadway!” at the Richard Rodgers Amphitheater in Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem; Mozart medleys at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in Lower Manhattan; and Argentine music in the archway under the Manhattan Bridge in Dumbo, to accompany the country’s World Cup match. You can browse the full schedule here.

With exercise: The United Nations has declared June 21 the International Day of Yoga. Mind Over Madness Yoga is offering yoga classes from sunrise to sunset in Times Square, and you can register here. 7:30 a.m. to 8:45 p.m.

With math: The National Museum of Mathematics invites visitors to cast their shadows to create an enormous human sundial, at Flatiron North Public Plaza by 23rd Street at Fifth Avenue and Broadway. 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

With food: There’s a summer solstice community potluck at Dorothy K. McGowan Memorial Garden in Upper Manhattan. 2:30 to 8 p.m.

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