Local Switchboard NYC

On June 28th, 1969 patrons at The Stonewall Inn, a well-known nightspot and refuge for the queer community in New York’s Greenwich Village, had had enough. Raided and ridiculed by local police most nights, on this night they erupted into the street, tossing their wigs, swinging their handbags, and chanting. By morning, a counter-revolution had been born. New York is one of many cities worldwide that celebrates Pride week, but this year, there is something new to celebrate: the opening of the Stonewall National Park Visitor Center.

• Outside of the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center. (Sarah Montague)
• Inside of the

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Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, published in 1962, helped to inspire environmental awareness and climate activism in the United States.

This spring of 2024, we wish to be anything but silent.  On this program, we share two ways in which to increase our awareness of the marvels of nature, and to understand how they are imperiled.

First, Sarah Montague interviews Miranda Massie, founder and head of The Climate Museum.

And Jordan Gass-Poore’ attends an eclipse-viewing event at the historic Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

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For Women’s History Month, we’re celebrating women’s contribution to the theatre, where they have had a dramatic presence since classical times and a professional presence as actors since the 17th century.

Today, women are award-winning playwrights, theatre directors, and visionary founders of companies.  They have also contributed to the craft of theatre as creators of new practices.

On this program, we share three different perspectives: devoted librarian and archivist stewards the collection of a great male thespian; a fruitful educator who is also a playwright and director; and the founder of a young, enterprising and provocative theatre company.

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On this episode, Local Switchboard’s Sarah Montague talks with Lauren Keating, adapter and director of “A Christmas Carol” at the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey.

And Jordan Gass-Poore’, host of Local Switchboard NYC, sits down with Regine L. Sawyer, a New York City-based comics writer, editor, and the founder of Women in Comics Collective International. 

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This month on the show, we feature two different ways of celebrating New York and honoring New Yorkers.  It’s the 50th anniversary of the iconic Village Halloween Parade, and Sarah Montague talked with director Jeanne Fleming about the beautiful, elegiac tone of this year’s event.  And the documentary production house Radio Diaries brings us stories from Hart Island, a little-known burial ground in the Bronx.  Managing Producer Nellie Gilles talks about the evolution of the series.

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For Pride Month, Local Switchboard reports on the history of the rainbow flag created by artist Gilbert Baker.

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It’s the holidays: friends, family, gifts and gelt, tree lightings, and ‘good will towards men.’ Not so fast. Our brief show for this season does indeed include an uplifting tree lighting in Greenwich Village’s Abingdon Square, but also two divisive issues. The sound of the picket line at the New School’s flagship University Center building at 5th and 13th Street bore witness to month-long strike by the University’s part-time faculty over a host of issues including better wages and health care benefits. And a proposed ferry dock demolition and reconstruction project has Long Island City residents worried about crowds, pollution and trading an cherished view for an eyesore.

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Local Switchboard NYC celebrates Pride month by revisiting significant parts of its past: the activist group ACT UP, and the participatory project The Gay Rub, founded by Steven Reigns, which encourages people to make grave rubbings honoring victims of AIDS. And reporter Sarah Montague gets an earful of rainbows: she lives opposite The Stonewall Inn.

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Spring has finally sprung, and people see eager to get outdoors. But the return of “normal” business and social life has also meant a return to the subway. Never fun, and even less so these days. Sima Sadykhov, an audio journalism student at Hunter College asks why.

Above ground, it’s a different story. Every year since 2009, the Municipal Art Society of New York has organized “Jane’s Walk,” a series of tours on the hoof honoring the urban activist Jane Jacobs. This year, Local Switchboard’s Sarah Montague joined several.

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On this episode we say goodbye to spaces lost during the pandemic, as part of a new series. First, Local Switchboard’s Sarah Montague gets a tour of her old apartment building — an historic family home that’s now on the market. And host and Local Switchboard producer Jordan Gass-Poore’ spends a night in the fabled Roosevelt Hotel just before it closes, and talks to Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture writer Paul Goldberger about its past and future.

PROGRAM 5 CLOSED DOOR CREDITS

526 Hudson Feature: “Monday, Monday,” The Mamas & The Papas. Album: If You Can Believe Your Eyes & Ears (Dunhill, 1966)

“Too Tough Heart,” Terre Roche; courtesy of Terre Roche.

Recordings from the Rise Up Against Asian Hate rally on February 27, 2021 were made by Anoukah Venugopal.

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