Chinese New Year Parade 2012 Photos

Reflects Evolving Chinese & Korean American Community

February 6, 2012 / Flushing / Ethnic & Religious Culture / Queens Buzz. I attended the year of the dragon Chinese New Year Parade in Flushing on Saturday, February 4th. It’s easily the best Queens parades because the Chinese and Koreans put a lot of effort into a sensory pleasing, cultural mélange, that includes beautiful costumes, melodic music and aesthetic theater.

Thousands participate in the parade, which first began in Flushing in 1997. In 2011 the parade starting welcoming non-Asian participation, and hence last year it was interesting to watch someone of mixed ethnic descent, run as one the leads of one of the dragon dance teams. The dragon dance teams in the Flushing New Year Parade vary, as in China, from a two member team to as many as ten or fifteen. Legend has it, that the longer the parade dragon, the greater the luck for the year.

Click here to read more about our report and view photos of the Chinese New Year Parade 2012 in Flushing Queens.

Chinese New Year 2012 in Flushing

Flushing Town Hall - Building Cultural Bridges

January 25, 2012 / Flushing / Ethnic & Religious Culture / Queens Buzz. I attended the opening ceremony at the Flushing Town Hall celebrating the Chinese new year. Flushing Town Hall is a neighborhood and Queens borough cultural center, which has easily become one of the leading places in Queens and NYC, where one can familiarize themselves with authentic Asian cultures.

Flushing Town Hall presents many exhibits and programs, which nurture an environment of cross cultural understanding. They are also an important location for innovative theater performances, jazz, and world music, of which you can read more about by using the search function on this site.

One of the reasons for Flushing Town Hall's emergence as an Asian cultural center is that Flushing is the home to the largest Chinese community in New York, equaling – if not surpassing - Chinatown in Manhattan. And New York City is home to the largest Chinese community outside of China.

This year is 2012 AD in the western world, but to the Chinese this is the lunar year 4709 and the year of the lucky dragon. Steve Chen of Crystal Window & Door Systems in Flushing [current exhibit sponsors], speaks about the Antique Chinese Windows and Doors collection currently on exhibit at Flushing Town Hall.

Click here to read more about the upcoming Chinese New Year Parade 2012 in Flushing Queens and Chinese Culture.

Public & Private Lives Converge in Urbanity

December 12, 2011 / Flushing / Art Exhibits in Queens / Queens Buzz. I visited the Crossing Art Gallery in Flushing Saturday for their opening of Personal.Spaces. The exhibit theme is about personal space in public places. An example of such is shown in the artwork to your right, where countless people are sharing public space, close enough to touch one another, but all living very separate lives. Living within their Personal.Spaces.

The Flushing art gallery did a nice job of dimensionalizing the theme through a number of different works from a multitude of artists, many of whom either work or live within the NYC area. Click here to view a brief report, including photos of the Personal.Spaces art exhibit at the Crossing Art Gallery in Flushing.

History of the Rockaways

Retired Salesman Busy Saving Queens Past

November 6, 2011 / Flushing Neighborhood / Queens History / Queens Buzz. Marty Nislick is a former Rockaways native and a retired salesman. But he's only retired from his job, not his life; especially his life as a youth growing up in the Rockaways.

Over the past few years Marty's interest in the history of the Rockaways neighborhoods of his youth has grown from a hobby to a passion. And from the day I met Marty Nislick at the Queens Historical Society in Flushing, I began to understand why. The photo to your right was taken on July 4th 1954 and featured on the front page of Life Magazine in the 1950's.

Click here to read more about the history of the Rockaways in Queens.

Horticulture In Queens

Queens Historical Society Presents History Of Queens Horticulture

October 17, 2011 / Flushing Neighborhood / Food & Wine / Queens Buzz. This past weekend the Queens Historical Society [QHS] presented a history of horticulture in Queens. The society put together a panel of four experts, who took us back hundreds of years to Dutch colonial times when the Flushing area of Queens was a mix of farmland and swampland.

The panelists walked us through hundreds of years of spice trading, informing us from whence came many of foods we enjoy today. The presentation included live samples of herbs and roots, as well as recommended reading for one interested in the history or the botany of Queens horticulture past.

Click here later today to read more about horticulture in Queens.

A Taste Of The World 2011 Photos

Fun Way To Sample Many Queens Restaurants

May 11, 2011 / Flushing / Queens Restaurants / Queens Buzz. I attended the 9th annual Taste Of The World at Caesar’s at CitiField in Flushing last night. There were over 40 restaurateurs who presented samples from their kitchens to a crowd that numbered in the mid hundreds.

It was a perfectly clear night, with temperatures in the 70’s and a gentle breeze passing by as I descended the subway stairs in front of CitiField. I took the elevator up to the club and found it bustling with activity.

Click here to read our review and view photos of the Taste Of The World 2011 in Flushing.

Chinese New Year Parade 2011 Photos

Parade Moved Quickly In Flushing Queens

February 14, 2011 / Flushing / Queens Buzz. First of all I would like to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day. May your loved ones make you happy this day and every day.

We attended the Chinese New Year Parade in Flushing over the weekend and, as usual, it didn't disappoint. We understand that over 5,000 people participated in the parade, wearing fun, colorful, mythological costumes.

Click here to see the photos of the Chinese New Year Parade 2011 in a photo slide show of the event.

Indians & Hinduism In Queens

Flushing / Queens Buzz. I had a unique opportunity to visit and photograph the Ganesh Temple in Flushing during their fall Navaratri Festival. The Navaratri Festival is held four times a year to mark the change of seasons and it is dedicated to the Divine Mother in the form of Shakti or energy. The fall festival is the most important of the Navaratri celebrations.

I arrived late in the afternoon and met Mr. Padmahabhan. He directed me from the entrance on Bowne Street to the main entrance just around the corner on Holly Avenue. As I removed my shoes and began walking down the long hall leading into the temple, I got this exhilarating feeling as though I had just been teleported into the heart of India. In the photo to your left is a woman standing in front of an altar of deities in the Ganesh Temple in Flushing.

Free Synagogue In Flushing - Judaism In Queens

Also Second Annual Unity Walk

Flushing / Queens Buzz. Ten days ago I had the opportunity to visit Rabbi Michael Weisser at the Free Synagogue of Flushing to talk about Judaism and to tour the venerable Free Synagogue Of Flushing. This report will primarily cover some of the major tenets of Judaism as well as a brief history of the Free Synagogue Of Flushing, which is a New York landmark.

We will also provide a bit of information about the 2nd Annual Queens Unity Walk which was held on a beautiful October Sunday in Flushing. The photo to your left shows one of the many original stained glass windows in the synagogue. Click here to read our story about the Free Synagogue In Flushing & Judaism in Queens.

Tour De Queens - Photos Of Riders

Flushing Queens /Queens Buzz. The second annual Tour De Queens departed on time today at 9.30 am for an 18 mile ride through the borough [the original plan was for a 24 mile course]. We'll be posting a photo album later today with tons of photos taken of the riders as they departed from the Queens Museum Of Art in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The winds were blowing at between five and ten miles per hour which cooled things down, as the temperatures rose into the low eighties on a moderately humid day. Originally the course was to be outlined within the New York Panorama inside the Queens Museum Of Art as had been done last year. But given the current exhibition, Red Lines Housing Crisis, was already using the panaorama as part of the exhibit, outlining the course for the Tour De Queens was dropped. The course was finalized late Friday July 10th, but we are in the process of creating a map of it, so stay tuned. Click here to view photos and read a brief report about the Tour De Queens bike ride - photos in Queens or click here to view photos of the Tour De Queens Bike Riders.