NYC NOW - May 6, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: May 6, 2024

Columbia University is canceling its university-wide commencement ceremony after weeks of campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war. School officials say students will be able to attend smaller ceremonies for schools within the university. In other news, police report that a man is in critical condition after being stabbed at 9:30 AM Monday on West 125th Street near 5th Avenue. Additionally, the NYPD is deploying drones to monitor Central Park in response to an increase in robberies. Finally, marking 60 years since the Beatles' first visit to the United States, Paul McCartney’s photographs taken during their New York City stop are now on display at the Brooklyn Museum until mid-August. WNYC’s Tiffany Hanssen speaks with exhibit co-curator Sarah Brown to learn more.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Monday, May 6th. Here's the midday news from Lance Lucky. Columbia University is canceling its university-wide commencement ceremony after weeks of campus protests over the Israel-Hamas War. Instead of holding the school-wide graduation May 15th, university officials say students will be able to attend smaller ceremonies for schools within the university, and instead of using the South Lawn as usual, those celebrations will be held at the Baker Athletics Complex. The Columbia cancellation comes after Mayor Adams repeatedly urged the city's colleges to go ahead with their scheduled

commencement ceremonies, despite intensifying campus protests and rising numbers of arrests. Police see a man is in critical condition after he was stabbed on a busy commercial block in Harlem this morning. Officials say the 28-year-old man was stabbed once in the chest around 930 on West 125th Street near 5th Avenue. The NYPD says first responders took him to Harlem Hospital. It's unclear what led up to the stabbing, but police say they're looking for a male suspect who's about 5'10 wearing a brown vest, black pants, and a black face mask. The NYPD says they're deploying a drone that will fly over Central Park as officers work to curb the increase in robberies there. NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry spoke about

the decision on PIX 11 yesterday. I am putting a drone on top of of the Central Park precinct drawn in the box, and they can autonomously fly throughout the park and also help the offset some of the patrol in some of the areas that the cops, when they drive by, they can't see. NYPD chief of department Jeffrey Madri says there have been 18 reported robberies in Central Park this year. That's up from four robberies during the same period last year. 66 now near 70 this afternoon, with some haze and clouds and a slight chance of showers, maybe a thunderstorm this evening. This is WNYC.

Stay close. There's more after the break. On WNYC, I'm Tiffany Hanson. Sixty years ago, the Beatles made their first visit to the United States. As part of their tour, they stopped in New York City, and while here, Paul McCartney captured their visit on his Pentex camera. You can see McCartney's photographs at the Brooklyn Museum. The exhibit will be on display until August 18th. Joining us now is Sarah Brown, the exhibition co-curator.

She also worked closely with Paul McCartney to select photos for the original exhibition in London. Sarah, welcome. Thank you for having me. 1964 is when they arrived in New York City. That was not quite the start, but pretty close to the start of what we now know as Beetlemania. I'm curious what that time in New York City was like for the Beatles. Yes, I mean, for three years. of the Beatles, it was the first time they'd ever been to the US. So John, Paul and Ringo had never

been to the US before. So I think it was almost living the American dream to them. They were in complete all with the city. They remember how the billboards, it felt more commercial than the UK. And it was also the first time they kind of really experienced the fans chasing them down the street, waiting outside their whole towel like that. And Paul said, says in the exhibition how he really felt like he was the star of a movie with people chasing him and that it was kind of everything they'd ever dreamed for after years of hard work in Liverpool and London. The photos really do give us an intimate look into their lives at this moment. So I'm wondering what we learn about their inner circle at this time. We kind of see them in a way we haven't

before, right? Absolutely. And I think it kind of reminds you that they were just friends. They were, you know, real people kind of on the up. You see them bored and dressing rooms sitting around, eating, kind of making them more human, even though they were super talented people. And we have very intimate moments, sides that I don't think press photographers would ever have got, such as John Lennon kind of biting his knuckles, looking a little worried, concerned. They were very unguarded moments. Also, we see John with his big chunky glasses on, which he didn't like to wear him, public, but obviously was happy to wear around his friends. Tell us how the photos were rediscovered. They were rediscovered in around 2020, just before the pandemic, when myself and Paul were working on

his late wife Linda McCartney's photography exhibition. And he mentioned how he'd taken some photographs in the 60s and, you know, could I try and track them down? And we luckily have an amazing archive team who had already done that and had digitized the photographs and key worded them. And so it was a pretty simple task of finding them in the digital archive, but then the not so simple task was getting the 1,000 images down to 250 for the exhibition and accompanying book. That sounds monumental. How is he to work with as a collaborator? Amazing. Even better than you'd imagine, I think. He is so thoughtful and considerate of what you're doing and, you know, takes time and is super involved. Why do you think he wanted to share

them with us. I think what felt like the right time for him, you know, it felt nostalgic and that so much had happened in his life that it was a really nice moment just to look back and kind of sit and appreciate the true wonder of what the band went through. And also, you know, knowing that there's a lot of people out there who maybe lived through that themselves, were fans of the Beatles in the 60s who would truly appreciate getting to see this other side of the story. But then also bringing in new generations, new people to museums that maybe don't go to museums, but are music fans, things like that. Speaking of that cultural history, I wonder what you think New Yorkers might be able to learn about celebrity back in 1964. As you mentioned, the Beatles didn't have an entourage, but conversely, it was Beatlemania, even without social media.

So what do you think New Yorkers can take away from that? that the passion we see today in fans that we see of people you know with millions of followers on instagram things that this is kind of the beginning of that if you will you know before the Beatles you had Elvis who also had you know true huge international fandom but he never left the US this was the first kind of transatlantic trip for such a popular band and I think you can see the passion. I think you can see the demographic is super interesting, really seeing how many young women are there. And what do you hope folks will take away from it? A number of things. To think about that moment and time of it was true kind of pivot in cultural and social history, you know,

JFK had been assassinated in November 63. Then these four British lads land on your shores and kind of bring a new burst of energy. And then everything that was going on with the civil rights movement as well in 64. I think it's a real lens into a particular time that we've maybe not had from the inside of the storm of Beatlemania. Sarah Brown, thanks so much for your time today. We appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Sarah is the exhibition co-curator of Paul McCartney's photo exhibition, Eyes of the Storm, happening at the Brooklyn Museum. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day. For your top news headlines and occasional deep dives.

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