Sketching the CityThe concept behind the current exhibition Sketching the City stems from the work of 19th century English writer Charles Dickens. Dickens is very well known in the English-speaking literary world and is best known for his very popular novels Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, and Great Ex-pectations. In one of Charles Dickens’s early collections of short stories, Sketches by Boz, Dickens, under the pen name ‘Boz,’ wrote about the lives of contemporary Londoners. These short stories and even Dickens’s longer works do not convey an abstract or overly elaborate view of life, but instead show life exactly as it would be for an early 19th century English-man and woman.

In the fall of 2011, The Bronx Museum of the Arts and the British Council formed a partnership and held an open call to all New York City teenag-ers to ‘sketch’ – in the form of an artwork or writing piece – a scene that describes how they view New York City or their respective neighborhoods.

Like Dickens’s works, the pieces selected for this art exhibition illustrate an everyday reality that is personal to its creator and yet still relatable to any viewer. These artworks exemplify the views and experiences of the fine artists, photographers, and writers of their respective communities, includ-ing the landscape, objects, and various members of their neighborhoods in New York City.

Curators and Selection PanelThe curators were selected from The Bronx Museum of the Arts’ Teen Council alumni. All curators and selection panelists have recently gradu-ated from high school and are currently pursuing careers in the visual arts.

Amanda EubanksTravis Hewitt-RoachLatoya Weeks

A special thanks to Katherine Casado for sitting on the selection panel.

Dickens in Pieces - Teacher WorkshopOn Charles Dickens’s 200th birthday on February 7, 2012, high school teachers from all over New York City attended a professional development workshop as well as a birthday reception at The Bronx Museum of the Arts. Local Dickens expert and Seton Hall Universtiy professor Dr. Jonathan Fa-rina conducted the workshop, “Dickens in Pieces” as a step-by-step proc-ess for teaching Dickens to high school students.

British Council and Dickens 2012

In 2012 the British Council worked on a global program of events across 50 countries to mark the bicentenary of Charles Dickens’s birth.

In the United States, the British Council USA partnered with The Bronx Museum of the Arts in New York on Sketching the City, a project linking local communities with the modern legacy of Charles Dickens’s writing.

Drawing inspiration from one of Dickens’s early works, Sketches by Boz, Sketching the City encourages high school students to use Dickens’s so-cial realist writing and corresponding illustrations as a springboard for their own creative writing, photography and artist expression.

As Dickens did in London more than a century ago, local teens have ‘sketched the city’ of New York, capturing the atmosphere of one of the world’s most dynamic, diverse cities. This zine collects together those sketches, showcasing a breadth of young talent and emulating a modern-day New York ‘Sketches by Boz’.

The British Council is the United Kingdom’s international non-profit organization for cultural relations and education opportunities. We build engagement and trust for the UK through the exchange of knowledge and ideas between people worldwide. In the US, we increase recog-nition of the variety of higher education opportunities available in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and facilitate institutional collaborations between the US and UK. Through transatlantic artistic partnerships, we introduce Americans to high-quality, ground-breaking creative work from the UK and our climate change programs support a network of young leaders who are committed to tackling climate change globally and in their own com-munities. We also develop initiatives that give a voice to the next generation of leaders on both sides of the Atlantic, encouraging them to work together to explore solutions to current and future global issues. With offices in Washington, New York and Los Angeles, the British Council USA also builds global partnerships with US-based institutions to support our work around the world. For more information, please visit www.britishcouncil.org/usa.

Thank you to all of the participants, their families, their teachers, their mentors, and supporters for participating in the global celebration of Charles Dickens’s 200th birth-day and exhibition Sketching the City.

Winners For the Art & Writing CompetitionMalik Shaw in Art

Ernesto Gonzalez in Photography

Syeda Nusrath Wahid in Writing

Runner-upsJennifer Mejia in Art

Alvaro Ceballos in Photograhy

Syeda Nusrath Wahid in Writing

Sketching the City is an exhibition at The Bronx Museum of the Arts from March 30 - May 6, 2012.

1040 Grand ConcourseBronx, NY 10456

718-681-6000www.bronxmuseum.org

Malik ShawBronx High School for the Visual ArtsI am the CityStencil print

1ST PLACE ART

Dana LeahySaint Vincent FerrerCreation TrainColored pencil and oil pastel

Gus YafcakBard High School for Early CollegeChelsea ReflectionsPhotograph

Chewon KimSaint Vincent FerrerMy NeighborhoodAcrylic

Raquel CorcinoBronx High School for Visual ArtsThe Angel Down the StreetPhotograph

Jade BlakeAcademy for Scholarship and EntrepreneurshipMr. Dickens at Wall Street, N.Y.Graphite

Jasmin MedinaAcademy for Scholarship and EntrepreneurshipCrossing the Brooklyn BridgeGraphite

A Glimpse In TimeGrains of time as fine as silver sand

You hold them close; they slip past your hand

Leaving the city still and clear

Droplets of rain hovering like diamond tears

Crimson buildings hold up the sky

As citizens pause with glazed eyes

Morpheus has come and cast his charm

Frozen in time without any harm

Leaves me to marvel and to delight

Over small shops tucked in plain sight

Or sulking branches raised with care

And a community with both reserve and flair

Peering through a window, I could see

Students bent over books in groups of three

These are the sights that would make you smile

So why not stay in the Bronx for a while?

Syeda Nusrath WahidSt. Raymond Academy for Girls

1ST PLACE WRITING

Nicol WilliamsSt. Raymond Academy for GirlsNight WatchPhotograph

Jennifer CantadaSaint Vincent FerrerEast Side StoryWatercolor, pen, colored pencil

Alvaro CeballosELLIS Preparatory AcademyView through my windowPhotographs

2ND PLACE PHOTO

t noon, I was walking downtown on 5th Avenue. People turned to see me wearing some old ripped jeans and a long blue sweater, well a man’s sweater. Appearance, what would

be New York City without fashion? I go to school, and everyone is worried about the latest Nike’s and Jordan’s, the newest clothes and if they belong to a famous designer, like Alexander McQueen or the newest Channel’s perfume that smells fantastique. Downtown New York is all about what you wear, like Carrie Latet once said “Pretty is the Queen that rules our land.”

But does appearance, and the intent to be “pretty” ruleour city? I ask myself that question until I head down to get home. Uptown gives me a different feeling. Once I reach 225th street I pass the bridge connecting Manhattan and the Bronx. I feel that I finally blend in.

I notice people wearing clothes that don’t combine, people with crazy hairstyles, groups of kids hanging in the corners, mothers holding grocery bags, smiles, smirks, the sounds of horns and of the train moving in its filthy tracks. I listen to the squeaky sound my sneakers make as I walk. In these dirty streets is where I feel free, where they are not pretense. Here I am not what I wear; I am who I dare to be. I don’t feel fear, or insecurity. I feel powerful, but a sense of caution still lingers in my head.

I check my phone. One missed call from Mama, which means she’s already worried that I am not home. As I walk, Marble Hill is empty. But it’s ok! It’s mostly lonely at night. I walk and notice one of the biggest buildings in my block. This building brings back old sour memories; this is why I am not fond of it. In the summer, at the entry of this old pile of bricks there’s a man that sits in his wheelchair, his long beard resembles my grandfathers’ but his eyes. They are cold and resentful. To me? No, I hadn’t done anything bad to him, to life? Probably. He sits there and

AWelcome Home

drives young adults away from their road, he gives them false hope, and guides to a false haven. Drugs end up turning those youngsters into a pile of broken dreams.

The streets are like an open mouth that swallows you in one direction. At night it seems like an abandoned, old street. The lamps that light my path make me feel safer, but under the broken ones, I can feel the coldness of the air and my body hurries reaching for light. Some people tell stories about ghosts; here people tell stories about angry men that hold guns. At the thought of drunken or dangerous men my heart accelerates with fear, and my pace quickens. A hand comes down on my shoulder, and I jump on place. I first notice the pain in my back, from carrying my heavy bag all this time. Then, the smell that comes from the garbage in the ground, and the smell of a perfume. In a time of fright my senses seem to expand, and I suddenly listen to the engine of cars and the bells moving in the top of the church. I feel the cold air under my sweater and as I turn around I embrace myself. I see his sweet smile first, and I feel safe. As a reflex I push him a little, “You scared me!”

He smiles, “Did I? It’s your fault, you looked very thoughtful.” I look at him “haha very funny.” We stay in silence until I notice the light in my watch screaming at me that it’s already 9:20.

“What are you doing at this time of the day outside, Luis?” he doesn’t smile. “I’m on my way home. Let’s go” he starts walking, without caring if I follow him or not. I sigh in silence and walk behind him.

He doesn’t stop, he doesn’t talk. We are three buildings away from home. I give up. He didn’t used to be like this, but people change. They meet new people, they start to like new things you don’t like, beer or weed, for example. Then, relationships and bonds break. If I focus enough, I can feel the link between Luis and me breaking.

We face the front door and I climb one step and ring the buzzer for apartment number 6. Luis doesn’t press the one to his home, and I don’t press it for him. A minute later the door opens, and I push in the crystal door. I wait for him to make a motion, to say a word, but he does none.

“Are you going up?” I ask, because there’s nothing else I can do. He walks in, and gives me a fainting smile. I can smell food wherever I turn my nose to, and feel the warmness once you are inside the building. We walk the first set of stairs and suddenly; I am facing apartment number 6.

“You home!” Luis says rather happy which seems odd, I see him walking down the stairs again. “Hey! Where are you going? You live upstairs!” but I already know. He is going 3 blocks away to an old gray house that has all its windows broken and the door has to be rotten by now. Most people think is abandoned when they pass by it, but it’s not. In that house it’s where Luis lost its innocence and since then it became his fake haven.

I look into his eyes trying to see the Luis I met 3 years ago, but that Luis isn’t there anymore. He gives me a blank stare, and turns and goes. His feet stomp in the marble floor, I still can smell his cologne, the door opens and then suddenly closes and I know I already lost him.

I look at my door and I whisper, “Welcome Home!”

Lisbeth BuenoELLIS Preparatory Academy

Gabriella ShullBard High School Early CollegeGreat UnexpectationsPhotograph

Ernesto GonazalezBronx High School for the Visual ArtsUrban ReflectionPhotograph

1ST PLACE PHOTO

Cory SmithBronx High School for the Visual ArtsRed CityPhotograph

Gabriella ShullBard High School Early CollegeWho Knows?Photograph

Genesis SueroBronx High School for the Visual ArtsBronx Taxi DriveGraphite

Home Sweet HomeRaven Hair and hazel eyes

Golden curls and blue eyes

Scarlet waves and emerald eyes

Black skin, brown skin, and white

Small and slim

Tall with bulk

A Sea of faces

A wave of sounds

Sprightly dialects and tantalizing aromas

Cold sunlight and brisk winds

Streaming rain and cool concrete

A row of houses standing sentry

Slender saplings dwarfed by brink giants

Under a wide-rimmed sky

Home Sweet Home

Syeda Nusrath WahidSt. Raymond Academy for Girls

RUNNER-UP

WRITING

Jennifer MejiaSt. Jean BaptisteEl Barrio: Lexington Ave.Watercolor and pen

RUNNER-UP

ART

Angelica FloresBronx Academy of LettersFlowers Do Grow HerePhotograph

Khine WinBard High School Early CollegeGraffiti CentralPhotograph

Tevin BrownBronx High School for the Visual ArtsMy TownGraphic design

Angelica FloresBronx Academy of LettersDreams in StreetsPhotograph