A panel discussion at City Lore in Manhattan
In correlation with its current exhibit, Waterfront Heroes, City Lore will be presenting a panel dedicated to women who help to preserve the region’s working waterfronts, restore historic vessels and other forgotten maritime objects, perpetuate the occupational culture of our waterways, and keep the waterfront accessible so that future generations can learn of New York’s majestic maritime heritage.
Join us on Wednesday, May 1 for a panel discussion about women on the waterfront. The evening's conversation will be moderated by maritime journalist Betsy Haggerty, and will feature several of our honorees, including Fulton Fish Market painter Naima Rauam, Carolina Salguero, founder and director of PortSide NewYork, Jasmine Benitez, Public Programs Manager of Rocking the Boat, and Capt. Cait Field, captain with Classic Harbor Line.
Our panelists will describe their experiences working on and around New York's 520 miles of coastline and Long Island’s 1600 miles of shoreline, and will answer questions from the audience. A reception will follow.
Panelists include:
Moderator Betsy Frawley Haggerty is an award winning journalist and U.S. Coast Guard licensed captain. Her maritime articles have appeared in Offshore Magazine (where she was editor for seven years) Northeast Boating, Soundings, WorkBoat and Professional Mariner. She has taught sailing in New York Harbor, Long Island Sound and the Hudson River, where she also worked as a relief captain on a 65-foot passenger vessel.
Naima Rauam is recognized for her watercolors of the South Street Seaport Historic District and the Fulton Fish Market, which she has documented with her artwork for many decades. The New York City waterfront also figures prominently in Naima’s artwork, as do bridges spanning the waterways. While hitching rides on tugboats and exploring the harbor, Naima developed an interest in painting waterfront construction sites, and has recorded the progress of several projects, including the rebuilding of the North Channel Bridge in Jamaica Bay, Queens. Her work is in private, corporate and public collections, including the Smithsonian Institution, National Air & Space Museum, American Merchant Marine Museum, Farnsworth Museum, Pfizer, and the Bank of America. She also lectures, teaches, and curates art exhibits.
Carolina Salguero, an award-winning documentary photographer, is the founder of the maritime nonprofit PortSide NewYork, which connects New Yorkers to their waterfront and works to make maritime activity central to waterfront revitalization. PortSide programming, on and off their historic oil tanker MARY A. WHALEN, includes programs for youth, adults and the general public in education, culture, job training, plus the e-museum Red Hook WaterStories. PortSide earned honors from the White House and NYS Senate for Sandy recovery work. Salguero learned to sail thanks to the scene around her uncle’s shipyard on Martha’s Vineyard. With PortSide, she is trying to make NYC’s waterfront more like a traditional New England one with an active mix of working waterfront, pleasure boats and historic vessels.
Jasmine Benitez was born and raised in the Bronx, and was first introduced to Rocking the Boat when her high school participated in an On-Water Classroom program in 2009. Jasmine participated in Rocking the Boat's On-Water Program until she graduated then went on to pursue her Bachelor's degree in Psychology (with a minor in Environmental Studies) at St. John's University. She returned to work at Rocking the Boat as a Program Assistant while attending college, during which she also served as an Assistant Instructor/Student Mentor with the National Hispanic Environmental Council (NHEC), participating in workshops as distant as New Mexico. After earning her degree, Jasmine began working as the Volunteer Coordinator at the Bronx River Alliance, and Rocking the Boat is now thrilled to have her back!
Capt. Cait Field grew up sailing small boats on the south shore of Long Island, where she spent her summers working as a sailing instructor. She briefly worked on historic vessels in San Francisco Bay before returning to New York and starting at Classic Harbor Line in 2007. Cait is a USCG 100 ton Master captain of sail and motor passenger vessels, including the Schooners Adirondack and America 2.0. In her non-sailing time, she is a scientist for the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, serving as the Freshkills Park Manager for Science and Research Development. Cait holds a PhD from the CUNY Graduate Center for which her research examined communication in fishes.
Wed, May 1, 2019
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM EDT
City Lore
56 East 1st Street
New York, NY 10003