Republicans, Reporters, Drug Addicts and an Orphaned Mural

Having a hard time imagining a palatial Republican Club in the middle of blue Manhattan - with a sumptuous main lounge, fireplaces at either end, that offers a panorama of Bryant Park through its great windows, and an oak-trimmed dining room where each of the pilasters is topped by an “RC” crest?

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times Michael C. Dailey of Daytop, left, and Eric Hadar, who bought Daytop's building at 54 West 40th Street.

Would it sound more like a New York story if we told you that the Republicans reluctantly turned the clubhouse over to a bunch of journalists, after which the building was used by a drug-rehabilitation program that installed a mural, depicting the path out of addiction, along the curving grand staircase on which luminaries of the Republican Party once trod?

That's 54 West 40th Street: a place of second lives and second chances.

As the 20th century opened, it was the site of St. Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church, which is now on the Upper West Side. In 1902, the Republican Club - a social group with a political bent suggested by its name - built an ornate 11-story clubhouse on the church site, which it occupied from 1903 until 1961, when the structure was sold to the Overseas Press Club.

In financial distress, the press group sold the property in 1973 to the Daytop Village rehabilitation organization. (The name comes from “Drug Addicts Yield to Persuasion.”)

Daytop was all about second lives, and it commissioned a monumental mural, “Ascent,” by the artist Lumen Martin Winter. The allegorical mural depicted a journey from hope, through despair, and back into hope. The segments unfolded as one climbed the stairs. The happy ending came when one arrived at the second floor.

More recently, as Daytop faced its own financial crisis, brought on in part by declining Medicaid reimbursements, it reached an agreement to sell the building to Eric Hadar, the co-founder and chairman of the Allied Partners real estate concern. He is no stranger to second lives, having battled addiction until entering treatment in 2008 after a drug possession arrest.

Mr. Hadar and Daytop settled on a purchase price of $26.5 million in 2010. A closing was scheduled for 2011. Daytop's money troubles were mounting. The organization asked Mr. Hadar if he would release his deposit so Daytop could use the money. He was counseled against doing so, he recalled, but his “personal affinity” for the work of Daytop overruled common sense. After all, Mr. Hadar said, “the only scenario under which I could have lost money would have been if they filed for bankruptcy.” He smiled a bit ruefully at the recollection.

Because that's just what Daytop did, in April 2012. It also canceled the existing sale agreement in order to get more money out of the property, said Michael C. Dailey, the chief executive of Daytop.

Then who should emerge as the strongest suitor? Mr. Hadar. He agreed again to buy the building - this time for $32 million. “My philosophy was that the building had increased in value,” Mr. Hadar said, “but I had no carrying costs. In my mind, though it seemed like I was paying an added $5 million, I didn't feel as if it was the end of the world. While I was a little disappointed, I was pleased that it would allow Daytop to go forward.”

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times Lumen Martin Winter's modernist mural was added somewhat incongruously to a neo-Classical staircase.

Mr. Dailey said he was gratefully astonished by Mr. Hadar's negotiating posture. “He stepped up with an unexpected degree of both cooperation and fellowship,” Mr. Dailey said. Daytop was so impressed with Mr. Hadar's collegiality - and his decision not to sue - that it invited him to join the board. He accepted.

Mr. Hadar was not acting from pure philanthropic impulse. He already owned an abutting building, 50 West 40th Street, so he now controls a site on Bryant Park that could accommodate an apartment and hotel tower of more than 40 stories. The views promise to be spectacular. That project is likely to involve tearing down No. 54 and all but the facade of No. 50.

For the time being, however, Mr. Hadar is content to renovate No. 54, which he has leased to WeWork, which will run it as collaborative office space for individuals and small businesses. Mr. Hadar said WeWork was sharing the cost of the $9 million renovation. The lease runs 15 years, though Mr. Hadar can exercise an option in 2020 to redevelop the entire site.

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times Mirrors at opposite ends of the lounge create the impression of infinity.

What is not yet settled is the fate of “Ascent.”

While certainly not the equal of Tintoretto's murals for the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice, Mr. Winter's mural is a consequential work by an artist who had a number of important commissions: the monumental bas-relief at the Roman Catholic Church of St. Paul the Apostle on Columbus Avenue, the mural “Titans” at the United Nations headquarters, a mosaic mural of the Annunciation in the Catholic chapel at the United States Air Force Academy, and two murals for the A.F.L.-C.I.O. headquarters in Washington, “Labor Omnia Vincit” and “Labor Is Life.”

For the Daytop mural, Mr. Winter painted representational figures in a crosshatched pattern that makes them seem to float against fantastic geometric patterns. The work is on canvas, so it can be removed. But Daytop has no room for it in its new headquarters, 204 West 40th Street, and has yet to find a recipient interested in such a site-specific mural. So it is still unclear whether “Ascent” will eventually have a second life.

A version of this article appeared in print on 05/09/2013, on page A24 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Republicans, Addicts And a Building's Evolution.

As Candidates Vow to Hire Educator as Chancellor, Quinn Keeps Options Open

Several candidates for mayor on Tuesday pledged to hire an educator as the next schools chancellor, breaking with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who three times tapped leaders from business and government for the post.

But one candidate - Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, who is considered a front-runner for the Democratic nomination - left the door open for a nontraditional pick. Ms. Quinn said she would not rule out any candidates for chancellor, especially those who work at education nonprofits but hold no formal credentials.

“I want to make sure we consider everyone potentially out there,” she said during a forum for mayoral candidates at the Eagle Academy for Young Men, a school in the Bronx. A few hours later, at a forum hosted by Pace University and the National Organization for Women's New York City chapter, Ms. Quinn repeated her position, and was booed by some members of the audience.

Bill de Blasio, the public advocate and also a Democratic candidate for mayor, attacked Ms. Quinn over the issue, accusing her of supporting the nomination of Cathleen P. Black, a former chairwoman of Hearst Magazines, in 2010. Ms. Black's time in office was widely panned, and she resigned after 95 days in office.

“You cannot get out of this rut and move the schools forward without an educator in leadership,” Mr. de Blasio said at the first forum.

At the time of Ms. Black's appointment, Ms. Quinn told The New York Post that Mr. Bloomberg had the right to pick anyone he pleased to be chancellor. She praised the mayor's selection of Ms. Black's predecessor, Joel I. Klein, a former federal prosecutor, saying he had done a “terrific job.”

Mr. de Blasio initially welcomed Ms. Black's appointment but also called on her to hold forums to articulate her views on education.

State law requires a chancellor to hold an advanced degree in education and have at least three years of teaching experience. The state allows waivers for “exceptionally qualified persons.” Mr. Bloomberg sought waivers for his three appointments: Mr. Klein, in 2002; Ms. Black in 2010; and Dennis M. Walcott, a former deputy mayor, in 2011.

Among the candidates who said Tuesday that they would name only an educator who did not need a state waiver as chancellor were the Democrats Sal F. Albanese, a former City Councilman from Brooklyn; John C. Liu, the comptroller; and William C. Thompson Jr., a former comptroller; the Republican Joseph J. Lhota, the former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority; and the independent Adolfo Carrión Jr., a former Bronx borough president .

Mr. Thompson, when he was school board president in 2000, voted for Harold O. Levy, a banking executive who also required a waiver, to become schools chancellor.

Lhota Facing Anger After He Likens Port Authority Police to ‘Mall Cops\'

It was a simple question about improving airport security, the kind that candidates for mayor field up to three times a day at campaign forums across New York City.

Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times “I regret my unfortunate characterization of the Port Authority Police Department.”
JOSEPH J. LHOTA, Republican candidate for New York mayor

But a flippant reply from Joseph J. Lhota, a Republican, has unleashed an unusually angry and biting reaction from the region's police officers, inflaming a group that Mr. Lhota has long viewed as a natural political ally.

The episode was the first real blunder of his four-month-old campaign.

In his answer at a forum on Tuesday night, Mr. Lhota, a former chairman of New York's public transit agency, said he had long harbored reservations about the quality of the police officers for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, who are responsible for securing the region's three major airports.

“Quite honestly, and I know I will get in trouble for saying this, they are nothing more than mall cops,” Mr. Lhota said, to scattered applause from the audience at Pace University in Lower Manhattan.

He went on to complain that Port Authority officers, who police a number of high-profile facilities like the Port Authority Bus Terminal, earned higher pay than the city's police officers.
Mr. Lhota's prediction of fallout was correct: Twitter erupted over his tart assessment, and by Wednesday morning, unions representing police officers in much of the New York region, as well as Mr. Lhota's Republican rivals, roundly condemned his words as deeply insensitive and inaccurate.

“Mr. Lhota's remarks are an insult to every man and woman who put their lives on the line every day as a police officer,” said James Carver, president of the Nassau County Police Benevolent Association.

The Port Authority police force lost 37 officers at the World Trade Center site on Sept. 11, 2001, a figure that many police union officials cited as they denounced Mr. Lhota's comments.

“I've had 9/11 widows call me this morning,” said Paul Nunziato, president of the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association. “They are not pleased at all.”

In a show of solidarity, even the head of the powerful union representing the New York Police Department's officers weighed in, disapprovingly.

“On 9/11 we searched together for 23 N.Y.P.D. officers and 37 P.A.P.D. officers who sacrificed their own lives while evacuating others to safety,” Patrick J. Lynch, the president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, said in a statement, referring to the two police forces.

“If that doesn't speak to professional policing, then I don't know what does,” Mr. Lynch added.
On Wednesday morning, Mr. Lhota issued an apology. “I regret my unfortunate characterization of the Port Authority Police Department,” he said. “It was an inappropriate answer that does not accurately reflect the hard work of its officers.”

It was an unexpected headache for Mr. Lhota, the son of a New York City police lieutenant and a longtime deputy in the administration of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who was a defender of the police throughout his tenure.

As deputy mayor for operations, Mr. Lhota himself raced to the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. Later, he said he had developed cancer from exposure to materials at ground zero.
In that sense, he would seem a friend of the region's police officers. But the fierce response to his statements at the forum suggested that he had squandered at least some of that good will.

His remarks left political analysts scratching their heads; appealing to police officers and their families has long figured into the political calculus of any Republican seeking to be mayor.

Mr. Lhota's chief Republican rival, John A. Catsimatidis, quickly pounced, issuing a personal jab at Mr. Lhota. “It's sad that the son of an N.Y.P.D. lieutenant would take verbal shots at the Port Authority police or any law enforcement organization,” he said. “As mayor, I would support law enforcement, not knock it down.”

George T. McDonald, another Republican candidate, went a step further, listing by name all 37 Port Authority police officers who died on Sept. 11 in an e-mail demanding that Mr. Lhota apologize.

Mr. Lhota's apology, forceful as it was, did not satisfy Mr. Nunziato, of the Port Authority police union.

“What is his apology worth to the children of these cops or the widows?” he asked.

“Oh, I'm sorry,” Mr. Nunziato said, his voice rising as he mocked Mr. Lhota. “I don't think he has a chance to be mayor of New York City and I would certainly be out there campaigning against him if he ever got close.”

A version of this article appeared in print on 05/09/2013, on page A23 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Lhota Facing Anger After He Likens Port Authority Police to ‘Mall Cops' .

New Zoo Rarity: Hogs With Uncloven Hooves

Julie Larsen Maher/Wildlife Conservation Society The Queens Zoo's new trio of mulefoot hogs awaits your visit.

What's new at the Queens Zoo these days is three female mulefoot hogs.

The mulefoot, a domestic hog named for its unusual non-cloven hoof, is black, beautiful and classified as “critically rare” by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.

A century ago, according to the conservancy, the mulefoot was widely bred in the Midwest “for ease of fattening and production of meat, lard and especially hams.” But it is no longer commonly bred by farmers, the zoo said.

The ladies, still unnamed, are a year old and can be visited on the zoo's farm.

It was not immediately clear whether the meat of hogs with uncloven hooves was considered kosher.

Update, 4:26 p.m. | City Room, based on its extremely poor religious training, made the mistake above of wondering aloud whether meat from a pig with an uncloven hoof would still be considered nonkosher.

Rabbi Moshe Elefant, chief operating officer of the kashrut division of the Orthodox Union, the largest kosher certification organization in the world, quickly set us straight.

“Actually this pig is even worse than all other pigs,” he said. “Not only does it not chew its cud, it doesn't have a split hoof.”

Split hoof = kosher. Unsplit = nonkosher. The thing that makes pigs nonkosher is that they don't chew their cud. We will remember this. Thanks, Rabbi.

De Blasio\'s Wife Gives Candid Interview

Ben Baker/Essence A photograph of Chirlane McCray, the wife of Bill de Blasio, a Democratic candidate for mayor, that accompanies an interview with Ms. McCray in the June issue of Essence magazine.

The New York City mayor's race has failed to attract much attention in the glossy world of national magazines, save for a handful of soft-focus features about Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, who would be the first woman and first openly gay person to run City Hall.

Now Bill de Blasio, the public advocate and one of Ms. Quinn's Democratic rivals, has earned some prominent ink - albeit in the form of an interview with his wife, Chirlane McCray, which appears in next month's issue of Essence, the same magazine where, in 1979, she wrote a seven-page essay about being an openly gay black woman.

Identified as “the woman who could be the first lady of New York City,” Ms. McCray, 58, appears in two photographs, one alongside her husband in a campaign office. She speaks candidly about the intersection of her personal and political lives, describing herself and Mr. de Blasio as “a very conventional, unconventional couple.”

Falling in love with Mr. de Blasio, whom she met in 1991 while working in City Hall, meant “putting aside assumptions I had about the form and package my love would come in,” Ms. McCray says, and she concedes that it felt a bit strange to realize after years of exclusively dating women that she was drawn to a man.

“I thought, ‘Whoa, what is this?'” Ms. McCray says. “But I also didn't think, ‘Oh, now I'm attracted to men.' I felt attracted to Bill. He felt like the perfect person for me.”

Was it a concern for a gay, black woman to start dating a straight, white man? “All I could think was, ‘He's six years younger than me!'” Ms. McCray recalls.

Mr. de Blasio, of Brooklyn, has pitched himself to voters as the full-throated progressive candidate of a crowded Democratic field. His family, including Ms. McCray and the couple's two teenage children, has taken a prominent role in his campaign; when he stood with them to declare his candidacy in January, some New Yorkers focused on the afro of his son, Dante, which The Daily News called “stupendous.”

After The New York Observer reported in December that Ms. McCray had previously identified as gay, The New York Post ran an editorial cartoon that depicted her and her husband both wearing women's lingerie; in Essence, Ms. McCray calls the cartoon “racist, ignorant, and crude.”

Ms. McCray, a former speechwriter for David N. Dinkins, who has worked as a writer and editor, says in the interview that she came out as a lesbian at 19 and “hadn't really dated any men” before she met Mr. de Blasio. He was aware of her past history, she says, but her 1970s essay in Essence “shook him up.”

“He didn't show it,” Ms. McCray adds. “He was cool about it.”

When the interviewer, Linda Villarosa, asks if Ms. McCray considers herself bisexual, she rejects the term, saying, “Labels put people in boxes, and those boxes are shaped like coffins. Finding the right person can be so hard that, often, when a person finally finds someone she or he is comfortable with, she or he just makes it work.”

Asked if she is still attracted to women, Ms. McCray laughs. “I'm married, I'm monogamous, but I'm not dead,” she says, adding: “And Bill isn't either.”

Flushing, 3:32 P.M.

Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

Sixth Suit Filed by Client Against Former Knoedler Gallery

The once-celebrated Knoedler & Company gallery has been closed for more than a year and a half but the lawsuits keep coming. Last week, the philanthropist and former ambassador to Romania, Nicholas F. Taubman, became the sixth former client to sue the gallery in federal court in Manhattan, charging that Knoedler’s former director Ann Freedman duped him into buying a fake painting by Clyfford Still for $4.3 million in 2005.

This painting was exhibited as genuine in the U.S. embassy in Bucharest while Mr. Taubman and wife, Eugenia, were stationed there. According to the lawsuit, a forensic analysis commissioned by Mr. Taubman showed the work, “Untitled (1949),” was a forgery.

The suit, reported earlier by The Baer Faxt, an art industry newsletter, also names as part of the conspiracy Knoedler’s owner Michael Hammer and the Long Island dealer Glafira Rosales, who supplied the gallery with dozens of paintings that were credited to American masters like Still, Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, and Mark Rothko. Ms. Rosales was identified last year as the target of an F.B.I. investigation.

Ms. Freedman has maintained all the works provided by Ms. Rosales are authentic.
“This lawsuit simply copies allegations that have already been discredited in the earlier lawsuits,” said her lawyer, Nicholas A. Gravante Jr.

Ms. Rosales’ lawyer has said that she has never knowingly sold any forged works. Knoedler’s lawyer, Charles D. Schmerler, said “The Taubman complaint relies on the same unproven and baseless claims contained in the prior lawsuits.” opycat litigation

Library Votes To Begin Spending City Funds on Library Renovation

Even as demonstrators were outside the New York Public Library’s flagship Fifth Avenue building on Wednesday, protesting the library’s renovation plans, the library’s trustees were inside deciding to make the first public expenditure on that plan: $9 million for the project’s architect, Norman Foster.

The allocation is the first part of $150 million in financing that New York City has committed to the project. All told, Mr. Foster will be paid $11.5 million for the project’s design phase; the additional funds will come from private sources, the library said.

The library has already spent $10 million on its renovation to date. The city money is expected to cover half the renovation cost, the library has said. But Anthony W. Marx, the library’s president, has also said that the project’s budget might ultimately exceed $300 million. The rest of the money will come from private donations, and selling off properties.

The library plans to sell its Mid-Manhattan circulating library across the street on Fifth Avenue and the Science, Industry and Business Library, on Madison Avenue at 34th Street, and to fold their operations into space at 42nd Street now occupied by stacks.

Critics have opposed the plans on the grounds that the library’s resources would be better spent on the system’s many branches and on a renovation of Mid-Manhattan in its current location. The library earlier this week released designs by Enrique Norten and his firm, Ten Arquitectos, for a new replacement library for the old Donnell Library on East 53rd Street that closed in 2008. The new library will be in the base of a hotel that is under construction at the site.

The Michael Moore of the Grade-School Lunchroom

Guerrilla filmmakers often face crackdowns by the powers that be, and Zachary Maxwell is no exception.

His hidden-camera documentary was almost derailed last year when he was caught filming without permission by a fearsome enforcer - the lunchroom monitor in his school cafeteria.

“She sent me to my teacher, and my teacher told me to delete everything,” said Zachary, who is now 11.

Zachary pretended to delete the day’s shots. After that lapse in production security, he said, “I fired my lookouts.”

What his teacher didn’t know, though, was that Zachary had six months of footage shot surreptitiously in the cafeteria, forming the spine of his 20-minute movie “Yuck: A 4th Grader’s Short Documentary About School Lunch.”

Next month, the film (watch trailer), which has been playing the festival circuit, will be screened at the Manhattan Film Festival.

Like many things in the life of a fourth grader, Zachary’s movie started as a dispute with his parents. He told them that he wanted to start packing his own lunch, but they were skeptical. Lunch is free at his school, P.S. 130 Hernando De Soto in Little Italy, and his parents liked the look of the Department of Education’s online menus, which describe delicious meals, full of whole grains and fresh vegetables, some even designed by celebrity chefs.

“I told them that’s not what they were actually serving me,” Zachary said. “But I don’t think they believed me.”

So he smuggled in a camera in his sweatshirt pocket the next day and filmed lunch.

“When I came back home and showed them the footage, they were like, ugh!” he said.

Soon, Zachary and his father, a lawyer and video hobbyist, were cutting together the footage he brought home every day. (In the film, Zachary goes by the name Zachary Maxwell, though Maxwell is his middle name. His family asked that their last name be withheld because of Zachary’s age.)

In the film, Zachary, who is not above cheesy costumes and goofy special effects, makes a point that is under the radar of most conversations about the quality of school lunches: that despite the Education Department’s efforts to improve nutrition, there is a disconnect between the wholesome meals described on school menus and the soggy, deep-fried nuggets frequently dished up in the lunchrooms.

Benjamin Norman for The New York Times Zachary Maxwell outside his school in Little Italy.

The film offers no shortage of examples. On a day advertising “cheesy lasagna rolls with tomato basil sauce, roasted spinach with garlic and herbs,” for instance, Zachary is handed a plastic-wrapped grilled cheese sandwich on an otherwise bare plastic foam tray.

A “Pasta Party” is described as “zesty Italian meatballs with tomato-basil sauce, whole grain pasta, Parmesan cheese and roasted capri vegetables.” Meatballs and pasta show up on the tray, if none too zesty-looking, but the vegetables are nowhere to be seen.

Salads devised by the Food Network chefs Rachael Ray and Ellie Krieger are similarly plagued by missing ingredients. On the day Ms. Ray’s “Yum-O! Marinated Tomato Salad” is listed, Zachary is served a slice of pizza accompanied by a wisp of lettuce.

Ms. Krieger’s “Tri-color Salad” is a no-show on one day it is promised, and on another, it lacks its cauliflower, broccoli and red peppers. The shreds of lettuce and slice of cucumber could still be described as tri-color, Zachary points out, if you count “green, light green and brown.”

Indeed, among the 75 lunches that Zachary recorded - chosen randomly, he swears - he found the menus to be “substantially” accurate, with two or more of the advertised menu items served, only 51 percent of the time. The menus were “totally” accurate, with all of the advertised items served, only 16 percent of the time. And by Zachary’s count, 28 percent of the lunches he recorded were built around either pizza or cheese sticks.

A spokeswoman for the Education Department, Marge Feinberg, said in an e-mail that vegetables and fruit were served daily and she suggested that Zachary must have chosen not to take the vegetables served in his cafeteria.

“It would not be the first time a youngster would find a way to get out of eating vegetables,” she wrote. Zachary responded that he always took every item he was offered.

Until this past September, Ms. Feinberg said, schools did have some freedom to deviate from the systemwide lunch menus. New federal regulations for the current school year set stricter guidelines for what elements need to be on each child’s plate.

On Monday, Zachary thought he was in trouble again when he was sent to the principal’s office and found two men in black suits waiting for him.

They turned out to be representatives from the Education Department’s Office of School Food, he said, who complimented him on his movie, asked for feedback on some new menu choices, and took him on a tour of the cafeteria kitchen.

There, Zachary met one of his school’s cooks, and got some insight into her thinking.

“She wants us to be happy,” he reported. “So she cooks what she thinks the kids will like.”

Then he sat down for lunch with the officials. The adults ate the cafeteria lunch of chicken nuggets, carrots and salad.

Zachary had pork and vegetable dumplings - brought from home.

Getty Museum Acquires Paintings by Two Masters

Olaf Kraak/European Pressphoto Agency The Rembrandt work has been on view at several museums, including the Toledo Museum of Art.

Two paintings â€" a Rembrandt self-portrait that was rediscovered in 2007 and one of Canaletto’s dazzling views of Venice â€" are the latest acquisitions made by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, officials there announced on Thursday.

“Rembrandt Laughing,’’ a 1628 image on copper, surfaced at an obscure auction house in England six years ago where it was attributed to a “follower of Rembrandt.’’ At the time, several dealers suspected that it was in fact by the Dutch master. Scientific testing and study by Ernst van der Wetering, one of the world’s leading Rembrandt experts, confirmed the attribution. It has been on view at several museums including the Toledo Museum of Art. The Getty bought it for an undisclosed price from the London dealers Hazlitt Gooden & Fox.

Canaletto’s “Grand Canal in Venice from Palazzo Flangini to Campo San Marcuola,’’ has been on loan to the Getty since 2010. It had once been in the collection of Jayne Wrightsman, the New York philanthropist and longtime trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who put it up for auction at Sotheby’s in 2010, where it failed to sell. Fabrizio Moretti, the New York dealer, bought it from Sotheby’s right after the sale. It is he, art insiders said, who sold it to the Getty.

Getty Museum Acquires Paintings by Two Masters

Olaf Kraak/European Pressphoto Agency The Rembrandt work has been on view at several museums, including the Toledo Museum of Art.

Two paintings â€" a Rembrandt self-portrait that was rediscovered in 2007 and one of Canaletto’s dazzling views of Venice â€" are the latest acquisitions made by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, officials there announced on Thursday.

“Rembrandt Laughing,’’ a 1628 image on copper, surfaced at an obscure auction house in England six years ago where it was attributed to a “follower of Rembrandt.’’ At the time, several dealers suspected that it was in fact by the Dutch master. Scientific testing and study by Ernst van der Wetering, one of the world’s leading Rembrandt experts, confirmed the attribution. It has been on view at several museums including the Toledo Museum of Art. The Getty bought it for an undisclosed price from the London dealers Hazlitt Gooden & Fox.

Canaletto’s “Grand Canal in Venice from Palazzo Flangini to Campo San Marcuola,’’ has been on loan to the Getty since 2010. It had once been in the collection of Jayne Wrightsman, the New York philanthropist and longtime trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who put it up for auction at Sotheby’s in 2010, where it failed to sell. Fabrizio Moretti, the New York dealer, bought it from Sotheby’s right after the sale. It is he, art insiders said, who sold it to the Getty.

Getty Museum Acquires Paintings by Two Masters

Olaf Kraak/European Pressphoto Agency The Rembrandt work has been on view at several museums, including the Toledo Museum of Art.

Two paintings â€" a Rembrandt self-portrait that was rediscovered in 2007 and one of Canaletto’s dazzling views of Venice â€" are the latest acquisitions made by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, officials there announced on Thursday.

“Rembrandt Laughing,’’ a 1628 image on copper, surfaced at an obscure auction house in England six years ago where it was attributed to a “follower of Rembrandt.’’ At the time, several dealers suspected that it was in fact by the Dutch master. Scientific testing and study by Ernst van der Wetering, one of the world’s leading Rembrandt experts, confirmed the attribution. It has been on view at several museums including the Toledo Museum of Art. The Getty bought it for an undisclosed price from the London dealers Hazlitt Gooden & Fox.

Canaletto’s “Grand Canal in Venice from Palazzo Flangini to Campo San Marcuola,’’ has been on loan to the Getty since 2010. It had once been in the collection of Jayne Wrightsman, the New York philanthropist and longtime trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who put it up for auction at Sotheby’s in 2010, where it failed to sell. Fabrizio Moretti, the New York dealer, bought it from Sotheby’s right after the sale. It is he, art insiders said, who sold it to the Getty.

Fall for Dance Festival Celebrates 10th Anniversary With Performances at the Delacorte Theater

New York City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival will celebrate its 10th anniversary with performances by 24 companies at the center, as well two evenings of free performances, hosted for the first time in the festival’s history by the Public Theater at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.

The performances at the Delacorte, on Sept. 16 and 17, are a kind of prelude to the main festival, which runs from Sept. 25 through Oct. 5 at City Center. They are also a tribute to the New York Dance Festival, which the Public Theater presented at the Delacorte from the 1960’s through the 1980’s, and which Arlene Shuler, the president and chief executive of City Center, described as “a model and inspiration for our festival.” The ensembles performing at the Delacorte, both nights, are New York City Ballet, the Paul Taylor Dance Company, Ronald K. Brown/Evidence and Elizabeth Streb’s Streb Extreme Action Company.

The schedule at City Center includes festival debuts by the Royal Ballet, Body Traffic, Doug Elkins Choreography, Etc., and the dancers Colin Dunne and Sara Mearns. Ms. Mearns, the Royal Ballet and Ballet Hisapnico will give the world premieres of works commissioned by the festival. And non-performance events include workshops, panel discussions and educational programs.

The festival’s three commissions, which will each have two performances, are “Sombrerísimo,” choreographed by Annabelle Lopez for the Ballet Hispanico; a work by Justin Peck for Ms. Mearns and an unannounced partner, and a pas de deux by Liam Scarlett for the Royal Ballet.

A Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo program includes the New York premiere of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s “Faun” (2009), and the Richard Alston Dance Company offers the New York premiere of Mr. Alston’s “Devil in the Detail” (2006), with music by Scott Joplin.

Other highlights of the festival include a program by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater that includes Rennie Harris’s “Home” (2011); American Ballet Theater’s revival of José Limón’s “Moor’s Pavane” (1949), and Mr. Elkins’s company’s presentation of a work inspired by that Limón piece, Mr. Elkins’s “Mo(or)town/Redux” (2012).

Fall for Dance Festival Celebrates 10th Anniversary With Performances at the Delacorte Theater

New York City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival will celebrate its 10th anniversary with performances by 24 companies at the center, as well two evenings of free performances, hosted for the first time in the festival’s history by the Public Theater at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.

The performances at the Delacorte, on Sept. 16 and 17, are a kind of prelude to the main festival, which runs from Sept. 25 through Oct. 5 at City Center. They are also a tribute to the New York Dance Festival, which the Public Theater presented at the Delacorte from the 1960’s through the 1980’s, and which Arlene Shuler, the president and chief executive of City Center, described as “a model and inspiration for our festival.” The ensembles performing at the Delacorte, both nights, are New York City Ballet, the Paul Taylor Dance Company, Ronald K. Brown/Evidence and Elizabeth Streb’s Streb Extreme Action Company.

The schedule at City Center includes festival debuts by the Royal Ballet, Body Traffic, Doug Elkins Choreography, Etc., and the dancers Colin Dunne and Sara Mearns. Ms. Mearns, the Royal Ballet and Ballet Hisapnico will give the world premieres of works commissioned by the festival. And non-performance events include workshops, panel discussions and educational programs.

The festival’s three commissions, which will each have two performances, are “Sombrerísimo,” choreographed by Annabelle Lopez for the Ballet Hispanico; a work by Justin Peck for Ms. Mearns and an unannounced partner, and a pas de deux by Liam Scarlett for the Royal Ballet.

A Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo program includes the New York premiere of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s “Faun” (2009), and the Richard Alston Dance Company offers the New York premiere of Mr. Alston’s “Devil in the Detail” (2006), with music by Scott Joplin.

Other highlights of the festival include a program by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater that includes Rennie Harris’s “Home” (2011); American Ballet Theater’s revival of José Limón’s “Moor’s Pavane” (1949), and Mr. Elkins’s company’s presentation of a work inspired by that Limón piece, Mr. Elkins’s “Mo(or)town/Redux” (2012).

Fall for Dance Festival Celebrates 10th Anniversary With Performances at the Delacorte Theater

New York City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival will celebrate its 10th anniversary with performances by 24 companies at the center, as well two evenings of free performances, hosted for the first time in the festival’s history by the Public Theater at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.

The performances at the Delacorte, on Sept. 16 and 17, are a kind of prelude to the main festival, which runs from Sept. 25 through Oct. 5 at City Center. They are also a tribute to the New York Dance Festival, which the Public Theater presented at the Delacorte from the 1960’s through the 1980’s, and which Arlene Shuler, the president and chief executive of City Center, described as “a model and inspiration for our festival.” The ensembles performing at the Delacorte, both nights, are New York City Ballet, the Paul Taylor Dance Company, Ronald K. Brown/Evidence and Elizabeth Streb’s Streb Extreme Action Company.

The schedule at City Center includes festival debuts by the Royal Ballet, Body Traffic, Doug Elkins Choreography, Etc., and the dancers Colin Dunne and Sara Mearns. Ms. Mearns, the Royal Ballet and Ballet Hisapnico will give the world premieres of works commissioned by the festival. And non-performance events include workshops, panel discussions and educational programs.

The festival’s three commissions, which will each have two performances, are “Sombrerísimo,” choreographed by Annabelle Lopez for the Ballet Hispanico; a work by Justin Peck for Ms. Mearns and an unannounced partner, and a pas de deux by Liam Scarlett for the Royal Ballet.

A Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo program includes the New York premiere of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s “Faun” (2009), and the Richard Alston Dance Company offers the New York premiere of Mr. Alston’s “Devil in the Detail” (2006), with music by Scott Joplin.

Other highlights of the festival include a program by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater that includes Rennie Harris’s “Home” (2011); American Ballet Theater’s revival of José Limón’s “Moor’s Pavane” (1949), and Mr. Elkins’s company’s presentation of a work inspired by that Limón piece, Mr. Elkins’s “Mo(or)town/Redux” (2012).

Fall for Dance Festival Celebrates 10th Anniversary With Performances at the Delacorte Theater

New York City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival will celebrate its 10th anniversary with performances by 24 companies at the center, as well two evenings of free performances, hosted for the first time in the festival’s history by the Public Theater at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.

The performances at the Delacorte, on Sept. 16 and 17, are a kind of prelude to the main festival, which runs from Sept. 25 through Oct. 5 at City Center. They are also a tribute to the New York Dance Festival, which the Public Theater presented at the Delacorte from the 1960’s through the 1980’s, and which Arlene Shuler, the president and chief executive of City Center, described as “a model and inspiration for our festival.” The ensembles performing at the Delacorte, both nights, are New York City Ballet, the Paul Taylor Dance Company, Ronald K. Brown/Evidence and Elizabeth Streb’s Streb Extreme Action Company.

The schedule at City Center includes festival debuts by the Royal Ballet, Body Traffic, Doug Elkins Choreography, Etc., and the dancers Colin Dunne and Sara Mearns. Ms. Mearns, the Royal Ballet and Ballet Hisapnico will give the world premieres of works commissioned by the festival. And non-performance events include workshops, panel discussions and educational programs.

The festival’s three commissions, which will each have two performances, are “Sombrerísimo,” choreographed by Annabelle Lopez for the Ballet Hispanico; a work by Justin Peck for Ms. Mearns and an unannounced partner, and a pas de deux by Liam Scarlett for the Royal Ballet.

A Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo program includes the New York premiere of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s “Faun” (2009), and the Richard Alston Dance Company offers the New York premiere of Mr. Alston’s “Devil in the Detail” (2006), with music by Scott Joplin.

Other highlights of the festival include a program by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater that includes Rennie Harris’s “Home” (2011); American Ballet Theater’s revival of José Limón’s “Moor’s Pavane” (1949), and Mr. Elkins’s company’s presentation of a work inspired by that Limón piece, Mr. Elkins’s “Mo(or)town/Redux” (2012).

Getty Museum Acquires Paintings by Two Masters

Olaf Kraak/European Pressphoto Agency The Rembrandt work has been on view at several museums, including the Toledo Museum of Art.

Two paintings â€" a Rembrandt self-portrait that was rediscovered in 2007 and one of Canaletto’s dazzling views of Venice â€" are the latest acquisitions made by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, officials there announced on Thursday.

“Rembrandt Laughing,’’ a 1628 image on copper, surfaced at an obscure auction house in England six years ago where it was attributed to a “follower of Rembrandt.’’ At the time, several dealers suspected that it was in fact by the Dutch master. Scientific testing and study by Ernst van der Wetering, one of the world’s leading Rembrandt experts, confirmed the attribution. It has been on view at several museums including the Toledo Museum of Art. The Getty bought it for an undisclosed price from the London dealers Hazlitt Gooden & Fox.

Canaletto’s “Grand Canal in Venice from Palazzo Flangini to Campo San Marcuola,’’ has been on loan to the Getty since 2010. It had once been in the collection of Jayne Wrightsman, the New York philanthropist and longtime trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who put it up for auction at Sotheby’s in 2010, where it failed to sell. Fabrizio Moretti, the New York dealer, bought it from Sotheby’s right after the sale. It is he, art insiders said, who sold it to the Getty.

A Generation Far Removed Gets a Glimpse of the Holocaust

Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times Students from an elementary school in the South Bronx met on Wednesday with Marion Sacher, left, and Pearl Brown, two survivors of the Holocaust. The students had written letters to the two women and other Holocaust survivors asking them to share their experiences.

Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times Ms. Brown displayed the tattoo applied on her arm by the Nazis to identify her while she was interned at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

They came to see the tattoo on Pearl Brown’s left arm.

Only the blue ink had faded and blurred over the years, leaving the small markings unreadable. So Ms. Brown, pulling back her sleeve, recited them from memory: A11728.

That was how she was known at Auschwitz.

Ms. Brown, 89, shared the most personal details of her imprisonment at the concentration camp complex with 20 curious young girls from the Bronx, not one of whom was Jewish. The lesson in oral history on Wednesday was arranged after the girls wrote heartfelt letters to Ms. Brown and other Holocaust survivors at the Kittay House, a residence for the elderly in the Bronx. The adults were struck by their interest and empathy, as well as their neat penmanship.

“I knew I was never going to experience it,” said Sira Nassoko, 10, whose parents immigrated from Mali. “I just wanted to know what they went through.”

The girls are fifth-grade students at Public School 75, an elementary school in the South Bronx with a predominantly Hispanic and black enrollment. Their teacher, Phyllis Murray, said they had read the writings of Anne Frank as an introduction to the Holocaust. “They had so many questions that I really could not answer,” recalled Ms. Murray, who advised them to take their questions to the source. “These ladies are living history. It’s something you’re not going to get out of textbooks.”

At Kittay House, the girls eagerly gathered around Ms. Brown and another resident, Marion Sacher, 90, a German-born Jew who fled Berlin just before the war started. Clutching leaves of paper with their questions written on them, the students stood up, one after another, and candidly asked the things that their young minds wondered about.

Did it hurt when the Nazis gave Ms. Brown the tattoo to identify her? It did.

What did she wear at the concentration camp? A summer dress that was too small and light for the cold. No socks, no coat.

What was the first thing she did when she was free? She got married (aaahhhs of approval from the girls).

How did Ms. Sacher manage to get away? Just luck, she replied.

Ms. Sacher noted that she was around their age when the Nazis came to power, drawing gasps from several girls. As a Jew, she told them, she was forced to wear a yellow star and forbidden to sit on public benches or go to the movies. She tried to fly a paper kite that her mother had bought for her 13th birthday at a nearby park, only to have German boys call her a Jew and rip it apart.

After years of plotting their escape, Ms. Sacher and her mother finally boarded a train for Italy in 1938. But as the train approached the German border, Nazis in boots trolled the aisles and pointed at passengers. They were not picked. “Those people who were taken out never came back,” Ms. Sacher said. “I get goose bumps when I talk about it.”

There was no escape for Ms. Brown. At 20, Ms. Brown and her mother were put on a train to Auschwitz from a small town in the former Czechoslovakia. Her mother was killed shortly after they arrived. Ms. Brown was assigned to the kitchen, working 12-hour shifts to prepare steaming cauldrons of soup for the prisoners from nothing more than water, flour, potatoes and canned horsemeat.

“You wouldn’t give it to your dog,” she said. “It tasted bad but you wished you had more. You had half a cup, or less. We were starving.”

For nearly two hours, the girls were fixated by these desperate stories of survival, trying to imagine a world far different from the one they knew in the Bronx. Many of them could not take their eyes off Ms. Brown and Ms. Sacher.

Afterward, they celebrated their newfound friendship with ice cream sandwiches.

Sira, who had asked Ms. Brown about the first thing she did after being freed, said she understood the Holocaust better now that she had heard what the Nazis did to the Jews. She said that reflecting on such evil made her want to be nicer to people. “It’s changed the way I think about life,” she said.

Linda Torres, 11, said she was inspired by the women’s bravery and their determination not to give up, no matter how bad things looked. “In the future, I’ll believe in myself and never give up,” she added.

When the time came to return to school, the girls reached over and impulsively hugged the frail women. Several affectionately called out “grandma.” They promised to return with a kite for Ms. Sacher, who still loves flying. Then they were gone.

Ms. Brown said she was glad for a chance to tell her story to a generation that never had to live through the Holocaust.

“I’m removed from it now, but I never forget it,” she said. “I might forget what I ate yesterday, but this I remember, always.”

Farewell, Taylor Mead

Mario Tama/Getty Images Taylor Mead, at home on the Lower East Side last month.

Taylor Mead, the Warhol “superstar,” Beat poet, stray-cat feeder and sweet face and voice of an era, died on Wednesday at 88, taking a large slice of Lower Manhattan’s cultural history with him. A proper obituary is forthcoming, but for now, there’s this.

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A scene from the Jim Jarmusch film “Coffee and Cigarettes” featuring Taylor Mead and Bill Rice.

Mario Tama/Getty Images Poetry in Taylor Mead’s apartment.

Farewell, Taylor Mead

Mario Tama/Getty Images Taylor Mead, at home on the Lower East Side last month.

Taylor Mead, the Warhol “superstar,” Beat poet, stray-cat feeder and sweet face and voice of an era, died on Wednesday at 88, taking a large slice of Lower Manhattan’s cultural history with him. A proper obituary is forthcoming, but for now, there’s this.

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A scene from the Jim Jarmusch film “Coffee and Cigarettes” featuring Taylor Mead and Bill Rice.

Mario Tama/Getty Images Poetry in Taylor Mead’s apartment.

Farewell, Taylor Mead

Mario Tama/Getty Images Taylor Mead, at home on the Lower East Side last month.

Taylor Mead, the Warhol “superstar,” Beat poet, stray-cat feeder and sweet face and voice of an era, died on Wednesday at 88, taking a large slice of Lower Manhattan’s cultural history with him. A proper obituary is forthcoming, but for now, there’s this.

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A scene from the Jim Jarmusch film “Coffee and Cigarettes” featuring Taylor Mead and Bill Rice.

Mario Tama/Getty Images Poetry in Taylor Mead’s apartment.

A Treasure Trove of Documents, Courtesy of the City Council

Jessica Reinis of Boerum Hill was only in the fourth grade at the Brooklyn Friends school, but she had plenty of questions for Carol Bellamy, who, from 1977 to 1985, was the City Council president:

“Can I wear a dress and still be like Susan B. Anthony?”

Is it wrong to support women’s lib and men’s lib, she asked in her neat script. Was President Jimmy Carter a male chauvinist pig for firing Bella Abzug from his Commission on Women after she publicly criticized his budget?

Ms. Bellamy patiently replied that wearing a dress “doesn’t symbolize submission to male chauvinism, especially if you maintain our personal beliefs and voice them with confidence and an ample measure of tact.”

She said supporting liberation for men and women was a matter of personal conscience (“conscious” is what the Council president’s typewritten letter actually said) after you “acknowledge but don’t necessarily accept as fact, the opinions of those adults around you.” And she explained that while Mr. Carter could himself have been more tactful, it would be unjust to label him a male chauvinist “without examining his overall performance in the area of women’s concerns.”

This exchange of letters, in 1979, amounting to a lesson in diplomacy and civics, is among more than 930,000 City Council documents that have been microfilmed and digitized and are being made available this week by the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives at LaGuardia Community College, part of the City University of New York.

The collection includes a half-century of Local Laws since 1955, searchable by date and topic, and, as evidence for doubters, 66,000 photographs of council members “at work” through 2005.

At a ribbon cutting on Thursday, the college honored Peter F. Vallone, a Queens Democrat and the former Council speaker, and Assemblywoman Catherine T. Nolan, who were instrumental in making the legislative archives available, according to Richard K. Lieberman, director of the LaGuardia and Wagner repository.

Professor Lieberman said that until recently, the mayors’ papers provided the primary source for researchers interested in learning about the governing of the city. Now, he added, “for the first time historians, journalists, students and the general public will have access to the other half of New York’s history.”

The letters cover a broad range of topics. They include pleas on behalf of legislation that would preserve neighborhoods and minimize threats to public health and safety.

“In these times of calling for transparency in government, the City Council legislative archive makes accessible the back-story on how all the local laws for the past 50 years were debated and written,” Professor Lieberman said.

The files include constituent letters for and against a range of hot-button topics, including gay rights legislation and financing to help the homeless.

A Bronx man whose larynx was removed because of cancer passionately urges more regulation of tobacco sales. A woman from Mariners Harbor sarcastically suggests, “why don’t the politicians just move all the decent families off Staten Island and declare Staten Island the New York City Dump!’’

A Lower Manhattan resident complains that the city is housing too many homeless people in his neighborhood. A Bronx woman complains two decades ago that her two sons were roughed up for no reason by the police.

Presumably appealing for library financing, a woman named Debbie Langsmer wrote to Mr. Vallone’s predecessor: “I like books. So I hope you get money.” And a woman named Daleich Smith apologized to Ms. Bellamy for almost falling asleep during “that long talk we had” at school, an otherwise unexplained encounter with the Council president.

Ms. Reinis said Tuesday that she wrote the letter to Ms. Bellamy on her own, not part of a school assignment. She is now the director of marketing for a law firm. She wears a dress to work.

Neil Patrick Harris to Host Tony Awards for a Fourth Time

It doesn’t actually say this in the official announcement that the organizers of the Tony Awards sent around on Thursday morning, but you can almost hear them saying it to their industry colleagues at the Oscars: find a host who works, and stick with him. While the choosing of an Academy Awards host is an annual cycle of wondering who’s available to do it; wondering if the person or people chosen are up to the task; and then wondering what went wrong on the morning after, the Tonys have dispensed with such uncertainty by naming Neil Patrick Harris to host the awards program for a fourth year.

Mr. Harris, a star of the CBS comedy “How I Met Your Mother” and the Broadway musicals “Cabaret” and “Assassins,” first hosted the Tonys in 2009; he took a year off in 2010 and handed the torch to Sean Hayes, then returned in 2011 and 2012. He won Emmy Awards in 2010 and 2012 for his Tonys work (shared with the show’s executive producers, Ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss, who will also return this year), as well as an Emmy for his guest performance on “Glee.” Mr. Harris has also hosted programs like the Spike Video Game Awards. (And yet, he’s never hosted the Oscars.)

This year’s Tony Awards will be held on June 9 at Radio City Music Hall and will be broadcast live on CBS.

De Blasio’s Wife Gives Candid Interview

Ben Baker/Essence A photograph of Chirlane McCray, the wife of Bill de Blasio, a Democratic candidate for mayor, that accompanies an interview with Ms. McCray in the June issue of Essence magazine.

The New York City mayor’s race has failed to attract much attention in the glossy world of national magazines, save for a handful of soft-focus features about Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, who would be the first woman and first openly gay person to run City Hall.

Now Bill de Blasio, the public advocate and one of Ms. Quinn’s Democratic rivals, has earned some prominent ink â€" albeit in the form of an interview with his wife, Chirlane McCray, which appears in next month’s issue of Essence, the same magazine where, in 1979, she wrote a seven-page essay about being an openly gay black woman.

Identified as “the woman who could be the first lady of New York City,” Ms. McCray, 58, appears in two photographs, one alongside her husband in a campaign office. She speaks candidly about the intersection of her personal and political lives, describing herself and Mr. de Blasio as “a very conventional, unconventional couple.”

Falling in love with Mr. de Blasio, whom she met in 1991 while working in City Hall, meant “putting aside assumptions I had about the form and package my love would come in,” Ms. McCray says, and she concedes that it felt a bit strange to realize after years of exclusively dating women that she was drawn to a man.

“I thought, ‘Whoa, what is this?’” Ms. McCray says. “But I also didn’t think, ‘Oh, now I’m attracted to men.’ I felt attracted to Bill. He felt like the perfect person for me.”

Was it a concern for a gay, black woman to start dating a straight, white man? “All I could think was, ‘He’s six years younger than me!’” Ms. McCray recalls.

Mr. de Blasio, of Brooklyn, has pitched himself to voters as the full-throated progressive candidate of a crowded Democratic field. His family, including Ms. McCray and the couple’s two teenage children, has taken a prominent role in his campaign; when he stood with them to declare his candidacy in January, some New Yorkers focused on the afro of his son, Dante, which The Daily News called “stupendous.”

After The New York Observer reported in December that Ms. McCray had previously identified as gay, The New York Post ran an editorial cartoon that depicted her and her husband both wearing women’s lingerie; in Essence, Ms. McCray calls the cartoon “racist, ignorant, and crude.”

Ms. McCray, a former speechwriter for David N. Dinkins, who has worked as a writer and editor, says in the interview that she came out as a lesbian at 19 and “hadn’t really dated any men” before she met Mr. de Blasio. He was aware of her past history, she says, but her 1970s essay in Essence “shook him up.”

“He didn’t show it,” Ms. McCray adds. “He was cool about it.”

When the interviewer, Linda Villarosa, asks if Ms. McCray considers herself bisexual, she rejects the term, saying, “Labels put people in boxes, and those boxes are shaped like coffins. Finding the right person can be so hard that, often, when a person finally finds someone she or he is comfortable with, she or he just makes it work.”

Asked if she is still attracted to women, Ms. McCray laughs. “I’m married, I’m monogamous, but I’m not dead,” she says, adding: “And Bill isn’t either.”

De Blasio’s Wife Gives Candid Interview

Ben Baker/Essence A photograph of Chirlane McCray, the wife of Bill de Blasio, a Democratic candidate for mayor, that accompanies an interview with Ms. McCray in the June issue of Essence magazine.

The New York City mayor’s race has failed to attract much attention in the glossy world of national magazines, save for a handful of soft-focus features about Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, who would be the first woman and first openly gay person to run City Hall.

Now Bill de Blasio, the public advocate and one of Ms. Quinn’s Democratic rivals, has earned some prominent ink â€" albeit in the form of an interview with his wife, Chirlane McCray, which appears in next month’s issue of Essence, the same magazine where, in 1979, she wrote a seven-page essay about being an openly gay black woman.

Identified as “the woman who could be the first lady of New York City,” Ms. McCray, 58, appears in two photographs, one alongside her husband in a campaign office. She speaks candidly about the intersection of her personal and political lives, describing herself and Mr. de Blasio as “a very conventional, unconventional couple.”

Falling in love with Mr. de Blasio, whom she met in 1991 while working in City Hall, meant “putting aside assumptions I had about the form and package my love would come in,” Ms. McCray says, and she concedes that it felt a bit strange to realize after years of exclusively dating women that she was drawn to a man.

“I thought, ‘Whoa, what is this?’” Ms. McCray says. “But I also didn’t think, ‘Oh, now I’m attracted to men.’ I felt attracted to Bill. He felt like the perfect person for me.”

Was it a concern for a gay, black woman to start dating a straight, white man? “All I could think was, ‘He’s six years younger than me!’” Ms. McCray recalls.

Mr. de Blasio, of Brooklyn, has pitched himself to voters as the full-throated progressive candidate of a crowded Democratic field. His family, including Ms. McCray and the couple’s two teenage children, has taken a prominent role in his campaign; when he stood with them to declare his candidacy in January, some New Yorkers focused on the afro of his son, Dante, which The Daily News called “stupendous.”

After The New York Observer reported in December that Ms. McCray had previously identified as gay, The New York Post ran an editorial cartoon that depicted her and her husband both wearing women’s lingerie; in Essence, Ms. McCray calls the cartoon “racist, ignorant, and crude.”

Ms. McCray, a former speechwriter for David N. Dinkins, who has worked as a writer and editor, says in the interview that she came out as a lesbian at 19 and “hadn’t really dated any men” before she met Mr. de Blasio. He was aware of her past history, she says, but her 1970s essay in Essence “shook him up.”

“He didn’t show it,” Ms. McCray adds. “He was cool about it.”

When the interviewer, Linda Villarosa, asks if Ms. McCray considers herself bisexual, she rejects the term, saying, “Labels put people in boxes, and those boxes are shaped like coffins. Finding the right person can be so hard that, often, when a person finally finds someone she or he is comfortable with, she or he just makes it work.”

Asked if she is still attracted to women, Ms. McCray laughs. “I’m married, I’m monogamous, but I’m not dead,” she says, adding: “And Bill isn’t either.”

De Blasio’s Wife Gives Candid Interview

Ben Baker/Essence A photograph of Chirlane McCray, the wife of Bill de Blasio, a Democratic candidate for mayor, that accompanies an interview with Ms. McCray in the June issue of Essence magazine.

The New York City mayor’s race has failed to attract much attention in the glossy world of national magazines, save for a handful of soft-focus features about Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, who would be the first woman and first openly gay person to run City Hall.

Now Bill de Blasio, the public advocate and one of Ms. Quinn’s Democratic rivals, has earned some prominent ink â€" albeit in the form of an interview with his wife, Chirlane McCray, which appears in next month’s issue of Essence, the same magazine where, in 1979, she wrote a seven-page essay about being an openly gay black woman.

Identified as “the woman who could be the first lady of New York City,” Ms. McCray, 58, appears in two photographs, one alongside her husband in a campaign office. She speaks candidly about the intersection of her personal and political lives, describing herself and Mr. de Blasio as “a very conventional, unconventional couple.”

Falling in love with Mr. de Blasio, whom she met in 1991 while working in City Hall, meant “putting aside assumptions I had about the form and package my love would come in,” Ms. McCray says, and she concedes that it felt a bit strange to realize after years of exclusively dating women that she was drawn to a man.

“I thought, ‘Whoa, what is this?’” Ms. McCray says. “But I also didn’t think, ‘Oh, now I’m attracted to men.’ I felt attracted to Bill. He felt like the perfect person for me.”

Was it a concern for a gay, black woman to start dating a straight, white man? “All I could think was, ‘He’s six years younger than me!’” Ms. McCray recalls.

Mr. de Blasio, of Brooklyn, has pitched himself to voters as the full-throated progressive candidate of a crowded Democratic field. His family, including Ms. McCray and the couple’s two teenage children, has taken a prominent role in his campaign; when he stood with them to declare his candidacy in January, some New Yorkers focused on the afro of his son, Dante, which The Daily News called “stupendous.”

After The New York Observer reported in December that Ms. McCray had previously identified as gay, The New York Post ran an editorial cartoon that depicted her and her husband both wearing women’s lingerie; in Essence, Ms. McCray calls the cartoon “racist, ignorant, and crude.”

Ms. McCray, a former speechwriter for David N. Dinkins, who has worked as a writer and editor, says in the interview that she came out as a lesbian at 19 and “hadn’t really dated any men” before she met Mr. de Blasio. He was aware of her past history, she says, but her 1970s essay in Essence “shook him up.”

“He didn’t show it,” Ms. McCray adds. “He was cool about it.”

When the interviewer, Linda Villarosa, asks if Ms. McCray considers herself bisexual, she rejects the term, saying, “Labels put people in boxes, and those boxes are shaped like coffins. Finding the right person can be so hard that, often, when a person finally finds someone she or he is comfortable with, she or he just makes it work.”

Asked if she is still attracted to women, Ms. McCray laughs. “I’m married, I’m monogamous, but I’m not dead,” she says, adding: “And Bill isn’t either.”

De Blasio’s Wife Gives Candid Interview

Ben Baker/Essence A photograph of Chirlane McCray, the wife of Bill de Blasio, a Democratic candidate for mayor, that accompanies an interview with Ms. McCray in the June issue of Essence magazine.

The New York City mayor’s race has failed to attract much attention in the glossy world of national magazines, save for a handful of soft-focus features about Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, who would be the first woman and first openly gay person to run City Hall.

Now Bill de Blasio, the public advocate and one of Ms. Quinn’s Democratic rivals, has earned some prominent ink â€" albeit in the form of an interview with his wife, Chirlane McCray, which appears in next month’s issue of Essence, the same magazine where, in 1979, she wrote a seven-page essay about being an openly gay black woman.

Identified as “the woman who could be the first lady of New York City,” Ms. McCray, 58, appears in two photographs, one alongside her husband in a campaign office. She speaks candidly about the intersection of her personal and political lives, describing herself and Mr. de Blasio as “a very conventional, unconventional couple.”

Falling in love with Mr. de Blasio, whom she met in 1991 while working in City Hall, meant “putting aside assumptions I had about the form and package my love would come in,” Ms. McCray says, and she concedes that it felt a bit strange to realize after years of exclusively dating women that she was drawn to a man.

“I thought, ‘Whoa, what is this?’” Ms. McCray says. “But I also didn’t think, ‘Oh, now I’m attracted to men.’ I felt attracted to Bill. He felt like the perfect person for me.”

Was it a concern for a gay, black woman to start dating a straight, white man? “All I could think was, ‘He’s six years younger than me!’” Ms. McCray recalls.

Mr. de Blasio, of Brooklyn, has pitched himself to voters as the full-throated progressive candidate of a crowded Democratic field. His family, including Ms. McCray and the couple’s two teenage children, has taken a prominent role in his campaign; when he stood with them to declare his candidacy in January, some New Yorkers focused on the afro of his son, Dante, which The Daily News called “stupendous.”

After The New York Observer reported in December that Ms. McCray had previously identified as gay, The New York Post ran an editorial cartoon that depicted her and her husband both wearing women’s lingerie; in Essence, Ms. McCray calls the cartoon “racist, ignorant, and crude.”

Ms. McCray, a former speechwriter for David N. Dinkins, who has worked as a writer and editor, says in the interview that she came out as a lesbian at 19 and “hadn’t really dated any men” before she met Mr. de Blasio. He was aware of her past history, she says, but her 1970s essay in Essence “shook him up.”

“He didn’t show it,” Ms. McCray adds. “He was cool about it.”

When the interviewer, Linda Villarosa, asks if Ms. McCray considers herself bisexual, she rejects the term, saying, “Labels put people in boxes, and those boxes are shaped like coffins. Finding the right person can be so hard that, often, when a person finally finds someone she or he is comfortable with, she or he just makes it work.”

Asked if she is still attracted to women, Ms. McCray laughs. “I’m married, I’m monogamous, but I’m not dead,” she says, adding: “And Bill isn’t either.”

At Brooklyn Library’s New Center, Books Are Secondary

Sasha Maslov for The New York Times The information commons at the Brooklyn Public Library’s branch in Grand Army Plaza has become a popular place.

The young couple burst through the great bronze doors of the main Brooklyn Public Library 15 minutes before closing time one recent Sunday with an unusual request: Was there somewhere they could recite their vows?

It was a blustery day, and the two â€" a military man and his fiancée, according to librarians â€" wanted a place they could finish their nuptials away from the chill at Grand Army Plaza.

Fortunately, the library had not long before opened a $3.25 million addition to its central branch, complete with conference rooms available to anyone with an adult library card. Librarians showed the couple to Room 5, the lack of a reservation notwithstanding.

“This may have technically been a violation of our meeting room policy,” Jesse Montero, the library’s coordinator of information services and public training, acknowledged of the impromptu ceremony, which added “wedding chapel” to the facility’s growing list of descriptions.

The four-month-old Shelby White and Leon Levy Information Commons replaced the branch’s media section, providing a wood-paneled center with space for 70 laptop users, a 36-seat classroom and 7 meeting rooms, including a digital studio with green screen, microphone and video equipment.

It quickly became popular with freelance writers and other creative minds, but its uses have been quite varied, like as a safe space for immigrants to learn about the naturalization process and for parents to hold meetings about charter schools. And yes, even as a warm environment for a wedding.

“This is a sanctuary. It’s beautiful,” said Freddy Quevedo, 64, a retired construction worker originally from Ecuador. He was attending a CitizenshipWorks event, where representatives of groups like the Immigration Advocates Network and Pro Bono Net helped prospective citizens fill out naturalization forms, with lawyers on hand for private counsel in the meeting rooms.

Equipped with a projector (new and working) and a cart of laptop computers (also new and working), the classroom has allowed the library to work with other nonprofit organizations and residents to offer a class on podcasting, hosted by BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn, a primer on Medicare and a workshop on Revolutionary War genealogy with the Daughters of the American Revolution.

It’s this diversity of new uses, most of which have little to do with reading or books, that the library says is part of a larger campaign to maintain relevancy in an increasingly digital world.

“The business of being a public library is much more complicated today than it was when it was conceived,” said Linda E. Johnson, the president of the Brooklyn Public Library. “We’re still trying to level the playing field. It’s just not about books as much as it is about access to the Internet.”

The 5,500-square-foot space is among the first of its type for a public library, according to planners, who drew inspiration from the Research Commons at New York University’s Bobst Library, and took aesthetic cues from Apple stores.

The library benefited from the largess of Shelby White, a philanthropist, self-described “Brooklyn girl” and founding trustee of the Leon Levy Foundation, which awarded the library a $100,000 grant in 2009 to study the project, and $3.25 million in 2010 for its construction.

Not that the operation has gone off entirely without a hitch.

The wing initially suffered from slow Wi-Fi service â€" a striking flaw for laptop users â€" before an upgrade.

The commons have also suffered the occasional disruption, like when a packed meeting about a Citizens of the World charter school spilled out of a room and disturbed the quiet of the work area; the meeting had been overwhelmed by protesting parents.

But with $1 coffee in the library’s lobby, why would a freelancer spend time working in a cafe or home office again?

“It’s not what you expect when you walk in a library, but to have a professional, upscale place to meet with clients is incredible,” said Don Noble, 40, a film producer from Crown Heights who uses the commons every other day. “It’s good to get away from the house.”

Suddenly, a Ring on Her Finger

Dear Diary:

While visiting Manhattan recently from Pennsylvania, I had a most unusual experience.

It was pouring rain in the theater district â€" a sea of umbrellas. Noticing the skies brightening, I reached out my hand from under the umbrella to test the weather. When I brought my hand back â€" lo and behold â€" there was a gold ring on my finger, not there before.

Puzzled, I scanned the crowd to try and discover the source of this “gift.”

Standing near me, and glaring angrily, was a lady wearing one gold hoop earring! She shouted, “What are you trying to do?”

I replied, “Certainly not that â€" so sorry” â€" and returned the earring.

I’ve heard of reaching for the brass ring, but really! Be careful, ladies, of your large hoop earrings. You never know what or whom you might capture!

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