NEW YORK CITY – A HAVEN OF THE AMERICAN SPIRIT
I was blessed to spend a week in New York City in August at the National Speakers Association 2008 convention. Even though I have traveled around the world speaking, this is a city I have rarely had the opportunity to visit, and I was delighted with my stay. The convention was held at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square, so we were smack dab in the middle of the activity of the big city!
I arrived in NYC several days before the convention began after staying with precious new client friends at their home in Long Island for three days, so I had the opportunity to experience some of the excitement and culture of the city before spending most of the days in meetings.
A speaker friend invited me on the first day to accompany him to the matinee of “Hairspray” and then to be his guest for dinner at the Harvard Club, one of those prestigious places one only reads about! He took me on a lovely walking tour of that part of the city after the play, whose message about loving oneself from the inside out and feeling one with ALL mankind was delightfully powerful. I loved the 60’s music as well. It was a wonderful first day in New York City!
The next day I spent catching up on some work, exploring the city a bit, and then attending the wonderful, heartwarming musical, “Lion King”, with a speaker friend and her granddaughter. The staging and costuming, particularly how they portrayed all the animals, was absolutely mind-boggling.
I slept late on Friday and then celebrated the arrival of my roommate for the week, Lisa Umberger. (She was an amazing source of information on this huge city as she had lived here at one time.) That afternoon I was blessed to connect with a local designer who invited us to her studio and I think will become a valuable contact for my youngest daughter who is a new graduate in fashion design. I also was able to purchase two beautiful pieces from Jane Elissa’s collection which are a wonderful new addition to my wardrobe. 😉
That night several of us met and had a lovely dinner at an Italian restaurant in the neighborhood and then attended a performance of “Gypsy.” I have never seen such a spectacular and moving performance in my life as that given by Patty LaPone. Not only did she win a Tony as best actress for the play, but she even received a standing ovation in the MIDDLE of the play, something I have never experienced in my life before! Of all the performances I saw, this was the highlight in terms of acting.
On Saturday before the conventions started, I met a group of friends to take the subway to Ground Zero. We really needed Lisa as, after nearly 40 minutes of travel, we discovered we were going the WRONG DIRECTION!!! (So much for thinking we were sophisticated world travelers… 😉 Of course we had to get off, go across the street and back down to the subway, and then travel another 40 minutes, just to get back to where we had started. As a result, we spent over two hours, just trying to get to the site, which, when we arrived, was in the midst of a huge downpour. Again, we took a wrong direction and walked 4 unnecessary blocks in the pouring rain!
When we finally figured out where to go to view the actual site of the Twin Towers, we were extremely disappointed because the whole area was blocked off with a huge fence, so the only way one could see anything was from the upstairs of a building next door, and then all that was visible was construction. We were appalled that there were no pictures, maps, memorials, or expressions of hope anywhere around the scene. Even in the midst of the construction, we felt there should have been some symbolic representations of regeneration and hope for the future after such a horrible disaster. To see “life going on as usual” seemed to us to diminish the horror, and yet perhaps that is what our country needs right now.
On the way back we stopped for an hour and a half at Century Twenty One, advertised as the “largest discount store in New York City.” What fun we had! My suitcases are both bulging already!;-)
The conference began Saturday evening with many amazing and talented performers (it was based on a Rock and Roll theme), awesome speakers and philanthropists as well as many valuable breakout sessions. These conferences are always meccas of learning, precious times of networking with dear friends, many of whom we only see once a year, and joyful rounds of wine drinking, laughter, and days of sleep deprivation!
On Sunday night we attended a presentation and dinner for the NSA Foundation. The highlight was Michael Israel, who paints to music on huge canvases, getting as much paint on himself as on the canvases themselves. Later the five paintings he created were auctioned off for a total of $26,000! Since this session finished by 7:15, we decided to go to yet another theatre production, (Title of the Play). It was an unusual, yet interesting production with only one simple set and four actors about them writing a musical play. They dissed nearly everything currently on Broadway in one way or another and even mentioned “Sarasota!”
The final night of the convention was a lovely black tie dinner, an awards ceremony, and dancing afterwards. The next day the conference ended at noon, and then we met with many of the international speakers for an amazing afternoon and evening at the United Nations. We had a special VIP tour followed by an hour meeting with one of the UN delegates who shared with us many of the initiatives the organizations is involved in. What a wonderful job they are doing to help stop hunger, poverty, and disease in the world as well as encouraging care of our environment and striving to achieve world peace through ten major goals targeted for the year 2015! I will be a more loyal supporter of the UN from now on.
We had some free time in the gift shops where I bought gifts for my grandchildren as well as a doll for myself! Then we were escorted to the roof of the building for a lovely cocktail reception and dinner. It was a joy to network with speakers from around the world and to strategize about ways we could support the UN in our work. Many of us will be going to the International Federation conference in South Africa in April of 2009.
Finally, Wednesday was our free day. A friend and I took a cab to do some shopping and then eat lunch at a typical NY deli. We returned to the theatre area about 1:15 to pick up our tickets for “August Osage County,” a drama that won not only a Pulitzer Prize, but also the Tony for best play of 2008. Although it was quite dark about a very dysfunctional family, I have never experienced such good writing in the theatre before. We cannot wait to get the script of the play and read it again! The author was amazingly able to make us laugh in the midst of the most poignant circumstances and interactions which, of course, served to break the tension in some highly emotional situations. We absolutely LOVED this play and still keep thinking about it days later.
After the play, we met another friend and had a wonderful Italian dinner at Nuovo. Then we all hopped a cab to see “Spamalot.” It was funny but not nearly as powerful as many of the plays we had seen. Immediately afterwards, we walked across the street to have a nightcap at the famous Sardi’s. While there, we got to hear an older Broadway singer presenting to a private group. Then home to bed, sleeping in, and packing and going to the airport the next day.
I so enjoyed my time in this “city of America” – the diversity, the constant stream of people no matter what hour of the day or night, the spirit of life and enthusiasm that abounds, and especially the culture of music, drama, art, and learning. I can’t wait to go back again!
Blessings,
Barbara
To learn more about Barbara, go to www.barbaraglanz.com/about.
