33Fotos Daniel Koponyas/unsplah.com; skynesher/iStock.com
TRAVEL 9/2019 Spotlight— no fighting with words. Everyone is
there to build up, not tear down.
There are a number of people who
show up every week; they’re predomi-
nantly African-American men, but any-
one with skills can gain respect in the cir-
cle. One frequent MC is a Jewish woman
named Lex, another is a tall, thin, redhead
guy called Rory. Over the course of the
night, people cycle in and out of the in-
ner circle; newcomers are encouraged to
jump in, and sometimes get creative crit-
icism — in rhyme — from older heads.
You’re as likely to hear a few bars from a
teenager from Brooklyn as you are from a
businessman on his way home from work
on Wall Street.
Because the cypher is so collabora-
tive and improvisational, the mood of-
ten shifts over the course of a night. You
might find the cypher ranging from a long
string of increasingly hilarious and elabo-
rate puns to a session of serious contem-
plation of life’s hardships — all in rhyth-
mic verse — before midnight arrives and
the cops close the park: “...Call me a lifer /
I was born to live and die in the cypher.”Draw it from life
If you want a good seat at the Society of
Illustrators’ twice-weekly life-drawing
night, you should try to get there early —
plus, it’s good to have a little extra time to
admire the original art they have on dis-
play on the lower floors of their building,
at 128 East 63rd Street, a few blocks from
Central Park on the Upper East Side.
The first two floors are filled with ro-
tating selections from the society’s nearly
120-year history, often featuring original
art in the form of classic magazine illus-
trations, pulp novel covers, newspaper
comic strips, and, especially, comic book
pages. New York is the center of the
American publishing industry, and so it
has necessarily been the center of Amer-
ican illustration, as well. The society was
founded in 1901 “to promote generally
the art of illustration,” and it continues to
do so today.
It’s tempting to linger and explore the
exhibitions, but the museum section of
the building is closing up, and you can
already hear people talking on the floor
above. As you climb up the narrow wood-
en staircase, you emerge into an open
floor, with a low platform in the center,
chairs arranged all around, and a bar toyour right. This is where the society holds
its popular life-drawing sessions, on Tues-
days and Thursdays. If it’s a Tuesday, you
get naked models and live music, but on
a Thursday, there are models in costume
and a soundtrack of the maître d’s choos-
ing. There’s also a delicious, serve-yourself
buffet, usually chicken with rice and vege-
tables and cheesy noodles. For $20, it’s one
of the best deals in the city.
You’ve probably brought your own
drawing materials; if not, don’t worry —
come a little early and you can pick up a
Strathmore sketch pad and some pencils
or markers at the society’s gift shop.
The artists who gather here twice a
week span the population of the city, and
their supplies and art styles are just as
diverse. You’ll be drawing alongside art
students and retirees, amateurs and pro-
fessionals. As the first session begins and
the models on the platform strike a pose,
a man with long dreadlocks dips into a
watercolor set, while an elderly woman
who can barely unbend her neck to look
up at the models is making quick lines on
a drawing pad with charcoal. Next to her,
an intense-looking student dressed all in
black is drawing with a stylus on an iPad.
The evening begins with short poses,
so that the artists (and the models) can
warm up, and then the poses get longer
and the drawings more detailed. There
will also be a break or two, for people to
help themselves to the free dinner buffet
or the cash bar, take a break in the garden
deck that opens off the back of the roombarely [(berli]
, kaum
charcoal [(tSA:rkoUl]
, Zeichenkohle
contemplation
[)kA:ntEm(pleIS&n]
, Betrachtung
cop [kA:p]
, Bulle, Polizist
dip into sth. [dIp (IntE]
, in etw. eintauchen,
eintunken
elaborate [i(lÄbErEt]
, gut durchdacht
hardship [(hA:rdSIp]
, Not, Elend
hilarious [hI(leriEs]
, lustig, urkomisch
Jewish [(dZu:IS]
, jüdisch
linger [(lINg&r]
, verweilenmaÎtre ď [)meIt&r )di:]
, hier: Chef, Leiter
pulp novel [pVlp (nA:v&l]
, Groschenroman
retiree [ri)taI&(ri:]
, Rentner(in)
sketch pad [(sketS pÄd]
, Skizzenblock
span [spÄn]
, umfassen
strike a pose
[)straIk E (poUz]
, eine Pose einnehmen
stylus [(staIlEs]
, Eingabestift
tempting [(temtIN]
, verlockend
unbend [)Vn(bend]
, aufrichtenInterpret the world, then recreate it: the life-drawing
class at the Society of Illustrators shows you how