Jay's NEW YORK, NEW YORK Post - Postcards from the Edge Assignment - Summer Session 2025

  To introduce my SUMMER 2025 students to their assigned novel, Paradise Travel.  I ask them to use their research skills to familiarize themselves with the setting of New York City.  Of course, few of us will have little understanding for NYC, but  that's why we want to dig in before we start the serious reading.  There is point where one of the main characters, Marlon, refers to the city as "The Beast."  Many of my classes are online.  This makes it difficult to work in groups and/or share idea  From my personal expeience, talking about what I read, or for that matter writing about it, leads to greater personal understanding and enjoyment. 

I chose Paradise Travel off my shelves here in Mexicali.  It's about two young lovers, Marlon and Reina, from Colombia that journey to New York City in search of a better life.  I've read the novel now four times.  TWICE in English.  And, TWICE in Spanish.  I realize now the characters in the novel didn't do their research before they embarked on their trip.  They had no idea what they were getting into. My hope is for my students to avoid making the same mistake they did.  I've designed this assignment to give my students a better feeling for the novel. 

Each student will choose a famous New York City landmark, person, event, idea that will lead to a 2-3-page well-crafted informational essay.  The  essay must be TYPED in 12-point Times New Roman Font and follow MLA guidelines for a college paper.  Each essay must also include a properly formatted Works Cited Page. I will assist my classes step-by-step through this process, but to foster college readiness, much of this work will be done independently.  At the time I write this post, I've opened a book called New York Bucket List: Adventure Guide. From these pages, I'll provide a list of suggestions for my students to choose from: "Empire State Building"; "Strawberry Fields John Lennon Memorial"; "Harriet Tubman National Park"; "Alice in Wonderland Statue."  On Canvas, I  plan to provide a link to a slide show of famous New Yorkers.   

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  NOTE TO MY STUDENTS:  Choose a RESEARCHABLE topic that will provide you with enough  information to help you develop an INTERESTING essay to share with your classmates.
• To practice this assignment, I'm choosing the famed Chelsea Hotel.  This is where Sam Shepard and Patti Smith carried on a brief and torrid love relationship.  To me there is nobody more interesting than Sam and Patti.  (See Above.)  I proudly own several books written by them or written about them. 

Required Components of this Assignment:

• 2-3 Pages typed in MLA format
• Use of at least 3 legitimate sources (maximum is 5 sources)
• Use of specific evidence, properly cited to support your topic.
• A well-crafted essay that contains at least 6-8 paragraphs
• A properly formatted Work Cited page

Here is the FUN PART:   As a warm-up to the essay, students will address an old-school style postcard (300 words) to their classmates on Padlet and/or our classroom discussion board.

The "Back" of Jay's Practice Post Card:

Saludos from New York City: This picture is of two young lovers who are two of my literary heroes.  On the left, that’s playwright Sam Shepard dressed in a long-sleeved polo shirt with a strand of hair falling into his eyes.  On the right, that’s poet Patti Smith looping her arm around Sam’s shoulder.  I studied Sam’s works for my Masters thesis in English. Patti is famous for converting her poetry into song.  Very soon thereafter, she became the Godmother of Punk.  In 1971 they carried on a brief and torrid love affair at the Chelsea hotel.  For a few years, Smith rented a room with a balcony. That’s where this picture may have been taken. Neither of them are smiling, in the convential sense.  That doesn’t mean they are not happy.  But the photo clearly captures their attitude.  This is an exciting time for both of them.  The world is changing, and they are both making their contributions.  They don’t care what you think.  The Chelsea Hotel is where Sam and Patti wrote the play Cowboy Mouth.  It became 27 pages long and it  took them two days to finish.  This happens in Patti’s room  #1017, the smallest room in the hotel  One day, Sam comes up with the idea of writing the play together.  Patti tells him that she has never written anything like a play, but that doesn’t matter to Sam.  He pulls his portable typwriter onto the bed in between them and tells her it like this:  You start with a detailed description of the setting.  Pale blue walls.  A white metal bed.  A small sink and a mirror and chest of drawers.  That’s pretty much it.  Sam wanted his character to be called “Slim.”  A dude who looked and acted like a coyote.  He then pushed the typewriter towards Patti and told her it was now her turn to type.  Patti wanted to call her character Cavele, “a chick who looks like a crow.” In my English classes this semester, we are reading a novel called Paradise Travel.  It’s about two young lovers from Colombia who come to New York City to seek the same things Sam and Patti did. Their names are Marlon and Reina.  They are both dreamers.  They find themselves in the same type of beat-up room, but that’s OK.  All they want is the chance to be free. Paz, J. Lewenstein

I hope my students have as much fun as I did with this postcard idea.  Everyone should be able to come up with a great topic.  New York City is a BIG place.  That's the point. I can't wait to start the essay.