Walking Off the Big Apple

Weddings. Photo from 2011, when same-sex weddings were legalized in New York State.  New York's Pride March begins at noon at 36th St. & Fifth Ave. and will end at Christopher & Greenwich Streets. With this week's Supreme Court decision upholding same-sex marriage across the union, marchers can truly celebrate a landmark moment in American history.

This summer, a walk along the oval paths in Madison Square Park takes on an extra dimension in mood and light. Overhead, reflective golden canopies affixed on scaffolding swirl in circular leafy shapes, mirroring the leaves of nearby trees. The artwork is by Teresita Fernández (b. 1968), a 2005 MacArthur Fellow and Brooklyn-based artist known for landscape sculpture. The work is said to be the largest installation in the history of the park, a big claim as the program Mad. Sq. Art has hosted many ambitious exhibitions by well-known artists, especially in recent years. Each overhead piece is constructed as parallel raggedy cutouts, like ice cream sandwiches, and layered. The sunshine spills down through the openings and dapples the walkways and passersby. In turn, the patterned light reflects back up on the mirrored canopies, creating endless and varying conversations among the trees, ourselves, the sun, and the sidewalk. While the dappled sunshine is cool and welcoming, the

Imagine a formal sit-down dinner during the colonial era in the dining parlor of a mansion. The mansion and its gardens sit high on a hill with long and deep views of rivers and a harbor. Inside, the host and his company conduct the busy work of a new government, promoting the economy and transforming fellow soldiers into enterprising citizens for peacetime. At the periphery of the table, servants and domestics attend to the guests' needs in hushed silences, disappearing when needed into the mansion's dark stairways and basements. Many were slaves. exterior, Morris-Jumel Mansion.