Readings/ Videos

Unit 1 Beauty

“What is Beauty (8.1.1)” (5-10 min.)

“Capturing the Beauty of Everyday Life in the Bronx” (10-15 min.)

“A Darwinian theory of beauty” (15 min.)

Please note: If you cannot open “Capturing the Beauty of Everyday Life in the Bronx,” please sign up for a FREE New York Times subscription. Click on the “Resources” tab and go to “Library.”

Nehemas “Beauty and Judgement,” and Hostos CAP handout “What is Beauty?”

Unit 2 Urban Development and Planning

Ch. 3 “The Changing Landscape” in Evelyn Gonzalez’s The Bronx (45-60 minutes)

“Hostos Community College:  Battle of the Seventies” by Ramón J. Jiménez

“Save Hostos: Politics and Community Mobilization to Save a College in the Bronx–1973-1978″

Supplemental Materials on Hostos: Photo of Professor Gerald Meyer at City Hall, letter from

Professor Peter Roman to NY Governor Carey

The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro, Ch. 37 “One Mile”

Unit 3 Arts and Culture

KRS One’s “South Bronx,” (5 min. song), “The South Bronx:  Where Hip Hop Was Born” (5 min.), From Mambo to Hip Hop, Directed by Henry Chalfont (50 min.)

“The Story of Marvel’s First Queer Latina Superhero” (19 min.), “The Next Big Thing is Coming from the Bronx, Again” (19 min.), and “The Brown Bookshelf: United in Story–Day 22 Joshunda Sanders” (20 min.)

Unit 4 Environment and Health

“A Teacher Growing Green in the South Bronx” (19 min.), Majora Carter’s “Greening the Ghetto” (19 min.) “Majora Carter…Gets Called Out for Selling Out–Again”, and “About La Finca del la Sur”

The Bronx: Dying from Lack of Nutritious Foods | HuffPost Voices; How the Bronx is Fighting Food Insecurity During a Pandemic – NY City Lens; The South Bronx, Plagued by Obesity, Tops a Hunger Survey – The New York Times (nytimes.com) (Hostos students can get a free subscription to The New York Times)

‘Asthma alley’: why minorities bear burden of pollution inequity caused by white people | New York | The Guardian

“Gentrification and the South Bronx: Demographic and Socioeconomic Tran” by Lawrence Cappello (cuny.edu) (download the article)

Unit 5 Education and Activism

“How Students of Color Confront Imposter Syndrome”, The Nation “New York’s Separate and Unequal Schools”, The City “A Tale of Two Special Education Evaluation Systems”

South Bronx Battles Ch. 8 “The Bronx Was the Last Place”

Decade of Fire