Talking Accessibility with the MTA 02
Boost for Office-Seeking Moms 05
E. 50s Megatower OKed 10
A HAIRCUT WITH A SIDE OF HISTORY Photo by Tequila Minsky
Kristin Gornstein as Hansel lost in a “forest” of PS 129 students, in “Hansel and Gretel.”
Playground Prodigies at PS 129 BY TEQUILA MINSKY Opera education in primary schools? Sounds pretty ambitious, but not in the view of Odelphia Pierre, principal of PS 129 on West 130th St. in Harlem, who appreciates the arts. “They just love it,” she beamed thinking of the third and fourth graders’ embrace of the Playground Operas, a program that has been evolving in her school over the past four years. Pierre knows well that her students are exposed to rap and hip hop, and now they get to study plot and create props and are excited to sing alongside professionals in operas performed in their school’s playground. “They understand the caliber of the professionals they are singing with,” said the 27-year veteran educator in the city’s schools who has headed PS 129 for 18 years. “They want to read and understand the story, the characters, and the roles. It’s all part of the literacy element of the program.” The school’s music teacher, Krista Wozniak, an opera singer in her own right, is the soul of the Playground Operas. She’s been at PS 129 for 10 of her 16 years teaching music in schools. She is also the board president of Opera on Tap, which has companies in 21 cities PS 129 continued on p. 4
June 28 - July 11, 2018 | Vol. 04 No. 13
Photo by Dusica Sue Malesevic
Arthur Rubinoff’s NYC Barber Shop on Columbus Ave. near W. 74th St.
BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC Where can you find swords worthy of King Arthur, the red, white, and blue of barber poles whirling, and opulent chandeliers dripping with crystals? Easy, at the latest addition to the city’s cultural landscape: the NYC Barber Shop Museum. A blue, good-sized replica of Lady Liberty greets you near the museum’s door at 290 Columbus Ave., near W. 74th St. Billed as the first of its kind in the city, the museum is also a functioning barber shop — the fifth location for a chain called Reamir. Arthur Rubinoff, 43, is the man behind Reamir and the museum, and, for him, both are a family affair. “I created that name,” he told Manhattan Express during a recent visit to the museum. The word Reamir, he explained, was created from the first letters of his immediate family’s first names. “My father’s name is Rubin, my mom’s name is Esther, I’m Arthur, my wife’s name is Marina, my oldest son’s name is Isaac, and the youngest son’s name is Raffael,” he said. “In old Greek, the name
means newborn or peace and it just popped up in my mind.” Under the company’s logo, the shop’s signage states it was established in 1947 — a nod to when his father, the inspiration for the museum, was born. “He was a fifth child, our family was very poor so my grandfather after six months opened up a barber shop,” Rubinoff recalled. “He used to say to my father when he grew up that, ‘You were my lucky charm, when you came to this world, I opened up a barber shop.’” Around 1972, Rubinoff’s father went to Kiev — then part of the Soviet Union — to learn about new haircutting techniques, and then he “bought new style and wash, cut, and dry to Uzbekistan, city of Fergana,” Rubinoff said. Rubinoff was born in 1974, and eight months later his father opened up a men’s salon, he said, and he became his father’s lucky charm. “I consider myself a fourth-generation barber,” Rubinoff said. “My great-grandfather was working for somebody, and, again, this is in our blood. Even HAIRCUT continued on p. 4
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