You're Invited To Roosevelt Island Nellie Bly Memorial Town Hall Meeting December 3 - FYI, Roosevelt Island Designated Historic Site In Journalism With Plaque At RIHS Visitors Center Kiosk

The Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) will be hosting a community Town Hall meeting tomorrow evening, December 3, starting 6 PM at Good Shepherd Community Center (543 Main Street) to discuss the details of the planned Nellie Bly Memorial with artist Amanda Matthews.

Image From RIOC

As reported last October 16:

... The Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) has selected Amanda Matthews/Prometheus Art to construct the Nellie Bly Monument on the northern end of Roosevelt Island at Lighthouse Park. The sculptural installation will be known as “The Girl Puzzle” and invites the viewer to experience many facets of Nellie Bly’s talent, conviction and compassion. The ground-breaking journalist and women’s rights advocate exposed the horrors of the Blackwell Island Insane Asylum in 1887 on Roosevelt Island.

“I am proud of the selection committee’s dedication to choosing such a passionate artist to honor the accomplishments of a woman who was truly ahead of her time,” said Susan Rosenthal, President and CEO of RIOC. “The committee, made up of RIOC employees and community leaders, unanimously selected this bold installation that will not only represent Nellie Bly’s time here, but her impact on the world.”

The installation will allow the viewer to enter a long walkway where they will encounter four, seven-foot-tall female faces, representing different ages and ethnicities, cast in bronze. A fifth face at the far end of the walkway will represent Nellie Bly. Each face will show the depth of emotion and the complexity of being broken and repaired, which was significant to the conditions Ms. Bly encountered when she posed as a mental patient to report on the conditions inside the mental hospital where the Octagon now stands. Construction of the installation is scheduled to be completed in the Summer 2020.

“It is my great honor to represent Nellie Bly’s life and legacy,” said artist Amanda Matthews, “and to celebrate her passion for diversity and inclusion. Her voice remains timely and significant today.”...

Did you know that due to the work of Nellie Bly and Charles Dickens, Roosevelt Island has been designated as a Historic Site In Journalism by The Society of Professional Journalism  (SPJ)with a memorial plaque located at the Roosevelt Island Historical Society (RIHS) Visitors Center Kiosk? According to an August 8, 2017 SPJ release:

... Judith Berdy, historical society president; Rebecca Baker, SPJ president-elect; and Andrew Seaman, SPJ Ethics Committee chair, will discuss the historical significance of the site during the dedication at 1 p.m. EDT Sunday (Aug. 13) at the Roosevelt Island Historical Society’s Visitor Center kiosk.

"All of New York City obviously has a romantic history with journalism, but no other place has captured my attention more than Roosevelt Island.” Seaman said. “Each time I visit, I can't help but think of Nellie Bly's journey to the 'madhouse' and her contributions to the profession. I'm so happy that the Society of Professional Journalists decided to recognize Roosevelt Island with this honor."

The Octagon, which is located on the north end of the island, is an ornate stone building built in 1841 to house psychiatric patients in its two L-shaped wings. Patients brought to the island by boat were separated from the rest of society in what Charles Dickens referred to as a “lounging, listless, madhouse air.”...

... Since 1942, SPJ has honored the people and places that have played important roles in the history of journalism through the Historic Sites program. Some honorees include: Freedom’s Journal, the first Black newspaper published in the United States, and The Wheeling Intelligencer, the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in West Virginia.

See a complete list of past winners – and the 2017 winner -- here.

Here's the August 13, 2017 dedication and plaque unveiling



of Roosevelt Island as a Historic Site in Journalism by the SPJ at the RIHS Visitors Center Kiosk