New York’s 92nd Street Y turns 150

THE 92ND STREET YYNYNY is a temple of culture that has hosted some of the greatest creative minds of the 20th and 21st centuries. Truman Capote first publicly discussed his novel “In Cold Blood” there, and unveiled “Breakfast of Champions” before even his wife had read it. Yo-Yo Ma, a cellist, performed at the venue as a teenager. Literary greats , James Baldwin, and Dylan Thomas have stridden across the stage. Others have pirouetted: and Alvin Ailey, modern-dance choreographers, put on performances.The 92nd Street (which rebranded itself 92 in 2022) is celebrating its 150th birthday in the style you might expect: with a year of talks, workshops and other events. Jewish business and civic leaders founded it on March 22nd 1874 as the Young Men’s Hebrew Association, with the goal of helping Jewish immigrants arriving from eastern Europe. When Emma Lazarus wrote “The New Colossus” in 1883—which contained the line “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses”, still etched on the Statue of Liberty—she was teaching English to recently arrived Russian Jewish immigrants at the 92.