Building Bridges Between the Cultures. The Center of Cultures, New York, is a nonprofit 501(3)c organization founded in 1996 focusing on:

• Promoting a true dialogue among the cultures
• Denouncing and struggling against all forms of racism and discrimination.
• Advancing the ideals and values of New Humanism.
  
  

Description:
The Center has taken on the task of of coordinating the New York Coalition to Expand Voting Rights. A coalition of more than 70 organizations has as its objective to pass legislation which gives the right to vote to Non-Citizen legal residents in New York City. This legislation is crucial for our democracy and the future of our city. To see this proposition become a reality we need the help, support and engagement of each district of the City

History:
In 1996, following the example from Milan, members of the Humanist Movement launched the Center of Cultures in New York City. We began with a multi-language quarterly magazine called DiverseCity, and the motto “Building Bridges Between the Cultures.” At the same time, we began weekly cultural gatherings in a Humanist Neighborhood Center in Manhattan's Upper West Side (UWS).

These initial projects produced contacts who were interested in connecting their own cultural communities to others through our ambit. This first layer of activity was very social; cultural nights and potluck dinners were the entrance, and our approach was framed by the concept of the Universal Human Nation.

In 1998, we added another layer to our project: working with the immediate needs of the immigrants. We sponsored weekly seminars, given by lawyers and social workers, on immigration and housing rights, jobs, healthcare, and citizenship. These seminars were held with the intention of rooting ourselves in Jackson Heights, a dynamic neighborhood in central Queens that serves as a sort of port-of-entry for many South Asian, Mexican, Colombian, and Ecuadorian immigrants coming to New York. We formed many contacts with the local ethnic press through these seminars. At the same time, we continued to use the social-cultural form to connect with ethnic communities, sponsoring Mexican, Indian, and Korean “Cultural Nights” and an International Multicultural Feast in November.

In March 1999, we organized a community social services fair with 30 organizations and more than 300 participants. This helped us to coordinate and augment our contacts with local press and community organizations. On May 15 we held a public “Diversity Day” under the Unisphere at the site of the 1964 World's Fair, and received national (Spanish) television coverage. We used both of these events to increase our rooted activities in Queens, creating new groups in Elmhurst and Sunnyside.

In the June of 1999, we launched DiverseCity, a monthly multi-language newspaper co-produced by the different neighborhood teams. The newspaper focused on issues of concern to immigrants (health, employment, housing and legal issues), and gave the opportunity for people from diverse cultures to express themselves around a “theme of the month” (e.g., gender roles, politics, myths and legends). The newspaper enabled us to move at both a neighborhood and a city-wide level, and its unique multilingual character gained us attention in the press and with organizations). At the same time, a campaign to support political asylees at an INS detention center also resulted in strong contacts with immigrants-rights organizations.

In September 1999, we launched the first Multicultural English Conversation Club (MECC) in Sunnyside, with other clubs starting the following year in Jackson Heights, Elmhurst and UWS Manhattan. The clubs gave us a weekly activity that met the needs of a large, diverse population, and served as a portal to our other activities. At one point, we had 300 people going to English and Spanish clubs weekly. In 2001, the group in Manhattan began to incorporate a 4-week cycle into its MECC, giving members weekly “projects” to carry out together between sessions. Our main challenge was for the students to become reciprocal.
In 2000, Salvatore Puledda gave a presentation at Hunter College, which we used to strengthen our academic/institutional contacts and diffuse our point-of-view on the subject of diversity and globalization. To develop more profundity with hard-to-reach cultures and to identify possible contacts in other countries, we began “Puente Cultural Latinoamericano” and “Asian Connections,” projects that sought to identify common needs and aspirations among people from the same region. We also returned to work in UWS Manhattan.

In 2000, we began experimenting with several new forms. We started a reciprocal computer-training project, a public-access TV program, a weekly radio program, and a non-violence campaign in the Colombian community. In February 2001, the non-violence campaign matured into a political coalition promoting temporary protected status for Colombian refugees. Our work with video led to the development of an annual outdoor Video Festival in Sunnyside that summer.

We started the Humanist Computer Classes in June 2001, using our experience from the English Clubs, our missions to Mozambique and Bangladesh, and the Reciprocity Computer Project. We set clear steps for the students, invited them to attend a weekly meeting, and asked them to reciprocate as teacher's helpers after their 4-week cycle was over. We also opened our first neighborhood center, in Jackson Heights. The center allowed for our numerous projects and activities - conversation club, newspaper, non-violence/human rights campaigns, cultural nights, computer classes -- to occur simultaneously and in a more integrated manner.

These experiences, and the interest of developing a project with the integrated circuit, led to the launching of the Humanist Education Project in February 2003. The HEP proposes a model of easily replicated 4-week classes, after which students are invited to join the structure and help develop additional classes in the same or in new subjects.

Contact person: David Andersson, Project Director, (917) 378-8758, (email)

Address:

76-11 37th Avenue Jackson Heights, NY 11372 (See a map)

Directions:

Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: 74th St./Roosevelt Ave.,   Walk distance (in minutes): 5   Nearest Bus Stop: Q32 74th St., 5 minute walk