On April 15, visitors gathered around under the last blossom of cherry trees to see the new outdoor sculpture piece of Lewis H. Latimer House, Light Spectrum, created by Queens-based artist Antonia A Perez. NY1 reporter captured the view of Light Spectrum before the event in this video:

“A Flushing museum brings in a new sculpture to encourage people to learn about an unsung pioneer of electricity.

Light Spectrum is now on display at the Lewis H Latimer House Museum on 137th Street.

Latimer helped invent part of the incandescent light bulb.

The sculpture is made of lamp shades covered in crocheted plastic and is meant to show how light works.

“Light is the way I see color, the way we all see color. It’s very important. Color is one of the most crucial elements in all of my work and I really value Latimer as an inventor, making the light bulb possible,” said Antonia A. Perez, Artist, Light Spectrum.

“Through art, people can get to know the idea of light, cultural activities here and then get to know Lewis Latimer,” said Ran Yan, Program Director, Lewis H. Latimer House Museum.

There will also be a poetry workshop in May and a crochet workshop in June at the museum.

Light Spectrum will be on display through August sixth.”

The Light Spectrum and associated programs are made possible in part by the Queens Council on the Arts with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and by the historic house Trust’s Contemporary Art Partnerships program, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York Community Trust. This sculpture is part of NYC Parks’ Art in the Parks program.

The participants of the Electronic Musical Instrument project at The Lewis H. Latimer House Museum have completed their musical instruments!

We hope to see you all at our next session starting March 26 2017: Biologically Inspired Robots!!!

Karioki Crosby
LatimerNOW Tinker Lab Educator

8-Week Immersive Class: (best for children 7-13 years old)

1:30pm – 4:30pm on each Sunday

March 26 – May 14

The Tinker Lab class in Biologically-Inspired Robot has been expanded to 8 weeks, building on the foundation of past classes. Students will be able to enjoy a comprehensive experience in programming and design using several different software. To keep the tinkering fun affordable, the new class is set at the same hourly price with the 5-week class in 2016.

Access online registration here.

Download the syllabus for Biologically Inspired Robot.

Video: Our #STEAM #educator Karioki playing with #electronic #guitar and #drum made in #TinkerLab.

8-Week Immersive Class: 1:30pm – 4:30pm on each Sunday, January 22 – May 12 (best for children 7-13 years old.)

The Tinker Lab class in Electronic Instrument has been expanded to 8 weeks, building on the foundation of past classes in Bio Bot. Students will be able to enjoy a comprehensive experience in programming and design using several different software. To keep the tinkering fun affordable, the new class is set at the same hourly price with the 5-week class in 2016.

Access online registration here.

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Tinker Lab: Electronic Instrument Class

– Learning Targets & Common Core Standards

S.T.E.A.M.

Eight-week project-based session exploring electricity, circuitry and programming using a micro- controller called the Funkey Funkey. In addition to many activities participants will work in groups to create a set of instruments that will be played during our culminating event.

★SKETCH IT! PLAY IT!

Participants will sketch instruments with pencil and paper, program their artwork to a jam session with sound, and get ready to rock out!

Technology: Sound Plant, Scratch, Funkey Funkey, Circuit Boards

Common Core: Students will actively engage in the processes that constitute creation and performance in the arts (dance, music, theatre, and visual arts) and participate in various roles in the arts.

★CREATE A MUSICAL ROOM!

Participants will create a room that they will play like an instrument!

Technology: Sound Plant, Scratch, Funky Funky, Circuit Boards

Common Core: Students will actively engage in the processes that constitute creation and performance in the arts (dance, music, theatre, and visual arts) and participate in various roles in the arts.

★THE JOURNEY!

Participants will design a challenging adventure and play two worlds full of obstacles and dangers! Just Remember to stay on the path…

Technology: Sound Plant, Scratch, Funkey Funkey, Circuit Boards

Common Core: Students will actively engage in the processes that constitute creation and performance in the arts (dance, music, theatre, and visual arts) and participate in various roles in the arts.

★MAGNETIC MAZES!

Create your own squishy circuit labyrinth and navigate it using magnets under a table for a time score.

Technology: Sound Plant, Scratch, Funkey Funkey, Circuit Boards

Common Core: Students will actively engage in the processes that constitute creation and performance in the arts (dance, music, theatre, and visual arts) and participate in various roles in the arts.

★JARLAR KEYS

A fun DIY way of turning recycling materials into a creative musical project using empty jars filled with water and a Funkey Funkey.

Technology: Sound Plant, Scratch, Funkey Funkey, Circuit Boards

Common Core: Students will actively engage in the processes that constitute creation and performance in the arts (dance, music, theatre, and visual arts) and participate in various roles in the arts.

★BEAT BALLS!

An experiment that uses juggling and sound.

Technology: Sound Plant, Scratch, Funkey Funkey, Circuit Boards

Common Core: Students will actively engage in the processes that constitute creation and performance in the arts (dance, music, theatre, and visual arts) and participate in various roles in the arts.

★INTERACTIVE ZINE

Make a zine that triggers soundscapes and animations programmed in scratch.

Technology: Sound Plant, Scratch, Funky Funkey, Circuit Boards

Common Core: Students will actively engage in the processes that constitute creation and performance in the arts (dance, music, theatre, and visual arts) and participate in various roles in the arts.

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*Download the Electronic Instrument class’ Learning Targets here.

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On the Friday evening of November 4th 2016, we had a special reading in the house by an Artist Peer Circle of the Queens Council on the Arts. Four writers based in Queens―and with roots in China, Croatia, Kosovo, South Africa, Taiwan, and other parts of the Americas―find, lose, and make their way home through fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

Readers: Artrit Bytyci, Malcolm Chang, Catherine Kapphahn, and Doreen Wang.
Facilitator: Tim Fredrick.

Facilitator Tim Fredrick starts the night.

Audience listening in the front parlors.

Queens Writers on the Complexities of Making Home, 11/04/2016

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Our favorite moments of the night include Doreen Wang explaining the two kinds of home — the one you were born into and the one you create by building your own family, Artrit Bytyci telling the story of his grandma being dislocated from her home because of the political turmoil in the communist countries and breaking the mental borders, Catherine Kapphahn’s journey of collecting and putting together pieces of her mom through continuous “guessing, imagining, and searching,” and lastly, how Malcolm Chang faced and combated racial disparity and white supremacy as a Chinese diaspora in South Africa.

We also just simply loved having a group of diverse writers and audience in the historic home of Lewis H. Latimer in Flushing, Queens, echoing his personal path of defining a humane home against all odds.

Doreen Wang in the parlor.

Artrit Bytyci speaking.

Catherine Kapphahn sharing her story.

Malcolm Chang interacting with the audience.

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To read the writers’ biographies, please visit the event page of Queens Council on the Arts or the LatimerNOW Instagram account.

Continue reading →

Good news! We won the Best in Class at the 2016 Maker Faire at the New York Hall of Science from October 1 to October 2. Thank you all for joining us. We hope to see you again next year!

Educator Karioki Crosby talking to kids.

Karioki in vintage Latimer T-shirt with volunteer Make.

Kids engaged at the Latimer House table.

Participants signing the LatimerNOW banner.

Interacting with audience.

Left to right: Educator Karioki, Deputy Director Ran, Volunteer Make, with the Best in Class award.

Maker Faire “Best in Class” award!

On October 9, we held our own Tinkering Lab Open House at the Lewis H. Latimer House Museum. With a full house of participants, the Tinkering Lab demonstrated to the parents and children what fun they can enjoy while learning science and arts in the museum.

The fall class is almost full with a month left before starting. If you’d like to sign up, please go to our online application before space runs out.

Volunteer Emily giving Mandarin tours to visitors.

Youth volunteer Shiying with visitors.

Starting the 1st Session at Tinkering Lab.

Volunteer Shiying demonstrating hand puppy.

Participants having a family moment.

Little participants drawing inspiration from nature walk.

Participants sharing their hand puppies with each other.

Tinkering Lab educator Karioki wrapping up the open house session.

The 2016 Fall Tinkering Lab Class Syllabus is available to download below:

LatimerNOW2016TinkeringLab-Syllabus

We are continuing the explorational education here at the Tinkering Lab through the fall with Sunday programs in science and art!

Tinkering Lab 2016 Fall classes are held from Nov. 6 to Dec. 4 on Sundays, from 1:30pm to 4:30pm, for $150.

Class size is limited to 10-12 children, open to children about 6-12 years old.

Class will teach children the basic mechanics of robots, to design and build biologically inspired robots, and to combine the use of scientific principles and artistic rules.

Learning Targets:

• I can use the Engineering and Design Cycle to inform the way I plan and create my projects.
• I can identify basic mechanisms in everyday objects
• I can develop questions that help me design an objects purpose and function.
• I can understand different types of forces and the directions in which they occur in a basic mechanism.
• I can think through a motion both visually and spatially and hypothesize how it might occur.
• I can design a mechanism that mimics movement in a plant or animal.
• I can identify behavioral and physical characteristics of an animal and model them using robotics.
• I can connect external devices (input output) to a micro-controller.
• I can develop a computer program that controls the external devises and mimics an animal’s behavior.

For registration information, please visit our online system.

You can also register by walking in or calling in during our opening hours: 12pm-5pm, Wed. Fri. Sun.

Tinkering Lab Open House will be held on Sunday Oct. 9, 1pm-5pm. You can view our September event and Tinkering Lab 2016 Summer Camp wrap-up here.

2016秋季拉提莫博物馆举办科技创意课程的时间为11月6日至12月4日，每周日下午1:30至4:30，面向6-12岁儿童，班级学生人数不多于12人。确认报名后恕不退还学费。如博物馆因人数不足取消课程，将退还全部费用。报名详情请访问网上系统。您也可以在博物馆开放时间(星期三、五、日，12点至5点)电话或现场报名。

拉提莫博物馆将于10月9日星期日下午1点至5点举办科技创意教室免费开放日，欢迎参与。9月活动信息及2016夏令营回顾请点击此处。

Traveling The Twisting Troubling Tanglelows Trail

Arrives at LatimerNow!

Flushing, NY Sunday September 25^th, author GREG MCGOON will enchant children and parents alike with a live reading & book signing of his rhythmic, lushly illustrated, lyrical tale of The Tanglelows at the Lewis H. Latimer House from 3pm to 5pm at 34-41 137^th St. Flushing, NY 11354. The Tanglelows are a visual representation of our interior lives. This tale for all ages is written in a poetic, spoken word style that invites one to reflect on one’s complex emotions in a Seuss inspired, whimsical way.

As we approach school re-opening in a few weeks, many first timers will know what social anxiety feels like…whether it’s kindergarten, middle, freshman year or whatever the “new normal” may be for an adult facing new challenges or circumstances.

This premiere book featuring The Tanglelows, the first installment in a series, teaches children how to navigate their feelings and encourages abstract thought, while giving families a tool for voicing their emotions. The Tanglelows, illustrated by Jessa Orr, has already been hailed as “a great family read” which “stimulates rich discussion” by Dr. Mary Baker-Ericzén of the Child and Adolescent Services Research Center, who also called it “a useful tool for psychologists to use in treatment.”

GREG McGOON is an author and stage actor with a degree in psychology from the University of San Diego. He attended the Claremont School of Theatre Arts as a child and was later an instructor with the program. Greg is the Founder and Executive Director of Artcentricity Inc., a non-profit children’s creative arts experience focused on child development. His books explore children’s feelings about themselves and the world around them. He is a performer with the National Drama Troupe in Ghana and leads workshops with the California State Thespian Festival. www.GregMcGoon.com

PELEKINESIS is an independent book publishing company focusing on the development of literary-minded authors and artists by embracing the evolving publishing paradigm and creatively supporting the skills of talented writers. www.Pelekenis.com Get your copy of The Tanglelows here: http://amzn.to/2aSAh6M

1 pm,  August 14, 2016

Lewis H. Latimer House Museum

34-41 137^th St. Flushing, NY 11354

Join us for an afternoon of reading, discussion, and book signing with Marita Berry in the parlor of Lewis H. Latimer House Museum.  Refreshments will be served.

THE NOVEL, RED SEPTEMBER IS A COMING-OF-AGE STORY THAT REVEALS THE EXPERIENCES OF A YOUNG LADY GROWING UP ON AN ISLAND IN THE CARIBBEAN.

NEW YORK CITY, NY., AUGUST 14, 2016:  Author, Marita Berry pulls back the curtain on a coming-of-age novel set on a small, fictional, Caribbean island named Taino, in the West Indies. This story speaks of Constance (Connie) Brown who has known only the rhythms of life on her small island – but her life is far from a holiday in paradise. As the 1950s dawn, Connie blooms into a beautiful and intelligent young woman. After the death of their father, Connie and her three younger siblings fight to survive in a home ruled by their abusive, alcoholic mother. As the eldest, Connie is left with little choice but to care for the little ones, and that doesn’t leave much time for her own dreams. Until she meets Nathaniel (Nathan) Hart, a charismatic twenty-one-year-old from New York. Nathan is visiting the island on family business, but the sight of Connie inspires him to shift priorities. For Connie, life is filled with hard choices too: Will she dare to hold a dream just for herself and follow her heart? Or bow to the burdens of caring for her family?  Find out in Red September.

“RED SEPTEMBER” is a story that is truly heartwarming and many readers will understand and recognize that love found, love lost, and love found again through much pain and misunderstanding is a universal phenomenon.

– Grace F. Edwards, author of In the Shadow of the Peacock, If I Should Die, A Toast Before Dying, No Time To Die, Do Or Die, The Viaduct, and The Blind Alley.

Red September is a novel that travels between the warm and enchanting tropical isle of Taino in the Caribbean and the cold, harsh reality of New York City. In has a woven love story that captures the immigrant experience in a new country while invoking nostalgia for the age of innocence that we all cherish in times that will never return.

– Kenneth Puddicombe, author of RACING WITH THE RAIN and JUNTA available on Amazon and Smashwords.

Connect with the author on her Website, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

The book Red September can be purchased at:
http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/
http://www.amazon.com/
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/
http://www.amazon.com/kindle