Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas

by Rebecca Solnit, Joshua Jelly-Schapiro

Overview

Winner of the 2017 Brendan Gill Prize from the Municipal Arts Society of New York

"The maps themselves are things of beauty . . . A document of its time, of our time."
—Sadie Stein, New York Times
 
"One is invited to fathom the many New Yorks hidden from history’s eye."
—Maria Popova, Brain Pickings

Nonstop Metropolis, the culminating volume in a trilogy of atlases, conveys innumerable unbound experiences of New York City through twenty-six imaginative maps and informative essays. Bringing together the insights of dozens of experts—from linguists to music historians, ethnographers, urbanists, and environmental journalists—amplified by cartographers, artists, and photographers, it explores all five boroughs of New York City and parts of nearby New Jersey. We are invited to travel through Manhattan’s playgrounds, from polyglot Queens to many-faceted Brooklyn, and from the resilient Bronx to the mystical kung fu hip-hop mecca of Staten Island. The contributors to this exquisitely designed and gorgeously illustrated volume celebrate New York City’s unique vitality, its incubation of the avant-garde, and its literary history, but they also critique its racial and economic inequality, environmental impact, and erasure of its past. Nonstop Metropolis allows us to excavate New York’s buried layers, to scrutinize its political heft, and to discover the unexpected in one of the most iconic cities in the world. It is both a challenge and homage to how New Yorkers think of their city, and how the world sees this capital of capitalism, culture, immigration, and more.

Contributors: Sheerly Avni, Gaiutra Bahadur, Marshall Berman, Joe Boyd, Will Butler, Garnette Cadogan, Thomas J. Campanella, Daniel Aldana Cohen, Teju Cole, Joel Dinerstein, Paul La Farge, Francisco Goldman, Margo Jefferson, Lucy R. Lippard, Barry Lopez, Valeria Luiselli, Suketu Mehta, Emily Raboteau, Molly Roy, Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, Luc Sante, Heather Smith, Jonathan Tarleton, Astra Taylor, Alexandra T. Vazquez, Christina Zanfagna
Interviews with: Valerie Capers, Peter Coyote, Grandmaster Caz, Grand Wizzard Theodore, Melle Mel, RZA

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520285958
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	10/19/2016
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	232
Sales rank:	324,746
Product dimensions:	7.10(w) x 11.50(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Rebecca Solnit is a prolific writer, and the author of many books including Savage Dreams, Storming the Gates of Paradise, and the best-selling atlases Infinite City and Unfathomable City, all from UC Press. She received the Corlis Benefideo Award for Imaginative Cartography from the North American Cartographic Information Society for her work on the previous atlases.
 
Joshua Jelly-Schapiro is a geographer and writer whose work has appeared in The New York Review of Books, New York, Harper's, and the Believer, among many other publications. He is the author of Island People: The Caribbean and the World.  

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION
CENTERS AND EDGES

MAP 1. SINGING THE CITY: THE NEW YORK OF DREAMS
OUR CITY OF SONGS, BY JOSHUA JELLY-SCHAPIRO, GARNETTE CADOGAN, VALERIA LUISELLI, JOE BOYD, WILL BUTLER, MIRISSA NEFF, TEJU COLE, MARGO JEFFERSON, AND BARRY LOPEZ

MAP 2. CAPITAL OF CAPITAL: HOW NEW YORK HAPPENED
THE BEST CITY MONEY CAN BUY, BY JOSHUA JELLY-SCHAPIRO

MAP 3. CRASH: CRISES AND COLLISIONS IN 21ST-CENTURY LOWER MANHATTAN
FALLING AND RISING IN LOWER MANHATTAN, BY ASTRA TAYLOR

MAP 4. RIOT! PERIODIC ERUPTIONS IN VOLCANIC NEW YORK
THE VIOLENCE OF INEQUALITY, BY LUC SANTE

MAP 5. CARBONIFEROUS: CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE CITY
PETRO GOTHAM, PEOPLE’S GOTHAM, BY DANIEL ALDANA COHEN

MAP 6. WATER AND POWER: THE REACH OF THE CITY
THIRSTS AND GHOSTS, BY HEATHER SMITH

MAP 7. HARPER’S AND HARPOONERS: WHALING AND PUBLISHING IN MELVILLE’S MANHATTAN
SAILORS AND SCRIVENERS, BY PAUL LA FARGE

MAP 8. WHAT IS A JEW? FROM EMMA GOLDMAN TO GOLDMAN SACHS
MY YIDDISHE PAPA, BY SHEERLY AVNI
THE LOST WORLD OF JEWISH FLATBUSH, BY JOEL DINERSTEIN

MAP 9. ARCHIPELAGO: THE CARIBBEAN’S FAR NORTH
OF ISLANDS AND OTHER MOTHERS, BY GAIUTRA BAHADUR

MAP 10. CITY OF WOMEN
THE POWER OF NAMES, BY REBECCA SOLNIT

MAP 11. LOVE AND RAGE

MAP 12. CITY OF WALKERS: AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAY
ROUND AND ROUND, BY GARNETTE CADOGAN

MAP 13. WILDLIFE
THE OYSTERS IN THE SPIRE, BY REBECCA SOLNIT

MAP 14. OUR LATIN THING: NEW YORK CITY RADIO EN ESPANOL
THE MEGA MEZCLAPOLIS, BY ALEXANDRA T. VAZQUEZ

MAP 15. BURNING DOWN AND RISING UP: THE BRONX IN THE 1970S
NEW YORK CITY: SEEING THROUGH THE RUINS, BY MARSHALL BERMAN
INTERVIEWS WITH VALERIE CAPERS, GRANDMASTER CAZ, GRANDWIZZARD THEODORE,AND MELLE MEL

MAP 16. MAKERS AND BREAKERS: OLMSTED, MOSES, JACOBS SHAPE THE CITY
WAYS AND MEANS, BY JONATHAN TARLETON

MAP 17. TRASH IN THE CITY: DUMPING ON STATEN ISLAND AND BEYOND
COMING CLEAN, BY LUCY R. LIPPARD

MAP 18. MYSTERIOUS LAND OF SHAOLIN: THE WU-TANG CLAN’S STATEN ISLAND
BREATHING SPACE: AN INTERVIEW WITH RZA, BY JOSHUA JELLY-SCHAPIRO

MAP 19. BROWNSTONES AND BASKETBALL: BROOKLYN’S HOME GROUNDS AND GAMES
EMPIRE OF BROWNSTONE AND BRICK, BY THOMAS J. CAMPANELLA
PRISONERS OF RED HOOK, BY FRANCISCO GOLDMAN

MAP 20. BROOKLYN VILLAGES
FREED BUT NOT FREE, BY SHARIFA RHODES-PITTS

MAP 21. PUBLIC/PRIVATE: A MAP OF CHILDHOODS
PLAYGROUNDS I HAVE KNOWN, BY EMILY RABOTEAU

MAP 22. THE SUBURBAN THEORY OF THE AVANT-GARDE: NEW JERSEY’S GREATS
NORTH STARS AND GOSPEL BATTLES: PETER COYOTE’S JERSEY MEMORIES

MAP 23. PLANTING LIBERTY: 350 YEARS OF FREEDOM IN FLUSHING
“LAW OF LOVE, PEACE AND LIBERTIE,” BY GARNETTE CADOGAN

MAP 24. MOTHER TONGUES AND QUEENS: THE WORLD’S LANGUAGES CAPITAL
TOWER OF SCRABBLE, BY SUKETU MEHTA

MAP 25. BLACK STAR LINES: HARLEM SECULAR AND SACRED
HOME TO HARLEM, BY CHRISTINA ZANFAGNA

MAP 26. OSCILLATING CITY: MANHATTAN, DAY AND NIGHT
SCHLEPTROPOLIS, BY THOMAS J. CAMPANELLA

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

CONTRIBUTORS
 

Editorial Reviews

…the final volume in an ambitious and imaginative trilogy of city atlase…[Nonstop Metropolis] intersperses 26 beautifully rendered maps with essays that attempt to grapple with New York as it is, was and imagines itself to be. This is an impossible task, of course. But it's exciting to watch smart people attempt the impossible. The editors have assembled a remarkable team of artists, geographers and thinkers…The maps themselves are things of beauty…The atlas's principal artist, Alison Pebworth, has overseen the creation of an extraordinary series of documents that demand an unapologetic level of attention and engagement…To say that the editors have a point of view is to understate the case. Indeed, what they've embarked on can only be called an act of radical curation. Solnit, an accomplished and influential thinker, tackles her subject with characteristic frankness and pugnacity.

The New York Times Book Review - Sadie Stein

"Told through a series of innovative and interesting maps, atlases, and insightful characters, this book shows the layers of the city as detailed by various photographers, cartographers, and locals over the years."

Architect's Newspaper

All will come away from this New York City volume with newfound love for the beguiling, legendary, volatile town. . . . An engaging and enlightening read for anyone who loves New York City, creative scholarship, and top-notch graphic design.

Foreword Reviews

"Rebecca Solnit and Joshua Jelly-Schapiro's collection achieves the trifold purpose that all good cartography does—it's beautiful, it inspires real thought about civic planning, and, most of all, it's functional."

Village Voice

"Nonstop Metropolis . . . contains many beautiful and not-so-beautiful images that document New York’s past and the present, and make tangible the social and cultural diversity of this extraordinary place." 
 

Times Literary Supplement

"The editors have assembled a remarkable team of artists, geographers and thinkers . . . and the maps themselves are things of beauty. . . . This is a work that, like its predecessors, isn’t in the business of rosy nostalgia. . . . Nonstop Metropolis is a document of its time, of our time." 

New York Times - Sadie Stein

"In orienting oneself in this atlas . . . one is invited to fathom the many New Yorks hidden from history’s eye. . . . Thoroughly terrific."

Brain Pickings - Maria Popova

A "20 Big Indie Books of 2016" selection

From the Publisher

"...the New York installment [of the Atlas Trilogy] is eccentric and inspiring, a nimble work of social history told through colorful maps and corresponding essays. Together, Solnit, Jelly-Schapiro and a host of contributors — writers, artists, cartographers and data-crunchers — have come up with dozens of exciting new ways to think about the five boroughs." 

San Francisco Chronicle

"The editors have assembled a remarkable team of artists, geographers and thinkers...The maps themselves are things of beauty...This is a work that, like its predecessors, isn’t in the business of rosy nostalgia...Nonstop Metropolis is a document of its time, of our time." - Sadie Stein

New York Times

"26 maps of New York that prioritize bachata over Broadway, pho over pizza."
 

Wired.com

"The sum of it all is, like New York itself, overwhelming, alluring and dazzlingly diverse."

Jewish Daily Forward

"Impressionistic, a gallimaufry of takes on neighborhoods and topics. . . .The writing and the maps are what “place” is about: desire, fear, landmark, memory, imagination, a state of mind, sometimes melting into thin air—but still right there under your feet."

Christian Science Monitor

"The New York installment [of the Atlas Trilogy] is eccentric and inspiring, a nimble work of social history told through colorful maps and corresponding essays. Together, Solnit, Jelly-Schapiro and a host of contributors—writers, artists, cartographers and data-crunchers—have come up with dozens of exciting new ways to think about the five boroughs." 

San Francisco Chronicle

"Rebecca Solnit and Joshua Jelly-Schapiro's collection achieves the trifold purpose that all good cartography does — it's beautiful, it inspires real thought about civic planning, and, most of all, it's functional."

The Village Voice

Winner of The Municipal Art Society of New York's 2017 Brendan Gill Prize

The Municipal Art Society of New York