One of the group’s main motivations behind the project is the difficulty of fostering awareness of an older generation in a neighborhood heavily populated by 20-somethings.
By Jillian Kumagai • September 28, 2012
On Thursday afternoon, Hani Shihada held a piece of gold chalk and filled in the blonde hair of Erin Broad on the sidewalk at the corner of 113th Street and Broadway. In the portrait, Broad has her arm around Dolores Saborida, an elderly woman who recently died. “We forget about them,” Shihada, a well-known New York City sidewalk artist, said. “It seems like young people don’t care for the old. They want something new. If it’s old, it’s expired. They forget the old people.” Despite that, he said, “There’s so much to learn from them. We’re nothing without them.” Shihada was commissioned for the portrait in preparation of Love an Elder Day, a neighborhood effort to turn the spotlight on seniors on Oct. 1. A series of special events for the elderly—capped off with a luncheon at Le Monde for 75 area seniors—were organized by Morningside Village, a local group whose programming caters to elderly residents in Morningside Heights by pairing them up with volunteers, including Broad, the sidewalk drawing subject. Although Morningside Village’s goal is to turn all eyes on the elderly, one of the group’s main motivations https://www.columbiaspectator.com/2012/09/28/love-elder-day-unites-morningside-heights-generations/behind the project is the difficulty of fostering awareness of an older generation in a neighborhood heavily populated by 20-somethings. Patricia Gatling, commissioner of the New York City Commission on Human Rights, noted that this makes older people “hidden individuals in our city.” “It’d be very nice if students were more aware,” Gatling said, “Students may not be paying attention, but elders are the ones sitting on benches and paying attention to them. They may know more about them than some of their peers do.” She added that simple gestures, like offering to hold someone’s shopping bags, “make a big difference.”
