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The Tenement Museum is developing its sixth restored apartment, which will represent the experiences of an Irish immigrant family that lived in the tenement at 97 Orchard Street in 1869. After canvassing 97 Orchard’s Irish residents, Museum researchers decided to focus on the Moore family and the story of their first years in America.

Joseph Peter Moore came from Dublin to New York in 1865 at the age of 20. There he met and married Bridget Meehan, who was also born in Ireland and emigrated to New York in 1863 at the age of seventeen. Like many immigrants, Joseph and Bridget’s fortunes fluctuated drastically. Though Joseph found work as a bartender—a potentially influential job—the family experienced great hardship, losing many of their children to illness and disease. One of those children, Agnes Mary Moore, died of malnutrition before the age of five months. Agnes’s death certificate enabled the Museum to definitively place the Moore family at 97 Orchard Street.

In examining the experiences of the Moore family, the Tenement Museum will develop an exhibit that engages themes such as public health, immigrant access to health care, and immigrant political participation.

Desipina & Co. returns to the Tenement Theatre on April 1st with the third installment of their popular series, seven.11.2005: seven original 11-minute plays, all set in a convenience store. We sat down with Rehana Mirza and Rohi Mirza Pandya, the sisters behind Desipina, to talk about this year's production.

TM: Can you give me a preview of seven.11.2005?

Desipina: We've got 7 new stories, all different types of genres, styles, characters, comedies, dramas, suspense, but all set in a convenience store. We have a first time writer's 7-11 piece, "Color Me Desi," which explores what it means to be "desi," which is a slang term for being South Asian. We have a fun new musical, an adaptation of the Cinderella fairy tale, but with a major twist--and it's not just that the characters have been turned brown.

TM: How did you come up with the 7-11 concept?

Desipina: Our first show (Borders) was very serious. It dealt with the treatment of South Asians after September 11th. The South Asian community supported us so much during that show, we really wanted to give back to it, to develop artists individually as well as strengthen a community of artists within the South Asian diaspora. We wanted to do something fun, more upbeat, but we still wanted to do social change through theater.

TM: Why set the plays in a convenience store?

Desipina: Because of how much typecasting and stereotyping there is in the media of Asians and immigrants working in convenience stores. We wanted to play on that. To show that there are definitely more stories to be told.

seven.11.2005 opens at The Tenement Theatre on April 1st.

New York City’s first St. Patrick’s Day parade was organized in 1766 by an Irish military unit enlisted to serve in the American colonies.

Although participation remained minimal throughout the early 19th century, by the 1860s and 1870s the annual parade had become the most public expression of Irish identity in New York City. The March 17th celebration became even more visible during this period due to the rising power of Irish Tammany politicians and a renewed enthusiasm for Irish nationalism among both working-class and affluent Irish New Yorkers.

Despite the parade’s military origins, participants have included the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Irish county societies, and various Emerald, Irish-language, and Irish nationalist societies. Today, the tradition continues to enjoy a strong following, with over 150,000 marchers taking part every year.
-- Dave Favaloro | Research Assistant

Ninety-four years after the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, journalist David von Drehle's Triangle reminds us of the power of this tragedy. Von Drehle takes readers alongside the courageous immigrant workers who waged battle against the garment industry. Weaving the heroics of these ordinary workers with the personalities and political intrigue of turn of the century New York, Triangle hooks you from beginning to end.
-- Allison Bowles | Tenement Educator

Legislation declaring English the official language of Arizona cleared an important panel of the Arizona House of Representatives. The vote was six to three as to whether the issue should be included on the State’s 2006 ballot; it still needs to pass the full House and Senate.

The proposed resolution would prohibit the State, cities and counties from printing documents -- like water bills and driver’s license manuals-- in a foreign language. (Siskind's Immigration Bulletin, 2-23-05.)

"My niece and nephew, 14 and 12 years old, had never seen anything like the tenements.
Your tours have caused them to realize many things, and many more to come, I'm sure."

-- Rose S., Ft. Worth, Texas

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