NEW YORK – City Lore, New York City’s oldest organization devoted to the preservation of urban folk culture, honored seven of New York’s under-the-radar cultural icons today in their 11th annual People’s Hall of Fame ceremony.
The event was held at the Museum of the City of New York and included speeches by and about the honorees, as well as food from various cultures and a bhangra dance lesson in honor of one of the recipients, Rekha Malhotra.
Malhotra, aka “DJ Rekha,” has been hosting a monthly New York City dance party, “Basement Bhangra,” for the past ten years, where attendees dance to music which is a fusion of traditional South Asian melodies, Jamaican rhythms, and hip-hop beats.
“As an Urban Studies major from Queens College, this is the highest honor I could receive,” said Malhotra who is a Flushing, Queens native.
Another native New Yorker being honored was Gerald Menditto, otherwise known as “Mr. Cyclone.” Born and raised in Brooklyn’s Coney Island, Menditto has been the manager of the historic Cyclone roller-coaster for over 30 years.
A self-proclaimed “carney kid,” Menditto began working in Astroland as an electrician in the mid 1970’s and now oversees a crew that operates, inspects, and maintains the 82-year-old landmark.
Menditto’s daughters, Andrea and Nicole, are extremely proud of their father and proud to be from Coney Island, where they say people have a different sense of humor than anywhere else. Although they have both relocated - Andrea to Staten Island and Nicole to New Jersey - they both feel strong ties to the historic theme park.
“No matter where you go, you’ll always meet someone that’s like ‘oh my god, you’re from Coney Island? Your dad runs the Cyclone?’” Nicole said. “I feel that my father’s a famous person.”
Menditto is certainly famous today. Apart from his family members, many people from the Coney Island community have come to see him receive the giant bronze subway token which City Lore calls a ‘token of appreciation.’
Tricia Vita, the Administrative Director of the Coney Island History Project, works directly beneath the Cyclone. She travelled all the way up to 103rd Street and 5th Avenue from Greenwich Village today to watch one of the theme park’s managers be acknowledged.
“Gerry is a great choice because Coney Island is undergoing so much re-development,” said Vita. “The Cyclone is a landmark so it’s not endangered yet, but if Astroland isn’t revitalized to attract more tourists, it could become endangered.”
Vita was excited to meet Menditto’s family and took many photos of the honoree posing with his daughters and granddaughter.
One honoree who is particularly under-the-radar is Dionisio Lind. Lind rings the carillon bells at New York City’s historic Riverside Church, the site of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous anti-Vietnam War sermon and Jackie Robinson’s funeral.
Born in Spanish Harlem in 1931, Lind began his long career as a carillonneur at 18 when his childhood church, St. Martin’s, commissioned the manufacture of a 42-bell Dutch carillon, the only one in the city at the time. Lind and two other men were asked to man the ropes of the larger bells and this marked the beginning of his life-long interest in sound.
He studied piano and became a studio sound producer after graduating from high school. And at the age of 31, Lind’s church paid for him to study at the Royal Carillon School in Belgium, the world’s first carillon school.
Today, Lind handles the largest and heaviest carillon bell ever cast, “the Bourbon,” which sounds the hours from the highest tower of Riverside Church. In fact, it is so high up that Lind is the only person who has been in the bell tower for years.
Caitlin Van Dusen, a 34-year-old blog writer for City Lore who interviewed and wrote an entry on Lind says she is “thrilled” that he was chosen for the People’s Hall of Fame.
“I think he’s making a huge contribution to New York,” Van Dusen said. “It’s under-appreciated because you don’t see him. He’s not a public figure.”
This makes Lind a perfect candidate for City’s Lore’s People’s Hall of Fame because they are not interested in honoring public figures. They are interested in finding unseen New Yorkers who keep the urban culture of the city alive and thriving and bringing them into the limelight to be acknowledged and applauded by the community they serve.
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