“Mamdani at the Crossroads” – Worksheet

Suggestion: Search “Niela Orr essayist” or “Niela Orr LRB”.

Look for words like cultural critic, essayist, pop culture, race, politics and write a short summary.

Suggestion: Search “London Review of Books blog”.

Note that the LRB Blog is online, with shorter, more timely pieces about politics, culture and ideas.

Suggestion: Search “Zohran Mamdani politician”.

Identify his job, his political orientation (Democratic Socialist), and the fact that in the article he is presented as the new mayor of New York City.

Suggestion: Search “Ja Rule New York 2004 song” and, if possible, listen to the beginning.

Think about the atmosphere: energy, toughness, pride, urban life. How does this song connect popular culture to the political victory moment?

Suggestion: Do short searches for each name:

• “Eugene Debs socialist”
• “Barack Obama hope slogan”
• “Mario Cuomo speech 1984” and “Andrew Cuomo governor”
• “Van Jones CNN commentator”
• “Rupert Murdoch New York Post”
• “Diego Rivera Man at the Crossroads”

Then decide who is a socialist leader, a president, a painter, a political family, media owners, or a commentator.

Suggestion: Re-read the paragraph beginning with “I speak of Yemeni bodega owners…”.

Underline nationalities and jobs (for example: shop owners, taxi drivers, nurses, aunties, line cooks, etc.).

Think about:

• Why list so many different communities?
• What idea links them together? (inclusion, diversity, solidarity, ordinary New Yorkers).

Write about equality and the idea that the city belongs to all of them.

Suggestion: Search “Walt Whitman Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” and “Woody Guthrie This Land Is Your Land”.

Both often celebrate ordinary people, democracy, and the idea that the country belongs to everyone.

Suggestion: Search “Man at the Crossroads Diego Rivera meaning”.

Notice that the mural showed a choice between capitalism and socialism and was destroyed.

Connect this to Mamdani’s own position at a “crossroads” between his socialist ideas and the realities of governing in a capitalist city like New York.

Suggestion: Re-read the introduction and the end of the article.

Look for repeated ideas: hope, inclusion, working people, socialism, integrity, art and politics, New York identity.

Choose three of these and explain why they are important in the article.