This walking tour of Art Deco architecture takes place in the neighborhood Concourse of the Bronx, a preeminent concentration of Art Deco buildings originally built to signal, and satisfy, the upward mobility of many formerly poor immigrants to NYC. These buildings are revered for their many details of quality living, including cross ventilated windows, spacious interiors often with sunken living rooms, and luxurious building materials throughout - such as brass, marble, stained glass, and hard woods.

What is less attended to are the numerous symbolic elements that decorate Art Deco buildings and give meaning to the material form. These symbols, esoteric in nature, require a combined approach of thinking and feeling to comprehend. They are both universal in their themes and profoundly personal. They push the limits of a perceived “multiculturalism”, to an inter-culturalism. The emergent themes have been circling, swirling, and morphing around the globe for thousands of years. Everyone can claim them; they belong to us all.

Indeed, the intercultural language of esotericá takes on varied expressions, their details change, the characters morph in texture and form. And yet, it is precisely because of this variety that it becomes possible to discern a vast, open-ended undercurrent to the human condition. When personally, holistically, engaged with, these stories have a chance to evolve with us, bringing more awareness and stimulating more empathy in the choices we make, the paths we follow, and those that we light for others.

In this tour, I take teens on a guided walk around the neighborhood Concourse, opening up opportunities for personal meaning-making with and through these symbolic elements of Art Deco architecture.