You would be hard pressed to find a more recognizable icon of welcome than the Statue of Liberty. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…I lift my lamp beside the golden door,” reads the poem by Emma Lazarus engraved on a plaque and placed on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, where it remains today. Ellis Island opened in 1892, in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty to process immigrants from all parts of the world, so it’s no surprise that New York City has become a quintessential melting pot as a result.
More than 800 languages are spoken in the city that is made up of five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island, each with its own unique multicultural jumble of people. Take East Harlem, also known as El Barrio, or Tompkinsville, which is referred to as Little Sri Lanka, or Flatbush, Little Caribbean, or Arthur Avenue, “the real Little Italy.”
The Crossroads of the World is what Times Square, a bustling area of Broadway theaters, restaurants, stores, iconic flashing walls of neon, and meeting space in every imaginable venue, is called. This is an area known both for its historic theaters as much as the place where night becomes day.
No one culture dominates the others; they all blend together to create something that is more than the addition of its parts. New York City is a place where everyone is accepted and it seems obvious that it is home to the headquarters of the world's most significant international organization: the United Nations. After all, the city itself is in essence a living United Nations.
One of New York City’s greatest assets is its ability to constantly evolve and reinvent itself. New attractions, restaurants, and entertainment venues pop up, seemingly overnight. One of the newest permanent visitors’ resources spotlights Black culture in the five boroughs and includes videos, neighborhood guides, interviews and articles. And attractions are just as varied as the city itself. A tiny sampling includes the Apollo Theater, Asia Society New York, Bronx Museum of the Arts, El Museo del Barrio, The Jewish Museum, Louis Armstrong House Museum, Museum of Chinese in America, and the National Museum of the American Indian.