Transcript: Mayor Mamdani, TDF Announce Thousands Of Free And Low-Cost Broadway Tickets For High School Students To Close Out Summer
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office transcripts.
Passages
Good morning, everyone. Or should I say, “Oh, what a beautiful morning.” It is a privilege to be here as the first mayor to have ever played Curly in an eighth-grade production of “Oklahoma!” on the Upper West Side. I want to say thank you to Sam Tutty and the students for that incredible performance. Can we have a round of applause for them again? I'm glad to know that I'm in good company and enjoying a slice of pizza for breakfast. And I want to thank every New Yorker who has worked to make the incredible art and culture of our city accessible to all. And I am so happy to be here alongside leaders both inside and outside of our City government. We have Michael Rosenberg, the president and CEO of New York City Center. Thank you again for kicking us off and for hosting this event. We have TDF executive director, Deeksha Gaur. And the members of the Cultural Institutions Group for making today's announcement possible. I want to thank all of the Coalition of Broadway Unions and Guilds members here today. I want to thank my partners in government that are here with us. We have Deputy Speaker Dr. Nantasha Williams, the Chair of the Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries [and] International Relations. And we have the elected officials who are hosting us in their district; we have Assembly Member Tony Simone and the one and only Council Member Gale Brewer. And lastly, I want to thank leaders within our administration, our deputy mayor for Economic Justice, Julie Su, our commissioner for the Department of Cultural Affairs, Diya Vij; our chancellor of New York City Public Schools, Kamar Samuels; our commissioner of the Department of Youth and Community Development, Sandra Escamilla-Davies; and our commissioner of the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, Rafael Espinal. Now, New York City has long been synonymous with the lights, music and spectacle of Broadway. This is where the star-to-be arrives with three bucks, two bags and the dream. But if they can make it here, they can make it anywhere. We want to keep that opportunity to dream big alive, not just to hopeful out-of-towners but also to those growing up right here and across these five boroughs. So, to the students behind me and across from me, who have taken some time out of their precious summer days to be here with us. I have one more request for you: start spreading the news. I was debating whether or not to sing it, and I got intimidated by your performance. So, I went with the whisper. Thank you to the Ying Yang Twins for inspiration. Beginning today, City Hall, in partnership with the Theater Development Fund, is opening a lottery of more than 2,000 free tickets for high schoolers to seven marquee Broadway shows right here in New York, New York. This is justice for the theater kids who have watched City Hall roll out lotteries for major sporting events all summer long, and ask, “Why not me?” If you are a high school student anywhere across the five boroughs, you are eligible to enter this lottery. To do so, head to on.nyc.gov/broadway. The lottery will remain open from today through next Monday, August 17 at 10 a.m. And every single student who enters, whether or not they win, will automatically receive a free two-month Theater Development Fund membership. This membership will give them access to significantly discounted tickets between $20 and $40 to shows, concerts and dance performances on Broadway, Off-Broadway and across the city. And it will also grant them free admission to some of our city's most iconic cultural institutions, including Carnegie Hall, the Brooklyn Museum, the New York City Ballet and the New York City Center, where we stand today. There are so many kids growing up in our city for whom Broadway feels as if it is a world away, like something that only belongs to other people. We are together today to prove differently, to make it possible for kids from Sheepshead Bay to Morrisania, no matter how much money their parents make, to enter that different world, to experience that magical moment when the lights go down, the curtain goes up and they're transported on the journey of a lifetime, one they will carry with them for decades to come. From the plays of ancient Greece to the public gardens of Mughal India to Shakespeare's Globe Theater, history teaches us that the best art has always been made accessible to working people. That conviction has long lived in New York City too. In 1942, City government purchased this building in a foreclosure auction. Instead of selling it to developers, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia proposed that the city transform it into a center for music, dance and theater for the working people who call this city home. On New York City Center's opening night in 1943, tickets were sold for just a dollar as opposed to the Metropolitan Opera's average of $10 per ticket. What a time. We believe, just as Mayor La Guardia did nearly 85 years ago, that government holds a fundamental responsibility to make people's lives better. We will do so by building new homes, by making groceries cheaper, by keeping people safe on our streets and by making wonder and joy — something that every New Yorker can know. Thank you all so much. Now please join me in welcoming the executive director of TDF, Deeksha Gaur.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceThis is the beginning. And what I mean by that is that we are going to keep asking the question of how we can be working together, and how we can ensure that it is oriented towards all of our children, right? Nobody loses in this lottery because everybody wins this membership. Some also win 2,100 free tickets on top of that. But whether it's this lottery or it's other ways, we are going to continue to both invest time and resources to make the arts something at the fingertips of every New York City student. [Crosstalk.] And before you go, if I could also invite Assembly Member Simone, Dr. Nantasha Williams and Council Member Brewer. If they want to share what the Broadway musical was that made it for them.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceDo we have Gale Brewer who is here with us? Oh well, we lost her. She's off to see a play. Broadway News, please.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceJust to make clear, you're asking if there's a plan to support commercial theaters beyond the CIGs. T hat's something that we'll bring back to the team. We'll have that conversation. Thank you. [Crosstalk.]
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceThank you for the question. You know, I had a candid and productive conversation with rabbis representing a wide swath of New York's Jewish communities and affiliations, and I appreciated hearing from them. My door will always be open to every Jewish New Yorker, and that is a door that is open not only to a conversation, but also to a commitment of what it actually looks like to deliver on the ideal of a city where not only is everyone safe, but everyone belongs, everyone is made to feel as if this is their home. And our administration has been taking steps over the last many months of enacting that, whether it looks like increasing funding for hate crime prevention programming by more than 800 percent, or expanding our City's Office to Combat Antisemitism to its largest ever size, while developing a first-in-the-nation municipal response to combating antisemitism.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI think I'll leave it to the president to share his own opinions on it. I continue to believe in the importance of a surcharge on secondary homes worth more than $5 million as well as our ability to implement that surcharge. And just to go back to the importance of it — we're here today talking in some ways about art, but in other ways also about affordability. And the importance of a tax on a secondary home worth more than $5 million is that it raises half a billion dollars, and that is money that makes our streets safer. It makes our schools stronger. It makes the city the world-class city that we all love and know as our home. And I'm looking forward to all of the improvements that we can deliver with that revenue. And then, Kelly, the first question, yes, I do support the governor in her reelection, and I will be making that support clear at every opportunity that I have. And I also think there is a very clear choice here between Governor Hochel and Bruce Blakeman. Yesterday, I was standing with Governor Hochul as she announced that she was going to invest more than $7 million in funding to ensure that there are no unaccompanied minors without legal defense in our city. The Trump administration had made a decision that would strip these minors of their legal defense. Now, if a New Yorker looks at what ICE is doing and they want to see more of it, they should vote for Bruce Blakeman, who has created his own militia in Nassau County. If a New Yorker looks at what ICE is doing and is shocked by the inhumanity and the cruelty that is in the very heart of that agency's operation, then they should vote for Governor Kathy Hochul. My vacation timing — it was not about this hearing.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYou know, I have confidence in our administration officials being able to navigate what are often concurrent obligations, both whether it be to a hearing or to an existing lawsuit. I was asked earlier about Elizabeth Street Garden, and I said the other day that there are few things more certain in New York City than death, taxes and Randy Mastro suing this administration, and that is, again, where that lawsuit is coming from when it comes to the pied-� -terre lawsuit. And then on your first question, I continue to be confident in NYC Reads. And it is developed with the real findings of what's been effective across the country in mind. And we know that it is a critical thing that we equip our public school students with. We look forward to being in conversation with the UFT as we look to not only build upon the successes of the last few years, but to go beyond that. ###
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source
Every passage above is taken from this recording: NYC Mayor's Office transcripts, Transcript: Mayor Mamdani, TDF Announce Thousands Of Free And Low-Cost Broadway Tickets For High School Students To Close Out Summer.