Book Release: Philip T. Yanos’s EXILES IN NEW YORK CITY with Kim Hopper

Join Word Up in celebrating the release of Philip T. Yanos’s new book Exiles in New York City: Warehousing the Marginalized on Ward’s Island, the untold stories from Ward’s Island and the history of urban mental health systems in the United States. In conversation with Yanos will be Kim Hopper, professor at the Mailman School of Public Health and author of Reckoning with Homelessness.

This event is a $5 suggested donation ticket with 30 max attendees. Please register in advance.

In compliance with Word Up Community Safety guidelines, all attendees for this event must wear a mask inside.

Word Up Community Bookshop is located at 2113 Amsterdam Ave. (& 165th St.) in Washington Heights, NYC. You can take the 1 train to 168th St and the A/C train to 163rd or 168th  St.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Ward’s Island in the East River sits just a short distance from Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx, yet it has been cordoned off from the rest of New York City. For nearly two centuries, it has been treated as a dumping ground for society’s most marginalized–the unhoused, recent immigrants, and people diagnosed with mental illnesses. Even today, its two psychiatric hospitals, homeless shelters, and residential substance-use treatment program house more than one thousand people, but these institutions are fenced off from the athletic fields and green space of the adjoining Randall’s Island Park.

Exiles in New York City shares untold stories from Ward’s Island, offering a new lens on the city’s past and present from the perspective of the marginalized. Philip T. Yanos–a clinical psychologist who grew up on Ward’s Island–explores the history of the island alongside the history of urban mental health systems in the United States. Drawing on archival documents and interviews with current residents and staff while weaving in recollections of his own childhood, he traces how the island became a place of exile and brings to life the failings of the approach to mental illness that it represents. This incisive and timely book reveals a part of New York City that has long been hidden in plain sight, and it also considers how to transform Ward’s Island for a new era.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Philip T. Yanos is a professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He is the author of Written Off: Mental Health Stigma and the Loss of Human Potential (2018). During his childhood in the 1970s, Yanos lived on the grounds of Manhattan State Hospital on Ward’s Island, where his father was a psychiatrist.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR

Kim Hopper is a medical anthropologist who, for 25 years, worked as a research scientist for the NYC Office of Mental Health at the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, where he co-directed the Center for the Study of Issues in Public Mental Health. He is the author of Reckoning with Homelessness. Active in homeless advocacy efforts since 1980, Hopper served as president of the National Coalition for the Homeless from 1991-1993, and teaches a seminar each spring in the Law School on current litigation and policy re homelessness. His present research interests include the fate of reforms in public mental health, terms and conditions of collaborative research, and prospects for reconciliation between ex-patients and their professional caretakers. 

Word Up Community Safety Guidelines

MASKING POLICY: All attendees ages 2 and older must wear a mask at all times when indoors at the store at Word Up and Recirculation.

CANCELLATION POLICY: Word Up Community Bookshop reserves the right to cancel events for any reason, including but not limited to safety concerns.

CODE OF CONDUCT: Please note Word Up has a zero tolerance policy for harassment or intimidation of any kind during any event, virtual or in-person. Please read our Safe Space Policy for more information. Anyone violating these rules will be expelled from the event at the discretion of the organizers. Please report all harassment to events@wordupbooks.com immediately.

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PHYSICAL ACCESSIBILITY: Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria is a fully wheelchair-accessible space with one ADA-compliant ramp from the street level to the store. Some of our bookcases and tables are on wheels and can be moved to provide additional access. Our visitor bathroom is wheelchair accessible and gender neutral. Our events are mic’d for sound. Free ASL interpretation is available for most programs upon request; please email events@wordupbooks.com to request interpretation as early as possible. The space is not scent or chemical free but we do our best to minimize the use of chemicals and scents throughout the space and use nontoxic materials whenever possible. If you have specific questions about the space or how an event can be made more accessible to you, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@wordupbooks.com.