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Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava.
Banner 89, July 15, 2026. Eddie’s Cafe is engulfed by the throngs of people celebrating the Knicks Championship, June 13th, less than an hour after they won on the corner of West 28th Street & 7th Avenue, 4 short blocks from Madison Square Garden, as close as I could get. What better way to honor Year 11 of NighthawkNYC.com than by honoring the most joyous moment I’ve experienced in all my years in NYC.
Another challenging year is in the books, but I’m still here! A torn meniscus in October and then Baastrup’s disease (in May) left me with very limited mobility and debilitating pain for a few weeks each. A concussion in February brought post-concussion syndrome that went on for 2 months in between. My thanks to Dr. Kavita Sharma, who somehow got me back to being able to walk, Dr. Kimberly Peters, and Dr. Robert Kaufman for his ongoing treatment. Without them, I wouldn’t have been able to see the shows I did manage to see in 2026 (let alone get to the food store). Most importantly, I was able to see the once-in-a-lifetime, 8 years in-the-making, Raphael: Sublime Poetry at The Metropolitan Museum of Art six times (normally, I would have made twice or three times as many visits). I’m very grateful to have been able to see as much as I did in Year 11, and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you.
Was it you? If you blinked, you missed it! June 8, 2026. I retired it a few days later as the number continued to climb.
Meanwhile, during Year 11, NHNYC welcomed its 200,000 visitor on June 8th, a number that has now reached 218,000, as readership continues to climb for the 11th straight year. Also I was, and am, very pleased to have introduced the first-ever guest writer, Lana Hattan, to the site she pushed me to start in 2014!
Meeting Bella. May 15, 2015.
Her interview with Marc Chagall’s granddaughter, the renowned Floral Artist Bella Meyer, is part of her ongoing research into the life & work of Mark Chagall, and has never previously been published. I’m thrilled to have “Marc Chagall’s Granddaughter: An Artist In Her Own Right” here. The response to it has been very gratifying for both of us.
While this is the first time her writing has appeared on these epages, it is not the first time her work has been seen here! In 2018, I published the Video she directed of the legendary People’s Art School in Vitebsk, Belarus, what had just been restored, where Marc Chagall was the school’s first director. He hired Kashmir Malevich & El Lissitzky & Yehuda Penn (his former teacher) to teach at the school. While they were there, Malevich founded Suprematism, one of the most influential Art movements of the 20th century. I published her Video here. Then, in 2025, Lana graciously allowed me to publish Photos she took at the Guggenheim Museum blockbuster Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future, in 2018, which I published in my piece on Hilma, here. Finally, the Hattan Group, who work with Lana, were able to attend the Raymond Pettibon show, Raymond Pettiboyn: The Cloyd o’ Misreadyng, at the Garage in Moscow(!) in 2017 and Photograph it for me, enabling me to write about it, which I did, here. Everyone who has read any of those pieces owes her their thanks, as do I.
Roses by CJ Hendry at her Flower Market 2.0 Rockefeller Center, September, 2025.
Without a doubt, my most popular piece of Year 11 is “CJ Hendry: Color Pencil Mastery to Art SuperStar,” which has quickly risen to being one of my top 5 most-read pieces ever! I chalk it up to the fact that there hasn’t really been much written about her to date, in spite of her achieving “super star” status. (I believe I was the first one to say she has!)
Christine Sun-Kim: All Day All Night, Whitney Museum, 2025
With limited mobility, I spent much of the year trying to catch up on the 4 great blockbuster shows from Summer, 2025, which kept me busy for most of the rest of 2025 and in to 2026. Important shows by, Christine Sun-Kim,
Amy Sherald, Breonna Taylor, 2020 Oil on linen.
With Lana Hattan at Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future, the most recent show we’ve been able to see together. Guggenheim Museum, New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2018. My Thanks for the woman who approached us and insisted she take our picture. Cosmic!
Hilma af Klint and
Installation view of the entrance to Jack Whitten: The Messenger.
Jack Whitten were all featured in Year 11.
Sharing a street with the immortal Jimi Hendrix mere steps from his Electric Lady Studios, OG Anunoby is now a legend in NYC. July 12, 2026.
Then, what took place in NYC late on June 13th was something the likes of which I’ve never seen or experienced here. Ever! Having lived through prior championships by the Yankees, the Giants, the Cosmos(!), the Rangers, and the Knicks (in 1973), including being at the Championship winning games for the Yankees in 1999 and the Rangers in 1994, and seeing the Champion Knicks in the 1973 playoffs, NONE of that, or even NYC on 9/11 (in a completely different way, of course) prepared me for what I experienced that night and in the 2 months preceding June 13th. It left me wondering why so many people had such a huge reaction to it and related to it so intensely. Part of my series of pieces on extraordinary events in NYC, my take is “Living the Dream: The Knicks & New York City.”
A highlight from Year 11. Carmen Bambach at her show, Raphael: Sublime Poetry, Metropolitan Museum, April 14, 2026.
Knee deep in the depths of Raphael: Sublime Poetry on April 14th, I was shocked to realize the curator, Met Museum legend Carmen Bambach, was standing next to me! The curator of three of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen (having seen all three multiple times, to my mind Raphael may be her ultimate achievement), I swallowed hard and summoned the courage to speak with her. That story, and much more, in the piece (possibly another of my series of pieces on one show, which I’ve never seen anyone else do) that I’m hoping to write with your support. Here, in a Drawing that Raphael gifted to the great Albrecht Durer(!), Ms Bambach points out a Sonnet Raphael wrote on the lower right section of the piece, which circles back to the title she chose for the show, “Raphael: Sublime Poetry” in more ways than one!
Oh! I’m pleased to announce that there’s a new edition of my ever-popular NHNYC Banner Retrospective now titled “11 Years of NighthawkNYC.com Banners,” which includes the latest one you see up top.
For an even further look back at NighthawkNYC.com see my 10th Anniversary piece, for a Retrospective of the first 10 years of Nighthawknyc.com!
As always, Thank You for reading my pieces, and Thanks especially to those of you who have donated or purchased items from my collections to enable me to continue. Last week, your donations enabled me to renew the web hosting for NighthawkNYC.com for the next four years! Everyone reading this owes you their thanks.
I am extremely proud & pleased to say NighthawkNYC.com made it to Year 11 being 100% FREE & AD-FREE! How rare is that today? I now need your help to continue to add to the site and cover 2026 shows including the aforementioned Raphael: Sublime Poetry, which closed and became part of history on June 28th. More on the various ways you can help at the end, with my Thanks in advance.
So, The Universe willing- ONWARD to Year 12!
Kenn.
For Lana, my rock, who told me repeatedly that I would get through it all this year.
*-Soundtrack for this piece is “Two of Us,” by Lennon & McCartney as recorded by The Beatles on Let It Be, a song Sir Paul says he wrote about himself and soon-to-be-wife, Linda Eastman. It’s seen & heard here in their Official Video, with appearances by Linda & Yoko Ono)-
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