Entertainment
Sesame Street Is A Real Address At Last So Get Ready To Sweep Those Clouds Away
Still wondering — all these years later — how to get to Sesame Street? Well, we can finally give you the answer. Sesame Street is now a real address after New York City marked an intersection in the Big Apple to honor the show’s 50th anniversary.
The street, located at the intersection of West 63rd Street and Broadway, was officially named in honor of the children’s show after a speech made by Mayor Bill de Blasio on May 1. De Blasio was joined by several of the show’s characters, including Big Bird and Elmo, according to the official website of the City of New York.
“And a lot of us up here raised our kids with the help of Sesame Street and it made them better, stronger, more self-confident,” De Blasio said, addressing the crowd. “Sesame Street changed this country. You know, we focus a lot in this city on early childhood education but long before that, Sesame Street was helping this entire country to know how much we can achieve if we reached out kids in their earliest years.”
He also named May 1 as “Sesame Street Day” for the city.
As stated on the official Sesame Street website, the show reaches 156 million children across the globe in more than 150 countries. It has been headquartered in New York City since it debuted on television in 1969, according to CNN.
“From the very beginning, NYC has been our home where the characters live," Jeff Dunn, President and CEO of Sesame Workshop, said, according to ABC 7.
The same portion of the street was temporarily named after the show in honor of its 40th anniversary, but this time the change is permanent.
The show recently announced that it will be partaking in a nationwide road trip joined by Big Bird, Elmo, and other characters to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The characters and production crew will be partaking in community festivities in cities across the United States including New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, Seattle, and Los Angeles, among others.
The show will also launch a celebrity and fan-fueled social media campaign, #ThisIsMyStreet, encouraging everyone to share the show’s favorite memories over the years. As a part of its 50-year celebration, it will also be growing its community-based initiative to support vulnerable children and families, tackling issues like substance abuse and foster care.
The golden anniversary will coincide with the launch of a new local version of Sesame Street created especially for displaced Syrian families in their new neighborhoods in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. The effort is part of a large-scale early childhood intervention effort in the region, according to Sesame Workshop.
The show, which aspires to “help kids everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder,” also recently released a new video of the Muppets teaching its watchers how to “hug” kids and individuals with autism. Individuals with autism, given their tendencies to move a lot and sensory perception, may or may not enjoy hugs, according to the Organization for Autism Research. The informational video reflect's the show's years of educational work and social impact.
Now, you can take a trip down to New York City and visit the street that has changed the lives of children and parents for yourself.
