New Yorkistan
"New Yorkistan" is the title of the cover art for the December 10, 2001 edition of The New Yorker magazine. Inspired by a conversation while driving through the Bronx,[1] it was created by Maira Kalman and Rick Meyerowitz[2][3] who did the actual painting, and is (according to the American Society of Magazine Editors) #14 on the list of the top 40 magazine covers of the past 40 years.[4] It depicts the boroughs of New York City, as well as individual neighborhoods within the city, giving each a humorous name (a "funny mixture of Yiddish, Persian, and New Yorkisms"[5]) based on the history or geography of that area of the city, while playfully using names or suffixes common in the Middle East and Central Asia, such as "-stan". Thus the title, "New Yorkistan".
The cover gained unexpected popularity, with the New Yorker making approximately $400,000 by February 2002 by selling copies of the picture as signed lithographs (all 750 copies of which sold out within 4 days) and unsigned posters.[6][7]
According to Kalman, the inspiration for the cover arose in a car on the way to a party. She and Meyerowitz were talking about tribalism. At one point she came up with the idea of "Bronxistan", to which Meyerowitz replied "You know, we've got a map here."[2] Originally, the picture was to be run on the back page of the magazine, but editors liked it so much that it was decided to make it the cover picture.[3][8]
Susan Jarratt describes the cover as "lampooning both New Yorkers' city-bound geographic consciousness and a nationwide ignorance of the geography of Central Asia". Jarratt notes that it was one of the first "humorous interventions" since the events of September 11, 2001.[9] Urschel notes that this timing of the cover's publication was fortunate. Kalman herself commented on the timing, saying that "if [the cover had come] out earlier, many would have been infuriated, and if it [had come] out later, no one would have cared."[8]
In September, 2004, Meyerowitz and Kalman made a New York City Subway map as a food map, the New York City Sub-Culinary Map, for The New Yorker.[10]