Dinaw Mengestu, the well-known Ethiopian-American novelist and writer, would regularly walk past the Bernie Wohl Center of the Goddard Riverside Community Center at 647 Columbus Avenue. In 2015, Goddard Riverside was one of the recipients of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Community Big Read awards and selected Mengesteu’s novel, "Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears," which centered on the lives of three African immigrants trying to live out the American dream. It was only then that he actually stepped into the building.

He told an Upper West Side audience there to hear him discuss his work that he never knew “about the magic that was going on inside.” The person responsible for creating this magic has been Susan Macaluso (or “Mac”, as many call her), the director of Goddard Riverside’s community arts program.