The Phoenix NYU
Cold water, rats — and a record fine for a rogue landlord
By Zendo Rouson Cold water, rats and broken elevators are on a longer list of problems that, for years, have plagued the residents of Robert Fulton Terrace and Fordham Towers in the Bronx. “My son is in a wheelchair; he cannot get up and down [the stairs]” said longtime Robert Fulton resident Jennifer Sledge, when […]
Finding community and calm on regional hiking trails
By Jalen Long In a city known for its crowded streets, packed subway cars and nonstop pace, one hiking club is helping New Yorkers slow down and reconnect with nature and each other. What began as a small getaway among friends has grown into a thriving outdoor community. Founded in 2024, the Down to Earth […]
Librarian organizes unionists against ICE
By Kwadjo Otoo Public librarian Karl Schwartz first visited the Delaney Hall detention center in 2017, before national news headlines captured ICE officers and anti-ICE protesters in a kind of combat, replete with billy clubs and tear gas. “It’s kind of this dystopian atmosphere … I’ve heard others refer to it as a sacrifice zone,” […]
Training young adults with autistim to bake
By Ehvan Fennel Parents Nigel Thompson and Qiana Daniels have had some challenges in navigating the world of needs facing their son, who is moderately autistic. Especially when he was younger, they had to make sure he had such essential things as physical therapy and occupational therapy. But there was more. “What would his future […]
When the path to a first job isn’t straight
By Mitchell Brown When advisors warned Jade Bramwell about job struggles after college, she wasn’t worried. A year later, that changed. “You come out of college with a lot of expectations,” Bramwell said. “But I didn’t really understand how bad things were until it’s slapping you in the face.” Many recent journalism graduates, including aspiring […]
Food, fellowship and Black male mental health
By Robert Doyle They dub their monthly potluck “the medicine.” On Father’s Day, they provide free acupuncture and haircuts. They do sound baths for those interested in it. They provide supplies for fathers and their children to do arts and crafts together. Because of what they offer, they named their organization Men at Work Healing. […]
Schomburg marks 100 years of studying and archiving a diaspora
By Kordell Martin Advocate Kevin Matthews was pondering these times as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture reaches its 100 anniversary as a world-class library: “We haven’t lost anything,” said Matthews about being among the many Black Institutions that have lost federal grants under President Donald Trump. Some people say we got a […]
In a Brooklyn brownstone, parlor jazz
By Marquis Chambers Photos by Brandon Aninipot It started with a Friday night fish fry to celebrate a beloved person who’d died. “My cousins played drums. I danced. We cooked food. We celebrated. And from there, things just started to happen,” said Debbie McClain, of what was happening in her Brooklyn backyard. Jazz lover McClain’s […]
Fractions, flavors, ‘culinary courage’ for kids
By Javon Huynh Surrounded by books, students at P.S. 191 Paul Robeson School in Crown Heights found themselves in a library transformed into a makeshift cooking classroom. Tables were covered with cutting boards, measuring cups and bowls of vegetables. A smart board displayed the day’s lesson, “Mediterranean Rainbow Chickpea Crunch Bowls.” “Whether they put me […]
Preserving and highlighting Harlem’s history
By Marcus Craig Harlem’s Convent Avenue Baptist is a majority Black church in a mainly Black neighborhood. But on a recent Wednesday afternoon, white people filled up most of the seats. They’d paid to hear seven singers, a pianist and a drummer perform black gospel music. I’m a soldier in the army of the Lord […]
Inviting the boss to dinner, hoping for a gig
By Denzel Massaley Inside a lounge at BoxGroup, a tech venture-capital fund, college students mingled with company employees during a private dinner organized by Chelsea Commons. It aims to help its 12 college student founders and interning peers get face-to-face with potential employers — instead of just cold-calling, blind-emailing or otherwise waiting to hear back […]
For Gen-Z men, a surge in religious faith
By Danny Chung-A-Fung Health, relationships, finances, spirituality. Of those four self-professed pillars of 30-year-old Alex Gittens’ life, the last is what’s first in his heart and mind. It has not always been that way for Gittens. Especially while working three jobs to help pay his way through college, his faith fell through the cracks. He […]
‘Shirley Chisholm’ 5K races toward good health
By Xavier Board In 2021, the Shirley Chisholm 5K Trail run started as a simple way to foster community. Five years later, the event has increased its count and diversity of runners, while also upholding its tandem goals of improving public health and spotlighting the first Black female congresswoman and first Black person to vie […]
A church music ministry for the moment
By Nicholas Gunn — The music inside the sanctuary of Church of the Advent Hope was a long way from the solitary organ and choir more typical of what’s been played at Seventh-day Adventist churches. “I’ve visited a lot of Adventist churches but the music often feels stuck in the past. No drums, no […]
Trauma as a tool to save lives
By Calvin Butts — When Natasha Christopher talks about her son’s murder, she’s matter-of-fact. “That destroyed my life,” she said. “No parent should ever be home asleep and receive a call that someone shot your son,” she added. “But it also gave me a voice.” On June 27, 2012, her 14-year-old son Akil had […]
Cadence’s vegan chefs reimagine soul food
By Jon David Regis — Executive chefs Haley Duren and Shenarri Freeman place themselves and their East Village restaurant in a camp of plant-based eaters that extends back to pre-enslavement West Africa and, in the United States, includes civil rights and nutrition activist Dick Gregory, who died in 2017, and Queen Afua, a holistic […]
Sidewalk fridges for the food-insecure
By Joel Mitchell — On an early summer afternoon, Asmeret Berhe-Lumax was doing what she often does at the nonprofit food pantry she founded five years ago: Unloading boxes of groceries from a truck and stocking them inside a see-through sidewalk refrigerator and the food crates beside it. “It’s a very simple and straightforward […]
Protesting NY Times’ LGBTQ coverage
By Gray Fuller — Standing on the sweltering sidewalk at the entrance to The New York Times, a group aggrieved by the paper’s coverage of transgender people spelled out their complaint: Gray Lady Lies Trans People Die. In the bottom corners of the white poster board bearing those words, two handprints were pressed in red […]
A life-saving, donated kidney
By Izzy Sy — Lying face up and side by side on separate operating room tables, Dr. Alex Hilario and his sister, Elizabeth Hilario, were nervous. They were anxious. A surgical team would extract a kidney from her body to place in his. Her brother’s kidney function had been diminishing for at least 20 […]
Lessons to lessen Black drownings
Photo by Steward Masweneng on Unsplash By Jaden DeGruy — When twentysomething social media strategist Paulana Lamonier was trying to figure out a side hustle, a conversation helped settle the question. “There was this young lady,” Lamonier said, recalling that small talk from several years ago. “She was, like, ‘Oh I can’t swim because my […]
Creating community at a drugstore
By Maurice Brown — As a stranger tore past the pharmacy’s shelves, she insisted that the staff behind the front counter answer one question: “Who here is Thomas?” “Oh, *^!$,” Thomas James thought as he braced for a scolding. But seconds later, he saw the woman’s eyes begin to pool with tears as she […]
South to North, chasing artistic dreams
By Corey Leathers Jr. — Eighteen months. That’s how long it took a transplant from South Carolina to go from being a broke college dropout to paying New York City rent with what he’s earned selling his rap records, designing clothes for his BoofNYC brand and walking the runway at New York Fashion Week. […]
Schooling youth in life and the game
By Bradmond Lee-Harewood — In 2005, Jamel Wright founded the Harlem Jets, hoping to create an opportunity for his son and other inner city children to grow and develop on and off the football field. “I wouldn’t have known it was 20 years if someone else hadn’t told me,” Wright said. “The work is just […]
Food banks helping more with less
By McGlauthon Fleming IV — Amid federal funding cuts to food banks, Xavier Mission in Manhattan has asked its neighbors for support, while East Flatbush Village in Brooklyn has been getting less and less food from umbrella organizations like City Harvest that serve food banks throughout the region. “In particular, we get food supplied by […]
Reopening in ‘26, a museum of hip-hop history
By Freddrell Green — As a native of the Boogie Down Bronx, Miles Marshall Lewis said he’s steeped in hip-hop music and culture. He knows how and why it was born and about its lingering impact after more than a half-century of international acclaim. “I saw hip-hop begin from outside my window,” said Lewis, an […]