Health & Science
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 […]
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. […]
Fractions, flavors, ‘culinary courage’ for kids
By Javon Huynh The library at P.S. 191 Paul Robeson School in Crown Heights had been transformed into a makeshift classroom for cooks. 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.” Before the fourth-graders began preparing the recipe, healthy […]
‘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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Mental health for Black men
By Johnathan Hooker — Black men are among the least likely people to seek mental health counseling. Some Black therapists are trying to change that by tailoring their services to better attract Black males and hosting workshops just for them. In New York City, licensed clinical social worker Frederick Bush on June 11th kicks off […]