News
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 […]
At the Schomburg, 100 years of diasporic study and archiving
By Kordell Martin Kevin Matthews was pondering these times as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture approached its 100th anniversary festival saluting that world-class library. “We haven’t lost anything,” said the center’s deputy director, about being among Black institutions from which the Trump White House has blocked federal funding. Some people say we […]
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 […]
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 leader, far from his past troubles
By Westley Reaves Jr. — Malik McGhee started preparing last February for three days in June at a New York City networking conference for standout students from historically black colleges and universities. He hadn’t expected to be in that pool of students, handpicked by their business school deans. He’d gotten into trouble with the law […]
An aid group, mainly, for African immigrants
By Henry Fernandez Planes, buses and blistered feet. Those modes of transit brought two dozen West African immigrants to the United States and, then, one June day to Afrikana, a Harlem nonprofit that helps immigrants build their American lives. Afrikana’s waiting room is where Sweet Mama’s Soul Food used to be. Those looking for help […]
Major events shape Gen Z views, protests
By Auzzy Byrdsell A month before Faith Andrews-Owens was born in 2001, terrorist hijackers steered airplanes into New York City’s Twin Towers. When she was 11, in February 2012, a self-described neighborhood watchman in Florida shot dead 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. In December of the same year, a gunman killed 20 kids and six adults at […]
From going hungry to helping
By Jaden Perry When Elliott Carter was homeless and struggling with drug addiction, The Church of Saint Francis Xavier helped him turn his life around. “Xavier gave me a chance to sit down and eat and get my mind straight. All that chaos out there. I could be calm in here, and I could ask […]
Going from UN expert to a life off the grid
By Darius Osborne Gisele Kamanou traded in her cell phone for a produce stand and her job at the United Nations to do what she really wants: educate the public about her alternative approach to food and lifestyle. “I refrain from advertising myself because of the modern processes it involves … So many constructs and […]