Urban Journalism Workshop
High school reporters cover local stories for NYU Journalism Institute’s summer program.
Pickleball, pickleball and more pickleball
By Christian Sourbrine On a recent Saturday afternoon, more than five dozen people lined up at Riverside Park in Morningside Heights,waiting for their chance to square off in a game of pickleball. As the players, who ranged in age from 14 through their mid-70s, waited for up to 30 minutes for an open court, they […]
Melting pot in a barbershop
By Asma Aouissi Meant as a gag when it was created in the 1940s, the barber shop sign aimed to attract a melting pot of customers. It announced: “We speak: Italian · Russian · Farsi · Spanish · French · Polish · Uzbek · Greek · Moroccan · Portuguese · Romanian · Bengali · And […]
A safe space for students with autism
By Haaniyah Faisal Fostering a safe space for autistic students. Helping patients find their voice. Encouraging them to accept and be confident in their autistic identity. These are some of the responsibilities of Yvetta Ma, an intern for the NYU Langone Health Hospital Center passionate about providing a space for autistic teen girls to feel […]
Learning and healing from cancer
By Isabella Cabral His sister died of breast cancer, his stepdad of aggressive prostate cancer. And, now, as Dion Summers sat, nervous and uncomfortable, tissue paper of an oncologist’s exam table crinkling underneath him, he heard what he didn’t want to hear. “Oh, this needs attention,” said a nurse, looking at a scan of his […]
For 40 years, training next-gen journos
Michelle Yang is a high school student who’s worked with her school paper for two years, ”I was looking for free journalism programs.” She says I wanted to be in a diverse program with a diverse group. She and other children of color her age found the urban journalism program at NYU because it was […]
LES arts, activism center to reopen
By Mariyatou Jabbi When Victoria Law walked through the doors of that Lower East Side organization all those years ago, she planned to help the nonprofit hand out meals at Thompson Square Park. She went there as she was wondering who she would be as a grown-up. “‘I don’t have to be a doctor or […]
Finding community on a chessboard
By Yifei Kevin Niu Brett Fisher and MJ were locked in a game of chess that July afternoon, sitting on wooden benches beneath a Hangman’s Elm in Washington Square Park, the steady hum of New York City in the background as each move brings one of them closer to the $5 prize. That local hotspot […]
Selling art where it’s against the law
By Aisatou Kabba For years, Marty Allen has been selling his handmade puppets and Bryan Closi has been peddling his photography on some of the busiest spots in Manhattan, including ones where selling their work is illegal. “I’ve had my stuff confiscated and the police threaten to push me out. And when they do come […]
A “game-changer,” gluten-free bakery
By Zoe Ntouvas Growing up in a family of restaurant owners, food was the world to Josh Borenstein. That world came crashing down in 2007 when he was diagnosed with celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder causing severe abdominal bloating, nausea and fatigue. “Food was, like, his passion, his life, his whole world, so it’s very […]
Gender, sexuality labels confuse some, give clarity to others
By Jayden Perera Male, female, transgender, gender neutral, non-binary, agender, pangender, genderqueer, two-spirit, third gender … Those are some of the labels for sexual identity and gender identity, which are two different categories. Some people say they understand some but not all of the labels. Some people accept all the labels. Some think some of […]
Weighing whether to grow old in New York
By Juan Colon During the six months he spent recovering from back surgery in 2020, Ralph Steiber, 76, couldn’t walk up the five flights of stairs leading to the Lower East Side apartment he’s lived in since 1975. “I couldn’t live here … ” Steiber said. “I had to rent out an apartment building with […]
Women taxi drivers are 1/10th of workforce
By Ishani Konar Of the 80,000 people driving taxis, limousines, Ubers, Lyfts and other ride-share vehicles in New York City, women are behind the wheel of only a few. Sixty-year-old Adalgisa Sanchez is one of those 8,000 women. With her son and daughter, single mother Sanchez moved to New York from the Dominican Republic in […]
Clotheslines save costs, help the environment
By Shafiul Haque For the immigrant Guventurks of Middle Village, Queens, hanging clothes out to dry is a family tradition. “My wife is from the countryside in Ireland and they always hang the clothes outside,” said Ufuk “Fred” Guventurk, 59, a Verizon technician who lives on 81st Street. “Clotheslines have also existed in my family […]
Fed up New Yorkers fight litter
By Kennedy Gayle Two weeks ago, Myles Smutney watched a man chuck a bottle out of a car. Responding to that offense, she picked up the bottle and gestured for him to roll down his car window. She threw the bottle back into the vehicle. She and the man exchanged a few words, she said. […]
Building community at the coffee shop
By Erin Yoon The customer was going on and on about how good the juice was. For two consecutive days, the man explained, he had bought that juice three or four times. “I guess I’ll be seeing you frequently then,” said barista Breslin Logan, 27, as his customer grabbed that pineapple juice and walked out […]
“Chalking back” to street harassment
By Cameron Alleyne In one Instagram post, a 13-year-old spoke out about a man who, first, asked her for directions and then flashed her as she turned to answer. In another, a woman shared that she was berated after not acknowledging a man who was catcalling her. On sidewalks around the world, girls and women […]
‘Drag Story Hour’ combats homophobia, gender-identity biases
By Huria Ali The hate she received when she was 22, made Gloria Sotelo Quijano feel like she should stop being Lori Lu, the drag artist she turned into for performances and bookings for Drag Story Hour. “They will say very misogynistic, homophobic and even sometimes transphobic comments towards me … I got very, very […]
The good and bad of Instagram influencers
By Julianna Nunez Rows of millennium pink-colored display tables are at the center and line the walls of beauty store Glossier’s SoHo location. Its floor-to-floor ceiling archways frame a back wall whose design puts shoppers in the mind of New York City subways. Wall tiles of different shapes spell out “You Look Good” and, under […]
Books can provide escape, lessen stress
By Autumn Turner Jordyn Oksenstein, 16, sticks a blue Post-it on each page of author Emily Henry’s “Beach Read” which marks a favorite moment for January Andrews, the main character of that novel, one of the 13 books Oksenstein expects to read this year. That character, a romance writer, loses her faith in love after […]
Oh, the pressure! (To get into a top college)
By Isabella Alvarez-Gomez On a typical school day, Aryan Vadlamudi, 16, dashes through the front doors of Troy Athens High School at 7:20 a.m. From then until 3 p.m., he trips from class to class: AP chemistry, AP US history, honors pre-calculus and honors English. When classes end, he dives into his duties as treasurer […]
Masking still, despite pandemic’s official end
By Isabella Konecky As she waited at an East 14th Street bus stop, Lynn Chealander had her KN-95 plastered around her mouth and nose. Diagnosed with COVID-19 in 2020, Chealander hasn’t fully recovered. She considers herself “mildly disabled” from long-COVID. A manager for a tech company, the 35-year-old said she’s lucky to work from home. […]
Street performers aim to inspire and uplift
Street Performing in NYC By Anthony Jose Urena On a patch of concrete in Washington Square Park, Adjua Ajamu lays down his paisley-printed red carpet and, on top of that, a tip jar and a cube-shaped speaker that is connected to his phone. It powers the synthetic music that is the background for his singing. […]
Combining basketball and clothing design
By Fouday Singateh He dribbled up and down the court, passing the basketball through his legs and behind his back. He drove toward the hoop, collected his rebound, dribbled back toward the free throw line and took his shot. Swoosh. He watched the ball drop through the hoop. “I’m trying to bring everyone together at […]
Self-styled, self-defined Muslim women
By Liyana Illyas Djenabou Diallo’s loose blue jeans were paired with a long-sleeve, flowy white shirt and a cornflower blue hijab. Mariam Sayeed wore her cream-colored, three-quarter-length sleeved T-shirt with blue jeans and a periwinkle colored hijab. Both are Muslim, dressed to reflect their religious beliefs that women should be more covered up in public, […]
One church’s 132 years of justice, arts activism
By Jordan Gay Pointing to a decades-old fountain on the corner of Washington Square South and Thompson Street, Keen Berger, 80, gives some background on Judson Memorial Church, the congregation she joined 42 years ago. “That little corner thing that has the spigot, it used to have water,” said Berger, who chairs Judson’s board of […]