Urban Journalism Workshop
High school reporters cover local stories for NYU Journalism Institute’s summer program.
Nostalgia (and sales) at a stationery store
By Ocean Hiller Luke Georgiades’ handwriting is messy, the equivalent of a 5-year-old’s scribbles, he said. But the woman he met the previous night loves letters and journaling. So, drawn to the cat-themed logo of stationery store Niconeco Zakkaya, he stepped inside to write her a message on a postcard—his scrawl aside. “There’s nothing like […]
Honing neurodivergent learners’ tech skills
By Leane Kwon Computers hum. Students click through animations. Roars of excitement burst out as someone’s code project finally works. This isn’t your typical coding class. It’s a classroom built for 10- to 24-year-olds diagnosed with learning disabilities, including autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, executive function disorder and sensory challenges. Those dozen or so neurodiverse learners […]
New York’s iconic, disappearing yellow cabs
By Giana Nevarez Tevere It used to be that, on a busy day, yellow taxi driver Kazi Asaduzzaman would pick up around 30 passengers. But that Tuesday in July, half that number got into his back seat. “Because of Uber and Lyft, there is no more business for us taxi drivers,” said Asaduzzaman, 64, who’s […]
Frenzy over fuzzy, furry key chain
By Chanelle Liu Inside the compartments of the computer monitor-sized organizer were clothing customized to fit fluffy, hand-sized, keychain versions of Labubu dolls, which also come in larger sizes. To the right of that sidewalk display, three rows of boxes of Labubus were stacked. Some were opened, so customers could see which color they desired. […]
For the love of chess and, sometimes, money
By Sarah Levine The younger man bounded down the four steps to the basement of a Tenth Street brownstone, punching a secret password into the keypad. Its green checkmark flashed. The older man opened the door and waved him inside. Four hundred dollars was that Tuesday night’s prize at the Marshall Masters Chess Club. Somewhere […]
Mixing old and new at a Portuguese bakery
By Sienna de Silva Businessmen in navy suits slowed their brisk pace, craning their necks and looking over their shoulders as they passed the hole in the brick wall on Saint Johns Place where bakery workers take customers’ orders and pass them sweet treats. Like those businessmen glancing backwards to read the menu placard screwed […]
How selfies reshape the concert experience
By Cailyn Williams Concert-goers Lara Afolayanka and Ashley Simplice steadied their cellphones, positioning the camera lens to capture the Barclays Center display screen as it shifted from a WNBA player advertising an upcoming game to a banner touting that evening’s Brooklyn stop on Tyler the Creator’s sold-out Chromakopia tour. “I definitely went on Pinterest and […]
From Ecuador to the US, selling her wares
By Jasmyn Centeno Mercedes Masaquiza places her handmade, crocheted keychains, beaded bracelets, and blouses across the fold-up table she placed on a spot at the Columbus Circle entrance to Central Park. She sits down, then, on second thought, she gets up to adjust the hats on the rack and re-position her palm-sized crocheted flowers in […]
Election 2024: The youth vote
By Lia Wong-Ferreira As she pushed a shopping cart down the frozen food aisle at Trader Joe’s, Sofia Khan felt her phone, in her back pocket, vibrating with an Apple News alert. President Biden had just dropped out of the race for the White House. “I thought it was a joke,” said Khan, 21, shaking […]
A sanctury for vendors
By Tiara Edwards Inside a sanctuary hidden by arched brick-walls is a 168 year old church-yard filled with a maze of vending tables with vendors conversing with customers. Each vending table with similar products, displayed jewelry, books, clothing, and antiques located on Avenue A and 1st Ave. “I got gold!”. A man with a baseball […]
Bridging music industry’s gender gap
By Michelle Yang Amina Walker has sung for as long as she can remember: at home, in the car, in her bedroom, on city streets. But when she’s on stage, she gets butterflies in her stomach. And when it’s her turn at the mic during Sound Thinking’s weekly jam sessions, she puts herself out there, […]
Paragraph by paragraph, a writer’s room
By Sri Sowmya Tanguturi When she started crafting her first book, “Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, Helen Simonson utilized Paragraph Workspace for Writers, a spot on Fourteenth Street reserved for writers. Among that workspace’s various offerings was a flexible schedule. “I had assumed that I would go to the office on a nine-to-five schedule,” she said. “But […]
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 […]
Braiding hair, for cash and culture
By Kelsi Bowen A woman with brown micro-locs sat in the second of eight chairs stretching from the door to the back wall of Latifa Natural Hair Salon. The woman wore a multi-colored orange, yellow, red, blue and green silk chiffon maxi dress she had made in Senegal, where she was born. Oval-shaped, faux gold […]
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 […]
Learning English to make an American life
By Sophia Lian At the U-shaped table, six adult students looked intently at their classwork with their pencils in their hands, ready to learn a life-changing skill. Those students come to that Lower East Side location from Sudan, Guinea, and Haiti. And they do so for one reason: to study a new language. “If you […]
Fighting to save historic Merchant’s House
By Grace Andino Twelve years into their fight to protect the Merchant’s House Museum, those who staff the facility on East Fourth Street said they still are hoping planned construction of a hotel next door will not proceed. They argue that the construction will threaten the museum’s structural integrity, possibly causing the place to crumble […]
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
By Suriah Joseph Student journalist Michelle Yang was looking for free journalism programs ”that had a diversity of participants” and would help her build upon skills she’s gained during two years of working on her high school newspaper. The New York University Urban Journalism Workshop, which selected her for its 2024 summer cohort, provided what […]
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 […]
A broken elevator, crawling pests, big tuition
By Senida Wright Weinstein Hall, one of NYU’s biggest dormitories, has its pluses and its minuses. “Location, No. 1,” said Lacy Hardy, 21, an NYU film major and peer assistant at Weinstein. “ It is so nice being super central. The 6, N & R [subway trains] are all right here, so it is so […]
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 […]