Urban Journalism Workshop
High school reporters cover local stories for NYU Journalism Institute’s summer program.
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 […]
Men also are concerned with body image
By Sophia Herrera Brady O’Keefe, 16, stands at 5’ 7” and weighs 125 pounds. Ask him about his self-image, and the summer 2022 NYU Precollege Program student will give you a straight answer: “I try to avoid thinking about what I like and dislike because that will inevitably bring out what I dislike.” Society, in […]
Skateboarders demanded a space of their own
By Tarak Jayachandran It’s 5 p.m on a Friday in July in the East Village. The sky is overcast. The National Weather Service has registered the day’s high at 96 degrees, 10 degrees above the norm for this time of year in New York City. The skaters pile in, mainly guys, but also one girl. […]
Supply chain, social media and brand pricing
By Tatiana Allen As the saying goes, “everything old is new again.” That’s shown, for example, in how brands such as Puma, New Balance, Crocs, and Champion, once again, are popular. Their popularity is driven by several factors, including the influence of social media, marketing, and celebrity endorsements. The price increases, however, are supply chain […]
Managing pet anxiety as life returns to normal
By Audrey Yoo While staying home all day may have been the worst part of the pandemic for some, it was a real treat for many pets. “They loved having somebody home all the time because they got tons of attention,” Magdalena Kusio, founder of My Wagging Gang, said of the four-legged creatures her staff […]
Rising ranks of young Democratic Socialists
By Mary Huerta Frustrated over how the two main political parties operate, some younger voters are looking for alternatives. Some are turning to Democratic socialism, with Democratic Socialists of America counting 6,000 members in 2015 but 94,000 members in July 2021. Among them is Mary Elizabeth Murphy, 21, a Fordham University student majoring in film […]
NYU, New School adjuncts want more pay
By Aida Sall Wages for adjunct professors at NYU are so low that some of them cannot afford health care. That’s according to leaders of the adjuncts’ union, which organized a recent protest to urge higher wages for those part-time instructors. “What do we want? … Contracts!” “If we don’t get it? … Shut it […]
An affordable housing fight in financial district
By Samuel Espinobarros The 80-story high-rise slated for what not is a bare plot at Cedar and Greenwich Streets will host 5 World Trade Center, whose developers have committed to reserving 25%, or 330, of 1,325 proposed residential units as affordably priced apartments. “That’s not enough,” said Jill Goodkind, co-founder for 100% Affordable 5WTC, a […]
Yoga, arts, community on St. Mark’s Place
By Jessica Romero Silver On the fourth floor, some among the dancers who’d assembled for a fundraiser made small talk, while a dachshund scurried about, darting from room to room. On the third floor, the two instrumentalists of The Royal Green Rangers, with their concert over, were trying to hug each and every person in […]
A worker-owned LGBTQ bookstore
By Carl Tsegah The air is crisp as Merlin Sabal opens the door to the BlueStockings Cooperative Bookstore. The morning sun illuminates a flag near the entrance whose rainbow colors are red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple, signifying the LGBTQ community. Sabal, 28, has spent the last four years as one of the owners […]