February 2012
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Progress of Starbucks jobs program unclear
By Daphne Chen
It’s been just under four months since a Harlem Starbucks and the nonprofitAbyssinian Development Corporation announced they would work together to create positive change in Harlem, but the partnership has been slow to get started.
Starbucks and the Harlem-based ADC said in October that they would collaborate to give Harlem residents business training and to work on community...
January 2012
6 posts
WatchElia Salon is using its status as one of America’s best Dominican hair salons to raise money for NYC public schools.
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WatchI produced this behind-the-scenes video of Martin Schoeller’s photoshoot with world-record breaker Ashrita Furman. Schoeller produced a stunning black-and-white film photograph of Furman bicycling underwater, which can be seen in the Dec. 19 issue of The New Yorker.
Ashrita was one of my most fun assignments this year,” Martin said. “He bicycled underwater, ran through Queens in swimming...
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WatchLyudmilla Alexeeva, founder of the Moscow Helsinki Group, and one of my personal favorite interviews.
I worked as an assistant producer on The New Yorker/Human Rights Watch project Democracy Now, a series on Russian activists. Read the article by David Remnick and see the rest of the videos online.
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WatchOleg Orlov, of Memorial, tells the story of Natalya Estemirova, a human rights worker who was kidnapped in Chechnya and murdered.
I worked as an assistant producer on The New Yorker/Human Rights Watch project Democracy Now, a series on Russian activists. Read the article by David Remnick and see the rest of the videos online.
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WatchYevgenia Chirikova is an environmental activist protesting the government’s plans to cut a road through Khimki Forest.
I worked as an assistant producer on The New Yorker/Human Rights Watch project Democracy Now, a series on Russian activists. Read the article by David Remnick and see the video online.
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WatchNadira Isayeva, a reporter and former editor for Chernovik, a newspaper in Dagestan.
I worked as an assistant producer on The New Yorker/Human Rights Watch project Democracy Now, a series on Russian activists. Read the article by David Remnick and see the rest of the videos online.
December 2011
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Podcast: Peter Schjeldahl on African Icons →
I produced this podcast of Peter Schjeldahl’s review of “Heroic Africans: Legendary Leaders, Iconic Sculptures,” a show of mostly precolonial tribal pieces at the Metropolitan Museum, in the Oct. 31 issue of The New Yorker.
November 2011
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WatchI shot footage and pulled selects for this video of John Seabrook’s experiences investigating the process of building a better apple, focussing on the creation of a new variety “trying to take its place as the next hot apple” called SweeTango.
October 2011
2 posts
“Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved...”
– Maurice Sendak (via bobulate)
“For as a rule what is expected is painful, and what we are compelled to do is...”
– Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics
August 2011
9 posts
“Then they both kept on knifing him against the door with alternate and easy...”
– Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Texts from mom: Earthquick
Mom: Earthquick in NY. 5.9
Me: I heard. Everyone is ok though. Epicenter of the earthquake was Virginia
Mom: My gad
Me: Btw I'm going to eat dinner with some friends today
Mom: Did u text Alex and show u care about him regarding earthquack?
Columbia Journalism Review: Unsettling Insights... →
It’s interesting to look at the new trend of social-science political campaigning from the journalist’s perspective. In David Leonhart’s recent NYT Q&A with writer and former reporter Sasha Issenberg, they talked about Rick Perry’s 2006 election campaign strategy. As Issenberg described,
As the 2006 election season approached, the governor’s top strategist, Dave...
“If you ever go to New Mexico, it will itch you for the rest of your life.”
– Georgia O’Keefe, 1960
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WatchA few days in the stark and beautiful state of New Mexico with Professor Emlyn Hughes and the 2011 Nuclear Proliferation research group.
June 2011
30 posts
“I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one… Humans are...”
– John Steinbeck, East of Eden
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WatchA look behind the scenes of a youth performing arts group in Harlem. Led by Columbia University professor Jamal Jones, the kids of Impact Theater combine humor, determination, and raw talent for the strength to defy their odds and create soul-soaring music. Read the article and see the photos here.
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Theater group inspires teens in Harlem
Photos, video, and article published in the Columbia Daily Spectator on April 12, 2011.
It’s Saturday afternoon, and Jamal Joseph is coaching 30 or so kids through a rehearsal in Prentis Hall, a Columbia building on 125th Street facing the construction pit that will become the new Manhattanville campus.
He stands up and holds his fist in the air. Immediately, solemnly, the kids and teens...
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Harlem projects residents say cameras not a crime...
Published in the Columbia Daily Spectator on February 16, 2011.
Through a heavy lisp and missing teeth, Joseph Gomez tells a story familiar to many of his neighbors: in the 13 years he has lived in the Manhattanville Houses on 126th Street, he says he has been robbed three times.
Despite the installation of almost 100 surveillance cameras at the development, Gomez says life at this...
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As Northwest opens, faculty question vision,...
Published in the Columbia Daily Spectator on December 10, 2010. Co-written with Henry Wilson of the Columbia Daily Spectator.
Administrators have hailed the Northwest Corner Building, which officially opens this morning, as a boon for the science departments—a high-tech facility that will stimulate scientific research and attract top faculty to Columbia. But even as the building opens, some...
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Despite rezoning, development slow on 125th
Published in the Columbia Daily Spectator on December 8, 2010
More than two years after the city passed plans to rezone Harlem’s historic thoroughfare, few development projects are actually pushing forward on 125th Street.
In 2008, a rezoning plan for 125th Street—known for bustling nightlife and jazz at the Apollo Theater—went through the City Council, calling for more retail activity, taller...
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Cuomo rally draws protests
Published in the Columbia Daily Spectator on September 28, 2010
Gubernatorial hopeful Andrew Cuomo’s early morning campaigning trip in Harlem did not go exactly as planned.
And it wasn’t just the persistent rain that got in his way.
Cuomo—the current New York State attorney general and the Democratic candidate for governor, who is up against GOP candidate Carl Paladino—planned a 7:30 a.m....
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Search One Rescue seeks student recruitments
Published in The Sidekick on February 6, 2009
In the Dallas area, there are 33 people who know that when their pagers beep, lives are at stake.
In 1983, Coppell resident, former policeman and part-time EMT Paul Lake gathered six friends, put them through a training program and established Search One Rescue Team as a ground search management organization.
Now, 27 volunteers and 25 canines later,...
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Cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater: Why we cheat
Published in Coppell Student Media on February 27, 2010
Every student and teacher knows the telltale signs. A yawn and a stretch. The ever-so-slight glance of eyes to the left and right. The glint of an iPhone held casually beneath the table, away from the prying eyes of teachers.
It’s cheating.
And to some, it’s also a survival technique. In the words of one sophomore student, “If you care...
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WatchSeventh-graders at Columbia Secondary School take on the topic of abortion as part of Sam Levin’s story on recent Teacher’s College initiatives.
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“But ‘Thou mayest’! Why, that makes a man great, that gives him stature with the...”
– John Steinbeck, East of Eden