Tag Archive | "West Harlem"

From “Homo Thug” to “Wuthering Heights”


Younger readers in Harlem find the choices

by Lauren Kirchner
October 22, 2009

Photo credit: Lauren Kirchner

Photo credit: Lauren Kirchner

Asante Kahari is a bestselling author who would not recommend his books — especially if you are a teenager looking for something new to read. Kahari, author of Hustler’s Paradise and Homo Thug, writes in the emerging genre “urban lit,” pulp paperbacks published locally and then sold from tables on the streets of Manhattan.

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Posted in EducationComments (1)

No Joke


Hypertension problematic in Harlem

By Lauren Kirchner
September 20, 2009

About a dozen senior citizens sat in a circle of chairs at a senior center in West Harlem, leaned back, and laughed for five minutes straight. This “laughter meditation,” as their yoga instructor Badra Om, calls it, usually starts with Om herself letting out a loud, high-pitched cackle. The huge sound coming from such a petite woman is surprising, and the laughter is infectious. Soon the whole class joins in: first tentatively, then with feeling.

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Posted in HealthComments (0)

Not For Granted


The visitors still come to Grant’s Tomb

By Lauren Kirchner
October 8, 2009

Photo credit: Lauren Kirchner

Photo credit: Lauren Kirchner

For David Adamczyk, a 22-year-old student at the Manhattan School of Music, the wide stone plaza in front of Grant’s Tomb means a quiet place to doodle in a notebook while he thinks about his latest composition. For Corey Kilgannon, a writer for The New York Times, the sloping lawn in back is the perfect place to practice his trumpet scales every morning without bothering his neighbors on West 108th Street. At night, cab drivers park in the quiet lot and get out to stretch their legs. On the weekends, families spread picnic blankets while the members of The New York Unicycle Club wheel around nearby.

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Posted in Arts, FeaturedComments (0)

Every Bite Counts


Stretching every family’s meal

By Lauren Kirchner
October 1, 2009

A group of people holding colorful pieces of numbered paper waited patiently on the basement steps of Our Lady of Lourdes Church on West 142nd Street at 1 p.m. on Wednesday. They were lining up early; the food pantry below the church wouldn’t start giving out bags of food until an hour later. Inside, 50 grocery bags of food had been placed on a long wooden table. Everyone who came in would receive the same thing: cereal, milk, dried lentils, canned beans and tomatoes, tuna, dry pasta, fresh collard greens, onions, sweet potatoes, bananas and bread.

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Posted in HungerComments (0)