Skip to main content

New top story from Time: I Interviewed Hundreds of New Yorkers. Here’s What They Taught Me

https://ift.tt/3cgW6zl

In 2014 I was given a unique assignment: move to New York and talk to people, hundreds of them, and then somehow create a book using their words to describe the experience of living in New York right now. I spoke to New Yorkers in all five boroughs, in coffee shops, in pizzerias, in elevator shafts, on job sites. At one point, when the book was nearly finished, I began to recognize a by-product of the interviewing process. Something happens when you ingest so many stories from so many New Yorkers.

I learned a few things. I learned about express trains and egg creams, the route of the New York marathon and the strange naming protocols of the streets of Queens. I was taught how to steal a car in Manhattan, how to move properly on a sidewalk. Next came a list of specifics: best bagels, best pupusas, best baked clams (Donovan’s in Woodside). But I had no idea that speaking to New Yorkers would mean more important, subtle lessons would be shared from some of the most eloquent and generous people alive, lessons freshly-pertinent in our COVID-age: like why we should live in cities crowded with strangers who tend to breathe in our personal space, why it is important to truly see one another, and how to lead one’s life with compassion.

The interviewees also provided a masterclass in resilience. My book features seventy-five New Yorkers but I spoke to nearly 200 and heard stories of a resilience so bold it sometimes verged on the comical. New Yorkers have breaking points, sure. They would, I was told, leave the city if things happened, if things went wrong, but major events, not just terrorist attacks, financial crises, hurricanes or pandemics. Resilience was a learned skill. One interviewee told me how he’d perfected it clawing his way up off the streets, out of homelessness, out of sleeping bundled on the A train, and into a new life.

A passerby in New York covered in shadows from a tree.
Mayita MendezA scene-scape of New York capturing the shadow of a tree on passerby.

One of the first things you learn while conducting interviews with New Yorkers is that the person you’re meant to be speaking to is not the only voice that will end up on the recorder. There is always someone else in the periphery, at the next table, listening in, waiting to inject another opinion. This is part of the richness. No matter that New Yorkers complain the city is not like it used to be, the multifariousness of human life is still unparalleled. In many cases interviews became interactive; the interviewee peered back at me. “So, what about you?” the Orthodox lice picker asked me as she went about her work. “Tell us about yourself.” For my previous book I’d interviewed residents of London. New Yorkers challenged me in ways Londoners never did. Race was not an afterthought or a submerged current; it was right there. “How is your white skin feeling today?” I was asked. “Who are you to ask me that question?” and “How do you expect to understand this as a white man?” and “No offense but ¿Cómo puedo transmitir lo que es esta ciudad a alguien que no es de El Salvador?

By interviewing hundreds of New Yorkers I saw how many performance venues there are in New York. Way beyond Broadway, off- off- off- off-. New Yorkers made their own stages everywhere, any place where the great dramas of their own life could coincide with the dramas of their time. Here, I was told, your story didn’t have to be minor-league—your life was enmeshed with the ongoing saga. Some described a stage like Shea when the Mets won in ’86, or lying down in the middle of Wall Street when the ACT UP protests erupted in ‘87, or occupying the Williamsburg bridge in the BLM protests 33 years later. You could be part of a choral voice that echoed in the stadiums and canyons. A lawyer told me he needed New York state courts because, unlike federal courts, he was allowed to pace in front of a jury. He could move across his stage. A subway dancer told me he needed the A train as a stage to create his own story, his dance moves comprised a living sentence that ended with full stop when his sneakers finally hit the floor. These stages allowed New Yorkers to enlarge, aggrandize, become as large as they needed to be.

I learned that every profession was just that little bit different in New York. The pandemic had, of course, changed everything, including the skills needed to work behind a bodega counter. But no job here was like elsewhere. Sure, I was told by one legendary NYC tour guide, the tourists might get batteries thrown at them from certain high rises. But wasn’t that a life lesson in itself? I learned elevator repair in New York was truly the big time, as was nannying for the New York rich. But that’s why you did it. “You can watch Niagara Falls on TV,” a cop told me, “but don’t you want to get on the Maid of the Mist? Don’t you want to feel the mist on your face?” You worked with the stuff of the city. You pressed hard, left your name and departed. You learned what you could before your New York time was up.

A young boy in New York walks by.
Mayita MendezA scene-scape of New York capturing a young boy walking by.

It wasn’t just the adults. I learned how New York forges its children. One teenager left New York for college and encountered the children of the Midwest, most of whom looked to have been wrapped in cotton wool their entire lives. New York was like that: a great breaker of silos. We’re encouraged daily to leave our own silos. Change your Facebook feed or live in New York and engage. Whoever you are, I was told, your “other” is here. That’s the beauty. “I’m afraid of the other,” a nanny said to me, “we all sort of are—but you expose yourself naturally, gradually, and have positive experiences and you grow out from that.” And that exposure can only happen in the rush, the proximity to strangers, all that New York affords and all that’s been temporarily taken from us—sharing, listening, overhearing, the good kind of exposure.

In New York, the top note is individuality, but I heard again and again about a collective compassion, including in the account of a subway conductor who described exactly how his passengers looked out for each other, again and again.

And what about my interviewee who clawed his way out of homelessness? He taught me these skills are transferable. Over the course of the pandemic he has assured me that what he learned in New York prepared him well: Get by, survive, stick out the loneliness, have faith in the city. NY will always be there. “You know what?” he said to me recently. “If you want to learn more, you can come back any time.”

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Traffic Collisions have Decreased on San Francisco’s Slow Streets

Traffic Collisions have Decreased on San Francisco’s Slow Streets By Julia Malmo   As a whole, Slow Streets are safer than they were before being designated Slow Streets  Streets that are part of the SFMTA’s  Slow Streets Program have become measurably safer since the program began in 2020, with the number of traffic crashes falling by almost half. On average, these corridors have seen a 48% drop in collisions following their designation as Slow Streets, compared with a 14% drop in collisions citywide over the same period. Slow Streets also are more welcoming for people who walk, bike and roll. Fewer than 1,000 vehicles per day use all but four of the current Slow Streets (20th Street, Minnesota Street, Noe Street, and Page Street).  The goal of the program is to create safe, shared streets that are comfortable and enjoyable for people of all ages and abilities, using any mode of transportation. We now can see how it’s doing in a new evaluation report . When the SFMTA Board appr

New top story from Time: Pfizer-BioNTech Have Started Testing Their COVID-19 Vaccine in Children Under 12

https://ift.tt/3vWOQjL Alejandra and Marisol Gerardo are nine years old but already making a little bit of history. The twin sisters are among the first young children to get vaccinated with a COVID-19 shot in Pfizer-BioNTech’s study of its vaccine in kids under age 12. Alejandra and Marisol had their blood drawn in the morning on March 24, then got their first dose of the two-dose vaccine later that afternoon. “Their primary concern was, ‘is it going to hurt,’” says their father, Dr. Charles Gerardo, chief of emergency medicine at Duke University School of Medicine. “They’re not too worried about the long term side effects; they’re looking at the moment, not the future.” Testing the vaccine in younger children will answer critical questions about how much immunity the shots can provide, and potentially give parents and education officials more confidence in re-opening schools. While it appears that younger children don’t get as sick with COVID-19 as older teens and adult

New top story from Time: Little Recognition and Less Pay: These Female Healthcare Workers Are Rural India’s First Defense Against COVID-19

https://ift.tt/3mrDgrm Archana Ghugare’s ringtone, a Hindu devotional song, has been the background score of her life since March. By 7 a.m. on a mid-October day, the 41-year-old has already received two calls about suspected COVID-19 cases in Pavnar, her village in the Indian state of Maharashtra. As she gets ready and rushes out the door an hour later, she receives at least four more. “My family jokes that not even Prime Minister Modi gets as many calls as I do,” she says. Ghugare, and nearly a million other Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) assigned to rural villages and small towns across India, are on the front lines of the country’s fight against the coronavirus . Every day, Ghugare goes door to door in search of potential COVID-19 cases, working to get patients tested or to help them find treatment. With 8 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, India has the second-highest tally in the world after the United States and its health infrastructure struggled to co

FOX NEWS: Top baby names list for 2021 reveals familiar trends For the second year in a row, these two names are the most popular for girls and boys – leading BabyCenter's Top 100 Baby Names list.

Top baby names list for 2021 reveals familiar trends For the second year in a row, these two names are the most popular for girls and boys – leading BabyCenter's Top 100 Baby Names list. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/2ZZEl3u

New top story from Time: Google’s Employee Vaccine Mandate Could Influence Other Companies to Do the Same

https://ift.tt/3BQnXRv (SAN RAMON, Calif.) — Google is postponing a return to the office for most workers until mid-October and rolling out a policy that will eventually require everyone to be vaccinated once its sprawling campuses are fully reopened in an attempt to fight the spreading Delta variant. In a Wednesday email sent to Google’s more than 130,000 employees, CEO Sundar Pichai said the company is now aiming to have most of its workforce back to its offices beginning Oct. 18 instead of its previous target date of Sept. 1. The decision also affects tens of thousands of contractors who Google intends to continue to pay while access to its campuses remains limited. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “This extension will allow us time to ramp back into work while providing flexibility for those who need it,” Pichai wrote. And Pichai disclosed that once offices are fully reopened, everyone working there will have be vaccinated. The requirement will be first imposed at Goog

New top story from Time: Corky Lee, Photographer Who Spent His Career Spotlighting Asian and Pacific Islander-Americans, Dies at 73

https://ift.tt/2Ymu9yf Corky Lee, a photojournalist who spent five decades spotlighting the often ignored Asian and Pacific Islander American communities, has died. He was 73. Lee died Wednesday in New York City’s Queens borough of complications from COVID-19, his family said in a statement. “His passion was to rediscover, document and champion through his images the plight of all Americans but most especially that of Asian and Pacific Islanders,” his family said. The self-described “undisputed unofficial Asian American Photographer Laureate,” Lee used his eye to pursue what he saw as “photographic justice.” Almost always sporting a camera around his neck, he was present at many seminal moments impacting Asian America over a 50-year career. He was born Young Kwok Lee in New York City to Chinese immigrant parents. He was the first child in his family to go to college, graduating from City University of New York’s Queens College. A self-taught freelance photographer, Lee

New top story from Time: Australian ‘a Bit Sore’ After Getting His Arm Caught in a Crocodile’s Jaws

https://ift.tt/39Khfj1 CANBERRA, Australia — An Australian wildlife tour operator said he was lucky to escape more serious injury or even death when a crocodile lunged from a river and clamped his hand in its jaws. Sean Dearly was attacked on Monday on the Adelaide River which is renowned for its “jumping crocodiles” — large crocodiles that rise vertically from the water to snatch chicken carcasses dangled from long poles extended from tourist cruise boats. The 60-year-old Dearly spoke Wednesday about his encounter with a young 2.2-meter (7-foot) crocodile. “I’m feeling all right. I’m a bit sore in the arm, of course, but, yeah, I survived it,” he told Nine Network television. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Dearly had his right hand and forearm in a cast, but did not detail his injuries. He had undergone surgery to repair a severed tendon in his hand, the Northern Territory News reported. Dearly said he told the 18 tourists on his cruise on Monday to keep their entire

New top story from Time: Patrisse Cullors Steps Down as Head of Black Lives Matter Foundation

https://ift.tt/3utmDPE A co-founder of Black Lives Matter announced Thursday that she is stepping down as executive director of the movement’s foundation. She decried what she called a smear campaign from a far-right group, but said neither that nor recent criticism from other Black organizers influenced her departure. Patrisse Cullors, who has been at the helm of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation for nearly six years, said she is leaving to focus on other projects, including the upcoming release of her second book and a multi-year TV development deal with Warner Bros. Her last day with the foundation is Friday. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “I’ve created the infrastructure and the support, and the necessary bones and foundation, so that I can leave,” Cullors told The Associated Press. “It feels like the time is right.” Cullors’ departure follows a massive surge in support and political influence in the U.S. and around the world for the BLM movement, whi

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J कहने को हमसफर हैं 3 में दिलचस्प मोड़, क्या होगी अब रोहित और अमायरा की शादी?

ऑल्ट बालाजी और ज़ी5 का लोकप्रिय शो 'कहने को हमसफ़र हैं' का तीसरा सीज़न 6 जून को दोनों लोकप्रिय स्ट्रीमिंग ऐप पर लॉन्च किया गया था। जबकि शो के निर्माता अब तक 10 एपिसोड लॉन्च कर चुके है, वही दर्शक विशेष from टेलीविजन की खबरें | Television News in Hindi | TV Serials Update in Hindi – FilmiBeat Hindi http:/hindi.filmibeat.com/television/kehne-ko-humsafar-hai-season-3-rohit-and-amayra-marriage-090630.html?utm_source=/rss/filmibeat-hindi-television-fb.xml&utm_medium=23.195.73.4&utm_campaign=client-rss