9/11 Tribute Center

       There are moments in life that you know you are never going to forget - for me 9/11 is one of them. Even though I was only 11 when it happened, I could recite to you the events of that day as clearly as if it happened yesterday. Last week I went on a self-guided audio tour of the a 9/11 Tribute Center at 120 Liberty Street.  Despite its small size, the center packs powerful imagery. It does a great job of honoring the memory of the World Trade Center and the efforts of everyone who gave their lives that day. The audio tour costs $10.00, but is free for children 12 and under. Tourists and natives alike are sure to appreciate the touching memorial. 

       It begins like a museum, artifacts that remained are displayed throughout the halls - a toy here, a shoe there. An American flag and a helmet are displayed in the corner. The every day nature of the objects harbors a sobering message. September 11th, 2001 started out as a normal day in New York City. People  kissed their spouses goodbye, sent their kids to school - I started the sixth grade - and then tragedy struck.

       Gallery 4 is the most moving. The walls are covered with more than 1,200 photographs of those who died. The pictures are tributes donated by the families of the deceased. A plaque holds the name of the 343 fireman who gave their lives that day. 

      The audio tour takes you to where the World Trade Center used to be. Where once two 110 story towers stood, there is nothing.

       But construction fills the area, a sign of hope and the natural progression of NewYork City. 

Tips for Spring Cleaning!

Fantasy

Reality

       Nobody likes spring cleaning. This is a fact a life. I also refuse to believe it's a task that could be remotely enjoyable, despite what Martha Stewart may tell you. However, it can be an important step to getting clutter out of your life and taking a good look at what you actually have. So here are some tips that help me through this dreaded time of year....           
      


1) Determine the size of your situation - If you normally a neat person,then you're in luck and this shouldn't be too big an issue for you. However, if you're more like me an assessment of damages may need to be in order.

Be realistic, if you're whole apartment/house/dorm needs work don't expect to get it done in an hour. Pick a day you can actually dedicate to working through each room at your own pace.

2) Start small - If you try to take on every room in the house at once, you're not going to get anywhere. The key is not just to focus on one room at a time - but one part of each room (in my case usually the closet).By starting small you'll see the most real change in a short amount of time. Instead of cleaning randomly and feeling like the mess isn't going anywhere pick one closet and stick with it.

3a) DON'T HOARD!!! - This one's for people like me who will find any reason to keep old notebooks, readings from class, those movie ticket stubs etc., etc, etc. At the end of my semester abroad I realized the extent of my hoarding when I only had a few hours to pack all of my stuff and take it to the airport. It finally dawned on me - I have too much stuff. Under the pressure of a departing plane in my future, I was forced to take only what I needed. If something has genuine sentimental value then save it. Just avoid keeping things for the sake of keeping them, you'll save a lot of space that way.

3b) BE THOROUGH - For the opposite of the hoarder it may be tempting to just grab a pile of stuff and dump it in a trash bag - its quick and easy but also dangerous. At least skim the stuff you plan on throwing away or before you know it your social security card is going in the same bag as those old receipts.

4) Too Tight Ain't Right -  It doesn't matter how much you weight if your clothing is too tight you will not look good. If you are working to lose some extra weight, sure keep that dress you fit into last year. However, if you're like me and in your 20s please, please throw away that tube top you got when you were 15. If clothes are no longer age appropriate or if it just doesn't fit anymore, don't keep it. Fashion and metabolisms change, so save room in your closet for clothes that keep you looking good now.

Last but not least - the most important rule - One man's trash is another man's treasure. Just because you think your clothes are too old, stained, out of fashion, etc. does not mean it can't go to good use. There are so many people who could use the things we no longer need - so don't send it to the trash heap. There are many, many organizations who will take your old clothes and give them to families to need. Whether it's your local church or the salvation army, most places are even willing to go to you and pick up your stuff. Turn spring cleaning into a two-fold accomplishment - get your life organized and contribute to the lives of others.

ACE, providing hope and jobs to those who need it the most.

      Since 1997, more than 1000 recovering homeless men and women have turned to cleaning New York City sidewalks in an attempt to turn their lives around. They are a part of Project Comeback, a program provided by the Association of Community Employment for the Homeless (ACE), a SoHo-based nonprofit organization. The program provides job training, work experience, and a support network for people seeking to transition into full-time employment. 

     "Our goal is not to train them to be street sweepers, our goal is to teach them - or re-teach them - how to work," said Jim Martin, executive director of the program. "We're foundation builders."

      The organization was founded in 1992 when SoHo resident Henry Buhl began offering street cleaning jobs to homeless people. The program later expanded into the SoHo Partnership, the TriBeCa Partnership and the NoHo/Bowery Partnership. In 2010 they consolidated under the name ACE.

Henry Buhl and the SoHo Partnership

      "I would use any drug I could take, I was sleeping in the subway," said Robert Bowman a program graduate of 2006 and assistant supervisor to the ACE street crews. "ACE gave me a chance and I took it. Now I'm in a position where people trust me and I can't look back at what I've done - I have to keep moving forward."

      ACE provides two programs. Project Comeback offers work experience, computer and literacy classes, individual counseling, courses on how to find or keep employment and even attire for job interviews, said Jim Martin.  Patients must be referred to ACE from outpatient facilities, shelters, or substance abuse programs. 

      Every year ACE holds graduation ceremonies for those who completed the program by securing permanent, full-time employment. On March 31st, the spring graduation will take place, celebrating the return of 15 participants into the working world.  

      "You see people make gains - you see their lives change in a short amount of time," Jim Martin said.

      Even after graduation, ACE makes sure participants continue on the right track and stay employed through Project Stay, said Bowman. 

      The program is privately funded, and relies on donations from private donors and businesses located on each cleaning route. 

      "These are tough times for not for profits," Jim Martin said. Broadway in SoHo, a key route for the organization, has become a financial concern, he said. If ACE cannot raise enough money from Broadway's businesses soon, it will have to abandon the route Jun. 30th. 
      "The bigger mega-stores are hesitant to participate - I've chased that money for years with staff," Jim Martin said. "That corridor without maintenance services will be a disaster. All I want to do is break even to the penny."

      "Mr. Buhl loves having us out on Broadway and the summer season is so hectic," said Steve Martin, a program graduate from 2007 and head supervisor to the cleaning crews. "We are hoping more businesses will donate and keep the services going."

     Graduates like Bowman and Steve Martin take pride in being a part of the process that once helped them.

     "I'm not going to brag or anything but I think Jim saw in me what I see in myself when I'm doing right," Steve Martin said. "I'm five years clean from drugs and alcohol and my life has been great - I wouldn't give it back for anything."

      The essence of the organization seems to be taped to Jim Martin's door, "Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results."

                                          What a stressful week....
                     

The Magical World of Google

      Last Thursday I got the chance to catch a glimpse of the world of Google - and it did not disappoint. My reporting class and I were given a tour and a free delicious lunch at the Google Headquarters in Chelsea, New York. Here's a link to the real-estate deal.
      Jessica Chan, a business process & compliance specialist at Google, showed us the facility and explained Google's employer-friendly mantra. Rejecting a typical big corporation style, Google tries to create a positive work environment, she said.  The company provides employers with free meals (breakfast,lunch and dinner), color coordinated based on nutritious value, and free gym memberships.
     "Google wants to promote a healthy lifestyle," she said. The main eateries are two cafeterias, but it's halls are home to many snack stations for workers on the go. I sampled some fruit and nuts myself.
     Aside from the ample supply of free food, Google has turned it's headquarters into Charlie's Chocolate Factory for grown ups. The walls are painted in vibrant greens and reds and workers can ride around on scooters to cross the avenue-long building. When they need time to relax, employers can opt to unwind in the game room or the massage room.
      The final stage of the tour was the free lunch. Options varied from do-it-yourself salads, mushroom risotto, crisp roasted pork belly and Vietnamese chicken wings. Everything was well worth my morning of hunger. I even snagged some desserts - espresso cookie pudding and oatmeal cookies - to take home. By the end of the experience I was full, in awe, and ready to find a way to work there one day myself.

   

"Open City" reading by Teju Cole

Author Teju Cole finished his reading and looked up at the crowd of 40 listeners surrounding him. He smiled at the applause from fellow writers, friends, interested buyers and even a local homeless man.

 “This is one of my favorite places in the city, in the world really,” Cole said. “It’s bizarre for me to be the star tonight and not in the public.”

Cole’s reading from "Open City," his first novel published in the U.S.,  was held on Feb. 21 at McNally Jackson Books, an independent bookstore located at 52 Prince St. Before the reading Cole mingled with the crowd in the cafe area, personally greeting many of them by name.

“Teju is a fascinating writer,” said Wah-Ming Chang, who first met Cole through his blog. The protagonist of “Open City,” Julius, made his first appearance on that blog. (I would link it but Cole deletes his blogs over time.) Here's his Web site http://www.tejucole.com/ and a new blog for the novel http://op-cit.tumblr.com/

“It’s been fantastic to see Julius from blog form to this,” Chang said.

The day of the reading coincided with the release of Cole’s review in the New Yorker by James Wood.  http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2011/02/28/110228crbo_books_wood

Wood said “Open City” was “beautiful, subtle, and, finally, original.”

Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts said she was very excited about the reception the book was getting. Rhodes-Pitts, also a first time novelist, is giving a reading with Cole Mar. 1 at the National Arts Club.

“We feel a sort of kinship,” she said. “We are among a group of people doing similar work.”

Cole’s novel, as well as Rhodes-Pitts’, is centered in New York City. It is a reflection of place and race in the city five years after 9/11.

The character Julius is a psychiatrist of German-Nigerian descent. Cole is an art historian whose parents are both Nigerian. Although he was born in Michigan, he grew up in Lagos, Nigeria. He returned to the United States as a 17-year-old in 1992.

            Cole said he faced the challenge of navigating what it meant to be African in America. 

“It’s very hard to be a black American that joins that story midstream,” he said.

Like Julius, he wandered through the city contemplating his surroundings.

“It’s not a record of my experience, but it’s backed up by that kind of observational research,” he said.

“That character is not him,” said Madhu Kaza, a friend of Cole. “The novel is a way of approaching experience.”

Robert Perry, a local homeless man, wandered in and stayed for the reading. Perry, a man with few teeth but many words, said he was particularly interested in the ideology of the book.

“I loved the reading,” Perry said. “He seems like a cool guy.”

 “Teju has a way of drawing unusual people to him all the time,” said Hawkins Boyle, an acquaintance of Cole.

Cole said that in some ways he feels more at home now in New York than in Nigeria.

“When I travel and come back into the city, that moment of getting into the airport and there’s like a Sikh guy at security and a Haitian guy driving the cab, you just breathe the air like ‘I’m home!’” he said. “These people understand me.”

            Cole said all the attention the book is getting has been an intense experience, but his friends have kept him from being too paranoid or self-absorbed.

            “Today I was doing laundry and washing my dishes,” he said. “And that’s a pretty great thing to be able to do the day your New Yorker review comes out.”