OLD_New York Stories of Amazing People Fall 2011

Transcript
Homeless But Not Hopeless

Vincent Trivett 26 October, 2011

My dream like my you know vision for life was I was just going to keep saving up money so I can afford like rent and like get a better job and that would be the life but, obviously it didn’t work out like that.

I felt like I was gonna come here and work my butt off you know just work work work work work And um save a whole bunch of money have an apartment, room with like one of my college friends , but I got here and you know, like life happened.

I had literally three dollars and I spent two of those dollars one on um an Arizona and the other dollar a bag of chips.

I live in Chelsea New York, at Chelsea Foyer, which is a part of the Good Shepherd Services, and just like an independent like transitional living place.

To me homelessness is a state of mind. I had stake in the fashion world, I had stake in the world all around me, so I was fine.

One of the things that I found like positive was that I got in connection or got in close contact with the like ballroom world, which is the like black and Latino gay community um kind of express themselves. It has a big long history.

There’s like two versions, two levels of this um scene and a few years ago um a kiki scene started for like younger kids to express themselves with the talents that the adults were doing um, which the most popular and most unique ones for our community is vouging. We we do our dance, vouging has five elements, you mix them up for free style and you just people know you’re here.

People call me Smiley and I joined the house of Lou’boutin, the kiki house of Lou’boutin and so I am Smiley Lou’boutin.

When you just kind of live your own life and I think like what are the other 23, 24, 25 year olds doing? What are they doing and why am I not doing it?

When you do feel connected and feel like you are part of this world, homeless doesn’t really apply. You don’t have like your own place but you are being productive and you are being a part of you know, the community.

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Alfred prefers to think of himself as ‘leaseless’ as opposed to homeless. Though he lives in a shelter for young people transitioning to a normal living situation, he doesn’t let that ruin his positive mood. Alfred escaped boredom and abuse from his family in Connecticut and bounced from shelter to shelter for years.
You wouldn’t know that he’s been through that just by looking at him. His nickname in his community is “Smiley,” and it’s well deserved. Though he is leasless, his ‘home’ is in the “kiki” scene, the underground ballroom world where you gay black and Latino people meet. Ballroom, and the most popular ballroom dance style, ‘vouge’ came out of the LGBT community in Harlem in the late 60s. (The dance incorporates angular motions and a catwalk-style ‘walk’ and takes its name from the fashion magazine.) Vouge is seeing a resurgence among queer people of color today.
In a kiki scene, dancers organize themselves into “houses” that enjoy friendly competition against one another. Smiley joined the house of Lou’boutin (a corruption of ‘Louis Vuitton’) and on the scene, he goes by Smiley Lou’boutin. Some dancers even legally change their names to show their loyalty to their house.
Feeling at home in this community helps him find connection and support to keep him on his way back into school (Fashion Institute of Technology) and into a normal living situation. Whatever bad situation you are in, even if you are constantly broke and exiled from your family, you can keep your head straight if you have a community to call home.

Chelsea Foyer, Alfred’s shelter: goodshepherds.org/programs/out-of-home/foyer/model.html

New Alternatives, a social support group for gay homeless youth:
newalternativesnyc.org/services/

On Vogue dance:
dancespirit.com/articles/1844

Zach and I found Smiley at New Alternatives, a group for homeless gay youth in the East Village. ZK was familiar with the director from a previous story and asked, would she know a few people at the center that have an interesting story and aren’t shy?
The director pointed to Alfred. I had the feeling that we were headed for a really deep, depressing story. Stories of sleeping on the streets, disease, ‘survival sex’ for money, or worse. I was prepared to meet someone that I would feel for. Despite his struggles, though, Alfred was really fun and easy to be around. In fact, he had just gotten back from a trip to the mountains that the group organized. Living on a knife’s edge didn’t seem to bother him at all, really.

we later agreed that here is a guy that has been through a lot, but basically, he’s just a happy guy. I wanted to know how.

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Tell you the truth I like it when something comes in, when someone else tries fixing it and screws it all up, I like fixing them, ‘cause it’s more of a challenge. The average person comes in for a tune up, its all minor stuff.

When something comes in where he says I had it at (clears throat) whatever shop and it don’t work right – and to have the guy call up and say ‘runs perfect now,’ that I enjoy doing, ya know.

What you pay for is what you get. If you come in for a clutch job and I quote ya, just say, it’s a hundred dollars. If it takes me four hours, doesn’t make a bit of difference, I quoted the price and that’s it. I stand behind what I say and what I write down.

In the beginning I was playing with bicycles, you know, working on them, truing wheels, up, we were selling motorcycles and bicycles at the same time, so my brother used to do the motorcycles and I was 14 at the time, I was helping him with the bicycles then I got more involved in motorcycles and I’ve been doing that ever since and I enjoy it.

Going to school, that was my reward, you know, coming down to the motorcycle shop, after I did my homework I was allowed to go to the motorcycle shop. Homework had to be first.

People go to work, I go to have fun. ‘Cause I never take my job home with me ‘cause I really don’t have a job. This is more like play.

Very few people can say they love going to work. I enjoy going to work. I’d like to go another 25 years doing the same thing. I have no complaints. When I want to take off, I take off. If I don’t feel like coming in, I don’t open up.

Two shops right across, one to my left and one down the block, they both went out (out of business) because they only want to cater to new vehicles, and you don’t make money on new vehicles because nothing breaks.

The old ones, nobody wants to work on them – because most mechanics today, if you can’t plug it in and it tells you what’s wrong with it, you’re screwed. Sorry about that but you’re screwed! ‘Cause the computer tells you everything. The old ones, you gotta use your mind.

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Sewing is a passion. It’s like, you have to have the passion for it ‘cause if you don’t it will stress you out. Because so many things could go wrong when sewing a garment. I mean, if you, if you mess up with the littlest thing your whole design could be off.

So, when I was in college, um, I pretty much bought a sewing machine from Wal-Mart and then I was in the dorm room, I had my friends there with me. We’re like alright, we’re gonna’ do a collection for this fashion show. Um, I pretty much cut up all my old clothes, and I bought some fabric. And I was like, alright, well I use those as a patterns. But then after that I was like I don’t want this pattern because it’s not who I am. So I pretty much started creating my own patterns. And then, um, then I just started sewing with the new sewing machine. I mean, it was like seventy bucks at Wal-Mart.

It turned into an actual business in 2010, in May of 2010. And that’s when it was like ok, this is Nippy Lavern the brand LLC company. Um, along with following that it was a boutique that was um, came out of nowhere. And it was just, such a, it was like over joycing feeling to have a boutique and it was in my five year plan. And I mean, to do it in two years it was like, it came out of nowhere.

Financials for Nippy Lavern, it’s been really tough. Um, month to month, um, maybe out of, what are we in? This is the tenth month. Maybe out of the ten months, it’s been about six months where I’ve broken even. And the other ones it’s been like hell. Trying to pick up because, you know, once you’re missing out of, you know, a certain month, it’s like, it’s hard to bounce back from it. I mean, profits just still low, like I’m just breaking even as far as rent. Like being able to share or have extra profits and money in my pockets, no, that’s not really there. So I’m pretty much just breaking even as far as the business.

If I didn’t, if I didn’t have enough money to pay my rent for like two months, I would pretty much have to go probably bartend or do something to get the cash. Just in case, like, I mean, there would be nothing to fall back on because I used all my savings and my mom used all her savings to open up the boutique. So pretty much that’s what we have to fall back on. And, I’ll either have to go and get a job or, I mean, just try to find other ways. So pretty much sew, you know, find some customers to sew some dresses for.

Designing, personally for me, means, I mean, I get to show my creativity. I mean, doing fashion shows and stuff, like that inspires me to like keep on going and being that I can pretty much make the clothes and put it on the runway and everyone enjoy it, that gives me a significance to myself, like you know, as accomplishment.

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Jessica Martin, 23, a fashion designer from Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, opened “Nippy Lavern Fashions Boutique” located at 384 Tompkins Avenue, in January of 2011. Named after her aunt Darlene “Nippy” Lavern Taylor, who was killed by a drunk driver in 1988, the fashion line and store came as a surprise to Martin’s family. While studying graphic design at the University of Bridgeport in 2008, Martin, a self-described tom-boy, taught herself how to sew and entered her school’s annual Fashion Show. From then on, Martin’s sole focus has been fashion. After receiving her Associate’s degree in graphic design, she enrolled at Berkeley College and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in fashion merchandising and management. After more than 70 fashion shows under her belt and two years ahead of her business plan schedule, Martin strives to provide the women of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn and beyond with classy, fun, and edgy designs. Although she specializes in form-fitting dresses, Martin also makes jackets, skirts, and corsets.

But even though the fashion shows have given her visibility and a score of clients, Martin struggles to pay for the store’s rent, bills, fabrics, and materials. After she quit her full-time retail job in July—she worked from 6 a.m. until 2 p.m. during the first seven months of her boutique’s opening—it has become more challenging to make ends meet. Furthermore, marketing her line and expanding her clientele has also been a challenge. With no funds to pay for a website or promotional materials, Martin relies on word-of-mouth and social media to publicize her line and store.

Headline: Fashion Designer Struggles to Keep Boutique Open

Transcription on next page.

Links:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nippy-Lavern-Fashions-LLC/174935209204048

http://www.modelmayhem.com/762459

http://bed-stuy.patch.com/articles/tompkins-avenue-businesses-lure-locals

How we got the story:
I met Martin back in late spring of 2011 while reporting on a trend piece about a spike in fashion store openings in Bed-Stuy. “Nippy Lavern Fashions Boutique” is one of three clothing stores that have opened on Tompkins Avenue in the last year. “The Meat Market” vintage clothing shop and “Fashion Runway” are located on the same block as Martin’s business and are also owned by young black women who hail from the neighborhood. A few blocks away, “Loveys Accessories Boutique” opened on Marcus Garvey Blvd. last December, and “Johntines Boutique” for plus-sized women opened on Malcolm X Blvd. on July of 2010.

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5)
Mike Cramer is Field Marshall for the Canton of BrokenBridge – the Brooklyn branch of the Society For Creative Anachronism. The SCA promotes education and appreciation of arts from the medieval era – cooking, weaving, armor making – and armed combat. An avid SCA fighter for over three decades, Mike Cramer has done battle in more than 80 crown tournaments. A self-proclaimed ‘nerdy kid in high school’ Mike started SCA fighting early, and though he’s slowed down, he still fights he remains a fixture at SCA events up and down the East Coast.

Though like most SCA fighters, he’s most comfortable fighting with classic combination of broadsword and shield, Cramer is also proficient with a host of medieval weapons, including the great sword, polearm, battle axe, mace and spear. Cramer still participates in battles regularly, demonstrating medieval-inspired martial arts to crowds at renaissance faires and educational events – with rattan (wooden) weapons, and in plate armor, complete with a tabard bearing a coat of arms of his own design.

But as field marshal for Brooklyn, he spends more and more time training the next generation of fighters. He teaches everything from how to do honorable battle with rattan swords and how to keep your armor in tip top shape to stretching exercises to keep new duelists fighting fit. But though training acting as a ref take up most of his time now, he remains an avid fighter.
–
http://www.scafighter.blogspot.com/ – Mike Cramer’s SCA Fighting Blog – Full of tips, tricks and advice for SCA Fighters
http://www.ashcraftbaker.com/ – One of Mike’s recommended armorers for SCA fights
http://www.sca.org/ – Main site for the SCA and a great place for finding SCA groups, events and people in your area, no matter where you are.
http://www.ostgardr.org/main.shtml – The SCA organization for the 5 boroughs of New York City, As well as Westchester and Putnam Counties
http://www.cantonofbrokenbridge.org/ – And the SCA in Brooklyn, where Mike acts as Field Marshal, organizing fighting events and training and mentoring new fighters

6) Fun Fact:
The shot you see Mike demonstrating on the practice dummy is a retreating blow, more common in West Coast SCA fighting than it is in New York. Originally from California, Mike is one of only three or four people on the east coast who use that kind of blow in combat – though if he continues training new fighters, probably not for long.

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Homeless, but not Hopeless
The Story of Alfred “Smiley” Hammonds

Alfred Hammonds, 25, dresses to the nines in raw denim skinny jeans, an assortment of color-coordinated tops, and fashionable accessories. He resembles your typical New York City-based, fashion-inspired twenty something, but compared to others who match this type, Alfred is different. He’s homeless.

Alfred didn’t have it easy growing up. His stepfather beat him, he moved from state to state, and when he attended the Fashion Institute of Technology—a place to escape his reality—his finances and grades forced him to leave. He then returned home to his mother’s house in Connecticut where the abuse continued, but on an emotional level. She doubted him, yelled at him for no reason, and would make promises of buying him his own apartment that always went undelivered. After one blow-out fight in the summer of 2009, Alfred ran away. He boarded a bus to New York and hasn’t left the city since.

He has bounced from shelter to shelter since his arrival and has never let his situation get him down. He found work, found a supportive group of friends in the queer ballroom scene, and found a room in a spacious and clean downtown shelter: The Chelsea Foyer. He even found new hope to get him out of homelessness: school. If all goes according to plan, he’ll hit the books next fall.

Alfred defies the typical homeless stereotype. Moreover, he proves that any challenge can be overcome.

Behind-the-Scenes Story:

Vincent and I met Alfred at New Alternatives: a support group for queer homeless youth that meets in the East Village. The director of our program introduced us to Alfred, and we got talking. We instantly clicked with his spunky personality and his comfort in opening up to us. He agreed to have us interview him, follow him around while he hung out with friends, and invited us to one of his group’s ball competitions, which you see in the video. A great character with an inspiring story, Alfred gave us great material for this video, as well as great life lessons.

Links:

indypendent.org/ 2009/ 09/ 17/ a-forgotten-youth/

qsaltlake.com/ 2011/ 04/ 29/ event-raises-awareness-for-queer-homeless-youth/

dancespirit.com/ articles/ 1844

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When neonatologist Ramon Mendez is not saving premature babies on his job in a New York City hospital, he’s saving birds at his pigeon coop in Ozone Park, Queens. In a loft that he cleans daily, he’s breeding, raising and prepping beautiful thoroughbreds of the sky to race hundreds of miles.

While he’s raised pigeons since he was 15, the 44-year-old only started raising pigeons to race this past winter. Now, he’s determined to become one of the top competitors at the club he races at on Coney Island.

Every Saturday during the spring and fall, he selects his best cocks and hens that are trained and conditioned to fly through the sky and brings them to the Viola Homing Pigeon Club. Once he checks in his birds through scanning electronic ankle bracelets, he jokes with the older generation of flyers and tries to learn the secrets of pigeon racing.

Despite cries from animal activists about cruel treatment of the pigeons, Mendez takes more care of the birds than many realize. For one injured cock that he believes flew into a wire, he stitched its crop, nursed the bird back to health and rehabilitated him back into racing condition.

Pigeon racing is a time consuming sport, he says, but it’s a sport that’s worth its minimum five hours a day. It’s not even the competition or the money that motivates When he sees his birds drop from the sky, he knows they’re coming home and that’s why he loves it.

3) – a compelling headline and subhead that are SEO optimized plus at least 5 tags

Competitive Pigeon Racing Still Flies Through New York City’s Skies

Ramon Mendez, of Ozone Park, Queens, Among The New Generation Of Pigeon Flyers

Tags: pigeon racing, Ramon Mendez, homing pigeons, Nathan Frandino, pigeon fancier
American Pigeon Racing Union – pigeon.org/

Taking on Tyson – animal.discovery.com/ tv/ taking-on-tyson/

Flamingo International Challenge Pigeons – flamingoic.com/

a short behind-the-scenes story about how you found the character,
something interesting that happened that’s not in the final piece, why
you created this story, etc (great for blogging)

We met Ramon at the Viola Homing Pigeon Club. He was friendly, open and excited to talk pigeons. He was also one of the youngest pigeon racers there. Most of the racers are old, scruffy looking white men with descent ranging from Poland to Italy to Scotland. But Ramon is only 44 years old.

We found out that he had only been racing for a short time. Despite his short time in racing, we quickly learned he was no novice. He knew about breeding, raising, handling, training, conditioning and racing his birds. His brother happens to be one of the top pigeon racers in Spring Hill, Fla., where all the top racers in the U.S. compete.

The sport is very secretive, and we quickly learned that. Before we met Ramon, the older gentlemen in the club looked at us with great suspicion. A couple of young kids strolling into a pigeon racing club on a Saturday night? They didn’t trust us one second, but eventually they all opened up, sharing stories of how they got into pigeon racing, the times they won, the times they lost, the philosophy, everything.

Eventually we met Ramon, and he invited us to his loft, introduced us to Stitch–a bird that he stitched an injury for, and told his story to us.

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Ben Schwartz, 32, sleeps wakes to the chirping of grasshoppers and the wind rustling through the trees in Wassaic, New York. He gets up at the hint of dawn, seven days a week, earlier on Wednesdays, to work a rich plot of land that produces herbs and produce. He finds his reward for his work in in the faces of the Bronx community residents who buy the medicinal herbs, teas, and produce that Schwartz hopes can keep them healthy.

While other community-supported farmers head straight to the pricey parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, Ben and his partners, with the help of a generous donor, bring their products to the neighborhoods that he says need it most – The South Bronx. Residents have high rates of diabetes and blood pressure, but little money to buy expensive organic produce or medicines. It’s Ben’s mission to give his customers foods like nettle, sumac and birch root that contain vitamins and anti-oxidants.

Ben and his volunteers earn little money from their endeavor. They have no health insurance and split only what they earn from the farm. While the goal is to eventually “pay people a living wage”, the Wassaic Community Farm is providing an outlet to people who are looking to, as a famous saying goes, “live in the world and not on it.”

The farm is part of The Wassaic Community Project, 17 Furnace Bank Road, Wassaic, New York and sells at Mott Haven Farmers’ Market and Harvest Home North Central Bronx Farmers’ Market

Links:
The Wassaic Farm Project – wassaiccommunityfarm.com/
Grow Food – growfood.org/ farm/ 1743
Brooklyn Farmer – brooklynfarmer.wordpress.com/

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Interesting Behind the Scenes –

This is really Nida’s story, so I can’t say that I’ve come up with this or met Ben first or anything. I can say that I wanted to do this story to get the hell out of New York City, and I got my wish. Our first day heading up to see Ben, we went late at night and slept in their near-empty farmhouse. It was so pitch-dark outside that you couldn’t see one inch in front of you. We woke around 5am to ride in a van packed with tea and produce. It was hard to maintain a journalistic approach, in the end I felt like I had attached myself to them, that I was journeying with the sumac.

The beauty of the rich soil, the scenery and the simple living (although it was hardly rough – the farmhouse was modern and majestic) made me nostalgic for the woods of Massachusetts. When I met Winnie, a former lawyer, who quit her career to work on this farm, it really got me wondering why we sacrifice so much sanity to live in a city that sits on top of the earth. These guys live happily in the earth – with little distraction and work that is satisfying and purposeful.

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“Have you ever been convicted of a felony?”

For Steven Johnson, the answer is “yes” and the proof is the nearly 30 years he spent behind bars.

Since he was released from prison last year, Johnson, 45, has worked hard to put his past behind him. He promptly completed required drug treatment and job training programs, then enrolled at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, where he began classes this fall.

He has also gone on many job interviews, where he has learned to explain to potential employers that he is more than his criminal record.

“I’m not ashamed of the fact that I made some wrong decisions in my life,” Johnson says; because, he explains, “That’s not me.”

Johnson was raised in Brooklyn, New York by a teenage single mother. In high school, he began to sell drugs and was first arrested at age 17. That began a relentless cycle of incarceration that consumed most of his adult life – almost 30 years spent in prison.

Though free, Johnson faces daunting obstacles. Nationwide, more than four in ten offenders return to state prison within three years of their release, according to a 2011 study by the Pew Center on the States. Back in their communities, they face a slew of challenges, which often includes slim job prospects.

In this video, Johnson describes the difficulty of reentering the workforce after prison as he heads to a job interview at an electronics recycling company in Mount Vernon, New York.

(Photographed by Ian Thomas and Patrick Wall; Edited by Patrick Wall)

1. A 2011 study by the Pew Center on the States showing rates of recidivism among American prisoners.
2. A 2004 report by the Urban Institute on the challenges former prisoners face when they reenter society and search for work.
3. A website full of useful links to research and other resources on prisoner reentry.
 6) – a short behind-the-scenes story about how you found the character, something interesting that happened that’s not in the final piece, why you created this story, etc (great for blogging)

You might have noticed a tall man in a blue shirt and black slacks boarding the bus behind Steve in the video. You also might have recognized the same man when he chats with Steve in the office lobby. (He says, “Man, everybody needs a second chance. That’s what life is about, you know.”)

As it turns out, both men are clients at the Fortune Society in New York City, a nonprofit that helps ex-offenders reenter society. They often send clients to interview at businesses around the city with whom they have relationships – including the recycling firm where Steve heads in the film.

Once they met while waiting for their separate interviews, they began to share stories about their experience of life after prison. They continued the conversation after their interviews, when they rode a bus then a subway together back into the city. All the way, they spoke about the difficulty of getting employers to look past criminal records, adjusting to domestic duties like chores and bills and keeping up their spirits throughout the process.

They parted ways at a train station in Harlem – but not before exchanging numbers and promising to keep in touch.

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Sewing is a passion. It’s like, you have to have the passion for it ‘cause if you don’t it will stress you out. Because so many things could go wrong when sewing a garment. I mean, if you, if you mess up with the littlest thing your whole design could be off.

So, when I was in college, um, I pretty much bought a sewing machine from Wal-Mart and then I was in the dorm room, I had my friends there with me. We’re like alright, we’re gonna’ do a collection for this fashion show. Um, I pretty much cut up all my old clothes, and I bought some fabric. And I was like, alright, well I use those as a patterns. But then after that I was like I don’t want this pattern because it’s not who I am. So I pretty much started creating my own patterns. And then, um, then I just started sewing with the new sewing machine. I mean, it was like seventy bucks at Wal-Mart.

It turned into an actual business in 2010, in May of 2010. And that’s when it was like ok, this is Nippy Lavern the brand LLC company. Um, along with following that it was a boutique that was um, came out of nowhere. And it was just, such a, it was like over joycing feeling to have a boutique and it was in my five year plan. And I mean, to do it in two years it was like, it came out of nowhere.

Financials for Nippy Lavern, it’s been really tough. Um, month to month, um, maybe out of, what are we in? This is the tenth month. Maybe out of the ten months, it’s been about six months where I’ve broken even. And the other ones it’s been like hell. Trying to pick up because, you know, once you’re missing out of, you know, a certain month, it’s like, it’s hard to bounce back from it. I mean, profits just still low, like I’m just breaking even as far as rent. Like being able to share or have extra profits and money in my pockets, no, that’s not really there. So I’m pretty much just breaking even as far as the business.

If I didn’t, if I didn’t have enough money to pay my rent for like two months, I would pretty much have to go probably bartend or do something to get the cash. Just in case, like, I mean, there would be nothing to fall back on because I used all my savings and my mom used all her savings to open up the boutique. So pretty much that’s what we have to fall back on. And, I’ll either have to go and get a job or, I mean, just try to find other ways. So pretty much sew, you know, find some customers to sew some dresses for.

Designing, personally for me, means, I mean, I get to show my creativity. I mean, doing fashion shows and stuff, like that inspires me to like keep on going and being that I can pretty much make the clothes and put it on the runway and everyone enjoy it, that gives me a significance to myself, like you know, as accomplishment.

Get the rest of the story

Jessica Martin, 23, a fashion designer from Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, opened “Nippy Lavern Fashions Boutique” located at 384 Tompkins Avenue, in January of 2011. Named after her aunt Darlene “Nippy” Lavern Taylor, who was killed by a drunk driver in 1988, the fashion line and store came as a surprise to Martin’s family. While studying graphic design at the University of Bridgeport in 2008, Martin, a self-described tom-boy, taught herself how to sew and entered her school’s annual Fashion Show. From then on, Martin’s sole focus has been fashion. After receiving her Associate’s degree in graphic design, she enrolled at Berkeley College and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in fashion merchandising and management. After more than 70 fashion shows under her belt and two years ahead of her business plan schedule, Martin strives to provide the women of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn and beyond with classy, fun, and edgy designs. Although she specializes in form-fitting dresses, Martin also makes jackets, skirts, and corsets.

But even though the fashion shows have given her visibility and a score of clients, Martin struggles to pay for the store’s rent, bills, fabrics, and materials. After she quit her full-time retail job in July—she worked from 6 a.m. until 2 p.m. during the first seven months of her boutique’s opening—it has become more challenging to make ends meet. Furthermore, marketing her line and expanding her clientele has also been a challenge. With no funds to pay for a website or promotional materials, Martin relies on word-of-mouth and social media to publicize her line and store.

Headline: Fashion Designer Struggles to Keep Boutique Open

Transcription on next page.

Links:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nippy-Lavern-Fashions-LLC/174935209204048

http://www.modelmayhem.com/762459

http://bed-stuy.patch.com/articles/tompkins-avenue-businesses-lure-locals

How we got the story:
I met Martin back in late spring of 2011 while reporting on a trend piece about a spike in fashion store openings in Bed-Stuy. “Nippy Lavern Fashions Boutique” is one of three clothing stores that have opened on Tompkins Avenue in the last year. “The Meat Market” vintage clothing shop and “Fashion Runway” are located on the same block as Martin’s business and are also owned by young black women who hail from the neighborhood. A few blocks away, “Loveys Accessories Boutique” opened on Marcus Garvey Blvd. last December, and “Johntines Boutique” for plus-sized women opened on Malcolm X Blvd. on July of 2010.

See transcript

This happens a lot in interviews, they throw people curves. You know, they ask them something that doesn’t have any to do with work related, as they will say. They just ask them a common, social question.

That was the biggest one, the biggest thing was how to answer the question of actually being convicted of a felony.

You know, that I felt was very important to relay to an employer, and when I first heard it, you know I was like um, okay let me see if it works, I have to give it a try because of the process that I’ve already went through and you know, the process I already went through was like, trying it on my own as far as doing interviews, looking for jobs, job searching, and running into that wall because I had mixed feelings about how to answer that question, and it was hard answering that question because if felt I was like threw for loop, it wasn’t really a loop it was just the fact that me being able to answer that question where it will help me move forward in finding employment.

30 years. 30 years. And um, 30 years of wasted time. Whoo.

I did some robberies, I did you know, ended up as far as selling drugs.

“That’s why you give yourself enough time.”

I thought it was more, how would you say, sheik, you know it was more what was happening, and that’s the hook that I was looking for.

You know because people are going to think what they want to think. They are going to act how they want to act, and these are regular people, normal people. Do you think they break the law? I don’t know, but let me say this, I know one thing; I have no problem telling you that I’ve been convicted of a crime, okay? I have no problem telling you I have done time for you know, for the crimes I have committed. I have no problem in telling you you know, that um people treat me, like if I’m dirt, I have no problem in telling you that.

People are not just going to accept the fact that you are doing what you need to do because there’s always a means to an end, you know. That is not what I wanted, I wanted to leave a lasting legacy

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Sometimes I’m walking by and through the corner of my eyes because of the lay of the land now without trees, I can see the sunlight and any bird that comes over it, I can actually see the shadow either on a rooftop or on the corner of my eye. I can see them. And I can tell if it’s my bird or not.

Because you know, you build a rapport with the birds, you’re feeding them everyday, you know what they look like. You fly them everyday. You know how they fly. So you kind of know them well.

Yeah, you know I breed these birds. So there is a certain attachment to it. I breed the birds, I care for the birds. You know, I’m like a surrogate parent also. So, I gotta care for them. So, if they get hurt I also have to fix them.

I don’t let my birds…you know, you see my loft. My loft is clean – super clean. The birds got food. They have their water. They got the perfect environment for them to live, and they’re perfect pets. I’ve had people come to my loft and say that it’s probably better than their apartment. They live really well in there.

Like my 1384 I think is my prized bird of the year. He’ my World Trade Center bird. I won $500 from … He’s made it back in every race. Every club race. And so he’s a really good bird that was bred here. And Stitch on the other hand happens to be the unfportunate one that got injured. He either hit a pole or a fence or hit a wire and he ripped his crop completely open in the front. And he needed to be stitched back up.

I want to be able to earn the respect from the seasoned veterans in my club that can say “Hey. This guy Ramon from Mendez Loft is a competitive player now. You gotta watch out. He’s no joke.” You know, I wake up, I go to my loft, the first thing is, man, what can I do differently that I ca beat Don Pepe or I can beat Trackside or I can beat 3 Amigos. That guy’s already beaten Mike Tyson. If he beats Tyson, and if I can beat these guys than I’m doing the right thing.

You know what? Once you have the love for the birds, that never goes away. It’s like riding a bike. It’s just a matter of when you get hit with the bug again. I got hit with the bug with this in the brink of winter. I was reconstructing my whole garage, reinforcing the roof there was snow and sleet all over the place. Until I erected my loft. When you get hit with the bug, then you come back. You never leave it.

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From his loft in Ozone Park, Queens, Ramón Mendez is raising his first crop of racing pigeons. A former boxer and now a neonatologist, Mendez keeps premature babies alive. When he’s home he spends up to five hours a day training, feeding his birds and cleaning his coop.

In his early 40s, Mendez is the newest member of the Viola Pigeon Club near Coney Island. He’s younger than most of the bird racers, and is trying to make a name for himself. He’s helped by his brother-in-law, a bird racing champion in Florida.

Every week over the fall, he races his small fleet of birds from Pennsylvania to compete against the one to two dozen racers from the club.

No one knows how the birds find their way up to 350 miles away, but theories abound, including the magnetic poles and birds’ fantastic memories.

Links:

scmdpr.com/ -The Sun City Million Dollar is the biggest pigeon racing contest in the world.

nytimes.com/ 2007/ 12/ 09/ nyregion/ thecity/ 09pige.html?pagewanted=all – NYTimes article on the Viola Pigeon Club from 2007.

pigeon.org/ – American Racing Pigeon Union`

Some backstory: Part of the video shows Mendez going to the Viola Pigeon Club, which is where we found him. The club, which Frank Viola opened in the early 1990s was very popular, at one time drawing thousands of birds in a race. Now the membership is dwindling down to around 30 members with no more than a couple hundred birds at a go. On Saturday nights, the racers stop by to drop off their birds. Then around midnight a truck picks up birds from all of the clubs in the Long Island Combine and drives to Pennsylvania.

By the morning, when the birds are let loose and find their way home, the racers, including Mendez, wait at their lofts and bring their clocks back to the club to see who won. There, they check times, swap stories and cook burgers.

Our interview was while Mendez waited for his birds and drove to the club. During some of the scenes, he saw some of his pigeons come in and jumped up to draw them in.

Pigeons, NYC, Ramon Mendez, Queens, Birds, October

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Gun violence is rising in Harlem. The past months dozens of kids were getting killed or hurt in gun violence. Mothers who are getting sick and tired of their kids getting killed united themselves in Harlem Mothers Save. Harlem Mothers Save was founded by both Jean Corbett-Parker, who lost her son LaTraun, killed outside a nightclub and Jackie Rowe-Adams, who lost two sons in gang violence.
In ‘A Harlem Mother’, Ms Rowe-Adams, 63, talks about her pain en her hope for the future. Because Harlem Mother Save is more than a support group. Trough prevention and education Ms Rowe-Adams wants to make young children aware of the dangers on the street. She goes to schools and hold rally’s to raise awareness, not only by young children, but people in Harlem in general. Like she says in her own words: ‘It know I cannot bring my own children back, that’s why someone has to go out there and advocate and do prevention. Maybe we cannot win this war, but we can certainly slow it down.’

Ms Rowe-Adams and Ms Corbett-Parker located their office on Frederick Douglas blvd between 132nd and 133rd street.

Tags/keywords:

Harlem
Harlem Mothers SAVE
Jackie Rowe-Adams
Gun violence
Gang
Shootings
Brooklyn
Tayshana Murphy
LaTraun Parker
New York

Links:

Website of Harlem Mothers SAVE
harlemmotherssave.com/ mission.html

One of the latest tragic stories about gun violence in Harlem:
cobanyc.org/ news/ ?id=260

To find an office for the Harlem Mothers:
dnainfo.com/ 20110801/ harlem/ harlem-antiviolence-group-finally-gets-place-call-home

A rally against gun violence
youtube.com/ watch?v=-dCEwuycFRg

Ms. Jackie Rowe-Adams on recent shooting in Brooklyn (oct 2011)
wpix.com/ news/ morningnews/ wpix-harlem-mothers-save,0,6666787.story

Behind the scenes:

Recently I moved to Harlem. In the first weeks I lives here, I heard one story after another about gun violence and people are getting killed. All of a sudden there was a rise of violence in Brooklyn too. Reading about the violence I suddenly came across the story of Jackie Rowe-Adams. I went by her office, but it was always closed. I searched days for her number, finally I found it trough reverend Williams and finally Jackie called me back. I went by her office and immediately I was struck by her passion to fight violence in Harlem and the other boroughs. She speaks with such a conviction and determination, although she is aware that this is not an easy battle.

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Ben Schwartz, 32, always loved to farm from an early age. He spent his childhood in Nyack, New York, but his grandparents actually hail from the South Bronx. They left in the ‘60s, during a period of white flight, and Ben always wanted to go back and “deal with some of the problems they fled.”

Those problems are grave. In a 2011 report, the Food Research Action Center found that 32.7% of South Bronx residents experience “food hardship,” or difficulty paying for food. Mott Haven and Hunts Point have the highest proportion of diabetes in the city. One in four adults in Hunts Point and Mott Haven are obese, compared with one in five citywide. Schwartz reasoned that the combination of lack of income and obesity would undoubtedly lead to untreatable illness.

“I figured out by listening to the community the best way to support the folks in these neighborhoods was through medicinal herbs,” said Schwartz. “You can get a lot more out of your money by buying a three dollar bag of burdock than you could buying a 50 dollar bottle of pharmaceuticals.”

Now he and his team go down to the South Bronx once a week selling the herbs. They are partially funded by donors, but money is tight and many people on staff at the farm are volunteers. Schwartz admits that it’s not ideal, but maintains that there aren’t a lot of sources of revenue for small farmers in a market dominated by corporate-owned farms.

Links:

FRAC Report: frac.org/ wp-content/ uploads/ 2011/ 03/ food_hardship_report_mar2011.pdf

NYC DOH Community Health Profile of the South Bronx: nyc.gov/ html/ doh/ downloads/ pdf/ data/ 2006chp-107.pdf

2011 New York Times article on corporate farming: nytimes.com/ 2011/ 05/ 07/ us/ politics/ 07farm.html

This was one of the more grueling reporting operations I’ve carried out in grad school. My partner, Channon Hodge, and I departed from school at around 6:30 pm, racing to Grand Central to catch the 6:52 train to Wassaic, where Ben and company have their farm. We got there about two and half hours later, an observed the team prepare for the next day’s trip to the Bronx.

It was involved: with very little lamplight they packed a white van full of teas, herbs, CSA shares and more to take with them the next morning. Channon and I collapsed around midnight in a large converted (and unheated) garage on an adjoining property. Then, we woke up at 4:40 am, and got ready to make the drive down to the Bronx.

Spending the day with Ben, it became clear just how intense the schedule of a small farmer with limited staff is. He was at the farmer’s market all day, greeting residents, selling his herbs and teas, smiling the whole time. At around 5:30, he packed up and headed back to Wassaic, and I took my tired self home, grateful to escape the country life. And Ben would wake up the next morning at dawn, and spend another long day in the field, doing what he loves.

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Mike Cramer spends a lot of time abusing the ones he loves.

Cramer is a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, an organization dedicated to recreating pre-17th century European History. For the last 32 years, he has been strapping on his leather and steel armor, picking up a homemade weapon and fighting other SCA members.

By any standards, Cramer is one of the more accomplished SCA fighters. He says he can defeat most people in combat, and he’s been selected for more than 80 “Crown Tournaments,” tournaments that decide who will “rule” the SCA kingdom. They don’t use real blades or fight to the death. Instead, fighting is based solely on honor.

“The purpose of an SCA fight is not to beat someone,” Cramer says. “It’s to strike your opponent to the point where they believe they’ve been beaten.

“So I have to think I’ve been bested, and when I think I’ve been bested, I will acknowledge defeat.”

SCA isn’t a joke, or a role-play. Participants describe the fighting as a martial art, and they have the scars to prove it: broken bones, concussions; Cramer himself has broken a leg in what he calls a twisting injury.

It’s easy to dismiss SCA as a just a “game,” but for the people involved, it means so much more. It means friends; families; lovers; and it means, as Cramer says, “a sense of self-worth.”

BEHIND THE SCENES:
When Ian and I were on the train on the way to Sunset Park, where the SCA holds their practices, I made a conscious decision that I wasn’t going to make fun of these people. I feel like that’s probably the easy way out: find some stupid moments, string them together and go for the cheap laugh. I didn’t want to do that, mostly because I know what it’s like to have interests that people find “lame” or “weird.” There’s a reason people come to this, and so I wanted to make something that expressed why.

We had the pick of a few people to focus on, but ultimately decided on Mike because he was just a really decent, honest guy who wasn’t afraid to express himself. I think he said some of the stuff I was looking for, about how this “weird” thing made him feel. And some of it might sound nerdy or whatever, but I thought it was really honest and heartfelt.

There was this one guy, though, who just didn’t trust us. He kept intimating that we were going to make a fool out of them, and he kept telling people to be careful around us. It was a real drag, and I’m glad we didn’t focus on him, because there were a lot of perfectly normal people there who were willing to talk to us.

I guess they’ve been burned before, though, so I understand their hesitance. When people put themselves out there and get burned, when they show a part of themselves to someone who exploits it, there’s an instinct to shut people out. I’m glad the folks at the SCA didn’t do that. I hope they feel like their trust in us paid off.

3 LINKS:
Official SCA website: http://www.sca.org/
Mike’s fighting blog: http://www.scafighter.blogspot.com/
The SCA By-Laws: http://www.sca.org/docs/pdf/govdocs.pdf

TAGS: Medieval, Fighting, SCA

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Located on a quiet stretch of Tompkins Avenue and Jefferson Avenue in Bed-Stuy, Nippy Lavern Fashion, Martin’s clothes store lies amidst retail stores, casaBAN, home furnishings and antique store, and two other clothing stores that opened in the past year, Meat Market and Fashion Runway.

“I pretty much started with nothing,” said Martin who named her brand after her deceased aunt, Ms. Darlene “Nippy Lavern” Taylor, who died in a car crash in 1988,“as a way to give back to the family and as good significance to the family.” Her family and friends also know Martin, as “ the little Nippy,” was inspired by family photos and her memories of her aunt’s colorful clothes.

As a fresh Berkeley College graduate saddled with school loans, from her bachelors in Business Administration with a major in fashion merchandising and management, Martin used her savings, together with the support of her mum as her sole investor, to start Nippy Lavern Fashions. “Bills are getting tight,” said Martin. “I’m in a space where it has to happen,” she said, referring to paying the rent on her store.

Initially, she worked fulltime as sales associate, and managed her store after work in the afternoon where she makes one-off custom made clothes tailored to individuals. Now, she runs her boutique full time, and alternates between creating clothes for individual orders, and putting out two collections a year. Her goal is to brand her store as a destination for young women who want unique party clothes and club wear.

“I want to revamp the whole store, “ said Martin whose boutique had endured two floods. “Hurricane Irene was everywhere,” she described that water dripped from the lights and numerous cloths hung on racks got wet and had to be discarded. “To have no insurance on the store was a big impact, on me and my mum,” said Martin who now trying to apply for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) loans. She intends to use the money to “revamp my store.”

5) – at least three suitable links to the subject, story or theme from other sources:
www.facebook.com/pages/Nippy-Lavern-Fashions-LLC/174935209204048

http://www.ishopbrooklyn.com/shopnow/

http://cb3bedstuy.org/category/news-info/

http://www.myspace.com/nippylavern

http://www.modelmayhem.com/762459

a short behind-the-scenes story
We created this story as we find Martin to be a compelling character as a struggling small business owner. She is trying to make her dream of owning a business a reality. My partner Jackie found this character last year when she reported on a trend story of fashion boutiques that opened in the last year on the quiet stretch of Tompkins Avenue and Jefferson Avenue in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. The first day we went to her store to interview Martin, a Brooklyn Community Board Three member wandered in the store and invited Martin to attend the next community board meeting to inform residents about her retail shop as a way to drum up support.

Tompkins Avenue is a few streets away from the more commercial Fulton Street. However there is a push by Brooklyn Community Board Three and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, to try to support small businesses throughout. Martin has the opportunity to list her store with Shop Brooklyn, a “shop local” campaign for local Brooklyn residents. It will bring her new visitors as it highlights Tompkins Avenue as a unique shopping corridor.

Homeless, Not Hopeless by Vincent Trivett

British Iron in His Blood by Kevin Sheehan

Fashion Designer Struggles to Keep Boutique Open by Jacqueline Vergara

Sword/Play: The Art of Fighting by Ian Chant

Homeless, but not Hopeless: The Story of Alfred “Smiley” Hammonds by Zach Kussin

Competitive Pigeon Racing Still Flies Through New York City’s Skies by Nathan Frandino

Soil to City: From Upstate Farm to South Bronx Farmer’s Market by Channon Hodge with Nida Nijar

Second Chance: An Ex-Con Seeks Job, New Life After Prison Photographed by Ian Thomas and Patrick Wall; Edited by Patrick Wall

Not His Job: Motorcycle Mechanic Bobby Genise on His 52-year Hobby Edited by: Lisha Arino Filmed by: Lisha Arino and Kevin Sheehan

Finding The Right Track: One Man’s Struggle To Re-enter Society Produced by Ian Thomas Shot by Ian Thomas and Patrick Wall

A New Contender Among Brooklyn’s Pigeon Racers by Dan Rosenblum

A Harlem Mother: fighting the gun war. by Tim Verheyden

From the Country to the South Bronx: A Small Farmer’s Weekly Odyssey by Nida Nijar

Mike Cramer’s Medieval Life by Paul deBenedetto

A Struggling Fashion Designer and Her First Brooklyn Boutique by Cheryl Chan

Assignments

Requirements for Written Journalism and Delivery of each project:

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