You are currently viewing the stories for September, 2011
Harlem Girls
by BreeanneDaniels 09/21/2011Neighborhood: Harlem, Uncategorized
I love this train station. 125th St. The 1 is sentimental, alluring. It’s Ice T’s shadow in the credits of Law and Order SVU, It’s an isolated and spectacular scene that rises from below at 125th street, and Harlem is unfolded from panoramic elevation. I stood on 125th street, listening the rumble above me as the […]
Brightness In A Darkened City
by Maccabee Montandon 09/19/2011Neighborhood: Uncategorized
On the morning of August 14, 2003, my wife Catherine and I learned that she was pregnant for the first time. That evening we sat huddled in the darkened Chelsea apartment building stairwell of an old friend, waiting for her return home from work, riding out a vast summer blackout. We lived in Brooklyn and […]
Café Espresso
by Mary Shanley 09/19/2011Neighborhood: Little Italy, Uncategorized
When I moved to Little Italy in the fall of ’82, my ground floor studio on Mott Street was directly next door to the Café Espresso. This did not appear to be a fact that bore much significance, as the café was a broken down mess of a place, with faded gold letters peeling off […]
Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood Reading, September 23 At Happy Ending
by Connor Gaudet 09/16/2011Neighborhood: Lower East Side, News
MR. BELLER’S NEIGHBORHOOD READING SERIES HAPPY ENDING in the Lower East Side Friday, September 23, 8:00 PM A Free Evening of Non-Fiction In The Lower East Side. Reading on September 23 will be: Rob Williams - Bear Patrol Lily Shen – It Is Easy To Speak Chinese Kenneth P. Nolan - Farrell’s Nathaniel Page - Spanked The host is Connor Gaudet - Hung Out […]
Primary Day
by Sam Roseme 09/13/2011Neighborhood: Brooklyn Heights, Lower East Side, World Trade Center
I stumbled bleary-eyed out of my building still hours before the sun would rise over the East River. Allen Street was black and still. The bars were closed and the morning rush hadn’t yet begun. The homeless slept soundly in the street-median park. Waiting in her car in front of my building was Maggie, 40ish […]
Staying
by Randi Skaggs 09/13/2011Neighborhood: West Village, World Trade Center
I’d just spent a month back in Kentucky, trying it on like an old outfit to see if it still fit. I was unemployed, unattached, poor, frustrated, and I wanted to make sure living in the most complicated, and challenging, city in the world was still worth it. I contemplated this as the plane bisected […]
Ten Years Later
by Connor Gaudet 09/11/2011Neighborhood: All Over, World Trade Center
In 2002 we published Before & After: Stories from New York; a collection of stories in two halves – the first taking place in the city before the 9/11 attacks, the second being comprised of testimonials from the day itself and its immediate aftermath. Recently, we asked for submissions for the site, to explore the […]
I Have to Be Here
by Kate Walter 09/11/2011Neighborhood: Across the River
My mother doesn’t get why I have to be here for the anniversary of September 11th. In late August of this year, I was leaving our family beach house at the Jersey Shore and Mom asked if I was planning a return visit in September. “Yeah, I’ll be back,” I said. “Probably the third weekend, […]
Manhattan Eyeline
by Jackob G. Hofmann 09/11/2011Neighborhood: Uncategorized, West Village
September 10th, 2001. 6:30 PM. The corner of 11th Street and Fifth Avenue. The weather is glorious. The air is crisp. The sky, tranquil. I am walking downtown en route to a trendy West Village bistro. As I approach the corner of East 10th Street I come to an abrupt stop … “I never realized […]
Dear Jon
by erika 09/11/2011Neighborhood: World Trade Center
September 2010 Dear Jon, They want to build a mosque where you were murdered. I want to do the right thing. So I’m having a debate in my head taking on the two sides. What would you want I wonder. See, that’s the hard thing. I’d think after knowing you for such a long time, […]
My Friend, The Fire Chaplain
by Kathleen Crisci 09/11/2011Neighborhood: Chelsea, Uncategorized, Washington Heights
I met Mychal Judge in the spring of 1985 when my boyfriend, Javier, and I decided to get married. As a lapsed Catholic, estranged from the Church for over a decade, I was tormented with guilt and worry, yet I wanted to have a church wedding without having to account for prior errant ways—our daughter, […]
October 7, 2001
by Patrick J. Sauer 09/11/2011Neighborhood: Uncategorized, Union Square
When I got the email from Sir Beller about revisiting 9/11, my thought was to delete it. After double-checking, I can say I’m proud of the piece I wrote, “October 2001,” only because I just reported what I saw and didn’t try to make sense of it. Had I gone the “this is how I […]