You are currently browsing the stories about the All Over neighborhood
The Underground Poet Revisited
by Mickey Z. 02/06/2022Neighborhood: Subway
Before the interwebs, it required more ingenuity to get noticed. That’s why I conjured up my “underground poet” scheme in the early 90s. I was already a published poet by then, and at a huge art show at the Javits Center two of my framed one-liners were purchased by a French art dealer. When he […]
Selected Observations on Urban Fauna
by Peter Wortsman 01/23/2022Neighborhood: All Over
Illustrations by Aurélie Bernard Wortsman __________________________ A contemporary take on the medieval bestiary, featuring the actual and apocryphal creatures that share our constricted urban space. The following is the first installment in a series of observations on urban fauna, text and image gleaned from the lifelong perambulations on asphalt and cement by two native New […]
Apparition
by Kate Neuman 08/15/2021Neighborhood: Manhattan, Subway
Last month on the subway, somewhere near the Rockefeller Center / 47th-50th Street stop, I looked up from my phone and saw, across the aisle in the mirror seat of mine, a woman, maybe in her late 60s, whose style was startlingly close to my stepmother’s. She had the same short, tousled haircut—although her hair was […]
Next Stop the Twilight Zone
by Kelly Kreth 02/28/2021Neighborhood: Subway, Upper East Side
One afternoon this summer I was on the subway. All was normal. Well, except that we are in a pandemic, which makes venturing down into NYC’s netherworld — one with poor ventilation and tons of non-mask wearers – feel like I am putting my life in my overly sanitized hands. It all seemed surreal. The […]
A New York State of Mind
by Natasha Persaud 01/31/2021Neighborhood: Manhattan, Subway
When you sit down on a weather-worn bench in New York—one that is dry and bone colored—it feels like you’ve stepped out of your body. You’ve left a building, a crowded café, stepped off of an accordion bus, or out of a bodega. It’s a pause where you take a cigarette break even though you […]
Still Standing
by Neil Stein 01/05/2020Neighborhood: Park Slope, Subway
It was not so long ago that I would ordinarily drive into Manhattan from my home in Park Slope. However, I had a rule that I wouldn’t take my car to anywhere above 23rd Street. About five years ago, because of an increase in traffic, I moved my boundary to 14th Street. But recently, things […]
Random Encounters Underground
by Train Operator X 11/10/2019Neighborhood: Subway
Flushing Ave. on the M The train stops and the doors open, except one door panel is cut out (locked closed, to prevent it from opening). A tall, skinny, black dude on the platform tries to board the train and, wham! He walks right into the closed panel. He steps back and catches his breath. “Whoa…,” just […]
The Bloody Stranger
by Donna Bailey 01/27/2019Neighborhood: Midtown, Subway
I moved to this city from Akron, Ohio in August 1971, and by the Summer of 1972, I was starting to wonder if I could actually make it here. I wasn’t earning enough to have my own apartment and still found the pace of the city overwhelming. I was certainly not going to head back home, […]
Bullet Train: Testimony and Confession
by Leland Pitts-Gonzalez 07/08/2018Neighborhood: Port Authority, Subway
On the evening of April 17, I was waiting for the train like always, far enough away from the edge—standing sideways to brace myself from that wildebeest who might push me onto the tracks. I waited and looked for the train to arrive, as if staring would make it come faster. It never works. We […]
Call for Submissions
by Alisson Wood 02/12/2017Neighborhood: All Over, News
We want to read your true New York City stories. We are interested in a wide variety of topics, including those involving deli meat, baby powder, and graffiti. We’re looking for essays that go beyond a quirky anecdote or a beautiful vignette. Tell us why this story—and this city—matters to you. Past truth-tellers have included Michael Cunningham, Tom Beller, Bryan […]
Underground Analysis
by Dan Baum 02/08/2016Neighborhood: All Over
On the subway Thursday morning, a man sat beside me, with his wife or girlfriend (no ring) standing over him. He was about 35, with long wavy hair pulled into pony tail, and a scraggly beard — kind of a 21st-century beatnik look. She was done up like a character from My Cousin Vinny — […]
My Damn Love Affair
by Gloria Zimmerman 01/18/2016Neighborhood: All Over, Uncategorized, Upper West Side
The New York of the 80’s was not a town that met you halfway. It stopped well short of that, just looking right through you. It really didn’t give a damn what happened to you, daring you to ride the subway late at night and then picking your pocket and laughing about it afterwards. It […]