You are currently browsing the stories about the East Harlem neighborhood

The Irony of Identity

by 08/05/2003
Neighborhood: East Harlem

Walking through the backyard to get to the basketball courts, to work out by myself at 6:00 a.m., like I do everyday. It was kind of misty outside and the grass was wet and the benches and ground were slippery. I had on basketball shorts, Orlando sweatshirt, and my ball kicks dribbling the rock through […]

A Day of Kindness

by 08/05/2003
Neighborhood: East Harlem

It all started about a year ago in the summer time. We all finished going shopping, me and my mother, who is about five foot seven inches tall, wears glasses and is kind of chunky. Along with us was my little sister. We then decided to stop on 117th Street at 3rd Avenue for a […]

The Old Lady on the Steps

by 08/05/2003
Neighborhood: East Harlem

Every day when I come home from a very hard day of school, I walk up the gray stone steps of my old dusty yellow house. And every day there this old lady with a large housedress and old decayed leather slippers is sitting at the top of the steps. She is always sitting in […]

A Change in Time

by 08/05/2003
Neighborhood: East Harlem

Finally after eight years I can go back to where it used to be fun for me and other children to hang out at Wagner Project’s pool. It still looks the same but really doesn’t feel the same. The children are still splashing in the water, the babies are still in the baby pool with […]

Rivers of Tears

by 08/05/2003
Neighborhood: East Harlem

It was March 16,1998 around 3:30pm, I remember it like it was just yesterday. As I made my way through my house door from school, I heard the phone ring from the kitchen. I went to drop my books off in my room which is at the end of the hallway. I went back to […]

Street Fight

by 08/05/2003
Neighborhood: East Harlem

The street fight had happened on 122nd between 2nd and 3rd Avenue in front of a bar. That was not the first fight that had happened on the block. There are many fight on that block. That block is real bad. The big issue that makes the block even worse is all the drugs and […]

Notes From the New East Harlem

by 05/22/2003
Neighborhood: East Harlem

There’s Antenna Lady, the black woman who stands in front of the building next to mine with the silver antenna-thing pierced through her face. Though she must be in her forties, her face is studded with all sorts of St. Marks-like piercings, the most shocking being the long one poking out of her left cheek. […]

Special Ed

by 12/30/2002
Neighborhood: East Harlem

Most parents have to be repeatedly prodded, coaxed and cajoled into attending any school meeting. Parents of Emotionally Disturbed Special Ed. students are required to attend annual meetings to evaluate their child’s individual program and progress, or lack thereof. It is therefore no surprise that voluntary meetings, such as Open School Night, can be notorious […]

600 Schools

by 11/14/2002
Neighborhood: East Harlem

The average Special Education teacher’s career lasts a grand total of approximately two years. It’s the one fact I remember on the road to my Master’s Degree. Actually, remember two. I also remember that teaching in the inner city is the second most stressful job in these United States, next to being an inner city […]

Morrone’s Bakery on East 116th Street

by 11/02/2001
Neighborhood: East Harlem

In 1956, at the age of nineteen, Rosa Morrone was almost past the prime marrying age in her native town, Polla, south of Naples, Italy. Her father was beginning to seriously worry that she wouldn’t marry. At the same time, Gabriele Morrone, who had left Polla for New York City when he was 14, returned […]