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Radio Rookies’ Share Their Stories on WNYC
August 25, 2005
By DANIELLE WHYTE
Two years ago, Veralyn Williams, a senior at DeWitt Clinton High School, looked forward to attending a prestigious private college. But she soon learned from her parents she would not be able to attend a private school because she was not a citizen, did not have a green card and was not eligible for financial aid.
But then Williams, now a 19-year-old Hunter College sophomore, joined Radio Rookies, a non-profit program where inner-city teens broadcast their personal narratives on WNYC radio, the local affiliate of National Public Radio (NPR). “It’s something that affected me for so long so I chose to speak about it,” Williams said, adding that she often asked her parents about her legal status, only to be ignored.
Catalina Puente also had a story to share.
“I had so much on my chest,” said Puente, a 16-year-old Kingsbridge resident. “Now there’s less weight on my shoulders once I got to speak about my story.” Puente, a junior at University Heights High School, wrote a piece about her romantic obsession with another girl.
Radio Rookies aims to take teens from disadvantaged neighborhoods and teach them to use radio equipment to tell their intimate stories to the WNYC audience. But before they get on the air, the process begins months before in the teens’ neighborhoods.
Radio Rookies is based at a different community center across the city each year.
Professional journalists teach the teens to prepare interviews, develop their stories, and use computer software like Pro-Tools.
In 2004, the COVE (Community Organized with a Vision of Excellence) in Norwood hosted the program, though the participants came from beyond Norwood. The workshops started last summer and concluded this June. The stories aired June 15 to June 18. Williams’ piece aired nationally on National Public Radio. The stories will air again Aug. 29 – 31 (see box).
The program directors recruit rookies from schools, community centers and even off the street. Puente was discovered by one of the program mentors when she performed at a poetry reading at Bronx Community College. “We just look for teens who will get something out of the program who would not have an opportunity like this,” said Czerina Patel, Radio Rookies’ senior producer.
The Mosholu teens — Veralyn Williams, Catalina Puente, Carlos Gonzalez, Derrick Hewitt, Miguel Ayala and Francis Torres — produced stories about aggression, violence and the foster care system. Since Williams told her story, she feels her life has started to move in a positive direction.
“I’ve been approved and waiting for priority,” she said about her application for a green card. “Now it’s not just an open-ended question and me being oblivious. I got to talk to my parents.”
Catalina Puente is no longer preoccupied with her obsession; she now immerses herself in writing, story-telling and drawing. She attends the New Youth Connections workshop for Bronx teens, where she works on creative writing pieces.
Radio Rookies began in 1999 when Marianne McCune, a WNYC freelancer, encouraged Harlem teenagers to use Columbia University’s radio equipment when the station was empty during the summer. Patel soon became program coordinator. She dreamed of something bigger and better and started workshops and created the name “Radio Rookies.”
“The goal of the program is two parts — to give teens the tools to tell their own stories and to provide listeners with new perspectives,” Patel said.
The award-winning program costs about $300,000 annually to run and is funded by a number of foundations.
“Just to think that so many people are listening to you,” Puente said. “Not many adults listen to teens. It’s a good way to hear what teens really got to say.”
Some rookies hoped their broadcasts would break ground with their parents.
“More than anything it was all about the open communication with my parents,” said Williams.
“I tried to persuade her not to do it,” said her mother, Lois Williams, who worried her daughter might get deported for broadcasting her immigration status. “Now I’m very proud of her. I have more respect for her now. Whatever decisions she makes I’m supportive.”
Patel also praises this particular group of teens for their candid stories.
“All teens are unique and special but in this group there is real courage in their stories,” she said. “These are all important issues that people do not like to talk about … but now they have engaged parents and young people to deal and talk about them.”
Radio Rookies on the Air
The stories by the Radio Rookies will be re-broadcast on Monday, Aug. 29; Tuesday, Aug. 30; and Wednesday, Aug. 31 during Morning Edition (6 a.m. to 11 a.m.) on WNYC 93.9 FM and 820 AM.
Vote Sept. 13
August 25, 2005
By Editorial
As usual, we encourage all of our readers to take part in the democratic process by participating in the primary on Sept. 13, where candidates for City Council, mayor and public advocate will be on the ballot. If you want information about where to vote, call (212) VOTE-NYC. If you are not already registered to vote, you won’t be able to vote in the primary, but you will be registered in time to vote in the November general election if you call the same phone number and ask them to send you a voter registration form.
Look for our next issue on Sept. 8 for more information about local races..
Meals Program Threatened
August 25, 2005
By Editorial
Epiphany Lutheran Church in Norwood has lost its funding for a well-known local program to feed the hungry and homeless. United Way of New York City denied funding to the St. Stephen’s Meals program in a letter earlier this month. The organization’s Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program rejected the church’s application for funding for the first time in seven years.
St Stephen’s is the kind of quiet, effective local program that operates under the radar of most area residents until they or someone they know need a little help. Dozens of people come to Epiphany for sustenance and company four days a week.
It should be noted, too, that the church is a great supporter of the community, providing space to Alcoholics Anonymous and the Norwood Food Co-op, among other programs.
Epiphany’s pastor said there was a one-week delay in submitting their funding application to the United Way. But otherwise the church has provided the same critical service to the community over the last seven years.
Epiphany is formally appealing the rejection of their application. We hope the United Way will take a look at the church’s critical role in the community and reconsider their decision.
MTA Adds Insult to Injury
August 25, 2005
By Editorial
As if it weren’t enough that the MTA has let the 205th Street D-train station deteriorate into one of the most notoriously dilapidated stations in the subway system, the agency is now depriving the community of its token booth clerk at the 205th Street/Perry Avenue ‘D’ station.
The MTA says that roving agents will remain in the stations, but the token clerks were protected in their booths and able to alert authorities to crimes-in-progress.
Time will tell if the roving agents are really available to local straphangers, particularly the elderly, who will certainly need help in navigating the MetroCard machines. If the station is not regularly staffed, seniors and the handicapped could find themselves excluded from the subway, as the walk up the hill to the other end of the station could pose a significant barrier as could navigating the two-level staircase there.
Council Member Oliver Koppell and Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera railed against the changes at a recent press conference at the station. They also took the opportunity to upbraid the MTA for not including the station in its capital plan for station renovation.
It will take a concerted effort on the part of all our elected officials to get the MTA to do what’s right here. We hope the press conference was the beginning of such an effort.
Poe Bandstand Back in Swing
August 25, 2005
By None
Officials and park advocates gathered on Aug. 11 to celebrate the restoration of the Poe Park Bandstand, which had been the site of popular music concerts from the 1930s through the 1970s.
The $374,000 restoration included repair of the columns and bases, a new staircase, restored railings and new lighting. There is also now storage space beneath the structure.
Beginning in 2001, Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation (FBHC) spearheaded the efforts to secure funding for the project, working with the city Parks Department to write a grant to the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation for $88,000. With the support of Assemblyman Jose Rivera, the grant was approved in 2003. Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión, Council Member Joel Rivera and the JM Kaplan Fund also provided funding for the project.
The bandstand project follows the 2002 renovation of the entire park and a design for a $2.2 million vistors center highlighting the park’s namesake, Edgar Allan Poe, is expected in the next two to four months. The park, which is home to Poe Cottage, is located on the Grand Concourse at the corner of Kingsbridge Road.
Dinowitz Staffs Norwood Office
August 25, 2005
By Andreas SCHNEIDER
Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz has hired a new community liaison for his satellite office at the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center. Teri Colon, who replaces Joel Ramos, will staff the office, located at 3450 DeKalb Ave., on Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
As community liaison, Colon can provide local residents with assistance on a variety of issues.
“We help people get the things done that need to be done,” Colon said. “It’s a very rewarding job.”
Dinowitz, a Democrat whose main office is in Kingsbridge, represents the 81st Assembly District, which covers most of Norwood.
Colon took the liaison job after nearly 20 years as a paralegal and real estate management assistant. Her experience gave her an understanding of tenants’ rights that, she said, has already helped her sort out many tenant complaints.
She said she can help anybody who visits her office, and has already assisted people with Metrocard applications, prescription drug service, apartment repairs and letter writing. If she can’t resolve a problem, she said, she provides referrals to those who can.
“We try to help people with any issues,” she said. “You can’t fix all problems, but we try to get them the answers they need.”
Aside from her work with Dinowitz, Colon is completing her B.A. in Political Science at Lehman College, where she has earned a Lehman Scholars award. She lives on Kingsbridge Road with her two children.
Colon can be reached at the Community Center on Thursdays at (718) 882-4000 ext. 353. The number for Dinowitz’ main office is (718) 796-5345.
Koppell, Rivera Decry Token Booth Shutdown
August 25, 2005
By Jordan Moss
Council Member Oliver Koppell teamed up with Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera on Thursday to lambaste the MTA for closing the token booth at the D-train station at 205th Street and Perry Avenue.
“We are outraged by the closure of this token booth on a permanent basis,” Koppell thundered, gesturing at the darkened booth behind him during a press conference.
Koppell said stations without clerks would be “vulnerable to terrorists and people who are deranged.”
Rivera said that elderly residents would have difficulty with the MetroCard machines.
While there was a customer service agent stationed outside the booth at the time of the press conference, Koppell said the safety of such agents would be compromised.
“Dollars to donuts, these agents are going to be attacked the way they were years ago,” he said, explaining that more secure booths had been built to protect clerks.
The station was one of eight across the city shut down in the latest round of closures. Two years ago, the MTA shut booths at Bedford Park Boulevard and Fordham Road. The agency plans to close a total of 164 booths by next spring.
The token booth at 206th Street and Bainbridge Avenue will remain open.
Koppell suggested that the MTA was targeting poorer communities for the service cutbacks.
“Why is this neighborhood being chosen to have service diminished?” he asked.
One resident said time would tell whether the changes would be negative.
“If somebody is there, that’s what counts,” said Eneida Negron, a Post Office employee. “But if he’s not there it would be unsettling.”
Koppell and Rivera also pointed to the station’s poor condition. It has been rated among the most dilapidated in the city in at least two studies.
Rivera said the MTA’s current capital plan should be amended to include the station and that she had begun meeting with the agency to discuss the issue.
David Greeene contributed to this story.
Fordham BID Launched
August 25, 2005
By Andreas SCHNEIDER
Mounds of garbage sat atop trash cans at the intersection of the Grand Concourse and East 192nd Street recently and papers and fast food containers littered the ground surrounding the overflowing receptacles.
It’s just this kind of mess that the new Fordham Road BID was formed to eradicate. And, in fact, trash cans were empty at the heart of the district just one block away, at the much busier intersection of the Concourse and East Fordham Road.
Sanitation workers in red jumpsuits patrolled Fordham Road, emptying full containers and placing the full bags neatly on the sidewalk for garbage trucks to haul away. The workers, from Atlantic Maintenance, have been on the streets since Aug. 1. Their company recently signed a one-year contract with the Fordham Road BID, its first.
Mayor Bloomberg and a collection of legislators, local business owners and community leaders announced the long awaited formation of the BID during a press conference on July 26. BIDs collect funds from local property owners and reinvest them in the business community in the form of services, such as the contract with Atlantic Maintenance, graffiti removal, security and special promotions.
“This BID will elevate this area from not just being one of the best places to shop in the Bronx, but to being one of the best places to shop in New York City,” Bloomberg said in a speech at the press conference, culminating a 20-year effort by local business owners and community development groups to bring a BID to Fordham Road.
Officials and local businesses have high hopes for the district, which is New York City’s third largest commercial corridor. It has more than 275 businesses, which generate approximately $500 million in annual revenue, according to the Department of Small Business Services.
“This is an environmental renaissance for Fordham Road,” said Shelly Sherman, a BID executive board member and manager of KidsWorld on Fordham Road.
Mayor Bloomberg agreed, saying the BID will finally allow Fordham Road to live up to its potential. “The people who live and work here have thought that it was capable of so much more,” Bloomberg said.
The BID’s first year budget is $500,000, which will be spent on sanitation, security and marketing. The BID is working on a number of projects but has yet to announce any concrete plans for the near future, according to the office of executive director Wilma Alonso.
Councilman Joel Rivera, Department of Small Business Services Commissioner Robert Walsh, and representatives from Fordham University and Monroe College also applauded the July announcement. Alonso summed up their sentiments after the press conference.
“I have been working on Fordham Road since 1995,” she said. “Now, 10 years later, we finally have a BID—and it’s great!”
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