Items

This is a picture taken inside of a deli.

2021-06-18

A Linguistic Tour through Arthur Avenue

I traveled to New York this summer, and one of the places I visited was Arthur Avenue, located in the Belmont neighborhood of the Bronx and the main artery of the Bronx's Little Italy. Arthur Avenue provided a unique insight into the function of immigrant languages during the pandemic. Most of the people I heard talking as I walked down Arthur Avenue and went into the stores were speaking English, as would be expected in most of the United States. Some had an accent similar to a "standard" American accent/my Californian accent, while others spoke in New Yorker accents. I heard some people speaking Italian, mostly if not entirely elderly people, in several stores, including Cerini Coffee and Gifts. I also heard expression of language through music, in the form of a speaker in front of Mario's Restaurant playing "Tu vuò fà l'Americano" ("You Want to Be an American") and "O Sarracino" ("The Saracen"), two famous Neapolitan language songs. I didn't expect to hear music in Italian "dialect" (called so even though Neapolitan is a proper stand-alone language). However, Belmont is no longer just Little Italy. It also has a large Albanian presence. I saw a flyer on a street pole in Albanian which I presume to either be a missing sign or a flyer for a funeral. I have no idea what the flyer said because I don't know Albanian, but among the text were two pictures of an elderly man. In front of Randazzo's Seafood, I also saw a sign advertising some type of shellfish (I can't remember which) in Albanian and English, though not in Italian, which I thought was interesting since the store is owned by the grandchildren of immigrants from Sicily. There was also an Albanian television provider called TV ALB, which indicated to me that there are enough Albanian speakers in the area to sustain an Albanian-language cable or broadcast provider, even during the pandemic. I didn't hear any spoken Albanian. This could be a purely anecdotal observation, but I saw Italian primarily as a spoken language and Albanian primarily in writing. There was some writing in Italian, but most of it was either names of food items that couldn't be translated into English or sayings like "mangia bene vivi bene" ("eat well, live well", as a command; the picture of which is attached to this story) for promotional purposes. There was no actual communication occurring in written Italian. On a non-linguistic note, most of the restaurants also had outdoor seating under canopies, a consequence of COVID.

2021-04

Decide to get my covid vaccine

Getting my Covid vaccine.

2021-04-14

Reconsidering Taking the Vaccine

I live in Bronx, New York. When the pandemic struck, it affected everyone tremendously whether you contracted the virus or not. New York is a densely populated place and it immediately required a shut down of all day to day activities due to the soaring virus. It was so impactful that my school had to be closed and I could not go out with my friends on the weekends anymore due to the fact that all business places were closed. Many people in New York contracted the virus which at one point had the highest Coronavirus cases. It made my family and I very depressed to be stuck at home all day and worrying if anyone of us would be the next person to be personally affected by the virus. During the pandemic, which is still current, the introduction of the vaccine made me feel very relieved. Even though it is not a cure for the virus but it would help to fight the virus if you do contract it, and it also lessens the likeliness that it is contracted. This was such good news to my ears. When I found out that there were different types of the vaccines I was very skeptical about it because I wondered to myself about the different component that each might have. Following this, there was word that the Johnson and Johnson vaccine was causing bloodclots. This made me extremely scared to take any of the vaccines overall even though I want to be secured from the virus but I worry that the vaccine would not agree well with my body. This was a mental battle within my family if we want to take the vaccine or not.

2020-12-02

Theatre Workshop presents: The Essential Bronx - COVID Stories, Part 1

We have preserved in this short film a selection of Theatre Workshop students' authentic experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and we want to share these stories with you.

a sign tied to a door encouraging people to stay strong during corona virus

2020-04-29

A Walk Through Covid-19 Brooklyn (Dyker Heights Residence 1)

Many residents in Brooklyn have posted signs outside their homes relating to the pandemic. This sign was found while walking around in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn.

2020-05-10

A Walk through Covid-19 Brooklyn: We're all in this Together

As college seniors approaching our last few months, we have all been talking about how we wanted to spend our final days together. We were aware of the reality of having more responsibility after graduation. And just like that - the time we had left vanished. It isn’t fair that our college experience didn’t have the closure it deserved. It wasn’t supposed to end like this. But among the things that seem unfair right now, who am I to complain about something so selfish and short sighted? My college is in the Bronx, and while most people returned home to their families for quarantine, I simply switched boroughs. New York City is a warzone, over 200 people are dying everyday. One day, the death toll exceeded 800. And while I have never seen my city mourn like this, I have never seen it come together like this either. Every night at 7 pm, Maryann, two houses down from mine, stands in her driveway and plays “God Bless America” on a speaker for all the neighbors to hear. Amanda that lives down the block became a licensed nurse a few months ago. Her mother, Fran, has made a hobby of making masks out of old fabric. My sister spends hours on the phone talking to her special education students and their families about the adjustments being made. As a result of this pandemic, Dalia across the street has had an increase in patients wanting appointments because of the increase in mental health problems. When I go for my daily walk, everyday I see a new sign thanking healthcare and essential workers, signs saying things like, “Brooklyn Strong!” Nothing brings people together like tragedy. There are differences among all these people I have mentioned and they are all being affected in different ways. However, at the end of the day, any one of us can get sick. We are all human. We have different ethnic origins, identify as different genders, practice different religions, have different mental and physical disabilities, but viruses don’t care about that. Although certain health or economic factors may make specific groups more at risk for serious illness from the virus, a virus is non-discriminatory when it comes to the presence of cognitive or physical disabilities. It will survive and debilitate any human body. We all share a common enemy. During this pandemic, so many different kinds of people are fighting for something bigger. This fight against a force imperceptible to the human eye has in fact diminished differences, brought people together to fight for change in new and influential ways, and shown the strength of the fabric of our society.