Multimedia Reporting: Around New York

Migdalia Valentine is a single mother of two, working full time living in Staten Island. She struggle to make ends meet and finds herself with little to know help. Valentine works full time and doesn’t receive any state assistance.

Eight states which include California, Utah and Kansas are fighting to keep cursive in the curriculum and their argument is: The ability to write in cursive distinguishes the literate and the illiterate. Here on the Baruch College campus, some students are carrying on he seemingly dying staple of cursive writing as they get ready to move on to the work force.  

In an effort to engage more fans on Twitter, the NYPD prompted followers to share their photos posing with NYPD members, tagging the image #myNYPD. The tweet, which was sent out with good intentions, took on a life of its own, becoming a worldwide campaign for police brutality. In the wake of the NYPD Twitter-storm of controversy, two experts weigh in on how companies can effectively use social media networks.

Ben Guttmann, CEO of Digital Natives Group, consults clients on how to best use social media. He notes that, while controversy is rare, it can happen. But his steps to posting on social media take away some of that risk. He advises to “be a person: act like a person, respond like a person.”

Nicole Beltrami is a partner at digital marketing agency, LORIMER/LEX. Beltrami’s job is to manage many different social media accounts for her brands. As she says, it’s important to have a distinct voice for each one of her clients. Beltrami shares her 3-to-5 rule for social media best practice.

By Hayley Bifulco

For decades, women advocated for equal rights. Not only did they fight for legal rights, but they also fought for society to accept women who work outside of the home while raising families.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported in 2010 that 55% of mothers are in the labor force.

The following three reports tell the stories of four women from Long Island who decided to be stay-at-home moms.

They often face questions about their choices, but each agreed that they had made the right decision for their families.

BECOMING A MUSLIM AND A MOTHER

Danielle LoDuca and her family live about 20 miles east of New York City in West Hempstead, Long Island.

LoDuca’s husband, Shakiel Humayun, is a C.E.O of a private elementary school in Hollis, Queens that offers Arabic and Islamic classes. Three out of their five children attend the school while LoDuca stays home taking care of the two younger children.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir_nSaofnMU

LoDuca’s journey to becoming Muslim began while she was studying Art and Philosophy at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. LoDuca considered herself a “thinker.”

“I used to kind of look at people who were really religious and scoff at them a little bit,” LoDuca said.

One semester, LoDuca looked out the window with the rest of her 9 a.m. class at the sight of the World Trade Center being attacked. This shook and confused LoDuca and compelled her to want to do something.  She attended lectures about terrorism in Israel and researched more about what was going on there at the time as well. This led her to go with a humanitarian-efforts group to cities in Israel that were under regulated curfew.

That same semester, LoDuca enrolled in a Political Philosophy class. She wanted to prove that political philosophies and religions were similar in that they are both flawed and therefore man-made. She spent countless hours studying different religions, including Islam.

While in Israel, LoDuca witnessed the Islamic way-of-life and heard the Qur’an read out loud. LoDuca’s connection between her past studies of the Qur’an and hearing it intrigued her. Hearing the Qur’an was a “beautiful sound” that LoDuca initially thought was music.

When she came home from Israel, LoDuca read more books about Islam and decided to accept the religion as truth.

MOM’S GROUP: A COMMUNITY OF MOTHERS

Melanie Ciccarello and Barbara Korycka

A simple Google search for a mom’s group will link you to several different types of support groups by location, hobby, religion, and more. MOPs (Mothers of preschoolers) and Moms Club are two of the many groups that are nationally known and with various locations.

The majority of mom-support groups meet by neighborhood. There are groups for working moms, stay-at-home moms, and single moms. There are even groups for dads!

This particular mom’s group began about 30 years ago at Church of the Intercessor in Malverne, N.Y. by mothers in the church. They currently meet almost every Wednesday to hear a teaching, engage in discussion, and pray together.

AUDIO PODCAST: Melanie Ciccarello and Barbara Korycka of Mom’s Group

The mothers also set up events to go to the zoo or the Long Island Children’s Museum with their children.

“I could learn from other moms. I could also share where I was struggling and I had support. And I tell my kids, I’m a better mom because of mom’s group in particular because I wasn’t isolated,” Ciccarello said.

STARTING ALL OVER AGAIN, MOTHER WELCOMES A LATE ARRIVAL

The trend of when women are having children and the circumstances surrounding that decision has been changing for the last few decades.

The National Center for Health Statistics found that “the number of women giving birth at age 30 has doubled, at age 35, tripled and after age 40 has almost quadrupled” from 1980-2004, Psychology Today said in 2008.

There’s a correlation between going to school and having a family. “The average female college grad (of any race) starts her family at 30 and many wait longer, according to the CDC,” CBS News reported in 2012.

Jamie LeGrand is part of the increasing number of women giving birth over  the age of 35. Instead of delaying pregnancy for later to go to school first, LeGrand delayed school and became a mother first…and then again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWg4Zew_xf0

LeGrand became a step-mom, at about 20 years old, to a young boy when she married her husband. LeGrand’s first pregnancy came shortly after she got married and she gave birth to her daughter. LeGrand birthed her second daughter  four years later.

By the time LeGrand’s stepson moved out of the house, and her two daughters were in high school and middle school, she made plans to go back to school herself to fulfill her dream of becoming a Social Worker.

While working hard to achieve her Associate’s Degree, LeGrand became unexpectedly pregnant with her third child at age 37.

LeGrand had to shift gears in her life in order to raise a new baby, two teenagers, and figure out if she would ever finish school.

In a series of interviews conducted in March and April, a cross-section of New York City women expressed strong, but different, opinions about the federal Food and Drug Administration’s decision last year to allow unrestricted, over-the-counter sale of the birth control pill Plan B. Now, women and girls of any age can buy it.

Being above average height is a trait that is often looked upon fondly. Commonly attributed to super models and star athletes, tall stature is seemingly desired by all. But how do tall people feel about their height? Being tall definitely brings about its own set of adversities and annoyances not experienced by shorter citizens. Thea and Danielle, two women of above average height, sit down and share just how much their height has affected their lives. Impacting everything from shopping to romance, they reflect the ups and downsides to being tall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbN_VbbbL3U

By Freddy Cicchetti

Just off Pier 5 in Brooklyn Bridge Park, the seasonal Smorgasburg, Brooklyn’s premier outdoor food market, is back and features a wide variety of cuisines. For food vendors, the market offers a place to grow their businesses. Unlike many similar food festivals promoting the best chili sauce or pumpkin pie, Smorgasburg hand picks its seasonal candidates to create a diverse array of foods. According to the vendors, Smorgasburg’s vendor selection process permits a wide variety of food choices resulting in greater brand awareness. There is only one black and white cookie shop, one iced coffee stop, and even one pepper sauce tent featured at the popular festival, which means each product gets a chance to shine. In this video, three vendors explain how being at Smorgasburg has impacted their businesses.

http://youtu.be/DDoVRlJxcZw

by Patrick Chiang

Traditional Chinese medicine has been around for ages and its benefits are not just for the Chinese. Acupuncturist Bill Jiao encourages everyone to give it a try. We take a quick stroll through Ginseng King in Flushing Queens to learn about a few herbs and their healing benefits.

http://youtu.be/sDNfmZQGV2I

By Andrew Rudansky

Members of the Manhattan Mayhem, one of eight member teams from the Gotham Girls Roller Derby League, are helping spearhead the recent revival of the sport of Roller Derby. This American-born competition, where games are won by getting designated players past the other team and around the length of the track, is seeing a resurgence in membership coinciding with a shift in the character of the sport. In its long road to legitimization, roller derby is transforming from theatrical camp to a sport looking to be taken seriously.

Women from all walks of life, both newcomers and 20-year veterans, meet several times a week to practice in rented warehouse space in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. Here, they experience competitive rule changes, a growing international community and recent equipment sponsorship deals, all of which comes hand in hand with the more serious ethos the sport is adopting. While not every member of the league is happy with the direction the sport is moving in, many find this move towards legitimization as an exciting trend in the sport they love.

https://vimeo.com/93413024

By Deena Farrell

Will Petz, the founder and CEO of QuietEvents, has coined the term “quiet clubbing.” His company has been holding “quiet” dance parties at clubs around the city for about two years. At a recent event at Croton Reservoir Tavern in midtown Manhattan, guests were given headphones upon entering. Three DJs were spinning tracks but the music could only be heard through the headphones. Guests could choose which of the three channels to listen to.  There was no other music on in the club so the space was relatively quiet except for people conversing. At points in the evening,  the club-goers sang along to their favorite songs. The headphones and other equipment used by QuietEvents are wireless so the noise level at their events is always at a speaking level. The club-goers are put in charge of their own night. They choose the station and volume, and have the option to take the headphones off and enjoy a conversation with out screaming over a thumping beat.