Author: MAYA ALEXANDER

 

 

https://vimeo.com/652094423 

I thought that the storytelling aspect of the documentary was very strong. A large part of that strength stems from the circumstances under which the director, Dan Krauss, was filming. The hospital setting, which can be triggering for some, is extremely jarring, and coupled with the verite filming style that the short is done leaves little breathing room for those watching. The way that the documentary goes straight into a difficult and very private moment for one family also left me considering the ethics of a film like this. While Krauss undoubtedly had to ask permission for all of the families profiled, there was one instance that struck out at me as being less than ethical. The scenes with the homeless man who was brought in unable to clearly communicate his thoughts and presumably had no family to approve his participation in the documentary were questionable to me. Removing someone’s bodily autonomy like that even if that person may be intellectually disabled, does not seem very ethical to me. All in all, the documentary was still an extremely compelling look at end-of-life care and the intimacy that prevails during those moments.

https://vimeo.com/646680563

New York’s Gardens Offer a Place for Community

Script 

HOST INTRO:
In 2020, the unexpected covid 19 pandemic forced most of us indoors and secluded from most living things besides a pet or significant other. With the urge to go outside and connect with others hard to resist, the pandemic gave new life to places like community gardens. They’re outdoors making them a safe place to converge, and with a lot of people having the drive to learn new things like gardening, these community gardens became the perfect backdrop for reconnecting socially after the pandemic. Maya Alexander has the story.

TRACK: I visited the 11th street community garden in the east village.
It has attracted members like Connor Davis who became a part of the community two years ago.

ACT: Connor: When I moved I looked out of my apartment window and I saw this beautiful garden and I decided to be a part of it. It wasn’t even a week after I moved I came in and met Al. I think a week later I somehow managed to get myself a key.

TRACK: When the COVID-19 pandemic occurred people turned the garden into a place of solace and community in a time where there was none. It’s even where Connor met his girlfriend Iris who notes the benefits that the garden brought during those times.

ACT: Iris: I think that the garden acted as a nice kind of like refuge place for people during coronavirus since it’s outside.

TRACK: The weeks sequestered indoors brought with it a desire to take care of something.

ACT: Iris: It gave people something to do, um, something to take care of, it was just a nice thing to have.

TRACK: For someone like Al Wax, who helped found the garden 40 years ago, it’s reassuring to see young people like Connor and Iris taking interest in it.
After moving to the East Village in the early 80s, he started the garden after buying a lot where a vacant building once resided.

ACT: Al: Where this garden is used to be a vacant building and back then there used to be a big drug problem in the East Village and the city really didn’t do a whole lot until a couple of bricks fell in the front and because there’s a public school across the street they knocked the whole building down and everybody on the block was watching this and they turned to us a said… If you clear this space out you can have it for a dollar a year.

TRACK: With this deal too enticing to pass up, Al and other members of the community joined together to clear out the lot.

ACT: Al: We were a mixed bag of people who lived on the block, the community and we formed a block association and we cleared out the thing. And I have pictures of kids clearing it out and they come back and this is like forty years later with their kids.

TRACK: Forty years on, the garden is still here and thriving

ACT: Al: And the people who are now in charge, hopefully, they’re gonna stick around and it’s gonna be great.

TRACK: So far this year, the garden has seen an uptick in daily visitors who have been attracted by the increasing number of events the garden has begun to organize like film screenings and live music.

ACT: Al: All of our events so far have been really really incredible… even when they have not many people came for whatever reason… the performers are like unbelievable!

TRACK: So what’s next for the small community garden? The options are limitless, but for now, they plan to take it slow. Encouraging more people to join and become involved seems to be at the top of the to-do list.

ACT: Connor: I think that we’re going to continue growing, get more members and breathe a little bit of life into some of the old and decaying parts of the garden.

TRACK: Community gardens are scattered among the city across all five boroughs. These green spaces remain a sacred part of what little solace New Yorkers have in their day-to-day life. A place like the 11th street community garden is a small reflection of the community and culture that make up the fabric of city living, and these places are going nowhere anytime soon. For Baruch College, I’m Maya Alexander.

For the Photoville assignment, I attended a zoom exhibit called “Looking Inward” it was a part of a three-part Youth Artist Exchange initiative that served to highlight the talents of young middle and high-school-aged photographers who were tasked with “creating intimate images that communicate personal identity and illustrate relationships to loved ones and to home.” We heard from four student photographers and three New York Times editors who fulfilled the prompt.

Destinee Marcion, who was one of the high school photographers, is on track to complete a film degree at her school. She noted the differences in filmmaking and photography and the challenges that arose for her when attempting to complete her photo project. Something interesting that I thought Marcion pointed out was the amount of planning that is required in both mediums. For her film requires a lot more time to think of ideas, photography is inherent more on natural instinct. Photos have the added pressure of getting any feelings or emotions right away. These thoughts were reflected in some of the photos that she took for this exhibit. With the main subject being her mother, one of the most stunning photos showcased her mother shrouded in darkness with a single light beaming on her solemn face. A quiet moment that had the potential of being lost if Marcion had waited for a second or two to snap the photo.

The NYTimes editors Nakyung Han, Jolie Ruben, and Ricardo Nagaoka, presented a project called, “Keeping Love Close” which was a photo assignment done in response to the rise in Asian hate crimes across the country. The editors wanted a chance to tackle this complicated topic in a way beyond the metro section in the newspaper. The prompt gave NYTimes photographers the chance to look inward in Asian communities and highlight their lives and experiences in a way that as Ricardo Nagaoka put it is “rare to see that in western media.”

Overall I thought the session was a great way to see how different people understand what “looking inward” means to them. For some like Marcion, it’s capturing an intimate moment before it gets away. For others like Nagaoka, it’s the chance to highlight a community that is often rejected from the mainstream construction of love and intimacy.

 

Jolie Rueben discussing one of the images featured in “Keeping Love Close”

https://soundcloud.com/ramennoodled/practice-radio-audio/s-5jrek5GVdiH?si=6ee59b0cf3e74ef18b0f44a5d5c788aa

I’d like to do a story about one of the ‘hidden’ gardens around the city. I would plan to interview some of the volunteers that run the garden and get some of the natural sounds there like waterfalls, birds, etc.

https://medium.com/@alexandermaya8/nyc-street-fairs-struggle-to-return-to-form-cee0932f696a

For my photo essay, I will be visiting the ‘Grand Central Food Festival Series’ that takes place every Friday. I plan to start at once end of the festival and make my way all the way to the end. The food festival lasts from 10 in the morning to 6 in the evening, which will hopefully provide enough time to capture enough different and compelling photographs. I want to capture the different aspects of the festival. The food and vendors will be a focus, but I also want to be able to capture the essence of community the exists among different cultures.

Hopefully, at the event, there will be visually compelling moments. This event happens every Friday this Fall so it might be beneficial to go on different weeks. However, I’m not sure whether or not I want to keep my photo essay contained to just a day at the festival.