All around the small office, boxes were piled high with canned goods and toiletries. There would have been more than enough food to feed the small crowd gathering outside, dancing to the live music and chattering in both Spanish and English. Still, it was not enough to help the over three million people still struggling to survive in Puerto Rico.
After the island was hit hard by hurricane Irma and again by hurricane Maria, several members of the East Elmhurst community in Queens organized Bomba y Plena for Puerto Rico, a hurricane relief event with music, food and cultural activities.
Together, Irma and Maria have killed an estimated 128 people. More recently, Ricardo A. …
When Ron Callahan started teaching local kids to code four years ago, he did it from his basement in Jackson Heights. Now, he does it from a local preschool, the walls dotted with finger paintings and posters promoting diversity. The kids line up at computers in the middle of the room. The oldest student is eleven, the youngest, seven.
Callahan founded Raspberry Heights in 2013, a weekly workshop dedicated to teaching children about science, technology, engineering and math. Callahan uses Raspberry Pi technology, small computers that he first introduced to his daughter in order to teach her STEM skills.
“She immediately fell in love with these little computers,” said Callahan. “It’s a great educational tool. I used it to teach her a little bit more about technology and…
Sitting by the register in Jackson Height’s Lety Bakery and Cafe, a small, sparingly decorated cafe that smells like cupcakes and coffee, four men plan the future of New York’s 14th congressional district.
The men are volunteers, organizing events for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s congressional campaign. Ocasio is a member of Brand New Congress, an organization looking to get younger, more diverse voices involved in politics.
“We are looking to essentially elect a new congress,” said Zeynab Day, press director for Brand New Congress. “The people that we’re running are working together. …
In Brooklyn Heights, children see a pair of swastikas spray painted on a playground. In Greenwich Village, a Jewish resident finds an anti-semitic pamphlet left in their mailbox. In Rochester, visitors find a Jewish cemetery vandalized, tombstones knocked to the ground. These are just three examples of the hate crimes perpetrated against Jews in the last year.
In 2016, the number of anti-semitic hate crimes rose by nine percent according to the FBI. This number has only continued to rise in 2017. …
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