“Hey sexy, you want some of this?” he yells at her, as she walks by.
She stops immediately, pausing for a moment — as if she was counting to three considering how to react — before she turns to face the man harassing her.
Two policemen walk from their unmarked car towards two homeless men sitting on the curb on the busiest street in Williamsburg. An open beer can that’s disguised with a brown paper bag sits in front of them. One of the homeless men, the skinny one with dreadlocks, talks…
A middle-aged Italian man sits in a Chinese bakery on 18th Avenue in Bensonhurst. Customers coming into the bakery take a quick glance at him as if he is a special guest who is not supposed to be there. It is a typical Chinese bakery — — sausage buns, egg tarts, and pork buns…
“Can I have your extra seeds?” That’s the first thing the woman asked when she entered the bagel shop, leaning over the counter at the men behind it as if it were a perfectly normal question. The men looked perplexed. But they gave her the seeds. Then she bought a…
Fishing in Red Hook
There is a pier at Valentino Park in Red Hook that offers some of the best views of New York Harbor. Today, one fisherman is sitting at the end of the pier, staring south at the long span of the Verrazzano Bridge, but at this moment the view is the…
The man and woman huddle together in the one shady corner of the park bench, her crossed legs resting in his lap. They pay no mind to anything but their conversation, their voices drowned out by the stifling heat and ambient noise of the park. But on closer inspection, it becomes clear that…
Two boys were sitting in McCarren Park, waiting for a friend, when a police car drove by.
“Thank God we didn’t smoke it,” said one.
“They can’t just come up to me,” said the other.
It’s early afternoon in Sunset Park. Sun beats down on the pavement, cutting through leaves and trees. There’s the sound of hissing cicadas and laughing children in the distance.