In the last few days of July, black-and-white photos began filling up Instagram feeds around the world. Generally, they were solo, selfie shots of women, with hashtags like #womensupportingwomen and #challengeaccepted. Many celebrities jumped on the trend, including Cindy Crawford, Kerry Washington, Kristen Bell, and Jennifer Aniston, using everything from old glamour shots to close-up selfies in order to, ostensibly, demonstrate their general solidarity with women. In a pandemic rife with internet challenges and online activism, it seemed, at first glance, another trend meant to bind us together with a vaguery, when everyone was looking for some form of connection. More →

As the sweltering July heat baked the streets of Bed-Stuy Monday morning, mourners dressed in black and white filed out of Pleasant Grove Baptist behind the three-foot-long, cartoon-covered casket of one-year-old Davell Gardner, Jr, who was shot and killed in Brooklyn on July 12. The procession, led by Rev. Al Sharpton, spilled onto Fulton Street with a visible weariness; the weariness of a community wracked by death, facing another loss so horrific it is difficult to even comprehend. More →

The largest school system in the country is making a push to send its students back into the classroom — masks on, hand sanitizer readily available — as the coronavirus curve continues to flatten and the infection rate remains low across New York. More →

They closed down Lincoln Center and put up a parking lot.

The New York Film Festival is the latest to announce that it will screen movies a la drive-in. Film at Lincoln Center announced today that the 58th iteration of its annual festival will open with not one but three Steve McQueen premieres and will take place, in part, at the Queens and Brooklyn drive-ins that were set up by Rooftop Films earlier this summer. More →

New York City tour guide Luke Miller misses taking people on subway rides. A born and bred New Yorker, it was one of his favorite job perks. “It started out when I was a kid, running around the underground. Now, my focus has always been doing it the way New Yorkers do it. Subway and foot.” More →

On July 6, Wooden Sleepers, a destination men’s vintage store on Van Brunt Street in Red Hook, announced it would be closing. 

“When I opened the shop on March 15, I didn’t realize it would be the last time,” Brian Davis, the store’s owner, wrote on Instagram. “I figured Covid-19 would pass and I could get back to business as usual. Fast forward 4 months and here we are, still closed.”

While Phase 2 of New York City’s reopening plan allowed in-store retail to resume June 22 under certain mandatory guidelines, Davis felt that his roughly 400-square-foot couldn’t meet the social distancing criteria. And with a newborn at home, Davis, who had been quarantining since mid-March, still had concerns about Covid-19. More →

Davell Gardner Jr., the one-year-old boy who was shot and killed at a cookout on July 12, was laid to rest in Brooklyn yesterday, at a service presided over by Rev. Al Sharpton and Bishop Albert L. Jamison. In a somber ceremony, attended by members of the community and prominent New York politicians and public figures, speakers remembered the short life of Gardner, while calling for an end to gun violence in the community. More →

Samuel S. T. Pressman had wanted to build a food garden on the rooftop of his Clinton Hill apartment for years. The artist and sculptor had lived on a farm when he was younger and had studied Sustainable Environmental Systems at Pratt. But in a city with a “time is money” mentality, he never found the right moment to start his passion project. More →

Black and brown communities in Brooklyn face an inordinate concentration of food deserts, where people lack access to healthy, affordable grocery stores and other nutritious options. And the number of Americans who experience food insecurity is only expected to grow in the coming months, with low-income people of color to be hit hardest.  More →

As tensions come to a head in Portland, Oregon, where federal agents in military garb are putting protesters into unmarked vehicles and tear-gassing demonstrators, people on the other side of the country are throwing support behind the protesters. On the heels of President Trump’s announcement that he may send these same federal officers–described by one Oregon senator as an “occupying army”— into other Democrat-run cities such as New York, many are standing in solidarity with those in Portland and reminding elected officials that the movement is showing no signs of stopping. More →