Documentary Films: Witness of the Real
Vilnius, Lithuania, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as I enter one the many baroque cathedrals, I see a church choir rehearse for an upcoming performance. I am so moved by the music I sit and listen for 20 minutes.
The country shuts down Thursday and Friday before Easter. Every neighborhood throughout Spain has processions like the ones below commemorating the death and life of Jesus.
Visiting Americans are usually taken aback by the klan-like robes. The centuries-old tradition behind wearing these robes, (taken from the Inquistion) was for the wearers to be anonymous before God with the conical hood streamlining the soul to the heavens as an act of forgiveness for past sins.
Continue reading “Semana Santa (Holy Week) Madrid, Spain”
We meet Tiffany, with her then boyfriend, Nate, in the Marsha P. Norman Harlem shelter for queer children in Harlem in 2008. We follow up with her again in 2014 where she lives in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and again in 2024 at the entrance of a midtown subway in Manhattan.
There are 34 short segments in this series. It is an unvarnished look into one transgender woman’s life but the issues that plague our society; race, inequality, gender, mental health, poverty, sexuality, and so much more, ripple through every segment.
Continue reading “Day in the Life of a Black Transgender NYC Woman: A 17-Year Video Study”
This past summer I took my visiting nephews to the Museum of Modern Art, (MoMA), in New York City. Walking through a gallery, I noticed a crowd around a young dynamic woman talking about the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. I have never been to a major museum where the artist, in this case, LaToya Ruby Frazier, was on hand to speak about her work. It was such a privilege. Within seconds of being in her compelling presence, I grabbed my phone and started recording. Her communication and storytelling skills mesmerize.
On a recent trip to San Francisco my friend Tassos treated us to Waymo’s robotaxi. When I first saw the Jaguar SUV silently slither up and down the San Francisco hills, I thought , “No way will I get in one of those”. But when I saw more driver-less taxis throughout the day, and they weren’t bursting into flames and maiming people on sidewalks, I had another think. I had to try it.
It was our first visit to Yellowstone National Park. We, like every other visitor that day, were transfixed by what we saw.
We were driving to Yellowstone and were diverted to Billings, MT because of the Elk Fire, which started September 27.
We met Donna and her team at the U.S. Forest Service. She and her colleague, Daniel Clausson, were kind enough to give us an update on the fire.
Continue reading “Update: Elk Fire, Dayton Wyoming”After the 9/11 attacks, we were given by our employer, Scudder Investments, now Deutsche Bank, a personal evacuation kit.
The months after the attack, many of us working in NYC office buildings thought another attack was imminent. I felt a bit safer with my personal evacuation kit. With my trusty kit under my arm, I would get out of a burning building unscathed.
Twenty three years later, I still keep my kit next to my desk at work. Fortunately, I have never needed it.
Yesterday I finally opened it.
It’s funny what we think will keep us safe.
New York Diary presents one New Yorker’s personal take on September 11 and its aftermath. How was the immediate, unintelligible horror of the attacks digested and domesticated in the days and weeks that followed?
Before I dashed to work one morning I was astonished at the beauty I almost missed, had I not slowed down and looked and listened to the awe of now.