New Documentary: The Once and Future Newark
Last night I got the chance to attend the premiere of a new documentary, "The Once and Future Newark," at the lovely Newark Museum (down the street from my office). The film is basically a compilation of highlights from the walking tours of Newark that Dr. Clement Price, the director of the Institute, has been giving for years. Check out the website for it here:
http://www.newark.rutgers.edu/newark/There are some amazing images and stories in it - I'm already making plans to check out some of the gorgeous churches Clem talks about, as well as Branch Brook Park (where Bill and I are hoping to check out the farmer's market this weekend). But we also had fun seeing and learning more about some increasingly familiar sites - like Penn Station, which I walk through on my way to work just about every morning, and, of course, the Ironbound - the film has some tasty shots of the bakery that my parents and I went to when they came up over the summer.
Anyway, it's a fanstastic short (26 minutes) film - you can check out a little promo clip of it here:
http://www.newark.rutgers.edu/newark/index.php?sId=video, and any of you who get New Jersey Network can check it out Wednesday October 4 at 6:30 or Thursday October 5 at 9. It's also going to be shown on campus here, and those of you who REALLY want to see it can find out how to buy a copy here:
http://www.newark.rutgers.edu/newark/index.php?sId=dvd.
But maybe I'll just buy a copy myself and just have a housewarming screening party - never know!
Notebook fall edition now online!
The Philadelphia Public School Notebook just posted its fall edition online, including my articles on school contracting.
The table of contents for the whole issue can be found here:
http://www.thenotebook.org/editions/2006/fall/, and my articles can be found in several places:
"Renew or terminate: SRC to decide in spring" - on the EMO renewals - is here:
http://www.thenotebook.org/editions/2006/fall/renew.htm . That one's also available in Spanish - "Se quedan o se van?: Lo Comision se decideran" -
http://www.thenotebook.org/editions/2006/fall/se_quedan.htm . (No, I didn't translate it - I wish my Spanish was that good.)
My article on the contracting process, "Informal bidding process: Cause for concern?" is here:
http://www.thenotebook.org/editions/2006/fall/informal_bidding.htm
And the collection of comments I solicited regarding the EMO renewals, "Do we want managers to stay on?" is here:
http://www.thenotebook.org/editions/2006/fall/managers_stay.htm , including photos of the respondents.
There are lots of other great articles in the issue as well, and I'll be curious to see whether our reporting has any effect on the district's policies. I'll keep you updated!
Brazil Photos - Part Two
As promised, here are some photos from the second half of my trip to Brazil this summer!
On our way back from Bonito, we spent a very fun evening in Sao Paulo - since we couldn't possibly just hop on a bus back to Rio when one of Brazil's World Cup games was on! Seriously, the buses probably wouldn't be running - the country (including the stock market!) pretty much shuts down during the national team's World Cup games. Anyway, Marisa's "Paulista" friend Gil, who spent a year of high school at the Jersey Shore through the Rotary Club (which is also sponsoring Marisa's trip down there) joined us at a bar, where at halftime of the game everyone disappeared downstairs - to dance! There was a live samba band, costumed dancers, and mass craziness. But when the game started up again, of course that all stopped immediately.
After the game, we took a late-night bus back to Rio - another city that loves to celebrate during the "futbol" games. Even the streets are decorated during the Cup:
Once we got back to Rio, I had a chance to check out a few of the more famous sights and places in the city, including the huge (38 meters, about 160 feet tall) statue of Christ the Redeemer that stands at the top of Corcovado. Check out this link for a very cool aerial view of the statue:
http://biblia.com/jesusart/rio.htm
And here's a couple of my own photos - one as we're sneaking up on Christ from behind (check out the people in the lower right corner for a sense of the size of the statue!):
and another of one of the beautiful views from the top of the mountain
Another cool experience in Rio was the chance to check out a "Festa Junina" party being hosted at a crumbling old mansion in Rio's artsy Santa Teresa neighborhood. One of the traditions of this festival is that people dress up as farmers - overalls for the men, pigtails for women, freckles and straw hats for everyone - my favorite was a big guy who had put on a checkered dress and was wandering around hugging everyone. Check out more about Festa Junina here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festa_JuninaWe also went to an interesting club - a former bordello, actually - that hosts a weekly party with a buffet of Brazil's national dish, feijoada (made of rice, black beans, pork, dried meat, collard greens, orange, farinha and cachaca) as well as djs and a "samba circle" - a group of musicians who get together with drums, guitars, and a microphone to perform beautiful versions of classic samba songs, with a crowd around them singing and dancing along:
Marisa and I also went out for a caipirinha at "Garota de Ipanema" - the bar where a girl who often walked by inspired the writers of "The Girl from Ipanema" in 1962. There are photos of famous Brazilian musicians hung all over the restaurant, and the owners have even conveniently hung up a big reproduction of the original handwritten lyrics to "Vinicius and Tom's" famous song:
The very friendly owner of the bar even came over to chat - Marisa had met him last time she want there - he gave us each a rose, and filled us in a bit on the background of the bar and the musicians who had stopped by over the years - very cool.
But all trips must come to an end, and the next day I had to catch my flight out - we headed back out to catch the bus at Ipanema beach, took a picture of a dog carrying a coconut, and headed to the aiport.
Photos from Brazil - Part One
(This post got named "Blog of the Day" in the World category on blogoftheday.org the night I posted it - how cool is that?)
In honor of my parents' current trip down to Brazil to visit my sister, I've decided to post a few photos from my own trip there this June - enjoy!
Marisa and I went to Ipanema beach as soon as I got to Rio - it was "winter," but that just meant it was around 80 degrees F instead of 95 - and not as crowded. This statue is at the south end of the beach - I like to think it's in honor of me finishing my dissertation a few days before I left for this trip ;)
But we left Rio pretty quickly, taking a bus down to Sao Paulo to catch a flight to Campo Grande, in the southwest part of Brazil. From there, we rented a car and headed further west to Bonito - "world capital of ecotourism" (if they do say so themselves). Self-promotion aside, it was amazing - we snorkeled in rivers that are as clear as aquariums and are filled with enormous (2-3 foot long) fish - I even had an otter swim in front of me! Marisa has all the pictures and video footage of that, though.
Another highlight of the trip was a brief visit to Buraca do Araras (which unfortunately translates to "Parrot Hole" in English), a newly reopened refuge for wild parrots and parakeets. Dozens of them live in a deep circular canyon, and we were the only visitors there that day - very cool experience. Here's a photo of some of the parrots in flight:
We even had a good time getting around - we had rented a little car, and somehow managed to get stuck behind two herds of cows in the course of five days. Driving through a herd of a hundred cows (with the cowboys' permission, of course) can be a surprisingly fun experience!
But our favorite part of the trip to Bonito was our visit to Cachoiera do Peixes (I'm pretty sure that's the name - it translates, roughly, to Waterfall of the Fishes). It's a working farm with gorgeous trails through a semi-tropical forest, lots of waterfalls (big and small), including a couple you could swim in, a zip line that you could take across a little lake and jump in, a huge homemade lunch spread (12 different desserts for 7 people - it was crazy), hammocks for napping after the huge lunch spread, and lots of interesting animals - including parrots and monkeys that would take food from your hand and a pack of five pomeranians and one chihuahua that would come along on the hikes and harass the farm animals. if you've never seen a Pomeranian chasing a bull, you haven't lived. ;) Here's a few photos:
OK, photos from the second half of the trip in my next post!
I'm now a published journalist!
As most of you know, I spent the summer as an intern with the Philadelphia Public School Notebook, a non-profit newspaper that covers education issues in Philly. It was a great experience - I got to discover what it's like to be on the reporter's side of an interview (quite different than being an interviewee), learned a bit about investigative journalism, and worked with great people on important issues. If you know any undergrads or grads who might be interested in doing something similar, the Notebook is offering a bunch of unpaid internships this fall (see their website here:
http://www.thenotebook.org/about/internships.htm , and the paid one that I had will almost definitely be available again next summer through the Fels Foundation's very cool "Internships in Community Service" program in Philadelphia; check out their site here for details:
http://www.samfels.org/internships06.htmlAnyway, the fall issue of the Notebook came out today, and it features two articles from me on school contracting - one on how the Philadelphia school district uses informal and no-bid processes to choose contractors for educational services (like after-school programs), and the other on how the district is going to decide whether or not to renew its contracts with the six private organizations that have been managing schools in the district for the last five years. I also compiled responses from about a dozen people (elected officials, activists, teachers, etc) about whether or not those contracts should be renewed, helped research an article about how school contracting is affecting unions in the city, and helped edit several other articles.
Responses to the EMO renewal question from some of Philadelphia's mayoral candidates are already up on the Notebook's website -
http://www.thenotebook.org - and hopefully the rest of the edition will also be posted online soon. In the meantime, those in Philadelphia can pick up a free copy from the newsracks by the front desk of the School District's headquarters (440 N. Broad), a stack in the NE tower of City Hall, and at Robin's Books on 13th St. If you want a copy mailed to you, you can subscribe to the Notebook here:
https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?id=2212 for $20 a year - and only $12 for students!
I'm looking forward to reading the issue myself - if you manage to check it out, let me know what you think!
Where I'm living
OK, now that you all know I like my job, I want to reassure you that I like my new neighborhood too. Of course, leaving West Philly was hard - it's a pretty amazing place - but Bill and I have really enjoyed settling into the Ironbound.
Check out the Wikipedia entry here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironbound for some details about the history of the neighborhood, past and present. Basically, it's a thriving Portuguese and Brazilian community, with increasing numbers of Ecuadorian, Mexican, and other Central/South American immigrants. I'm practicing my Spanish more than I have in years, and the few Portuguese phrases I managed to pick up while visiting my sister in Brazil have served me well - but I'm hoping to learn more quickly!
It helps that the neighborhood has lots of great food, so we can practice our language skills while ordering - there's a cute little internet cafe with cafe con leche and tasty brazilian snacks for a dollar each (we went there on the day we saw the apartment and have been back often - especially when we were waiting for our internet service to get turned on!), a corner store with its own butcher shop in the back and fresh portuguese bread delivered daily, a fantastic supermarket six blocks away stocked with amazing cheeses and more salt cod than i ever knew existed (see photos here:
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=87997 ) . There's also a truck out front of the supermarket where you can buy fresh churros - fried cylinders of dough rolled in cinnamon sugar and filled with cream. They're deadly, but irresistable.
Plus there's tons of restaurants - I took my parents out to a huge lunch at Iberia over the summer (it's on Ferry Street, the main commercial strip in the neighborhood) and we've also enjoyed a couple meals from McWhorter's BBQ down the block, where a tray with half a chicken, a quarter rack of ribs, and a couple pounds of rice and black beans will set you back a whole $10. There's a reason it's always filled with cops and EMTs, I guess.
There are also lots of great bakeries around, plus Nasto's, a famous ice cream place that supplies hundreds of restaurants in the area:
http://nastoicecream.com/index.html ) We're hoping to get there soon - we tried yesterday but they closed a bit earlier than we expected. ;( Somehow I think we'll survive, though.
Hello from Newark!
Hi everyone - hopefully this will be an easy way for people to keep up with what I'm up to in Newark (and beyond!) I'll try to write a bit each day, starting today with an update on how things are going with my new job. Basically, it's great. I just started a post-doc with the Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience at Rutgers-Newark - check out our website here:
http://ethnicity.rutgers.edu. The people here are wonderful, and I already feel very at home - it's just as ideal a job for me as I hoped it would be.
Currently, I'm in the process of designing my own project, which I'll be running over the next couple of years with funding from the Dodge Foundation. It's still a work in progress, but I'm planning on coordinating a series of community discussions around education reform in Newark, all of which will include some background on the history of the issue we're discussing. Right now I'm busy writing up a proposal, putting together a list of people to contact, and compiling a bibliography - it's actually pretty amazing how many resources I was able to find on the history of education in Newark!
I'll also be helping out with the Institute's many other great activities - the big one is the Marion Thompson Wright Lecture, which is the finale to their annual series of events for Black History Month in February. But the Institute also coordinates the Heninburg Civic Fellows program - which brings Newark community leaders together to share ideas and experiences - the Saturday Academy program to bring high school students in for weekend history workshops, and lots of cultural events - the next one is an Indian dance performance on October 11.
Anyway, I'll fill in more details about how things are going in my next post - feel free to respond in the meantime!
