We entered 2020 with a renewed commitment to the Hard Crackers project. The year has shaped up to be one that none of us could have imagined, not even in our wildest dreams. We’d like to take this moment and revisit some of the ways we contributed to documenting daily life in the midst of […]
Archives for 2020
Middle-Class War: A Visit to Staten Island’s Autonomous Zone
Transmission rates are on the rise again in New York City. Hospital beds are filling, the temperature is dropping, and most have accepted a renewed lockdown to be a foregone conclusion. But the talk of the town has been a humble pub on Staten Island’s East Shore pushing against the trend. As the transmission rate […]
Ho Ho This!
Christmas is here and if you live in America you know this because the bombardment starts on Thanksgiving. The television commercials are a dead giveaway, plus the specially named shopping days, “Black Friday” or “Cyber Monday.” The most insulting ads are the car ones. There’s no greater Christmas surprise than buying a Land Rover SUV […]
The DOE’s Forgotten Stepchild: NYC’s District 75 Deals with COVID-19
District 75 is a specialized district within the NYC Department of Education. It is a completely segregated school district for special needs students between the ages of 3 and 21 including those dealing with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), significant cognitive delays and emotional disturbances. An estimated 90% of the 25,000 students in District 75’s 400 […]
COVID in Prison
When COVID-19 hit everybody was watching the news. We all saw the spread, then the deaths that followed. The prison here seemed to be on standby for like two months before we, “the inmates,” were issued ONE! just one, mask. Then, a week later we were issued another, 2nd! mask. Soon after, we were told […]
Murphy’s Law – A Day in the Life
Murphy’s Law was in full effect for me today (Saturday). Murphy’s Law is not quite Sod’s Law, nor is it exactly Finagle’s Law, although they all capture the same sentiment. The tenet of Murphy’s Law is “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” The older I get the more I seem to be bedeviled […]