The Big Apple, aka New York City, Part 3

As I began to write today I thought of the old familiar name for New York City and "Big Apple" immediately came to mind.  I really had no idea where the name came from and what the heck apples have to do with NYC.  The name was popularized in the 1920's by a sports writer for the NY Morning Telegraph.  I used the ever helpful Wikipedia to enlighten me.  In the 1970's the New York City Visitors and Convention Bureau adopted the name in promotional campaigns and it is still in use today.

I was thinking of my own interpretation of apples - healthy, fresh, temptation, red and round, etc.  I think NYC holds all those paradoxes and more in its existence.    I come from the state of Washington where, like New York state, apples are an important agricultural crop.  We love our apples here.  I have three trees in my small yard.  I think that NYC fed  my soul in a way that apples feed my body.  I felt nourished every day I was there.  I look forward to returning some day.

One of the many wonderful experiences that my colleagues at Cornell Cooperative Extension shared with me was an opportunity to meet Dr. Jane Powers, Project Director for ACT (Assets Coming Together) for Youth Center for Excellence (COE) at Cornell University's Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research (BCTR).   Jane and I met together to discuss the work of the Bronfenbrenner Center and her work with ACT for Youth.  ACT for Youth COE is funded by the New York State Department of Health to reduce risky sexual behavior and to promote positive outcomes among youth.  Jane's group provides technical assistance, training and evaluation support to seventy-seven grantees across the state.  The work of CUCE-NYC is interwoven with the work of BCTR.  Several of the key leaders of CUCE-NYC are part of the BCTR and several of the staff I met are engaged in the work of the Center.

Jane, Jackie and Drew

Jackie Davis-Manigaulte serves on the executive committee for ACT for Youth COE.  She is the program leader for family and youth development at CUCE-NYC and supervises the the NYC staff who are part of ACT for Youth COE.  Jackie is an amazing woman and resource for both internal and external partners throughout the city and state.  She was busy writing proposals the whole time I was in the office!  I am still in awe of the resources she has helped draw to the work of Cornell in the city and the relevance the programs have for urban youth and families.

It was synchronicity at work when Jane said she needed to come to the city from upstate to visit with providers.  I had expressed a desire to learn more about the work at CUCE-NYC that focused on sexuality education.  What came together was a meeting of providers and CUCE-NYC staff, Jane and me over lunch.  Jane and I met to brainstorm a series of questions and the conversation that took place was really rich for all of us.  Jane made it very clear that the session was not about her monitoring compliance and encouraged all the providers/educators to speak frankly about what was working and where there were issues with the mandated programs.

Front row: Melisa, Drew, Jane, Marisol
Back row: Luis, Eduardo, Michele, Ashwini, Ed, Caroline
CUCE-NYC staff and ACT for Youth COE providers

We decided to focus the conversation on three areas with specific focus on teens and immigrant families.  We asked them to describe both the victories and the barriers they experienced in their work, to share the messages that resonate or that frequently pop-up and any wisdom they could share about engaging parents.  What I share is a summary without mentioning specific names of the speakers.  All of the educators worked either in school based or clinic based settings with teens in Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn boroughs.  

Victories

• We are delivering the programs in their language and they are connecting with the kids.  
• Establishing a trust in the context of a class on sexuality can lead to teen coming to the school health center for a one on one meeting with educator who also works in the clinic.
• The community of youth is owning the program and are embracing the messages because they are using peer educators who are embedded in the community.

Challenges - our discussion evolved around the connection between parents and the families and the disconnect than can happen during the process of the adolescent development.

• Parents feel intimidated by many sources and that feeling intensifies when the child starts to pull away from physical contact.
• Parents are trying to prevent the emotional consequences of being intimate which is challenging because they may not have experienced emotional intimacy themselves.  
• Access to services may be a challenge because of (undocumented) immigration status.
• Kids are raising kids and teens are parenting without much parent involvement.
• Need to make all messages non-shaming for teens and for their parents.
• Healthy and unhealthy relationships are based on what they see.

Messages 

• For parents: Use door openers rather than door slammers (What do you think? Where did you hear about that? vs You are too young.  I'll let you know when you can talk about it (sex).
• Virginity and purity were topics to which the group had a wide range of opinions.  The group consensus seemed to be that splitting hairs over virginity was not productive although the youth do it all the time.  They counter these with the following: Stay Safe, Abstinence, Consent in terms of making an informed choice and decision.  Know the consequences.  Violation of consent or non-consent is wrong.  Challenge the preconceived notions that exist around virginity and purity.
• Teach and use the correct names for body parts and the biological processes associated with sexual development, sexual behavior and reproduction.

Parents - other issues to consider

• Imperative to target parents and to teach them to be transparent and clear about both the biology and body parts.
• Encourage both parents and youth to find healthy and comfortable ways to touch each other and their friends and siblings as the youth age.  Touch is an essential need that kids will seek elsewhere if not satisfied at home.
• Advise parents to start where they are.  Have them think about what advice and teaching they received and what they would like their children to have.
• Reinforce messages through publications in Spanish and that are appropriate for different Latino groups (Puerto Rican, Dominican, Mexican, etc).
• Talk about gender with parents and the roles that they grew up with and how gender is perceived today in their communities.
• Start embracing the family that their role in the development of the youth.  Put sexual development into the context of other things, do not make the discussion about SEX to the exclusion of the other changes the adolescent experiences.
• Educate everyone what it means to "stay safe."  Be aware that parents may have experience as either victims or perpetrators or witnesses of sexual assault and/or domestic violence.

I have many thoughts about this conversation and how I can translate some of this conversation into my own work as return to WSU in July.  I will not share those now.

An irony of this trip for me is the memory of our one and only visit to Times Square.  On one side of the street Disney characters where posing like crazy with an intent to get people to attend the Broadway show featuring Disney themes.  On the other side of the street was the Naked Cowboy and his Indian Princesses.  I rushed by in order to get across the street.  What I did see were two young women, mostly or completely naked, breasts painted with feathers in their hair.  Young adult men were thronging around to have their pictures taken with these women and I am guessing the Naked Cowboy was taking the tips.    What messages did that give to the many folks of all colors, ages, sizes and nationalities who thronged the square that day?  I was not impressed and could not get away fast enough from the side show this created.  If and when I return to the city, I will not go out of my way to visit Times Square.   Mike and I created routes that circumvented that three ring circus after our one encounter.

Life in the Big Apple. 

Thanks for reading.

Lessons Learned in NYC, Part One - Worker Justice

I have decided to write first about what I learned about worker justice issues in NYC and beyond.  I will start by stepping back to my first full day in the city and one of many experiences my colleagues at Cornell University Cooperative Extension in New York City (CUCE-NYC) arranged for me.  They set up a very busy two days of meetings, listening sessions and informal conversations.  I was very fortunate to get time to speak with KC Wagner, who is the Director of Workplace Issues at the Worker Institute in the Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) School at Cornell University.  The ILR is part of the land grant structure and does a fair bit of work on promoting workplace fairness, health, safety, equity and social justice under the land grant or outreach banner.  I was really impressed because as far as I know, my own land grant university does little in this area.  I had an intense conversation with KC and Emily Mandell, a graduate student, who were working together on the Nanny Training project and who are now engaged with training elder caregivers.

Emily and KC

I will leave it to my reader to follow the weblink to learn more about the Worker Institute and the fine work they are doing.  The ILR was founded in 1945 to help NY workers with collective bargaining and is a leader in work on national and international workplace issues - the focus is very broad.  I love it that some of the work focuses on the workers themselves and not just the people, organizations and institutions that employ them.  This interview helped me shift my focus for this trip to the conditions that blue collar and unskilled workers endure and have for many decades (and I could say centuries).  We may not have called the skilled laborers of the past who built cathedrals, castles, tenement buildings, roads, etc, blue collar but I think there is a parallel.  I also think of the names we have used for people who help with the household work for more affluent classes: drudges, slaves, servants, chorewomen, etc.  The names have often lacked the panache that they deserve.  I digress.

KC excitedly told me about several projects with which she is involved and how she sees her work one of translating research and education into practical applications.  She worked tirelessly on helping establish the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights for NYC.  She is now working with a collaborative that provides a 35 hour training for caregivers, first for Nannies and now includes elder caregivers.  

I realized early in our conversation just how important labor issues were in the state of New York and in the city.  I came into this trip wanting to know more about the conditions that impacted the immigrant population (past and present) and knew that would be one of the themes of this trip.  I was not disappointed.  I will write more about what I learned about the sweatshops and garment industry in another day or two.  For now I am going to focus on the issues that challenge the current immigrants, especially the women who seek work as house cleaners.

She asked me how long I would be in NYC and highly recommended that I arrange to visit people involved in workplace justice issues in Brooklyn.  I learned about one of the only corners in the country where female day laborers gather seeking housecleaning jobs.  It is in Williamsburg, a working class area of Brooklyn.  I was able to contact Yadira Sanchez at the Worker's Justice Project in Brooklyn and she invited me to come meet her in Williamsburg.  I offered to take her out to lunch.  Mike and I came as arranged to meet at the corner where the women gather each day in hopes of finding a cleaning job,  most of which are in homes of Hasidic Jews who live in the area.  When we found our way to the corner and Yadira there were many women milling about, waiting and hoping for work that day.  It was already 11:30 am.  Some may have already worked once that day.

Day laborers in Williamsburg

We found Yadira and with her were Angel and Maria, both of whom work with the Worker's Justice Project.  The women gathered around us.  We were so different that we stuck out.  Yadira introduced me and I gave a little speech about myself, my sabbatical and wishing them well in their lives and thanking them for their attention.  Yadira, Angel and Maria then led us to a Mexican restaurant where we could talk and we had a wonderful meal and a very animated conversation about the conditions under which these women work, the work that Yadira and her team are doing to ameliorate the conditions and their hopes and dreams for the future.

Maria, Yadira and Angel.  All three are from Mexico.  

I wanted to spend the rest of the day talking with them.  We all had to go our separate ways sadly for me.  I heard from Yadira today.  She asked if I would be writing about our visit on my blog because they need publicity.  They felt that it was a relief to have a real conversation and not to have to speak in sound bites about their work.  I decided to make their story a priority for today's writing.

They told me the story of the really poor conditions under which the women labor.  The Hasidic tradition is to clean all floors on hands and knees and to use harmful chemicals to do that to make sure they are as clean as possible.  They hire the day laborers to clean anywhere from 2-8 hours a day and much of the work is done on their hands and knees on hard surfaces.  Yadira shared with me some of the physical damage that is being observed in the workers.  They have seen a number of women who have hardened calluses on their knees that impact their ability to walk.  They see raw skin from the hands all the way up the arms that do not heal and are being irritated daily by harmful, and possibly carcinogenic chemical cleaners.  They know of women who organs are being permanently pushed in because of the position they must maintain for hours at a time on their hands and knees.  Cleaning synagogue floors may take a full eight hours when done on hands and knees.  They report a more frequent rate of miscarriages than one might expect and postulated that the daily exposure to cleaning chemicals and the constant position of being on hands and knees may contribute.  

The Worker's Justice Project is working with the women on several fronts.  They are giving the workers who will come a 10 hour OHSA training on the recognition and use of harmful chemicals.  They are addressing intimidation in the workplace and standing against being asked to do things that are unsafe.  They are also teaching them about worker rights.  They are creating a housekeeping guide for both employers and workers and are making some progress on identifying leaders within the Hassidic community who can help that community be part of the solution.  They have begun a campaign entitled Stand Up to Clean Up that says it all.  The art work is great.  Take a look at the pictures and the stories.  It is a campaign that makes sense and the time is now for action!  I admire that the Worker's Justice Project has formed a cleaner's cooperative.   Maria was the first member.  She began as a day laborer on the corner.  She enrolled in English and computer classes through the Worker's Justice Center and is now the bookkeeper for the cooperative.  She uses Excel.  I was impressed because I have still not mastered Excel.  She has become a spokesperson for the group.  Maria is from  the state of Puebla, Mexico.  There is a large group of immigrants from Puebla in the NYC area.  Most are recent immigrants.  

The work with the women is only one of the things these devoted folks do.  I was really inspired and grateful to get a closer look at this project. I would like to have had time to shadow Yadira for a week.  I asked Yadira and Angel about their stories and passions.  We ran out of time before I could hear much from Angel who studied business in college and who was applying that the work on labor and social justice.  Yadira helped co-found the Worker's Justice Project after being involved with the plight of the day laborer when her husband became involved.  She got involved in an organization for day laborers that she loved because it connected her with the community.  When it closed, she used her organizational skills to help found the Worker's Justice Project with Executive Director, Ligia  Guapia.  One of the most gratifying parts of conversation came when I asked Yadira what about the work she does makes her most hopeful.  She answered:

• She really wants to see changes and to see the workers protected under the law. She wants the law to be enforced for safety and dignity.
• She wants women to retrieve what they have lost (in coming to this country, working as virtual slaves under very harmful conditions, etc).  She said that "our country (Mexico) has failed us and this country (US) has failed us.  I want these women to believe in themselves and to know they deserve support.  This is hard work - you have to be emotionally and psychologically healthy to survive."  

She stated as had KC and others across this journey that social justice is very important.  Social justice is not something that lip service fixes.  Taking real steps can make a difference.  The Worker's Justice Center is one beacon for that work.  I was really glad I took KC's advice and reached out to Yadira.  My visit with in Williamsburg was one of the many highlights of my trip to NYC.

I thought I would close with two more pictures.  KC shared her art work with me.  She goes to the Folk School in North Carolina each year and she has been using printing on fabric to connect her work life with her art.

What the day laborers deserve.

The last is a piece of glass art that greeted us when we stepped off the subway at Marcy Avenue to  meet Yadira after an awesome trip over the Williamsburg Bridge.

Beauty is everywhere.

My next post will focus on my visit with the CUCE-NYC group.

Thanks for reading.

Saturday in Manhattan

We are in New York City and it is an amazing place!  I spent two very productive days with the great team at Cornell Cooperative Extension - NYC.  I will write more about that visit in detail in a future blog.  I wanted to share some of the fun things Mike and I saw and did in various places in Manhattan on Saturday.

We headed out from our hotel, the Chelsea Savoy, on foot and walked to Union Square where the Greenmarket is on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.  Mike and I love Farmer's Market and go to the Bellingham Market as often as possible.  We like to visit markets in other cities and we are never disappointed by what we find.  This market was no different.  It was a feast for the eyes and the spirit

Yummy cheese!

.

Plants galore!

Amanda, the friendly yarn woman who helped me select beautiful hand dyed green yarn.  This farm was a big part of Clara Parkes Great White Bale project.  I am a reader and fan of Clara's and a regular reader of Knitter's Review. 

The beautiful naturally dyed yarns at Catskill Merino Sheep Farm.

We had a great time visiting with these folks and brought home some seeds to plant.

Mother Pigeon created these lovely birds.  What a pleasure to see the art being so approachable!

We hopped on the subway and went north to the Upper East Side where we ate lunch, found the All Souls UU Church and walked to and through Central Park.  Central Park is an awesome part of the city.  Mike has been almost every day.  I have been three times already.  We spent time on Saturday wandering through the sunning crowds, watching bicyclists of all sizes and shape ride the road around the park, and visiting the Turtle Pond.

Spring time in Central Park!

Turtle Pond, and yes,
we did see turtles sunning themselves along the edge.

After returning to hotel and having a rest, we set out again for Chelsea Market and the High Line Park.  Both are in our neighborhood and we were excited to go.  Again, we were not disappointed.  The Chelsea Market has a plethora of shops and eateries and art galore.  We enjoyed a very casual meal of Japanese Mexican fusion restaurant, Takumi.  I have never tasted a spicy tuna taco but it was good.  As was everything else we ate.  Beans and rice were a combination of edamame, red beans, black beans and brown rice.  So good to my palate. We topped the meal off with gelato that was to die for.  We tasted but did not order the olive oil flavor.  Interesting.  Where else but NYC?

One of my favorite shops in the market was a Spice and Tea shop.  I bought both to bring home.  The colors and smells lured us.  I felt like I was being transported to a street market in Africa!

What would you buy?
We got a special blend for cooking fish and another for poultry

and some tea.

Famous clock in the Chelsea Market.

We ended our day by walking back to our hotel on the elevated High Line Park trail.  What a wonderful thing to do at sunset!  It was a beautiful day and many were enjoying the pleasure of walking along the edge of Manhattan above the crowded streets.

Looking west from the High Line.

Going north on the trail.

Saturday was a great day for both of us.  We walked over eight miles, not uncommon for tourists in New York, took several subway rides and at the end of the day walked past people lined up to see films at the Tribeca Film Festival.  Two of the theaters showing films are on our street, one on our block.

Whether you have been to New York City or not, I know you will all appreciate the words of a newcomer who sees the city for the first time and you will think about going for yourself or returning.

Thanks for reading.