NYC Fashion Week 2011

A look at my photos from Fashion Night Out 2011 in SoHo.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Uptown Manhattan – Street Style

It’s fashion week. I set out to find the most fashionable fashionistas (and fashionistos) in Inwood. Here’s a look at what the best dressed are sporting these days in North Manhattan…

EL POLLO LOCO!

There’s chicken salad,
chicken strips and
chicken soup,
and then,
there are chickens-
live chickens.
_____________________________________________________________________________

I had just arrived at my beat in Northern Manhattan’s Inwood neighborhood and my five senses were on massive overload. I could taste what I was smelling, I could see what I was hearing and I could feel what I was seeing. My senses (and the journalist in me) lead me like a magnet to the community’s one and only Live Poultry Shop. Within 30 seconds of hopping off the Uptown 1 Train, I found myself on the doorstep of a chicken chop shop.

I knew right off of the bat that this wasn’t the kind of place where you buy a pound of Foster Farms raw chicken wrapped in cellophane. I opened the front door. Immediately, it hit me. This was the kind of place where you go in, pick your favorite chicken, weigh it, walk it home, break its neck, and cook it for dinner for a delicious arroz con pollo dish. Now, if you’ve never done that before, it may be worth your time to read on…

Buying a live chicken is a custom embedded within the Dominican culture. It may seem bazaar to some of you vegetarians or PETA enthusiasts, but to them, it’s not bazaar but rather, it’s just, dinner. This kind of tradition is something the Dominican grew up with in their home country.  And just as many Dominicans migrated to New York, so did their customs.

You should know that if you do decide go to one of New York’s many live poultry shops:

a.) your chicken won’t have any
preservatives in it.
b.) you don’t have to watch the shopkeepers kill your bird, you can do it yourself.
c.) Your chicken will probably be the freshest chicken you’ve ever tasted.

Something to at least think about.

Depending on the type of chicken you want, the birds go anywhere from $5-$18/lb. Fresh chicken isn’t cheap, but then again, few things in New York are. Below are a few photos I took of one man who came in to do his chicken shopping around 11am on Tuesday morning. He ended up buying two chickens, assuring me they would be consumed for dinner that night.

And by 11:10, his shopping was finished. The chicken shopper was now a chicken customer.  I ended up walking away from this (smelling like rotten feces) but also, with a certain openess. Although this is like nothing I’d ever seen before in my entire life, it is not something that I have trouble understanding. I realize that the concept of a live poultry shop is flooded with a myriad of issues many Americans have with the meat and poultry industry. But, buying a live chicken is an activity that the Dominican people (and many other cultures) know and love. It is a special tradition that these people cherish, similar to a Los Angeleno’s addiction to Sprinkles $5 cupcakes, or a New Yorker’s addiction to $12 meals at Energy Kitchen.

Stay tuned, more to come on my adventures in New York.

-Marin

 

Day 1: My New Beat – La gente es amable y la comida barata! (Sweet Peeps & Cheap Eats).

8:03 am– “Dyckman Street. Next stop, 207th Street-Inwood” – [click], the Subway conductor hung up. I walked off the Uptown 1 subway and the doors slammed shut behind me. As the Subway left the station, I looked up to key in to my first attempt at observation of my new beat. Falling from the sky was a miniature Hanover pretzel bag drifting towards the me. (I tried to extract some relevant deep meaning to this, but nothing came to mind). Meanwhile, I walked down the stairs, out of the station and out on to Dyckman (Dike-men) Street.

So many New Yorkers know Dyckman Street as “Little D.R.” The road is the main street dividing the northern most neighborhood of Manhattan, Inwood. Just north of Washington Heights, this entire area has the second largest population of Dominicans outside of the Dominican Republic, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Muchos Dominicanos!

In the Columbia Journalism School, each student-journalist is given a “beat”, or an area he or she must report from for the entire year. The Dyckman Housing Projects is my beat. My job is to know this neighborhood better than the neighborhood I grew up in. Many of my stories will come from the personal connections I make and the different experiences I have sitting in the large green (soon to turn brown) court yard of the seven apartment buildings that make up the Dyckman Housing Projects.

By 8:30 am, a woman pushing a grocery cart full of steaming tortas de pollo (chicken sandwich-like paninis) asked me in Spanish if I’d like one. I was [very] tempted, but my ongoing watchful eye of my food intake lead me to “No, gracias.” But, I did want to talk to her so I asked her in Spanish, “Vives aqui? En las casas de Dyck-…?” “Si!” She interrupted me, grabbed my left hand and gave me a 3-block (30 minute tour) of the neighborhood. I could only translate about 20% of what she was saying, but I understood everything. Her electrifying personality and animate gestures made up for the 80% I missed due to the language barrier.

By 9 o’clock, it was clear to me that these people were not shy. Over the next several hours, I made my way in to most of the businesses up and down Dyckman Street. I hit hair salons, clothing stores, nail shops, fruit markets, churches, libraries, schools, and parks. I talked to everyone and anyone. “Hablo un poquito español, pero espero que aprender la lengua mucho.” [I speak just a little bit of spanish, but I’m really hoping to learn the language.] That’s all I had to say, dozens of people befriended me, showed me around, and even passed along their phone numbers.

Dominican Lunch for $3.95

To top the warm and friendly community, Inwood is beyond affordable. At $3.95 for a delicious [I MEAN DELICIOUS] plate of arroz con pollo y frijoles for lunch, a grad student can lather herself in fine dining just about every day! (Keep in mind, I’ve been in NYC for about two weeks now, and I haven’t found lunch for under $12.95). In addition, clothing stores are incredibly discounted to stay in business for the lower-income residents in the area. Beauty services seem to be about 1/4 of the price compared to the rest of NYC. (Such a plus for us girls)!

This entire neighborhood struck me as a place many New Yorkers would love if they visited. The community is warm, sweet and vibrant. The stores and shops are full of culture and the prices (for just about everything) are actually affordable, (for a change). My ultimate goal is to come out of this beat and my year at Columbia fluent in Spanish and ready to take on a reporting job- with the versatility of covering Spanish speaking neighborhoods.

My next venture will be photographing my new beat. As we say in TV News, stay tuned you won’t want to miss this. Check back by Friday for my photos from Dyckman Street-Inwood.

-Marin Rose