Robert-La-France

Michael Rebell was growing frustrated. It was October, over 10 months after the trial had ended, and Judge William Smith still had not released a decision on the case. In the 50 years that Rebell had worked in education reform, he had never known a judge to take this long. His career had taught him that change often required patience, but that did not stop him from hoping that Smith’s decision would arrive sooner. The case he had presented, after all, was urgent: He believed democracy was on the line.

“What’s up? Want to dance?” At a house party in Queens, Ulises' construction worker friends convince him to dance for them. He agrees, but instead of bopping to the American music that is playing, he chooses to dance cumbia, a Colombian style. When they laugh at him and call him a loser, Ulises walks away, unwilling to give up a dance that represents who he is just to fit in.

New York City is home to the largest Chinese population outside of Asia, with over 100,000 Chinese residents in Manhattan. Although Morningside Heights has never been considered one of New York’s nine recognized Chinatowns, it houses over a dozen Chinese restaurants specializing mainly in Sichuanese and Hunan cuisines.

Shop signs written in both English and French, men and women dressed in traditional boubou garments, chefs cooking up fish stew while chatting with customers in Wolof—one is reminded of Dakar, the capital of Senegal. Yet, Little Senegal brings this scene to New York City, just two blocks east of Morningside Park on West 116th Street.

“Who are you if you don’t have a memory?” asked La Vaughn Belle, CC ’95, TC ’99.