Perry Santanachote Multimedia Journalist
Rhythmology: A Science, Business and Art
As a math major at Cornell University, Alfred Peña certainly knew numbers, but he wouldn’t have guessed that he’d be counting steps for a living. During his college years, however, he found his calling as a dancer, and he has since built up a popular dance instruction business that offers classes across Long Island.
Sample Making with Werkstatt
Tina Schenk makes designers’ dreams come true—literally. She is one of few sample makers in New York’s Garment District who specialize solely in high-fashion samples. Trained in East Germany as a young apprentice, Schenk has skills that distinguish her from the rest.
Maker Faire: A Science Fair for Big Kids
“Fear is Never Boring.” That’s the official motto at the Madagascar Institute, a Brooklyn-based artist combine that builds adrenaline pumping carnival rides made out of salvaged junkyard parts. As the World Maker Faire descends on New York City, the team gets ready to dazzle with bigger and badder machines, built to wow.
The Corset Maker
Angela Friedman manipulates flesh. That is her business. In a cramped Manhattan studio on the west side, she cheerfully toils away at a dying art – one that requires a mastery of intricate and technical elements, like what Friedman coins, “The Squish Factor.”
ILO Aids Child Soldier But Many Others March On
Young Thu Zin Oo made his daily trip to the Sinmalite dock in Rangoon one December day to sell pork rinds. But the 17-year-old never arrived at Sinmalite, and failed to make the trip home that day either. Instead, he ended up in the Burmese army as one of thousands of illegally recruited child soldiers.
Chaw Ei Thein – Artist & Activist
Chaw Ei Thein is a painter, sculptor, singer and performer – an artist. She’s also an activist. Her artwork often deals with socio-political issues in her home country of Burma, which sometimes gets her into trouble. Remaining true to her artist-self, she transforms her harrowing 2005 arrest into a powerful performance.
The Drug Economy in Burma’s New Political Order
After decades of civil war, the Burmese regime is more powerful than ever, due to a survival strategy that is largely subsidized by Burma’s multi-billion-dollar drug trade and backed by paramilitary partnerships in formerly hostile regions of the country.
Farmer Bootcamp in the Hudson Valley
Caroline Smialek dreams of cheese. That is, she dreams of one day running her own dairy farm. So last year, she signed up for Farm Beginnings, an intensive business course in sustainable farming at Hawthorne Valley Farm – the first of its kind in the Hudson Valley.
Baked With(out) Love
Dustin Wayne Harris likes cakes. And he likes women to bake them for him. This is evident in his new exhibition, Cake Mixx, at Heist Gallery. Nine large photographs lined up around a tiny room on the Lower East Side, each one a different cake, each cake a different woman.
Old-School Offal Finds New Turf
The offal trend may be new and exciting for many Americans, but a lot of ethnic communities have always considered it every day fare. Whether it’s because offal cuts are cheaper or because the texture is prized, nearly every culture – aside from traditional American – loves its blood and guts. And modern chefs are catching on quick.
New Yorkers Celebrate el Dia de los Muertos
Bright paper banners, flowers and candles are adornments often associated with birthdays. But on el Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), they are reserved for the dead. Historically, there haven’t been many Mexicans in New York, but that’s changing fast, and the size of their most festive holiday grows even faster.
The ‘Journey’ Through One Woman’s Hell
The shipping crates lined up by Washington Square Park looked like some garish display or flippant showcase. Flashing lights and colorful artwork drew people in, but one step inside revealed that this was going to be tough. A journey indeed – through one woman’s abduction into sex slavery.
A Church Helps Refugees Adjust to Life in America
A large number of Burmese refugees have been resettled in the tri-state area, where they struggle to deal with the horrors they experienced in their home country while trying to build a new life here in the United States. A local church in Elizabeth, New Jersey has been helping new refugees settle in.
Gotham City n’Sync
In a sport that’s usually considered child’s play, a group of 15 middle-aged women meet at 6:00 am every Thursday to practice their routine in Long Island City, Queens. Formed in 2004, Gotham City Synchro is New York City’s only adult synchronized ice skating team.
An Artful Graffiti Fix
Business owners and community leaders in graffiti-ridden Sunnyside and Woodside hope to get on the same canvas as taggers by enlisting established graffiti artists to paint murals on walls that get incessantly “bombed.”