weathered

A series of the silly things while on the perpetual hunt for the 3b weather feature:
With the clouds looking lovely, I kept heading to the different beaches for a while.

That littlekid/nicelight thing is an easy trap to fall into. I'm trying to nudge myself in other directions now. But still haven't pushed myself as much as I could. The Broward/Palm Beach area's span is daunting.

Tater town fruit stand, Ft. Lauderdale.

Bar-b-que Ranch in Davie.

Historic Garfield Courts in Hollywood.

Urban planning excuses aside, I think a more serious problem is not giving myself enough time at these places. It's no secret that the relationship between me and time is severely strained [e.g. can't seem to factor it in to my logic].

foster road

Hallendale's Foster Road area is on the brink of redevelopment. Lady A's Bahamian Delights just opened a month ago and was gearing up for the neighborhood Goombay festival when city commisioners offered them a loan as an incentive for moving their business out of the area they've been eyeing for condo and community buildings.

Arnette Cartwright, the owner has about a month to decide.

SB07!

this spring break, i photographed other people's spring breaks. a quick weather feature that left me feeling old, boring and pale. wooo.

chavez's carribean connection

Rovan Locke, publisher of the Caribbean American Commentary newspaper, will travel to Venezuela this summer. He plans to meet with black civil leaders and tour the country's biggest Afro-Venezuelan communities. Locke joins other blacks in the U.S. who've taken an interest in a growing Afro-Venezuelan movement under Chavez and praise the leader's reforms.

ultra soggy

It's hard to feel the beats in the knee-knocking cold rain.

Inspired by a media-pass wielding Drew and Nicole, I headed downtown for Ultra Music Fest 9. It was great until we found ourselves ineffectively attempting to stay dry underneath a crowded Red Bull promotional tent.

not enough to wash away a fascination with the aesthetically absurd.

This fella was face down on the floor when we first saw him. After friends, concert security and eventually fire rescue got to him, he seemed like he bounced back quickly enough to be upright as he was shuffled away from paramedics by his buddies.
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With a pretty huge and relentless looking storm cloud headed towards us, we the unprepared ran for the metro station as soon as there was a break in the rain.

traffic

Broward Blvd is the congested, stop-light plagued street I have to take to get to and from anywhere when I'm at the Ft. Lauderdale office. While inching to the I-95 on ramp one day, I saw this man at a dry cleaner. I tried to photograph him in my least creepy shooting-with-a-telephoto-from-my-car way because I like me some light.

nova: chapter two

The Nova University employees that were suddenly fired in February gathered in front of university president Ray Ferrero Jr's condo to protest the school's decision.
This is where I met Cristhian. Even though I covered the event thinking my story was with other people [that would soon back out], I got a few shots of him and his daughter, Fatima, at the demonstration.

el renacimiento

As a part of a story on this non-profit aimed at issues within the Hispanic community celebrating their 25th year anniversary, I went around to see and photograph the different programs they offer. This included RENACER, a community center for the elderly. The abuelitas and abuelitos, were excited to talk to me and gave me generous access, even inviting me to play dominoes with them. I seized this opportunity to produce a soundslides for the El Sentinel site.

RENACIMIENTO: El programa ofrece servicios y ayuda en combatir la soledad de personas de la tercera edad.

It is mostly in Spanish and pops up kind of funny in the external link window, but I'm just delighted that I actually did it. Hopefully, I can make habit of it.

nova: chapter one

Mayola Pons quietly weeped after finding out that both her and husband, Armando, lost their jobs. The maintenance service employees at Nova Southeastern University, a private university in Davie, successfully unionized last year despite the administration's resistance. On President's Day, shortly after their company's contract with the school expired, many showed up to work to learn they were suddenly jobless. The union and the workers believe this had much to do with the campaign. Michael Mayo, a columnist for the Sun-Sentinel, has been following their story in his column. My partner-in-crime, Kique, has also been writing about it for El Sentinel. My photos ran in both publications. I felt fulfilled covering this story.

They sent me out to the campus where workers were finding out whether or not they had jobs. The overwhelming majority of the workers are Haitian and Hispanic immigrants. Fritz and his wife both showed up to the Physical Plant building to learn that after ten years, they were now unemployed. He was my willing guide into the building.

The hallways inside swelled with conversation in Creole as people stood in line near where they punched in everyday to see if the university would re-hire them. Many were sent away with little explanations and business cards referring them to other contractors.

On a corner just outside of campus, SEIC union teamsters were waiting to take statements from fired employees and to provide counseling and hope that continuing to fight would yield results.

dominicanooo

one reggaeton-filled afternoon with a tiny slice of the domincan community in anticipation of their independence day. the celebration had the social clout of a family picnic so variety was kind of rough, but the light was pretty lovely. the music was so loud, i couldn't think. maybe that's why i liked some of the quieter photos from this assignment.