Bronx Stories

Bronx Photojournalist Captures Hope & Despair Among Puerto Rico’s Millennials on The Island & Our Borough

Bronxite Edwin J Torres, a Puerto Rican photojournalist born and raised here in The Bronx, has launched ‘Portraits of Resilience: Puerto Rican millennials face economic meltdown with a spirit of pa’lante’, a beautiful photo-essay showing the plight of Puerto Rican millennials as the United States territory faces one of the largest economic meltdowns in history.

Puerto Rico is facing a massive brain drain along with a massive migration of these US citizens (by birth even on the island) in numbers unseen since the 1950s.

Four Bronxites Talk About Growing Up in Co-op City & Other parts of The Bronx

Curbed has launched its new series called ‘New York Narratives’ which takes a look at “Lifelong New Yorkers share stories commemorating, celebrating, and reflecting on the lived experience in New York City” and with its first series, 4 Bronx residents talk about growing up in Co-op City, Mott Haven, Highbridge, in the East Bronx along the 6 line, and living in Morris Park.

Bronx Woman Helen Kane Was Inspiration For Betty Boop

Born in 1904 in The Bronx and attended St Anselm’s Roman Catholic school on Tinton Avenue, Helen Clare Schroeder would eventually become the inspiration for one of the most iconic and lasting cartoon characters, Betty Boop.

Little did Helen Kane, a German-Irish Catholic woman from The Bronx (as she later became known), know that her likeness would set the globe ablaze as one of the first and most famous of all sex symbols in all the world of animation.

A Love For The Bronx Forged by Growing Up in Our Borough

My family moved from Manhattan to the Bronx in 1954. I was raised by my grandparents and we lived in a tenement on Hoe Avenue, near Southern Boulevard. On Saturdays, I would accompany my grandmother, Clara, in trips to the market at Simpson station, serving as translator between her and the meat and produce sellers.

The two schools that I attended were P.S. 75 and P.S. 123. I loved my years at these schools with my favorite teachers, Mrs. Lasher, who taught me English and that you couldn’t use a double negative in a sentence, and Mr. Mathes, who inspired in me an appreciation for science that has always stayed with me.

Watch: The Bronx in The 80’s

In this brief clip put together from a variety of sources (movies, etc) you get a visual representation of what the South Bronx looked like in the 1980s and when you look at it now in 2016 you see that this version, which still lives on in the minds of many, is gone.

First Sneak Peek at Baz Luhrmann’s South Bronx Netflix Series ‘The Get Down’

It’s been almost a year since Netfilx and Baz Lurhman announced that they were embarking on producing a series based in the South Bronx in the 1970s as hip-hop was emergency, disco was reigning supreme alongside Salsa, and of course—The Bronx was burning. Now here’s a sneak peek at the series as Netflix puts out the first trailer for ‘The Get Down’.

Netflix simply writes, “Told through the lives and music of a ragtag crew of South Bronx teens, The Get Down is a mythic saga of the transformation of 1970s New York City.

Watch: The Bronx’s Baron Ambrosia in ‘THANKSCHRISKWANZAAKAH’ Holiday Special

Baron Ambrosia and Bronx Flavor presents a holiday special video, ‘Thankschriskwanzaakah’ so get ready to watch what happens, “When Awesome-Mart combines all the holiday’s in order to make more money, a terrible curse is unleashed on the Bronx.”

Baron cleverly mixes many of our wonderful cultures in one of the most diverse boroughs of New York City—The Bronx.

Bronx Immigrants Share Their Stories, Deer Crossing Signs, Mary Higgins Clark, & More|Bronx AM Links

This morning on Bronx AM Links, you’ll read about Bronx immigrants who recently shared their migration stories at the Bronx Documentary Center, the move to have deer crossing signs installed on Shore Road in Pelham Bay Park, and Bronx born and raised author and queen of suspense, Marry Higgins Clark, still has it. You’ll also find how a rise in African immigrants in our borough has led to an increase in demand for interpreters, and an Upper West Side veterinarian who spays and neuters Bronx dogs and cats for free.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Councilmember Torres & NYCHA Infill, and South Bronx Pride

On Bronx AM Links we have stories on standing proud of being from the South Bronx, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and how she almost pulled away from the confirmation process, and Councilmember Ritchie Torres on controversial plans for New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) plans for infill at public housing to create market rate and “affordable” housing on its properties.