Nearly 250 first-year students fanned out across the Bronx on Aug. 25 as part of Fordham’s Urban Plunge – an annual pre-orientation program that gives new students the chance to explore the city’s diverse neighborhoods through a lens of community, diversity, and engagement.

Students helped serve lunch to those in need at POTS—Part of the Solution, revitalized Poe Park, painted banners for one of the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, and did clean-up work at the community garden Drew Gardens.

A Back to School Festival that debuted last year at Fordham Plaza was also staffed by Urban Plunge students. In keeping with the philosophy that the weekend is also an opportunity for learning about their new home, students spent the morning before their service activities visiting other sites around the Bronx. In addition to tours of the Kingsbridge Armory, St. Barnabas Hospital, and the Bronx River Alliance, students visited areas along the Cross Bronx Expressway, where they learned about the highway’s impact on residents.

Urban Plunge at Fordham celebrated its 30th anniversary this year. Julie Gaffney, director of Fordham’s Center for Community Engaged Learning, which runs the program, said it’s driven by the needs of the Bronx community. That’s why health and environmental justice issues are front and center, she said.

“We really want to introduce first-year students, along with their upper-class mentors, to what’s driving community work in the Bronx right now,” she said.

“It’s an ideal ground for fostering a four-year commitment to community solution building here in the Bronx.”

Urban Plunge continued Saturday with lectures such as “What Does Engagement Look Like at Fordham.”

A Landmark with Untapped Potential

Mehak Wadhwa, a native of Richmond Hill, Queens, who is starting her first year studying physics/engineering, was one of the students who toured the Kingsbridge Armory, a decommissioned site with 100-foot ceilings less than a mile from the Rose Hill campus. 

The tour was conducted by a representative from the New York City Economic Development Corporation, which is responsible for the site. Wadhwa found it interesting to learn about the multiple plans for the armory that have come and gone over the years and how the future of the site is still up in the air.

“I know Manhattan, Queens, and the other boroughs, but I’ve never really gone to the Bronx. I thought Urban Plunge was a nice way to get involved in the community,” she said.

She also got to ask the Economic Development Corporation rep how any plans for the armory’s redevelopment would affect the surrounding community.

“My mother is also a small business homeowner. I’ve been reading a lot about gentrification, and as a person of color, I know how it specifically impacts them,” she said.

A Park With Literary History

A block away, Christian Sibel, a first-year student from Collegeville, Pennsylvania, ferried wheelbarrows of fertilizer to tree pits around Poe Park, where poet Edgar Allen Poe lived in a cottage from 1846 to 1849.

Sibel, who is planning to major in International Political Economy, said the opportunity to do service work influenced his decision to attend Fordham. 

“Fordham seems to be doing their best to work with the community in the Bronx, and I’m really just excited to be a part of that for the next four years. It’s exciting to explore a community different from my own,” he said. “Last night, I went out for a walk. The area is beautiful; the architecture of these buildings is incredible.”

Learning About Bronx Renewal and Advocacy 

Sophie Ritz, a first-year student at the Gabelli School of Business from Westwood, Massachusetts, was one of roughly 30 students who visited the Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition on East 196 Street for several hours. There, she and her fellow “plungers” painted banners, did gardening and learned how the group, which was instrumental in the renewal of the borough during the 1970s, has now taken a lead in the push for the equitable development of the Kingsbridge Armory. 

“I didn’t know we’d learn quite as much as we did. I was surprised at how hard it was for the people to do what they wanted with the armory,” she said. 

“Maybe naively, I kind of figured that it’s in their community; they’d be able to do more of what they wanted with it.”

Back to School

The Back-to-School Festival brought next to 40 different community organizations to the Fordham Plaza, where a DJ spun tunes and students handed out school supplies and backpacks.

This year also featured tents across Fordham Road at Rose Hill Park. Sinhawe Haji, a native of Ethiopia who grew up in Washington D.C., was one of several students there giving away school supplies and helping children find things like trees with heart-shaped leaves as part of a scavenger hunt organized by the New York City Parks Department.

“It’s been so good,” she said. It’s sweet, seeing the smiles on their faces not only when they get the school supplies but also when they find whatever object in nature they’re looking for.”

— Photos by Rebecca Rosen, MacKenzie Brown, Emma Elsdon, Bridget Flanagan, Marai Rodriguez and Christina Ou.

God-level knowledge darts, according to Desus and Mero, are “advice you could base a religion on.” The book, part memoir, part comedic parable, serves as a life guide of lessons the duo learned on Bronx streets since they met in summer school in the 1990s.

Their conversation was indeed a lightning round of spinning darts. Their banter about the Bronx, graffiti, bodegas, and beyond was deftly facilitated by Monk-Payton, who asked them to dive deep into their personal stories and describe how the Bronx had shaped them.  

“Every day is a mix of hilariousness and overwhelming tragedy,” Desus said of his younger days in the borough. “You could be having the time of your life, and your good friend is dead. Or you’re chilling with your boys, and next thing you know, you get beat up by the cops. It happens that fast. I remember the last time I got arrested, I was literally just walking with my boys.

“The next thing I know, I’m in bookings. It happens in the blink of an eye, and you have to roll with the punches,” Desus told viewers of the virtual event, part of an ongoing partnership between Fordham University and the Bronx is Reading.

In their book, the two were not afraid to address sensitive issues like therapy and masculinity.

“Men should just cry it out sometimes or go to therapy if you can,” said Mero. He described how difficult it can be for men from Caribbean backgrounds to get the help and support they need. “If you go to a barbershop and you’re like, yo I’m going to go see my therapist, 10 mother-f-ers are like yo, you’re going to wha?!… There’s something wrong with you if you go to therapy.” 

In terms of combating the cultural stigma, Mero said, “Sometimes there are ebbs and flows in life. You want to speak to someone who is not going to judge you, someone you can speak frankly to, someone who will give you strategies to cope with whatever you are going through in life. My dad cried all the time. That’s why I never thought crying meant you were soft. If you keep that bottled up inside, you become a human black Air Force One.”

Beyond the difficulties of the Bronx— poverty, policing, and policies— that blighted their experiences, both Desus and Mero expressed overwhelming gratitude to the borough that made them. 

“Shout out to everyone in the Bronx. When people see [us], they thank us for representing the Bronx,” said Desus.

As one of the largest institutions in the Bronx, Fordham did not escape their discussion. Both Desus and Mero grew up within walking distance from the University.

 “As a kid, I always thought that [Fordham] was the Bronx zoo. I didn’t realize it was in the opposite direction. It had that big gate–and I was like, where are the animals at, what’s going on?” said Desus. 

Pugsley’s Pizza and Jubilee—Fordham’s annual alumni reunion event—also received a shout-out from Mero, whose wife is an alumna. 

“I used to live around the corner from Fordham, growing up and seeing this gate and wondering what’s that–it’s so mysterious… and then being a grown man and getting access to this for the first time because my wife is an alumna… And thinking, wow, this is a really nice campus…omg…Shout out to Pugsley’s I enjoyed some pizza over there… and jubilee…” He added emphatically, “Go, Rams!”

Bodegas: ‘Lifeblood of the City’

The bodega, central to NYC and the Bronx, plays a big role in Desus and Mero’s story. 

“The bodega is the lifeblood of the city,” said Desus.” It’s also where you establish a relationship with Papi, and Papi watches you grow up. He’ll let you get food for free because you left your wallet, and he knows you always come in here, and he’s like you got it next time. Or you can be like, ‘yo Papi, can you hold these house keys for me? I’m going to work, my sister will pick them up,’ and he’s like, ‘yo, no problem.’ If we don’t have bodegas, how would we survive? That’s why we are the Bodegas Boys. They hold us down, so we hold them down.” 

There were many questions about God-Level Knowledge Darts’ visual elements from readers in the event chatbox. The inside covers and chapter headings are filled with graffiti. All of the parts written by Mero are done in block letters, a nod to his love for graffiti. 

“I love graffiti so much because it’s just a dope way to express yourself. For kids in the hood, it’s like—I was here. I’m here, I matter, I exist. That’s what it was for me as a 13-, 14-year-old kid. Going up and down Tremont Avenue writing my name was like, I’m Mero, I was here. I matter in the giant world that we live in.” 

One of the biggest hopes for the book was for it to serve as classroom reading.

“We hope that in 30 years, students have a class based on this book, and students hate us for it,” Desus said, laughing.

For more jokes on cultural politics, favorite memories of the Bronx, and their illustrious career interviewing guests from Nas to the Obamas, listen to the conversation on crowdcast. 

The 16,000 pounds of local fresh fruit and produce, including pineapples from Manatí, Santa Isabel papayas, and Guánica green plantains, were delivered to Baldor Specialty Foods facility in Hunts Point and distributed in partnership with City Harvest, the nonprofit known for distributing food surpluses to New Yorkers in need. Seniors, low-income families, front-line responders, and community centers that serve the area will land at the top of the list to receive the goods.

The donation is an effort to show solidarity with some of the city’s most vulnerable neighborhoods, many of which include large Latino, and in particular Puerto Rican, communities. The gift also represents a payback of kindness received by Puerto Ricans from New Yorkers after Hurricane Maria devastated the island, Rodríguez said.

Just before the hurricane, Rodríguez-Feliciano had met New York State Commissioner of Agriculture Richard Ball at a conference. The first email he received after the storm came from Ball. The two spent the next 20 months in a concerted effort to have New York support the island’s farmers by purchasing their produce; Puerto Ricans, in turn, purchased New York State apples.

“The state was developing fresh food markets where residents could use food stamps and they wanted to include offerings directly from Puerto Rican farmers,” he said.

Seeds of Collaboration

When Rodríguez-Feliciano was a sophomore majoring in political science and economic development at Fordham College at Rose Hill, Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, was dean of the college. Father McShane mentored Rodríguez-Feliciano through the Matteo Ricci Society (now the Matteo Ricci Seminar), a group created by Father McShane as a way to encourage talented students to conduct research and pursue fellowships that support a more just society.

Rodríguez-Feliciano would go on to earn a Harry S. Truman Scholarship, which he used to examine the economy of his native Puerto Rico. He used the scholarship to get an MBA from the Yale School of Management and returned to Puerto Rico in 2002, after work experiences in economic development in the U.S.

“I wanted to study the issue of how to stir economic development in Puerto Rico, so I went back and looked at the history and options for the future,” he said.

Rodríguez-Feliciano spent five years total in the Bronx, four years at Fordham, and an additional year after he graduated living in the borough. It was then that he established the ties he maintains to this day.

Rodríguez-Feliciano said the first big immigration wave of Puerto Ricans moving to New York was caused in part by the displacement of farmers due to the development of the newly industrialized agriculture—many of the farmers settled in New York City.

“This is very much a part of my story here and Fordham encouraged me to pursue fellowships that could address those problems,” he said.

Rodríguez-Feliciano said he recognized the connection between the former farmers and their descendants in Bronx communities, which is mirrored by a recent influx of other Latin American communities immigrants fleeing economic hardship.

“Immigrants and brown communities seem invisible to the mainstream. Few have their hands on the structures of power,” he said.

As a result, underserved communities have to be resourceful and take care of one another out of necessity, he said, adding that corporations and their leadership could learn by paying attention to and nurturing communities like those in the South Bronx.

“These communities are generous, entrepreneurial, and solve their own problems by creating what they need, because no one is coming to rescue them,” he said.

He said that he expects that what he observed in Puerto Rico after Maria to play out in Latino communities amid the pandemic.

“We can look at these communities for example because they are collaborating all the time,” he said. “There are small crises in their lives all the time. They’re pooling resources all the time; they’re taking care of each other all the time.”

Cơm Tấm Ninh Kiều

This unassuming spot under the 4 train on Kingsbridge Road greets visitors with a warm atmosphere that smells of basil, coffee, and rice. Cơm tấm is Vietnamese for broken rice, referring to a dish made from fractured rice grains, explains Ruby Nguyen, the co-owner of the restaurant, and Ninh Kiều refers to the urban waterfront district Cần Thơ. Many of the restaurant’s dishes are classics from Saigon, the hometown of chef Chang Lam, Nguyen, and many of their Vietnamese neighbors in the Bronx. Nguyen’s favorite dishes are Bún bò Huế, inspired by the city of Huế, with spicy beef, pork broth, beef brisket, Huế-style sausage, pork knuckle, and blood cake, and Cơm tấm Ninh Kiều, a rice plate with grilled pork chop, meatloaf, eggs, crispy shrimp dumplings, and shredded pork. Don’t forget to try the Vietnamese iced coffee, made with sweetened condensed milk and strong enough to power you through a 12-hour day. 

Price: $, family-friendly

La Morada 

La morada is Spanish for both purple and dwelling place or home. The menu offers traditional Oaxacan dishes, including six different types of mole. Two favorites are mole Oaxaqueño, which is made with seven types of chiles, and mole blanco, made with pine nuts, almonds, and cashews. Chef-owner Natalia Mendez and her daughter Carolina created the menu. Mendez owns the place with her husband, Antonio Savaadra; all three of their children are involved in the business. Marco, an artist and poet, is the host; his watercolors can often be found on the purple walls. “It’s about sharing who we are,” he said. Protest banners and art also adorn the space, and there’s a sizable lending library in the back. Try their food and the need to return that book won’t be the only thing calling you back!

Price: $-$$, family-friendly

La Masa

La Masa is a bustling family restaurant in the heart of Morris Park. The founders, Joswar Montalvo and his wife, Laura, started the business five years ago, showcasing food from Montalvo’s homeland of Colombia. Empanadas are what La Masa is famous for, and there is one for everyone’s taste; they’re filled with everything from cilantro lime chicken, shrimp, and roasted eggplant to Nutella and apple pie—made special for Montalvo’s daughter who wouldn’t eat any of the others. Try the passion fruit flan!

Price: $-$$, family-friendly

 Al-Aqsa + Premium Sweets

Al Aqsa is a Bengali restaurant on Starling Avenue in Parkchester that makes everything from biryani to bhorta. Biryani is a dish made of fragrant rice, meat, and ghee, and often prepared for holidays. Bhorta is a mash of vegetables, fish, or legumes and is a staple dish in many Bengali homes. Mohammed Hasnat, the owner of Al-Aqsa, said his favorite dishes are the fish curries. This writer’s favorite is the shutki bhorta which is made of dried fish and red chili peppers. Hasnat started the restaurant in 2007 because there was a growing population of Bengalis in the community; his dishes are ones that you would find in a traditional Bengali home. After you’re done with lunch or dinner at Al-Aqsa be sure to stop by Premium Sweets, just across the street, for a cup of cha and Bengali desserts.

Price: $, family-friendly

Mama G’s African Kitchen

Marked by a graffiti mural on White Plains Road, this spot has a bar-like ambiance complete with a large TV playing soccer in the back. But unlike other sports bars, you won’t find burgers and fries coming out of the kitchen. Africans from Nigeria to Senegal gather in this welcoming spot, where house favorites include okra stew and banku, a kind of bread made with fermented corn mixed with cassava. The owner, Mama G, said the menu is full of recipes passed down from her mother and grandmother. Mama G, short for Gina Nti, is from Accra, Ghana, but the Bronx has been her home for over 20 years. The borough is her heart, she said, and she encourages those who have never had African food to stop in and try some. 

Price: $-$$

Havana Cafe  

Havana Cafe was opened in 2010 by three friends, Troy Perez, Kevin Alicea, and Ruben Rodriguez, all of whom grew up in the East Tremont area where the restaurant is located. The New York State Assembly citation framed on the wall inside reads, “Havana Cafe brought the Cuban experience to the Bronx, celebrating Cuban culture, cuisine, and customs.” The trio has extensive experience working in the restaurant industry in Manhattan, and they wanted to bring that Manhattan vibe to their home in the Bronx. Their menu includes many Cuban classics, but also features dishes from Puerto Rico and other Latin cuisines. Try the pastelon, a lasagna layered with meat, cheese, and sweet plantain. 

Price: $$, family-friendly

Ali’s Roti Shop 

Ali’s Roti is a small hole-in-the-wall place that packs a serious flavor punch. The family-owned Trinidadian restaurant has been around since the ’70s. It’s located next to a Montefiore Hospital, so you’ll see many nurses in line for lunch. They are famous for their enormous roti, round flatbreads made with flour and served with either meat or vegetables. The menu offers a lot of vegetarian options, including lentil, chickpeas, and cabbage dishes. The roti can easily be split between two people and come with a tangy tamarind sauce. Try their juices; their peanut punch is a perfect post-roti desert.

Price: $, cash only

Kingston Jamaican Bakery

Kingston Jamaican Bakery was started by John and Joyce Levi in 1970 in the Wakefield section of the Bronx. There is always a long line here, especially on weekends, but it’s well worth the wait. There are three options for patties: beef, chicken, and vegetarian. These are not your typical patties, says Caroline Sinclair, the sister of the owner, with a smile. Many locals say that you haven’t had a patty until you’ve had one made with coco bread from Kingston Jamaican Bakery. The patties are freshly baked using seasonal ingredients, and the dough is made from scratch. Their carrot cake rivals Lloyd’s Carrot Cake in the Bronx. It’s dense with butter and laces your tongue with nutmeg. 

Price: $, cash only

Narciso Bakery 

Take note: not all the Bronx Italian bakeries are on Arthur Avenue! This one, on White Plains Road, is a family-owned business run by Sicilian native Vincent Passafiume, his wife Giovanna, and his daughter Rose. The signage out front is simple and the window displays a line of freshly baked bread. The place has an old-world vibe complete with a vintage bread slicing machine. The raisin swirl bread is filled with walnuts. Mini-cheesecakes are filled with custard and berry jams. Passafiume has been baking here for over 30 years. He immigrated to the United States in 1974 when he was 17 years old and has worked only in Bronx bakeries ever since. What’s special about this bakery is the diversity of people who come through the doors. The customers hail from the Caribbean, Korea, and everywhere in between, and Passafiume and his family all make them all feel at home.

Price: $, cash only

Seven Spices

An ode to Guyana, Seven Spices is adorned with an awning brightly decorated with palm trees and the Guyanese flag. George DaSilva, a gold miner from the nation’s Berbice region with a passion for food, opened the restaurant in 2011. It is one of only three Guyanese restaurants in the Bronx. The vegetable sides are almost like desserts. The pumpkin and spinach have a creamy consistency and a light sweetness from coconut milk. The okra is lightly spiced, a perfect companion to rice and peas. The mac and cheese and oxtail here are customer favorites. Both are cooked to perfection: a crispy crust of cheese sits on top of the mac and the butter beans in the oxtail dish are melt-in-your-mouth soft. Also on the menu are goat curry roti, baked salmon, and cook-up rice, a dish made with a variety of meat and herbs. DeSilva’s father and grandfather were bakers in Guyana and he has kept up the tradition. He makes pastries from scratch including cassava pone, a cake made from yucca. Their lunch special is $6 and keeps you full all day. 

Price: $, family-friendly

Go forth and eat! 

How did you get started at Con Ed, and how has your career taken shape there? 

I have always been very focused. I started at Con Edison back in 1998 as an assistant engineer. In that role, I was assigned to learn about different parts of the company and give presentations to a multidisciplinary committee. I learned about everything from fossil generation to nuclear energy. When I graduated from the program, I started my career as a technical supervisor, moving up to become a section manager, and then a senior system’s operator, and finally, to the role where I am now as a General Manager.

While I was in these roles, I really wanted to understand, how do you supervise people? How do you measure productivity? How do you get to align folks with the strategy? 

What inspired you to pursue engineering?

My brother was a great source of inspiration. He’s a civil engineer and he’s 13 years older than I am. Growing up with him, we had a lot of discussions around engineering. I attended Samuel Gompers Industrial High School on Southern Boulevard in the Bronx, a public school, where I studied computer science and electrical engineering. I didn’t find computer science challenging enough but I did find the challenge that I wanted in electrical engineering. I received an engineering degree from the City College of New York. While I was in college, my brother was already in the field. He knew what I was going through in terms of academics, and was always very supportive when I needed any help with my coursework. 

Could you tell us a little about your service on the Board of Directors of Bronx Works and why that’s important to you? 

I was raised in the Bronx, not too far from Yankee Stadium. I am a die-hard Yankee fan. Growing up there I knew what the challenges were. It was not an easy place. I knew kids that didn’t know anything outside a mile radius from where they lived. Knowing first hand the challenges that Bronx kids face really inspired me to give back to the community.  

BronxWorks is a non-profit that helps individuals and families improve their economic and social well-being. They work with everyone from toddlers to seniors to build a stronger community. Their mission really resonates with me, and I’m a big supporter of the STEM programs there. 

What are the most important qualities of a good leader?

My mother and father are from Puerto Rico, they came here in the mid-1950s. One of the values they instilled in myself, my brother, and my sister was the importance of education. They didn’t have the opportunity to finish school back in Puerto Rico, they had some challenges. But they always told me that you can be whatever you want to be in life, as long as you have a passion for it, and you have the time and energy to do it— you can do it. That encouragement stayed with me. Encouragement is what I always try to bring when I manage teams. I always try to encourage folks to do their best. 

I also think it’s important to look for someone who is a great listener, who really tries to understand people on a one-on-one basis. It’s important to have high emotional intelligence and to demonstrate integrity and sound ethical decision making. 

Why did you pursue an EMBA?

I always tried to balance academics and practicality. I had an engineering degree and I was doing technical work and so that balanced out. As I moved on to more leadership roles, I was getting the practical hands-on part of it, but I knew there was more involved. I wanted to learn the different philosophies behind management, leadership, and strategy.  

One of the most important things that I learned in the EMBA program is how to create an environment of intrinsic motivation and high morale.

“I often like to refer to the justice as the other Sonia from the Bronx,“ began Manzano, getting a laugh from the crowd sitting in the sunshine on the Walsh Family Library lawn. Manzano, an actress and writer, is most noted for playing Maria on Sesame Street. She is the author of Becoming Maria and A Miracle on 133rd St, among other books.

Sotomayor has penned a few books of her own since being appointed to the nation’s highest court in 2009. She is the author of My Beloved World (2013) and a children’s book called Turning Pages (2018). She is also expected to release Just Ask! Be Different, Be Brave, Be You in September.

Sotomayor said she wrote My Beloved World to remind herself, and everyone, that none of us succeed alone.

“Nobody can do it by themselves. No matter what you do in life, people help you do it. My book was for me to remember that always. All of those people and experiences that started here in the Bronx, that made me— that’s what I wanted to write about.”

The Bronx Book Festival, just in its second year, included a full line-up of author-led panels. The Bronx Book Festival is organized by The Bronx is Reading, founded by Bronx native and book publicist Saracia Fennell. This year the event was co-sponsored by Fordham University. Panels were held on both the Fordham’s Rose Hill campus and Fordham Plaza. Bronxites and folks from all over NYC lined up at 8:30 a.m. in front of the University to attend the Bronx Book Festival and listen to Sonia Sotomayor speak.

At their in-conversation style event, Sotomayor told Manzano how much she admired her work on Sesame Street.

“You reached out to a community of Latinos that were ignored in mainstream television at the time,” she said.

Manzano and Sotomayor met on the set of Sesame Street for the episode The Justice Hears a Case. Over a cafecito, Sotomayor explained the role of supreme court judge to the show’s characters.

Just as they did on Sesame Street, at the Bronx Book Festival they both spoke in a way that was accessible to the many young children in the audience.

Sotomayor asked the organizers to place a row of child lawn chairs at the very front. “I put all the kids in the front because I remember being a kid and having to sit in the back, and I couldn’t see anything, and I hated it,” said Sotomayor.

At times, the justice spoke directly to the kids. She told them about her library and why it was important to her.  

“One of my favorite places was and still is the library. It was one of the places I escaped to after my dad died. My house was very, very sad when my dad passed away. So, I would go to the library and get lost in books. I traveled around the world when I read books,” she said as she pointed to a picture of her library card in her book Turning Pages.

“Does every child in the audience have a library card?” she asked, encouraging those that didn’t to “ask your mommy or daddy to get you one.”

Sotomayor told the crowd that Lord of the Flies was the book that inspired her to become a lawyer. “I learned something very important,” she said of reading the 1954 William Golding novel, in which a group of boys are marooned on an island and attempt to govern themselves—with tragic results.

”Laws help us figure out how to treat each other better,” she said, “and how to share things in this world together.”

She also cited the importance of her mother purchasing the Encyclopedia Britannica for her while they lived in the projects in the Soundview section of the Bronx, now named the Justice Sonia Sotomayor Houses. The volumes helped her learn about the world beyond her home borough.

“You cannot dream about becoming something you don’t know about,” she said.

In the middle of the conversation with Manzano, Sotomayor got up and said she was “going to go for a walk so that the people in the back can see me.”

“I give out hugs freely,”  she added as she walked down to the audience members in the lawn.

Panelists Share their Stories

Like many of the authors on the festival lineup, Lilliam Rivera, a keynote speaker and young adult author of Dealing in Dreams and The Education of Margot Sanchez, was in the audience for Sotomayor’s and Manzano’s session. In her own talk, Rivera discussed the significance of the festival itself.

“I write about my home, and those connections,”  said Rivera, who set all of her books in the Bronx. She held her book launch for Dealing in Dreams last spring at the Bronx’s only independent bookstore, The Lit. Bar, founded by Noelle Santos.

Growing up near Fordham Plaza, she said, “If you wanted to buy a book you had to go to the city.”

Like Sotomayor, Rivera and her family got their books from the New York Public Library.

Rivera was inspired by her father to become a writer. “Growing up, my father used to recite poetry at events. He still does. My parents are very proud of my career. They are always making me sign books for their doctors or neighbors.”

Readers young and old said that the festival inspired them.

Jasmine Cordero of Soundview said that coming to the festival last year sparked her interest in reading.

“I bought two books last year, and I read them in a month. I didn’t know that I could read that fast. Now, I’m always looking for Latinx or African-American writers. I look for writers that look like me and writers that write about the community that I live in.”

The Bronx is both home and a source of inspiration for many of the panelists. For Josue Caceres, poet and brand manager of Bronx Native, the Bronx is more than a place.

“The Bronx is its own character in my writing. It’s important to be here and share the space with both kids and adults and show them that people in the Bronx read and write, and that it’s part of our culture.“

Today, one would be hard pressed to find girls jumping Double Dutch on Bainbridge Avenue, or any other street in the city for that matter, said Roberts, who now spends five days a week on the Fordham campus as an executive secretary in the dean’s office at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, where she manages Dean Eva Badowska’s hectic calendar.

When not working, however, Roberts and several friends have set out to “keep the [Double Dutch]  tradition alive” by meeting twice a month in Harlem just inside Central Park at Central Park North and Lenox Avenue for open practices. You can usually find the group at 2 p.m. on alternate Saturdays, inviting any and all interested parties to join in and learn the skill.

Roberts said that the all-female group members of Double Dutch Lovers NYC found each other through the website Meetup, organized by her friend Tina King. The women’s ages range from early 30s to early 50s, which speaks to the game’s heyday of the 1970s through the 1980s, Roberts said.

At that time in Bedford Park,—Fordham’s neighbor to the west—the middle-class home owners lived next to working-class renters, while neighbors with more trying circumstances lived just a few doors down. The one thing all the girls in the neighborhood had in common was jumping Double Dutch.

It was a period when the Bronx was going through a trying time, yet was also producing some of the nation’s most vibrant cultural movements. Roberts said that while Double Dutch’s popularity wasn’t an offshoot of hip-hop, it wasn’t exactly divorced from it either.

“Double Dutch is very rhythmic, and has a beat from when you’re landing your feet, and when the ropes hit the ground. Where there’s a turn and stomp, and a turn and stomp, you’re making music,” she said. “It’s not hip-hop, but the beat is the umbrella over it.”

The group has jumped with the Children’s Aid Society and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, where the kids are “amazed at seeing someone jump two ropes.”

“They give it a shot and they usually do two, three, or four jumps,” she said.

Roberts said the group has brought her into contact with women she would have never known when she was a girl. Way over in Brooklyn, the girls had different names for “an inverted turning style” of jumping known there as “scotch,” but it was called “double orange” up in the Bronx.

“It’s a way to share this moment of when we were kids, when it was a just a way to be outside, have fun with other girls our age, to compete, and to push each other in a good way,” she said. “We used whatever we could—telephone extension cords, wires, clotheslines. You didn’t need a team or a uniform, just as long as you could jump.”

August 14, 2015 | Fordham University has been closely monitoring the recent outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in the Bronx, which has been attributed to bacteria found in cooling towers. Cooling towers are water tanks that are part of a buildings’ central air-conditioning systems (in New York City they are mostly located on rooftops).

There have been no reported cases of Legionnaire’s Disease among members of the University community to date. Fordham has taken extra precautions and continues to follow all recommendations and regulations of New York City and state agencies regarding this outbreak.

University Precautions

• Fordham has had long-term contracts with licensed water treatment companies for periodic applications of biocides, and water quality monitoring in all our cooling towers,
• The cooling towers were all “shocked” with additional biocide when we were informed of Legionella-related health issues in the Bronx,
• An outside certified contractor has inspected all our towers to insure they are operating per manufacturer’s design,
  Fordham is cleaning and sanitizing all of its cooling towers, a process that will be completed no later than August 21, 2015,
• Once the cooling towers have been sanitized, periodic testing will continue to ensure our towers comply with New York City health regulations,
• In addition, our Facilities Department has contracted with an Industrial Hygienist to review all our current maintenance practices and processes, to insure they meet the evolving government and industry standards.

About Legionnaire’s Disease
Legionnaires’ disease is caused by a type of bacteria called Legionella. The Legionella bacteria are found naturally in the environment, usually in water. The disease presents symptoms like many other forms of pneumonia, including:

• Cough
• Shortness of breath
• High fever
• Muscle aches
• Headaches

Symptoms usually begin 2 to 14 days after being exposed to the bacteria. As a rule, the very young, the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems are more vulnerable than healthy adults. Complete information on Legionnaires’ Disease can be found at the Federal Centers for Disease Prevention and Control website: www.cdc.gov/legionella/index.html

Fordham students who have concerns about Legionnaires’ disease should call the University Health Center office at: (718) 817-4160, or after business hours, the Office of Public Safety at (718) 817-2222, and ask to speak with the duty supervisor. Faculty, staff, and guests of the University should contact their private physicians.

The event was the culmination of the Bronx Children Museum’s Dream Big! after-school arts enrichment program—which is currently housed inside a school bus because the museum has no permanent home.

This summer’s theme, “Celebrate the Music in You and Me,” honored Capers, an acclaimed jazz musician who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School despite losing her sight at age 6, for her work with nearly 100 Bronx children. Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. was also in attendance.

Sotomayor, a Bronx native, told parents, children, and museum supporters that she still considers herself “a kid at heart,” because she likes to have fun, to learn, and because she still has dreams.

“Children’s dreams are our dreams for the future … and the children’s museum is the home that’s going to give them a place where they can learn,” she said. She added that that the Bronx is the only borough without a permanent home for its children’s museum.

“That injustice has to be righted,” she said.

She said Capers, who has done performances with some of the greatest jazz musicians of our time, is a perfect role model for children.

“She’s also a loving person, and one who gives completely of her heart and her prodigious talent,” she said.

As part of the program, held in the McGinley Ballroom at the Rose Hill campus, the children joined Capers for a performance of “We Got The Whole World Remix.” Capers called the day a remarkable one.

“I love doing what I can do to help the children’s museum,” she said. “And to think that have two of my Bronx sisters—Sonia Sotomayor and Sonia Manzano—with me today is just wonderful.”

Manzano was honored for her 44 years of educating children as the character Maria on Sesame Street. Sotomayor read aloud a letter from President Obama congratulating the Emmy award winner on the occasion of her recent retirement from the show. Sotomayor promised Manzano that she would make sure her goddaughter watched reruns of the show featuring Manzano’s character.
“Your 44 years of service to children is known worldwide. You are known for the heart you gave that show, and the spirit you imbued in it, teaching kids about different people, and how much the same we are,” she said.

Manzano joked that when she was a child, her Bronx family would gather around the kitchen table to tell sad tales of poverty in Puerto Rico, but would then bring out guitars and sing songs about how much they missed its wonderful island breezes.

“I was always confused about whether it was a good place or a bad place. But I think the music certainly put them on a higher ground,” she said.

Manzano told the children that sometimes it’s actually good to dream small.

“If you got a C on a test, you can try for a B minus. That’s a little dream that you can accomplish. If you like to shoot hoops and you get four in a row, why not try for five,” she said.

“That way you practice winning, and when the Big Dream comes along, when you decide what that is, it’ll be a piece of cake.

“You’ll already know what winning feels like.”

Those of us who work in the Bronx already know a well-kept secret: there are plenty of great eats to be found right here in the Rose Hill campus’ borough. And over the next week, the fourth annual Bronx Restaurant Week offers good deals as well.

Here are a couple of recommendations from Fordham faculty and staff:

MARK NAISON, professor of history:

Pio Pio – Great peruvian restaurant on 139th St. and Cypress Ave.
Crab Shanty on City Island. Great lunch special!
Neerob, a South Asian Restaurant near Parkchester.

Byrne will be awarded the UNHP’s Founder’s Award in recognition of his longtime service to the organization, which he helped to establish in 1983. Fordham’s Board of Trustees initiated the effort as a way for the University to have a greater involvement with the Bronx Community Redevelopment, which centered on the housing preservation and redevelopment during some of the Bronx’s darkest days.

“Brian Byrne has long been not just a supporter, but a staunch advocate for the communities surrounding Fordham’s campuses,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. “His work and influence have improved the lives of our neighbors, and helped build and improve upon vibrant communities. I cannot think of a more deserving recipient of this honor.”

The UNHP is a community-based nonprofit that aims to create, preserve, and improve affordable housing in the Northwest Bronx and New York City. Founded jointly by Fordham and the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, the UNHP began by purchasing dilapidated privately owned buildings and renovating them to create affordable housing.

Since then, the organization has expanded its work to meet the various needs of the Northwest Bronx community. In addition to continuing to improve distressed multifamily buildings, the UNHP issues low-interest loans, provides technical assistance to community leaders, neighborhood groups, and housing managers, and organizes around researching issues that impact housing affordability. Its Building Indicator Project is responsible for improving thousands of distressed multifamily units and maintaining the affordability of over 80 multifamily buildings.

In 2011, UNHP opened the Northwest Bronx Resource Center to provide financial education, foreclosure prevention, free tax preparation, and small business help.

The Oct. 3 commemoration will be held at the historic Apple Bank Branch on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx. For more information, visit the UNHP website.