NYC NOW - April 30, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: April 30, 2024

Columbia University is on lockdown after pro-Palestinian protesters occupied a building on campus overnight. Entry is restricted to those who have received prior authorization from the university. In other news, the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection is suing R.G. Ortiz Funeral Home Incorporated, which has locations in Manhattan and the Bronx, for allegedly exploiting grieving families. Plus, WNYC’s Janae Pierre speaks with arts and culture reporter Ryan Kailath about affordable activities to enjoy in May. Finally, in celebration of the very last day of National Poetry Month, we feature one last poem from our listeners.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Tuesday, April 30th. Here's the midday news from Lance Lucky. Columbia University is on lockdown after pro-Palestinian protesters occupied a building on campus overnight. People can only enter if they receive prior authorization from the university. Dan de la Cruz is a neuroscience researcher. He says he was turned away from an entrance this morning. He was trying to get into his lab to work on his cell cultures, which he says is time-sensitive.

We were supposed to inform the university who was essential, and I didn't know until this morning. He says he's not taking sides in the dispute, but is concerned that students' access to education will be disrupted near the end of the semester. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of sad that some people's last week of school is being affected, right? Today is the start of study week at Columbia when students prepare for final exams. The city's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection is suing a funeral service provider with eight locations in Manhattan in the Bronx for allegedly exploiting grieving families. The lawsuit accuses R.G. Ortiz Funeral Home Incorporated, which is popular among Spanish-speaking New Yorkers of using deceptive and opaque business practices. One of the most common complaints was that the company refused to give customers updates on the whereabouts of their loved ones remains. DCWP Commissioner Vilda Vera Mayuga says no one should go through that at an already vulnerable time.

I can even imagine, you know, right? I mean, already being in such a painful time and then not knowing what your loved ones remains are. Attempts to reach the funeral home chain for comment were unsuccessful. The Knicks try to wrap up their series against Philadelphia at the Garden tonight. And on the ice, the islanders try to stave off elimination against Carolina in Raleigh. It is 60 degrees, maybe 66 this afternoon in clouds. This is WNYC. Stay close.

There's more after the break. On WMYC, I'm Jene Pierre. It's almost May, which hopefully means a greater share of nice days than chilly ones. The sun will be setting after eight at night pretty soon, so many of us will be going outside longer and later to take advantage of everything our area has to offer. WMYC Culture and Arts reporter Ryan Kailath has been looking into things to do in May that won't break the bank. And he joins us now to discuss a few. What's up, buddy?

Hey, Janay. So, listen, we have this argument, all right? Like, we're both looking forward to summer, both looking forward to these warmer months. But, you know, I think that June is, like, the best New York City month. But you are here to convince me otherwise. So tell me what's up. Yeah, as my dear friend, it pains me to see you be so wrong about something. No, clearly the best two months in New York are May and October.

Okay. Now, okay. In mid-May, let's start one at a time. We enter the longest daylight period of the year, right? The three months where the sun is setting at 8 o'clock or after 8 o'clock, that's just amazing. Nobody hates that. Right. My argument ender for these two is that May is the transition from sort of light jacket into T-shirt weather.

And October is the move into sweater weather. Okay, okay. What could be better than that? I agree with October, but, you know, all my priorities. Five month, folks, hit up Ryan Kaila. Okay. So what's on top of your list for May? Well, okay.

Like I said, evenings are finally long enough and warm enough that you can just kind of wander about outdoors on a stroll without needing to scuttle between warm buildings. So May is when I like to revive one of my oldest New York traditions, which is Thursday gallery hopping. So people probably know that Thursdays are when most art galleries open their new shows. There's usually several on every Thursday, especially in the nice time of year. They're often between 6 and 8 p.m. And if you pick a neighborhood, you pick Chelsea or Tribeca, Lower East Side, someplace full of galleries, you can kind of ping pong around all the openings.

Yeah, like a gallery hop. Like a gallery hop. Now, I will confess that this tradition comes from my broke dirtbag 20s because all the galleries serve free drinks. Yeah. That chardonnay that no one wants. The yellow tail? Yeah. So back in the day, this was our way to get some drinks in before we went out when we couldn't afford to buy them.

Now I'm a little older and a little more responsible now, not much less broke. But now I'm in it for the art more. I will say that. And, you know, there's a couple great, there's a website, artcards.c.c. Where you can see everything that's opening so you can sort of plot yourself a little map. There's also an app, if you have an iPhone one or download one, where you can literally make yourself a map. It's called Seesaw. If you just Google Seesaw Art Map, you can find it.

It's free. And it shows you every opening and every ongoing show, and you can pin them and star them and make a little itinerary for yourself. It's a lot easier than when I was in my 20s. Yeah. Yeah. Are there any openings that you're looking forward to? Yeah, I haven't scanned the whole list yet and done my own little personal curation. But I believe this Thursday, there's a Richard Debencorn opening at a gallery on the Upper East Side

from some paintings from his sort of later, mature period for fans of the artist that I think aren't shown as often as a lot of his other work. So I'd like to check that out. Okay, cool. Take it easy with the yellow tail. I'll try. All right. Well, that sounds like a lot of fun. So what are some other highlights coming up this month in May?

There's a few things that look pretty cool. One, there's a Lenape celebration at the Museum of the City of New York up near East Harlem there. Over by Central Park? Yeah, exactly. The Lenape, of course, the original inhabitants of Manhattan. The word Manhattan comes from a word in their language. And I've always felt we don't see as much celebration and integration of Lenape culture in New York, as a lot of other big cities do with their first people.

Anyway, this is a two-day festival. It's actually this coming weekend, first week. weekend in May. There's going to be live performances, arts and crafts, storytelling guest speakers. It looks pretty good. Second thing, there's also an Asian comedy festival happening in May on the Lower East Side. Two shows a night for three nights in May, May 7th, 14th, and 15th. Every night there's two shows, each one hosted by a different comic or personality. What I'm looking forward to is hosted by Kareem Rama, if you know him. He's this TikToker. He's got a great series called Keep the meter running.

Okay. He'll jump in a yellow cap and throw the guy like $200 and they go on an adventure together. Nice. It's really fun. It's doing well online too. So every set has, you know, I think total, there's more than two dozen comics and stand-ups just doing sets. And the whole thing is partially a fundraiser for Asian American and Pacific Islander

nonprofits. Looks pretty fun and also pretty cheap. All right. Definitely have to check that out as well. You can read all of our picks for free and cheap. things to do in May around the New York City area when you check out our news site, Gothamist. Thanks, Ryan. Thanks, Janay. On WNYC, I'm Michael Hill. It's the last day of poetry month and we've been playing your poems on the

air. Our theme this year's you've been hearing is local. Listen to Katie Mert sent us. This poem called This Was Brooklyn. The Brooklyn that I live in today is entirely different from the Brooklyn that I grew up in. This is a story about what is gone, a Brooklyn that is not. A Brooklyn that is no longer. This is a lament, a recollection, and a love story to a place that no longer exists and that I love deeply. Brooklyn in the 1970s, a city that was so flawed, so tattered, and so utterly neglected, that it held within itself a ruined character that we read as complete. The city back then was a scrap heap of trespassers. Time had no dollar sign. Trouble had a tempo. and a city block was a path to an unknown story that you made up while walking down the street.

This place was shunned and dirty, dire and bleak. There were no rules, no parents, no money. We were hounds for trouble and mad for play. We were a crafty and kinetic street rat that could look for and cause crisis in any garbage, box, bridge, lot, or tree. We scoped fights, got mugged and loved it. We rode bike named Bums and owned streets. Our crafty and kinetic genius created a tandem world of mayhem within a city that was falling to pieces, within energy that we grasped, used, and breathed. To live inside this place was to live in a certain waking dream.

It was here in this perfect and vacated mess that we took infinite permission to just be. A big, big, big, thank you so much to everyone who sent us a poem and listened to our poems this month. We look forward to next poetry moment. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. Also subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back this evening.