NYC NOW - April 8, 2024: Morning Headlines

Episode Date: April 8, 2024

Get up and get informed! Here’s all the local news you need to start your day: It’s the talk of the town: A solar eclipse is happening this Monday. WNYC’s Ramsey Khalifeh has tips and event highlights for this rare celestial event. Meanwhile, a historic earthquake shook New York and New Jersey last Friday, and with the eclipse today, religious leaders are discussing their spiritual significance. Plus, the Yankees win their third straight, beating the Blue Jays at home, and the Mets triumph over the Cincinnati Reds on the road. Finally, for National Poetry Month, WNYC’s Michael Hill speaks with Jackie Sabbagh, a poet living in Brooklyn.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Monday, April 8th. Here's the morning headlines from Michael Hill. It's the talk of the town, as you've been hearing, a solar eclipse is coming today. WMIC's Ramsey's Ramsey Calife goes through some tips and events to look out for to participate in the rare celestial experience. Local officials are urging New Yorkers to be prepared. for the eclipse. Nearly 90% of the sun will be blocked out by the moon.

Public library branches are distributing special eclipse glasses, which are available while supplies last. And the city's urging people to take mass transit and says drivers should be careful and turn on their headlights when the skies turn dark. The parks department is hosting events in every borough, with Rangers allowing visitors to view the phenomenon through solar telescopes. The parks they'll set up at include Inwood Hill Park in Manhattan, parade ground in Brooklyn, and Van Cortland Park in the Bronx. A historic earthquake shook up New York and New Jersey on Friday and other parts of the East Coast, and a solar eclipse is coming today.

The events were top of mind for religious leaders yesterday, with some pointing to them as signs of a grander spiritual meaning. Reverend Susan Sparks at the Madison Avenue Baptist Church says she's on high alert in case there's even more in store for New York City. We had an earthquake on Friday. We got an eclipse on Monday. There's locust heading towards us in the Midwest. So I was seriously thinking about dropping my sermon and going heavy-duty revelations.

Muslim leaders in the city also mentioned Friday's earthquake in their prayer, the day of the earthquake. The Yankees have won their third straight series this season after they beat the Blue Jays 8 to 3 in the Bronx yesterday. John Carlos Stampin's tie-breaking Grand Slam was the big hit. After losing their first two series, the Mets won their first yesterday, taking two of three from the Reds in a three to one win in Cincinnati. Francisco Lindor hit his first home run to end an O for 24 skid. Starting pitcher, Sean Manea got his first win as a Mette, allowing just a run on three hits with six strikeouts and over five innings. Way to go Mets. Way to go Yankees.

42 and clear now. Mostly sunny today and 65. And then tomorrow, mostly sunny in. warm 72 but shower and rain chances all the way through Friday night. Should be nice enough and clear enough to see that solar eclipse today. Stay close. There's more after the break. April is National Poetry Month and here on Morning Edition, we celebrate by inviting local poets from across the five boroughs and the region to share their work. Jackie Saabag is a writer and poet living in Brooklyn. Some of her work has been,

nominated for a push card prize which honors short works published in small presses. Jackie's working on a fiction novel and a book of poems right now. Hi Jackie, thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me. You've been at this professionally now for more than seven years. Have you noticed your poetry change over time? Yeah. When I started my gender transition journey about six or seven years ago now, I noticed I just really became a lot more interested in writing about that, not even necessarily like representing my own experiences, but becoming a lot more comfortable with talking about things that I think a lot of trans people face on a day-to-day basis, whether that's you know, like difficulty in public aggression from other people and what it kind of means to

like change your body and change your heart. So as I've continued writing, I've just gotten a lot more comfortable with that and I'm having a lot more fun. It feels like I'm sort of in my groove. So yeah, I'll keep writing about that as long as it feels fun. Some of your poems have a bit of humor in them. How important is it for you to be funny as a poet and a writer? That's a really good question. I think humor for me isn't even necessarily about like making people think I'm funny, though they do, those to say that I'm not.

But I think the humor is really important for breaking tension. You can get really kind of tunnel vision when writing a poem and saying like, okay, I have to let people know I'm serious and solemn, but sometimes just like a good like moment of levity can really just loosen the tension of a poem and make your reader feel, yeah, just like at peace. And so it's really important for that sort of emotional variance that at least I sort of crave when I read a poem. We mentioned you're writing a fiction novel. Tell us what it's about.

Yeah, so the novel kind of transitions or follows my gender transition from, you know, being a child into adulthood. It's told through the story of people that I've loved throughout the years. And so each of those relationships as kind of a tableau of, you know, how it impacted and helped me along my transition. I'm pretty careful. I hope about not falling into like the stereotype of saying like, okay, just because I transitioned, you know, that's, makes the novel automatically interesting. but I really kind of, it's an homage to all these people that I've known. Well, we've been talking about your poetry now.

We want to hear some of it if you're kind of enough to read some of it for us. This poem is called A Child Clocks Me at the Bodega. First of all, you're a bitch. Second of all, I look amazing. I wore a silk dress for the cashiers. I used my upper register, my face is the sort of glowie

you see in felons. The child said Mommy, is that a boy? And the mother said, I don't know. I have to hand it to her. She doesn't. But I wouldn't have said the same of her.

I go home and cry for three hours. I throw the cassidia at the wall. The same cassidias, you ask me why I always get and I didn't know what to say. They're $499 and they're perfect. I miss you all the time.

You don't think of me and my face is growing old. Wow. It's beautiful. Our guest has been Jackie Subag. She's a poet, writer and right now working on a fiction novel and a book of poems. Jackie, thanks for coming on this morning. Thanks so much for having me, Michael. Appreciate it. And poetry fans, join us in the Greenspace on Friday, April 19th at 7 in the evening for live poetry.

We've invited some of our favorite local poets to share their work in front of a live audience. Tickets are at pay as you wish. You can reserve yours at www.org slash the Greenspace. 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, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

See you this afternoon.