NYC NOW - September, 14 2023: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: September 14, 2023

The latest COVID-19 vaccine will become available for New Yorkers this Friday. Plus, three men face hate crime charges linked to the vandalization of a pride flag display in Manhattan. And finally, another story from one of WNYC’s Radio Rookies, a program that puts microphones in the hands of young New Yorkers.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jene Pierre. Government officials are ramping up their latest campaign to encourage Americans to get their next COVID-19 vaccine. And in New York, you can do that as early as Friday. Governor Kathy Holpel says the new shot is designed to protect people against more recent variants of the virus. My team and I just got off a call with the FDA confirming that the COVID-OVOLB. confirming that the COVID vaccine is on its way to New York.

A panel of advisors for the Centers for Disease Control voted earlier this week to recommend the vaccine for anyone six months or older. COVID cases and hospitalizations have been on the rise in New York City and across the country over the last several weeks. Three men are facing hate crime charges linked to the vandalization of a pride flag display in Manhattan.

WMYC's Catalina Gonella has the details. It's been three times. months since the men were captured on video tearing down a pride flag display at the Stonewall National Monument. 25-year-old Charles Heider and 24-year-old Jackson Randall were arrested this week. They were charged with criminal mischief as a hate crime. Police also arrested 25-year-old Patrick Murphy on the same charges in August. It's a relief for Stephen Love Menendez. He built a display in hopes the arrests discourage others from taking similar actions. And more than that, I just wish that the rhetoric of hate that's being pumped out by some pundits and politicians just be brought to an end.

Two other incidents of vandalism were reported there that same month. Stick around. There's more after the break. WNYC's Radio Rookies Program equips young people with microphones to report on their own lives and communities. This week, we're sharing some of those stories. Today, we hear from Selden-Tinzen. Her family is Tibetan. but she says as a child she felt disconnected from her culture. Selden shares her journey to learn what it means to be Tibetan and what it means to be proud of where you come from.

There's one day out of the year that I look forward to the most, Lossar, also known as Tibetan New Year. Five you said, right? Yeah. Step in, wait by the line there, please. In Queens, where I live, hundreds of Tibetans turn out to celebrate. I always meet up with my friends at the Tibetan Community Center. The morning starts off with prayers, and then the adults always ask us to help hand out food.

Hi, Salden. You want to help us? Yeah, you know what someone said to us? We're the future of Tibet. Then, we head to the auditorium to watch Tibetan school students sing and dance. Lohsar is the one day we do stuff we normally wouldn't do. We try to speak in Tibetan and make fun of each other's bad grammar. We sing Tibetan songs, and we dress up. We all wear a chuba, which is Tibet's national outfit.

It looks like a long robe that ties at the waist and has traditional designs woven into it. This year, I wore a long white chuba made out of silk from India. I wanted everyone to see my outfit. But I didn't always feel this way about Lossar, and growing up, I never wanted to be seen wearing a chuba. I used to wear a really long coat to hide every, Everything. Chubas made me feel self-conscious because they were just so different.

When my non-Tibetan friends dressed up for their family events, they got to wear dresses with flowers and lace, the type of party dress you'd see on an American girl doll. I didn't really have Tibetan friends until I met my friend Chemi in seventh grade. I remember one day she told me she couldn't decide which one of her Chubas to wear. By then, I'd stopped wearing mine. Watching Chemi talk enthusiastically about her chubas confused me. But it also helped me realize I didn't have anything to be ashamed of. And after that, I didn't realize, like, oh, like, she actually enjoys LOSAR and wearing the chubas.

And I didn't really like to do that, but you kind of switched my perspective on that. I never realized I made such a big impact on you. Okay. So were you always so open and proud of? of your heritage? Well, I think that so many children go through the same feeling of being almost like ashamed of your culture and especially if it's so different from the ones that you grow up around.

If you grew up in America, for example, you probably would be more influenced by like American traditions rather than your own. I totally agree with you because I grew up watching Disney and stuff and my dream. like was to be Emma Ross from Disney. Emma Ross was super skinny and had long blonde hair. And I wanted, you know, her outfits. I wanted her hair. I wanted my name to be Emma.

Like every single time we played. I spent a lot of my childhood feeling unconfident and wishing I looked like the girls on TV. But once I got to high school, I made more Tibetan friends and I found myself wanting to spend more time with them. I didn't feel different or self-conscious around them. and these new friends didn't seem ashamed or embarrassed about our culture. A lot of them went to Tibetan school growing up, including Chemi.

I feel like Tibetan school was one of the only places in my daily life where I could just be fully Tibetan without any judgment or confusion from people who really didn't understand what I was talking about. I started to feel the same way, and these new friendships I made helped me see that there's beauty in being Tibetan. But I still don't really feel that close to my identity. When I try to speak Tibetan at the dinner table, I have to interrupt myself to ask my parents how to say every other word. NHS vice president, how do you say one in Tibetan?

Topra. I feel like I have so much to catch up on. I don't know how to cook any Tibetan dishes. I only know four prayers at best. And at all the big gatherings, everyone else knows all the dances. but I don't know a single step. I want to tell myself it's because I didn't grow up in Tibet.

But my parents didn't grow up in Tibet either, and that didn't make them any less Tibetan. That's my mom. She was born in South India. Her parents fled Tibet when the Chinese government forcefully took over, more than 70 years ago. Tibet is still under Chinese control. Children there have to learn Mandarin in school, and people are scared to speak up about preserving our

own language. They also can't display photos of our highest religious leader, the Dalai Lama. People even fear saying his name. The Dalai Lama is known as the face of Tibetan Buddhism. He lives in exile in India. When he fled there, tens of thousands of people followed him. That's how my mom ended up in a village made up entirely of Tibetan refugees. She says these refugee villages were committed to preserving

our language and culture. Her parents always told her to never forget. Never forget the Tibetan people, never forget the Tibetan language, and never forget the Tibetan practices. My parents tell me the same thing, but I only know Tibet through Google images, pictures of mountains, grasslands, and elderly women in traditional clothing. I used to think, how do I hold on to something I've never experienced? Now, I realize the work my parents have done to rebuild the type of community they left behind in India, and that their parents left behind in Tibet.

We live in Woodside, just 10 minutes away from the Tibetan Community Center, and a few blocks from a Tibetan temple. There's even a street called Tibet Way. I used to think that it was my parents' burden to pass down our culture, but I have a role to play in that too. And now that I've stopped pushing my identity aside to try to fit in, I realize my culture has always been all around me. I just had to learn how to embrace it. It's Radio Rookies reporter Selden Tinsen. Tomorrow we'll hear from another young cohort who shares how Nichist planned to put apartments under private management has her questioning the future of the place she calls home. Radio Rookies is supported in part by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Epstein-Titcher Philanthropies, the Margaret Newbart Foundation, and the Pinkerton Foundation.

Thanks for listening to NYC from WMYC. Catch us every weekday three times a day. I'm Jene Pierre. be back tomorrow.