Review of Malecón Restaurant: Finding Dinner and a Home in “The Heights”
By Ciara O’Neill | Last December, on a particularly cold night, I huddled with a friend of mine as we ran from the exit of the A train to Malecón, a Dominican restaurant in Washington Heights. Upon entering, we were hit by the warm fragrances of fried chicken, sancocho, and various spices. My friend and […]
My Word Is Better than Your Word: A Review of Louise Bennett’s Monologue “Jamaican Language”
By Kiki Melvelle | Who is to say dat your English is betta dan mine?
West Side Story: The Classic Made Present
By Kejana Ayala | Whether or not we’ve seen it, we all know about Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins’ film adaptation of West Side Story (1961). A classic retelling of Romeo and Juliet based on Arthur Laurents’ musical, the film has echoed in our American culture for over fifty years through its tunes and romantic storyline and the […]
A Review of Nueba Yol
By Elaine Vasquez | “Nueba Yol de mi fantasia, porque New York es otra cosa.” – Balbuena When I was a little girl in the Dominican Republic, my dreams about America were distant from the reality. White people with green or blue eyes was all I pictured. Big streets, snow, tall buildings, tons of food and […]
Chrissy Kolaya’s Debut Novel, Charmed Particles, Successfully Launches Us into a New Realm of Exotic Matter
By Suzette Glover | Do you like original adventures, gradual suspense, quirky characters, or a slight touch of wanderlust? If you answered yes to any of the above, then Chrissy Kolaya’s debut novel, Charmed Particles, might be the newest page-turner that you add to your bookshelf. Nestled in the fictional, Midwestern prairie town of Nicolet, […]
¿Qué Pasa, USA? Desde los 70 Hasta Hoy en Día
By Franklin Rodriguez | We’ve all had moments in our teenage years where we wanted something really bad but our parents could not necessarily afford it, or where we were worried about being accepted by a group of kids who we thought were popular and cool. These moments can be glorious or bittersweet, and often […]
Review of Entre Nos
By Luis Machuca | The aspirations, ambitions and ultimate disenchantments resulting from this country’s make-or-break reality are things that transcend national backgrounds and intimately resonate through many a dispersed migrant group. The Latinization of New York and other metropolises in the United States has unfolded with rather consistent uniformity in the various Hispanic subgroups. According to […]
When Two Worlds Collide: A Review of The New World
By Ciara O’Neill | Terrence Malick’s 2005 film, The New World, is one of my new favorite treasures. Much like the British explorers in the film who went looking for gold in Virginia, I was looking for something special when I began to watch this movie. I wanted to know what would set this retelling apart from […]
The Coneheads and American Immigration
By Zayna Marjieh | A lot has changed in America since 1993. We’ve elected three different presidents, have gone through over two decades worth of technological advances, and have evolved quite dramatically as a society. However, despite all of the unquestionable change that has occurred, there are a few things that have remained constant, and […]
Margaret Walker’s This Is My Century: New and Collected Poems: So Much More Than Just Your Average Poetry Collection
By Brandie Failey | Oh boy, here I am again. Back at it again being forced to write another book review for one of my classes at Lehman College. Last time it was a novel, but this time it’s This Is My Century: New and Collected Poems written by Margaret Walker. Last time was also […]
Review of The Puerto Ricans: Our American Story
By Maritza Lopez | At the beginning of the documentary The Puerto Ricans: Our American Story, opera singer Justino Diaz sings, in his signature baritone voice, “En Mi Viejo San Juan” (“In My Old San Juan”) with tears in his eyes. A song known by Puerto Ricans, it expresses the diaspora of Puerto Ricans living […]
The Next Track will Leave You Breathless: Rihanna’s “American Oxygen”
By Eileen Sepulveda | While standing at the bus stop on a wintry, windy night scrolling down my Spotify librería and clicking on the most recently played, Rihanna is at the top of my list. Besides being a big fan of most of her albums with her bold, sassy lyrics and sexiness, she is truly one of […]
Review of Eddie Murphy’s Coming to America
By Nad | African drums booming in the background. Singers chanting “Awemoway, Awemoway.” The camera circumnavigates the forest. Nah, this ain’t The Lion King. This is Coming to America.
Mexican-American Culture and La Malinche’s Story: A Review of A Tongue in the Mouth of the Dying
By Karen Ramirez | A Tongue in the Mouth of the Dying is a collection of poems written by Laurie Ann Guerrero. In this book, the author uses complex and conflicting aspects and views of “La Malinche,” such as motherhood, womanhood, treachery, and language, and relates them to bigger themes from her life as a […]
