New Yoga Class in Jackson Heights

Yogi Baby
OM Yoga Center certified instructor will be providing yoga classes with a focus on a postpartum practice.
Wednesdays 10-11 AM




[where: Mambo Bravo Latin Dance Studio 37-40 75th Street, Jackson Heights NY 11372]

NY Times describes 'classic salsa' revival in Jackson Heights

Along Roosevelt Avenue, Suddenly, It’s the ’70s
By SAKI KNAFO for NY Times August 26, 2007

IT’S not just the indie rockers of Brooklyn who, upon entering a time machine, would probably set the dial to, say, 1977. Prompted by “El Cantante,” the new film with Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony about the singer Héctor Lavoe, the city’s Latino neighborhoods are becoming charmed by the sounds of those years. But in their case, those are sounds of classic salsa rather than of the Ramones...

...But “El Cantante,” which opened a couple of weeks ago, has sparked a resurgence of enthusiasm for Mr. Lavoe’s music, one that extends not just to non-Puerto Rican Latinos. It is shared by Latinos who moved to New York only in the last few years, well after the end of the era when salsa ruled the Latin music scene and New York was salsa’s capital.

Many of these fans live in Jackson Heights, Queens. Among non-Latinos, the neighborhood is known for its Mexican, Ecuadorean and Colombian restaurants, but scattered among the local businesses are dozens of music stores. On one mile-long stretch of Roosevelt Avenue, from 97th Street to 75th Street, nearly every block is home to at least one CD store. Some blocks have as many as four or five, if you count the Spanish grocery stores with CDs tucked among the jars of cactus shoots and the boxes of yucca...

...In Jackson Heights and elsewhere, salsa is particularly popular among Colombians, a people who have produced their own fast-paced version of the sound. Up and down Roosevelt Avenue, sunset-colored posters advertise concerts featuring cumbia, another Colombian musical export. But for New York’s Colombians, classic salsa offers a sound that comes straight from the streets of their adopted city. As Mr. Galvis put it, “I’m from another country and I’m here, and these people are telling me something about my life.”...

Video of Jackson Heights Wedding in 1947

[where: St Joan of Arc Church 8200 35th Ave, Jackson Heights NY 11372]

NYCs "top chefs" tell Time Out JH is "best enclave of ethnic food in the city"

from Time Out New York

Kitchen report 2007
The chefs speak...
Drugs, drinking and all the drama: We asked 40 top chefs (we can’t tell you who, but believe us, you’d know their names) to feed us the truth—served raw.

What do you think is the best enclave of ethnic food in the city?

It looks like most chefs don’t get out much—“who has time?” Besides a few mentions of Koreatown, those who do leave the kitchen head for Queens. “Jackson Heights is the most diverse,” but they also visit Sunset Park and Arthur Avenue in the Bronx.

Peru earthquake has NYers reaching out

from amNewYorkBy Magdalene Perez August 17, 2007

Peruvian immigrants in neighborhoods like Jackson Heights and Corona clogged public calling centers and tied up phone lines trying to reach loved ones in the wake of the massive earthquake in Peru Wednesday night.

"There was no answer," Ricardo Ordonez, 21, whose family lives in Lima, said. "I was calling for hours."

Lines up to 20 to 30 people filled public calling centers, known as telefonicos, Jackson Heights residents said. The frantic phone calls were met with busy signals for at least two hours, and some lines were still tied up Thursday...

Sabini, Jax Hts. leaders raise money for S. Asia

from TimesLedger By Jeremy Walsh 08/16/2007

In the face of last week's fierce storm, Jackson Heights community leaders got together to raise awareness for millions of other flood victims. State Sen. John Sabini (D-Jackson Heights), the American Red Cross and local Bangladeshi, Indian, Nepali and Pakistani organizations announced a series of fund-raisers to help the victims of this year's monsoons in South Asia.

"On a day when New Yorkers are unable to get to work because of flooding, we should be mindful of conditions elsewhere," the senator said, urging recent immigrants and longtime residents alike to chip in...

Gothamist visits Chonghap in JH

At The Ethnic Market: Korean Comfort Food Edition
By Joe DiStefano for Gothamist August 14, 2007

...The other day while strolling around N.Y. Chonghap Market with a summer cold and an upset stomach, we found ourselves standing in front of a display filled with an array of 10-ounce tubs of premade jook. There were several flavors, including vegetable, tuna, even a sweet version with cinnamon and pine nuts. Since our stomach wasn't quite that upset, we went something a wee bit more adventurous, abalone. Fully aware that the jook wouldn't be sufficiently robust to satisfy our palate, nor ward off our illness, we headed down the aisle to the banchan case. We settled on a container filled with garlic-spiked dark green slices of kirby coated in red pepper and sesame seeds, aka oi kimchi. Surely the combination of these two Korean comfort foods would go a long way toward warding off any illness...

[where: Chonghap Market, 72-11 Roosevelt Ave., Jackson Heights]

Jackson Heights Teens Defy India / Pakistan Rift

Teens heal India-Pakistan split with friendship

BY TARA KYLE AND TAHARA MIAH from amNewYork; Staff writer Jennifer Barrios contributed to this story. August 14, 2007

... For young New Yorkers in South Asian immigrant communities such as Jackson Heights, the historical tensions that embittered their forefathers are giving way to neighborhood friendships.

"We stay with Bengali ... [Pakistani], Indian," Taniya Mamun, 17, a Bangladeshi American, using a slang term for hanging out. "We stay with all kinds of people," agreed Maya Mamun, 16, Taniya's sister.

In contrast to their parents, India and Pakistan are much less important "in the lives and imaginations of today's South Asian youth," said Natasha Kumar Warikoo, a professor at the University of London who has studied social dynamics at multiethnic schools in Queens...

...Jackson Heights is the epicenter of South Asian culture in New York. Along the blocks near the 74th Street-Roosevelt subway station, South Asians shop for the same clothes and music and eat at the same restaurants. Despite differences in their heritage and native languages, one place where all the teens flock is the Eagle Theater in Jackson Heights, which features Hindi-language Bollywood movies with English subtitles.

"You go to a movie theater and there's people from all cultures in there," Belani said. "If anything, Bollywood's most important for bringing everybody together."...

...Teens in Jackson Heights mentioned that language barriers are another reason parents stick to their own nationality.

But in the high schools and shopping districts of Queens, what brings young South Asians together isn't much different than what works for any other American teen.

"I'm not into politics that much; it's just about fun, basically," Taniya Mamun said...

[where: Eagle Theater, 7307 37th Rd, Jackson Heights NY 11372]

BBQ supports Jackson Heights Film and Food Festival

by "unisphere1964" from Jackson Heights Families

Sun, Fun, Plenty of Grass, Laughs and
Lots of BBQ Eats, Treats and Refreshments!

For the second year in a row the Jackson Heights Film and Food Festival is sponsoring a local Summer BBQ to support the Fall festival. The Festival is an all volunteer community effort to bring top arts, entertainment and good ol fun to the neighborhood.

The BBQ is a wonderful opportunity to support the Festival and to hang out, meet up with friends and make new ones, enjoy plenty of yummy grilled and non-grilled treats and drinks and to learn about this years films, the new "Taste of Jackson Heights", the arts and crafts partnership with Y Gallery, the music component and lots, lots more!!!

Date - Saturday, August 11, 2007
Time - Noon to 3 p.m.
Place - St. Marks Church - 33-50 82nd Street (between 34th ave. and Northern)
Requested Donation: $10 Adults, children free

[where: St. Marks Church, 33-50 82nd Street, Jackson Heights NY 11372]

This years Festival takes place the last weekend of September (9/28, 9/29, 9/30).

Latest: MTA Service Alerts

Where the Jingling of Change Is the Sound of Unease

By EMILY BRADY for The NYTimes, August 5, 2007

..Sitting on the sidewalk on 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens, she rattled a plastic yogurt container filled with coins at passers-by.

In the sari shops, gold jewelry stores and curry houses that dot the commercial heart of South Asian Queens, many theories are offered as to where the woman is from. Romania? The former Yugoslavia? Russia? Turkey? No seems to know for sure.

But among business owners, there is consensus on one thing: She is not welcome...

...On Tuesday, the mayor and other top city officials met with local residents at the Jackson Diner, and a member of the merchants group asked the mayor if his administration could address the problem. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told the crowd the issue would be looked into...

JUNCTION BOULEVARD FESTIVAL

Sunday,August 5th 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., from Roosevelt Avenue to 35th Avenue, Jackson Heights, Queens.

JH Resident could be next 'Biggest Loser'

from Christopher Rocchio for realitytvworld, 08/02/2007

NBC has revealed the identities of the 18 contestants that will compete on The Biggest Loser's fourth season, which will premiere with a two-hour special on Tuesday, September 11 at 8PM ET/PT...
(including)
- Ryan Rodriguez, a 29-year-old from Jackson Heights, NY

'Roosevelt Avenue Symphony' composed by DJ ALF and Billy Jam

via Youtube August 03, 2007
This is a video dedicated to the residents of Jackson Heights, NY. The video is focused on the sights and sounds along the daily activities of Roosevelt Avenue - DJ ALF and Billy Jam

'The Onion' Satirizes Jackson Heights Diversity

from The Onion August 3 2007

Various Deities Still Sorting Through Victims Of Tragic Queens Bus Accident

NEW YORK—An emergency coalition of deities from several major world religions is still sorting through the wreckage of a tragic bus accident that claimed 67 lives Friday in the culturally diverse Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens...

...Because the victims hailed from 14 countries and professed an as-yet-undetermined number of religious faiths, however, the soul-placement process has been laborious, and fewer than a third of the deceased have so far been escorted to their appropriate afterlives.

"What a mess this is," said Ganesha, the Hindu lord of success and obstacles. "Assuming we ever manage to figure out who worships our particular pantheon, there's still the problem of divvying up the Buddhists, Jains, and other non-Hindus who worship me, Lakshmi, Vishnu, and about 1,000 other gods."...

...Many of the gods were struggling just to maintain order.

"Honestly, who ever heard of a Jew named Shinjoku Murikami?" the Shinto sun goddess Amaterasu said. "I had that guy halfway to haunting a shrine as a kami spirit before I realized my mistake."...