New York Before
It’s still one of the greatest cities in the world and there are millions of residents that will never leave it under any circumstances.
New York City (NYC) before, had this centipede chugging away, dropping off and picking up passengers in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. The centipede is still there but with very few passengers sitting down or holding straps in subway cars, for obvious reasons.
NYC is about stories, and one train car can produce 15 movies about why folks live, work and love in New York. I LOVE NEW YORK is on T-Shirts and coffee mugs, but it is possible to fall in love, in New York. Hollywood is without doubt, the City’s steady lover.
Film Projects
Bollywood also shoots in New York. Aa Ab Laut Chalen, the Hindi film directed by Rishi Kapoor, with Aishwarya Rai in the lead role, is just one example of a slew of Bollywood projects filmed in NYC. Akshaye Khanna plays her love interest.
There are millions of stories that never make it to the big screen because Hollywood has a locked mind, no originality whatsoever. They do genres, not stories. Spike Lee, an independent filmmaker makes movies about New York, and Brooklyn in particular.
NEW YORK STREET UNIVERSITY
I experienced the Big Apple first hand. I went to Columbia University because of my friend Sue from Hong Kong. She graduated from Durham University before me and went to New York for her Masters. She knew I dabbled in writing so she told me about Columbia and its Journalism programme. She said it was one of the best in the world.
She sent me application forms in the mail. I filled them. Got accepted and my guardian, the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) flew me to New York. Columbia University didn’t waste time.
You want to be journalists right? Go out and get stories. We got lost, we got scared, we got pushed but we learned. We became experts on City Hall, the United Nations Headquarters, the subway, Harlem, Brooklyn and jazz. Yes jazz, thanks to Sue who took me to clubs and summer open concerts. Our unification, from Durham England to New York City. U.S.A. is greater that the Unification of East and West Germany.
Sue remained in New York after graduation. She was besotted with the place and later got married. I went back to Africa for many reasons. One of them was living in apartment buildings. I never got used to the idea of taking the elevator to go home. I was born on the ground and lived in one storey dwellings for most of my life where you open the door in the morning and smell soil in the air after the rain.
NEW YORK THE UGLY
New York City stories also include bondage because some industries hire illegal workers who are not free to roam like Sue and I. They work in terrible factory and restaurant conditions controlled by family. The homeless are part of the scene, even movies include them in the storyline e.g. last scene of the movie, Big Business.
By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.
New York City (NYC) before, had this centipede chugging away, dropping off and picking up passengers in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. The centipede is still there but with very few passengers sitting down or holding straps in subway cars, for obvious reasons.
NYC is about stories, and one train car can produce 15 movies about why folks live, work and love in New York. I LOVE NEW YORK is on T-Shirts and coffee mugs, but it is possible to fall in love, in New York. Hollywood is without doubt, the City’s steady lover.
Film Projects
1. Coming to America starring Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall,
2. Big Business, starring Bette Milder and Lily Tomlin,
3. Maid in Manhattan, directed by Wayne Wang with Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Fiennes in marquee roles,
4. How Stella Got Her Groove Back directed by Kevin Rodney Sullivan, starring Whoopi Goldberg, Angela Bassett and Taye Diggs,
5. The Sun is Also a Star, based on Nicola Yoon’s novel and directed by Ry Russo Young, starring Yara Shahidi and Charles Melton.
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| Pic: Amazon.com |
There are millions of stories that never make it to the big screen because Hollywood has a locked mind, no originality whatsoever. They do genres, not stories. Spike Lee, an independent filmmaker makes movies about New York, and Brooklyn in particular.
NEW YORK STREET UNIVERSITY
I experienced the Big Apple first hand. I went to Columbia University because of my friend Sue from Hong Kong. She graduated from Durham University before me and went to New York for her Masters. She knew I dabbled in writing so she told me about Columbia and its Journalism programme. She said it was one of the best in the world.
She sent me application forms in the mail. I filled them. Got accepted and my guardian, the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) flew me to New York. Columbia University didn’t waste time.
You want to be journalists right? Go out and get stories. We got lost, we got scared, we got pushed but we learned. We became experts on City Hall, the United Nations Headquarters, the subway, Harlem, Brooklyn and jazz. Yes jazz, thanks to Sue who took me to clubs and summer open concerts. Our unification, from Durham England to New York City. U.S.A. is greater that the Unification of East and West Germany.
Sue remained in New York after graduation. She was besotted with the place and later got married. I went back to Africa for many reasons. One of them was living in apartment buildings. I never got used to the idea of taking the elevator to go home. I was born on the ground and lived in one storey dwellings for most of my life where you open the door in the morning and smell soil in the air after the rain.
NEW YORK THE UGLY
New York City stories also include bondage because some industries hire illegal workers who are not free to roam like Sue and I. They work in terrible factory and restaurant conditions controlled by family. The homeless are part of the scene, even movies include them in the storyline e.g. last scene of the movie, Big Business.
By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.
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