Interesting People on the Streets

Manhattan, N.Y., May 15, 2009- The action pack interviews and street assignments began today. After Lynn Vincent came to speak one evening I was even more excited about crafting stories together and continuing to soak in all the knowledge set before our very eyes.

I was a little nervous about going onto the street to get a narrative from someone and crafting it into a feature piece because I've never done this before. It was a mix of complete excitement and fear that I would fail miserably. As I ventured out onto the street I knew the character I wanted to seek out: the owner of a hot dog stand. I went to the first one and the language barrier played a major factor, as the man couldn't speak a lick of English. I moved onto 37th Street to find my subject.

This man from Egypt was so kind and willing to talk to me and tell me his interesting story about how he came to New York City. This experience really helped me a lot because there was still some language barrier. He only spoke broken English, but managed to get it out well enough for me to form his words together. As I finished up and was ready to head back he handed me a cold soda to thank me for talking to him. He was a very interesting character and I definitely plan on stopping by his hot dog stand for dinner one night.

Our next street assignment was a group convergence assignment. We were sent to different areas around the city to collect interviews and observations on businesses and families and how the economic state of our country has affected them. Jeffery, Andrew and I were sent to Harlem to get our stories. It was my first time experiencing that part of New York and the Subway. I was really excited but a little nervous at the same time to attempt to get interviews. I didn't think anyone would talk to me, but to my surprise the afternoon turned out quite well and very productive.

One interview that I particularly enjoyed was with a man named Tom at his store, LAZARUS, on 125th street.

I was referred to him in this manner: "Well the person you want to talk to is Tom and he's out there smoking a cigarette. I don't know if I'd go talk to him, he doesn't normally let anyone interrupt his smoke breaks..."

I decided to give it a shot despite what the woman said and ended up getting a great interview from him to send back to the writers. It was exciting to run around this one street talking with one person to the next and soaking in all the diverse personalities. I felt like I got to experience what journalism was really like. Everyone has a story and it's the journalist's job to get it.