Faces and Voices at the School Closing Protest
The New York Times - The Local
January 27, 2010
If you were anywhere near Fort Greene Park Tuesday night, you probably heard music, cheering, and chants of "Instruction, not destruction!" The Department of Educationӳ Panel for Education Policy was meeting at Brooklyn Technical High School, and thousands of teachers, parents, students and concerned community members were out on a chilly January evening to protest the D.O.E.ӳ plan to close 20 city schools this year.
We interviewed and photographed rally attendees to find out why they turned out.
"TheyӲe trying to close down the school for no reason. The communityӳ not going to support them if they privatize the school. And Jamaica High School is the best school ever. Iӭ telling you, Iӭ going to N.Y.U. right now, I got in with crazy grades. Itӳ the best school. If they close it down itӳ like closing my home. TheyӬl take my home away from me."
Style and a Song
NYC ReportsDecember 5, 2009
Maury Reiss, 89, leans forward in the retro red-and-white barber chair, looks into the mirror and inspects his sparse, neatly-trimmed hair. He breaks into a grin."Oh, thatӳ neat!"
"ThatӬl be twenty-five," says the barber. And as he waits for the money, he begins to sing.
His voice, an arresting tenor that wouldnӴ sound out of place at a glittering European opera house, rolls around the tiny shop. The windows vibrate.
"Itӳ now or never, my loveŢ
The impromptu Elvis ballad is enough to startle a person out of his chair, but Reiss doesnӴ bat an eye.After all, heӳ been coming here for 30 years, and this is Mr. Figaro, the singing barber of Sheepshead Bay.
"Singing haircutter," Mr. Figaro insists. "I am unisex."
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