Gallatin Seniors Promote Ethical Fashion With New NYU Thrift Store

March 5th, 2012 by Lauren Walters

You don’t need to wear hemp clothing to be eco-fashionable, as Gallatin seniors Celia Reingold and Sarah Ferguson aim to prove with Sloth. Sloth is an organization dedicated to promoting slow consumption in the fashion world. Reingold and Ferguson are working to develop Sloth into NYU’s first thrift store, providing students with a place to swap and donate old clothing, and creating an NYU platform for global social activism.

According to the project mission, Sloth aims “to improve the global human condition by encouraging slow consumption–socially conscious spending habits that support fair wages, safe working conditions, environmental sustainability, and economic transparency.” We had a chance to speak with Reingold and Ferguson about the project, and what it means to support slow fashion.

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College Confidential Roundup: Early Decision 2 Applicants Bare Their Souls On The Internet

February 23rd, 2012 by Lauren Walters

Round two of the NYU 2016 Early Decision applicants have been accepted and rejected, which can only mean one thing: the College Confidential boards are abuzz once again. High school seems like it ended eons ago, but it was only a few years ago that we were drawing on our desks in AP Statistics, waiting for our cellphones to vibrate with an email notification from College Confidential, or- better yet- NYU.

We spent hours online decoding any and all NYU communications with our fellow applicants, furiously typing “WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!?!” in response to nyugirl415′s insistence that she had received three strange emails from NYU earlier–one at 10:17, another at 12:53, and the last at 3:04. These days are long behind us, but we’ve torn through the pages of the NYU College Confidential forum to bring you the emotionally raw and sometimes disturbing posts of next year’s freshmen.

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NYU At The Oscars: 2012 Edition

February 17th, 2012 by Lauren Walters

With the Oscars approaching and a recent Grammy win by Steinhardt professor Herschel Garfein, it’s time to once again to stroke our NYU egos and take a look at which award categories feature NYU faculty and alums. In accordance with last year’s awards hosted by the NYU-associated Anne Hathaway and James Franco, this year’s Oscars will be hosted by Tisch alum and seasoned Academy Awards host Billy Crystal. Check out NYU’s scorecard for 2012:

Best Documentary Short:

  • The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement: Robin Fryday and Gail Dolgin
  • God Is the Bigger Elvis: Rebecca Cammisa and Julie Anderson
  • Incident in New Baghdad: James Spione
  • Saving Face: Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
  • The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom: Kira Carstensen and Lucy Walker (Tisch ’98, MFA, Kanbar, Film)

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How To Curb Your Procrastination Habit (Sort Of)

February 10th, 2012 by Lauren Walters

If you’re like us, you’ve been having a little bit of trouble getting back into your schoolwork after winter break, and now that classes are picking up speed again, your crippling Facebook addiction is starting to hurt. The obvious solution is to suspend your account, but come on, you don’t want to be that guy. (Plus, then you’d miss NYU Local stories in your newsfeed! Terrible idea all around.) So how to cope? We’ve told you before how to stay away from Facebook altogether, but if you’re just looking to limit your usage, it’s a little trickier. Here’s what we recommend:

1. StayFocused for Google Chrome is a highly-customizable app that limits your usage on sites or content of your choosing.

Why it works: You don’t need to stop using Facebook completely to use StayFocused. You can specify the number of minutes you’re allowed to spend on each blocked site per day, and StayFocused will make sure you don’t exceed your limit. Read more…


NYU’s Creative Writing Program To Feature Pulitzer Prize-Winning Poet And Others In March

February 7th, 2012 by Lauren Walters

NYU’s impressive Creative Writing Program has released its official lineup for March. It features several impressive writers, including Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey. If you’re interested in getting in touch with your literary side, mark your calendars, but keep in mind that Creative Writing Program events fill up quick, so we recommend getting there at least a half hour early.

Thursday, March 1,  7pm

Poet Nell Regan will read from her most recent collection of poems, Bound for Home, and from her upcoming collection due out later this year. Based in Dublin, Regan has authored two poetry collections, as well as several works of nonfiction. The event will be held at  NYU’s Glucksman Ireland House, at 1 Washington Mews (at 5th Avenue). RSVP by sending an email to ireland.house@nyu.edu or calling (212) 998-3950.

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NYU Student Launches Successful Jewelry Line

February 2nd, 2012 by Lauren Walters

NYU student Kristy Lin has more to worry about than schoolwork – in her spare time, the CAS junior juggles her own surrealist fine jewelry line. Launched last year, Kristy’s first collection, KRISTY LIN, has met great success, and her pieces have been worn by Emma Roberts, Regina Spektor, and Alexa Winner. We had a chance to speak with Kristy about her line, her inspiration, and how she handles her budding business as a full-time student.

How and when did you start designing  jewelry?

It was a subconscious thing for a while. I always liked art, I always liked to doodle, I always liked crafts. At one point they just collided and it just made sense. Sometimes I wish I had a more unique passion, but I can’t help it. I think in jewelry, it’s how I scrapbook my life. Some people draw, some people write songs, I make rings.

I first started out with “alternative” materials, partly inspired by my found-art sculpture class (a class which probably changed my life) partly because, dude, in the middle of the suburbs, it’s hard to get access to much. I developed my style further in my studio art class, ultimately playing mad scientist with dehydrated lemons, melted plastic forks, acupuncture needles, old photo film, just to name a few. Read more…


NYC Classes For The Hungry And Hilarious

January 30th, 2012 by Lauren Walters

If (or when) you’ve been screwed over by course selection, and have to add a weird introductory course in a department you didn’t know existed to round out your 16 credits, it can feel like your semester is doomed to uninteresting readings and nap-worthy lectures. We’ve been there enough times to know that you needn’t wallow. If you’re looking for interesting classes that go beyond NYU’s course catalog and won’t slash your GPA (or your wallet), you’re in the right city. Check out our picks:

If You’re Hungry

Butter Lane, the famed East Village cupcakery (now with a location in Park Slope), offers classes in cake basics, icing making, and cake decorating. Prices vary depending on the level, but these informal one-three hour classes range from $40 to $60. Classes meet once and are good for groups, and you’ll leave with a few of your own creations. Butter Lane has been featured a few times on Groupon, so be on the lookout for discounted classes. Classes fill quickly, so plan on going at an off-time (late afternoons) or plan your class several months in advance.

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NYU Sophomore Protests NC Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment With New Musical

January 26th, 2012 by Lauren Walters

What do Jack Black, Mark Shaiman, and a couple of college students have in common? Perhaps more than you’d think: they all worked on Shaiman’s Prop 8: the Musical, which starred Black and went viral. Three years later, Gallatin sophomore Joe Ehrman-Dupre and UNC Chapel Hill sophomores Rachel Kaplan and Jordan Imbrey have created a sequel of sorts.

In response to North Carolina’s Amendment One, which will appear on the May 8th ballot and would define marriage in North Carolina as between one man and one woman, the students created NC Amendment One: the Musical, which aims to educate viewers and protest the amendment. We had a chance to speak with actor and assistant director Ehrman-Dupre about the musical and the impact the group involved hopes to make on voters come May.

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Voices Behind The Icon: The Real Rosie The Riveter Project

January 25th, 2012 by Lauren Walters

We’ve seen her everywhere: in textbooks, in Norman Rockwell works, and, perhaps famously, in J. Howard Miller’s “We Can Do It.” Since her birth in the 1940s, Rosie the Riveter has become a cultural icon and a familiar face of the feminist cause, and is used still to promote (and parody) the can-do attitude for which she became so famous.

Now, 70 years later, 48 real Rosies are telling their own stories. Filmmakers Anne de Mare and Kirsten Kelly of Spargel Productions, along with writer Elizabeth Hemmerdinger, interviewed the original Riveters, working women during World War II who are now in their eighties and nineties. The project, done in collaboration with NYU’s Tamiment Library, tells tales of what it was like doing so-called “men’s work.” As Hemmerdinger affirms, “They don’t talk just about walking into the factory. We get their whole lives. We get stories of the Depression; of racial, class and gender divides –a story of America.”

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Best Places To Study Off Campus, Fall 2011 Edition

December 14th, 2011 by Lauren Walters

As we near our ridiculously late finals week, writing papers, studying for tests, and procrastinating on Facebook become unfortunate realities. Bobst is a battleground teeming with overworked, fatigued students clawing for the last outlet in LL1, and on-campus computer labs and study lounges aren’t much better. And considering NYU wireless only works 60-70 percent of the time (that’s a generous estimate), going off campus to study may be your best bet. And no, we’re not recommending you try to secure a table at the Washington Square Starbucks. Here at NYU Local, we want you to finish your papers, get A’s, and get on home, so we’ve compiled a list of the best places to study off campus to make your finals week preparation a little easier.

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