Calling all Foodies

Those of us who work in the Bronx already know a well-kept secret: there are plenty of great eats to be found right here in the Rose Hill campus' borough. And over the next week, the fourth annual Bronx Restaurant Week offers good deals as well.

Here are a couple of recommendations from Fordham faculty and staff:

MARK NAISON, professor of history:

Pio Pio - Great peruvian restaurant on 139th St. and Cypress Ave.
Crab Shanty on City Island. Great lunch special!
Neerob, a South Asian Restaurant near Parkchester.

PATRICK RYAN, S.J., Avery Dulles Professor of Theology:

Emilia's on Arthur Avenue, excellent prix fixe lunch.

GEORGE EVANS, director of technical operations for WFUV Public Radio:

Tino's Delicatessen on Arthur Avenue.
Roberto's or Zero Otto Nove for fancier Italian/American dishes.
Something I've grown up eating since I was a little boy is the round Italian bread from Terranova Bakery.


Savor the Bronx is underway and lasts through November 14. For more information, go to www.savorthebronx.com.

--Rachel Roman

At Work with WFUV's Bob Ahrens

New York’s longest-running sports call-in show has hit another milestone.

On Sept. 29, WFUV celebrated the 40th anniversary of its successful One on One weekly sports broadcast, a Saturday-afternoon show that has trained hundreds of Fordham students in hosting, producing, engineering, and writing for broadcast media. 

One on One Executive Producer,Bob Ahrens
Photo: Janet Sassi

The celebration, held in the Bronx, also honored the show’s longtime executive producer Bob Ahrens, who, for going on two decades has overseen One on One’s listener growth and transition into the digital age. 

WHAT ONE ON ONE IS

AHRENS: It’s a real talk show. We’ve started the students going to professional games as beat reporters, and immediately they became part of the New York media scene. They got to know the rest of the media, got to speak with players, and upped the opportunity for getting guests on the show. Periodically we will have the guests live on One on One. We’ve had the general managers of the teams live from Yankee Stadium and Citi Field; we’ve had several alumni now in broadcasting, and we’ve had players. The shows have been taken on the road too; we’re in Cooperstown on Hall of Fame weekend, and have access to all the hall-of famers.

ON LAST YEAR’S SEASON

AHRENS: There is no question that the good season last year, especially our football and women’s basketball, helped our show’s listenership; it also benefitted our Twitter and Facebook accounts.

ON TRAINING STUDENTS IN BROADCASTING

AHRENS: We have a lot of applications; they don’t all get in. We have 35 students and most of them work on the air and behind the scenes in some form. When new students come in, we give them a full year of training before they can do anything. So when you listen on Saturday, you are usually listening to sophomores, juniors and seniors. 

Most of the students on staff have been sports fans growing up. If you are on the air you have to be able to talk about the sport; if you are a producer, you have to know enough about it to know whether a host is giving correct information; and if you are an engineer and you don’t understand media time outs, you’re not ready to do your part of it. That said, you don’t have to know every sport; you can learn.

MAKING IT PERSONAL

AHRENS: I grew up in Brooklyn with the Dodgers, and saw them at Ebbets Field many times, and when they left they took my childhood with them. Here, at One on One, I help others make the transition from student to adulthood. It’s part of WFUV’s mission to train Fordham students. It’s great to see where they start, and where they wind up in four years. And once they graduate, it’s also great to see how far a lot of them go.

We once sent a student for an internship at Inside the NFL. He walked in and had already covered the Yankees, Nets, and Jets while he was here. And he’d produced a 3-hour program on the 100th anniversary of the Yankees.

They didn’t believe him. But he had his media credentials with him, and, of course, he got the job.

He’s now an associate producer with the MLB network.

(Editor’s note: some One on One alumni include: 

Mike Breen, voice of New York Knicks on MSG; voice of NBA on ABC/ESPN

Michael Kay, play-by-play broadcaster for New York Yankees, host of CenterStage on the YES network; host of the Michael Kay Show, ESPN Radio New York

Bob Papa, voice of New York Giants on WFAN

Charlie Slowes, voice of Washington Nationals

Chris Carrino, voice of Brooklyn Nets on WFAN

Spero Dedes, CBS sportscaster for NFL, former radio voice of Knicks and Lakers

Chris Majkowski, engineer for WOR/Mets Radio Network, owner Majik Productions)

--Janet Sassi

The Homegrown Impressionism of George Thompson, FCRH '56

If you haven't had a chance to swing by the William D. Walsh Family Library in the last couple of months, now is the time to head on up to the Rose Hill campus.

A selection of paintings, drawings, and sketches by the acclaimed pastel artist George Thompson, FCRH '56, are on display for just one more week on the library's main floor. They are a permanent part of the library’s special collection, but don’t often get shown as a group. Thompson has been called one of the 45 master pastelists in the world, and much of his work focuses on the Bronx, where he was born and raised, and on other urban spaces. 

For a taste of Thompson, see the video:

http://digital.library.fordham.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/VIDEO/id/594/rec/203 

Lit Writing. Just Do It.

While teaching a graduate course a few years back on Hip-Hop Street Lit Narratives, Mark Naison, Ph.D., a Fordham professor of history, lectured about a new genre of fiction writing, known as street lit or hip-hop lit, that was being self-published and sold on the streets—sometimes out of the trunk of a car.

The literature, though formulaic and steeped in violence, sex, drugs, and prison life, had managed to find its way into the publishing industry’s major online stores and book chains.

“I had this zany idea that we should try writing our own book,” Naison said.

Castillo-Garsow, Naison, and Pure Bronx

So, he put it to his class: he would write a few pages and hand them around; would someone else in the class take it from there?

Melissa Castillo-Garsow, GSAS ’11, a graduate student in English, did. To compliment Khalil, the young drug dealing hustler that Naison had created, Castillo-Garsow created Rasheeda, a strip club dancer who supports her family while struggling to attend college. The story revolves around their attempts to escape the poverty and dead-end existence many young people in the Bronx face.

Naison and Castillo-Garsow managed to write more than 100 pages to show to other street lit authors, who told them to “keep going” because the story was worthy of being published.The book takes place in the South Bronx, among a backdrop of a community of immigrants struggling in an area undergoing gentrification.

Their final product, Pure Bronx, a Novel, became a reality last year through Agustus Publishing. This past weekend Naison appeared on WFUV’s Fordham Conversations to talk about the the book, which came out in paperback in November. You can listen to the interview here .

Naison now uses the best of urban literature in some of his courses. He and Castillo-Garsow are also working with an entertainment company, Genco LLC, to turn the story into a movie. And more books are likely to come from them both.

Bearing in mind the project’s zany, impetuous start, Naison says he can’t believe the interest the story has generated.

“It’s been amazing.”

-Janet Sassi

Fordham Invites Entrepreneurs to Start a Company Over the Weekend

Take a shot at pitching your best business idea: The Fordham Foundry's 3 Day Startup, happening this weekend in the Bronx, is a program seeking to create a viable company in just three days. The event, which begins this Friday, Jan. 17 at 5 p.m. launches Friday evening with a series of brainstorming sessions to pick the best six pitches among entrants.

Over the course of the weekend, those six chosen will create a prototype by Sunday night and hopefully build enough momentum among a network of motivated people to sustain the company beyond the weekend. Startup support over the weekend will be provided by the Fordham Foundry.

Students, business owners or anyone with a strong entrepreneurial drive are encouraged to apply. 3 Day Startup is a social and business experiment to see just how much a group of passionate people can accomplish over the course of 60 hours.

3 Day Startup will take place on:
Friday, Jan. 17 at 5 p.m. to Sunday, Jan. 19 at 10 p.m.
Fordham Foundry, 400 E. Fordham Road, 7th floor, Bronx, New York 10458

For more information, email bronx@3daystartup.org or visit the 3 Day Startup Bronx application page.

--Jenny Hirsch

Feared Zombie Takeover of Rams Fitness and Rec

Zombies are expected to take over the Recreation and Fitness Center tomorrow, Oct. 31, 6:30 p.m. at Fordham's Rose Hill Campus, according to Sarah Bickford, administrator of Fitness and Recreation.

"Normally we have a hip hop fitness class, but instead we're doing the Michael Jackson Thriller dance," explained Bickford, who added that there will also be a Spooky Spin cycling class at 6 p.m. set to scary music.

"I'm hoping the students will come before they go out trick or treating," she said.

The session will be taped so that students will get a chance to post later.

The Halloween-themed event is part of Bickford's effort to focus on themed classes. She added that there are other holiday opportunities, such as seasonal meal planning with the Center's nutritionist, something she said is not always available in the real world.

Both the spin and dance classes are costume optional.

For more info contact: Sarah Bickford (718) 817-3815, sbickford@fordham.edu

Tag your Halloween pics with #fordham #halloween!

Bronx Summit to Step Up for Start-ups

“Even though the Bronx has all these great mom and pop businesses, for real sustainable growth and job creation, high tech industries must play a critical role," said W. "R.P." Raghupathi, founding director of Fordham’s Center for Digital Transformation.

Raghupathi, professor and director of the master’s program in business analytics at the Graduate School of Business Administration, will address the promises and challenges facing start-ups in the borough with experts in the field at the Second Annual Summit on Technology Innovation and Start-ups in the Bronx.

October 16, 2013 – 8:30-1:30pm.
Hughes Hall
Rose Hill Campus

While Manhattan and Brooklyn get the lion's share of attention from the burgeoning tech start-up scene, Raghupathi said the Bronx holds promise.  However, he noted that even though the borough hardly lacks for physical infrastructure—competitive real estate costs and great transportation—it must catch up when it comes to bandwidth and other digital necessities.



Ragupathi pointed to the presence of universities, hospitals, medical colleges, the Botanical Garden, the Bronx Zoo, and nonprofit agencies as lures to the area, to say nothing of Fordham's own initiatives of Bronx Science Consortium and Fordham Foundry. 

The Center for Digital Transformation, the Schools of Business, the urban studies program, and the Urban Law Center are co-sponsoring the event.

To register click here.

-Tom Stoelker

Fordham Professor Co-Writes Hip Hop Lit

Mark Naison, Ph.D., professor of African and African-American Studies, has teamed up with Yale University graduate student Melissa Castillo-Garsow to write a new novel, “Pure Bronx” (Augustus Publishing, 2013).

The book, which will be available on October 13, provides intimate perspectives on life in the Bronx, in much the same way lyrics from hip-hop songs often expose the underbelly of urban life.

The plot features characters such as a drug dealer with a heart of gold and an ambitious woman forced to strip for financial support.

In an interview with the Washington Square News, Naison said he hopes the book will make people look more closely at poorer or working class neighborhoods.

“It shows some of the difficulties that young people from such areas may have to face in order to survive," he said.

"Sometimes the bad choices they make are the necessary choices.”

—Patrick Verel