wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Queens Rookies Alexis Gordon and Jessica Cernadas ran the Rookies table at the NYC Young Artists & Leaders Festival on Saturday, June 5th. Downtown Art organized the festival as an opportunity for young artists to show their work and see the creative work being done by others their age.

We took a group of 14 Rookies from the Bronx and Queens down to Washington DC to see the sights. There were 17 of us, traveling on a double-decker bus, staying in a hostel.

One of the Rookies asked me 'why is it that we have to throw the party on a brick cold day?' But, despite the arctic temperature and the wind chill factor Rookies from past and present showed up. We all came together and celebrated being a part of the Rookies family for the past 10 years and looking ahead to many more years.

At the end of August a group of Radio Rookies attended the first annual Red Hook Initiative Youth Radio Conference at the Brecht Forum in Manhattan. Here, Bronx Rookie Vikky Cruz reports back on the day.

I’d sometimes sit at home on my bed during a humid muggy Sunday afternoon flipping through channels. I’d land on a baseball game. Little figures would run across the screen throwing a ball around, running from one base to another, a ball went high in the air, the crowed screamed, what did this mean? What’s the significance of this? I’d grow tired of watching and turn off the TV.

Last night was the kind of evening when most people want to curl up under a blanket watch the latest episode of 106 & Park or 30 Rock. With temperatures in the lower teens, I wondered how many of the new Radio Rookies would make the 1.5 hour trek from their neighborhood down to Soho to visit WNYC Radio for the first time.