Introduction ~ Justine Hope Blau

The writers of the stories in this collection are immigrants or the children of immigrants who took my memoir-writing workshop at Lehman College (CUNY) in the Bronx. Their essays reflect how they have evolved intellectually and emotionally, how they came to connect with a familial spirit in New York City, and grew to belong to this city and in this country.

These are stories about finding the extraordinary within daily life. Abisola Fashakin and her family members find their groove shopping at Costco. Alexa Downing rides the subway, musing that people are “living their lives next to each other...like you’re roommates with everyone in the city.” And when Adam Mobley returns to the Far Rockaway church of his youth, anxious after years away, a dear friend invites him home for Sunday dinner -- goat curry, rice, peas and plantains, while Caribbean music videos play on the TV. These are intimate stories that reveal quintessential New York City moments.

I often tell my classes, quoting Philip Lopate, “The hallmark of the personal essay is intimacy.” When one of my students has bravely mined her memories to uncover humor or an illuminating insight hidden beneath an earlier draft of an essay, the outcome is joyous to the entire class. That shared spark forms the kinship, the esprit de corps that enables them to turn their everyday experiences into artful, distinctive stories.