Silent soldiers, street dancers, a huge NJ temple: A NorthJersey New Year's reading guide
With 2023 ending and a new year underway, it's a good time for some good reads and thought-provoking watches. Here's a look at some of the best work from The Record and NorthJersey.com over the past year focusing on culture, diversity and identity, as well as published works with a local connection that caught our eyes.
Articles
In January 2018, Deirdre Allette Asiema discovered something in her Bloomfield home that forever changed her life - the dead body of her son Darren Clark Jr., a victim of suicide. In January, we explored how Asiema formed a foundation that helps families and friends whose loved ones suffer from mental illness and how her son's demise fit into a rising rate of suicides in the Black community in recent years.
In Trenton — a city of mostly Black and Latino residents where 28% live in poverty — life expectancy is 73 years. Thirteen miles away, in the mostly white, well-off college town of Princeton, it's 87 years. A report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation earlier this year spotlighted health disparities among minorities in New Jersey. In May, NorthJersey.com did a deep dive into that report and the persistence of health inequalities in the state.
The world's largest Hindu temple opened in October in Central Jersey. The BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham campus occupies roughly 180 acres in the township just east of Trenton. The construction of the temple was a controversial one due to a lawsuit and a federal investigation revolving around the alleged mistreatment of hundreds of workers.
Jersey City native Cliff Arnesen was dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Army at 17 in 1967, after telling his company commander that he was bisexual. Arnesen would later become an advocate for lesbian, gay, and bisexual veterans and was the first openly bisexual vet to testify before Congress. We profiled him in a story in November after his experience was featured in the Library of Congress’ collection “Serving in Silence: LGBTQ+ Veterans.”
A survey released in September by the Pew Research Center found one in five Asian American adults had hidden a part of their heritage from non-Asians at some point in their lives. In November, three Asian North Jersey residents shared their personal stories, by turns painful and inspiring, of growing up as minorities in the suburbs.
Books
New Jersey resident Jamie Bruesehoff is the mother of a transgender child, Rebekah. As NorthJersey.com detailed in October, Bruesehoff has struggled with how to reconcile her faith in God with a feeling that her daughter had to hide her identity from the church. That led Bruesehoff to author the 254-page "Raising Kids Beyond the Binary: Celebrating God’s Transgender and Gender-Diverse Children." The book, published in September, can be purchased at Broadleaf Books for $19.99.
Ridgewood resident Dana Glazer and daughter Georgia have channeled their love of storytelling and a fondness for outcasts into their new self-published book, "Dawnah & the Darkhearts." about a 12-year-old girl who embarks on a zombie apocalypse adventure. When Dawnah isn't saving the world, she "doesn't connect with people very well," said Georgia, "which is also something I have." The 146-page book, published in September, can be purchased at Amazon.com for $12.99 (paperback) and $9.99 (Kindle).
Gregory G. Allen, who resides in Hawthorne, crafted his illustrated book with the message, "It’s OK to be different.” That's what the 8-year-old protagonist of the 119-page "The Monsters of Marymount Mansion," finds out during her friendship with monsters living in her basement. Published in October, the book is on sale on Allen’s website for $9.99.
During World War II, the Philippines was a U.S. commonwealth. Over 260,000 Filipinos fought alongside American forces during the war while their homeland was occupied by the Japanese. Many included women like those featured in the illustrated children's book, "Kalayaan: Filipina Heroines of World War II," by Filipina author Kathryn Serrano, a Weehawken resident. The 30-page book, published in February, sells for $21.99 at the website of Mahal Publishing.
Documentaries
NorthJersey.com and its sister sites in the Northeast region of the USA TODAY Network also produce documentaries that range from a few minutes to more than aq half-hour long. Some of the short films we produced over the past year:
"No One Walks Alone," by visual journalist Anne-Marie Caruso, posted in August, looks at volunteer escorts who help usher patients past anti-abortion protesters gathered outside of Metropolitan Medical Associates in Englewood, one of 45 clinics in New Jersey that offer abortions.
In April, we profiled Paterson Eastside High School football star Elijah “Speedy” Carroll, who talked to sports columnist Darren Cooper about his athletic career and future plans at East Stroudsburg University, where he currently attends. "I like to say, we have a lot of dogs in Paterson, or Jersey, Jersey period. We won’t stop until we get there," Carroll said.
What is LiteFeet? You may have seen its practitioners whirling on the streets and subways of New York City. It's an underground dance culture born in Harlem and the Bronx that values cockeyed dance moves performed with great precision and speed. Its devotees discussed its history, choreography and their love of the dance in an infectious video and story by Anne-Marie Cruso and Chris Maag.
Ricardo Kaulessar covers race, immigration, and culture for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: kaulessar@northjersey.com
Twitter: @ricardokaul
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Book, story recommendations to explore diversity in North Jersey
