Features

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  You Can't Escape the Canvasser's Pitch

  'Got a minute?' The young bleeding-heart carnivores who hunt you down on your lunch hour

  They spot you as you're walking near Union Square on your lunch hour. Two impossibly fresh-faced, college-age canvassers with clipboards station themselves at either end of the block. They're facing each other, so that no pedestrian heading in either...

  By Elizabeth Dwoskin

  Wednesday, September 03

  They spot you as you're walking near Union Square on your lunch hour. Two impossibly fresh-faced, college-age canvassers with clipboards station... More >>
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  On the Campaign Trail With MTV Semi-Celeb Kevin Powell

  The former Real World star tries to shed his violent rep and enter the real world of politics

  Here's why I shouldn't be writing this article. Twice, I was fired by Kevin Powell, the semi-celebrity who first rose to prominence as a member of MTV's first season of The Real World. I worked for him as a personal assistant while I was still in college,...

  By Chloe A. Hilliard

  Wednesday, September 03

  Here's why I shouldn't be writing this article. Twice, I was fired by Kevin Powell, the semi-celebrity who first rose to prominence as a member... More >>
• Letters 9.04.08

  Hughes and cry Re Arcynta Ali Childs's article on the Langston Hughes house, 'The Ways of Property Owners' [August 27–September 2]: Nice article! The situation is mind-blowing, though. One quote is stuck in my head: "It will be like Colonial Williamsburg,...

  Wednesday, September 03

  Hughes and cry Re Arcynta Ali Childs's article on the Langston Hughes house, 'The Ways of Property Owners' [August 27–September 2]: Nice... More >>
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  Lawsuits and the Langston Hughes House

  A Harlem cultural touchstone, like so many others, closes off its past

  It isn't hard to find the Langston Hughes house in East Harlem: It's midway down the block named in his honor (Langston Hughes Place, a section of East 127th Street between Fifth and Madison avenues), it's covered in ivy, and there's a plaque out front. But...

  By Arcynta Ali Childs

  Wednesday, August 27

  It isn't hard to find the Langston Hughes house in East Harlem: It's midway down the block named in his honor (Langston Hughes Place, a section... More >>
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  The Crown Heights Lubavitchers

  Ecstatic Jews, a messiah proclaimed, and the consequential divisions

  Like many other young men in Crown Heights, Itzik Balulu studies the Talmud and other Jewish texts from early in the morning to well into the night. But you should see his ride. When he's not ensconced in 770 Eastern Parkway, the center of the Chabad-Lubavitch...

  By Elizabeth Dwoskin

  Wednesday, August 27

  Like many other young men in Crown Heights, Itzik Balulu studies the Talmud and other Jewish texts from early in the morning to well into the... More >>
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  Congressman Charlie Rangel Gets a Rival

  Craig Schley, an activist and former male model, capitalizes on anti-Rangel feeling

  "I don't have any opponents," Congressman Charlie Rangel told a New York Times reporter earlier this month. "There is no one that doesn't like me—no one." Charlie may have spoken too soon. Craig Schley, an activist and former male model, found...

  By Maria Luisa Tucker

  Wednesday, August 27

  "I don't have any opponents," Congressman Charlie Rangel told a New York Times reporter earlier this month. "There is no one that doesn't like... More >>
• Sotheby's, a Retired Teacher, and California Artist Martín Ramirez

  Auctionable behavior in the middle of a folk-art fight

  Last January, at the intersection of art and money, a retired teacher living in rural California quietly contacted Sotheby's. And so began a bitter legal battle being waged on two coasts. The teacher, Maureen Hammond, wanted to engage the high-end auction...

  By Graham Rayman

  Wednesday, August 27

  Last January, at the intersection of art and money, a retired teacher living in rural California quietly contacted Sotheby's. And so began a... More >>
• Letters 8.27.08

  Don't Joke About Barack Re Roy Edroso's 'The Harrowing Adventures of President Obama' [August 20–26]: Not only is Edroso too kind to flip-flopper Obama, but he's overly optimistic. Meaning that I, the most politically astute New Jerseyan, predict...

  Wednesday, August 27

  Don't Joke About Barack Re Roy Edroso's 'The Harrowing Adventures of President Obama' [August 20–26]: Not only is Edroso too kind to... More >>