In Baltimore, more than 87% of tobacco retailers are within 1,000 feet of a public school, according to a study by researchers at Stanford University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Washington University in St. Louis. This story ran in the Afro News online August 2. East of Baltimore in Essex, Maryland, middle and high school kids gather after school around a small corner store one block away from Kenwood High School and Stemmers Run Middle School. Underneat

Asha Davis, 19, who just finished her sophomore year at University of Maryland College Park — where she works in guest services — was part of YMG’s first class. by Aileen Delgado Asha Davis, 19, a sophomore at the University of Maryland College Park studying public health, was one of Youthcast Media Group’s first students in 2017. As a freshman at Mercy High School in Baltimore transitioning into sophomore year, Davis worked with other Baltimore students at Morgan State Unive

Alienated I find it difficult to communicate with you, It's like you are of another species. I am an alien. Or maybe You are. We speak two different languages. I hold an alienated out of this world Tongue –I come from– Far out A million light years away My home planet sits On the corner of uncivilized and ghetto black trash Unhuman and non-feeling street. My home planet smells of spices and seasonings of all sorts Dumplings, curry, and fried fish You scrunch y

By Yesenia Barrios This story was published in the Bronx Times on April 4, 2022. Illegally dumped furniture off of exit 5 of Bronx River Parkway highway in the Van Nest neighborhood of the Bronx. Photos by Yesenia Barrios On a cold Sunday afternoon, Mike Cintron is sweeping the sidewalk in front of his home on Rosedale Avenue in the Bronx. The wind has scattered garbage from piles of waste paper, household trash, broken furniture and used electronics that had been dumped in a