Author: Chrissy Sampson

By May Bar
Hendrick Hudson High School

The Zuccaire Gallery is a place where students and staff alike come together to admire art in all forms on the Stony Brook campus. 

Art is made to display a message in a way that words cannot fully express and to make a person feel emotions about it.

“Co-los-sus,” an art piece by Noel W Anderson in his Black Excellence exhibit, is a large, powerful and spiritual cotton tapestry that is suspended from the ceiling of the gallery. The piece shows an African sculpture called a Dogon priest. The raised arms of the Dogon represent prayer and spirituality. 

In addition to the raised arms representing spirituality, in other art pieces in the gallery raised arms represent police arrests or surrender. There is a police barricade hung up on the wall of the exhibit to show restraint of the people by the police.

Following the police theme, there are also mugshots that display the stereotype of African-American men being seen criminally rather than being seen as people that are capable of more.

Two authoritative pieces show African-American figures on a throne that are intentionally raised above the others in that room to convey authority and higher status. 

The placement of the art is very powerful and intentional, not only in these two tapestries but in every piece in the exhibit.

Anderson shows famous African-American people that display excellence as well as people who fall short of that standard such as O.J. Simpson. 

All of the tapestries are made from cotton distressed in different ways as well as cotton balls held together in a 3D collage-like box that holds African-American culture throughout history.

Almost all of the pieces utilized cotton in some way as it is meant to represent the labor and lives of enslaved people in America. They depict history and hope in the future for the African-American community.

The art director and curator of the gallery, Karen Levitov, worked with Anderson to have his artwork displayed. The exhibition originated at the University Art Museum at SUNY-Albany.

Levitov grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska, and majored in anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, then received her master’s degree in art history. She then later did PhD work in art history at Stony Brook University. Levitov has experience working and interning in many museums such as the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in Wisconsin, the Chazen Museum in Wisconsin, the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Italy and the Jewish Museum in Manhattan before coming to the Zuccaire Gallery, where she has been the director and curator for 12 years.

“I always loved art — going to museums, taking art classes, learning about artists and art history — but didn’t know until my senior year of college that I wanted that to be my career,” Levitov said. 

Exhibits like Anderson’s Black Excellence are examples of powerful art that will create hope and inspiration in the future generations to come, just as art did for Levitov.

With reporting by Yasmin Bardales, Angie Larrea and Gregory Valestin

By Briana Dworsak
Baldwin High School

While attending a professional sporting event can cost a family hundreds of dollars, the Long Island Ducks continue to demonstrate that great baseball doesn’t have to come with a major-league price tag.

The Ducks, who play in the Atlantic League Professional Baseball, which is a partner organization of Major League Baseball, have developed one of the largest and strongest fan bases in independent baseball by prioritizing affordability, family entertainment, free giveaways and community.

“We make it a very important focus each year that families can still afford to come out to our games without breaking the bank,” said Michael Polak, vice president of communications for the Ducks organization.

A trip to Fairfield Properties Ballpark in Central Islip is envisioned as more than just watching nine innings of baseball. From the moment fans walk through the front gate, they are welcomed into an atmosphere that is intentionally centered around fun and accessibility. 

A single ticket costs $20. Parking is free, and there are themed promotional nights, giveaways and interactive activities designed to create an experience that appeals to fans of all ages. Postgame base running gives children opportunities to become part of the action rather than just watching. 

The Ducks believe they have mastered the formula for making baseball a family-friendly destination. With QuackerJack the mascot, between-inning entertainment, fireworks nights and kid-friendly activities, there’s always something happening, especially for those who may not be able to follow every pitch. Parents can enjoy professional baseball while kids are entertained all night, creating memories beyond the score.

“We pride ourselves on being an affordable and family friendly organization,” Polak said.

The proof is in attendance: The Ducks consistently attract larger crowds than many of their Atlantic League competitors. Since their opening season in 2000, the organization has welcomed around 10 million fans and recorded more than 720 sellout crowds. The franchise has also captured four Atlantic League championships.

By Angie Larrea, Hempstead High School
and Gregory Valestin, Brooklyn Technical High School

Because Lorraine Woodward and her two sons have muscular dystrophy, they have always had troubles finding accessible vacation homes. Not wanting other families to experience those same difficulties, Woodward launched a website.

The website, Becoming rentABLE, lists short-term rental homes tailored to people with disabilities. On its website, it describes its goal as creating “a future where accessible short-term rentals are the standard, not the exception.”

“We want everyone to have the opportunity to travel,” said Woodward, 64, of Raleigh, North Carolina.

Muscular dystrophy is a hereditary condition that weakens muscles over time, and Woodward uses a wheelchair.

When she launched her business Becoming rentABLE five years ago, it was intended to make travel easier for people with disabilities by helping them find short-term vacation rentals.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, 28.7% of the US population has a disability. Despite the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act in 1990, which mandates hotels to have accessible infrastructure, many rentals in the United States fail to meet the need for disabled tenants. According to a study titled “Enabling people with impairments to use Airbnb” by the Australian researchers Melanie Randle and Sara Dolnicar in the journal Science Direct, “People who use wheelchairs are especially exposed to obstacles, and consequently, are often excluded from experiencing and participating in tourism offerings.”

Becoming rentABLE lists more than 900 properties across the United States and Canada, including two in New York City. The listed homes have 63 different features, such as 36-inch doors, lower light switches, elevated toilets and hard-surface driveways. Woodward said she is expanding her business to accommodate people with hearing and sight loss in addition to cognitive disorders.

“Accessibility is more than wheelchairs,” she said. “We look at needs for people with crutches, walkers and cognitive disabilities like autism, dementia, depression and anxiety.” 

“When you come to our site looking for an accessible place to stay, you identify your needs. They’re all different,” she continued. “You might need a hard‑surface driveway, a short ramp, grab bars in the bathroom or a property with a swimming pool.” 

A common misunderstanding, according to Woodward, is that it costs more to rent a property with accessibility features. “It’s not necessarily more expensive,” she said.

Every home on Becoming rentABLE is verified by a paid team that examines the infrastructure. “I decided not to work alone,” Woodward said. “I brought together volunteers — 21 in total — for the first two years. Now I have paid team members.” 

“It’s not something AI can do,” she said. “A human needs to look at the images submitted and validate what a property owner lists as accessible. Technology helps us organize the information, but verification is manual.” 

Woodward said that there is a critical undersupply of accessible rentals in North America. “The short‑term rental industry also needs to change. Platforms like Vrbo have filters, but they’re vague — ‘wide doors,’ ‘wheelchair accessible.’ What does ‘wide’ mean? Thirty-two inches? Thirty-six?” 

According to Woodward, many people give up and think they can’t travel.

“To create global change, we need industry‑wide filter improvements and better education,” she said.

With reporting by Yasmin Bardales and May Bar

By Isabella Davis, Sacred Heart Academy,
Yennifer Soriano, Hempstead High School,
and Allie Harrison, Ward Melville High School

From its wooded areas to its beautiful sea shores, it’s safe to say nature on Long Island is wonderfully diverse — and worth protecting. From Memorial Day to Labor Day this year, organizations across Long Island are coming together to create the “Keep Long Island Beautiful” campaign. 

Save the Great South Bay, Balloon Mission, Reworld Waste Management, and Long Island South Shore Waterkeepers are the sponsors, and Beautify L.I. hosts the campaign’s website. 

Beautify L.I. is a nonprofit organization founded by Timothy McArthur, who grew up in Islip. After he moved away, he said, he noticed how clean other areas were compared to his hometown. He established Beautify L.I. in 2022 to help rectify the problem. 

“I started to think I could help raise awareness,” he said.

Beautify L.I. interviewed people and organizations, and while it was forming, the “Keep Long Island Beautiful” campaign was beginning to take shape as well. This led McArthur to connect with the executive directors of Save The Great South Bay, Balloon Mission, and Reworld Waste Management.

When asked what the overall goal of Beautify L.I. was, he spoke about a new social aspect for Long Island. “Its goal is to create social transformation in a way that will help us keep Long Island beautiful,” he said. 

Beautify L.I. displays campaign events on its website, including volunteer opportunities for residents of various Long Island communities. 

McArthur said that he created this website so people can learn how to get involved in volunteer work. “We want to drive people there,” he said, offering examples such as beach cleanups, “creek defender” events, or balloon-recycling campaigns.

Save the Great South Bay, another nonprofit group, is dedicated to reviving Long Island’s Great South Bay. The organization hosted a panel discussion in Oakdale on July 24, where it and several other groups shared ideas to protect the environment. 

Cynthia Seibold, founder and executive director of Balloon Mission, brought up the idea of the “Keep Long Island Beautiful” campaign to Robyn Silvestri, the executive director of Save the Great South Bay. At the panel event, organizers tallied how many cleanups had been done for Keep America Beautiful. 

Keep America Beautiful itself is a national nonprofit. Working with volunteers, agencies, and corporate and local partners, the group’s goal is to reduce litter and increase recycling, according to its  website.

Balloon Mission is an organization focused on one particular aspect of litter on Long Island and throughout the country. Seibold, a resident of North Merrick, said over 100 million balloons are intentionally released each year. Additionally, balloons typically have warning labels for being choking hazards for young children. “If they’re a choking hazard for children, they’re a choking hazard for animals,” Seibold said. 

To combat the harm of balloons in the environment, Balloon Mission collects balloons after events in a “pop and drop” system. The balloons from Long Island go to Reworld Waste Management, where they can be used to generate energy. In other parts of the country, Balloon Mission has partnered with TerraCycle, a company that recycles the used balloons.