The past three years have taken a financial and emotional toll on the many small businesses that vitalize the ethnic, linguistic and geographic communities of the NYC metro area. Whether the COVID-19 pandemic brought on dire circumstances or exacerbated existing ones, many stories of enduring struggles and lessons learned, but also of recovery and success, permeate the area’s economic and community landscapes. The survival of these small businesses impact not just neighborhoods and people but the community media ecosystem as well, as the survival of media outlets go hand in hand with the vitality of local advertisers and the community as a whole.
To help tell and document these stories, 16 journalists from across the NYC region have joined the Center for Community Media’s Small Business Reporting Fellowship. Starting in February 2023 and running through May, the fellows will produce three in-depth stories rooted within a local community, under the guidance of fellowship editors Juana Ponce de León and John Rudolph.
The fellows serve Spanish and Russian speakers; and South Asian, African, Filipino and Caribbean communities. They cover parts of Long Island and northern New Jersey, and NYC neighborhoods including Bushwick and Ridgewood, Jackson Heights and Parkchester.
The fellows recently published the first story they produced through the program. Travel across the city and neighboring areas through this scrollable map. In this compilation of their stories, it is evident that amid ethnic, linguistic and geographic distinctions, there emerge overlapping experiences, intertwining challenges and voices of defeat and purpose, grief and resilience.
Or see a table of their articles.
Update: Also view maps of the fellows’ second and third stories.
To stay updated on the stories produced through the fellowship, follow us on Twitter and sign up for our biweekly newsletter. Funding for the Small Business Reporting Fellowship has been provided by the NYC Mayor’s Office for Media and Entertainment.
Meet the Small Business Reporting Fellows
Anna Bradley-Smith
✏️ Features and news reporter
📍 Brownstoner, Schneps Media
Originally from New Zealand, Anna Bradley-Smith is an award-winning reporter based in Brooklyn, where she has lived and worked for seven years. Breaking local news and telling stories that impact her community are her passions. She has been published in NBC, Vice, Slate and others, and has had work picked up by NYT, NYP and WSJ.
Parveen Chopra
✏️ Founding Editor
📍 The South Asian Times
A seasoned journalist, Parveen Chopra edited The South Asian Times for 14 years and remains associated with the paper. Having specialized in wellness and spirituality, he founded his own web magazine, ALotusInTheMud.com, as a not-for-profit. He lives on Long Island.
Ibrahim Chowdhury
✏️ Editor
📍 Prothom Alo North America
Ibrahim Chowdhury works as the editor of the North American edition of the Prothom Alo which focuses on the Bangladeshi community in the U.S. A graduate of Dhaka University in Bangladesh, he has been working in his present role at the Prothom Alo since April 2017.
Sheikh Musa Drammeh
✏️ Reporter/Chairman
📍 Parkchester Times, Muslim Parrot
Sheikh Musa Drammeh is the founder of Muslim Media Corporation, and the publisher of Muslim Community Report, New York Parrot, Parkchester Times and Senegambia Parrot newspapers. He executive produces Muslim Community Report and the Public Emergency Management Adherence (PEMA) television shows on BronxNet Television, and is a frequent media commentator on Islamic issues and African immigrants’ affairs. Drammeh is a lifelong community organizer and activist who has led and inspired many community, peacebuilding, religious, political, economic, health and educational initiatives.
Jessy Edwards
✏️ Senior Reporter (BK Reader), Freelancer (Top Class Actions)
📍 BK Reader, Top Class Actions
Jessy Edwards is a poet and journalist based in New York City. Jessy has worked full time as a reporter since 2015, writing for news companies such as NBC New York, Rolling Stone, BBC, CNBC, BK Reader, Fast Company and more. Jessy completed her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in her home country, New Zealand. She is currently studying poetry in the 2023 Brooklyn Poets Mentorship Program, while working as a full-time freelance reporter.
Andrew Karpan
✏️ Reporter
📍 Bushwick Daily
Andrew Karpan is a writer and editor based in Ridgewood with a history of reporting on everything from local culture to legal filings.
Marina Lagunova
✏️ Journalist/Advertising Agent
📍 Reklama, Vecherniy NY
Marina Lagunova was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and graduated with honors with a degree in dentistry. In 1995, she immigrated with her family to the U.S. as a refugee. She has been working for more than 10 years as a reporter-journalist at Reklama, a Russian-language newspaper, website, and radio station. She also contributes to the Vecherniy New York newspaper, as well as Your Doctor, Health News and Your House magazines. She covers political events and elections, immigration issues, and education. During the pandemic, she created vaccine and infection prevention community educational material on her YouTube channel, Lagunova News.
Elizabeth Lepro
✏️ Freelance Reporter
📍BK Reader
Elizabeth is a New York-based freelance writer and reporter. Her reporting has been published in BK Reader, UP Magazine, International Journalists’ Network, River Reporter, The Cairo Review, The San Antonio Express-News, and PublicSource, among others. She mostly writes hyper-local and community news, and has covered housing policy, opioid addiction, activism, and the media. She also writes a newsletter about horror films called Food for the Worm and will be a proud CUNY grad student this fall.
Thao Nguyen
✏️ Freelance Writer
📍 BK Reader
Thao Nguyen is a New York City-based reporter, writer, and poet originally from Vietnam. In addition to writing for BK Reader on topics like events, transportation, and local spotlight, she is currently an editorial intern for The New Republic. A recent graduate from St. Lawrence University where she managed three publications while juggling an English and Neuroscience double major, her work has appeared in The Hill News, Laurentian Magazine, and St. Lawrence magazine.
Kishor Panthi
✏️ Editor-in-Chief
📍 Khasokhas, NepYork
Kishor Panthi is a Nepali American journalist based in New York, and founder and editor-in-chief of Khasokhas, a New York-based Nepali community outlet and the voice of the Nepali diaspora in the U.S. He is also the editor-in-chief of NepYork, which showcases the achievements and experiences of Nepalis in the U.S. Previously, he worked as an editor, news anchor, and program host for ABC TV Nepal from 2008 to 2010. Since 2010, he has been its U.S. representative.
Cristina DC Pastor
✏️ Founding Editor/Publisher
📍 The FilAm newspaper
Cristina DC Pastor is the founding editor of The FilAm, an online magazine serving Filipinos in the New York metro area. The FilAm was featured “among the 100 pioneering ethnic media publications in the U.S.” in a 2014 interactive exhibit at The Newseum curated by the Smithsonian Institution. She founded The FilAm in 2011 where she imagined listening to about 300,000 stories from Filipinos across the U.S. Northeast. In 2012, she co-founded Makilala TV, a television talk show produced out of Manhattan Neighborhood Network. The show is also aired on Queens Public Television and BronxNet. She is one of the founders of the Fil-Am Press Club New York.
Pearl Phillip
✏️ Editor and co-publisher
📍 The Immigrant’s Journal, Caribbean American Weekly, Workers’ World Today, People, Power & Politics, Small Business Matters
Pearl Phillip is the editor-in-chief and managing editor of The Immigrant’s Journal, Caribbean American Weekly, and Workers’ World Today publications. She is also the host of People, Power & Politics, and Small Business Matters. She also serves as the president of the Chamber Coalition comprising the New American Chamber of Commerce (NACC), the African-American International Chamber of Commerce (AAICC), and the Hispanic-American International Chamber of Commerce (HAICC).
Sujeet Rajan
✏️ Editor-in-Chief
📍 India Overseas Report
Sujeet Rajan is the editor-in-chief of India Overseas Report, a curated news aggregation and original content website. Rajan’s prior stints include working for The Times of India, in New Delhi; as bureau chief and editor of The North American edition of The Indian Express, based in New York; co-founder and editor-in-chief of www.americanbazaaronline.com; the Sag Harbor Express, and as executive editor of several weekly publications and magazines, including News India Times and Desi Talk. Author of a collection of poems, he has also anchored news shows and reported for several TV channels including Crossings TV, ITV Gold, and Rajya Sabha TV.
Ricky Rillera
✏️ Executive Editor
📍 Philippine Daily Mirror
Ricky Rillera is the executive editor of the Philippine Daily Mirror. Previously, he wrote for the Manila Times in the Philippines, the Manila Times East in New York, the Filipino Express in New Jersey, and other publications. He served as president of the Filipino American Press Club of New York from January 2016 to December 2017.
Abu Taher
✏️ Editor
📍Bangla Patrika, Time Television
Abu Taher is the CEO of Time Television and the editor of The Weekly Bangla Patrika, a New York-based Bengali-language newspaper. Time Television is the first 24/7 HD bilingual TV station based in New York City, covering Bangladeshi and South Asian communities in North America, with daily news, views, entertainment, and programs. In 1992, he came to the United States and worked at various news weeklies in New York City before joining The Weekly Bangla Patrika as executive editor in 1996. He began his journalism career as a reporter for The Weekly Sylhet Kantha, published in Sylhet, Bangladesh, in 1986.
Gery Vereau 
✏️ Freelancer
📍 Ayllu Times, Reporte Hispano, Caretas Magazine of Peru
Gery Vereau began his career as a journalist and photographer in Chimbote, Peru, in the 1980s, working for local newspapers and later as a correspondent for national newspapers until he went to work for the prestigious Caretas magazine. Since 2000, he has worked in newsrooms in New York and New Jersey, such as Hoy, Latin Week, Hispanic Hour, Noticia Hispanoamericana, NY al Día, Diario de México USA edition, and Reporte Hispano.