Alexandria J. Misch — NYC

👋while I’m here I should mention👋 I had the most incredible opportunity to meet, photograph, and interview Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez while covering a labor strike last month. As a freelancer (with intersectional albeit niche interests), I’m always chasing stories based on my gut — with little to no guarantee of publication or payment. But I covered the picket line for a week (in a pandemic!), hustled back and forth between Lower Manhattan and the South Bronx, then finally placed a cold pitch with an editor. The end result of this resilience — rooted in the brave effort by union members to flex their collective power — ended up featured on the digital 👏 front 👏 page 👏 of New York Magazine online. If the strike was a win for the labor movement at large, I consider this piece to be a victory for working-class representation in “mainstream” media across the country. Huge credit to the endorsement from AOC — a true public servant who skipped the presidential inauguration (after her experience at the Capitol Hill insurrection) to lend her name, time, and face to fight for the vulnerable. Beyond the byline, I am honored to have been in the audience that night, and out on the picket line for days, until the bitter end, when we stood up to say, in our own ways, as a community, the status quo set by the elites won’t cut it one second longer. New York or nowhere — we’re not giving up until the gatekeepers give in. Swipe to the end to see a clip of AOC’s speech (bonus points if you can spot your girl front and center to get The Shot while also try to film the rest on my phone, lol) then hit the link in my bio to read part one of the full scoop — because real ones know I haven’t stopped pursuing the bigger story. 🔥 📸 by me 📽 via @charliecarrbaker ✍️ from the heart ✊ solidarity forever

Keep forgetting to open this damn app but I drank a double espresso (sorry @lucyyung) just to post this “behind-the-scenes” of my recent shoot with @silverneedleteaco ✨ ft. my most beloved copy of @peddlerjournal + cherished pin from @pearlrivermart and BIG METAL OX ENERGY for the new Lunar New Year!! 🎊🧧though the real tea here is I had to call my client to say “Andrew Yang might’ve exposed me to Covid” after I interviewed him/shot with Lucy (both gigs worked from six+ feet away/with masks) and ain’t that the last of the Rat coming out to play 👀🐀 (scoot scoot, babe) anyway pls forgive my whiteness for a sec while I try to wish everyone all the best: Gong Hei Fat Choy! Gong Xi Fa Cai! 恭喜發財! 新年快樂! #supportchinatown 🍙 and keep it lunar always! 🚀 TL;DR: 2021 you da one, you gotta be 🤞

Is it still a party if no one is invited? 🎶🌚 Obvious answer is yes (every day is NYE) butt* bonus points if you have a disco ball installed in your bathroom (365/days/year) and/or can cobble together an outfit you wouldn’t wear in public otherwise *bc there’s nothing covering your bum 🌝✨

First sunrise of the new year, felt right to spend the light with her ✨ @lunaparknyc 7a.m. on Coney Island. January 1, 2021🌛 (self timer x skates) 📸

When you can’t remember why you walked to the bodega then the feeling hits 🥕☃️

Every new project starts the same way with me (waking up early) to rummage around my squirrel stash (mostly dollar bills, foreign coins) to purchase (from the 99 cent store) approximately six cold beverages (more or less), three to five notebooks (of various sizes), at least two thin-tipped markers (black), a handful of ballpoint pens (also black) as well as (from a cafe or bodega) a small hot coffee (also also black NO SUGAR) and a breakfast snack-o (preferably sweet and savory) to be eaten at the park (with the handball court) while wearing sturdy socks (scrounge for the shrimps I swear they are clean check the broken drawer) and the wrong sized shoes (walkable, though visibly too loose or too tight), however, it is optional, the next part, when a man comes over to give you advice (unsolicited) such as the quote-unquote “Asian tea you are drinking can help with the” [gestures to face] and you respond “huh?” and he [gestures to face] and you lean forward to say “what?” and he [gestures to face, smiles, sighs] then he [sashays over to the place where he had shown you a little mouse hole under the bench earlier and you were like oh damn, yeah it is tiny, cool, thanks] and explains the health benefits of the red bottle in your hand as (allegedly, sure, probably) it will improve the bit of your skin where the mask pimple currently lives and you agree “ah neat uh huh woah ha no way that’s nice to know” and you mean it too but really it’s just a zit man who cares dude I’ve got a million zillion billion bigger problems (like paying rent) and anyway he [bikes away] and [totally derails your day] and yes when starting a new project the latter segment is certainly not required and in fact should be altogether avoided if possible [fin] 🎬

Dec. 9th, 2020* ✍️📸 In the end it is snowing the first of the season now in Lower Manhattan a nurse runs out from the white tent she screams it is RAINING she screams there are tears in her eyes I think I say it could be the sun but the sun is nowhere to be seen not a cloud in the sky you see someone nudges her gently you mean it is snowing she speaks just as softly again and again she says I am so tired she says again and again I am so tired my friends I am afraid you can see I am afraid you can see I am so tired I am afraid The women talk in Spanish they hop up and down one foot then another two feet to keep their bones warm are they sick the bones I mean are we sick is she sick why did he take her before me she says are we sick why are we in here together are we in here together infected in here together what happens when the results tell us we are about to die is it true what happens when the nurse is too tired does she tell the truth what happens when the snow the stuff you love looks like rain to you? *words excerpted from a lil (long) poem about standing in line outside for a covid test** that day, photo of Tom Lin from my walk back home after the easy-peasy swab 🌨 **negative results returned within 48 hours 🎉 #covid #covid19 #covid_19 #nyc #manhattan #ny1pic #gothamistpics

And finally for the food reveal 🍚💫@sendchinatownlove secured enough donations for @meddafore and his team to distribute 250 meals (rice roll, sponge cake, bottled water) from @tonii83_ by the end of this week 🙏💸 #supportchinatown

May we never give up on the world we want to exist ✨#supportchinatown

Manymanymany moments had to happen before this dream could come true ✨ Yesterday’s hot meal distribution for chinatown seniors organized by @meddafore c/o an anonymous donor to @sendchinatownlove + photos by me 📸✌️(cc @chelsealouisekyle)

It’s dumb but I love showing this pup the world 🛸🪐

🎶 If you need, I will help you move Anywhere, tiny laptop too If you need, you need me to watch the truck No one will steal your stuff I can write from the trunk, if you need 🎶 -carole kingsizedmattresscomingthrough

If you see me wandering around this neighborhood going “what the heck?” 🥸 No you didn’t 🖤

Dec. 1st, 2020* ✍️ here, too?** We met at the spot where I used to suggest, “Let’s split a cup of coffee,” and you would add, “And some fries, here, too?” but we always kept on walking until disaster struck in winter and we stopped feeling certain any meal wouldn’t be our last. On the street that Tuesday you turned to me then said, “Why don’t you go ahead alone,” and I agreed it’s safer without you, here, too, and at any rate the shop owner wouldn’t have told me, “You can stay all day,” if my companion, here, too, had similarly looked down at the poor plate in front of him with a smile. I’d assumed at some point I would become sick off of the imitation of you, though in reality I walked away from the table with my gut intact, a third untouched. Around the corner a cyclist coughed and I felt more than certain I would become sick off of him, here, too, then I packed my bag with the material possessions that would matter in self-isolation: notebooks and pens, keys to our shared apartment, the book you leant me last year. “Leave you, here?” was not the kind of thing I was used to saying, but I always kept on walking and never stopped suggesting to a cup coffee, some fries, and the occasional cyclist, “Why don’t you go ahead, kill me, too?” 🍟 (*new writing, past & present experiences, yesterday’s lunch **alt: an ode to carrot juice)

As a doctor myself I would recommend an orb a day to keep the demons away 🌪🍎 #oldmennotabroad #oldmenabroad