Whitman Podcasters Earn Honors From NPR

Students Umema Siddiqui Alina Naseer Efrain Citle-Palestino and Benjamin Joseph were recognized by NPR radio’s Student Podcast Challenge for their submission “Between Two Worlds.”

By Sophia Ricco
sricco@longislandergroup.com

A group of podcasters from Walt Whitman High School earned recognition from National Public Radio (NPR) in a nationwide podcast challenge.

“Between Two Worlds,” produced by members of Whitman’s podcast club The WHIT, was awarded an honorable mention in NPR’s Student Podcast Challenge. The podcast finds commonality in the very different experiences of the three students from diverse backgrounds.

Junior Alina Naseer was inspired by her own life with her parents – immigrants from the Dominican Republic and Pakistan – to formulate the podcast’s topic.

“I thought about my upbringing and how I had to blend the expectations of my parents with being raised in a new country that’s different from their upbringing,” Naseer said.

She enlisted the help of Umema Siddiqui, a junior whose parents came from Pakistan, and Efrain Citle-Palestino, a senior who immigrated from Mexico with his family.

“We all have different backgrounds but we found common ground,” Naseer said. “Even though we’re diverse our families have always pushed us to focus on education and family values.”

Citle-Palestino shared the pressure he felt from his family to pursue education and get into a good college. He said he often felt they were depending on him to succeed.

Naseer and Siddiqui talked about the expectation and difficulty to pray five times a day while attending school.
“Growing up I kinda experienced a culture clash in some ways,” Naseer said. “Whether it be religion food or just tradition.”

“The title ‘Between Two Worlds’ reflects the three of us on the panel because we felt between the worlds of our parents immigrating here and our reality living on Long Island,” Naseer said. “We had to take their expectations and mold them into something that was attainable for us.”

In its first year, the WHIT has established itself as an outlet for student voices through political podcasts and cooking videos.

“The club is student-run so we have free rein to pick the topics we want to discuss, to choose a panel and the questions,” Naseer said. “Whatever we’re passionate about we just run with.”

Benjamin Joseph played a major part in shaping its final form, making the podcast sound professional and fit in the 10-minute requirement.

“It was pretty daunting… But now I’ve become more comfortable and candid,” Naseer said. “It’s less-rehearsed and more natural now that we’ve been doing it a while.”

“It’s really refreshing to be given that opportunity to just express ourselves freely without really having to worry about the influence of teachers or others at school,” Naseer said.

Naseer looks forward to another year with The WHIT and communicating about important issues. She said the club has sparked an interest in her with journalism writing and reporting that she hopes to pursue.

Listen to “Between Two Worlds” and other student podcasts on SoundCloud by searching The WHIT. � 8

Flap Over Farmers Market Resolved

Farmstand favorite Orchards of Concklin returns to the Long Island Growers Market this weekend. It was one of several vendors barred over restrictions only allowing Long Island-based vendors to sell at the market,

By Peter Sloggatt
psloggatt@longislandergroup.com

There’s good news for all the produce hounds who were disappointed with the rollout of this year’s summer farmers market in Huntington village two weeks ago. The market’s largest vendor, Orchards of Concklin, is set to return.

The Rockland County-based farm had been sidelined for the first two weeks because of a flap between the market organizer and the town attorney’s office.

Ethel Terry of Southold-based Terry Farms told TheLong-Islander in an email this week that Orchards of Conklin will be back.

Terry cited an email exchange between Huntington resident Daniel Eig and Councilwoman Joan Cergol that seemed to straighten out the controversy.

Concklin’s - a vendor at the farmers market for 20 years - had been advised by Terry that she feared the town attorney’s office would decide to enforce a provision of her contract that specifies vendors must be Long Island-based. Orchards of Concklin never met that requirement, but never had any trouble, according to Terry. Her concern had grown out of emphasis placed on the clause apparently by a town attorney who hand-underlined that provision.

When she was unable to get clarification from the Town, she called off Concklin until it could be resolved.
Resolution apparently came through Cergol.

“I guess I interceded” she said in an interview Tuesday.

Cergol said she spoke to the town attorney and was told as long as the vendors have insurance, the Long Island-based provision has never been enforced.

“I don’t blame Ethel for being cautious,” Cergol said, adding she suggested  to the Town Attorney that “we really need to fix that if we’re not going to enforce it.”

The bottom line, at least for now, is that Orchards of Concklin will be back with its produce, eggs, baked goods come Sunday.

The Long island Growers Market sets up shop in the parking lot adjacent to the Soldiers and Sailors monument building on Main Street in Huntington village, Sundays from 7 a.m. to noon.

*NOTE: Following publication of this article it was learned that the Town has offered an amended contract that would allow up New York State-based growers and businesses to compose up to 25 percent of the farmers market, according to market organizer Ethel Terry.

Lighthouse Music Fest Deep-Sixed

Organizers of the popular Huntington Lighthouse Music Fest held every Labor Day weekend pulled the plug on the event after butting heads with town attorneys.

By Peter Sloggatt
psloggatt@longislandergroup.com

The popular Lighthouse Music Fest that attracts thousands to Huntington Harbor for a daylong jam over Labor Day weekend has been silenced. At least for this year.

Billed as the world’s only concert performed from the top of a lighthouse, the concert was cancelled by leaders of the Huntington Lighthouse Preservation Society which organizes the annual fundraising event. An announcement posted Tuesday to the group’s website stated they are unable to work with the town officials after strict new rules and communication guidelines were put in place by the town.

Those rules preclude the organizers from communicating directly with personnel from the Harbormaster's and other offices.

“I got an email last week telling me that I can no longer call the Harbormaster's office requesting services, Preservation Society President Pam Setchell said. “They told me I would have to submit requests in writing to Deputy Director Don Spada and they would be taken under advisement.

As producer of the massive concert for the past 11 years, Setchell is used to having a direct line of communication.

“As I’m reading this I’m thinking, ‘I can’t work in real time? I can’t ask the harbormaster a question? I have to go through the Supervisor’s office?’”

That’s too convoluted a way to get things done, according to Setchell.

“A recent lighthouse cleanup event gave us a small glimpse of the challenges of this process” she wrote on the website.

The group was also informed the permit fee would increase from $50 paid in past years to $1,000 this year, but Setchell said that was not a factor.

Town officials, who took a drubbing over the town’s official response to controversy concerning the Sunday Farmer’s Market, responded rapidly with a post to social media. The unsigned post stated the town “wholeheartedly supports the Lighthouse Music Fest, and the Department of Maritime Services has been very responsive” to requests this year.

The post explained the fee increase as an effort to recoup just some of the town’s expenses which it said run over $5,000 for the day.

And while the post stated the Town is “more than willing to work with their event coordinator to proceed...,” Setchell said her group is standing buy its decision.

“This has been a couple of months brewing, and it was a heart-wrenching decision, but it’s too late for this year” she said.