The Kids Are Alright & Other Good News
The Indypendent is known for its incisive, deeply engaged coverage of grassroots social movements in New York City and beyond — and the issues they are fighting for. In addition to being a unique source of information and analysis in the NYC mediascape, The Indy is a teaching project where aspiring journalists hone their craft. At the paper, we put our young journalists into the field, where they get real-life experience. No going to get cups of coffee for the editors. And we provide a level of personal mentoring and support that is unparalleled in today’s media industry as the testimonials below attest to.
From our inception more than two decades ago to this day, we have made the slogan “be the media” a reality. But this takes time and energy on our part to help our interns and volunteers develop their skills to become effective journalists. When you donate to The Indy in our year-end fund drive, you are helping support our mentoring of the next generation of progressive journalists. For more, check out these testimonials from two of our team members, Ariana Orozco and Adrita Talukder.
Working with The Indypendent Has Raised My Expectation for What a News Outlet Can Be
By Ariana Orozco
This past year working with The Indypendenthas raised my expectation for what a news outlet can be. Despite having gone to college in New York City, when I returned to the city after achieving my Master’s abroad, I felt daunted by the prospect of living in New York without an established community. Then, I found an issue of The Indypendent at the Theater for the New City. The issue coverwas a bright watercolor painting of a street in Havana inside a graphic Polaroid image. I had already been looking for ways to expand beyond academia, and as I sifted through the paper on the train, I took this as my sign.
When I joined The Indy in early 2024, I hoped I would be lucky enough to get a byline by the summer. Instead, Editor-in-Chief John Tarleton and Managing Editor Amba Guerguerian supported me in covering stories that mattered to me and other New Yorkers starting soon after I came to my first monthly editorial meeting. In addition to giving me the responsibilities of a “real” journalist, they helped me decipher how to pursue this career with a moral clarity that is often missing from legacy media outlets.
Key to this moral clarity is the on-the-ground journalism that The Indy excels in. For my first story, I covered the potential closing of SUNY Downstate, an essential hospital in the heart of Brooklyn for Medicaid patients like myself. Downstate is also located in my neighborhood, and through this story I got to know my State Senator and other members of my community fighting for our safety and health. I came to see that local journalism was not just about pumping out information, but also about uplifting the stories of those who are the backbone of New York City.
Then, in June I stepped in as the paper’s Associate Editor. I was responsible for helping to upload articles, manage our social media accounts, and gained a larger understanding of the editorial direction for each issue. Learning the day-to-day tasks that help a newspaper run were invaluable, and something only The Indy would provide to an early-career journalist.
I also became the weekly co-host of The Indypendent News Hour along with John. I’ve loved the conversations we’ve been able to have on-air, like one of Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani‘s first interviews as a mayoral candidate and a whole episode dedicated to anarchist author Marissa Holmes explaining the history of Occupy Wall Street. While the conversations we have on air have been everything from enlightening to infuriating, what makes The Indy special is the community that underpins the work we do.
This community is made up of journalists, academics and artists who make up or stand in solidarity with the working class. And this support is what differentiates The Indy from the lip service used by those in power to brush off the legitimate concerns of the people. In 2024, navigating the national election and Mayor Eric Adams’ political unraveling, The Indy has been a beacon of hope for an increasingly suffocated press corp. Where other publications have bent the knee to billionaire concerns, The Indy’s motto of “a free paper for free people” makes clear our only obligation is to our readership. Now more than ever this is a critical mode of resistance.
As I continue into a second year of writing and working with The Indy, I know that a restored Trump presidency and a 2025 mayoral election will require an even keener ability to cut through the noise to tell stories that matter. While it is a mighty task to take on, The Indy – and especially John and Amba – have equipped me and the rest of the paper’s contributors with the support necessary to confront the dark days to come, and celebrate the many moments of joyful activism that will continue to define New York City. When you give to The Indy during its winter fund drive, you are ensuring all this good work can continue.
Yup, I want to support The Indypendent and the next generation of fearless young progressive journalists!
Joining The Indypendent Team Has Taught Me What Journalism for the People Really Looks Like
By Adrita Talukder
In September 2023, I was still working for NYU’s student paper when one evening on my walk home, I picked up my first copy of The Indypendent from one of its outdoor newsboxes. A little over a year later, I would stop by that same newsbox and pick up The Indy’s October 2024 issue featuring two articles I authored.
Not long after encountering The Indy, I left my position on my university paper. I knew my time outside of class had to be spent out in the streets, working with the people struggling in solidarity with the Palestinian liberation movement.
I applied to intern with The Indy having followed its coverage of the pro-Palestine movement here in New York City. Unlike the corporate media outlets that dominate our news stream, The Indy reported on the genocide in Gaza and ensuing protests with clarity, sobriety and the necessary historical context. This extends to all the stories published by the newspaper, which focuses on delivering the people’s voice in full — without deferring to power or claiming a faux objectivity that doesn’t exist.
Over the summer, I started working on paper’s Tuesday evening radio show. I reported on NYU’s crackdown on pro-Palestine protesters and the July uprising that overthrew the government in Bangladesh. Since then, I’ve written pieces on the intertwined struggles of the pro-Palestine movement, the push against the Queens Cop City and the demand for justice for Jordan Neely.
Writing for The Indy has been, above all, an educational experience like no other. I’ve listened to the speeches of organizers young and old who continue the struggle for Black liberation. I’ve documented the testimonies of young protesters who, like anti-imperialist protesters before them, put it all on the line to advance their protest against yet another U.S.-backed imperial war.
None of this would have been possible at any other local publication in the city, and it certainly would not have been possible without the team leading The Indy. Editor-in-Chief John Tarleton would take the time to go through my article drafts with me, giving me both technical edits and insight into the history of political struggles here in New York. John told me to always question what people say — even if it was something I wanted to hear.
Sitting with that has shown me how to realistically analyze the dense terrain of working peoples’ struggles here in New York without rose-colored glasses on about the conditions we face or the work that still needs to be done by our movements.
Working with The Indy, I’ve learned what people’s journalism can look like. The paper makes it possible for young journalists like myself to find a space to work, learn and develop our practice.
I’m excited and grateful that I’ll be returning to The Indy in the new year — 2025 is shaping up to be a tumultuous one as the far right retakes power and vows to target big cities like New York and a wide array of left organizations and institutions.
For more Indy testimonials, click here.