The Jersey City Independent "

When you see the cover of Thomas Chatterton Williams’ 2010 memoir Losing My Cool, you’ll find it difficult to believe that he has, in fact, lost it. And even more so if you have the chance to meet him in a hip SoHo café, as I did a few weeks ago. With a knit hat on his head and a scraggly beard wrapped around his chin, Williams has still got it. And yet it’s not the kind of cool he grew up admiring.

Earlier this month, thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses descended on Journal Square for their annual convention, this year centered on the theme “Remain Close to Jehovah.”

It may seem unlikely, but I’m a hip-hop head. Old school. From the time I can remember listening to anything, rap was there. I didn’t grow up in the inner city, but I didn’t grow up in the suburbs, either. If there was such a thing as the outer city, that’s where I’d be from. [...]

On Tuesday night many of Hudson County’s business owners gathered at the former Jersey City Medical Center (or as it is now known, The Beacon) for the inaugural event of the Hudson County History Series.

James Fisher is the kind of history professor you wish you had. Sure, he looks the part, round glasses and floppy hair, but what most recommends him is his energy. Not energy as in some kind of new age-y good aura, but literally his enthusiasm and passion for his subject, whether that be history, theology or the subject of his latest book — wherein all his other interests seem to merge — the Port of New York.

This holiday season you’ll have plenty of opportunities to revisit the classics, whether for you that means A Charlie Brown Christmas, It’s a Wonderful Life, or, as it is in my family, the musical version of A Christmas Carol starring Albert Finney and simply titled Scrooge. And when there are days where the temperature reaches [...]

On a rainy Saturday afternoon in Jersey City one might wonder what to do. Extend brunch well into dinnertime? Stay home and catch up on missed episodes of your favorite shows on Hulu? Venture out into the rain to get going on the Christmas shopping you’ve neglected to start? Sure. Yes. Those are all good [...]

Photo: Tatsuro Nishimura Flood Warning! If the New York Times is to believed, residents of Jersey City should be prepared for high waters beginning today. Sure, the forecast calls for rain, but that’s not the half of it. Today is also the opening night for The Attic Ensemble’s presentation of Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire’s [...]

Cynthia Harris and Bob Leach chat with festival-goers (Photo courtesy the Jersey City Free Public Library) This past weekend’s rainy weather did little to dampen the spirits of the city’s bibliophiles as evidenced by the consistent stream of traffic flowing through Saturday’s second annual book festival held at Van Vorst Park. “Surprisingly, it turned out [...]

Ahh, September: the air is getting cooler, the kids are going back to school and local authors are making their way out of the Free Public Library and into Van Vorst Park for the second annual Book Festival, or “A Tale of Our City,” as it’s being called. Authors with areas of expertise ranging from [...]