Our Top Stories of 2020: 52 Reasons to Support The Indy

Check out 52 of The Indypendent’s best articles from 2020  — one for each week of the year — as we look back at our coverage. From a year of COVID-19, Black Lives Matter and a presidential election roller coaster, here are highlights of our coverage from public school classrooms to emergency rooms, protest encampments to presidential primary dispatches and so much more.

We look forward to doing more great work in 2021. But first, a quick but important note. We need your support. Please give what you can today. Whether it is $25, $50, $100, $200, $500 or more, every little bit helps. You can also become a recurring monthly donor via Patreon and spread your support across the entire year. We operate on a modest budget and make every dollar go a long way. Whatever you can give makes all the difference.    

In Solidarity,
The Staff of The Indypendent

P.S. You can donate online or write a check or money order to “The Indypendent” and send it to The Indypendent • 388 Atlantic Ave., 2nd Fl. • Brooklyn, NY 11217

COVID-19 & Public Health 

• Brooklyn ER Doctor: Life & Death on the Frontlines of COVID-19 
  by Rico Cleffi 
  
• NYC Nurse: I’m Running For State Assembly To Fix Our Broken Healthcare System
  by Phara Souffrant Forrest
  
• Fighting for Their Hospital 
  by Rosie Rudavsky 
  
• COVID-19 and Mental Health: Our Young People Are Truly Struggling And They Need Help
  by Sandy Nurse
  
• COVID-19 Hits NYC’s Black and Brown Working Class The Hardest
  by Derek Ludovici
  
• A View From Riker’s Island Where Coronavirus Is Spreading Behind Bars
  by Anonymous Inmate
  
• Bombers Not Ventilators: The High Price Of U.S. Militarism Comes Due 
  By Mike Ferner 
  
• Anti-Asian Bias Is Another Virus We Have to Vanquish
  by Linda Martín Alcoff
  
• Solidarity in Action: Mutual Aid Networks Spring Up Across NYC
  by Peter Rugh
  
• The Final Act: How We Can Learn To Face Our Deaths With Clarity And Compassion
  by Karen Malpede

Black Lives Matter, NYPD & Criminal Justice Reform

• Why We Explode
  by Nicholas Powers

• Meet New York City’s Newest Neighborhood: Abolition Park 
  by Amba Guerguerian

• A New Era of Surveillance for the NYPD
  by Katya Schwenk

• Black Lives Matter Backlash: The NYPD’s War on Protesters Intensifies
  by Amba Guerguerian & John Tarleton

• ‘Queer Lives Are At Stake’: New York Could Be the First State to Decriminalize Sex Work 
  by Rebecca Chowdhury 
  
• The NYPD Attacked Queer Demonstrators Protesting Police Brutality
  by Pat Rough

Immigrant Rights

• ICE Raids Continue Despite Coronavirus Pandemic, Activists Launch In-Car Protests
  by Carrie Klein
  
• Migrants Face Uncertain Future 
  by Erin Sheridan 
  
• From the Border to NYC, COVID-19 Makes Life Even More Precarious for the Undocumented
  by Amba Guerguerian

2020 Presidential Election & National Politics

• Knocking on Doors in Iowa: How I’m Turning Biden Backers Into Bernie Voters
  by McNair Scott
  
• My Generation’s Betrayal of Bernie Sanders 
  by Lisa Gitlin 
  
• 2020 America is a Bad Joke, and It Was Told By Ronald Reagan 
  by Danny Katch
  
• Blueprint for a Stolen Election 
  by John Tarleton
  
• The Virus of Extremism: The Far Right’s Alarming Response to COVID-19
  by Maresi Starzmann
  
• What We Learned in the Trump Era 
  by 14 Contributing Authors

New York City Elections 

• Heastie-Controlled Slush Fund Propos Up Embattled NY State Assembly Incumbents
  by Theodore Hamm
  
• Domino Effect: Can Millenial Leftists Topple More Machine Incumbents in June 23 Primaries?
  by John Tarleton
  
• How a Socialist Squad Could Transform NYC City Council 
  by Jordan Teicher

Housing & Homelessness

• Hurricane Warning: Tenants Nationwide Face a Wave of Evictions
  by Steven Wishnia
  
• The Homeless Can’t Shelter-in-Place: Advocates Call for NYC To Put Empty Hotel Rooms to Use 
  by Libby Rainey 
  
• Will NYC Still Be Real Estate Capital of the World After Covid? 
  by Tom Angotti

Public Education 

• NYC Teachers and Parents Are Questioning a Return to School 
  by Katya Schwenk
  
• Why I’ll Be Teaching Outside This Fall
  by Kristin Lawler
  
• CUNY Professor: Distance Learning Could Mean The End of Higher Ed As We Know It
  by Bonnie Abbzug

The Economy

• Winter Warriors: Meet the New Yorkers Making a Living in the Great Outdoors 
  by Peter Rugh 
  
• Coronavirus Is Leading to a Worldwide Recession. Here’s What to Do About It
  by Paddy Quick
  
• The Earth Stops Our Shopping
  by Reverend Billy Talen

Environment & Indigenous Rights

• There Is Still Lead in Newark’s Water
  by Carrie Klein
  
• Not Digging It: Unpopular Pipeline Sparks North Brooklyn Ire
  by Carrie Klein
  
• Their Ancestors Greeted the Pilgrims, Now the Mashpee Wampanoag Fight for Their Land Amid a Pandemic
  by Petra Kelly-Voicu

International 

• Mexico: From Women’s Uprising to COVID-19 Crisis
  by Laura Carlsen
  
• Bolivia Votes for More MAS 
  by Linda Farthing
  
• Backlash Continues to Grow After India’s Trump Passes New Citizenship Laws
  by Arya Vaz
  
• Beirut Comes to its Own Rescue 
  by Shawn Carrié
  
• Born in a Slum, Bobi Wine Rose to Stardom. Now, He’s Taking On Uganda’s Dictator 
  by Sophie Neiman 

Arts & Culture

• Five Anti-Capitalist Films to Watch While in Isolation
  by Liz Vogt
  
• Drawn to the News 
  by Julia Thomas
  
• How The Indypendent Has Survived & Thrived For Two Tumultuous Decades 
  by John Tarleton 
  
• Independent Music In Peril 
  by Olivia Riggio
  
• ‘Pandemic Solidarity’ Offers Hope Amid COVID Gloom
  by Renée Feltz
  
• Fifty Years of a Black Panther Friendship
  by Eleanor Bader
  
• Donald Paneth: His Voice Was Opera Poured Through Gravel
  by Nicholas Powers

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