#heroiconic

#heroiconic gallery Good morning. On this day we become legendary. You surround yourself with champions. Give the local icons in your hood the dose of fame they deserve. Together, we build an empire on the greatness of those we know are true kings and queens. Your hero will join the gallery of fly icons over at ‪#‎heroiconic‬, where a curatorial team is joining forces with @urbanpopartist in doing up local legends as they deserve. Submit a pic and brief story of your #heroiconic friends, fam, and neighbors that inspire excellence>>

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Maia, Prospect Heights

"The third of #heroiconic curators, Maia's warmth emanates in her work and friendships. Her sense of justice is unwavering, and she is courageous enough to take out her megaphone to stand up for the voiceless."

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Renee, Washington Heights

"Renee Mancino is a true hero for us in Washington Heights. Her bakery is a cornertone of our neighborhood, where people we don't know in the hood become our neighbors, our kin inside the space. I treasure the loving environment made of carbs and the love exuded by Mancino and her family through their business. Love to you all at this difficult time." 

From DNA.info's recent story: 

People recalled how she had donated cakes to homeless shelters, prisons and senior centers, as well as sponsored a Little League team and hired local teens to give them work experience.

“My mom was the queen,” said (Tan'yika) Allen, who also works in the family business. 

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Yena, Brooklyn

"Another curator at #heroiconic, Yena is a personified nexus of critical thought and love. We are lucky to have her incisive mind and compassionate heart on our team."

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Azmina, Prospect Heights

"Hailing from Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood, Azmina is one of #heroiconic's fierce curators, on the lookout for local goodness. She is a strong, critical-thinking chick we admire for her compassion."

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Allison, NoLIta

"I want to nominate my friend Allison who had a stroke in her 20s and bounced back with her social schedule, continuing to be an important member of New York's improv, biking and music communities!"

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Monika, Kirkwood

"When our family was evicted from our apartment, Monika shared her home with our family. We were going through such a difficult time back then, that we couldn’t even manage to feed ourselves. Even though she wasn’t in abundance, she shared her family meals with us. It was the coldest winter of my life and I am forever grateful for her hospitality."

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Sydia and Aniyah, Washington Heights

"Some of the strongest women I know, and one of them is only 6. It's all about attitude and these two have a lot of it. Sydia, founder of the Lost Angels Society charity for homeless teens in New York, took lessons from her difficult past to uplift her fellow New Yorkers through her organization. She teaches her daughter Aniyah to be just as brave, already speaking up when she sees injustices in her neighborhood. We're lucky to have them as fellow New Yorkers."

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Emily, Astoria

"My very talented/beautiful/kind hero of the week is Emily Herrick. I am nominating her this week for her volunteer work at City Harvest. She has found many ways to contribute to City Harvest- including repacking food to ensure food does not go to waste in NYC and taking a nutrition education training to spread the knowledge. She serves as an inspiration to me and I admire the countless hours she has dedicated to this cause!"

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Alexandra, New York City

Said Alex, "Here’s what I did in twenty minutes to help out my community. I went to Craigslist and looked at jobs. I discovered an odd looking ad for “massage girls” making $150 to $300 a day. Of course there was no reply email address (only a phone number). I tracked that phone number to a private landline and a “massage therapy” establishment in the East Village. I discovered the location of the establishment to be somewhere in a 6 floor, 18-apartment unit building. Believe it or not, the business has a name, which incorporates the words “massage therapy” in its title. This means it has to have a massage therapy license to operate (I checked NYSED.gov and it doesn’t). I continued to learn more about the place and it seems they have a habit of posting on backpage.com and listlux.com. They like to hire pretty “Latinas and Whites” between the ages of 19 – 45, just need to send a picture. I am printing everything I have and tomorrow will deliver it to the police. *Jobs are tough and people are desperate. You see an ad like this…you think that’s a lot of money to work as a massage therapist, right? Why not? Think again. Everyday people sign up for something that turns out to be something it wasn’t and later get coerced (this is forced labor, this is sexual exploitation, this is human trafficking). The ad on craigslist looked innocent enough, but the one on backpage didn’t. Do you research and follow the steps I did above and start alerting law enforcement to these acts against humanity."

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Mata, Brooklyn

"My hero of the week is Mata Hari, the greatest cat in the world. We're already starting the bar so high with her, so you might be thinking "what did she do today that is making her even more of a hero?" Well, I can tell you. She let me sleep until 1pm without yelling once for food! It was unreal, I woke up thinking maybe something had happened to her. Nope, she was patiently waiting on the couch for me, greeting me with a little hello when I walked out of my bedroom. This is unheard of, so I felt the need to celebrate it and share it with all of you. Perhaps the positive reinforcement will get her to do this more often."

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Gabriel, Lower Manhattan

"My landlord is so careless, he don't fix our widows for years - not to mention broken fire alarm. Nothing gets his attention. BUT we have awesome building manager instead, who goes extra miles to help tenants out. Gabriel opened my locked bathroom(!), he's always there when the elevator doesn't work or no hot water coming etc. He went through hurricane Sandy with us and frozen pipes on snow storms. (He's not live-in manager or doorman, but he appeals magically to our apt building at those crisis) Even when the landlord doesn't responds to our request, he helps me to find the right hardware and fix it with his own hands. Plus he always greets us with a bright smile :-D Thank you for serving our apt building, we wouldn't be able to call this place "home" without you!"

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Vern, Kansas

"Vern was an incredible human being before anything else. He did more than he had to for all of us and it hurts to know that another person like him is gone."

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Fred, Brooklyn

"Fred is the hero of my block. He has lived in the same area his entire life, worked for the MTA for 30 years (which makes anyone a hero in my book!), but more importantly, he came by my apartment right before Hurricane Sandy to make sure we had enough D batteries, even though we'd never had a conversation before. Since then, he's become my go-to for neighborhood gossip. He's also a die hard Yankee fan."

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Nikki, Washington Heights

"Strong for her community, for her friends, and for herself. It's not just the work she does but how she does it: as a building manager around Harlem, she goes the extra mile to give hardworking New Yorkers the shot they deserve on the housing market. Meanwhile, locals treat her like the mayor, old and young alike shouting, "Hola, Nikki!" as she walks by. Because they know, no matter who she is speaking to, it is the king and queen in them that she addresses."