It’s the age of The New York Times. I’m making videos to compliment some kick-ass reporting. I’m figuring out the colorful side of business and running around like I’m 25. Follow me @chodger and find a selection of some of my favorite videos at

Cosplay Starlettes Find A Moment to Talk at Comic Con NYC

I’ve also been lucky enough to help produce the daily TimesCast – a timely, nourishing segment of the most important news of the day brought to the world by producers working with the Time’s many reporters fanning out across the globe.

I produced a weekly video for ArtsBeat.

I worked with reporter Erik Piepenburg and producer, Gabe Johnson and edited this video about changing gender roles for the weekly Arts Beat online segment.

I worked with photographer Fabrizio Costantini to produce this piece. I also edited the final project about a charming and spunky 101-year-old car enthusiast. This video was noted as the most watched video on the NY Times website for 2011.

I worked with Melena Ryzik, who used her iPhone to shoot this boat-hotel video accompanying her print piece. I edited this project.

I worked with Vijai Singh, to help produce and do camera-work for this story about the many couples who made history when they became officially wed under New York State’s new open marriage law.

Seniors learn computer skills at City Hall Senior Center

As part of my thesis project, I created a site called GrayGracefully.com. This interactive project explores the growing number of seniors in New York City, the complexity of serving the needs of this richly diverse group, and the challenge they face in learning to gray gracefully.

This project was in collaboration with Cheryl Chan and we spent three months hanging at senior centers, pouring through census data on immigration and aging, talking to officials and professionals and generally being wowed by the will and spirit of the senior citizens in New York City.

This project will be dissasembled, added-to and pieced back together for publication in early March at the ethnic media website – VoicesofNy.com.

Soil and City is a video I produced with Nida Najar. For this video, we woke up before dawn, trekked along a highway two hours north of the city, and learned all about the hard work and quite joys of a farmer’s life. This story was shot on a Canon 60d and was published at nycitynewsservice.com

Excerpt from the article: ” Ben Schwartz wakes to the chirping of grasshoppers and the wind rustling through the trees of Wassaic, N.Y. He gets up at the hint of dawn most days – though earlier on Wednesdays – to work a rich plot of land that yields herbs and produce. He finds his reward in the faces of the Bronx residents who buy the medicinal herbs, teas and produce that Schwartz hopes can help keep them healthy.

While some community-supported farmers head straight to pricey parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, Schwartz and his partners, with the help of a generous donor, bring their products to the neighborhood that he believes need them most: the South Bronx.”

This is a class assignment – a trailer for “Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts”. It was edited without a split track and simply with the movie as provided. In any trailer, music and silence are part of the story.

I create cut and copies for our newscasts airing later that day and then send off photos and articles for our website.

You only get the good photos when you're up close and personal! Photo by Channon Hodge

It’s a dream to work for the company that has given me the info and inspiration

I need ever since I moved to the city ten years ago.

Check out some of the stories I’ve had the pleasure to work on:

http://bit.ly/tDoYDS

I’ve created many audio podcasts and features and I’ve also had a chance to work for LongShot Radio – a fly-by-night webcast and magazine made in 48 hours.

Check out some of my feature stories here:

Smarter than your Bartender? Tuesday Trivia at Bar Sepia by chodger

Finding Redemption: Street Canners find A Living on The Sidewalks of New York by chodger

Sleep Meets Exercise or Not Browning Your Brain by chodger

Don’t Just Sit There! by chodger

Nature vs. Naysayer – The Fight for Naturopathic Medicine in New York by chodger

African Americans Work to Increase Organ Donation from Channon Hodge on Vimeo.

African Americans make up 13 percent of the population but one third of the organ wait list due to increased kidney and heart disease and major health disparities. Organizations are working in the community and with churches to dispel myths about donation and encourage this gift of life.

Sure We Can Mobile Pick Up

Finding Redemption: Street Canners find A Living on The Sidewalks of New York by purpley

If you enjoyed that, please head to see a Flash interactive project I produced with Elis Estrada.

http://www.channonhodge.com/?p=170

Making Life Sweet from CUNY J-School Broadcast on Vimeo.

Suzanne Barr spent her days climbing her way up the ladder in entertainment, when she realized that her life was missing one important and sweet ingredient.

For more about Suzanne’s Sweet Potato Bakery – head to her website: SweetPotatoBakery.com

Photo provided by Ballet Hispanico for West Side Spirit

Posted by West Side Spirit on March 23, 2011 ·

By Channon Hodge

Eleven pre-teen girls in Ballet Hispanico’s Spanish dance class stand at attention at one edge of the room, heels up, ruffled skirts pulled at the hip and chins pushed forward. While some faces betray intense concentration, others are ready to go ahead and charge.

“I want bullfighter girls,” cheered their teacher, Sandra Rivera, before starting their Paso Doble music. “Let me see a beautiful position… Enjoy yourselves!”

Rivera may be teaching now, but she was there as a teenage member when Tina Ramirez founded Ballet Hispanico in 1970 to foster and showcase Latino artistry. Rivera remembers the fascination on faces when they first danced their way through prisons, theaters and the city streets.

Ballet Hispanico will celebrate the completion of its 40th season in April.

The organization has since became an international success, and April will mark the end of their 40th season, now led by artistic director Eduardo Vilaro. Though still rooted in education and outreach, the professional company is extending its creative arms to embrace more diversity in Latino culture.

“I think we’re at a point now where we have a groove,” said Vilaro, as he explained his desire to contemporize the company. “I think it’s about understanding that culture is ever evolving and not static.”

The company danced works this season that explored the mix of ethnicities within Latino culture. They included the Moorish “Nací,” the “Chifa” or Asian “Puntos Suspensivos” and the Brazillian “Batucada Fantástica.” Highlights for next season will include a new play on tango, a reflection on music by Celia Cruz and choreography from renowned artist Ron K. Brown, who explores West African and Caribbean movement.

“I’m interested in opening a dialogue with our audiences about the intersection of the African Diaspora with the Latino Diaspora, which is huge,” said Vilaro.

The company’s interplay with the public came from Tina Ramirez’s founding vision, and continues with its vast outreach. Company dancers and teachers spread Hispanic culture to schools around the city and throughout the world. Some classes teach Spanish language and others involve parents. Vilaro hopes to start a program next year that will encourage high school kids to choreograph. It’s part of his vision to keep the company current and involved in all the ways the community shapes and reshapes lines of culture.

Vilaro said the company is about building future leaders, but has always been rooted in education. Due to the popularity of its classes and performances, Ballet Hispanico outgrew its original carriage house location and expanded five years ago to the building behind it, on West 89th Street. They added modern, bright studios, and the school streams with kids, parents and rehearsals six days a week.

Angelina C. Paulino, 15, started dancing at Ballet Hispanico as a 7-year-old. Though she’d begged her mother to be put in gymnastics, her mother brought her to Ballet Hispanico partially to get in touch with her Dominican heritage. Paulino was soon entranced, and said she was drawn in most by the stomping, clapping and twirling of Flamenco.

“In Flamenco you have to be poised and have that fierce attitude,” said Paulino. “It gives me that attitude I need and the confidence… you should see my face in class.”

Paulino is one of roughly 70 students in the pre-professional group who hope to go on to careers in dance. Though many students have Latino heritage, many do not. Paulino said learning a variety of dances along with traditional ballet will help her and other classmates stand out when they apply for jobs in the future.

Over 250 children take non-professional classes, and the largest group at Ballet Hispanico is made up of the tiniest of dancers. Around 400 children aged 1 to 6 years old skip, hop and somewhat chassé through lessons that encourage partnership and individual expression.

Young men in the Boys Workshop benefit from a 50-percent reduction in tuition thanks to The Ted Snowdon Foundation. Workshop teacher Kevin J. Guy, 31, started teaching recently at Ballet Hispanico, and said he loves it there and always leaves feeling energized from working with his kids.

He aims first to teach his young men to have fun. While doing that, he instills the confidence and focus they’ll use forever, whether they become professional dancers or not.

“Dance teaches you to work,” said Guy. “It helps you to be disciplined about life but still be yourself.”

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Ballet Hispanico will be giving free performances at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center, 199 Chambers St., March 29–April 1. For more information on the company’s programs, visit ballethispanico.org or call 212-362-6710.

Photos published at Channon’s French Travel Blog – www.fromrighthere.com