Dasani’s Story

Nine years ago, my colleague Andrea Elliott set out to report a series of stories about what it was like to be a homeless child in New York City. As part of her reporting, she soon met a girl in Brooklyn named Dasani — “a spunky 11-year-old with big dreams and no home,” as Andrea has described her.

The five-part series that The Times published in 2013 turned Dasani into a public figure. Readers donated money to help her. Bill de Blasio, the incoming mayor who promised to reduce income inequality, said, “We can’t let children of this city like Dasani down.” At the 2014 inauguration for de Blasio and other top officials, Dasani held the bible for Letitia James, the new public advocate, who called Dasani “my new BFF.”

This morning, The Times Magazine has published a new story by Andrea that follows Dasani in the years since the spotlight left her. It makes for gripping, and at times difficult, reading.

Image

“I felt like I did something wrong,” Dasani said, about leaving home. At night, she misses sleeping in the same bed as her toddler sister, Lee-Lee.

The story ends in the present day — on a worse note than I had hoped as I was reading it and a better one than I had feared. It offers no tidy policy solutions, yet it is as relevant today as Andrea’s series was in 2013. Once again, New York is about to have a new mayor, and the person likely to have the job is vowing to address the enduring problem of homelessness in one of the world’s wealthiest cities.

You can read the story — and see photos by Ruth Fremson — here.

THE LATEST NEWS

The Virus

• The share of Hispanic adults in the U.S. who have received a vaccine surged in recent months to 73 percent — and now exceeds the vaccinated share of white adults (71 percent), according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll.

• The share of Black Americans who are vaccinated has also risen significantly, to 70 percent.

• President Biden got a Pfizer booster shot on camera. “I know it doesn’t look like it, but I am over 65,” he said.

• They are a small minority, but some health care workers would rather be fired than vaccinated.

Politics

• Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would avert a government shutdown and prevent the U.S. from defaulting on its debt.

• Two Fed officials who came under fire for trading securities in 2020 will leave their posts.

• The Biden administration is moving to preserve the DACA program, which shields undocumented young adults from deportation.

• A federal judge agreed to free John Hinckley Jr., who shot Ronald Reagan in 1981.

• China allowed an American brother and sister to return home after three years. Their release coincides with a U.S. deal letting a Huawei executive back into China.

Other Big Stories

Image

Image

Image

The music in the first installment of the Final Fantasy series in 1987 was limited to a handful of electronic sounds. But technology evolved, and by the late 1990s, the games featured live orchestral recordings. Nobuo Uematsu, who composed scores for the first nine installments of Final Fantasy, has drawn on influences as varied as Led Zeppelin, Elton John, Celtic music and classical music.

The soundtracks to the Final Fantasy series are enormously popular: Since 2007, there have been more than 200 official concerts across 20 countries. At the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics this summer, some athletes marched to Final Fantasy songs. On YouTube, fans post covers, tutorials and their own compositions.

“There are some melodies I composed almost 30 years ago I’ve almost forgotten,” Junya Nakano, who worked with Uematsu on the score for Final Fantasy’s 10th installment, said. “But fans are still playing them.” — Sanam Yar, a Morning writer

PLAY, WATCH, EAT

What to Cook

Image