Artful

Dear Diary:

My trips to the Metropolitan Museum of Art typically include a stop to see Seurat’s Study for “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte,” a precursor to his much larger “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte.”

That painting, almost certainly the artist’s best known, has been viewed by countless visitors to the Art Institute of Chicago, and by many others who have seen a certain popular 1980s movie in which the piece has a small, but meaningful, role.

On my most recent visit to the Met, I heard a man behind me explaining the work to his group: And there’s another one at the Art Institute of Chicago that’s three times as big as this one, he said.

I turned around.

“You really know your stuff,” I said.

“Yeah,” he said. “I saw ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.’”

— James Devitt

Bathtub in the Kitchen

Dear Diary:

Now he’s sleeping the sleep of a dead man,
In a flat on the Lower East Side.
Oh, we tussled and wrestled,
Then we spooned and we nestled.
He’s a master of love, and I’m satisfied.

But I’m leavin’ that boy on 10th Street,
There is something that I cannot ignore.
Much too glaring and numbing,
Has to do with the plumbing.
Turns out it’s an undeniable flaw.

He’s got best-sellers and electronic toys,
He likes clean fun and connubial joys.
Now I don’t care he’s not rich an’—
Still it breaks my heart.
He’s got a bathtub in the kitchen.
(I have to wash my back with a roasting rack.)

What a daunting dilemma,
After scarfing up the lamb vindaloo.
It just isn’t nice ’cause when I scrape off the rice,
Gotta move all the sponges and the Prell shampoo.

Yeah, we like our sushi and our bagels and lox,
Our steaming pizza fresh right outta the box.
All of our dinners are quite bewitchin’
But it tears me up —
He’s got a bathtub in the kitchen.
(Gotta wash my toes with a rinsing hose.)

It doesn’t matter that he’s great in the sack,
I know for sure that I won’t ever be back.
He’s intelligent and kind, but I still have my gripes,
Don’t want bathroom water in the kitchen pipes.

Now, I’m no stranger to heartache,
Trouble has knocked at my door.
But I’ll go it alone and I won’t answer the phone,
Leave his gritty Ajax and his strange décor.

Adios my man, keep your fryin’ pan.
Later for you bachelor and your ladle and your spatula.
You’ve got a bathtub in the kitchen.

— Lou Craft

Sounds of the ’60s

Dear Diary:

I was taking an uptown express to the Upper West Side. A trim, older man with a well-worn accordion got on at 34th Street.

He immediately jumped into a set of ’60s rock classics. Man, he rocked. Among the highlights was his version of the 1966 Rolling Stones hit “Paint It Black.”

As we both prepared to get off at 96th Street, I gave him a nod of approval and put some money in his cup.

He grinned and rushed toward the uptown local that was waiting across the platform.

He said, “96th Street, ‘96 Tears.’”

— Chris Parnagian

Northbound Traffic

Dear Diary:

It was about 10 years ago. I was in the passenger seat of our Toyota, my husband was at the wheel and we were stuck in northbound traffic on the West Side Highway.

It was warm out, and we had the windows down. I had a copy of “Life of Pi,” with its distinctive blue dust jacket and orange spine, on my lap.

I heard a man’s voice that sounded like it was next to me but much higher up. It turned out it was coming from the open window of a cab on a tractor-trailer that was idling next to us.

“Great book,” the voice said.

I looked up and saw the truck’s driver looking down at me. His elbow was resting on the edge of the open window. Beneath it was a copy of “Life of Pi,” open so I could see the dust jacket.

“Great book!” I said.

Slowly, traffic began to move.

— Connie Beckley

What Will You Have?

Dear Diary:

It was lunchtime in Midtown, and the deli counter line snaked its way along a refrigerated unit filled with cheeses, salamis and tomatoes.

It was all new to me, a recent arrival from Ireland. Finally, it was my turn to order.

“Yeah?” the counterman said.

“Do you have whole wheat?” I asked.

The counterman furrowed his brow and nodded.

“Do you have Cheddar?”

“Yes.”

“Do you … ”

I felt a tap on my shoulder.

Turning around, I saw a short, older man wearing a pork pie hat and a bow tie and peering at me though his glasses.

“Stop asking questions,” he said. “Tell him what you want.”

— Tommy Weir

Read all recent entries and our submissions guidelines. Reach us via email diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter.

Illustrations by Agnes Lee

Last year in New Jersey, federal immigration officers took more than 1,300 undocumented migrants into custody. That figure was roughly 300 more than in 2023.

But on Thursday, less than a week into President Trump’s second term, the arrests of three people at a fish distribution warehouse in Newark appeared to tap a well of pent-up fear about mass deportations in a region teeming with immigrants.

The streets around the warehouse filled early Friday with television crews. Newark’s mayor held a news conference to decry the methods used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials as unconstitutional and blamed Mr. Trump, who campaigned on a promise to initiate the “largest deportation program in American history.”

Whether Thursday’s arrests in Newark’s Ironbound neighborhood were part of a new crackdown, or fairly typical of ICE enforcement actions in the city in recent years, was not immediately clear. Immigration arrests in the city are common. Last month, under former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., ICE officers based in Newark announced 33 arrests to little public notice. And ICE officials did not reply to several requests for comment.

But the enforcement activity left immigrants across the region on edge. There were reports of ICE officers knocking on doors in Vineland, in New Jersey’s southern agricultural region, which is heavily dependent on migrant labor. On Long Island, immigrant rights activists said they were busy fielding reports of “ramped-up” activity by ICE officers. And a police captain in Ossining, N.Y., Brendan Donohue, warned that rumors often multiply more quickly than facts.

“Fear spreads very quickly, and even just the suggestion that ICE could come here turns into a ‘ICE was here’ kind of a situation,” Captain Donohue said. “These things can snowball, of course.”

Merchants in Newark who run body shops and cafes near the fish distribution center, Ocean Seafood Depot, said Thursday’s midday raid was unusual for the industrial neighborhood, which is dotted with two-story homes and some of the city’s best restaurants.

Newark’s mayor, Ras J. Baraka, a Democrat who is running for governor, warned that the city intended to defend its residents.

“If he thinks that we’re just going to go to jail quietly,” Mr. Baraka said of Mr. Trump, “he’s got another thing coming.”

Immigration officers entered legally through a fish store at the front of the facility. But Mr. Baraka said that they had proceeded, without presenting a warrant, into a large nonpublic warehouse where workers pack fish and load it onto delivery trucks.

He said ICE officials had also challenged the validity of a military ID presented by a U.S. citizen who works at the warehouse and was questioned during the raid. Mr. Baraka urged workers and their employers to become familiar with their rights — before ICE officers show up.

“We can disagree about whether you support mass deportation or not,” Mr. Baraka said. “But what we must agree on is — the thing that separates this country from many other countries around the world — is the Constitution.”

“Everyone has a right to due process,” he added, “and no one can go around these laws.”

Amy Torres, executive director of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, said she had raced to the warehouse after receiving reports of a raid before lunchtime on Thursday.

“They were heavily armed,” she said of the uniformed officers who conducted the search.

“They were blocking off entrances and exits. They were scrambling up delivery ramps. They were banging down bathroom doors to make sure no one was hiding inside,” she added.

All but a handful of the roughly 80 people who work at the warehouse abruptly left for the day, fearing a repeat visit by the enforcement agency, Ms. Torres said.

The effect of the enforcement action remained palpable on Friday. Barbershops were empty along a normally bustling commercial corridor near the seafood company. Customers were scarce at a cafe that its owner said routinely fills each morning with warehouse workers who come in to buy coffee before their shifts.

A Newark councilman who lives in the area, Michael Silva, said he, too, had noticed an immediate change.

He said he typically wakes each morning at 4:45 a.m. to the sound of his next-door neighbor opening a gate to leave for work.

“This morning, I didn’t hear that gate,” said Mr. Silva, the son of Portuguese immigrants. “He told me that he was scared to go to work.”

Jessica Greenberg, the legal director at CARECEN-NY, an organization that works with immigrant communities on Long Island, said that alarm about Mr. Trump’s immigration policies had intensified over the last week.

“They are going after people that were considered ‘low-hanging fruit’ in past administrations,” Ms. Greenberg said, adding, “We’ve been on the phone with individuals while ICE has been banging on their door or shortly after ICE has left.”

ICE arrests are hardly novel in the region. In December, while Mr. Biden was still in office, ICE officers based in Newark conducted what the agency called a “weeklong, targeted, surge operation.”

Still, immigrant rights leaders have been holding events designed to instruct documented and undocumented residents on their rights in anticipation of a broad crackdown by Mr. Trump.

New Jersey education officials also released guidance this week to school leaders, offering instructions on what to do if immigration officials show up at public schools. The instructions came in response to Mr. Trump’s Tuesday announcement that ICE and Homeland Security officers would no longer be barred from detaining people at schools or churches, so-called sensitive locations that since 2011 had been considered safe spaces.

Rui Lorenço works at a car repair shop in Newark’s Ironbound neighborhood, which is home to a large number of Portuguese, Brazilian and Ecuadorean residents. He said he had noticed heightened panic on social media over the last week.

Mr. Lorenço, who moved to the United States about five years ago from Lisbon, said he supported clearer rules on immigration, but not what he described as “hate speech” spread by Mr. Trump and his supporters.

“This is a country made of immigrants,” Mr. Lorenço said. “If they come to take people away that are just working, that’s concerning.”

Larissa Cardoso, 22, emigrated to the United States from Brazil about a year ago. She said she was afraid about what a stricter immigration policy could mean for her and her friends in the days ahead.

“I always dreamed to come here, and I try to do things right,” said Ms. Cardoso, a waitress and bartender in a popular Ironbound restaurant who has been working to gain legal immigration status.

“People come here because they literally want to change their lives,” she said. “With what’s happening now — their lives could now stop.”

Hurubie Meko and Lola Fadulu contributed reporting.

Many actors have to leave their support systems behind when they set out to follow their Broadway dreams.

But Kara Young, a Tony Award-winning actress who grew up in Harlem — and lives just three blocks from where she was born — has been able to share her success with the community that raised her.

“It’s a super beautiful community,” Ms. Young said of Spanish Harlem, the neighborhood on the east side of Manhattan known for its Puerto Rican culture. She attended elementary school and high school there after her parents immigrated from Belize.

“But at the same time,” she added, “I recognize that I’ve been privileged to be able to stay in the community I grew up in. Gentrification is real.”

It was at the 92nd Street Y, she said, that she first became hooked on theater. Her older brother, Klay, was taking a mime class as part of an after-school program — and a 5-year-old Ms. Young knew she wanted in.

Soon she was performing with the other students around Manhattan, and “that set off my imagination,” she said.

She earned an associate degree in acting from the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts and balanced several rotating gigs — babysitting and working at a cigar bar, a restaurant and an office — while going to auditions.

“I said to myself, ‘Either you’re going to do this, or you’re going to fail,’” she said.

Ms. Young made her Broadway debut in 2021 and won her first Tony Award last year for her role as Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins in the Broadway revival of Ossie Davis’s satire “Purlie Victorious.” Her next role is in the family drama “Purpose,” set to open Feb. 25.

Ms. Young, who often plays young characters but declined to give her age, lives in a two-bedroom apartment in Harlem with her partner, the actor and playwright Biko Eisen-Martin.

CREATURE OF HABIT It doesn’t matter how late I’m up the night before — my body still gets up at 6:30 or 7 a.m. with no alarm. Sleeping in takes great effort.

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE I’m drinking water, then throwing some cold water on my face, then hopping in the shower. It wakes up my body.

Meanwhile, Biko makes coffee — he’s really into it. He grinds the beans fresh and does drip.

FAMILY BRUNCH I’m usually working Saturdays and Sundays, so when I do have a rare Sunday off, it’s all about spending time with family. We’ll get together for brunch at Melba’s, or Archer & Goat. I’ll get two eggs over medium, maybe some turkey bacon. Or I might order a waffle, with lots of butter and syrup on the side.

RETAIL THERAPY I love walking up and down 125th Street and popping into the beauty supply stores. They have everything you could ever need. I might get new earrings, or you can buy all kinds of different hair if you want to do your braids different, or new shampoos or oils for your scalp, or eyelashes. I’m like a kid in a candy store.

EAR CANDY I’ve been getting into audiobooks lately. I was just listening to “Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments” by Saidiya Hartman. And then the “Purlie Victorious” playwright Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee do the audiobook of their story together. It’s amazing to hear their voices. I’ve also started listening to music purposefully. I love Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s new albums. I also listen to a lot of old-school reggae — Beres Hammond, Buju Banton and Sanchez. And rap, I need my rap! I love Tyler, the Creator and Doechii. I’m also into this incredible Asian R&B artist named SAILORR.

SUNDAY IS SHOW DAY When you’re in a show, it’s hard to see your actor friends’ shows, because your performances are often on the same days and times. So when I’m between shows, I go to town! I’ll see a matinee, or maybe even two shows, if I can find one with an evening curtain.

CATCHING UP I’ll spend the afternoon on the phone, calling up people I haven’t spoken to in a while — my mentors, my family, my fellow artists. It might even be my mom, even though I might have just left her. Me and my mom can be on the phone for hours, and other times it’s less than a two-minute call just to hear her voice. Sometimes I think I bother her too much! Also usually Portia, Liza Colón-Zayas and Patrice Johnson — I’ve been watching them for years and am in awe not only of their instruments, but also their spirits.

CHEF KARA If I have time, I’ll cook dinner. I wish I had more time to spend in the kitchen; I love it. I take pride in my arroz con gandules, which I learned how to make from the Puerto Rican mothers of my childhood friends. You have to make your own sofrito — it’s taken some practice! I definitely haven’t mastered it.

BETTER OFFER Or I might go over to my dad’s for dinner; my father is an incredible cook. His baby lamb chops are to die for. He’s been in the hospitality industry for so long — he’s worked at the Rainbow Room for more than 30 years — and seen some of the best chefs ever cook. My father makes really great Thai food, fantastic Indian food, and, of course, traditional Belizean food. We get to taste a little bit of his hospitality education through his meals.

TURN-MY-BRAIN-OFF TV I’ll end the night with either “The Real Housewives of Potomac” or a documentary. I wouldn’t call it winding down, though. My brain always feels like it’s on.

ONE MORE TIME I shower at night, too — I like to be extra clean!

HEAD STILL SPINNING I crawl into bed around midnight, though I don’t usually fall asleep until around 3 a.m. It’s hard to turn my brain off. The characters I play never really go away — they live inside me. I was sitting across from this iconic actress the other day, and she told me she’d heard that characters in plays are like spirits that haven’t found a body. You happen to be the body that they are entering so that they can live for this moment in time. That’s a beautiful way to think about it.