Andrea Crowley-Hughes

I write about small business, nature and sustainability, social movements and more. My coverage of Union County, NJ earned a 2023 Excellence in Local Journalism Award from the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University.

Focused on Community

Building a chronicle of place, movement, action  

Jersey City Times •

A Salsa Dance Studio in the Heights Open to All

Salsa Fever On 2 Dance Academy is nestled into a residential block in the Jersey City Heights. If you walk by quickly, you might miss it, but the energy inside 83 Franklin St. is hard to find anywhere else.

Students across a variety of ages and identities come together Mondays to Saturdays to master coordination, self-expression, and how to communicate in real time with a dance partner.

Mario “B’ Gonzalez, who has owned, operated, and taught in the Jersey City studio for 17 years after startin
Jersey City Times •

Spotlight on Jersey City Actor in Tony-Nominated "A Strange Loop"

James Jackson, Jr, a Jersey City-based actor, musician, and cabaret artist, has to continually pinch himself. The Broadway show he is in — the all-queer, all-Black “A Strange Loop” — received a Pulitzer Prize in 2020 and has garnered 11 Tony nominations in for tomorrow’s 75th Tony Awards. “Is this real?” he wonders.

“Not a single day goes by that I’m not grateful for making history at the Lyceum Theater,” Jackson, says.

“A Strange Loop” follows the travails of a queer Black writer writing a mu
Jersey City Times •

A Local Entrepreneur Wants to Make Buying Wine Easy

Mark Censits wants you to leave his wine store, Cool Vines, confident you’ve bought just the right spirit for your needs. And he wants to make it easier. Those were his goals in designing both the locations the local entrepreneur runs in Jersey City: one in the Powerhouse Arts District and the other near City Hall.

“The wine piece of it came from my own personal, frustrated journey of trying to understand this very obtuse and complicated consumer product category,” Censits said.
Jersey City Times •

NJPAC Dance Showcase to Feature Two Jersey City Choreographers

Jersey City will get to spotlight two of its talented residents, choreographers Sameena Mitta and Katelyn Halpern, in an upcoming showcase called “Jersey New Moves” June 10 at NJPAC.

The show, held in partnership with Dance New Jersey, spotlights five young choreographers who all reside in New Jersey and were mentored by more experienced choreographers as part of a two-year Jersey New Moves Fellowship award.

Mitta operates her own dance company in Jersey City named MeenMoves. Halpern is the ow