Nikki Lewis, School Administrator

The Basics
Age and occupation. How long have you lived here, where did you come from, and where do you live now?
I am 28 years old and I run the business side of an experimental private school for disadvantaged youth in East Harlem. I grew up in East Harlem about 5 blocks from where I now work, and I currently live in sunny downtown Brooklyn (although I spend most of my free time below 14th street, and so by genealogy and habits I still think I qualify as a Manhattanite!)

Three for Thee
1. You've lived in NYC your whole life, are a product of the public school system, but now you are a private school administrator. Reconcile please.
Well, I went to really good schools, but the problem was I was the only one like me there. It's taken me years of therapy to even begin to recover from my predilection for white boys. But seriously, at the school I work at now you get to study your classics and college prep stuff uptown in your own neighborhood, and you're guaranteed not to be asked any funny questions about your hair.

2. Is it still your parents' Harlem?
My parents still live in Harlem but it's not still my parent's Harlem. Crack addicts have been replaced with those who roll every weekend.

3. This is something I like to ask native New Yorkers, and you're an actual Manhattanite. Gimme your quick take on the following.
Bronx: Get a car
Queens: Get a tetanus shot
Brooklyn: Get a Corcoran Group broker
Staten Island: Get a civil rights attorney
Jersey: Get a life

Proust-Krucoff Questionnaire
Time travel question: What era, day or event in New York's history would you like to re-live?
Gangs of New York/Tammany Hall era, cause unlike Bill the Butcher, I DO fancy girls with scars.

9pm, Wednesday night - what are you doing?
Honestly, I'm catching up on my Smallville slash.

Describe that low, low moment when you thought you just might have to leave NYC for good.
When I lost my 30 day unlimited Metro Card that still had 24 days on it! If you've been there, you feel my pain.

Finish one of the four following sentences:
2) "She took him to the Whitney Museum where Vladimir admired a row of...
giant droopy plastic toilets and shuttlecocks, and then they both simultaneously realized that they were either actually at the Gugg and not the Whit, or they were tripping on acid, or both. Then Vladimir put his hand down his own pants, let rip a rather wet one, and wept softly for his daddy."

What happened the last time you went to L.A.?
I got loudly ridiculed by a fellow native New Yorker when I asked him to drive me two blocks to my car.

Medication: What and how much do you take?
Fluoxetine 20 mg chased by a double shot of Tequila, baby!