Chasing Artistic Success in NYC in 'Lonely Crowds'

Summary

Summary of "Chasing Artistic Success in NYC in 'Lonely Crowds'"

Podcast: All Of It
Host: Alison Stewart
Guest: Stephanie Wambugu, author of Lonely Crowds
Episode Release Date: July 31, 2025

All Of It, a WNYC production hosted by Alison Stewart, delves into the intricate landscapes of culture and its creators. In the episode titled "Chasing Artistic Success in NYC in 'Lonely Crowds'," Stewart engages with Stephanie Wambugu to explore her debut novel, Lonely Crowds. The conversation offers a deep dive into the novel’s themes, character dynamics, and the personal inspirations that shaped Wambugu's storytelling.

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Introduction to Lonely Crowds

Alison Stewart introduces Lonely Crowds as a narrative centered around the enduring friendship between Ruth and Maria. Both characters meet as children in Rhode Island, bonding over their shared experience of being the only two Black girls at their private Catholic school. This foundational friendship evolves as they transition into adulthood and venture into the competitive art scene of New York City.

Alison Stewart [00:09]: "A new novel follows two women on their journey through a lifetime of friendship."

Character Perspectives and Development

Wambugu explains that the novel is told from Ruth's perspective, offering a retrospective look at her and Maria's lives. Ruth is depicted as being in her late 30s or early 40s, working as a college painting professor. Her obsession with Maria becomes a central theme, especially as Maria's artistic career flourishes while Ruth's stalls.

Stephanie Wambugu [01:03]: "She's working as a college professor. She's teaching painting to students. And so it's looking back, it's like a retrospective glance on her childhood."

Origins of Ruth's Character

When asked about the inception of Ruth's character, Wambugu shares that Ruth's voice emerged organically as she began her graduate studies in New York City. Ruth felt almost real to Wambugu, prompting her to document Ruth's thoughts and experiences diligently.

Stephanie Wambugu [01:21]: "I was starting grad school and I just started to kind of be preoccupied by this woman's voice... she came sort of almost fully formed."

The Emergence of Maria

Initially intended as a minor character, Maria's role expanded as the dynamic between her and Ruth grew more complex. Wambugu describes Maria as a foil to Ruth, embodying qualities that Ruth is both drawn to and challenged by.

Stephanie Wambugu [02:12]: "As I wrote Ruth, the more Maria emerged as a character in contrast to her."

Exploring Obsession

A pivotal theme in Lonely Crowds is obsession. Wambugu likens Ruth's obsessive nature to the passionate drive of artists, blurring the lines between dedication and fixation. This obsession affects Ruth's ability to form other meaningful relationships, as she remains deeply entwined in Maria's life.

Stephanie Wambugu [03:34]: "I wanted to explore the parallels between a vocation, an artist having a vocation, and being obsessed with a person."

Family Dynamics and Personal Struggles

Ruth's family life significantly impacts her character. Her parents are portrayed as arguing frequently, leaving Ruth feeling peripheral despite being an only child. This lack of parental attention fosters her deep reliance on her friendship with Maria.

Stephanie Wambugu [07:20]: "There's so much of the scenes in her home where she's really just narrating the conversations between her parents and the attention is not really directed on her."

Influences Shaping the Narrative

Wambugu cites several literary figures who influenced her writing, including Saul Bellow, Gary Indiana, and Toni Morrison. She also references Tove Djilfossn's Copenhagen Trilogy as a parallel to her own storytelling approach.

Stephanie Wambugu [04:56]: "Gary Indiana... Toni Morrison... Tove Ditlofsson's Copenhagen trilogy."

Impact of Early Life on Maria

Maria's troubled childhood, marked by the loss of her parents and living with a bipolar aunt, shapes her adult demeanor. Wambugu portrays Maria as inherently callous and demanding, traits she developed as coping mechanisms for her unstable upbringing.

Stephanie Wambugu [13:55]: "She sees the world as a result of the way she was brought up as fundamentally unstable."

Critical Encounters and Relationship Tensions

A significant moment in the novel involves Maria reuniting with her estranged father and dragging Ruth along unannounced. Wambugu describes this meeting as fraught and emotionally charged, highlighting Ruth's role as an observer rather than an active participant.

Stephanie Wambugu [14:19]: "It's really just reporting what's happening... They are able to break down simultaneously."

Sexuality and Self-Discovery

The novel also navigates themes of sexuality, with Maria coming out as a lesbian before Ruth begins to understand her own sexual identity. However, Ruth's journey towards self-acceptance remains ambiguous throughout the narrative.

Stephanie Wambugu [15:17]: "It remains ambiguous throughout the book."

Excerpt from Lonely Crowds

Wambugu reads a passage that encapsulates Ruth's internal struggle during Maria's disappearance. The vivid description portrays the family's emotional disconnection and Ruth's contemplations on trauma and existence.

Stephanie Wambugu [07:53 - 12:47]: (Excerpt not reproduced here, but detailed in transcript)

Summer Reading Recommendations

Wambugu shares a curated list of five books for the summer reading challenge, reflecting her literary tastes and influences:

1. Classic: Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe
   Reason: An exploration of obsessive, unrequited love.

   Stephanie Wambugu [15:57]: "It's about obsessive love, obsessive, unrequited love. So it felt fitting."

2. Novel Set in NYC: Horse Crazy by Gary Indiana
   Reason: A seminal work in the New York City art world, influential to Lonely Crowds.

   Stephanie Wambugu [16:20]: "It's an art world novel... very much inspirational for my book."

3. Recent Debut Novel: Great Expectations by Vincent Cunningham
   Reason: Its elegance and lyrical quality despite being a debut.

   Stephanie Wambugu [16:55]: "It's so well executed. It has really lyrical moments..."

4. Memoir/Biography: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
   Reason: Its profound depiction of dehumanization and resilience.

   Stephanie Wambugu [17:32]: "I've been stripped of my humanity... incredible moments in the book."

5. Upcoming Novel: Flat Earth by Anika J. Levy
   Reason: Its humor and emotional balance make it timely and relevant.

   Stephanie Wambugu [18:17]: "It's very of the moment... balances intense emotionality with a light touch."

Advice for Aspiring Authors

Wambugu offers valuable guidance for writers embarking on their literary journeys:

• Read Extensively: Immerse yourself in diverse literature to hone your craft.

  Stephanie Wambugu [18:49]: "Read as much more than you write."

• Engage with Booksellers: Working in bookstores provides exposure to a vast array of books and literary discussions.

  Stephanie Wambugu [18:49]: "Spend time around booksellers and spend time with books."

Conclusion

The episode provides a comprehensive exploration of Lonely Crowds, shedding light on the nuanced portrayal of friendship, obsession, and the pursuit of artistic success in New York City. Stephanie Wambugu's insights reveal a deep connection between her personal experiences and her fictional narrative, offering listeners a rich understanding of her debut novel's themes and inspirations. The discussion not only highlights the complexities of Ruth and Maria's relationship but also underscores the broader cultural contexts that shape their lives and careers.

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Note: All quotes are accurately attributed with timestamps as provided in the transcript. Advertisements and non-content sections from the transcript have been excluded to maintain focus on the substantive discussion.

Transcript

[Alison Stewart]

You're listening to all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. A new novel follows two women on their journey through a lifetime of friendship. Ruth and Marie meet as children in Rhode island and instantly become best friends. They connect over being the only two black girls at their private Catholic school, and they continue this bond through college. The story is told through Ruth's eyes, and we seen soon that her friendship with Maria starts to turn into a bit of an obsession. When both Ruth and Maria move to New York city in the 90s, they find themselves both navigating the art world. But as Maria's career starts to take off while Ruth stalls, tensions begin to enter the relationship. Joining me now to discuss her debut novel, Lonely Crowds, is author Stephanie Wambugo. So nice to meet you, Stephanie.

[Stephanie Wambugu]

So nice to meet you.

[Alison Stewart]

So this is. The book is told from one girl's perspective. Ruth's. Where is she in her life?

[Stephanie Wambugu]

When we meet her, it's not explicit, but she's, I would say, like in her late 30s, early 40s. She's working as a college professor. She's teaching painting to students. And so it's looking back, it's like a retrospective glance on her childhood.

[Alison Stewart]

When did you decide that I'm going to write this novel from Ruth's perspective?

[Stephanie Wambugu]

I guess I just moved to New York City. I was starting grad school and I just started to kind of be preoccupied by this woman's voice. And she kind of came to me, was describing it to someone, like someone walked down the street into my life and I just like she came sort of almost fully formed.

[Alison Stewart]

I have heard more authors say that, that the person comes, just comes through them when they write at that moment. Do you write on a note card? Do you grab a napkin? Do you grab your voice notes? What happens when that happens to you?

[Stephanie Wambugu]

I wish it were more glamorous, but I just grabbed my phone, I think at the time. I guess that's generally what I do if I have an idea when I'm out and I don't have my computer or a piece of paper, I write on my ph. I was so consumed by her that I would constantly have ideas even when I was not sitting down to write. And so it felt like it really was the voice of a person sort of, you know, speaking to me and I would jot it down any way that I could.

[Alison Stewart]

So when did, did, did Marie come into the picture?

[Stephanie Wambugu]

I guess Maria was like, Maria, excuse me. No, no, don't worry. She was a more minor character. I was explaining this at an event I did last night. And I think as I wrote it, she became more and more central because I thought the dynamic was the most interesting part of the book. And I started to understand them as foils of one another. And the more I wrote Ruth, the more Maria emerged as a character in contrast to her.

[Alison Stewart]

Oh, that's interesting. So Maria was minor, but the more that Ruth became, well, obsessed with her, she became a more major character.

[Stephanie Wambugu]

Yeah. It's like the nature of obsession. Yeah, yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

You mentioned this in the first page of the book. You write. Ruth says, when I met Maria, I learned that without an obsession, life was impossible to live. I'd forgotten that. Now I remembered. What about Maria is Ruth drawn to?

[Stephanie Wambugu]

I think that she's self possessed. There's a Saul Bellow story called the Silver Dish where it's talking about the relationship between a father and a son. And the father is kind of like a selfish sort of absent parent. And the son says. Or the son who's narrating the story says, we love selfish people because they're willing to demand what we want. And I think that's sort of like what Maria kind of embodies that. That she's willing to demand things that Ruth will not. And I think Ruth is drawn to her. I don't know, like audacity, I guess, and. Yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

What made. What did you want to explore about the idea of obsession?

[Stephanie Wambugu]

I guess I wanted to explore the parallels between a vocation, an artist having a vocation, and being obsessed with a person, maybe romantically or platonically, and how the kind of personality that's maybe obsessive in love is maybe similar to the artist spirit or like the personality of an artist or a writer.

[Alison Stewart]

So what makes Ruth's life or personality one that makes her so willing to be obsessive?

[Stephanie Wambugu]

I think she's willing to be swept up in other people's personal lives and other people's interiority. She has. I was talking to a friend who described the book to me and said that it's. Although it's narrated through first person, there are moments where it seems like Ruth actually becomes a third person narrator describing the interiority of another person. Because she gets so. She's willing to let herself be subsumed and completely swept up in other people's inner lives.

[Alison Stewart]

Okay, say that one more time. Ruth speaks. Say that again.

[Stephanie Wambugu]

She speaks. She's. It's narrated in first person. I hope I'm not speaking too quickly. She's narrated in first person. But Ruth gets so consumed by other people's lives, that it's almost as though she's a third person narrator.

[Alison Stewart]

Gotcha.

[Stephanie Wambugu]

Narrating, you know, say, her mother's interiority or narrating her father's inner life or something like that, that she sort of becomes marginal and other characters become more central because of her fixation.

[Alison Stewart]

You dropped in there Saul Bellow as one of your references. Who else was a reference for this book?

[Stephanie Wambugu]

Big influences for this book, but in general, I would say are Gary Indiana, the novelist and critic, and Toni Morrison. So many. I was rereading Tove Ditlofsson's Copenhagen trilogy, which is. It's not a buildings Roman. It's not a novel, but it's a three part memoir that follows a woman from working class Copenhagen as she goes from sort of a poor family to becoming a poet. So you can see the parallels, like, between that book and mine. So many in terms of, like living writers. I love the writer Vigdas Horth, Percival Everett, some of my big influences. And so many of my teachers I studied with at Columbia and Bard as well.

[Alison Stewart]

Oh, you must have had great teachers there.

[Stephanie Wambugu]

Yeah, I did. I did. I think you spoke to Gary Steingard. He's one of my professors.

[Alison Stewart]

My guest is Stephanie. I'm gonna ask you to pronounce it correctly so I can at least try.

[Stephanie Wambugu]

Stephanie Wambuku.

[Alison Stewart]

My guest is Stephanie Wambugu. Her new novel is called Lonely Crowds. Let's talk about school and Ruth and Maria. They're only two girls at this school. They're on scholarship. They bond over this. This is where the infatuation starts. How does the relationship with Ruth keep her from making other friends?

[Stephanie Wambugu]

I think that she feels it's such a good question. I think there were many opportunities where she could become close to other people. Times when she had, you know, romantic prospects or other people in her life who would have made fine friends. But I don't think that she was interested and maybe felt like no one had, like, the allure that this one friend had. And so she kind of couldn't be bothered to seek out other people.

[Alison Stewart]

How does this affect Maria?

[Stephanie Wambugu]

Well, I think that at different times, Maria tries to hold her at arm's length and is actually kind of. She doesn't want the attention or doesn't want to be the object of a person's fixation, which I think is an interesting part, like aspect of the book to me is that it's all Ruth's subjectivity. And so you never get to know what it means for Maria to Have someone latch onto her in this way. It's not looking at the situation in an objective way. It's all told from one point of view.

[Alison Stewart]

Let's talk about Ruth's family. They're really interesting characters. Her dad is kind and soft spoken. Her mom's a little more strict, a little bit of a harder shell. Her parents tend to argue a lot. How does this affect Ruth growing up?

[Stephanie Wambugu]

I think that she feels that she's not really central, although she's an only child. I think she feels like the. There's so much of the. The. The scenes that. In her home where she's really just narrating the conversations between her parents and the attention is not really directed on her. So much so that when Maria comes into their lives, it's like that's. It seems like that's when the parents start to parent and be attentive. It's. They're more interested in Maria in a way than they are in their daughter. And. Yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

We're going to ask you to read a passage. Could you set it up for us?

[Stephanie Wambugu]

Yes. So this is about 70 pages into the book. It's a scene where, you know, Maria has kind of wandered off and without spoiling anything, she returns to Ruth's family's home. And it's the encounter. It's just before the encounter where Ruth's mother is talking to a teacher from the school. I think maybe that's all the context. Okay. Okay. Okay. My mother set the phone back on the hook and wrung her hands. No one spoke. We all just looked past one another, tending our own guilt as if we'd all colluded in something awful and we all knew it. I remember thinking then that that was how it must have felt to kill a person inadvertently. Like turning your back while bathing a toddler and finding they had drowned in the shallow water. There wasn't anything that could be said. My mother felt responsible. She put a hand on my father's shoulder and on mine. The snow fell steadily outside the window, accumulating without any sense of what it was falling over. Just falling. It doesn't mean anything happened to her. Maria is smart. She could just be trying to get some attention. Children run away from home. They come back. You shouldn't give her false hope. If Maria's missing, it's better to rip the bandage off. My father said. We all lose people. We lose everything and everyone. Things never stop getting taken away from us until even our bodies are taken away. Eventually, Ruth, we all die. Will you be quiet? My mother asked I'm going to go to sleep. I've worked all week. We'll keep looking. In the morning my father told me I could stay awake with him on the couch. He figured I wouldn't be sleeping that night. My mother allowed it, cautioning him again against saying anything to worry me. But I couldn't be more worried than I was. I kept staring at the front door, hoping she would knock. If Maria had gone off on her own accord, were we the ones she was trying to get away from? Was there something wrong with my family that would make someone want to flee? And if so, why didn't I want to run off? Was it because there was also something wrong with me? And so this was where I belonged. I followed my father to the sofa, watching him in the nightly routine of unfolding the mattress, securing its legs, pulling out the sheets, throwing the couch cushions down on the floor, unfolding the comforter, slowly smoothing it across the couch bed. Content with his work, he turned on the evening news. They were only concerned about the show, the snow. No mention of Maria, of course, since we hadn't told anyone, not even Jocelyn, which seemed wise. Her mind. Her mind would invent something awful and conspiratorial. But the strange thing was, in that context she might not sound so insane. Maybe we needed the insane in times of high stress to translate our contradictory impressions and concerns. If we listen to them, we might become legible to ourselves in all our uncertainty. But I wasn't one to override my parents guidance. Not even my father's, which was hardly guidance. I sat down and stared at the screen. A red haired weather woman smiled in the snow. Her smile, and it may as well have been a dispatch from another planet, said that everything was fine. We would have a white Christmas. All festivities would go on without interruption, without pause, rain or shine, no matter who came home or didn't come home. The world would keep eating and going shopping. Our hearts and smiles would be as pure as freshly fallen snow. It isn't because your mother and I don't love each other that I sleep out here. It's that I wake up in the night from bad dreams. Excuse me. And you shouldn't think that we don't care for you. Did he worry that I would run away too? He spoke without looking at me, watching the weather forecast, the small town news items. I told him I didn't mind where they slept. You don't spend that much time in your father's house, he said. When you count all your years, the married years, the working years, you only Spend a short time with your parents. Then you go off to school and marry. And you never go back home. Never. I can visit. I'll visit you. I said sorry for him. You say that now, he said, the other day I read in a magazine at my doctor's office about something called trauma. Horrible things happen to you as a child and you never forget them. And they make you act the way you do. Make you become an alcoholic or get divorced. I thought, that's a lot of hog. That can't be right. I told him I didn't know. I'd never heard of it. And I wondered, when Ruth is gone and she looks back, will she see this as a good time or a bad time? Was this trauma right now, tonight? Is it a trauma? No, I don't think so, I said. Good. You might feel now that Maria running away is the worst thing to ever happen to you. But one day you'll forget it. Because the suffering never stops, Ruth. It never stops. There's a bit of mercy and you think you're out free. Then you're hit with something else. And it's worse than everything that came before. You didn't ask to be born and yet you have to bear it, blow after blow. I nodded, looking at my father in profile. If I were to draw him, I'd make his eyes oversized and glossy, teary and cartoonish, like a caricaturist would. He spoke as if he were on the verge of some great discovery. The fact that life was subjection to cruelty.

[Alison Stewart]

I'm gonna ask you to stop for just a moment because I do have to make an announcement here. The National Weather Service has issued a tornado warning for Somerset, New Jersey, Middlesex, New Jersey, beginning at 1:49pm and ending at 2:19pm Again, the National Weather Service has issued a tornado warning for Somerset, New Jersey and Middlesex, New Jersey, beginning at 1:49pm and ending at 2:19pm Keep it tuned here to WNYC. A tornado warning means that a tornado has been sighted and there's a strong likelihood that a tornado could be imminent. If you are in any of the areas mentioned, you are advised to take shelter immediately until the threat has passed. Stay with WNYC for further information. My guest is Stephanie Wambuga where she's joining me in studio to talk about her debut novel, the Lonely Crowds. Maria is orphaned very young. Her mother dies. Her father leaves. She's sent to live with her bipolar aunt. How did dealing with an ill guardian affect Maria's adult life?

[Stephanie Wambugu]

I think she sees the world as a result of the way she was brought up as fundamentally unstable. And I think that she feels that she has to sort of be callous and demanding to get the things that she wants because her early needs were not met in a pretty straightforward way.

[Alison Stewart]

Maria eventually meets up with her dad and it's. Would you say, describe it as a difficult meeting?

[Stephanie Wambugu]

Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

And she drags Ruth along with her without telling her that she's meeting her father.

[Stephanie Wambugu]

Right.

[Alison Stewart]

How does Ruth feel about being sort of blindsided by this meeting?

[Stephanie Wambugu]

I think in that scene, Ruth is kind of just like a documentarian. And she feels she has this experience of watching someone have a really traumatic encounter. And she's not really editorializing or qualifying it and saying, you know, this is how I feel. She's really just reporting what's happening. And I think that was a really interesting scene to write because the emotion is quite high and it's a tense and a really fraught situation. But the way that Ruth delivers it and the way that the girls respond in real time is to not really express emotion until, of course, they're alone again. And then they kind of are able to break down simultaneously, I guess, when.

[Alison Stewart]

We talk about their sexuality. Marie is the first one to come out as a lesbian. And it takes Ruth more time to discover who she is. How is she able to come to terms with her sexuality?

[Stephanie Wambugu]

I don't know if she does, to be honest. Yeah. Say more about that, I guess I don't know that she ever. I don't know that she ever. Maybe she makes different kinds of disclosures about herself. But even by the end of the book, I don't think it's clear how self expressive she is able to be about her sexuality. And it remains ambiguous throughout the book.

[Alison Stewart]

Well, we'll let people read the book to find out what happens. You were kind enough to give us five challenges, five recommendations for our summer reading challenge. People are really, really into it, so I want to go through.

[Stephanie Wambugu]

Okay, great.

[Alison Stewart]

For a classic, you recommend Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe. Can you tell us why?

[Stephanie Wambugu]

Well, I think it's a great slim classic. It's an epistolary novel. It's a novel written in the form of letters. I think formally. It's really interesting. It feels really timeless. Also, it's about obsessive love, obsessive, unrequited love. So it felt fitting.

[Alison Stewart]

All right, excellent. You recommend Horse Crazy by Gary Ingrid for a novel set in New York City. Tell us about this.

[Stephanie Wambugu]

Well, apart from being, I think, an excellent first novel, Gary Indiana is one of my biggest influences. And it's a, you know, an art. It's kind of a New York City art world novel. He's a critic for the Village Voice, and the narrator of the novel is. I just think it's a perfect, perfect book. I bought it for so many people and I, you know, it's so influential, I couldn't help but put it on the list.

[Alison Stewart]

Is it partially inspirational for your book Lonely Crowds?

[Stephanie Wambugu]

Yes. Yeah, very much. So very much.

[Alison Stewart]

I have here Great Expectations by Vincent Cunningham for a recent debut novel. Tell us about this book.

[Stephanie Wambugu]

Well, for one thing, it's surprising that it's a debut novel because it's so, like, so elegant. It's. I mean, not that they can't be, but it's like elegant and so, like, sure of what it is. I feel the premise is so interesting. And it's a story that's kind of ripped from the headlines in a way. It follows. It's a young man following who is. It's basically Barack Obama on the campaign trail. And it's just so well executed. It has really, like, lyrical moments, but it has, like, this wit and humor and irony. I think it's a great book by another critic.

[Alison Stewart]

For your memoir or biography, you recommend Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. How would you describe this book?

[Stephanie Wambugu]

It's the memoir of a formerly enslaved man. It opens. I think one of the reasons I selected it is because I was rereading the opening page. And what was so moving to me about it is that Frederick Douglass says, I didn't know my birthday and I wasn't able to ask. And I think that there's that kind of detail, that exposition of saying, you know, I've been stripped of my humanity to the point where I don't even know the day that I was born. And to ask would I would be met with punishment, I think is incredible. And that's just one of many moments in that book that you remember forever.

[Alison Stewart]

And you recommend Flat Earth by Anika J. Levy. Levy.

[Stephanie Wambugu]

Annika Jade Levy. Yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

Annika J. Levy. It's a novel that hasn't come out yet, but it will be published in 2025 in September. What can readers remember about this book?

[Stephanie Wambugu]

I mean, it's an excellent, again, like a really compact book, but it's really rich and it's a very funny book. I think it feels very in line with the other books on this list where it's able to balance like a book like Horse Crazy or a book like Sorrows of Young Werther it's able to balance intense emotionality with kind of like a light touch. And it's short book and Annika was actually up here in grad school. So I'm happy to see people like start to have their books come out and it's great. It's very of the moment.

[Alison Stewart]

Since this is your debut novel, there are people who are listening who have debut novels in them. What advice would you give them?

[Stephanie Wambugu]

I would say read as much more than you write. I would say one of the best pieces of advice I received was to work in a bookstore. I think being a bookseller was incredibly helpful and I just encountered so many books. Obviously people have other day jobs, but if you can spend time around booksellers and spend time with books, I think that's all the advice you need.

[Alison Stewart]

Stephanie Wambu joined me in studio to discuss her debut novel, Lonely Crowds. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Congratulations on your novel.

[Stephanie Wambugu]

Thank you so much. This is a pleasure.

[Alison Stewart]

I did want to mention once again, the National Weather Service has issued a tornado warning for Somerset, New Jersey and Middlesex, New Jersey. It's ending at 2:19pm A tornado warning means that a tornado has been sighted or there's a strong likelihood that a tornado could be imminent. If you are in any of the areas mentioned, you are advised to take shelter immediately until the threat has passed. And keep listening to wnyc.

[Stephanie Wambugu]

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[Alison Stewart]

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[Stephanie Wambugu]

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[Alison Stewart]

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