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ENTERTAINMENT
VIRTUAL BIBLE STUDY
The Dorothy J. Collier Community Center Virtual Bible Study from noon to 1:30 p.m. will take place Wednesday Dec. 16 and 30; and Thursday, December 10. The classes are held live on Facebook and Zoom. For questions or if you need help get ting o Zoom please call (716)882-0602 prior to the class or email: FRIENDSINCDCCC@ GMAIL.COM
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Bethesda World Harvest International Church will host its annual Toy Give Away December 18,19 and 20. Call Bethesda early to register and for further information before Dec. 14 at 884-3607. Children must be registered and present to receive toys. Due to COVID 19 everyone must wear a mask.
We’ve come this far by Faith, leaning on the LORD. Trusting in His Holy Word, He's never failed me yet!
Council Approves Lead Prevention Legislation Introduced by Council Members Nowakowski and Rivera
Legislation Seeks To Strengthen Housing Codes and Ensure Public Safety
Legislation introduced by Council Members Mitich Nowakowski and Rivera was approved by the Common Council. The legislation that will require proactive rental inspections of single family and double rental units. The inspections will help to ensure that rental dwellings will be free from any health hazards, including deteriorated lead paint. This legislation will contain four (4) ordinance amendments in order to combat the issue of lead paint in our city's rental dwellings.
The ordinance amendments introduced to The Buffalo Common Council aim to strengthen the housing standards in the City, give the Department of Inspections more opportunities to inspect rental dwellings for lead paint, improve the City’s plan for lead based paint abatement and ensure that rental properties in The City of Buffalo are protected from living conditions that pose a risk to a person's health and well-being.
“This legislation will update and strengthen our housing codes to ensure health and safety compliance in one and twobedroom dwellings in the city,” said Fillmore District Council Member Mitch Nowakowski. “Since taking office this year, combatting lead poisoning in the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood has been a top priority of mine.”
“Today, we begin the process of addressing this crisis by introducing four ordinance amendments that raise the standard of living for rental housing in The City of Buffalo,” Nowakowski continued. “Lead poisoning disproportionately affects low income neighborhoods on the East Side of Buffalo, poisoning hundreds of children a year. These ordinance amendments will bring substandard housing into compliance and improve the public health of residents in The City of Buffalo.”
Girl Gang Entertainment Enriching Black Life Through Unique Event Experiences
Girl Gang Entertainment co-founders Yanava Hawkins and Rayna Moncrieffe have been friends since childhood. From middle school through high school (City Honors) and college, (University At Buffalo), the two have had an inseparable bond that has grown from friendship to empowered young women in a healthy business partnership. While in college the two were inspired to change the Co-Founders l/r Yanava Hawkins and Rayna Moncrieffe narrative of how parties and Photo by Jimmy "Rook" Hawkins events were hosted, primarily by men. They saw an opportunity to focus on women- hosted events bringing some balance to the full entertainment experience to close the gap giving birth to Girl Gang Entertainment in 2017. “Many of the parties in college were hosted primarily by men, especially the successful ones, and this was when the first spark of wanting to start a business that was women run came to be. We noticed that many of the events that we were going to in college were not only hosted by men, but most of the creatives that were hired (DJ’s, photographers, etc.) were also primarily men,” said Yanava. Girl Gang Entertainment successfully started out as a woman owned and operated event-based company with a mission to host events and book as many women as possible . “Our first event was a graduation party, and it was one of our most successful events to date," she continued. " Our second most successful event business. Last June Yanava decided to quit her full-time job and became a full-time entrepreneur. Rayna, who was working at a law firm, was furloughed which led to to joining her friend and co-founder in becoming a full-time entrepreneur as well, as they made Girl Gang their daily priority. What also shifted amidst the pandemic was their mission and focus. Girl Gang went from being an event planning and hosting company that focused was a summer pool party 'Wet on hiring and supporting as Fete' where we had about 75- many women as possible to a 100 attendees. We converted comany company with a misRayna’s backyard into an ex- sion t of enriching the lives of clusive backyard pool party Black people. experience with VIP cabanas, Girl Gang also adjusted a bar, and food!” their experiences to the pro When they initially launched verbial “virtual” flow for Girl Gang , Yanava and Ray- the time being and focusing na, both worked full time jobs their events on entrepreneurin addition to running the ial skills as well as financial, physical, sexual, and mental wellbeing in the Black community. Ready for the challenge that all entrepreneurs are faced with during these uncertain times, Girl Gang is well into their 2021 planning stages and intent on continuing their popular sexual health virtual series on Facebook. Every third Thursday of the month they host a Facebook live mini web series called 'Let’s Talk Black Sex' where we discuss topics of Black love, relationships, and sex and discuss why healthy Black sex is important. They have also just released their “Healthy Black Sex Matters” merchandise and plan to start podcasts with virtual guests addressing topics related to their newfound and much needed overall wellness focus for a wider and more diverse audience. “Even though we are no longer only looking to support women, we wanted to keep the name Girl Gang because it holds power and Girl Gang will always be a business that has been founded by two strong women.” On December 19 Girl
Gang will host their first 2020 experience “SOUL SIPPIN”- a virtual wine tasting and soul food pair-
ing event. The experience will include a professional DC based sommelier (wine expert) that will facilitate a virtual wine tasting experience with three wines from Paradise Wines that have been paired with a three course meal from Brother’s Takeout Cafe and Catering as well as
Pride in Place CALL FOR ARTISTS! Application Deadline December 18
LISC WNY & The Buffalo Center for Health Equity are looking for artists to participate in the painting of “IDEA BOXES” for the Pride in Place Buffalo Initiative - part of the AARP Community Challenge grant. The grant is being used to celebrate and reinvigorate Black and Brown culture, community, and pride throughout many of Buffalo’s near East Side neighborhoods: Broadway-Fillmore, MLK Park, Grider, Fruit Belt, Kingsley, Cold Spring, Hamlin Park, Willert Park and Masten Park. By providing these areas with this unique ” Idea-box” (also called a suggestion box, feedback box) this effort aims to gather community input while lifting up important landmarks, parks, art and music happenings, and cultural events occurring (Continued Page 9)
Angel’s Treats of Heaven. “All of our event partners have been intentionally chosen as we wanted to support local small businesses, specifically Black owned” she concluded. Don’t miss this Girl Gang curated experience! Find more info and tickets for the SOUL SIPPIN at www.girlgangent.com -About the Co-Founders A former athlete, and executive board member for the UB step team Yanava Hawkins, 26, holds two degrees from the University at Buffalo, a BA in Communications as well as a BA in Health in Human Services with a Concentration in Community Mental Health. Rayna Moncrieffe, also 26, holds a degree in Finance from the University at Buffalo and has life-long experience planning events including the first Natural Hair Convention for the UB step team. They are both proud Buffalo natives! -staff writer
SUPPORT THE ARTS!
CALL FOR ARTISTS Continued
in these neighborhoods The effort will highlight and promote health, hope, and exploration during COVID-19 recovery, while planting seeds for neighborhood-owned community development visions as we work together to rebuild. Each artist will receive a stipend of $400 to put toward their time and supplies for one box to create an original piece of art for the mailbox they will be provide with. A total of 20 mailboxes will be painted. Application deadline is December 18 and artist will be notified by January 1 if selected . For application link and full artist responsibilities and project details go to prideinplacebuffalo.com or Contact Alexa Wajed eatoffart@ gmail.com or Saira Siddiqui at SSiddiqui@lisc.org before deadline. LISC i n Western New York has been named a recipient of a 2020 AARP Community Challenge grant in partnership with the Buffalo Center for Health Equity, one of six grantees selected in the state of New York.
Typography of Women
On December 11, 12, and 13, 2020 the long-anticipated passion project conceived, produced, written and directed by Celeste M. Lawson, will be available for online viewing on VIMEO. Vimeo is a high-quality video hosting platform used by many professional filmmakers and videographers. Typography of Women gives viewers an insiders’ perspective on human trafficking that is grounded in the written words shared by real women in our community who suffered trafficking and managed to escape their captors. Many turned to Project Mona’s House in Buffalo, Pictured above starting front and then back left to right: Front Shanntina Moore; Row 1. Melinda Capeles Tashani Wiggins, Gunilla Kester, Joy Scime, Goodness Shawndrell Green, Vernice Turner; Row 2. Dewel "Dee" Perez ,Vonetta T. Rhodes, Dayatra Amber Hassan, Brandon Williamson. Tickets are available on the Typography of Women website: https://typographyofwoman.wixsite.com or you can reserve directly on VIMEO - https://vimeo.com/ondemand/towiamnotinvisible
COMMUNITY-BASED REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT TRAINING
ATTENTION: COMMERCIAL PROPERTY OWNERS ON BUFFALO’S EAST SIDE
Learn How to Develop Commercial Real Estate
Gain direct knowledge and hands-on experience to redevelop your commercial property. Learn about the things that matter most in real estate development—from financing a project, to permits and approvals, to design and construction. There is no cost to apply or participate in the program. Accepted applicants will just need to pay a one-time registration fee of $100.
Classes meet Wednesday evenings from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and run for 23 weeks, starting March 3, 2021. Applications due by For details visit: January 6, 2021 EastSideAvenues.org/CBREDT
This program was developed through collaboration of the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning, University at Buffalo Regional Institute (UBRI), Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) WNY, and Empire State Development (ESD).
FIND YOUR NEW CAREER LANDSCAPE MAINTENANCE TECHNICIAN
in partnership with
Program funding generously provided by
Classes Start January 12 Tues & Thur; 3:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. (classroom instruction) Mon – Thur; 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. (field work to begin in Spring 2021) SPACE IS LIMITED. APPLY TODAY AT BUFCAT.ORG/APPLY-NOW Buffalo Center for Arts and Technology • 1221 Main St., Buffalo, NY 14209 • 716.259.1680 • @bufcat716
