New York Amsterdam News Issue #5 Feb.2-8, 2023

(Ariama C. Long photo)

(Tandy Lau photo)

(AP Photo:Yuki Iwamura)

(Ariama C. Long photo)

USPS 382-600/ISSN#00287121

2340 Frederick Douglass Boulevard

New York, New York 10027

(212) 932-7400 / FAX (212) 222-3842

DIRECTORY

EDITORIAL

Editor – Nayaba Arinde

Nayaba.Arinde@AmsterdamNews.com

Managing Editor – Kristin Fayne-Mulroy

KFM@AmsterdamNews.com

Digital Editor - Josh Barker

Josh.Barker@AmsterdamNews.com

Investigative Editor – Damaso Reyes

Damaso.Reyes@AmsterdamNews.com

STAFF WRITERS

Karen Juanita Carrillo

Karen.Carrillo@AmsterdamNews.com

Ariama C. Long

Ariama.Long@AmsterdamNews.com

Tandy Lau

Tandy.Lau@AmsterdamNews.com

DISPLAY & DIGITAL ADVERTISING CONSULTANT

William "Bill" Atkins (212) 932-7429

William.Atkins@AmsterdamNews.com

DIGITAL, BRANDED CONTENT & HYBRID ADVERTISING CONSULTANT

Ali Milliner (212) 932-7435

Ali.Milliner@AmsterdamNews.com

LEGAL, LLC & CLASSIFED ADVERTISING CONSULTANT

Shaquana Folks (212) 932-7412

Shaquana.Folks@AmsterdamNews.com

CIRCULATION /SUBSCRIPTION

Benita Darby (212) 932-7453

Benita.Darby@AmsterdamNews.com

The Amsterdam News assumes no responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. Photographs and manuscripts become the property of The Amsterdam News. Published weekly. Periodicals Class postage paid at New York, N.Y. POSTMASTER: Send address corrections to NY Amsterdam News, 2340 Frederick Douglass Blvd., New York, NY 10027.

INDEX

Arts & Entertainment Page 17

» Astro Page 20

» Books Page 21

» Jazz Page 24

Caribbean Update .........................Page 14

Classified Page 32

Editorial/Opinion Pages 12,13

Education Page 28

Go with the Flo Page 8

Health Page 16

In the Classroom Page 26

Nightlife Page 9

Religion & Spirituality Page 30

Sports Page 40 Union Matters Page 10

International News

commitment of the United States to support Nigerian aspirations to combat corruption and strengthen democracy and the rule of law,” said Binken’s statement.

Blinken’s order was challenged as ineffective by some users of Twitter.

‘DEBT TRAP DIPLOMACY’ BLAMED FOR ZAMBIAN DEBT CRISIS

(GIN)—China, the builder of roads, energy, railways and telecom across Africa, came under fire from U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen during her recent three-country African friendship tour when she singled out the Asian giant for Africa’s looming debt crisis.

Driving past Lusaka, the capital city, with its renovated international airport and newly built firms bearing Chinese signage, Yellen urged Zambian leaders to immediately address Zambia’s heavy debt burden with China.

But she failed to mention other countries and banks that contributed to Zambia’s unsustainable borrowing, leading it to become the first African nation to default on its $42.5 million Eurobond repayment.

Many are asking: How did Zambia get into so much debt?

According to a report by the Chr. Michelson Institute, the largest center for development research in Scandinavia, the Chinese are not the main culprits in Zambia’s looming debt crisis.

The beneficiary of an IMF/World Bank debt relief program, Zambia has borrowed heavily since 2012. China is the country’s single biggest creditor, but Zambia has also borrowed from several non-Chinese sources, including bilateral government loans; fuel supplier loans; the Arab Development Bank (BADEA); Israeli sources (for defense purposes); and regular international banks in the UK, Nigeria and South Africa.

Further, economic decision-making is centralized in the Office of the President without adequate economic considerations.

Several critics have raised the question of whether Zambia has “hidden loans,” similar to those disclosed recently in Mozambique that led to an economic crisis and major conflicts with donors who provide budget support and other grants.

Still, there is little transparen-

cy in the Chinese lending operations. Neither the full scope of the loans nor their conditions are fully known. This leads to much uncertainty and speculation.

At present, 22 low-income African countries are either already in debt distress or at high risk of debt distress, according to the UK-based Chatham House. Chinese lenders account for 12% of Africa’s private and public external debt, which increased more than fivefold to $696 billion from 2000 to 2020.

Ultimately, the report concluded, the Zambian government must take full responsibility for the debt crisis because they have received ample warnings about the increasing debt burden from their own economists and opposition, as well as from external advisers, the IMF, the World Bank and donors. China, watching U.S. maneuvers in Africa, had this to say to the Treasury Secretary’s remarks: “The biggest contribution that the U.S. can make to the debt issues outside the country is to cope with its own debt problem and stop sabotaging other sovereign countries’ active efforts to solve their debt issues.”

U.S. TO DENY VISAS TO NIGERIANS WHO THREATEN DEMOCRACY AS ELECTION NEARS

(GIN)—Nigerians planning to visit the U.S. will be barred from entry if officials believe they pose a threat to upcoming elections in Nigeria, according to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement. The announcement also extends to the families of those accused of anti-democratic efforts, according to Blinken.

Nigeria’s February 25 elections will determine who will replace President Muhammadu Buhari, who has reached the country’s two-term limit after serving eight years in office.

“The visa restrictions announced today are specific to certain individuals and are not directed at the Nigerian people or the Government of Nigeria. The restrictions reflect the

“The people who are actually behind such things all have green cards or US citizenship. Until you start revoking permanent residency and citizenship of them and their families, there is no reason to take you serious,” wrote David Hundeyin on Twitter.

Two weeks before, the British government impose a similar visa ban on Nigerian politicians involved in violence and rigging.

The vote in Nigeria comes as the country faces widespread insecurity, with the electoral commission itself targeted by recent violence.

Earlier this month, Nigerian police repelled attacks on election commission offices in the southeastern state of Enugu. In December, five people were killed in three attacks on offices in the southeastern state of Imo.

U.S. officials did not provide any details about how they would identify those who endanger the democratic polls.

Threats to the upcoming general elections were outlined by journalist Reuben Abati in This Day news:

“The biggest fear is that the current electoral process faces threats more than any other before…Yesterday in Ojota, Lagos, there was a shoot-out between members of the Oodua Progressives Congress (OPC), and the Oodua self-determination activists and Nigeria’s security agencies. Persons were killed, other were injured.

“By 9 am, concerned citizens declared Ojota a no-go area unless you would willingly take a stray bullet in your head and die just like that. In Anambra State, unidentified gun men burnt down a police station in Umuchu community in Aguata Local Government Area.

“Not enough has been done before the elections as indicated by the multiple security breaches around the country. The politicians are behaving as if the election this year is a kind of war. The last thing this country wants is any form of war.”

Attacks were also reported on candidate Peter Obi of the Labour Party after a rally in Katsina. There have been more than 400 cases of election-related violence across the country.

“Tighten your seat belts,” declared Abati. “This is bound to be a tough year for us, as Nigerians. The politicians will win or lose, but they don’t seem to care enough about us. This is our sad reality.”

‘BRUTAL KILLING’ OF PRODEMOCRACY ACTIVIST IN ESWATINI CONDEMNED (GIN)—Hundreds

of mourners around the world paid tribute to renowned human rights activist Thulani Masko, brazenly shot dead in front of his wife and two children at their home in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) a week ago.

His murder drew widespread condemnation, including from the United States, United Nations, European Union and political activists in Eswatini, a landlocked nation in southern Africa.

Kenya human rights defenders held a vigil in Nairobi in solidarity with the family of the assassinated lawyer and rights defender (#JusticeForThulani). Amnesty International called for a proper investigation. Maseko was reportedly shot twice through the window of his home, Amnesty said.

Maseko’s widow, Tanele Maseko, described the horror of sitting in their living room with her husband and their sons, ages 10 and 6, on a recent Saturday evening when he was shot, reported John Eligon of the New York Times

“That night felt like my chest had been opened and my heart ripped apart,” she said, her face covered by a black veil.

She explained that Maseko had refused to go into exile like other prodemocracy leaders, once telling her, “If they want me, they know where to find me, here at home.”

Maseko was born in Bhunya, in the western part of the country, the youngest of eight children. After obtaining a law degree from the University of Swaziland, he studied international law at the American University Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C.. He established his own law practice in Eswatini and organized legal groups focusing on democracy and human rights.

In 2014, Maseko and a prominent Swazi journalist were sentenced to two years in prison after publishing articles criticizing the country’s judiciary as lacking independence. They were released the next year after the Supreme Court overturned their convictions.

(GIN photo)

Migrant men reject transfer to Red Hook facility

Metro Briefs

BCC to host 10th annual Amadou Diallo Youth Arts and Sci-Tech Day

Bronx Community College (BCC) will host the 10th annual Amadou Diallo Youth Arts and Sci-Tech Day on Saturday, Feb. 4, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., in Colston Hall. The event is open to the public. (Proof of COVID-19 vaccination is required to enter the BCC campus.)

“Once again, the global community looked on in horror as the senseless police beating and death of Tyre Nichols in Memphis continued to unfold. Systemic racism and oppression continue to eat away at the moral and ethical conscience of American society. Everyone must continue to resist,” said BCC Professor Gene Adams, BCC’s director of collaborative education and codirector of the science and technology entry program, who organized the event.

The Amadou Diallo Youth Arts and Sci-Tech Day will honor the memory of Tyre Nichols by engaging our youth in the spirit of Amadou Diallo. The BCC campus is at 2155 University Ave., The Bronx, NY 10453.

NYC Free Tax Prep

New York City officials kicked off the tax season and encouraged single-filing New Yorkers who earned $56,000 or less in 2022, or families who earned $80,000 or less, to file their taxes for free using NYC Free Tax Prep.

NYC Free Tax Prep provides free, professional tax preparation that can help New Yorkers keep their full refunds, including valuable tax credits, such as the newly enhanced New York City Earned Income Tax Credit (NYC EITC). The new NYC Free Tax Prep for selfemployed New Yorkers will also provide income tax services to freelance workers and small businesses.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) began accepting tax returns on Monday, Jan. 23, and will continue to do so until Tuesday, Apr. 18.

By TANDY LAU Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member

By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff

The city’s migrant housing situation is in terminal decline—a Brooklyn Cruise Terminal decline, to be exact. Men sheltered at a Hell’s Kitchen hotel collectively opposed the Adams administration’s decision to move them to the new Red Hook facility.

“[Yesterday] there was a standoff between asylum seekers and the police at the Watson Hotel because they refused to reside in another temporary shelter that put them further away from the services they need to access to get on the road to self-sufficiency,” said New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC)

Executive Director Murad Awawdeh on Jan. 30.

“Rather than creating more unsuitable, temporary shelters, the city must support residents by moving them into permanent housing, especially those that have been stuck in our shelter system for years. New York City needs bold solutions to its affordable housing

and supportive housing crisis, not half-measures that ultimately hurt the very people they are trying to help,” Awawdeh added.

Migrant housing concerns stem from southern border officials like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott chartering buses of asylum seekers to major cities like New York. The placement of the fifth Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center (HERRC) in Red Hook’s Brooklyn Cruise Terminal was announced recently and opposed by immigration advocates from the NYIC, the Legal Aid Society, and the Coalition for the Homeless due to concerns of flooding and distance from public transit. Those issues plagued the first two single men’s HERRCs, leading to the use of the Watson Hotel to house male asylum seekers. But now the city wants to use the building to shelter migrant families.

“This weekend, we began the process of moving single adult men from the Watson Hotel to Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, as we transition the hotel to meet the large number of asylum-seeking families with children,” said Mayor’s Office press secretary Fabien Levy in an email statement. “More

than 42,000 asylum seekers have arrived in New York City since last spring and we continue to surpass our moral obligations as we provide asylum seekers with shelter, food, health care, education, and a host of other services.”

This past Monday, migrant men outside the Watson Hotel told the Amsterdam News a move to Brooklyn—especially in Red Hook— would make it harder for them to hold down their jobs. A long line of bikes were parked outside the shelter, with former residents cycling in and out from their delivery app jobs as they await the city’s response to their holdout. Venezuelan migrant Rúben Fonseca said many of the shelter’s residents recently found jobs in Manhattan and are stressed about getting to work on time if they’re relocated.

“Sending us to Brooklyn though, we understand that as a problem because we are here to work and to get ahead and to become independent, not to live here off of the government and from whatever it gives us,” he said in Spanish. “So now they want to send us to where, well, we call it a tent, where in each

In-person services are available in English, Arabic, Armenian, Bengali, Chinese, French, Haitian-Creole, Hebrew, Korean, Russian, Spanish and Urdu, and other languages are yet to come.

New Yorkers can call 311 or visit New York City’s tax prep website to choose the best filing option for themselves and find the most convenient location for in-person or drop-off tax prep. A checklist of what documents New Yorkers need to bring with them to file in person and multilingual information about the services are available online.

African American Association of Co-op City Black History Month Film Festival

The African American Association of Co-op City will hold its 26th annual Black History Month Film Festival via Zoom on Saturday, Feb. 4, beginning at 1 p.m. The event will offer a libation prayer/ tribute to the ancestors: Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts III, Mary Alice, Stephen “Witch” Boss, Traci Braxton, Irene Cara, Coolio, Professor Lani Guinier, Ramsey Lewis, James Mtume, Nichelle Nichols, Pelé, Anita Pointer, Sidney Poitier, Bill Russell, Pharoah Sanders, Bernard Shaw, André Leon Talley and Charley Taylor.

Invite your family, friends, and neighbors for an afternoon of edu-tainment and to support this organization that supports the community. For more information, call 718-6715957. Zoom meeting ID: 825 6179 3270; passcode: 072086 NY; dial-in: 1-646-558-8656.

Join your local community board!

Brooklyn’s Community Board application season is in full swing. What exactly does a community board do, what powers do they

on page 27

Sign put up by protesting migrant men at the Watson Hotel (Tandy Lau photo)

Trump gives and takes

By HERB BOYD Special

to the AmNews

While former President Donald Trump spent last weekend bashing Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg was reportedly about to begin presenting testimony to a grand jury about Trump’s effort to pay off the adult film star Stormy Daniels before his election victory in 2016. According to several reports, Bragg recently empaneled the grand jury and will soon be presenting evidence.

Trump faces another legal battle in Georgia, where an Atlanta-area D.A. is weighing a grand jury’s report on him and his allies who sought to overturn

the 2020 presidential election.

The D.A. in Georgia may have an easier road to conviction than Bragg’s, which will largely rely on testimony from Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen, who made the payment to Daniels and has pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the hush-money gambit.

In addition to these legal threats, Trump is encumbered by his retention of classified documents and the charges of rape by E. Jean Carroll. None of this has deterred his attacks, including a lawsuit filed on Monday against reporter Bob Woodward and his publisher, Simon & Schuster.

The lawsuit against Woodward is for a little less than $50 million, based on the

potential sales from the audio book “The Trump Tapes.” Trump charges that he did not agree to Woodward’s publishing tapes of their conversations as an audio book.

The 20 interviews Woodward conducted with Trump were “a passport to the heart of darkness,” of Trump’s presidency, said the Guardian newspaper.

Woodward, who also wrote three print versions about Trump and his administration, and his publisher issued a joint statement calling the lawsuit “without merit.” They promise to “aggressively defend against it.”

What all of this amounts to is nothing more than Trump clamoring for attention as he provides momentum to his bid to return to the Oval Office.

Manhattan D.A. appoints One Hundred Black Men of New York’s Courtney

Bennett as new Harlem Office Director

By TANDY LAU

Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member

Courtney Bennett will direct the Manhattan District Attorney’s Harlem community office starting Feb. 6. The lifelong Harlemite most recently served as the executive director of One Hundred Black Men, Inc. of New York.

Bennett is also a former teacher and worked at local organizations like the Boys Choir of Harlem and the NY Mission Society’s Minisink Townhouse. He said his decision to move out of the nonprofit world into the public sector largely stems from the opportunity to assist Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a fellow Harlemite.

“I’m hoping that my experience in having open door policies will be used to have folks come in from different sectors, whether they’re young people, seniors, clergy, [or] folks with housing concerns,” said Bennett. “And I don’t want folks to just come when they have concerns because we need to make sure the D.A. understands what people are thinking about safety before something happens.”

He mentions his experience with Operation SNUG and the city’s Cure Violence model, which preemptively addresses gun violence through engaging with at-risk youth and settling disagreements long before a firearm can be picked up. Such work expands outside of just police involvement and frequently requires clergy, local business owners, and credible messengers.

“Courtney Bennett is a wonderful addition to the District Attorney’s Office,”

said Bragg. “As a Harlemite, Courtney has a deep understanding of the community’s rich history and needs. His wide-ranging experience, from teaching to non-profit work, and focus on anti-violence initiatives, makes him an asset and resource that Harlem can take pride in, and reflects his commitment to ensuring Manhattan is a safer and fairer borough. I look forward to working with Courtney and can’t wait for the rest of the neighborhood to do the same.”

According to the Manhattan D.A.’s website, the office provides assistance for domestic violence and immigration fraud. Linda Janneh is currently the director.

Bennett will be working out of the Harlem State Office Building on 125th Street and 7th Avenue. The branch initially opened in 1987 and was meant to serve the entire uptown population before Bragg’s predecessor Cy Vance opened another location in Washing-

ton Heights in 2015.

“It’s also important to know that the office is not going to be solely focused on Central Harlem, that East and West Harlem are just as important and each faces its own issues as cultures are slightly different across the board,” Bennett added. “And there are many different types of people living in Harlem. The office is open for all people that live in Harlem, regardless of race, creed, color, and so on. So I want folks to know that I am moving with the D.A.’s priorities and that we’re here to serve everyone in the community.”

Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member and writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.

Hudson County, Hoboken City raise Pan African flag for Black History Month

Hoboken residents were invited to “attend and celebrate the achievements and contributions of African Americans throughout the community and across the country” by taking part in the raising of the red, black and green Pan African flag on Wednesday, Feb. 1, at Hoboken City Hall. The tri-color Pan African flag––designed to represent people of the African diaspora and symbolize Black liberation in the United States––was also raised by Hudson County officials outside the William J. Brennan Courthouse on the same date.

National African American Read-In at Monmouth County

Join activist, educator and entrepreneur Rev. Kerwin Webb in Long Branch this Saturday, Feb. 4 (515 Bath Ave., Long Branch, N.J.) from 3–6 p.m. for the National African American Read-In. Webb is the education specialist with Interfaith Neighbors in Asbury Park and an associate minister at Encounter Christ Global Fellowship. As the founder of the Renew My Word (RMW) Foundation, Webb seeks to nurture leaders who are committed to community initiatives. For more information, email kerwin@kerwinwebb.com.

Register for “Meet Harriet Tubman,” Feb. 7 on Zoom

This Black History Month, Dr. Daisy Century returns to the Stoutsburg Sourland

African American Museum (SSAAM) at 6 p.m. on February 7 to portray abolitionist and American heroine Harriet Tubman in a free live virtual event. This event is free but requires registration. To sign up and add “Meet Harriet Tubman” to your calendar, go to http://ssaamuseum.org/tubman. Registrants will receive an email with the Zoom invitation link before the event. SSAAM can be reached via email at info@ssaamuseum.org.

Montclair Brewery creates beer to help preserve James Howe House

The Montclair Brewery will make a special Belgianstyle beer to help raise funds to preserve the historic James Howe House, locally known as the “Freed Slave House” (369 Claremont Ave.). The James Howe House is one of the town’s oldest homes, standing since 1780. It is where James Howe became Montclair’s first African American homeowner and yet was once listed for potential sale to an investor. The Howe House Belgian-Style ale “was brewed to highlight and support the preservation of the ‘Freed Slave House,’” said the Montclair Brewery on its website. “The house is one of the oldest standing houses since 1780 and is one of Montclair’s most important pieces of history. It was the first Montclair house to be owned by a Black person. The Howe House recently faced a potential erasure from history when it was put up for sale, targeting investors. The Friends of the Howe [H]ouse quickly organized and saved the house from an investor sale. A portion of all taproom sales from this beer will

Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg (Bill Moore photo)

By TANDY LAU

Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member

Author Brittney Dias couldn’t bring the Pacific Northwest to New York City, but her work remains as evergreen as her hometown of Tacoma, Wash. She penned her “Ava & Mae” series for Black youngsters who rarely see themselves in the children’s genre outside of picture books about the Civil Rights Movement.

“There are very [few] stories out there that just portray Black children—normal kids— having fun like white children get in their media,” said Dias. “And that is where they get started.”

Her characters open lemonade stands and organize fashion shows. This work started when Dias noticed on classroom read-alongs how overwhelmingly white the faculty and students were around her. To many of them, “Ava & Mae” served as anti-racism education and diversity training. But for the handful of Black children she encountered, Dias recalls the indelible impact her stories made on them.

“There was a girl in the front—and the little Black girls always go right to the front [and are] always so excited to see an empowering story that represents them,” she said. “She looked at the characters and she was like, ‘Wow, I love their hair, their hair looks just like my hair. I love Ava and Mae.’ And she’s touching her hair.”

The girl also touched Dias’s heart. Not too long ago, the author felt like the world was ending. Her public health studies at the University of Washington took a real-life turn when the pandemic hit in during her

THE URBAN AGENDA

By David R. Jones, Esq

NYCHA Resident Input Is Critical Piece to Fixing Agency’s Woes

The New York City Housing Authority plays a critical role in supplying affordable, decent and safe housing for nearly half a million low-income New Yorkers. But the day-to-day challenges of delivering on that promise – and crises that suggest an uncertain future – too often leave public housing residents with the lowest of expectations of management and leadership.

In short, NYCHA has a trust problem. The leaky roofs, busted elevators, scandal, mismanagement and coronavirus infections took a horrible toll in recent years on public housing residents, as well as muddied both NYCHA’s and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s role in New York City.

Something must be done to counter deep-seated apprehension by residents about privatization, evictions, the growing $40 billion backlog of repairs and the prospect of unrelenting squalid living conditions. These valid concerns won’t magically disappear without a big dose of openness that promotes a customer-centric culture by city’s biggest landlord.

junior year. Dias halted her long-term plans, ambivalent about the future. For a spell, she floated around the possibility of grad school. But the Black Lives Matter movement burgeoned over the summer. Soon, Dias found herself pouring all her energy into social advocacy—and found her calling.

She managed to parlay her public health education into a job at a startup as a racial equity advisor for Black entrepreneurship. Her new job planted seeds for more diverse stories. Dias soon secured funding and ultimately grew the idea into the “Ava & Mae” series and her children’s book company, Looking Lens. Today, her work can be found at Barnes & Noble, Walmart, and Amazon.

At this point, Dias was fully “adulting” and moved from home. She’s the daughter of a Jamaican immigrant and her father’s family largely came to the tri-state area when coming to the United States. New York City made sense, so she moved to Brooklyn.

Dias is fitting in swimmingly. These days, she’s frequently at the Brooklyn Museum pop-up market, meeting like-minded folks.

“There’s so much Black talent around here and Black entrepreneurship out here,” said Dias. “That contrast [with] the Seattle area, where there is not this amount of diversity, to being here and being able to work with so many fellow Black entrepreneurs, has been really refreshing.”

Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member and writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1

Let’s begin by giving NYCHA residents a role in the search for a replacement for NYCHA Chairman Gregory Russ, who resigned last week after roughly three and a half years.

Last September, following an arsenic contamination water scare at Manhattan’s Jacob Riis Houses, Mayor Eric Adams appointed Lisa Bova-Hiatt, the housing authority’s general counsel, as interim CEO. Prior to that, Russ served as both NYCHA Chair and CEO in keeping with tradition at the authority.

To his credit, Russ responded to NYCHA’s growing capital needs with a plan to preserve at least 25,000 units and keep public management through the “Preservation Trust.” Most importantly, under the Trust Law, residents for the first time are being empowered with the ability to shape what preservation looks like at their developments. The Community Service Society polled NYCHA residents on which of the three options they preferred – RAD-PACT, Preservation Trust or Section 9 housing. In response, the largest portion NYCHA residents -- “two out of five” -- said they lacked the information needed to register a preference.

However, of those residents surveyed who cited a preference, 78 percent preferred the new renovation programs – either through RAD-PACT or the Trust – instead of the status quo. That’s noteworthy, even though, not surprisingly, residents’ choice was driven by desperation for better living conditions.

The search for Russ’ replacement is a wonderful opportunity to further engage NYCHA residents, who comprise one of 16 New Yorkers. The question is what should be the mechanism for giving residents a role in the choice? Giving

a role to the Citywide Council of Presidents (CCOP) – a federally-recognized body that represents all NYCHA residents -- makes the most sense. At the very least, CCOP should be able to interview and register its preference for candidates under consideration.

For too long, the needs of NYCHA residents have been pushed to the back of the line. Case in point: public housing residents applied for at least $130 million of the state’s nowdepleted pandemic rent relief funds last year, but received none. As a result, thousands of NYCHA residents are facing an alarming $454 million in rental arrears. Our city, state and federal representatives cannot let this stand. What is more, NYCHA has repeatedly missed its targets for Section 3, which requires at least 30 percent of workers hired to be low-income local residents, with public housing tenants getting priority. That costs NYCHA residents badly needed jobs, training and wages in the construction trades as the housing agency deals with the backlog of repairs.

The NYCHA and housing affordability crisis was magnified by the coronavirus pandemic, which unleashed a tsunami of renters and mortgage defaulters facing eviction or foreclosure. They tended to be disproportionately low-income and people of color with a greater probability of being unable to pay their housing costs during the pandemic.

New York City is not alone. The cries for help are still coming from red states, blue states, big cities, and small towns. At last week’s U.S. Conference of Mayors’ winter meeting, mayors from across the country vented about their struggles to address housing affordability and increased homelessness.

The problem has disproportionately impacted people of color. Nationwide, half of Black renters spent more than 30 percent of their income on housing last year, the typical threshold at which experts say costs begin to crowd out other necessities, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Almost three out of 10 Black renter households (28 percent) and one in five White renter households (20 percent) are severely cost-burdened – defined as spending more than half of monthly income on rent, NAR said.

NYCHA is essentially the last resort for safe and adequate housing in New York City, one of the nation’s most expensive markets. NYCHA’s units are a critical part of the safety net, an alternative to house-poor and working class families otherwise forced onto the streets.

The best low-income housing ensures that tenants are ingrained in the process and part of the conversation. Everyone involved could benefit from seriously listening to and engaging public housing residents who are most at risk if NYCHA fails to deliver.

David R. Jones, Esq., is President and CEO of the Community Service Society of New York (CSS), the leading voice on behalf of low-income New Yorkers for more than 175 years. The views expressed in this column are solely those of the writer. The Urban Agenda is available on CSS’s website: www.cssny.org.

Mayor Adams’ second city address promises more jobs, funding

By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member

Despite a boom in jobs, the unemployment rate for Black New Yorkers is over three times the rate of white New Yorkers. Mayor Eric Adams, in his second State of the City address, held at the Queens Theatre, said he plans on tackling the issue, among others, with his “Working People’s Agenda.”

“This era of inequality must end,” said Adams to a crowded room of electeds and supporters.

“We are going to make sure that all New Yorkers finally have access to good jobs. We’re reimagining our city’s workforce development system from the bottom up.”

Adams is launching an apprenticeship accelerator and hopes to fill 30,000 apprenticeships by 2030. The apprenticeship program is specifically designed to funnel youth jobs into Black communities. It will provide on-the-job experience with employers, training

providers, educational institutions and labor unions.

“It’s real, and we need to get New Yorkers back to work, all New Yorkers, if we’re going to have an equitable recovery,” said Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Randy Peers at the event.

Peers said he definitely approves of the significant investment in an apprenticeship program, which he feels isn’t spoken enough about as a way to “build middle-class jobs.”

CEO of the New York City Employment and Training Coalition Gregory J. Morris also applauded Adams’s apprenticeship and community hiring programs. He said in a statement that apprenticeships offer an extraordinary opportunity to bridge access to careers in the sectors that drive the city’s postpandemic economy.

Adams has several other initiatives aimed at boosting the job market, including a biotech campus for startups, $25 billion in contracts to minority- and women-owned business enterprises

(M/WBEs) over the next four years, more jobs for people with disabilities, an expansion of the CUNY 2x Tech program with a focus on serving first-generation college students and communities of color, growing the cannabis industry, and robust summer youth employment (SYEP) programs.

“[A]s we work to create more jobs, we will also help New Yorkers train for the jobs that are in high demand right now—jobs in tech, renewable energy and nursing,” said Adams. “New York City needs our nurses, who did such incredible work during the pandemic. Nurses are the hands, heart and soul of our healthcare system, and we will never forget you.”

Nurses at various city hospitals went on strike this month over miniscule staffing and low pay. In response, Adams has included in his agenda a new Nursing Education Initiative in partnership with CUNY to build the nursing workforce. Adams said the initiative will support 30,000 current and aspir-

ing nurses over the next five years with everything from additional training to mentorship and clinical placements.

As usual, there were areas in the mayor’s address that advocate groups felt a huge theater setting, performances and a grand speech could not make up for.

The New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), a group that has been on the frontline of the asylum seeker crisis, sharply criticized Adams for “barely mentioning” the needs of immigrant New Yorkers in his address.

“Today, Mayor Adams spoke on creating jobs, safety and housing in New York City. ‘Everyone needs care, not just in crisis, but throughout our lives,’ said the Mayor, who then excluded immigrants and asylum seekers from his vision for NYC. By rendering us invisible[,] he failed to acknowledge a large proportion of New York’s population and the crucial role our communities have played in keeping New York open for business throughout

this pandemic,” said NYIC Executive Director Murad Awawdeh in a statement.

Awawdeh said that scapegoating asylum seekers and immigrants is “callous and dangerous.” He called for more investment in English Language Learner (ELL) Transfer Schools Programs, hiring bilingual social workers in schools, legal services, and expanding eligibility to CityFEPS and other vouchers programs to move people out of shelters and into long-term housing.

At least 78 organizations sent a letter to rail against budget cuts to critical city services while expanding and preserving the NYPD budget.

Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1

Mayor Eric Adams outlined a “Working People’s Agenda” in his second State of the City address, delivered at the Queens Theatre in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. (Ariama C. Long photo)

Tyre Nichols murdered by cops, community responds

By NAYABA ARINDE Amsterdam News Editor

“Tyre Nichols was publicly lynched. He is a victim of the chronically toxic police culture that too often treats Black and brown people as inconvenient and disposable objects,” said Marquez Claxton, director of public relations and political affairs for the Black Law Enforcement Alliance.

The deadly Memphis police beating of Nichols, which was filmed on multiple body and street cameras and televised on Jan. 27th, has got the nation talking and protesting.

The sheer barbarism of the deadly assault has talking heads and news anchors tearing up and referencing their own sons. With five Black police officers quickly arrested and charged, this particular murder touched everyone. The peaceful protests the police, politicians and some community advocates were prepped to call for, resulted in the days-later standing down of the white cop Preston Hemphill, who tried to taser Tyre and called on him to be stomped; and three EMTs who seemed to be derelict in their duty to render adequate assistance to the battered and bruised Nichols.

On Jan. 30th, an emotional Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. hosted a candlelight vigil

“to grieve and uplift Nichols’ memory” on the steps of Queens Borough Hall.

“Tyre Nichols was a beloved son. Tyre Nichols was a devoted father. Tyre Nichols was a dedicated friend, a talented skateboarder, and a positive influence on so many in his community.

Tyre Nichols should be alive today. Instead, he is yet another social media hashtag and the latest name to be carved into the never-ending list of innocent lives lost at the hands of law enforcement,” said Richards.

“This hurt I feel and we all feel as we watch the video of Tyre’s lynching is devastating, but we don’t have to process it alone,” he added

as he urged the community to join him at the vigil to “honor Tyre Nichols’ life and demand accountability for the officers and the system that stole it.”

As police training and reform become the buzzword responses on mainstream media by politicos, police misconduct apologists, and other hopeful activists, NYC Councilman

Charles Barron maintains that you cannot reform grandfathered-in police culture that leads to the killing of countless unarmed Black and brown people.

The response to the Tyre Nichols killing “has to be connected to something of substance,” Barron said.

“It is time to bring before the people the Community Power Act [Intro 0463], calling for an elected Civilian Complaint Review Board and Independent Agency Oversight of police misconduct.”

Saying that the people of the city should elect the CCRB, Barron determined, “History has clearly shown that even with the clear and compelling evidence of video documentation, the bias and racism of the justice system has not signifi-

cantly changed. It is time to demand a hearing or discharge bill to the full council in seeking the passage of the Community Power Act into law. Intro 04632022 Community Power Act [a local law to amend the New York City charter and the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to creating an elected civilian review board and independent prosecutor in repealing the civilian complaint review board and independent police investigation and audit board].”

Famed writer, author, speaker and historian—and Amsterdam News reporter and columnist—Herb Boyd wrote in this week’s paper that “Each day brings more arrests—now up to seven officers and three Memphis Fire Department personnel—and what might have been the motivation of these officers, including investigations that one of the officers might have targeted Nichols for a relationship with his ex-wife. What is absolutely incontrovertibly true are the words of Cerelyn Davis, the Memphis police chief, who defined the beating as an act of ‘inhuman-

were chatting about what seemed to be their defense.

They determined that Nichols must be on some sort of drug—no evidence of that; and that he went for one of their guns, though there was no evidence of that, either.

EMTs came in an ambulance, and seemed to take a while before rendering Nichols any assistance.

that his colleagues “stomp” him, when they catch him.

ity.’ And later added, ‘I felt that I needed to do something and do something quickly. I don’t think I’ve witnessed anything of that nature my entire career.’”

On Jan. 7, Memphis police from the SCORPION (Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods) ‘elite unit claimed they stopped Tyre Nichols for alleged reckless driving. Later, police chief C.J. Davies stated there was no evidence of reckless driving. The officers however, dragged Nichols out of his vehicle, yelled profanities at the bewildered Nichols, , amidst an onslaught of blows, asked “What did I do?” The white officer Preston Hemphill attempted to tase him, as Nichols managed to get out from up under the scrummage, Hemphill told the five Black officers to go after him, shouting, “I hope they stomp his ass.”

The officers caught up with Nichols, and commenced to do just that. He was kicked in the face, beaten with nightsticks, punched, dragged to lean against a car, and propped up when he slumped over. All the while the five cops

The young father was taken to a hospital and images of his swollen, broken body hit the media. Nichols died on Jan. 10, three days after the barbaric beating. Questions were asked. Answers were demanded, and within 19 days the five Black offices were named, arrested, and charged. While the images of the five officers were all over the media, especially after they were fired, questions were asked about the other cops who were on scene, and the white officer who was part of the initial stop, and demanded

It was only on Jan. 29, weeks after the five Black officers were fired and days after they were charged with second degree murder and other criminal charges, that community pressure led to Hemphill finally being relieved of duty and placed on paid administrative leave. Crump and the community are asking why Hemphill is still collecting his paycheck, and why he was not also arrested and charged.

On the same Monday, three EMTs and another officer were released from duty.

The video of the beating was shown on Jan. 27th, 2023. It was treated almost like a big film premier with all the extraordinary pomp and circumstance of mustsee-TV viewing.

Bibi Suares said on Facebook that it was “being promoted and advertised like the next blockbuster movie.”

Tyre Nichols

Go With The Flo

FLO ANTHONY

At a news conference on Jan. 30, Illinois Cook County State’s attorney Kim Foxx made the announcement to formally drop all charges against R. Kelly, stating the office had chosen to devote their limited resources to other sexual abuse cases, since the disgraced crooner already faces decades in prison on federal convictions. Lanita Carter, who reportedly told prosecutors 20 years ago that R. Kelly sexually abused her, but no charges were filed, says she is very upset over Foxx’s decision because she had hoped his conviction in this case would give her some closure. Carter told the Chicago Tribune that she is devastated with this new development. According to multiple outlets, Kelly was sentenced in June 2022 to 30 years in prison on federal racketeering charges in New York. He also faces at least 10 years when he is sentenced Feb. 23 in Chicago’s federal courthouse on charges related to child pornography and sexual misconduct with minors...

New York City’s Town Hall presentation “A Celebration of Composer Twinkie Clark” on Jan. 21, conducted by Damien Sneed, was a huge success. The star-studded lineup included multiple Grammy Award-winning singers Karen Clark Sheard and Faith Evans, tenor saxophonist and jazz vocalist Camille Thurman, and the Orchestra of Tomorrow, founded by Sneed. The historic evening also included a proclamation from New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ office declaring Friday, Jan. 21, 2023, Dr. Elbernita “Twinkie” Clark Day in New York City, which was presented by Faith Evans… Oprah Winfrey, who recently lost over 40 pounds with Weight Watchers, attended the premiere of Hulu’s “The 1619 Project” at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on Jan. 26 in Los Angeles. Based on the work of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and executive producer Nikole Hannah-Jones, Hulu’s “The 1619 Project” is a six-part docuseries that, according to Hulu, “places the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.” While in the City of Angels, Winfrey also celebrated her 69th birthday, which was Jan. 29. On Jan. 28, the talk show billionairess was presented a birthday cake at the 25th anniversary soiree for beauty brand Anastasia Beverly Hills. Guests who reportedly included her BFF Gayle King, Jennifer Lopez, and Heidi Klum sang Happy Birthday to her as the cake was served...

According to Deadline, Michael Jackson’s nephew Jaafar Jackson, who is Jermaine Sr.’s son, has been cast to play the King of Pop in the upcoming biopic titled “Michael.” The 26 year-old recording artist sounds like a combination of his uncle Michael and dad Jermaine. The biopic, which will be directed by Antoine Fuqua for Lionsgate, is being produced by GK Films, along with John Branca and John McClain, who are co-executors of the Michael Jackson Estate. Jaafar tweeted, “I’m humbled and honored to bring my Uncle Michael’s story to life. To all the fans all over the world, I’ll see you soon.”....

Church Ambassadors invite community to commune

The Bethany Baptist Church Ambassadors are inviting the community to Bethany “First Sunday Sharing Of Communion With Us.” In a community-wide invitation they said, “As Ambassadors for Beth-

any Baptist we provide a warm welcome, and social and religious support. Pastor Quinton Foster and Deacon Steven Robinson welcome new membership. The Bethany Ambassadors: Minister Leroy

Thomas, Deacon Steven Robinson, Phyllis Thomas LCSW-R, Rose Talbent, Maxine Chisolm and Debbie Underdue welcome all.” Bethany is located at 303 W. 153rd Street in Harlem, New York.

Min.LeroyThomas, Deacon Steven Robinson, PhyllisThomas LCSWR. Rose Talbent, Maxine Chisulm, and Debbie Underdue (Bill Moore photos)

Coalition of 100 Black Women installs new officers

The Coalition of 100 Black Women held their installation of new officers at the Adam Clayton Powell State Office Building on Saturday, Jan. 21st, with Attorney General Letitia James.

Written by David Goodson

HBCU Honors Celebration for all-star night of Black excellence

Been working on this for soooo long, but it never happened and I figured it never would. Alas, now I have a shot to deliver it. The IT in question… My award winning acceptance speech!!! As a youngin’ I dreamt I would be Rookie Of The Year and later Most Valuable Player in baseball, then it morphed into a Fighter of The Year and then later turned into a Grammy win. Real life didn’t agree with that path, but it has to be something….well I may have found it. Turns out my Howard University diploma might be of some other use thanks to the inaugural HBCU Honors. Taped live from Miami’s Black Archives Historic Lyric Theater, the inaugural HBCU Honors lauds eight extraordinary alumni from historically Black colleges and universities whose ground-breaking achievements have helped change the world. The televised event’s world-premiere is Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023, on streaming platforms including Crackle, Plex, and LG.

Emmy award-winning producer, actress, and proud graduate from Howard University, Wendy Raquel Robinson (“The Game”) hosts the star-studded blacktie affair that is unapologetically all about the greatness of HBCUs.

From well-known trailblazers and game changers to hidden figures, the inaugural awards show spotlights notable HBCU alumni who epitomize Black excellence. Having broken glass ceilings to reach the pinnacle in their respective fields, these titans are leaders in aviation, innovation, media and entertainment, entrepreneurship, business, public service, and academia.

“Our stories matter, and they need to be told through our cultural lens,” said North Carolina A&T alumna Jessica Garret Modkins, award show executive producer and director. “As a fourth generation HBCU graduate, it was imperative that we produce an award show to amplify the greatness and the impact of HBCUs like never before,” the CEO and Founder of Hip Rock Star continued.

The all-star night of Black excellence includes tributes, awards presentations, and musical performances, and will feature special guests Oprah Winfrey, Reverend Al Sharpton, and Tyler Perry’s “House of Payne” star Cassie Davis.

“I am so proud to join you all for this inaugural HBCU Honors Celebration as a proud HBCU alum myself. I have experienced first hand how supportive and valuable an HBCU education is… and have been honored to give back and support throughout my career,” said Winfrey. “I want to personally recognize all of the inaugural honorees, especially Dr. Glenda Glover of my alma mater TSU [Tennessee State University] as our HBCU Honors Alumnus of the Year, as they have all certainly put in the important work of making sure these institutions continue to create safe spaces for excellence to flourish. I also want to thank you, Michelle Bailey and Jessica Garrett Modkins, for your work in creating this special event,” the groundbreaking media executive added.

Other distinguished Honorees include:

Dr. Sheila Chamberlain “Breaking Barriers Award” (Spelman College) - the first Black female combat intelligence pilot

Curtis Symonds “Vanguard Award” (Central State University) - Cable Television pioneer, HBCUGo.TV founder and CEO

Aunjanue Ellis “Media & Entertainment Luminary Award” (Tougaloo College) - Oscar-nominated actress (“King Richard”), and producer

Steve Pamon “Cultural Innovator Award” (Morehouse College) - Verzuz President and Grammy award winner as executive producer of Beyonce’s “Homecoming”

Pinky Cole “Entrepreneur & Empowerment Award” (Clark Atlanta University) - founder and CEO of the Slutty Vegan restaurant chain and The Pinky Cole Foundation

Stephen A. Smith “HBCU Champion Award” (Winston-Salem State University) - ESPN commentator (“First Take” and “NBA Countdown”), Author (Straight Shooter: A Memoir of Second Chances and First Takes)

Michael S. Regan “Distinguished Public Service Award” (North Carolina A&T State University) - the first Black man to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Dr. Glenda Baskin Glover “HBCU Alumnus of the Year Award” (Tennessee State University & Clark Atlanta University) – the first female president of Tennessee State University and Vice-Chair of The White House Initiative on HBCUs

Viewers will also enjoy must-see musical performances by Morehouse College alumnus and Grammy® nominated artist Canton Jones, the award-winning Bethune-Cookman Marching Wildcats, and the renowned 105 Voices of History National HBCU Choir, which is “the nation’s first and only national choir for HBCUs,” according to Renata Roy the choir’s visionary and founder.

In partnership with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF), HBCU Honors is raising awareness about the greatness of HBCUs while raising needed funds (Text TMCF to 41444) to ensure students reach their HBCU graduation goal. George F. Spencer, TMCF Chief Development Officer speaks on the organization’s mission and its scholars at the award show.

Spelman alumna Michelle M. Bailey, HBCU Honors creator and co-executive producer, said, “The award show is not just about amplifying current outstanding HBCU alumni.” In HBCU pride fashion, the award show was created with a multi-focused purpose. “But, it is also an opportunity to support future honorees… HBCU students who are our next gen leaders.”

The HBCU Honors™ is supported in partnership with the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB), which is the official, accredited destination sales and marketing organization for Greater Miami and Miami Beach.

Additionally, the HBCU Honors is supported in partnership with APEX Ventures, which is a deeptech and medical focused venture capital firm, run by founders with complimentary backgrounds driven by the same mission: “Build the next generation of world’s leading companies.”

Over and out. Holla next week. Till then, enjoy the nightlife.

(Seitu Oronde photos)

Union Matters

February is Black History Month. It’s not about validation—it’s about involvement and action

Gregory Floyd

February is Black History Month. It’s a time to celebrate and educate. It’s a time to acknowledge accomplishments, delight in a rich heritage, and retell the history of a people too often forgotten, mistreated, and misunderstood. The originators of the idea for a Black history celebration were historians Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson and his associate, Jesse Moorland. They created the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915 to promote Black history and recognize achievements of African Americans. But they knew that was not enough. As Woodson argued, “If a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition; it is a negligible factor in the thoughts of the world and stands in danger of being exterminated.” So, in 1926, they launched “Negro History Week” on the second week of February, because it coincided with former President Abraham Lincoln’s and abolitionist Frederick Douglass’ birthdays. But it took 50 years for the week to become a month when former President Gerald Ford created Black History Month in 1976.

Today, Black History Month is not without controversy. To some critics, empowerment is not accomplished by one month of recognition. Some find it outdated, only symbolic, not necessary, and even separatist. For me, there is no controversy. Black History Month is not about validation, it’s about involvement; it’s about action. It’s both a time of recognition and a call to duty. In labor unions, there’s an important organizing principle used to increase our numbers, demonstrate power, and harvest our next generation of unionists, which is applicable here. Especially in order to grow a cadre of potential leaders who will take us to the next plateau, we must inspire and excite young people. We must also remember and thank those who have led the way with words and actions that changed history. Surely, there is tremendous wisdom in the words of Winston Churchill, who said, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

The celebration of February as Black History Month should not be about avoiding mistakes, but instead, about creating more accomplishments, breaking more barriers, and earning the respect of all people. And, in keeping with the tradition of February as the month for acknowledging the best in many categories—from the Super Bowl to the Grammy Awards—let’s use the occasion to honor our own “Best In Class” list and work to add more names to it. For sure, the list is already long with many giants and firsts past and present, including Dr. King, former President Barack Obama, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Congressman and Chairman of the Democratic Caucus Hakeem Jeffries. But Black History Month—which remembers the past, celebrates the present, and looks to the future—should also be a time that helps to motivate, mentor, and nurture our next generation of champions in the struggle for social and labor justice.

Unvaccinated NY workers still want jobs back

By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member

New York State Supreme Court Judge Gerard Neri ruled to strike down a statewide mandate for medical staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19 on Jan. 13. Governor Kathy Hochul has since indicated that the overturning of the mandate will not allow any unvaccinated workers to get their jobs back.

Hochul’s office said that the state has already filed a notice of appeal this Tuesday with an intent to challenge the decision.

“Governor Hochul is committed to protecting the health and safety of New Yorkers, including our health care workers, who are entrusted with caring for the most vulnerable among us,” said Hochul’s office in response to Amsterdam News’ inquiry.

Neri declared the vaccination man-

dates for medical staff “null, void, and of no effect,” similar to when Staten Island Supreme Court Judge Ralph Porzioa deemed the vaccine mandate “arbitrary and capricious.” Porzioa reinstated 16 sanitation workers with back pay in that case.

Those rulings are a drop in the bucket considering an injunction placed by the State Supreme Court in Onondaga County is still in effect, and the State Department of Health has won several other legal challenges against mandates.

Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio first instituted the vaccine mandate in October 2021. Over 12,000 city workers filed for religious or medical exemptions. By March 2022, Mayor Eric Adams had lifted the mandate for professional athletes and entertainers. In November, he did the same for private employers. The mandate rollbacks have been cited in a number of lawsuits chal-

lenging the city’s denials of religious accommodations.

District Council 37, AFSCME, AFLCIO (DC 37) is New York City’s largest public employee union. A DC 37 spokesperson said that about 2,000 unvaccinated city employees to date lost their jobs due to the mandates.

DC 37 declined to comment further on efforts to restore worker’s jobs due to obligations in an ongoing court battle with Adams and his administration.

Amsterdam News reached out to the Mayor’s office for comment, but did not receive a response by press time.

Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting: https://bit.ly/amnews1

President, Teamsters Local 237 and Vice President at-Large on the General Board of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters

January 24, 2023 - Albany, NY - Governor Kathy Hochul announces expansion of the Capital Region Crime Analysis Center and highlights the State of the State proposals to increase funding for local law enforcement agencies (Darren McGee/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul photo)

Prospect Park museum to include history of Indigenous people, enslaved Africans

By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member

Prospect Park, known as Brooklyn's Backyard, has received a prestigious grant to “ReImagine” the Lefferts Historic House to be more inclusive. Park leadership is embracing a dark legacy of displaced Lenapehoking Native Americans, whose ancestral lands the park’s museum was built on, and the Lefferts family’s enslavement of Africans in the 18th century.

“In a time when history is being censored or selectively retold, Borough President Reynoso believes in what it means to know our true histories. This effort to reimagine the Lefferts Historic House Museum is about owning up to Brooklyn’s past,” said Brooklyn Borough President (BP) Antonio Reynoso’s office.

The museum is a landmarked Dutch farmhouse owned by the Lefferts family in old Flatbush in the 1700s. The farmhouse was originally on Flatbush Avenue near Maple Street, but was moved in 1917 to its current site in the park. The Lefferts were one of Kings County’s largest slave owning families, which is why you can see the Lefferts name on street signs and subway stations, said the BP office.

Maria Carrasco, vice president of public programs at Prospect Park Alliance, said that the move was during a time of “nostalgia” for Dutch colonial architecture and heritage. Carrasco hopes to use the museum as a “vessel” to display how marginalized communities were treated in the 1700s and explore their historic contributions to today’s society.

“Right before COVID, we knew it would be closed for at least a year or two for restorations. That was an opportunity for us to reimagine Lefferts,” said Carrasco. “To shift our focus from the colonizers’ point of view to that of the Africans enslaved by the Lefferts family as well as the indigenous peoples whose ancestral land we stand on and was never ceded. That also came about because of what was happening with Black Lives Matter.”

To date, the Alliance has identified the names of 25 enslaved Black people at the site between 1783 and 1827. The Lefferts family inherited some people, while some were born at the house and others were bought. According to available historical documents, these people rebuilt the Lefferts home after the Battle of Brooklyn during the Revolutionary War and ran the farm.

Of the known 25, the documents indicate that a Black man named Isaac was one who escaped. He was sold by Jacob Bergen in Red Hook to John Lefferts for $250 in 1818. Isaac managed to plot an escape three months later for himself, his wife, Betsey,

and her three sons, who were enslaved at a farm across the street. It’s not known what happened to him afterward, said Carrasco.

“People still today will argue with me that there was no slavery in the North and that there wasn’t slavery in Brooklyn, or that slavery was kinder here, which it was not,” said Carrasco. “People were just as brutal here and you’re still enslaving someone. It doesn’t matter how nice you are. It’s still cruel. I definitely want to change that narrative.”

The BP’s office added that too few people understand the violent history of how the Lenape were forced off their ancestral land before it became Brooklyn, first by European colonizers and later by the US government.

Carrasco noted that since most of the old town and village of Flatbush is in Prospect Park, it’s likely that enslaved people at the Lefferts House could be buried at the nearby Flatbush African Burial Ground discovered over two decades ago at an abandoned lot at the intersection of Church and Bedford Avenues in what is now a predominantly Black and Caribbean neighborhood.

Prospect Park Alliance President Morgan Monaco, the first Black woman to hold the position, said that the reImagine Lefferts initiative is a critical step for the Alliance. She is greatly appreciative of the Mellon Foundation for recognizing the importance of the work.

“This project is an important step of many to help to heal deep-seeded wounds from our nation’s past, and help anchor the narratives of those who have traditionally been silenced,” said Monaco in a statement. “The work we are undertaking at the museum would not be possible without those who came before us, and we look forward to partnering with

and supporting the many civic leaders and organizations who have led the way in the Brooklyn community over the past many years.”

The park was awarded the $275,000 Humanities in Place grant from the Mellon Foundation. It will be used to fund pro -

gramming at the park's museum that recognizes its role as a site of dispossession and enslavement. The Alliance is currently restoring the more than 200-yearold building with $2.5 million in funding from the Brooklyn Delegation of the City Council. When the museum reopens this summer, the plan is to highlight the legacies of these lost Brooklyn souls and create open dialogues around race, colonization, and human rights.

Additionally, the programming will include the creation of a Juneteenth Way, and feature works from renowned Black photographers, as well as Black and indigenous poets.

There is also a community conversation about the museum’s history open to the public on Saturday, Feb. 11, at the Prospect Park Boathouse. RSVP for free at prospectpark.org/reimagine-lefferts-conversation.

Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting: https://bit.ly/amnews1

RUPPERT HOUSING CO. INC. 1779 SECOND AVENUE, NEW YORK, NY 10128 • MITCHELL-LAMA CO-OP THREE & FOUR BEDROOM APARTMENT WAITING LIST ARE BEING OPENED

*Based upon the number of persons in household. **Subject to change.

OCCUPANCY STANDARDS:

THREE (3) BEDROOM: No fewer than five (5) persons, (B) parent(s) or guardian(s) with two children of the opposite sex, (C) a household of three adults with one child where at least one adult is the parent or guardian of such child, or (D) a household of one parent or guardian and his or her three children shall occupy a three-bedroom apartment.

FOUR (4) BEDROOM: Four (4) bedroom apartments. No fewer than (6) persons.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: (FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH ANY OF THE FOLLOWING WILL RESULT IN DISQUALIFICATION)

• Applications are not transferable.

• Applicants must be financially responsible.

• Current Shareholders are not eligible to apply.

• Applicant must be at least 18 Years old at the time of the lottery.

• Preference will be given to documented veterans selected in the lottery.

• Any applicant that does not have the proper family composition will automatically be disqualified.

• ONE REQUEST ONLY PER APPLICANT. Any applicant placing a duplicate request will not be entered into the lottery. An applicant can only submit a paper entry or an on-line entry. If applicants enter on-line and also mail in a letter or postcard, they have submitted a duplicate request and will not be eligible for the lottery.

• Applicants can only be on one waiting list at a development. If applicants have the right family composition, they can apply to more than one lottery. However, if they are selected for more than one lottery, they will have to choose which waiting list they prefer.

• An applicant whose name is selected in a lottery cannot be included in the family composition of any other applicant who is selected in the same lottery for that particular housing company development.

Failure to comply will result in the disqualification of both applicants.

Additional Information: A $75 non-refundable application fee will be required at the completion of the lottery. Waiting list will be established by a limited lottery. There will be a limit of 50 applicants drawn from the Three Bedroom Lottery and a limit of 50 applicants drawn from the Four Bedroom Lottery.

HOW TO APPLY: ONLINE You can now apply to a lottery online through Mitchell-Lama Connect. Applying is fast, easy and you will be able to check the status of your entry to see if you have been selected. To apply on line go to: https://a806-housingconnect.nyc.gov/nyclottery/lottery.html#ml-home

BY MAIL Mail Post Card or Envelope by regular mail. Registered and Certified Mail will not be accepted. Clearly print your full first and last name, current address and last 4 digits of your social security number and the bedroom size lottery that you wish to apply for. If you do not include the last 4 digits of your social security number or fail to indicate the bedroom size lottery, you will not be entered into the lottery. Mail post card or envelope to:

DEADLINE: Requests must be received by: FEBRUARY 24, 2023

YOU CANNOT APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE DEVELOPMENT. • EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY SUPERVISED BY THE NYC DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING PRESERVATION AND

Lefferts Historic House is an 18th-century Flatbush farmhouse and New York City landmark. (Photo contributed by Prospect Park Lefferts Historic House)

Police culture and not race on trial?

As details of the tragic murder of Tyre Nichols on Jan. 7 accumulate, it will perhaps never explain why five Black officers felt compelled to batter the young Black man to death. Each day brings more arrests— now up to seven officers and three Memphis Fire Department personnel—and more of what might have been the motivation of these officers, including that one of them might have targeted Nichols because of a reported relationship with his ex-wife.

What is absolutely incontrovertibly true are the words of Cerelyn Davis, the Memphis police chief, who defined the beating as an act of “inhumanity” and later added, “I felt that I needed to do something and do something quickly. I don’t think I’ve witnessed anything of that nature my entire career.”

Her quick decisions in removing the officers from duty prompted a variety of speculations, not the least of which was whether such speedy action would have occurred if the officers had been white. A number of examples to the contrary were posted on social media outlets, including the time it took to fire the police officer involved in the killing of Black teenager Laquan McDonald in Chicago, who was fatally shot and killed by a white officer. It took more than a year to release the dash cam video of that incident.

The officers are facing several charges, with the most serious being seconddegree murder, and, once again, there’s been a barrage of commentary that it should be a first-degree murder charge based on premeditation. This raises the question of how long does it take to premeditate and then commit a crime?

As the officers are brought to trial, we are sure to hear more perplexing and troubling discourse. On this occasion, the only difference from the multitude of others we have recently experienced is that race may not be a crucial factor. Let’s see how the system and police culture are put on trial.

On police murder of Tyre Nichols: there must be change, accountability

By Lieut. CHARLES P. WILSON (Ret.)

As a Black man and retired police officer, I have been crying quite a bit lately. Crying from a deep sense of outrage, grief, shame and fear.

Outrage because, again, yet another unarmed Black man has been brutally killed by police officers. In communities of color throughout the United States, police use of deadly force, acts of misconduct and abuse have now seemingly grown to epidemic proportions. While people of color should be able to rely upon law enforcement to keep them safe, they now may feel victimized in the streets and in their homes by the very people who are supposed to protect them, not knowing if their name will be the next to be added to the ever-growing statistics.

Grief, because of the pain that I know Tyre Nichols’s family and close friends must now be going through. From everything I have heard, he was one of those who should have been able to rely upon the police to protect and serve. That he was abused, disrespected and treated inhumanely must be considered as incontrovertible. Yet, in this one tragic and inhumane event, history has repeated itself and proven yet again that the acts of some in policing are inherently biased against men and women of color and against low income communities.

I have also experienced a great deal of shame because of the fact that each of the ones who killed Tyre looked exactly like me. They allegedly swore the same oaths that I did to protect and serve the community. They were supposed to uphold the 200-plus-year legacy of every Black law enforcement officer who has ever served. They brought unearned destruction upon the more than 50 years of work that Black law enforcement officers have exerted to bring about change in our communities. They debased and dishonored the badge that they carried.

We can only presume that these officers were intent on sending a message, not only to Tyre but also to all others in view: If you ran from them, disregarded their presumed authority, there would be consequences to pay.

But most of all, fear, because I worry that my grandsons, great-grandsons and sons-in-law may one day become victims of this insanity. I carry a badge in my pocket that I would hope will provide me with some level of immunity when approached by one of the rogues on the job. But my family members will probably not have that luxury. I can only pray that they will remember the things I have taught them about how to survive a police encounter, and that they are able to live to fight another day. Fear, because I know in my heart

that Tyre Nichols will probably not be the last, or even the only death in this coming year.

As members of one of the nation’s oldest professions, we can no longer allow inappropriate or illegal actions of law enforcement to go unpunished and unaccountable. Nor can we continue to disregard the disproportional deaths of Black lives at the hands of those whose duty it is to protect and serve. No longer can it be claimed that these incidents are mere anomalies that rarely take place and are being taken out of context. Nor can we any longer say that these incidents are perpetrated singularly by our White counterparts.

The words of Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis after the brutal death of George Floyd, speak truth to power: “Being Black in America should not be a death sentence.” As members of a profession that, by its very mandate, is required to protect and serve, we must ensure that those among us who transgress are stripped of their anonymity and ousted in the most public fashion possible, regardless of who they are and what station they maintain.

As a profession, we must accept the historical facts of our founding and admit that the institution of policing, as it is currently practiced in these United States, is inherently biased against people of color

See POLICE MURDER on page 31

Can reimagining city budgets make our communities safer?

By SONALI KOLHATKAR

Last year was the deadliest on record for police killings in the United States. According to a Washington Post database, law enforcement officers shot and killed 1,096 people in 2022.

And that’s probably an understatement.

Elinor R. Tatum: Publisher and Editor in Chief

ed from asphyxiation.

In contrast, Campaign Zero’s Mapping Police Violence project includes any action that a law enforcement officer takes that results in a fatal encounter. Rad’s project counted 1,158 police killings in 2021 compared to 1,048 listed in the Post. (Final results for 2022 are not yet available.)

Member

Alliance for Audited Media

Kristin Fayne-Mulroy: Managing Editor

Nayaba Arinde: Editor

Cyril Josh Barker: Digital Editor

Damaso Reyes: Investigative Editor

Siobhan "Sam" Bennett: Chief Revenue Officer and Head of Advertising

Wilbert A. Tatum (1984-2009): Chairman of the Board, CEO and Publisher Emeritus

According to Abdul Nasser Rad, a research director at Campaign Zero, the Post “only captures incidents where a police officer discharges their firearm and the victim is killed.” This means that it would not count the 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minnesota, for example, which result-

The upshot is that in spite of the huge public attention to police violence since 2020, police are actually killing more people than before. We can expect 2023 to be even deadlier if the years-long trend continues.

Another clear conclusion is that communities of color face a much higher risk.

According to the Washington Post, Black Americans “are killed by police at more than twice the rate of white Americans.” Mapping Police Violence puts the figure closer to three times. Police killings of Latinos and Indigenous people are similarly disproportionate.

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, some activists called for “defunding the police.” They argued that over-funded police departments—which can often consume a third or more of city budgets—were using their resources to kill people. These advocates wanted to shift some of those funds to reduce poverty, improve mental health and take other steps to make people safer.

That seemingly reasonable call was greeted with a reactionary backlash. Politicians across the spectrum, including President Joe Biden, promised to increase police funding instead. Biden even begged local governments to use federal stimulus funds to bolster their police departments in 2022.

But does giving police more money result in greater public safety?

One recent study analyzing funding for hundreds of police departments over nearly

See CITY BUDGETS on page 31

The burden of the blue: Police mental health in the wake of Tyre Nichols’s murder

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not represent those of the New York Amsterdam News. We continue to publish a variety of viewpoints so that we may know the opinions of others that may differ from our own.

ARMSTRONG WILLIAMS

The atrocities that law enforcement officers witness on a daily basis can have a profound impact on their mental health. Officers are witnesses to the worst of humanity: disturbing images of women beaten by their husbands, dead children and bodies mitigated beyond recognition. These officers endure trials that no person should ever have to face, yet they continue to leave their homes and families every day, not knowing if they will return home alive or even return as the same person their loved ones once knew. Therefore, we must prioritize and invest in mental health resources for law enforcement to ensure that the individuals responsible for protecting our lives daily are in a stable and healthy mental state.

Tyre Nichols was beaten, battered and murdered by five law enforcement officers who took an oath to protect their community. Their job was to safeguard the citizens, not to take their lives. I have no sympathy for them, and neither should you—they killed a person in cold blood who was going about his daily business. He could have been you.

The question, therefore, is not only whether these officers, and others like them who commit such atrocities, should be held accountable and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law but how we can further prevent such situations in the future.

Take away the uniform and a police officer is no different from a civilian. The actual difference lies in their mental state. Police have witnessed things that no sane person would ever want to experience or voluntarily choose to see. And they must continue to go out daily, knowing they will probably encounter similar situations.

To prevent further indiscriminate violence by police officers, it is crucial that they are equipped

Happy Black History Month

not only with physical protection, such as body armor and firearms, but also with the necessary mental state to protect others. It is well-known that individuals who commit acts of violence, such as school shootings or mass killings, are not mentally sound. Unfortunately, the same applies to police officers who commit such heinous acts of violence. With the inordinate power they wield over civilians, we must hold them to a higher standard for their actions but treat their mental state like anyone else’s to ensure they don’t need to be held accountable for anything. This means ensuring they are in the right mind before being deployed in the field.

I am convinced that the officers who brutally attacked Tyre Nichols were mentally ill and unstable. It is incomprehensible that they would beat an innocent man to the brink of death simply because he did not comply with their commands. I have encountered many police officers who have faced situations of a fleeing suspect, and none of them felt compelled to act in the way that these officers in Memphis did. This is not because they are necessarily better people, but because they are mentally stronger, or at least haven’t experienced an event or a group of events that has made them mentally unequipped to wear a badge.

The actions of unstable police officers have put America at a crossroads. Will we create an environment where law enforcement is hindered and exposed to increased danger, both from a legal and physical standpoint, or will we provide them with the resources to continually uphold the standards of professionalism expected of those who serve and protect? This

speakable acts, there are millions of officers out there who would never do such a thing. For those officers, it is crucial that they are provided with the appropriate tools to discharge their duties to the best of their ability. This includes ensuring that they have access to mental health professionals so they can cope with and process even the most disturbing events they may witness, rather than allowing it to fester and cause them to harm— or even kill—innocent people.

Law enforcement officers are people like you and me. They have human emotions and experiences that they carry with them throughout their lives. No situation they encounter is something taken lightly; it exacts a heavy toll and adds a burden that has an impact on how they discharge their duties.

However, they also carry immense power in their role, which must be exercised with caution to protect the rights and liberties of those they serve. What these Memphis officers have done is done, and now we must move forward to prevent these tragic situations from occurring in the future. Investing in mental health resources for officers is how we start. Law enforcement is disrespected by being defunded and not supported, which is why so many have retired, and others refuse to consider the case altogether, leading to nationwide police shortages. Officers need support, too, and a part of that is having healthy relationships with the communities they protect and serve. The job is demanding and taxing, and only some people are willing to accept a position where they may not return home to their loved ones. We all benefit when we’re able to trust each other.

Armstrong Williams (@ ARightSide) is manager / sole owner of Howard Stirk Holdings I & II Broadcast Television Stations and the 2016 Multicultural Media Broadcast Owner of the year. www. armstrongwilliams.co | www. howardstirkholdings.com

Happy Black History Month, Amsterdam News readers. How will you make the most of this short month? If you have fallen short on your New Year’s resolutions, I always like to use the beginning of the new month as a reset—and no better month than February, when we celebrate the excellence of Black people throughout the diaspora, to add (or subtract) certain things to your life.

Many of you know that Carter G. Woodson initiated the first iteration of what we now celebrate. Woodson established Negro History Week on Feb. 7, 1926. Throughout the years, the acknowledgment and celebrations have led to what we now know as Black History Month.

As the author of “Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream,” I like to make my Black History Month celebrations diasporic, in that I like to include the contributions of Black Americans, as well as Afro-Caribbeans and Africans, in the United States and abroad. I also like to take time to recognize and celebrate people who are still alive and making contributions for a better and more just and equitable society.

I also like to recognize people who may quietly go about their jobs without much fuss or fanfare, but are making the lives of so many people that much better.

During Black History Month, we can celebrate our teachers and the janitors who keep our buildings clean and running smoothly. We can celebrate the bus driver

or subway conductor who gets us to our destination safely, or the garbage collectors who keep our communities clean.

I often think of the wisdom of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he told us, “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.’” No matter our occupation, we can contribute to the collective efforts of making Black History Month a true celebration of the contributions and accomplishments of Black people, no matter where they are or what they do for a living.

How do you plan on celebrating this month? Will you research a famous Black person and learn more about them and their contributions? Will you go out of your way to recognize someone in your community who is doing the silent work of keeping your neighborhood clean and safe? Will you contribute to a Black-led organization so they can continue doing their work and training future leaders? Will you take time to recognize the ways in which you contribute to Black History?

Christina Greer, Ph.D., is an associate professor at Fordham University; author of “Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream”; and co-host of the podcast FAQ-NYC and host of The Blackest Questions podcast at TheGrio.

CHRISTINA GREER PH.D.

"No matter our occupation, we can contribute to the collective efforts of making Black History Month a true celebration of the contributions and accomplishments of Black people."

Caribbean Update

Haiti crisis worsens; Bahamas evacuates diplomats

By BERT WILKINSON Special to the AmNews

As one of crisis-ridden Haiti’s closest neighbors, The Bahamas has always complained about having to absorb and cater to thousands of Haitian migrants fleeing economic and political crises, gang violence, and other issues at home.

Official estimates of the number of Haitians in The Bahamas are usually 30 percent of the population, heading to around 350,000. Many of them are poor, unable to fill highpaying jobs, or without the skills needed to build aesthetic homes in a nation whose lifeline is tourism. So Bahamian officials have commenced a campaign to clampdown on Haitians arriving there illegally as the crisis of violence and a collapsed government structure worsens.

Late last week, Prime Min-

ister Phillip Davis ordered the evacuation of the entire Bahamian diplomatic staff in Haiti, fearing the situation was deteriorating to a point where the safety of the staff could no longer be guaranteed. The diplomats were transited through the neighboring Dominican Republic.

The evacuation order came just hours after authorities reported the deaths of 15 police officers at the hands of marauding gangs. Angry colleagues reacted by storming the official residence of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, contending that nothing from the political top was being done to alleviate their plight. The Caribbean Community nation of close to 12 million people has been in a state of turmoil ever since suspected Colombian rebels stormed the residence of President Jovenel Moïse,, assassinating him in July of 2021, injuring his wife and plung-

ing the country into a level of chaos that is only worsening.

The 15-nation regional Caricom bloc, of which Haiti was the last to join in 2002, said in a statement that it “is deeply concerned” about the political situation, the challenge police officers are facing, and the general breakdown of security in the country.

“The anger and dismay of the police at the gruesome killings of their colleagues—78 killed since July 2021 and 14 to date this January—are shared by all. However, abandoning the role of the security forces to protect every citizen and maintain public order further destabilizes the country. The

protest actions by members of the police service against the prime minister cannot be condoned,” the bloc said.

As an indication of how panicky authorities in The Bahamas are, the cabinet said this week it will defy the advice of the United Nations to suspend the deportations of Haitians seeking refuge there. Police and the coast guard said that they repatriated more than 5,000 Haitians last year. Immigration Minister Keith Bell said the country has no choice.

“The United Nations obviously seek to ensure that there is harmony, there’s unity among all nations, so obviously that is his job. We in The

U.S. Immigration Weekly Recap

Seventy-seven Democratic lawmakers are slamming President Biden over what they claim is his restrictive asylum policy for migrants crossing the southern border. This comes as House Republicans bicker with their GOP Senate colleagues on the way forward out of the nightmare that we find ourselves in on the hotbutton issue yet again. Suffice it to say, no side has any real solutions, with some in both parties being at the far extremes of the issue: one side asking for open immigration access and the other preferring to slam the border shut.

Here are the headlines making immigration news this past week.

1: No solution to House Republicans running power-drunk House Republicans have so far signaled little to no interest in passing a bipartisan immigration bill, and instead have focused on oversight hearings on border security. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said they plan to put together a “big border security package” that would go through the Judiciary and Homeland Security committees.

2: Democrats bash the President

A group of 77 Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to President Joe Biden on January 25, criticizing his administration’s policies restricting asylum access for migrants crossing the southern border.

The letter, signed by New Jersey Sens. Bob Menendez and Cory Booker, New York Rep. Alexandria Oca-

sio-Cortez, and 74 others, said the new policies announced on Jan. 5 to open more legal options for migrants from Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba while eliminating pathways for those nationalities to claim asylum at the border are “disappointing.”

3: These U.S. states suing Biden administration

Twenty US states, led by Republican attorneys general, including Idaho, are suing the Biden administration over immigration. The premise of the Jan. 24 lawsuit is that the recent immigration program laid out by Biden will burden states with more problems and an influx of people, and has no legal authority. The lawsuit relates to the Biden administration change in immigration policy that would turn away more migrants but still allow 360,000

Bahamas have a job to do to ensure that we protect The Bahamas for Bahamians. It’s as simple as that. The Bahamas as all governments have consistently said we cannot absorb these persons who come in The Bahamas illegally. If you want to come to The Bahamas as a tourist or want to work, then there is a process. If you follow that process, you may be granted access to The Bahamas,” Bell said.

Bahamian officials have made no secret of their anger pertaining to the emergence of Haitian shanty cities, some without lavatory and other facilities. Officials argue that these have led to a devalu-

ation of property values of locals. The government is even going back to court to seek an amendment to an injunction preventing official action against shanty towns, PM Davis said at the weekend.

“The country is currently experiencing a spike of illegal migration from Haiti and Cuba. Nearly 400 Haitian migrants are detained in Inagua after they were caught on a vessel in Bahamian waters this week. Another group of Haitian migrants landed on Andros this week. I made that intervention. The prime minister of Haiti and I discussed the issues of what’s occurring now in Haiti. The challenge is, as I pointed out to my fellow heads, until we fix Haiti, this will continue to happen. It is a humanitarian crisis there. People are desperate, and migration and desperate and dangerous migration will continue,” Davis said.

people to enter legally each year. In the lawsuit, Idaho states in part: “Idaho spends significant amounts of money providing services to illegal aliens because of the federal government’s abuses of federal law. Those services include education services and healthcare, as well as many other social services. Federal law requires Idaho to include illegal aliens in those programs. Like many Western states, the number of illegal aliens in Idaho continues to increase—likewise increasing the number of illegal aliens receiving such services.”

The other states suing are Texas, Florida, Ohio, Louisiana, Missouri, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.

4: North Carolina bill would force sheriffs to cooperate with ICE

A bill introduced by Republicans in the North Carolina legislature would require sheriffs to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) by doing more to arrest and deport undocumented immigrants.

The bill would require sheriffs, when admitting any prisoner into their jails, to determine whether a prisoner is a legal resident of the U.S. and, if not, make contact with ICE. If ICE has issued a detainer (a notification to request that a prisoner be transferred into ICE custody upon release from jail), the sheriffs must honor the request under the proposed law.

The Republican Party controls both chambers of the state legislature even though there is a Democratic governor in the state of North Carolina.

5: Does Social Security have an immigration dilemma?

According to the Motley Fool (MF), a business-focused news site, the US Social Security Administration has a major immigration problem—but it’s not what you may think. Social Security’s problem, according to the site, is “that net-legal immigration has been declining for a quarter of a century.”

Since 1998, the net migration rate into the U.S. has fallen every single year, and is down by an aggregate of 57%, according to data from the United Nations. The MF points out that “if net migration into the U.S. continues to fall, or even steadies at these reduced levels, it’s all but a certainty that Social Security’s funding shortfall will grow.”

The writer is publisher of

“As an indication of how panicky authorities in The Bahamas are, the cabinet said this week it will defy the advice of the United Nations to suspend the deportations of Haitians seeking refuge there.”

Facial recognition concerns take stage at NYC’s most hallowed venues

By TANDY LAU Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member

The Apollo Theater is back in the national spotlight, but not for Amateur Night. Last month, a viral video of an NYPD officer recording concert attendees leaving the legendary Harlem venue after a Drake performance drummed up privacy concerns.

“We’re deeply concerned facial recognition may have been involved, and demand the department destroy any footage it took,” said the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.) communications director Will Owen in a statement. “This is the latest proof that the city and state must ban its use at venues once and for all.”

The incident was captured and shared over Twitter by New York Times music critic Jon Caramanica and met with widespread, nationwide criticism. But the NYPD denies using the footage for anything other than a promotional video. The officer shown is wearing a light blue shirt usually reserved for those working in community affairs.

Adam Scott Wandt, an assistant professor of Public Policy at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, says the phone held by the officer is certainly capable of recording surveillance for facial recognition. But he points out such an operation can be performed more covertly, like from a car.

“Whether or not it was the NYPD testing new technology, whether it was the NYPD actively looking for a specific person, perhaps there's really no way to know,” said Wandt. “But what is clear—from a legal standpoint—is that the people needing the Drake concert were in public, and there is no expectation of privacy in public. So from a legal standpoint—a pure legal standpoint—the NYPD does have a right to film in public. So does everyone else.”

But given the public backlash, there’s certainly a veritable anxiety over facial recognition and distrust with the NYPD involving rap—the department's Enterprise Operations Unit is famously dubbed the “hip-hop police.” Owen later expressed to the Amsterdam News that such a stunt was tone deaf to the least given the unease.

“If the NYPD was trying to do some sort of social media outreach, we think that they need to find a better social media strategy than showing up at a concert and filming Drake fans without their consent,” he said. “And a lot of the concern and outrage does reflect that long legacy of the NYPD targeting rap concerts and the racist surveillance of rap in general by the NYPD.”

Mayor Eric Adams supported the filming, claiming Twitter “is not real” and commending the 28th Precinct Commanding Officer Capt. Tarik Sheppard with “two thumbs up.”

“I encourage all of my commanding officers to be creative on how we engage with our res-

idents,” he said on Jan. 23. “That was a safe event. It was a large event. Drake back at the Apollo. And we want that. We want our police and community involved and those who are naysayers find reason to complain about everything. No matter what you do, they're going to find a reason to complain. That's not reality. Let them keep complaining.”

A subsequent Drake concert at the Apollo Theater was paused after an attendee fell from the balcony. The NYPD did not respond to Amsterdam News’ attempts to reach Sheppard.

There’s also the concern of false positives—according to Wandt, facial recognition is significantly worse at identifying Black and trans faces compared to a white male’s. WIRED reported last year how AI facial recognition led to the wrongful arrests of three Black men between 2019 and 2020. Last year, a Black Georgia man was wrongfully arrested for a Louisiana theft despite never visiting the state, reported NOLA.com. However, Wandt points out the use of facial recognition can also bypass potential stopand-frisk tactics traditionally used against Black and brown communities—minimizing police interaction and contact with community members while searching for specific suspects. Still, he remains wary of the technology while Owen says S.T.O.P. is currently championing state legislation outright banning its use. There’s precedent—San Francisco banned government agency use in 2019.

The NYPD began employing facial recognition as a crime-fighting tool in 2011, according to its website. Matches are not grounds for arrest. The department also claims the technology is not used to identify those in crowds or rallies.

But the private sector is also facing public backlash for using facial recognition at famous New York City venues. State Attorney General Letitia James recently penned a letter to Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corporation (MSG Entertainment) requesting information over the alleged ban of lawyers affiliated with firms “representing clients in pending litigation” against the James Dolan-owned company.

Wandt, who co-chairs the New York City Bar’s Technology, Cyber and Privacy Law Committee, says the rationale behind entry denial of such attorneys is straightforward.

“They don't want opposing counsel to come onto their premises unsupervised and interview their employees and take videos and pictures of places that injuries might have happened,” he said. “And I understand and respect that standpoint. However—and it's a huge however—I do not think the practice shouldn't be allowed from a policy standpoint.”

While there’s never a shortage of things to do in the “Big Apple,” Wandt explains the use of facial recognition to ban opposing lawyers will discourage qualified attorneys in small-

er cities and towns from taking on large, private institutions—like universities— that operate a majority of entertainment venues. He also posits the strong likelihood that MSG Entertainment—like the NYPD— is in the “legal right” with this practice, but it doesn’t mean the law shouldn’t be updated.

“To be clear, our policy does not unlawfully prohibit anyone from entering our venues and it is not our intent to dissuade attorneys from representing plaintiffs in litigation against us,” said an MSG Entertainment spokesperson in response. “We are merely excluding a small percentage of lawyers only

during active litigation. Most importantly, to even suggest anyone is being excluded based on the protected classes identified in state and federal civil rights laws is ludicrous. Our policy has never applied to attorneys representing plaintiffs who allege sexual harassment or employment discrimination.”

Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member and writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.

ST. PIUS V SENIOR APARTMENTS

(Bill Moore photo)

Health

Factcheck: FALSE: Small gatherings with people you know are safe and don’t require COVID-19 precautions

By HEATHER M. BUTTS, JD, MPH, MA Special to the AmNews

In the midst of this latest wave of COVID19, a pervasive myth persists that individuals can safeguard themselves by simply gathering in smaller groups and dispensing with all other safeguards. As experts told the AmNews, nothing could be further from the truth. Or more dangerous.

Michlle Morse, MD, MPH, chief medical officer and deputy commissioner of the Center for Health Equity and Community Wellness in the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, told the AmNews that it is important to be cautious, even when gathering in small groups, “especially because mask wearing is so much less [prevalent] than it used to be, and especially because people are just much more mobile than they were two years ago. Let’s say when we were at the beginning of the pandemic, even a small gathering could definitely spread COVID, flu, RSV, any of these viruses…anytime we have this level of activity, and movement, and lack of masking, even a small gathering can definitely lead to spread of any of these viruses.”

According to experts at Yale Medicine, “The World Health Organization (WHO) has called XBB.1.5 the most transmissible Omicron strain so far. In the U.S., it has spread like wildfire in the New England area, where infections rose over a short period of time to more than 84% of cases as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at the end of the third week of January.” The spread of XBB.1.5 occurred during and shortly after many people gathered for the holidays and continued to gather in small groups.

Researchers Christopher M. Whaley, PhD;

Claim: Small gatherings with people you know are safe and don’t require COVID precautions in the same way that large gatherings do

Factcheck: False. While being around people they may know may give individuals a sense of security, mask-wearing is still advisable in small settings where vaccine and COVID status are unknown.

Jonathan Cantor, PhD; Megan Pera, MS; and Anupam B. Jena, MD, PhD examined small gatherings and the COVID link in the article “Assessing the Association Between Social Gatherings and COVID-19 Risk Using Birthdays.” According to the authors, “In addition to large gatherings of people, small social gatherings are thought to be an important source of SARS-CoV-2 transmission.”

According to the article “How can people safely get together? What are the limits for indoor and outdoor gatherings?” at the New Jersey COVID-19 Information Hub, “COVID-19 remains a threat, particularly at indoor gatherings with unvaccinated individuals.” Safety tips include getting vaccinated against the flu and COVID-19, getting a COVID-19 booster, and gathering with those already fully vaccinated.

Due to a combination of factors, including the XBB.1.5 variant and small holiday gatherings, COVID-19 cases spiked in early 2023 after the 2022 holidays. According to the CDC, the seven-day average for COVID-19 cases in the United States on January 8, 2023, was 41,045. On November 17, 2022, just before

Thanksgiving, that number was 21,611.

Cameron Webb, JD, MD , a senior policy advisor for COVID-19 Equity on the White House COVID-19 Response Team, told the AmNews that “there is an important balance between supporting businesses and keeping yourself and your family safe.” He added that “We still want to make sure our restaurants are getting what they need...but at the same time [we must] keep ourselves safe and we know how to do that so I would say…we have to continue as a public health community to really message to everybody that everyone should be thinking about what they need to do to keep themselves safe and keep the people around them safe. I know our local public health leaders, our state public health leaders all over the country are chewing on that very question.”

What precautions can people take to safeguard themselves if they attend small gatherings? According to a previous article in the AmNews, wear high-quality masks, get vaccinated and get the bivalent booster, get tested for COVID-19 before going to the gathering, and stay home if you are sick. Addition-

al precautions include: avoid being in small rooms that are not well-ventilated; limit going to gatherings that will be especially crowded; and test for COVID-19 both before and after being at small gatherings.

“…it’s not just COVID out there right now; it’s RSV, there’s influenza A,” said Webb. “You put those together, there’s a lot of reasons why you may end up getting sick or under the weather over the next couple of weeks and so a lot of reasons for people to take a good look at what they’re doing to stay safe.”

For additional resources about COVID-19, visit www1.nyc.gov/site/ coronavirus/index.page or call 311.

COVID-19 testing and vaccination resources can be accessed on the AmNews COVID-19 page: www. amsterdamnews.com/covid/

Even when getting together with people you know in small groups, you risk transmitting COVID-19. There are many steps you can take to reduce your risk when gathering with friends and family (Stock Photo By Prostock-studio)

Arts & Entertainment

African Diaspora artists unite for Harlem Fine Arts Show kickoff

By BRENIKA BANKS Special to the AmNews

The Harlem Fine Arts Show is gearing up to celebrate its 15th anniversary of providing a space for artists of African, Caribbean and Black descent to showcase their African Diaspora-inspired artworks. The traveling art show will return in person for the first time, on Friday, Feb. 24, since the COVID-19 pandemic. The show’s 15thyear celebration marks a major change of location—it will be at the Glasshouse venue in nearby Chelsea, NYC, not at its previous location at Riverside Church in Morningside Heights.

“It really was a sentimental place for the Harlem Fine Arts Show, always being able to come back and be successful there,” said Dion Clarke, founder and president of the Harlem Fine Arts Show, of the Riverside Church venue.

According to Clarke, the art show has outgrown its upper Manhattan origins and is ready to take a “new leap” to its new home. Clarke is excited about this historical moment; midtown Manhattan has not hosted a large African Diasporic art show owned and operated by multicultural individuals before. The president of the art show is looking forward to visitors and to seeing how lower Manhattan will embrace the artworks. “I’d also like to find out how the artists are really feeling about being in midtown Manhattan, because Harlem is always going to be in our hearts,” said Clarke.

“I like the ambiance of the Riverside Church,” said Lisa Dubois, a long-time exhibitor in the Harlem Fine Arts Show. The art and photography curator has been an exhibitor with the art show for the past 10 years. Dubois appreciated having the show closer to Harlem rather than closer to Chelsea. She believes the art show’s location at the Riverside Church made the show more unique than its planned new home. Dubois views the art show as more special in Harlem instead of midtown, where numerous other art galleries are located. “I also like the fact that [the church] is one of the most beautiful buildings [in] Harlem,” she said. “It’s a landmark with rich history; that’s what made it so special.”

According to the ÌMO DÁRA 2022 State of the African Art Market report, physical galleries remain around 45% of the way that most collectors purchase their art. On a global scale, the Art Market 2022 report shows that 69% of people preferred live or in-person viewing at a gallery or fair most when viewing and considering art for sale. Both reports indicate that people are mo-

tivated to buy art when they experience it in person.

“I’m looking forward to admiring the other artists and to definitely show my style of what’s going on artistically,” said Roosevelt “Black Rose” Taylor. The master painter, air brusher and visual artist’s designs focus on the Harlem Renaissance era, with pieces that reflect the nightlife of jazz clubs, such as Minton’s and the Savoy, at their peaks. He is making his debut at this year’s show as it returns in person.

Taylor emphasized how special it was for saxophonist Henry Minton to open Minton’s Playhouse in 1938. Billie Holiday, Roy Eldridge and Charlie Christian were some

of the many famous jazz musicians who helped revolutionize jazz in that historical establishment. “They created a higher level of jazz because everybody was trying to do it, but they made something that was one of a kind,” said Taylor “That’s what I want to show the world.”

Taylor credits Harlem with being the trendsetter for nightlife, music, fashion and dance. He is also thrilled to be celebrating 15 years as a professional artist, coinciding with the Harlem Fine Arts show’s 15th-year celebration. “This is historic not just for me, but for the Harlem Fine Arts show with me being a part of it.”

In previous years, the Harlem Fine Arts

Show displayed most works from African American artists. This year will usher in global, newer exhibitors such as the Soweto Fine Art gallery from Johannesburg, South Africa, and Sanusi Olatunji, also from South Africa. Band of Vices LLC gallery from Los Angeles, Calif., will also make its debut at this year’s celebration. The E&S Gallery, Inc., Louisville, Ky., will return to the art show along with Dubois, who enjoys being part of celebrating African arts.

Dubois’s pieces for this year’s show are inspired by stolen African artifacts including bronzes from Benin. She is encouraging people to research how the British confiscated many African artifacts through her works.

“We are still trying to get them out of the British Museums and back to where they belong,” said Dubois. “It’s a long, hard road, so that was my inspiration for my images.” She added human characteristics, including eyes, to her Benin-inspired creations to humanize Africans. “I gave them eyes to give them more humanity because they were obviously modeled after someone, so that’s like a tribute to them.”

Dubois hopes her series will inspire visitors to the show to learn about the stolen artifacts and statues of not only Benin, but other African countries, that are still misplaced in European spaces. “I want people to look at these images and know where they’re from, not just looking at a collage, but that it becomes a learning experience that enlightens more people.”

Taylor is looking forward to many people coming to visit the show next month. “It’s an amazing moment and I want everybody to come out and come get artistically involved.” He anticipates watching other art admirers come and experience his artwork for its unique storytelling that captures the Harlem Renaissance era. He wishes for everyone who purchases his artwork to live in the specific moment of time he recreated. “Being from Harlem, I’m going to be true to Harlem and represent it well,” said Taylor. “I’m giving visuals to a past that is no more.”

Clarke said he’s looking forward to everyone’s happiness and excitement of the art show’s in-person return. He is eager to see this year’s artists feeling proud and empowered by their own artwork. “It’s great to work with the sororities and other types of organizations that empower our community; I’m excited.”

Clarke predicts around 10,000 in-person visitors, in addition to virtual visitors, for a national and international experience during the three-day event this month. For more info, visit www.hfas.org.

Kick off celebration (Brenika Banks photos)

Roosevelt Taylor

Lisa Dubois

Black stories take home top prizes at 2023 Sundance

By SUNIL SADARANGANI Special

to

the AmNews

The 2023 Sundance Film Festival (Jan. 19–29) marked a triumphant return of the first in-person event since the pandemic hit in March 2020, which pivoted Sundance (and almost every other film festival) online. This year’s festival saw a vigorous representation of Black stories beautifully rendered by Black filmmakers, and some took home the festival’s top prizes.

A.V. Rockwell’s mesmerizing directorial and screenwriting debut, “A Thousand and One,” won the Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Dramatic Feature Competition, and deservingly so. Rockwell tells a profoundly American story of a mother and son living for each other in a gentrifying city, often uninterested in the reality of their lives. With a careerdefining performance from Teyana Taylor as a mother fiercely committed to making a future for her child,

sion. Immersing the viewer in their experiences, where neither man is hero or villain in the choices they make to survive in an imperiled world, she presents a microcosmic, sea-level view of the fragility of humanity’s relationship with the changing environment.

Other stand-out films by artists of color at Sundance this year were:

“Little Richard: I am Everything,” a documentary feature directed by Academy Award-nominee Lisa Cortes, explodes the whitewashed canon of American pop music and shines a clarifying light on the Black, queer origins of rock & roll, and establishes the genre’s big bang: Richard Wayne Penniman. The film is an essential and long overdue re-examination of a rock & roll icon, his queerness and his impact on the music industry as a whole, and what it means to have a legacy.

Academy Award-winner Roger Ross Williams’s feature-directing

Festival Favorite Award

“Radical”

Director: Christopher Zalla

U.S. Dramatic Competition

Grand Jury Prize

“A Thousand and One”

Director: A.V. Rockwell

Audience Award

“The Persian Version”

Director: Maryam Keshavarz

Directing Award

Sing J. Lee

“The Accidental Getaway Driver”

Jury Award: Creative Vision

“Magazine Dreams”

“A Thousand and One” is an elegant ode to the power of family as an anchor in an ever-changing world.

“Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project,” directed by Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson, was awarded the Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Documentary Feature Competition. “Going to Mars” is an intimate vérité, visually innovative treatment of poetry, enhanced by archival footage, that take us on a journey through the dreamscape of legendary poet Giovanni as she reflects on her life and legacy.

Winning the Special Jury Award, Verite, World Cinema Documentary Competition was “Against the Tide” by filmmaker Sarvnik Kaur.

Continuing the winning streak for the third consecutive year of Documentary films from India at Sundance (“All That Breathes” and “Writing with Fire”), Kaur weaves an acutely humanistic and intimate approach in her profile of two indigenous fishermen, Rakesh and Ganesh, who are at a crossroads in both their friendship and profes-

debut biopic “Cassandro,” starring Gael García Bernal in the title role, tells the real-life story of the gay Latino wrestler Cassandro, the “Liberace of lucha libre.” Ross crafts an engaging and compelling origin story of an outsider turned unlikely superstar.

Spinning outside the intense screening schedule were landmark events and panels hosted by MACRO Lodge, founded by producer Charles D. King. MACRO’s panels included the cast of “Harlem” and a sneak preview of the new season; a conversation with the cast and creatives of “Young. Wild. Free,” including Sanaa Lathan; and of course, their signature star-studded after-parties.

Across the board, Sundance scored well this year in presenting BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and inclusive stories, especially since, after a two-year gap, the industry had all eyes and ears on this pivotal film festival that predominantly defines and shapes the entertainment industry’s awards season

Brewster, Michèle Stephenson

Audience Award

“Beyond Utopia”

Director: Madeleine Gavin

Directing Award

Luke Lorentzen

“A Still Small Voice”

Special Jury Award: Clarity of Vision

“The Stroll”

Directors: Kristen Lovell, Zackary Drucker

Special Jury Award: Freedom of Expression

“Bad Press”

Directors: Rebecca

Landsberry-Baker, Joe Peeler

Director: Elijah Bynum

Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award

Maryam Keshavarz

“The Persian Version”

Special Jury Award: Acting

Lio Mehiel

“Mutt”

Jury Award: Ensemble

“Theater Camp”

Directors: Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman

U.S. Documentary Competition

Grand Jury Prize

“Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project”

Directors: Joe

Special Jury Award: Verite

Filmmaking

“Against the Tide” (India)

Director: Sarvnik

Kaur

Special Jury Award: Creative Vision

“Fantastic Machine” (Sweden/ Denmark)

Director: Axel Danielson

World Cinema Dramatic Competition

Audience Award

“Shayda” (Australia)

Director: Noora Niasari

Grand Jury Prize “Scrapper” (UK)

Lílis Soares

“MamiWata” (Nigeria)

Next Audience Award

“Kokomo City”

Director: D. Smith

Innovator Award

“Kokomo City”

Director: D. Smith

Short Films Awards

Grand Jury Prize

“When You Left Me on That Boulevard” (U.S.A.)

Director: Kayla

Abuda Galang

Jury Award: U.S.

Fiction

“Rest Stop”

Director: Crystal Kayiza

Director: Sophia Mocorrea

Previously Announced Winners

Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize

“The Pod Generation”

Director: Sophie Barthes

Amazon Studios

Nonfiction Award

Jess Devaney

“It’s Only Life After All”

Amazon Studios Fiction Award

Kara Durrett

“The Starling Girl”

Sundance Institute

| Adobe Mentorship Award for Editing Nonfiction

Mary Manhardt

Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award

Daniela I. Quiroz

“Going Varsity in Mariachi”

World Cinema

Documentary Competition

Audience Award

“20 Days in Mariupol” (Ukraine)

Director: Mstylav Chernov

Grand Jury Prize

“The Eternal Memory” (Chile)

Director: Maite Alberdi

Directing Award

“Smoke Sauna Sisterhood” (Estonia/ France/Iceland)

Director: Anna Hints

Director: Charlotte Regan

Directing Award

Marija Kavtaradze

“Slow” (Lithuania/ Spain/Sweden)

Special Jury Award: Creative Vision

“Animalia” (France/Morocco/Qatar)

Director: Sofia

Alaoui

Special Jury Award: Best Performance

Rosa Marchant

“When It

Melts” (Belgium/ Netherlands)

Special Jury Award: Cinematography

Jury Award: Directing, International

Valeria Hofmann

“AliEN0089” (Chile)

Jury Award: Directing, U.S. Jarreau Carrillo

“The Vacation”

Jury Award: Animation

“The Flying Sailor”

Directors: Wendy Tilby, Amanda Forbis (Canada)

Jury Award: Nonfiction

“Will You Look at Me” (China)

Director: Shuli Huang

Jury Award: International Fiction

“The Kidnapping of the Bride” (Germany)

Sundance Institute | Adobe Mentorship Award for Editing Fiction

Troy Takaki

Sundance/NHK Award

Olive Nwosu

“Lady”

Sundance Institute | Stars Collective Imagination Awards

Tamara Shogaolu

“40 Acres”

Navid Khonsari, Vassiliki Khonsari and Andres Perez-Duarte

“Block Party Bodega”

Vanessa Keith

“Year 2180”

Gayle Stevens Volunteer Award

Carlos Sanchez

later in the calendar year.

Here is the full list of winners of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival:

A still from “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project” by Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson, Grand Jury Prize Winner, U.S. Documentary Competition at 2023 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute)

Teyana Taylor and Aaron Kingsley appear in a still from “A Thousand and One” by A.V. Rockwell, Grand Jury Prize Winner, U.S. Dramatic Competition at 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute. (Focus Features photo)

At Meet the Breeds: Dogs galore!

By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member

This past weekend was a barking good time as canine lovers rolled into the Javits Center to meet and learn about interesting breeds of dogs, many with their own pets and families in tow.

The meet-and-greet and dog show were organized by the American Kennel Club (AKC). More than 120 breeds of dogs were present. Brandi Munden, vice president of communications for AKC, said that ordinarily the show is annual but was suspended for the last three years because of COVID restrictions.

“We are very excited to be back,” said Munden. “Every year it’s an educational opportunity. Not for people to adopt or shop for dogs, but it does allow you to become the best dog owner you can be. You find the breed that works for your lifestyle. Talk to experts. See what size the dogs will be. Learning what a dog breed requires to be happy.”

AKC and owners set up information booths at each station, and allowed the dogs to be petted and hugged at the convention center, which most of the dogs seemed to thoroughly enjoy. There were huge

roving Bergamasco Sheepdogs with dreadlocked wooly spirals of hair that swept the floor, and tiny English Toy Spaniels that could be held in one arm. Easily spotted was a Dalmatian making friends. And you could see some fashionistas, like a Rottweiler sporting Valentine’s Day headgear and a bullish Bull Terrier with a funny little spotted tie, ready to pose for the camera.

“I’ve always loved dogs. About 30 years ago I got my first Chow and I was fascinated about the personality of the breed. They’re a little aloof but friendly,” said Nate Smith about his Chow Chow dog named Xanto. His dog is especially fluffy and sheds twice a year, but he con -

Bloodhounds

siders the grooming process “therapeutic.”

Even a few law enforcement as well as search and rescue dogs were there, showing off their badges.

“You never know what’s going to happen with a bloodhound. Some days they’re counter cruising on your kitchen table and other days they’re finding a lost person,” said American Bloodhound Club President Adrianna Pavlinovic, who owns two bloodhounds.

Pavlinovic said that the average bloodhound’s nose is 300 million times stronger than a human’s. Her dogs often help look for lost children and hunters. They also assist in suicide situations where a

The American Kennel Club (AKC) Meet the Breeds at the Jacob Javits Center on January 28 & 29. (Ariama C. Long photos)

Nate Smith with his Chow Chow, Xanto Russian Borzoi

See DOGS! on page 25

HOROSCOPES BY KNOWYOURNUMB3RS

By SUPREME

GODDESS KYA

February 2, 2023—February 8, 2023

Rebirth of A New Nation: The details this year can have you lost in the midst of finding out something when all you need to do is be still for a few moments. A weekly cycle to let go, and when you let go calm yourself down to be open for the release of the old. Stop holding on to something that’s not assisting you but only holding you back from your mastery. This week, know where you are going even if you don’t have the directions to guide you. Allow faith to be your guide while moving in silence and listen more than you talk. The full moon in Leo at 16 degrees is for you to shine your light on the darkest and brightest of the day, hour, minute, second, etc. Get powered up by the sun as the awakening is occurring within those funny bones in your body. It’s amazing how the number 7 keeps popping up. The year 2023 (2+0+2+3 =7) is a 7 year; the last full moon in Cancer was at 16 (1+6=7) degrees, and so is this moon. Themes associated with this year are laws, legislation updates, partnerships, secrets, revelations, gaining new insights, and your personal gifts (superpowers) are upgraded, then downloaded. Also, things being revealed will continue to be revealed. “Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to every one according to what he has done.” Revelations 22:12 (2+2+1+2=7)

February is a monthly cycle of top-classified hidden knowledge, information, things, and people from your past, present, and future coming into the light. A working progress month to finalize and nip things in the bud and get to the main source of something. Do not take any wooden nickels as an exchange, be straightforward with no poker or joker face, just your realness. Divine forces are clearing the path so enjoy this lesson, experience, and voyage this month. Around 4 p.m. on Feb. 6th till 46 minutes past 4 a.m. on Feb. 9th, the understanding of an assignment presents itself. Patience is a virtue.

All around the mulberry bush, pop goes the weasel. You have been doing this dance for a while and change is brewing up like coffee steaming out of the pot. It’s time to get what you need and want and fulfill your soul’s desire. In this weekly cycle, a slight monkey wrench is thrown into your plans, pulling you by your coattail for you to see, do, hear, and touch something to get your attention. In the movie “Sister Act 2,” the song states, “If you wanna be somebody, if you wanna go somewhere, you better wake up and pay attention.” Feb. 1 till 4 a.m. Feb. 4, catch the drift of that song to excel higher.

Set the tone for this weekly cycle to get things accomplished by writing them down to carry out the mission. Gather all the tools, resources, people, and agendas and schedule a board, office, or family meeting for the details and timing of completion. When you don’t know something, write it down to get back to it and in the meantime, question yourself to receive the answers. Saturn in Aquarius is almost complete, disbursing out the assignment and protocols for the progress forward. You are in the process and by Feb. 9, hints and signs are everywhere.

Much is said and much is given, although it seems like we journey alone. There is always someone or something assisting you. It’s best to do what is right from your heart, and not for the money. Look out for scams, illegal events, folks making promises they can’t fulfill, having their hand out like grabbing popcorn or vice versa. This month focuses on your growth and the company you keep in your environment as they reflect you. Besides, financial rewards and help are a blessing this month. From Feb. 1st till the morning hours of Feb. 4, the storyline makes sense. Stay calm and put in the work.

What seems like the right way is a new beginning, intervention taking place, or a new adventure you are willing to journey. This month, make your dream a reality on a higher note that gives you chills in your joints to put yourself out there. When you do, just like a plant needs to be nurtured, your plans do too. A stellar monthly cycle to rise to the occasion or keep beating around the bush, traveling in the same circle and getting nowhere. From Feb. 4 till 4 p.m. on Feb. 6 the merry-go-round discontinues, so create or do something spectacular.

It’s time to bring the vision to a whole new level; stand for something, or nothing at all. You feel that awakening within your ancestors’ bones through your body and how you are to carry out the mission? There is an assignment ahead and some straightening out through the bloodlines that have you going on a trip, be it mentally, physically, emotionally, or vocally. The connection is the heart, mind, spirit, and intelligence forces. Feb. 6 till 47 minutes past 3 a.m. on Feb. 9, make yourself clear with great intentions with directions.

Is there more to be said as you figure out you just ran a mental sprint marathon on folks, including yourself? It’s all written in the script, and you will see results soon, as well as the lesson plan. Sometimes you got to hit the dance floor for a minute and then get off or sign off the 9-to-5 books. Whatever you do this month, make it an adventure to just pack and go following your soul mission. A friend of the family, or someone from your past who may know your family, will share something with you on your adventure. Days leading up to Feb. 9, the initiation of making up your mind is in motion. The rest will follow suit.

Well done, how about a round of applause, clap once then twice more. A new experience is shaking up within you to “just do it” like Nike, but what’s even better than Nike’s quote is “I do it,” in my brother Uribe’s words. Nothing can stop you, only you, from higher levels and thoughts of going places. You are the command that invokes the remote to turn to a certain channel with the press of your fingertip. Mentally, if you can fit all the stories in your mind onto paper or record it like a video to watch later for inspiration, it will be a joy. However, it’s inside for a reason. Feb. 4 till 15 minutes past 4 p.m. on Feb. 6, change just doesn’t occur, it is a process that leads the change into action.

You are stirring up a pot that some wouldn’t dare. That’s the meticulous side of you seeing how things and life function and connect. Keep digging and you are going to find what you are looking for and more. You may want to put on your reading glasses. In life, there are patterns and sequences to how things work coming back full circle to do it all over again on another level, higher than the first one. The art of life, mind, body, and spirit works in mysterious ways to get on the next voyage. Late afternoon on Feb. 6 till about 47 minutes past 3 a.m. on Feb. 9, is it all a dream, illusion, imagination, or how far you are willing to travel down the rabbit burrows?

A sticky situation is only someone being misinformed. May I say the secret is out, by the way? You will see more when you boss up and be in the behindthe-scenes action and of how the operation works in the boardroom. February is a heavy-duty yard work assignment if you are up for a challenge, as in Too Short’s song “Gettin It.” It’s time to get started, and promoted, to another level. There are angels, ancestors, or higher intelligence forces working in the woodwork on your behalf. Days leading up to Feb. 9, stay grounded utilizing practicality in your approach.

It’s about time to sing a new song with a new dance routine. Like Erykah Badu in her song “On and On,” she was “Born underwater with three dollars and six dimes.” There is a water undertone in your numerical yearly frequency for the year 2023, plus you are a water sign. Travel into the depths of your heart, soul, and mind to feel, see, touch, taste, hear, and just be without being touched by anything that surrounds you. It’s all in divine timing; around the third and last week of February are eye-catching and jaw-dropping moments. Feb. 1 till 47 minutes past 4 a.m. on Feb. 4, the details fall in like a snowstorm slowly beginning.

All sorts of leads, information, she/he said, and events are all happening around at the same time. Most important is what’s on your agenda. This is a cycle month to ask, and you shall receive. Speak up for yourself or hold your peace. Do what makes you happy and not caring about how anyone else feels about what you did or said. Another tip, don’t change your mind. Our actions speak louder than words when the heart is set on doing something. From Feb. 4 till Feb. 6, apply the footwork and you will see results shortly.

Vinateria

Black art books to discover for 2023

By JORDANNAH ELIZABETH Special to the AmNews

African American visual contemporary art is a realm of diverse forms; a culmination of paints, canvas, bronze, clay and found objects, along with snippets and fragments of media fused into pieces created from the imagination and from inspiration of expressions of the past. Black artists can choose to explore the generational undercurrent and socio-emotional mechanics of the challenges, oppression and history of Black American life, or create art that derives from nature, science, geometry—anything the mind can glean and morph—and create something new. The historical origin of African American and Black contemporary art is a vast and valuable representation of what arises from the inner deity: the ancestral and geological brilliance of Black people. Creativity helps the world see who our people are from within, and demystify and deconstruct stereotypes and misconceptions. These books offer a wonderful starting point.

“BLK ART: The Audacious Legacy of Black Artists and Models in Western Art,” by Zaria Ware

| Harper Collins

Award-winning author Zaria Ware takes readers on a unique journey through the unbridled history of Western Black art. “Captivating and informative, BLK ART is an essential work that elevates a globally dismissed legacy to its proper place in the mainstream art canon,” notes Harper Collins. The book, divided into two categories—art and models—offers a comprehensive look into the presences, vitality and importance of artists and Black models; muses of many European art pieces. “BLK ART” is fresh and modern, and refreshingly centers Western art around Blackness, not the other way around.

“When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting,”

edited by Koyo Kouoh | Thames & Hudson

Published to accompany the Zeitz MOCAA, CapeTown museum’s incredible exhibition “When

We See Us,” on view through September 2023, the book of the same title is a “landmark publication [that] accompanies an international touring exhibition devoted to Black figuration in painting from the 1920s to now, featuring artists from Africa and the African diaspora,” according to Zeitz MOCAA. It reveals the profound need for global Black contemporary art from the native motherland with refinement “celebrating Black subjectivity and Black con-

sciousness from Pan-African and Pan-Diasporic perspectives,” said Zeitz MOCAA.

“Souls Grown Deep like the Rivers: Black Artists from the American South,” by Maxwell L. Anderson, Raina LampkinsFielder and Paul Goodwin | Arc Art Books

“Souls Grown Deep like the Rivers” is a poignant, fascinating book that highlights and excavates an endearing story of a

sleepy town in Wilcox County, Alabama, as “Art admirers from all over the world come to this patch of fertile soil in Alabama’s Black Belt to get a glimpse of the artistic legacy of four generations of Southern quilters,” said Arc Art Books. This allBlack town’s beautiful story of resilience and longevity lives within the generations who were born into the new ages and seasons of the American South. “Mostly left to themselves for nearly 100 years, this close-knit historically all-black community’s folkways and traditions survived well into the twentieth century and stand as a symbol of their resourcefulness during a time of great duress,” according to Arc Art Books.

New poetry books to read and savor

By JORDANNAH ELIZABETH

Special to the AmNews

It is very exciting to think toward the future, which is full of promise. A year of new words, new thoughts and revelations from Black writers and thinkers, poets and artists and authors; and the humanistic voice of the Black lens, which intertwines the gifts and challenges, dark days and the light, and the integral, honest outpouring of new expressions from all generations of our potent and vibrant history. These new collections of poetry are beginning the year with freshness and graceful artistry.

“Side Notes from the Archivist: Poems by AnastaciaReneé” | Harper Collins

2023 brings a new collection of poetry from Anastacia-Reneé, a feminist voice whose voice lends a fearless, unabashed, intelligent and graceful view of Black femme realities. “‘Side Notes from the Archivist: Poems’ is a multipart retrospective that travers -

es time, space and reality to illuminate the expansiveness of Black femme lives,” says Harper Collins. Compiled as an archive to preserve and commemorate Black communities and culture through a Black feministic lens, “[e]very poem in ‘Side Notes’ elevates and honestly illus -

trates the buoyancy of Blackness and the calamity of Black lives on earth.” This collection, as a capsule of individualistic experimentation through poetry, will lead Black poetry and literature into a futurist, post-modern form of creatively relaying the past.

“No Sweet Without Brine: Poems by Cynthia Manick” | Harper Collins

Poet and writer Cynthia Manick’s latest collection of poetry is a playlist of thoughts, meanderings, emotional explorations and social commentary. “No Sweet Without Brine” “traces the circle

of life for a narrator who dares to exist between youthful remembrances and adulthood realities,” according to Harper Collins. The poetic expression is doused with clarity as readers receive a view of the beautiful mechanisms Black women form and adopt to shield themselves from the intensity of the world. Manick’s universe, her perspective, her life and weaving of truth and Black femme imagery is a great addition to anyone’s Black literary collection.

“A Fire in the Hills,” by Afaa Michael Weaver | Red Hen House

A new collection from poet and short-story writer Afaa Michael Weaver offers reflective poems that inform a continuation of a culmination of work embedded in a deeply rooted thread of his examination of his sublimation and interpretation of the complexities of Black life.

“[A]s a Black man born in America in the mid-twentieth century,” [his] poems [are] emanating from an attempt to follow Daoist philosophy for most of his life,” said Red Hen.

Dance Calendar February 2023

By CHARMAINE PATRICIA WARREN Special to AmNews

Fill your calendars with the many dance performances happening this month!

Choreographer, educator and producer Johnnie Cruise Mercer tops this month’s listing with an in-person performance on Feb. 2 at 92Y. Mercer brings together two generations in the latest work, “to those who have seed in the ground,” a movement sermon on the parable of the mustard seed, inspired by William McDowell’s 2016 album, “Sounds of Revival.” Mercer said, “‘to those who have seed in the ground’ is structured as a movement sermon

on the parable of the mustard seed. Rooted in the practices and choreographies of my Black, African, American bloodline, and led by an ensemble of movement artists (both professional and in-process), tonight will happen as a series of meta-physical bouts (works) all rooted and calling onto the spiritual pasts of our ancestors.”

Mercer added, according to the release, “my work, my art, is my contribution to my community. It is my way of guiding my people towards understanding and surrendering to history, to our shared epic memory.

I am interested in where we are, and through feeling, together, finding out where we will be going next.”

ALSO THIS MONTH:

Feb. 2–3: Lil Buck’s Memphis Jookin, a blend of hip hop and modern dance, will offer up homegrown beats that evoke the Southern clubs. For more information, visit https://www.lincolncenter.org/ series/lincoln-center-presents/memphis-jookin?utm_ source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_ campaign=010923LilBuckE-blast&utm_content=versi on_A&uid=217057&sourceNumber=49012.

Feb. 3: ZCO/Dance Project will present Visible/Invisible…and beyond

as part of the City College Center for the Arts’ series of performances at Aaron Davis Hall. For more information, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/zco-danceproject-tickets-504880650617?aff=ebdsoporgprofile.

Feb. 3–4: Miro Magloire and his New Chamber Ballet will present his eveninglength Sanctum, made in collaboration with the Ekmeles vocal ensemble, at the Mark Morris Dance Center. For more information, visit https://www.newchamberballet. com/performances.

Feb. 5: Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company will be at the Kupferberg Center with Year of the Rabbit, continuing their celebration and welcoming of the New Year of the Water Rabbit. For more information, visit https://kupferbergcenter.org/event/lunar-newyear-of-the-water-rabbit/.

Feb. 7-12: Celebrating a 30th anniversary, Rennie Harris will take audiences back in time to the ’90s—the 1990s and the 1590s simultaneously—with Rome & Jewels , the first breakout work of the Rennie Harris Puremovement American Street Dance Theater. For more information, visit https://www.joyce.org/performances/rennie-harris-presents-rome-jewels.

The work includes a collaborative sound score composed by music artists dj Om-Amari (DJ artist), Young Denzel (composer), Monstah Black (lyrics), Jay Deamour (vocal artist) and performances by TheTRPNYC: Movement Ensemble, and features appearances by youth artists from the Appomattox Regional Governor’s School and Brooklyn Prospect High School. The production brings together two generations of artists with the intention of calling upon (and embodying) collective inner will. A virtual presentation is scheduled for Feb. 3–6. For more information, visit https://www.92ny.org/ event/johnnie-cruise-mercer.

Feb. 9: The seventh annual SoloDuo Dance Festival, presented by WHITE WAVE Dance at Dixon Place, will feature 33 dancemakers from the New York Metro area and across the country. For more information, visit https://whitewavedance. networkforgood.com/events/49563-2023-soloduodance-festival.

Feb. 10: The Moving Memory Project, a multidisciplinary festival focused on memory and forgetting, created and produced by choreographer Stefanie Nelson and writer David Schenk, will return with works by NYC-based dance artists. Featured will be works by Rebecca Margolick, Kayla Farrish/Decent Structures Arts and Mignolo Dance. Admission is free, with a suggested pay-what-you-can donation; RSVP is required. For more information, visit https://www. eventbrite.com/e/tmmp-the-moving-memory-project-2nd-edition-tickets-516211280837.

Feb. 11–12 (in-person & virtual): At BAAD! Join Dancing While Black for their day of shared embodied practices. This day of workshops asks “…how our practices as Black embodied/movement artists shift with the mo(ve) ments that we find ourselves in,” according to the release. For more information, visit http://angelaspulse.org/dwb10/.

Feb. 23–25: Choreographer and video artist Dean Moss’s Your marks and surface will premiere at Danspace Project. Made in collaboration with dancer Sawami Fukuoka, composer Stephen Vitiello and painter Angela Dufresne, the work invites the audience to “join in something worn, physical and reflective. Something incomplete and unabled, perhaps unsafe, but still sweet: a warm lonesome concoction mulled by more than the pandemic’s long embrace,” according to Moss. For more information, visit https://danspaceproject.org/calendar/winter2023-moss/.

Feb. 23–25: EMERGE125 will present works by artistic director Tiffany ReaFisher at the Chelsea Factory. For more information, visit http://emerge125.org/2023-events/ chelseafactory.

Feb. 24–25: Tap dancer/bandleader Michela Marino Lerman’s Love Movement will share Reimagining Max Roach’s Groundbreaking 1960 Album, We Insist! Freedom Now Suite, as part of the Harlem Stages’ Black Arts Movement’s music spawned from a collaboration with singer and poet Oscar Brown, Jr. For more information, visit https://tickets.harlemstage.org/events/ d200af20-6e6f-f407-b779-db24ea3d53dd.

Feb. 27: The Martha Hill Dance Fund] will honor Dianne McIntyre, Diana Byer and Deborah Damast at the 22nd annual Awards Gala, with host Danni Gee, director of programming for the Joyce Theater. For more information, visit https:// www.marthahilldance.org/the-2023-martha-hillawards-gala.\

Feb. 28–Mar.12: The Batsheva Dance Company returns to the Joyce Theater with Hora, created by Ohad Naharin and inspired by the electronic music of Isao Tomita. For more information, visit https://www.joyce.org/performances/batsheva-dance-company.

Johnnie Cruise Mercer (Tony Turner photo)

Rennie Harris’s “Classic Rome & Jewels” shines at the Joyce

By ZITA ALLEN Special to the AmNews

Rennie Harris and his amazing hip-hop dance company, Puremovement, founded in 1992 and dedicated to preserving and disseminating hip-hop, roll into the Joyce Theatre with the seminal masterpiece “Rennie Harris presents: Rome & Jewels” on Tuesday, Feb. 7 at 7:30 p.m., as both a celebration of the 30th anniversary of America’s longest-running street dance company and a reminder that art doesn’t just entertain—it enlightens.

For 30 years, Rennie Harris Puremovement American Street Dance Theater has been the preeminent ambassador of hip-hop and street dance culture, starting in founder and artistic director Harris’s home city of Philadelphia and taking it to a global audience. This time around, Harris is celebrating a milestone anniversary, reminding us where it all began. He takes the well-worn story of William Shakespeare’s famous starcrossed lovers and moves it to the streets of Philly, infusing this tale of love, fear, violence and triumph with the racial, religious and economic questions and insights that are just as relevant now as when Harris created the piece in the late 1990s.

The Amsterdam News caught up with Harris to talk about the Shakespeare Theater Award winner and three-time Bessie Award-winning work that reinvents the timeless tale yet again by embodying the diverse African Diasporic traditions of the past while paving the way for an innovative story told through dance. Of course, there’s the where-didthe-time-go feeling, Harris said, ac-

knowledging how amazing it is that both hip-hop as a dance form and his dance company are still here.

Harris said, “You know, I often just put on my blinders—my horse glasses—and just keep my head down and keep movin’. Then one day somebody said, ‘What are you going to do for your 30th?’ And, I was like, “… it’s been 30 years for the company and it’s been 25 years of ‘Rome and Jewels.’ It’s overwhelming to think of it from that perspective.”

Of the dance, specifically, Harris said, “There haven’t been that many physical changes with regard to the work itself. The choreography is exactly what it was before. The story’s the same. There’s a slight difference in the technical end, but we have some of the original cast members.” In terms of relevance, he added, “Everything is still [the same]. Madness out there, actually, even more so. Did we take two steps forward and then slide back?”

But hip-hop has persevered. So has Harris. He’s been voted one of the most influential people in the last 100 years of Philadelphia history and received many awards, including the Governor’s Arts Award and a United States Artist Fellowship. Critics have called him “the Basquiat of the U.S. contemporary dance scene,” and he’s contributed to the repertoire of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and other companies.

What’s more, not only is his company celebrating its 30th anniversary, but hip-hop is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Harris didn’t think 30 years ago that either hip-hop or his company Puremovement would last this long

and remain this relevant. Of course, he said, there’s still the problem of “gatekeepers” allowing enough access for the younger generation to see it and be engaged with it. “I feel like it’s no different from where jazz was 30 years, literally, or Modern or PostModern—no different from those earlier expressions or how they’ve both gone global.”

Yet, there are some spaces where hip-hop is still pushed to the side as “what those kids do” and where, Harris said, “academic privilege, the privilege of defining yourself, is out of reach. Folks think they know what it is and then when I demonstrate this is what it is, or I teach classes on hip-hop, they’re still kind of shocked.” Besides, he added, “the best way to understand hip-hop culture is to realize that there’s more to it than many imagined.”

Of course, Harris said, we all want some type of entertainment escape when we go to a hip-hop dance event, especially in the face of what hip-hop writer Bakari Kitwana calls “America’s unfulfilled promise of equality and inclusion.”

For Harris, dance is about “how do I provoke a conversation. The truth is in the conversation. Specifically with ‘Rome and Jewels,’ that’s where it’s at. ’Cause some people go expecting Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and they’re going to go, ‘Oh, shit!’ And I’m going to go ‘Yeah, this is not that!’ However, it is on some levels. Right?

“There’s a line that we did 25 years ago where Rome says ‘Get beat down like Rodney,’ referring to the infamous police beating of Rodney King, and the other night in Boston,

Rodney Mason, who plays Rome, changed the line to ‘Get beat down like Tyre,’ referring to the brutal police murder of Tyre Nichols that took place in Memphis, Tenn. And everybody was like silent, you know, and then he goes on, ‘You trained me. I was born to kill. As a Black man, that’s what you’ve done to me.’ It’s this moment you be like looking at the audience, thinking, ‘Oh-oh! You can’t run from it ’cause you’re sitting in the chair in the audience and he’s telling you. He looks right at the audience, and he says, ‘You used me.’

“And I’m like, Oh, ohh, ohh! You know it’s so relevant and it’s sad that it’s relevant. It’s like ‘What, what! And ‘Rome and Jewels’ just moved right into today, just aligned to today by changing it on the spot.” The audience was dead silent.

“Folks who just hear ‘hip-hop’ and think the circus is coming to town… well, I be like ‘Yeah, but you might want to call the theater and find out what kind of show this is’...especially in the times we’re living in. And, the interesting part is it really

has nothing to do with the viewer,” Harris said. He explained that it’s not about confronting the audience, it’s about the need to have a conversation about what’s going on in the real world.

“It has to do with the culture, our culture,” he said. “Creating art is based on the shit that’s bothering the artists. You know what I mean. It’s an issue they have to get out and voice to remain sane or not commit suicide or have mental health issues. For artists, it’s the best therapy ever.”

For the audience it’s an eyeopening experience. In the end, Harris said, “I just want people to come with an open mind and an open heart. And I hope they enjoy it. That’s it.”

And undoubtedly think about how art reflects life and vice versa.

This anniversary restaging of “Rennie Harris presents: Rome & Jewels” will introduce new generations of audiences to Harris’s powerful work and the essence of real hip-hop.

For more info, visit www.joyce.org.

“Rennie Harris presents: Rome & Jewels” (Bob Emmott photos)

FLUSHING TOWN HALL CELEBRATES BLACK HISTORY MONTH

As we enter into 28 days of Black History Month, it’s important to acknowledge that the month originally started as “Negro History Week” in 1926 by historian Carter G. Woodson. During Negro History Week’s introduction, Woodson declared that the teaching of Black history was imperative to confirm the physical and intellectual survival of the race within the broader society. “When you control a man’s thinking, you do not have to worry about his actions,” Woodson wrote in his book “The Miseducation of the American Negro.”

It was President Gerald Ford who officially recognized Black History Month in 1976.

The month will kick off with “Celebrating African American History Month at Flushing Town Hall 2023,” with “The Chuck Berry Rock & Roll Concert Party” on February 3. Berry’s showmanship, his guitar playing, the chords, solos and catchy lyrics earned him the title “Father of rock & roll.” John Lennon of the Beatles said, “If rock & roll should be called by another name, it might be Chuck Berry.”

Representing Berry’s rock & roll sound will be Harlem’s own blues singer, songwriter and guitarist Keith “the Captain” Gamble, who was inspired by Berry. Harlem residents are familiar with the Captain’s funky soulful licks from his performances at Showman’s Café, the Cotton Club and Mama Harlem. He was the male vocalist and lead guitarist for the Mile High Club band that served as the house band for ABC’s “The View.”

While Berry deserves all the titles and accolades for pioneering rock & roll, credit must be given to guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who, as a gospel singer, was an early forerunner of rock & roll. Berry’s style can easily be traced back to Tharpe, who danced and sang while playing serious riffs, and her picking was outrageous. She was a crowd-pleaser in the 1930s–’60s, playing in both churches and clubs. Elvis Presley acknowledged that she was one of his influences.

The Captain follows in their tradition, with the addition of his own unique style infused with some Harlem soul.

On February 10, the celebration at Town Hall continues with “The Challenge to Defy Gravity: Lindy Hopping, Black Bottom & Jitterbug Dances from the Legendary Savoy Ballroom” in Harlem. Saxophonist and musical director Patience Higgins and his band, along with The Savoy Swingers and guest artists The Big City Stompers, will transport the audience back to those high-flying days.

The ballroom, at Lenox Avenue and 140th Street, became the place for young dancers to show their stuff as the Lindy’s high-flying acrobatics became the craze.

The place billed as “The world’s most beautiful ballroom” stayed packed, with feet, arms and legs flying in all directions under the swing sounds of Chick Webb’s Big Band with singer Ella Fitzgerald. From the day of it opened on March 26, 1926, the Savoy was in high gear every night and garnered the name “the Home of Happy Feet.” While Webb held down his reign as the hard-swinging house band, other bands did come through, such as Duke Ellington, Cab Callaway,

Jimmie Lunceford and Jay McShann.

The Savoy became a dancer’s haven. Longtime Harlem resident and dancer Frankie Manning & Norma Miller and others in the 1930s became part of the elite “Kat’s Corner,” a corner of the dance floor where impromptu competitions took place. At age 75, Manning co-choreographed the Broadway musical “Black and Blue,” earning him a Tony Award in 1989. His autobiography, “Frankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy Hop,” was written with co-author Cynthia R. Millman (Temple University Press, 2007).

With this presentation, assembled by choreographer and dance historian

Mickey Davidson, “we are celebrating the gravity-defying contributions of the Lindy Hop and Air Steps,” Davidson said. Flushing Hall’s Black History Month celebration concludes on February 24 with “Soul Men: Singers Who Defined the Soul Music Genre—The Music of Marvin Gaye, Bill Withers, Al Green, Otis Redding, Sam & Dave.” “Soul Men” will take audiences on a musical journey reflecting on the times when these African American singers laid the blueprint for soul music with gospel tinges (1960s—’80s).

Singer Billy Cliff will lead this music excursion. Cliff’s singing credits include working with artists such as Freddie Jackson, Angela Bofill, Dianne Reeves and the jazz group Spyro Gyra, and as the lead vocalist for Kool & the Gang. The smooth, hip vocals of Curtis Mayfield and the deep timbre of Isaac Hayes will also be part of the event.

The music of these “Soul Men” not only attracted Black listeners but crossed over to white listeners as well. It was the closing era of DJs like Allan Freed, Murray the K, Jocko Henderson and Hal Jackson, who first introduced these artists. It was the beginning of a new epoch of a sound called soul that brought more luster, a deeper emotional timbre, to the R&B structure. It was also during the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements leading into the ’70s and ’80s. These Soul Men helped to make Black music a dominant force in the music industry. It was no longer “race music” or “negro Music”; it was Black music that changed the entire dynamic of music and who listened.

The concert will even take you to Houston, Texas, where Archie Bell & The Drells introduced their hit classic “Tighten Up.” This trilogy concert series celebrating Black History Month represents the sum of Black music, from the beginnings of urban blues rock & roll to the Savoy Ballroom’s swinging jazz sound, where teenagers danced to live big bands, that eventually led to the soul sounds that hit America.

As this series shows, Black music didn’t come out of a vacuum. It is a family of unified genres from the roots of Africa— an American progression of song from the plantation to the pulpit, junk joints to dance halls concert halls and festivals. It is the soul of a Black experience played out in songs, improvisational instrumental and dance.

As we celebrate this 2023 Black History Month, it is important to recognize the significance of what it means to celebrate every day, 365 days a year. We are at a crucial time in this U.S. of A. Celebrate this month with deliberate intention.

Flushing Town Hall is at 137-35 Northern Boulevard. For tickets, call 718-463-7700 x222 or visit the website, https://flushingtownhall.org/bhm-trilogy-2-2023.

Billy Cliff (Will Downing photo)

Dogs!

Continued from page 21 person can’t be located. Pavlinovic’s droopy babies are named Global Pandemic and Unprecedented Times, or ‘Pan’ and ‘Times’ for short, since she got them during the pandem -

ic in 2020.

Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News . Your donation to

match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting: https://bit.ly/ amnews1

Rhodesian ridgeback (Ariama C. Long photos)

Flatcoated retriever

Rottweiler

Irish water spaniel

Scottish terrier

Welsh terrier

William and Ellen Craft’s ingenious escape from slavery

By HERB BOYD Special to the AmNews

Rarely, but on occasion, we feature African American couples who warrant more exposure for their historic roles, rather than individual profiles. Few are comparable to the saga of William and Ellen Craft, and it’s good to learn that a fresh retelling of their adventure is now available. A recent review in the New York Times of “Master Slave Husband Wife” by Ilyon Woo praises her research and reconstruction of their escape from bondage and what happened to them in the following years.

For many Black history buffs, the Crafts’ story is nothing new. No book that attempts to chronicle the slave experience in America has been remiss in citing this dramatic incident and the creative ingenuity involved in their escape from slavery.

Marian Smith Holmes, in the June edition of the Smithsonian magazine in 2010, did a fine job of educating readers about the couple’s

daring escapade. It all began in 1848 in Georgia when William Craft discussed with his wife a scheme to flee from slavery, basically in plain sight. With this germ of an idea, Ellen, a quadroon, proposed that she would disguise herself as his master and facilitate their journey to freedom.

Light enough to pass for white, Ellen also devised other ways to avoid detection of race and gender by putting one of her arms in a sling (indicating an inability to sign any documents), a stove-type top hat, dark-green glasses and a neatly tied cravat. Of course, William had to trim Ellen’s tresses, allowing only a fringe of hair to protrude from under the hat. She also masqueraded with bandages to further indicate her need to have a servant traveling with him/ her. Through these means, they were able to travel and stay in luxury accommodations, Holmes wrote, even though the journey was “fraught with narrow escapes and heart-in-themouth moments that could have led to their discovery and capture.”

Holmes and Woo have done their homework, and much of it could not have been done without resorting to the Crafts’ narrative, “Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom,” that they wrote in 1860. “My wife and I were born in different towns in the State of Georgia, which is one of the principal slave States,” the Crafts wrote in the narrative’s first chapter. “It is true, our condition as slaves was by no means the worst; but the mere idea that we were held as chattels, and deprived of all legal rights— the thought that we had to give up our hard earnings to a tyrant, to enable him to live in idleness and luxury— the thought that we could not call the bones and sinews that God gave us our own: but above all, the fact that another man had the power to tear from our cradle the new-born babe and sell it in the shambles like a brute, and then scourge us if we dared to lift a finger to save it from such a fate, haunted us for years.”

From this excerpt, you get an idea of their learned disposition, and this

is enhanced by quotes from great poets such as John Milton. As Holmes noted in her study of the couple, they were “Put up for auction at age 16 to help settle his master’s debts…William had become the property of a local bank cashier. A skilled cabinetmaker, William continued to work at the shop where he had apprenticed, and his new owner collected most of his wages. Minutes before being sold, William had witnessed the sale of his frightened, tearful 14-year-old sister. His parents and brother had met the same fate and were scattered throughout the South.

“As a child,” Holmes continued, “Ellen, the offspring of her first master and one of his biracial slaves, had frequently been mistaken for a member of his white family. Much annoyed by the situation, the plantation mistress sent 11-year-old Ellen to Macon to her daughter as a wedding present in 1837, where she served as a ladies maid. Ellen and William married, but having experienced such brutal family separations despaired over having children, fearing they would be torn away from them. ‘The mere thought,’ William later wrote of his wife’s distress, ‘filled her soul with horror.’”

Perhaps the closest they came to being detected occurred during their purchase of tickets on a steamer from Charleston, South Carolina, to Philadelphia, where ownership of a slave had to be proven in writing. Only the chance passing of someone who knew of Ellen, even in disguise, was convincing enough to gain them passage.

They arrived in Philadelphia on Christmas Day in 1848, and Ellen burst into tears, crying out, “Thank God, William, we’re safe!” However, only for a moment, because soon they would be in flight again; this time to England after passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Three weeks later, Holmes wrote, they moved to Boston “where William resumed work as a cabinetmaker and Ellen became a seamstress. After two years, in 1850, slave hunters arrived in Boston intent on returning them to Georgia…[In] England, they eventually had five children. After 20 years they returned to the States and in the 1870s established a school in Georgia for newly freed Blacks.”

ACTIVITIES

FIND OUT MORE

Their engrossing slave narrative is clearly the main source about their daring escape and later years.

DISCUSSION

Woo’s book should provide additional information about their stay in England and the years teaching at their school.

PLACE IN CONTEXT

They conducted their escape before the Civil War, lived in the North after the war and then returned to the South to open their school.

CLASSROOM IN THE THIS WEEK IN BLACK

HISTORY

Jan. 29, 1954: Television star and actress Oprah Winfrey is born in Kosciusko, Mississippi.

Jan. 30, 1944: Sharon Pratt Dixon, who becomes the first African American woman elected as mayor of the nation’s capital, is born in Washington, D.C.

Jan. 31, 1988: Doug Williams becomes the first Black quarterback to win a Super Bowl, and is named MVP.

Red Hook

Continued from page 3

room there are 300 people sleeping and the beds are hospital-type beds.”

Fonseca added migrant men are concerned about the cold at the Red Hook facility despite the city’s claims of a heated, temperature-controlled structure. He said many are not used to the frigid New York City winter, with some suffering from pneumonia since arriving.

David Ramirez, another Venezuelan migrant, said each resident was initially assigned their own space at the Watson Hotel, although they began sharing rooms as more asylum seekers were moved in later on. A video of the Red Hook facility was shared to reporters showing rows of cots without privacy or partition.

Residents on certain

floors—like Ramirez—said they are still allowed to reenter the Watson Hotel, but many will soon be locked out. A significant number of the facility’s staff are bilingual and can communicate with Spanish-speaking residents, including many African migrant men.

“The problem [with being in Brooklyn] is it would take 25 minutes getting here…some have just arrived here and just gotten jobs,” said Ramirez in Spanish. “We want to be able to take care of ourselves, we want to work, the opportunity to work. These are all things that would jeopardize our efforts to work towards freeing ourselves from being dependent on others. It’s not that Brooklyn is so terrible, but what we don’t see is that we would be able to continue to work towards making ourselves independent if we were out there.”

Police were called to the Watson Hotel on Sunday during the standoff due to disruption from outside groups, according to the city. But both Fonseca and Ramirez said the movement was organized by the migrant men themselves, electing representatives to speak on their behalf. The local activists present denied involvement and interference outside of translation services and mutual aid.

Despite the standoff, the migrant men expressed their gratitude to both the city and its residents.

“So far they have really treated us very special, we have a lot of support, that is why they are coming––they are arriving now,” said Fonseca. “There are neighbors from here, from the Manhattan community, who are supporting us, bring-

ing food, meals, supplies. Everyone is very attentive to us in that regard.”

“I want to thank the people of the state of New York because they have helped us tremendously,” added Ramirez. “They’ve assisted us when in other places we did not get that. But personally, I am a person who wants to work. I can’t walk very much and they say that at the site in Brooklyn I would have to walk at least half and hour to 25 minutes to get to anywhere”

Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member and writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.

Metro Briefs

Continued from page 3

hold and why should you join? Learn more and apply here: https://form.jotform.com/223394138968065. Anyone age 16 and up can apply to their local board now through February 14, 2023.

Campaign to save Magnolia Earth Tree Center

On February 2 at 9:30 a.m., local community leaders and officials will launch a campaign to save the Magnolia Earth Tree Center (MTEC). The campaign will seek to raise $300,000 to address urgently needed repairs that will set the center on the path toward restoring its important role as a community hub and serving as a monument to Hattie Carthan’s vision and achievements for her neighborhood, and to re-introduce the center and the values it embodies to a new generation of Bed Stuy residents.

ASALH Black History Month Festival

The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) will hold a virtual Black History Month Festival from February 1–28. This year’s events will address “Black Resistance” in the arts, the Black press and the Black church. Visit the festival all month long at https://asalh.org/festival/.

––compiled by Karen Juanita Carrillo

New Jersey News

Continued from page 4

be donated to Friends of the Howe [H]ouse so they can pay off the bank note and help preserve the house and give it back to the Black community.”

Montclair Brewery will sponsor a can release party on Friday, Feb. 17, at 5:30 p.m. with a program at 6 p.m. Members ofFriends of the Howe House are expected to be in attendance and there will be a live music performance by the West African jazz band Faso Band from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. There will be a $5 cover charge per person for those staying for the live music session. Contact the Friends of the Howe House via email at friendsofthehowehouse@gmail.com.

Pennington Clergy Forum presents “Learning from Our Past to Build a More Just Future”

The Pennington Clergy Forum will present “Learning from Our Past to Build a More Just Future: American Colonization, Faith and Our Local Heritage” on Thursday, Feb. 16, 7 p.m., at the Pennington Presbyterian Church (13 South Main Street, Pennington, NJ 08534). The program will feature Rev. Dr. Deborah Blanks of the Mt. Pisgah AME Church, Princeton; Rev. Dr. Gordon Mikoski of the Princeton Theological Seminary; Elizabeth Allan, deputy director/curator of the Morven Museum & Garden; and Rev. Dr. Charles Boyer of the Greater Mt. Zion AME Church of Trenton. The event will be moderated by Beverly Mills and Rev. Gregory Smith. For more information, call 609-737-1221.

‘African American History in Westfield from 1720 to the present’

The free exhibit “African American History in Westfield from 1720 to the present” will be at the Center for Creativity at the Rialto (250 East Broad St., Westfield, N.J.) through Feb. 28. For more information, contact the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Association of Westfield at mlkwestfield@gmail.com.

by Karen Juanita Carrillo

DOE push equity in Fair Funding formula

By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member

After catching heat for education budget cuts in 2022, Mayor Eric Adams and Schools Chancellor David Banks have sought to correct their egregious mistakes by proposing improvements to the budgeting formula for the 2023-2024 school year.

The newly workshopped Fair Student Funding (FSF) formula is supposed to increase equity based on the recommendations made by a working group.

The proposals include an additional consideration for students in temporary housing or living in poverty, students with disabilities, English language learners and asylum-seeking students. The working group also suggested that public schools implement a more responsive budget appeals process and focus on increasing transparency. About $45 million in funding is aimed at students in temporary housing. Another $45 million is expected to go to over 300 schools across the city serving the highest concentration of students in need. Adams vowed to center family voices in policy and programs.

“Thanks to the work of our Fair Student Funding Working Group, we are prioritizing the needs and voices of students

who have been long forgotten, and this is only the beginning of turning New York City public schools into a thoughtful insti -

tution for all,” said Adams in a statement.

The FSF formula funds a large portion of community dis -

trict school budgets and is a weighted pupil-funding model,

See FAIR FUNDING on page 36

College scholarships for African American students: Winter 2023

2023 NYWICI Scholarship Program — $2,500–$10,000: New York Women in Communications (NYWICI) provides scholarships every year to deserving young students. Scholarships are for high school, undergraduate and graduate students for students pursuing careers/majors in the field of communications. The deadline to apply is Feb. 28, 2023. Click here to learn more.

Edna M. Blum Endowed Scholarship — up to $5,000: The Edna M. Blum Endowed Scholarship for NY Residents is open to students with unmet financial needs attending colleges/universities throughout the United States. The scholarship award depends on the finan -

cial need of the student as verified by the attending University or College. This is a one time award to be disbursed during the 2022-2023 school year. The deadline to apply is March 1, 2023. Click here for more information.

ACS Scholars Program —

$5,000: The American Chemical Society (ACS) awards renewable scholarships to underrepresented minority students who want to enter the fields of chemistry or chemistry-related fields. African American, Hispanic, Pacific Islander (excluding Asian) or American Indian high school seniors or college freshman, sophomores or juniors pursuing a college degree in the chemical sciences or

chemical technology are eligible to apply. Seniors can apply for their fifth year. Eligible applicants must: be a U.S. citizen or permanent U.S. resident; demonstrate high academic achievement in chemistry or science (grade point average 3.0, B or better); and demonstrate financial need according to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form (FAFSA) and Student Aid Report (SAR) form. The deadline to apply is March 1, 2023. Click here to learn more.

Actuarial Diversity Scholarship — $1,000–$4,000: The Actuarial Diversity Scholarship promotes diversity in the profession through an annual scholarship program for Black/

African American, Latinx, Native North American and Pacific Islander students. The scholarship award recognizes and encourages the academic achievements of full-time undergraduate students pursuing a degree that may lead to a career in the actuarial profession. Each applicant must have at least one birth parent who is a member of one of these minority groups: Black/African American, Latinx, Native North American or Pacific Islander. Must be enrolling or enrolled as a full-time undergraduate student at an accredited U.S. educational institution. Must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale), emphasis on math or actuarial courses. Entering college freshmen

must have a minimum ACT math score of 28 or SAT math score of 620. Must be intent on pursuing a career in the actuarial profession. The deadline to apply is June 1, 2023. Click here to learn more.

American Association of Blacks in Energy Scholarship — $5,000: The American Association of Blacks in Energy is a professional association composed of African Americans in the energy industry. Through its Scholarship Program, the association seeks to help increase the number of African-Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans (underrepresented minorities) in energy-

See SCHOLARSHIPS on page 36

Mayor Eric Adams visits Concourse Village Elementary School in the Bronx with Schools Chancellor David Banks and local elected leaders as they greet students and parents who are returning from holiday break on Monday, January 3, 2022. (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office photo)

After the 7 p.m. showing it was like a network and cable news spectacular. Shows were dedicated to deciphering every frame of the different camera angles. Social media was awash with people distraught and verbalizing the trauma, pain, and anguish.

Retired NYPD officer Noel Leader posted on Facebook, “As a police officer, it is a crime to stand by and watch a felony assault [or] murder occuring in your presence. As a police officer, it is also a crime not to report a felony assault [or] murder that occurs in your presence. There are crimes of commission and crimes of omission. This police officer [Preston Hemphill] should have been fired like the others for failing to do his duty.”

This week, word spread that one of the officers attacked Nichols because they had dated the same woman. Another report dismissed that as not a fact. The community is keeping it in mind.

On Jan. 28, Walter Beach, former principal and Cleveland Brown champion, said on Back to Basics on Inception FM: “The whole aspect has been appropriated by the dominant media of how we should even respond…white folks tell us how we should respond to our grief.”

Beach, who also was a training director for the NYC Department of Corrections, also spoke on his experience of racism in his lifetime, “I am not entitled to be treated as a human being. For 90 years I have experienced what it is to be a Black man in America. ..What is your experience?”

He also said, “The Colonial Western European Anglo White influence has appropriated how Black folks should respond to their grief, anger, et cetera. For me, it is always ZGR [Zero Grade Reliance] on the manipulation.”

After the outrage, the Memphis Police Department stated that they were disbanding the 50 person SCORPION team, saying “It is in the best interest of all to permanently deactivate” it.

Speaking on MSNBC, Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson said that it was if the SCORPION unit “occupied the community rather than helped the community.”

“The case will be massive. It is setting up to create so many precedents,” said civil rights lawyer Brian Figeroux. “This Tyre Nichols case is going to send ripples through the courts and practice of law, and law enforcement. We see the speed of the firings and arrests; then there’s the relatively quick release of the video; the disbanding of the so-called elite SCORPION unit, and now the ongoing arrests of those officers and EMTs at the scene of this crime.”

Figeroux was one of the original lawyers in the scandalous 1997 Abner Louima police assault case.

“Everyone involved in the Louima case, the police and EMTs, should have been charged. Why weren’t all the officers who were in the 70th precinct arrested? In the

same way all the officers should be charged in the Tyre Nichols case. All of them who were on the scene, who were involved in the beating, or did nothing to make it stop, or help Tyre as he was beaten.”

In addition to the five officers fired and charged, two sheriff’s deputies have also now not been fired, but relieved of duty.

“Every last one of them should be held accountable for this police lynching,” said family attorney Benjamin Crump.

In a statement, Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy’s office said, “The current charges do not preclude us from adding additional charges as more information is presented. We are looking at all individuals involved in the events leading up to, during, and after the beating of Tyre Nichols. This includes the officer present at the initial encounter who has not—so far —been charged, Memphis Fire Department personnel, and persons who participated in preparing documentation of the incident afterward.”

Post NYC police victims Sean Bell, Eric Garner, Akai Gurley, and Amadou Diallo, whose death by police bullets will see its 23rd anniversary on Feb. 4, 2023, Claxton told the Amsterdam News that there needs to be a “deep dive into the “dynamics of toxic policing.”

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Republican counterpart Tim Scott have said that Nichols’ killing has inspired them to talk about working on legislation to reform policing “considering all legislative options to raise the levels of transparency, accountability, and professionalism in American policing,” according to Booker’s office.

Services for Tyre Nichols were held at the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church on Feb. 1, with the eulogy delivered by National Action Network President Rev. Al Sharpton.

“Once again, we are forced to watch another horrific video of cops using brutal force to kill a Black man. Nearly three years after the murder of George Floyd shook the world, here we are,” said Sharpton. “This video should be all a jury needs to convict each of the five officers who relentlessly beat Tyre Nichols to death. Justice needs to be delivered for Tyre and his family. I don’t think anyone who could stomach getting through this footage would disagree.”

As the nation feels like it is deadly deja vu all over again, Sharpton added, “The sad reality is police brutality will be an everpresent threat for Black and brown Americans unless cops continually see that those who use blunt force will go to jail. They need to understand that a badge isn’t a shield that lets them kill someone during a traffic stop. And the only way to do that is through convictions and legislation. I thank the Justice Department for opening a civil rights investigation and urge its lawyers to be swift and transparent. Our entire nation must come together to condemn this grotesque violation of human rights.”

The Tyre murder has raised community angst, anger, devastation, tears, and resonating trauma. But, Black trauma is not for mainstream entertainment.

“How many times do you think Black people are going to just simply march when cops are slaughtering us in the streets?” asked New Jersey activist Divine Allah. The Black Panther Youth Minister, and recent Trenton City Council candidate, added, “This is not the first time, they just got caught. “In a relatively short period of time, we have been here too many times before. We don’t need any more cultural competency or sensitivity training. We have exhausted every method from ineffective laws, community group and church involvement, all the programs and week policies. What’s left for Black men is to fight back to save their lives in a real way. No more Black caucus meetings and rallies, that stuff does not work. Police reform is dismantling the policies which allow them to kill people with impunity, with qualified immunity. The community should be creating our own civilian review board, challenging the courts, and having brutal cops be fired on the spot. I’m with that.” Only giving her first name Aliah, and saying that she would not be surprised if it turns out that there was a personal reason why Nichols was stopped and beaten to death, a Crown Heights mother told the paper, “I’ve got biracial children, and my son has been arrested on mistaken identity, and kicked between the legs. If this would happen to my child, I guarantee there would be an eye for an eye. Tyre was somebody’s baby. He was 140 pounds. His mother is going to have to think about him calling out for her for the rest of her life.”

Retired detective Marquez Claxton told the Amsterdam News, “The color, complexion, or personal politics of the police offenders should be evaluated in the context of the significant role that race places in overall law enforcement, but that conversation should not detract from the painful seriousness of these repeated fatal encounters when even a conversation wasn’t necessary.”

Claxton concluded, “Absent a shift away from the traditional policing model towards a holistic and a comprehensive public safety model, we will exhaust ourselves with mourning.

President Joe Biden invited Nichols’ parents RowVaughn and Rodney Wells to the U.S. Capitol for his State of the Union address next week. Meanwhile, as she publicly grieves, Wells called her son a ““modern day messiah,” and said that she has to believe that her “son was sent on an assignment, and he’s completed that assignment.” Why else, she said on MSNBC, would he be “sacrificed for the greater good.”

“As the Tyre Nichols murder shows, police brutality is not so much about race, as it’s about perceived powerlessness and poverty,” said Heru Ptah, author of “Somewhere in Brooklyn,” a novel about a father who kidnaps a cop who killed his son.

“Police abuse the people they know they can get away with abusing, which tend to be poor people, or people they perceive to be poor and powerless. This happens wherever in the world you go. Look at Iran, look

at Russia. Black people are the predominant victims of police brutality, because on a whole as a people we are considered to be poor and powerless. The abuse of Tyre Nichols began before the police pulled him out of his car. On a subconscious level, those Black officers, like their white counterparts, predetermined they could abuse him. It’s their programming, and it was instinctive and automatic, and the only way to stop it is to empower ourselves.”

Bridging Africa and Black America (BABA) Inc. Executive Director Abdoulaye Cisse told the Amsterdam News, “There’s always been a difficult relationship between police and young Black men. I grew up in the Stop and Frisk era, and I remember being run up on by police for no reason. I have been wrongfully charged and falsely accused. I am a people person, and in the line of work I do in community affairs, as a community leader, I am supposed to be able to work with the police department. But, they always remind us why there is a break when they continue to brutalize us. When I see officers doing community policing and say, ‘Good morning,’ I don’t know the history of the individual [or] if it will result in a bad response. So usually now, I don’t say anything. I want to work with the police for my community, but we just are not always sure about what could happen.” “We the community have reviewed the tape, and there was no threat,” said Emarie Knight, health and wellness coach, “and then they had the nerve to lie. May justice of the land be administered to the fullest. And we know how, and why this justice system does Black men the way they do. “They are considered a wolf pack… as it was not necessary to do bodily harm. Why? is the million dollar question. What is it going to take to give ourselves some grace and stand in the gap for one another? They treated this young man like an animal that needed to be put down. They should have known better. Shame on you. Your families have to suffer because of your acts of senseless violence. Our sister in charge acted swiftly, I know her head and heart had a battle. But all kudos to her. It sickens me that another Black man is killed, and there is no natural affection and the love of these Black men is not cool but cold blooded.

“They punished this young man for running, and his penalty was death. What were they thinking? Apparently they didn’t see their nephew or son on the ground! No recognition of any kind. I get it. Protect and serve the community, but playing your position to build our community is a must. We’ve got to start understanding that we aren’t cut from the same cloth. They forgot the oppressor still has his foot on our necks, and we are still fighting for our freedoms. Every drop of blood that is shed should remind us of this truth.

Knight, a Brooklyn-based healthcare worker concluded, “My heart hurts and my womb aches for this mother, and all the mothers who have lost their sons and daughters especially to Black violence.”

Religion & Spirituality

Barrett Strong, a Motown master of song

By HERB BOYD Special to the AmNews

Whether or not Barrett Strong co-wrote “Money (That’s What I Want),” he was the vocalist and pianist on the track that became a million-seller and Motown’s first major recording. Strong, one of the company’s most prolific composers and lyricists, died on January 29 in Detroit, according to a statement from the Motown Museum. He was 81; no details were provided for the cause of death.

It’s impossible to hum or sing a Motown song that did not include Strong’s gifts, including such tunes as “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “War” and “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” which earned him a Grammy award in 1973. He received three other Grammy nominations in his long and productive career, often in collaboration with producer Norman Whitfield.

Born in West Point, Mississippi, on February 5, 1941, Strong moved to Detroit with his family when he was still a child. He taught himself to play piano and as a teenager, formed a group with his sisters called the Strong Singers. As an aspiring musician in Detroit, he was soon associated with a number of other hopefuls such as Smokey Robinson, Aretha Franklin and singers who would become part of the Temptations.

When his talent was recognized by Berry Gordy, he was signed and became one of the first songwriters at Motown records. The breakthrough single “Money” in 1960 was the source of much controversy about who had the rights to it, eventually embroiling him and Gordy in a long dispute. Even so, Gordy said that “Barrett was not only a great singer and piano player, but he, along with his writing partner Norman Whitfield, created an incredible body of work.”

Many of their songs accompanied various political developments and helped to give them resonance and a musical context. Edwin Starr’s recording of “War” was appropriated by activists in their anti-war demonstrations. The bulk of their endless line of hits were recorded by the Temptations, and Strong learned too late in life that the real earnings from songwriting were with the publishers. “The real money

is in publishing,” he told a reporter at the New York Times, “and if you have publishing hand on to it. That’s what it’s all about. If you give it away, you’re giving away your life, your legacy. Once you’re gone, those songs will still be playing.”

In all of this, Strong was prophetic, and nowhere have his creations more visi-

ble than in movies and on Broadway with such fantastically successful productions as “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” which features several of his songs.

Whitfield and Strong were inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in 2004. Five years later, Strong was incapacitated by a stroke. Whitfield died in 2008.

“It was the third of September, a day I will always remember,” he wrote in the opening lines of “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone.” While he may not have cashed in on his talents, Barrett Strong’s genius is just as much a part of the American song books as that of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and George Gershwin.

Barrett Strong in 1996 (John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Barrett_Strong.jpg), “Barrett Strong” , https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode)

International

Continued from page 2

Maseko had taken a case to court against King Mswati III, Africa’s last absolute monarch, over his decision to rename the country Eswatini by decree.

Hours before Maseko was murdered, Mswati criticized activists pushing for reform, saying, “People should not shed tears and complain about mercenaries killing them.”

A longtime critic of Mswati,

Police Murder

Continued from page 12

Maseko knew his work was risky but persisted for many years. He described his situation as “caught between hope and fear.”

He wrote to President Obama from prison. Quoting Martin Luther King, Jr., he asked for help from the U.S. government and generated unwelcome international media coverage for Mswati.

“As one of the founding members of the Johannesburg-based SouthernDefenders, Maseko made an immense contribution to the advancement of justice and human

and low income. It was designed to be that way.

We must stop the hiring of only slightly qualified people, just because they are part of a legacy in the agency. We must end the practice of training new officers to be warriors instead of guardians. We must ensure that if supervisors do not properly instruct their subordinates, they lose their authority. And we must change the way we manage and the policies we set forth.

We must insist that our nation’s leadership enact concrete legislation that calls for the total and complete disenfranchisement of those who engage in the unbridled use of excessive force. Once detected, they must

THE

rights not only in Eswatini but throughout the Southern Africa region,” wrote the Geneva-based World Organization Against Torture, formerly headed by Kofi Annan.

He carried out several fact-finding missions to Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi where he reported on the deterioration of civic space in the region.

“Eswatini has lost a powerful voice for nonviolence and respect for human rights,” said Ned Price, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, in a statement posted to Twitter.

never be allowed to carry a badge and gun, or act with any level of law enforcement authority. Qualified immunity must become a thing of the past, instead of a constant reminder that there are few ways to hold law enforcement fully accountable. We can ill afford the continued creation and fostering of an atmosphere of racially hostile attitudes and behaviors on the part of officers who continue to place us all at risk because of their ignorance and callousminded behaviors.

There must be change. There must be accountability. The carnage must be stopped.

Lieut. Charles P. Wilson (Ret.) is the webmaster and immediate past chair of the National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers (NABLEO).

“We remain deeply concerned about continuing violence in Eswatini,” he added, “and we continue to urge the government of Eswatini to set a date for an inclusive national dialogue as soon as possible.”

At Saturday’s memorial service, Dessy Choumelova, the European Union ambassador to Eswatini, called Maseko’s killing an assassination. She said the government needed to carry out a transparent investigation to “identify and prosecute those responsible for this cowardly murder.”

City budget

Continued from page 12

three decades concluded that “new police budget growth is likely to do one thing: increase misdemeanor arrests.”

These arrests do little to reduce violent crime. Instead, the authors explained, they lead to more police encounters that result in killings.

Cities that took steps to reduce arrests for petty crimes saw a decrease in police killings, according to data scientist Samuel Sinyangwe, a cofounder of Campaign Zero. He also concluded that crime rates in those cities did not increase.

These issues need not be divisive. None of us should simply accept that police will continue to kill more and more people each year. Making

sure our local budgets invest in real safety, not just deadly force, is one place to begin.

The Community Resource Hub has created a powerful internet tool, DefundPolice.org, to help communities put police spending into perspective and re-imagine their city budgets.

The site includes a detailed video tutorial about how to use tools such as a “people’s budget calculator” to advocate for change locally. We all want safer communities. To get them, we have to put our money toward people’s needs, not deadly deeds.

Sonali Kolhatkar is the host of “Rising Up With Sonali,” a television and radio show on Free Speech TV and Pacifica stations. This commentary was produced by the Economy for All project at the Independent Media Institute, adapted for syndication by OtherWords. org and lightly edited for AmNews style.

The

Thulani Maseko (GIN photo)

PANDEMIC HAS SHOWN THAT SUPPORTERS LIKE YOU UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE OF LOCAL NEWS AS A SOURCE OF RELIABLE INFORMATION. YOUR DONATION TO THE BLACKLIGHT INVESTIGATIVE UNIT, VIA THE LOCAL MEDIA FOUNDATION, WILL

Local Media Foundation/New York Amsterdam News Blacklight Project will shine a light on the problems plaguing our communities and highlight solutions. Donations to the Local Media Foundation for this project are tax-deductible to the extent of the law. No goods or services are provided in exchange for contributions. Please consult a tax advisor for details. The program is administered by Local Media Foundation, tax ID #36-4427750, a Section 501(c)(3) charitable trust affiliated with the Local Media Association.

CLASSIFIED ADS

100 PUBLIC NOTI CES

101 LEGAL NOTICES

101 LEGAL NOTICES

101

LEGAL NOTICES

101 LEGAL NOTICES

101 LEGAL NOTICES

RULES AND REGULATIONS

CANCELLATIONS must be made in writing by 12 Noon Monday.

The forwarding of an order is construed as an acceptance of all advertising rules and conditions under which advertising space is sold by the NEW YORK AMSTERDAM NEWS. Publication is made and charged according to the terms of this card.

Rates and regulations subject to change without notice. No agreements as to position or regulations, other than those printed on this.

Til forbid orders charged for rate earned. Increases or decreases in space take the rate of a new advertisement.

The New York AMSTERDAM NEWS reserves the right to censor, reject, alter or revise all advertisements in accordance with its rules governing the acceptance of advertising and accepts no liability for its failure to insert an advertisement for any cause. Credit for errors in advertisements allowed only for first insertion.

CLASSIFIED

• Classified advertisements take the regular earned rate of their classification. Four line minimum on all ads except spirituals and horoscopes (14 lines).

CLASSIFIED DISPLAY

• Classified Display (boarder or picture) advertisements take the regular earned rate of their classification. Display (boarder or picture) advertisements one column wide must be 14 lines deep; two columns, 28 lines deep; 3 columns, 56 lines deep. Classified Display (boarder or picture) placed as close to classifications as rules and makeup permit.

CLASSIFICATIONS

All advertisement accepted for publication is classified according to the standard classifications. Misclassification is not permitted.

BASIS OF CHARGE

Charges are based on point size and characters per line. Upon reaching 15 lines the rate converts to column inch. Any deviation from solid composition such as indentation, use of white space, bold type, etc., will incur a premium.

In Case of error, notify the Amsterdam News 212-932-7440

SUPREME COURT-NEW YORK COUNTY- HILTON RESORTS CORP., Pltf v. AUDREY MARIE-ANNE ABRAHAM, JORGE ABRAHAM, Deft. - Index #850086/2021. Pursuant to Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated December 22, 2022, I will sell at pu blic auction Outside the Portico of the NY County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, NY, NY on Wednesday, March 1, 2023, at 2:15 pm, an undivided 5,000 /28,402,100 tenant in common interest in th e timeshare known as Phase I of HNY CLUB SUITES located at 13 35 Avenue of the Americas, in the County of NY, State of NY. Approximate amount of judgment is $40,974.74 plus costs and in terest as of January 13, 2022. Sold su bject to te rms and condition s of filed Ju dgment and Terms of Sale which includes annual maintenan ce fees and charges Paul Sklar, Esq., Referee. Cruser, Mitchell, Novitz, Sanchez, Gaston, & Zimet LLP, Attys. for Pltf., 341 Conklin Stree t, Farmingdale, NY

SUPREME COURT-NEW YORK COUNTY- HILTON RESORTS CORP., Pltf v. AMANDA SALIH, BRIAN CORNES, Deft. - Inde x #850113/2021. Pu rsuant to Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated December 22, 2022, I will sell at pu blic au ction Outside the Portico of th e NY County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, NY, NY on Wednesday, March 1, 2023, at 2:15 pm, an un divided 0.00986400000% tenant in common in terest in the timeshare known as 57TH STREET VACATION SUITES located at 102 West 57th Street, New York, New York. Approximate amount of judgment is $34,601.23 plus costs and interest as of January 12, 2022 Sold subject to terms and conditions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale which in cludes annual main tenance fees and charges Paul Sklar, Esq., Referee. Cruser, Mitche ll, Novitz, Sanchez, Ga ston, & Zimet LLP, Attys. for Pltf., 341 Conklin Street, Farmingda le, NY

SUPREME COURT-NEW YORK COUNTY- HILTON RESORTS CORP., Pltf. v. LUCKIE PROPERTIES LL C, a Florida Limited Liability Company, Deft.- Index #850107/2021. Pursuant to Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated February 24, 2022, I will sell at public auction Outside on the Portico, NY County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, NY, NY on Thursda y, February 9, 2023, at 2:15 pm, a 0.0519 144 314871446% tenant in common interest in the timeshare known as HNY CLUB SUITES located at 133 5 Aven ue of the Americas, in the County of NY, State of NY. Approximate amount of judgment is $70,678.13 plus costs and interest as of October 21, 2021. Sold subject to terms and cond itions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale which in cludes annual mainten ance fees and charges Georgia Papazis, Esq., Referee. Cruser, Mitchell & Novitz, LLP, Attys. for Pltf., 341 Conklin Street, Farmingda le, NY

SUPREME COURT-NEW YORK COUNTY- HILTON RESORTS CORP., Pltf v. VERANIECE WILLIAMS, Deft.- Inde x #850124 /2021. Pursuant to Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated February 24, 2022, I will sell at pu blic auction Outside on the Portico, NY County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, NY, NY on Thursday, February 9, 2023, at 2:15 pm, a 0.009864% tenant in common interest in the time share known as 57Th Street Vacation Suites located at 102 West 57th Street, in the County of NY, State of NY Approx imate amount of judgmen t is $ 22,110.44 plus costs and interest as of October 21, 2021. Sold subject to terms and condition s of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale which includ es annual maintenance fees and charges Georgia Papazis, Esq., Referee. Cruser, Mitche ll & Novitz, LLP, Attys. for Pltf., 341 Conklin Street, Farmingdale, NY

Notice of Formation of 121

GREENE STREET LLC Arts of Org. filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/20/22. Office lo cation: NY

Coun ty SSNY de signated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o DLA Piper LLP, Attn: Bruce Saber, 1251 Ave. of the Americas, NY, NY 10020. Purpose: Any lawful activity

AJL Construction and Ma nagement LLC Arts of Org. filed with SSNY on 12/17/2022. Office Location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served against it & shall mail a co py to: 40 Monroe Street, Apt FF6, New York, NY 10002. Purpose: Any lawful activity

Notice of Qualification of ARHC SPALBNY01, LLC

Appl for Auth filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/12/23. Office lo cation: NY Coun ty LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 01/12/23. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upo n whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corp oration Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543 DE ad dr of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert of Form file d with Secy of State, 40 1 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Own, rent, lease and ma nage commercial real estate

Notice of Formation of ARMORY PLAZA HOUSING

CLASS B, LLC Arts of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/23/22. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 30 Hudson Yards, 72nd Fl., NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Alban y, NY 12207. Purpose: Any lawful activity

BROTHERLY LIQUIDATION LLC Art of Org. filed with th e SSNY on 10/10/2022. Office: New York County. SSNY de signated as agent of th e LLC upo n whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, LEGALCORP SOLUTIONS, 1060 Broadway, Suite 100, ALBANY, NY 12204. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

FINE PRINT INK, LLC Arts of Org. filed with SSNY on 9/30/22. Office Location: NY

Coun ty SSNY ha s been designat ed as agent up on whom process may be served & shall mail to: 120 W 97th St, #13J, NY, NY 10025. Purpo se. Any lawful activity

Formation of CARNUTE LLC filed with th e Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/1/2022. Office loc.: NY County. SSNY de signated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. The registered agent and address

SSNY shall mail process to Corporate Service Bureau Inc., 283 Wash ington Ave., Albany, NY 12206. Purpose: Any lawful activity

GJV Enterprise LLC Arts of Org. filed with SSNY on 6/11/22. Office Location: NY

Coun ty SSNY ha s been designat ed as agent up on whom process may be served & shall mail to: 208 West 119th St., Ap t 5Q, NY, NY 10026.

Purpose. Any lawful activity

HOVDEN LAW LLC Arts of Org. filed with SSNY on 1/23/2023. Office Location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served against it & shall mail to: Hovden Law, 250 West 15th St., Suite 6B, New York, NY 10011. Purpo se: Any lawful activity

Notice of Qualification of LEGGETT AVENUE PROPERTY LLC Appl for Auth filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/21/22. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 10/11/22. NYS fictitious name: 1175 LEGGETT AVENUE PROPERTY LLC

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upo n whom process against it may be served.

MKSLSL LLC Arts of Org. filed with SSNY on 12/08/2022. Office Location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served against it & shall mail a copy to: Michae l Emmel, CPA, 270 Madison Avenue, 16th Floo r, New York, NY 10016. Purpo se: Any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of 282 WEST 11TH STREET LLC

Arts of Org. file d with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/21/22. Office lo cation: NY

Coun ty Prin c. office of LLC: 207 W. 110th St., Apt. 4, NY, NY 10026. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the princ. office of th e LLC Purpose: Any lawful activity

AfroBeets, LLC Arts of Org. filed with SSNY on 9/19/2022. Office Location: Manhattan Coun ty SSNY de signated as agent upon whom process may be served against it & shall mail to: 17 40 Broadway, Suite 1500, New York, NY 10019

Purpose: Any lawful act.

Built Ahead LLC filed Articles of Organization with the NYS Depa rtment of State (SSNY) on 12/15/2022. Office location: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of the Company upon whom process against it may be served, and a copy of any process shall be mailed to 7 Le xington Ave., Apt. 4B, NY, NY 10010. Purpose: any la wful business.

Notice of Formation of CSA PRESERVATION MM LLC

Arts of Org. file d with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/11/23. Office lo cation: NY Coun ty Prin c. office of LLC: 116 E. 27th St., 11th Fl., NY, NY 10016. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Alban y, NY 12207. Purpose: Real estate - Development

SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corp oration Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543 DE ad dr of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert of Form file d with Secy of State, Div. of Corps., 40 1 Federal St - Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity

MERCER CM, LLC, Arts of Org. filed with the SSNY on 12/09/2022. Office loc: Bronx

Coun ty SSNY ha s been designat ed as agent up on whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, 79 Alexander Ave Ste 33A, Bronx, NY 10454. Reg Agent: Aaron Yaghoobi an , 79 Alexander Ave Ste 33A, Bronx, NY 10454. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

Ms Laura LLC Arts of Org. filed with SSNY on 1/03/2023. Office Location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served against it & shall mail to: 228 Park Ave S., #913 865, NY, NY 10003.

Purpose: Any lawful activity

Notice of formation of Limited Liab ility Company Name: EC Central Hudson 2 LLC (“LL C”). Articles of Organization file d with the Secretary of State of the State of New York (“SSNY”) on December 23, 2022. NY office location: New York County. The SSNY ha s been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. The SSNY shall mail a copy of an y process to EC Central Hudson 2 LLC, c/o Exact Capital Group LLC, 150 East 52nd St., 14th Floor, New York, NY 10022

Purpose/character of LLC is to engage in any lawful act or activity

Tender Mountain LLC Arts of Org. filed with SSNY on 11/28/2022. Office Location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served against it & shall ma il to: Alice Liang, 228 Park Ave S., #584754, NY, NY 10003. Purpose: Any lawful act or activity

110 SERVICES

ARE YOU BEHIND $10k OR MORE ON YOUR TAXES?

Stop wage & bank levies, liens & audits, unfiled ta x returns, payroll issues, & resolve tax debt FAST Call 888-869-5361 (Hours: MonFri 7a m-5pm PST)

Get DIRECTV for $64.99/mo for 12 months with CHOICE Package. Save an additional $120 over 1st year First 3 months of HBO Max, Cinemax, Showtime, Starz and Epix in cluded! Directv is #1 in Customer Satisfaction (JD Power & Assoc.) Some restrictions apply. Call 1-888534-6918

ATTENTION VIAGRA

USERS: Generic 100mg blue pills or gen eric 20mg ye llow pills Get 45 plus 5 free $99 + S/H. Call Today 87 7-7075523

BEST

Unfurn Rms share kit/bath Canarsie: 3 rms, Crown Hts: 2 rms Flatbush, E.Flatbush, $700-900 Broker 917.541.6394

E. Flatbush, 3 Bdrms duplex, 1½ bath, $2,600/m. 3 Bdrms Ocean Hill, $2,500/m. E. Flatbu sh, 1 Bdrm Ground Fl., Util incl $1,575/m. E. Flatbush, 1 Bdrm, $1,575/m. Call Realtor 917.541.6394

Your Car Donations Ma tter NOW More Than Ever! Free Vehicle Pick Up ANYWHERE We Accept Most Vehicles Running or Not. 100% Tax Deductible Minima l To No Human Contact Call: (877) 798-9474. Car Dona tion Foundation d/b/a Wheels For Wishes www.wheelsforwishes.org

Fair Funding

Continued from page 28

meaning it’s based on the number of students enrolled at each school. School Leadership Team (SLTs) and principals also have some sway over how to spend these funds.

The Department of Education (DOE), Adams, and Banks had placed blame on the flawed FSF formula, dwindling stimulus funds, and projected decreases in school enrollments for the cuts to schools last year. Because of that, angry parents and advocates launched a short legal battle that momentarily delayed the cuts. The courts eventually sided with the city. Banks had said during the scuttle last spring that the city planned on creating a group to reform the funding formula, but the promise was somewhat lost among the controversy.

“These changes, made as a direct result of the thoughtful work of the Fair Student Funding Working Group, are representative of New York City public schools’ commitment to working directly with our communities and putting into place genuine change to support our schools and our kids,” said

Scholarships

Continued from page 28

related fields. To qualify, applicants must have a minimum 3.0 GPA, be a graduating high school senior who intends to enroll in the next semester in an accredited college or university; planning to major in business, one of the physical sciences, technology, engineering or mathematic fields, in preparation for a career in the energy sector. The deadline to apply is March 3, 2023. Click here to learn more.

Blacks at Microsoft Scholarship — $20,000: Blacks at Microsoft (BAM) is a companysponsored employee network dedicated to supporting the continued growth and development of black employees at Microsoft Corporation. Applicants must be high school seniors of African descent (for example, African-American, African or Ethiopian) with a minimum 3.3 GPA and financial need. Applicants must plan to attend a four-year college or university

Banks in a statement. “This was complicated work they took on, and I am so appreciative of the work of the Fair Student Funding Working Group and cochairs Dia Bryant and Jasmine Gripper and am thrilled to be moving these recommendations forward.”

The working group is led by two co-chairs: Alliance for Quality Education Executive Director Jasmine Gripper, and Ed Trust-New York Executive Director Dia Bryant. The city said that the group spent three months meeting with national experts, conducting community engagement sessions, and considering specific policy improvements for schools. In November 2022, the working group released their report for consideration by Banks.

Speaker Adrienne Adams and Councilmember Rita Joseph, who chairs the education committee, put out a joint statement on the proposed reforms to the FSF formula. They said that the formula “has long been in need of reform” and welcomed the estimated $90 million in allocated support.

“The department has listened to the advocates for our students who participated in the Working Group,” they said. “We

in the fall of the year following high school graduation. In addition, applicants must plan to pursue a bachelor’s degree in technology. Acceptable majors include engineering, computer science, computer information systems or select business programs (such as finance, business administration or marketing). The applicant must demonstrate a passion for technology and leadership within the school or community. The deadline to apply is March 15, 2023. Click here to learn more.

CBC Spouses Education Scholarship — $20,000: CBC Spouses Education Scholarship programs support current or upcoming college students across a variety of disciplines.

African American and Black graduating high school seniors; scholars pursuing undergraduate, graduate or doctoral degrees in a variety of fields.

Applicants for the CBC Spouses Education Scholarship must be a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident, have a per -

are also encouraged by changes to the budget appeal process and commitments to improve transparency around how DOE issues school budgets, so the public and government oversight entities are not left without basic information.”

Many education advocates applauded the formula changes.

Evan Stone, co-founder and co-CEO of Educators for Excellence, said that students in temporary housing and schools with high concentrations of students with additional needs were disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. “This is an important shift for the city to be making,

manent residence or attend an academic institution in a CBC Members district and be preparing to pursue or is currently pursuing an undergraduate, graduate or doctoral degree full-time at an accredited college or university. Current high school seniors are also eligible to apply. Must have a minimum 2.5 GPA on 4.0 scale and exhibit leadership and be active in their community. Selected applicants will be qualified African American or Black students. The deadline to apply is April 30, 2023. Click here to learn more.

Leonard M. Perryman Communications Scholarship for Racial Ethnic Minority Students — $2,500: The Leonard M. Perryman Communications Scholarship for Racial Ethnic Minority Students awards a scholarship for undergraduate studies of religion, journalism or communications. The scholarship assists a United Methodist undergraduate who intends to pursue a career in

these populations in silos and instead ensure schools can adequately meet the wide-ranging needs of their students.”

The proposed formula changes will go to the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) for review before approval. PEP is a governing body of the city’s public schools that votes on the funding formula and on the estimated budget proposed by the Mayor.

because now is the time to ensure that our funding formula sends more funds to serve schools and students that need them most, especially as temporary COVID-19 relief funds expire,” said Stone.

Elizabeth Haela, a public school teacher who was part of the working group, said that she was “extremely encouraged by the city’s decision.”

“I’m to allocate funds to schools with greater needs,” said Haela in a statement. “A student that is in temporary housing might also require special education services, for example, so this funding will ensure that we no longer look at

religious journalism through study at an accredited U.S. college or university. Applicants must be a United Methodist ethnic minority who is a current college junior or senior enrolled in a journalism/communications program at an accredited college/university. The deadline to apply is March 15, 2023. Click here to learn more.

NACME Scholars (Block Grant) Program — $16,000: The National Action Council for Minorities in Education (NACME) is the largest provider of college scholarships for underrepresented minorities pursuing degrees at schools of engineering. NACME scholarships make a significant impact on the lives of deserving students who become valued participants in the engineering and computer science workforce. NACME is responsible for more than $5 million in scholarships awarded annually to underrepresented minority students. NACME supports approximately 1,000 underrep -

“The city’s commitment today is a positive step, and we encourage the Panel for Educational Policy to vote in favor of these recommendations,” said Stone. “We also encourage the Chancellor, Mayor, and policymakers to consider other recommendations made by the working group, such as increasing the weight for students in poverty and increasing the base foundation amount that each school receives.”

Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting: https://bit.ly/amnews1

resented minority engineering and computer students annually. Application deadline varies. Click here to learn more.

Herbert Lehman Education Fund Scholarship — $12,000: The mission of the Herbert Lehman Education Program is to help transform the promise of racial equality into a social, economic and political reality by supporting talented undergraduate students with financial need to stay in school and successfully complete their bachelor’s degree. Applicants must demonstrate financial need and have a combined family income of $65,000 or less, as well as a record of academic achievement and a commitment to public service. There is no minimum test score or GPA requirement. The scholarship committee will take into account each candidate’s GPA, standardized test scores, letters of recommendation, financial needs, volunteer activities and essays. The deadline to apply is April 1, 2023. Click here to learn more.

"The newly workshopped Fair Student Funding (FSF) formula is supposed to increase equity based on the recommendations made by a working group."

Fencer Karolina Nixon looks to come full circle

By LOIS ELFMAN Special to the AmNews

After a stellar start to her collegiate fencing career, garnering Second Team All-America honors as a freshman and All-Northeast Region Second Team honors in epee as a sophomore, Karolina Nixon was first taken out of action by the pandemic and then suffered an injury that kept her off the strip last year. Now a senior, she has returned to action for Columbia University.

Growing up in Los Angeles, Nixon’s first sport was rhythmic gymnastics. The club where she trained shared space with fencing. She walked past fencing every day to get to gymnastics and felt the draw to try a new sport. Once she tried fencing, she was hooked.

“If you win, it’s your win, and if you lose, you can’t blame anybody but yourself,” said Nixon, who competes in epee. “I don’t think there are many situations in life when you get to be in an environment where it’s so clearly the result of your individual decisions and actions, and I found that really exhilarating and liberating.”

The travel that came from a young age was also appealing— meeting people and making friends all over the world. It made Nixon comfortable with making

the move across the country for college. “I’m definitely a city girl, and I always wanted to be in or around New York for school,” she said. “There happened to be a great school in New York City with great fencing. The coach happened to be interested in me—thank you, Michael Aufrichtig. It was always my number one choice.”

Columbia did not compete during the 2020–21 school year, so she took a gap year, spending time in Poland visiting and doing some training. When Columbia fencing returned for 2021–22, Nixon was out with a

shoulder injury, but did return to campus as team captain. She resumed serious training last summer. Nixon appreciates the mind-body connection of fencing, where anticipation and reading an opponent is an integral part of success. “Fencing requires you to make decisions with incomplete information,” she said. “It’s a lot of on-the-spot game theories and doing your best with what you see. The best fencers are…able to tell nearly imperceptible differences between a real attack and a fake attack…and create that themselves…Working toward that I find

really interesting.”

She said it’s amazing to be back in action. Her goal is to improve with each tournament. After graduation this spring, her focus will be on making the U.S. senior national team by 2024 in hopes of working toward the 2028 Olympics.

Columbia women went 5–0 in last weekend’s LIU Shark Showcase. Next up are the Ivy League Round Robin Championships, Feb. 11–12.

Aries Wickham makes a global imprint in the sport of rhythmic gymnastics

By JAIME C. HARRIS AmNews Sports Editor

For the past four decades, the Wendy Hilliard Gymnastics Foundation, which was founded in Harlem in 1996, has been an incubator for many young Black and brown gymnasts. Now located in Harlem and Detroit, and through its collaboration with the Harlem Armory and Harlem Children’s Zone, it continues to develop youth ages 3-17 physically, academically, socially, and emotionally, as well as serve adults with its 25 gymnastics instructors and program staff.

The latest notable WHGF participant to make a huge global imprint in gymnastics is 16-year-old rhythmic gymnast Aries Wickham. She is a two-time regional champion in floor, club, and ball exercises, and last July became Harlem’s first representative for Team

USA in the Maccabiah Games held in Jerusalem. The Maccabiah Games is the third-largest sporting event in the world with 10,000 competitors from 80 countries taking part in 42 different sports.

“We’re doing a sport that’s extremely difficult while we have to make it look easy,” Wickham said through WHGF. “We have to smile and make it enjoyable to watch. This isn’t a soccer game where everyone knows you’re an athlete and you can sweat and cry as long as you’re still playing.

“This is a performance,” elaborated Wickham, a high school sophomore attending Columbia Secondary School in Manhattan. “You are performing in a competition where everything is being judged and people don’t realize how hard it is.

“Let’s say you mess up early in a routine; you have to pretend that

never happened. It’s a lot of mental fortitude because you have to keep being strong all the way until the end.”

Wickham’s training regimen is one of which any world class athlete would admire. She has 12-hour sessions on weekdays and four hours on weekends while managing her rigorous academics. Additionally, she has two hours per week of ballet and physical therapy.

Her development is under the tutelage of WHGF founder and USA Gymnastics Hall of Famer Hilliard and the foundation's head coach Alexis Page.

“Every time [Wendy Hilliard] comes and watches my routine or watches me practice,” said Wickham, “she explains something to me. She says, ‘That’s why I get paid the big bucks.’

Harlem’s Aries Wickham, a 16-year-old rhythmic gymnast pictured performing at last summer’s Maccabiah Games in Israel, is making her global mark in the sport (Larry Slater photo)

Columbia University fencer Karolina Nixon looks to excel after the COVID-19 pandemic and injury temporarily halted her aspirations. (Columbia Athletics photos)

Knicks need an upgrade to be a contender in the East

By JAIME C. HARRIS AmNews Sports Editor

Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau demonstrated an economy of words on Tuesday night, meeting with the media in a state of obvious frustration after his team dropped a winnable 129-123 overtime game to the Los Angeles Lakers in a blaring, sold out Madison Square Garden. They extended a stretch of flawed defense that has them 2-6 in their last eight games when they host the Miami Heat tonight at MSG. The Knicks are 27-25 and No. 7 in the East.

In the Knicks’ past six losses they have allowed opponents to score an average of 126 points per game. “It’s not one particular thing,” Thibodeau said of the Knicks’ defensive issues. “It’s the consistency of doing it over and over again. It’s all aspects. It starts [with] competing on the ball, being tied together, being connected.

“From defensive transition to pick and roll defense,” he expanded, “to catch and shoot defense to isolation defense, to dribble hand off defense to low post defense you need everyone connected together. Oftentimes it’s a second, third, fourth effort… And so what we can’t do is we can’t let up. We gotta keep fighting and pushing through this.

“We’re hitting some adversity,” Thibodeau acknowledged. “We just have to make it go our way, that’s all. Gotta bear down and

make it go our way.”

A recurring issue for the Knicks this season has been losing close games due to defensive lapses or not executing offensively in the waning seconds. An evident shortcoming is not having a singular player who can routinely get buckets when the opposition locks down. Before explaining the Knicks aforementioned defensive concerns, Thibodeau described the difficulties of trying to stop players that unlike his sporadic group are validated game clinchers.

“Look, you got LeBron James, and you got Anthony Davis. You got two unbelievable players that command a lot of attention so it’s going to change the game,” he underscored. “Westbrook is another guy who can hurt you off the dribble and so we knew we’d be tested in that way.

“The way they attack the paint, we need to keep our defense tight, and we didn’t keep it as tight as we should have. Then, when you have those types of players that can go off the dribble on you, keeping the ball out of the middle of the floor is the challenge. So, we need to do better.”

Following the Heat, the Knicks, who are 12-14 at home, will have a back-to-back at the Garden versus the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday and Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday. With a road record of 15-11, they’ll be in Orlando on Tuesday to meet the Magic.

With Durant still out, Nets benefit from load management

By VINCENT DAVIS Special to the AmNews

Unlike some of the league’s other top teams, the Brooklyn Nets can’t afford to sit out their best players to rest in what is commonly known as load management. With Kevin Durant still sidelined after spraining the MCL in his right knee on January 8, it’s all hands on deck for now.

The Nets greatly benefited from load management on Monday night, when the Los Angeles Lakers sat their two AllStars, Lebron James and Anthony Davis. James was dealing with left ankle soreness and Davis a right foot stress injury. It lightened the Nets’ burden of having to face two of the NBA’s most dominant players. With the Knicks on their schedule Tuesday, the Lakers gave James and Davis an extra day to get ready to play in Madison Square Garden after a tough 125–121 overtime loss to the Celtics in Boston on Saturday.

The Nets took advantage of the gift and came away with a 121–104 win at Barclay Center, their fourth victory in six games. Not only did the Lakers lose, but so did the 17,000 plus fans who hoped to see James, one of the greatest players in the history of basketball, and Davis, a four-time All-NBA First Team selection.

The victory improved the Nets to 4–6 since Durant was injured before they went up against the Celtics on the road last night (Wednesday).

There is no specific timetable for his return, but both Durant and the team are hopeful he’ll be back before the February 17 All-Star break. Reserve guards Patty Mills and Cam Thomas came off the bench versus the Lakers to make up for the 29.7 points per game Durant is averaging this season, each dropping 21 points. The offense continues to be led by Kyrie Irving, who scored a team high 26 and was 27.3, 11th in the league heading into last night’s game.

Irving credited Mills and Thomas for “the hard work they’ve put in.” The veteran Mills and 21-year-old Thomas, who was drafted by the Nets in the first round (No. 27) in 2021, have been part of head coach Jacque Vaughn’s mix of players he’s had to call to support Irving while waiting for Durant. “It makes my job a lot easier,” said Irving of their contributions.

The Nets have a five-game homestand starting Saturday, hosting the Washington Wizards. The Los Angeles Clippers will be in Brooklyn on Monday, followed by the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday, the Chicago Bulls next Thursday and the Philadelphia 76ers on February 11.

Los Angeles Lakers stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and the Nets’ Ben Simmons all sat out Monday’s game at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn with various physical ailments (Bill Moore photos)

LeBron James and Anthony Davis

L: Obi Toppin

L: LeBron James Ben Simmons

As Knicks forward Obi Toppin remains a subject of trade rumors ahead of next Thursday’s NBA trade deadline, LeBron James and the Lakers snatched a 129-123 overtime victory over the Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday (Bill Moore photos)

Saroya Tinker shines in women’s pro hockey

By LOIS ELFMAN Special to the AmNews

Last weekend, the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) showcased the stars of women’s professional hockey at an All-Star showdown in Toronto, with 45 players divided into three teams: U.S., Canada and International. They played in a round-robin competition with bragging rights on the line. Among the stars on the triumphant Team Canada was first-time All-Star Saroya Tinker, who plays for the Toronto Six.

“Toronto is a huge market for women’s hockey, and an All-Star competition showcases the women’s game very well,” said Tinker, who grew up in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. “The women’s game is still a struggle, but we’re making huge strides forward in our league…We’re ready for people to start respecting and recognizing female hockey players.”

Tinker is also ready for greater diversity in the sport. She is actively trying to promote access to the sport through the Black Girl Hockey Club, which launched last fall. It gives out scholarships and financial aid, as well as having a mentorship program.

A 2020 graduate of Yale Uni-

versity, Tinker was the only Black player on Yale’s women’s hockey team until her senior year.

“When Kiersten Goode came in, she was like a little sister to me and I was a mentor to her,” said Tinker, who found community by joining a sorority and making friends with student-athletes in other sports. “It was a struggle,

but at the same time, we learned a lot and we were able to educate people along the way.”

Growing up in Canada, Tinker tried several sports, and most enjoyed being on the ice and the freedom of skating. “I remember times in high school where I would go to open skate, put my headphones in and just do laps,”

she said. “The difficulties came along the way, but my dad always stressed to let those things go in one ear and out the other. There were times I felt excluded from my team and did not have a role model to look to, as we see just the first generation of Black female hockey players coming up now.

“We’re looking to build that atmo-

Starr Andrews earns podium finish at U.S. Championships

By LOIS ELFMAN Special to the AmNews

On January 27, Starr Andrews, a 21-year-old figure skater from California, earned the pewter medal (fourth place) at the 2023 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. It was the first time since Debi Thomas in 1988 that a Black female skater earned a spot on the senior women’s podium.

It is important that such accomplishments be acknowledged, so people who are craving connection in a sport in which there are few Black athletes see representation.

Andrews’s podium placement, which she achieved after a stellar short program

and a somewhat disappointing free skate, was thrilling for individuals working to achieve greater diversity in the sport of figure skating. To clarify a point that other media overlooked, this was the first time for a female skater. The last senior medalist was pairs skater Aaron Parchem, who earned a silver medal and an Olympic berth (with partner Marcy Hinzmann) in 2006. In total, Parchem won four medals at the senior level with two partners between 2001–06. Seeing two Black women compete in the senior level—Alexa Gasparotto finished 17th—was exciting for Megan Williams-Stewart, who competed in the senior women’s event at

the U.S. Championships from 2005–08 and is now a coach. “It brings an awareness to the public that skating is for everybody,” said Williams-Stewart. “Hopefully, diversity continues to grow at these higher-level competitions.”

Growing up in the sport, Williams-Stewart, who coaches in Delaware and Pennsylvania, and is a board member of Diversify Ice, knew she stood out and felt she had something to prove. She said the same is true for a young skater she currently teaches. “She’s aware, but it’s not a topic that’s discussed at length,” said Williams-Stewart. “When you’re in it, you know that you’re the only one.”

Williams-Stewart said prejudice and negative comments to skaters are unacceptable. She endured such things when she was competing, but said now, any such statements should not be tolerated and that it’s time to create a more expansive view of what a skater looks like.

“The most important takeaway from Starr being on the podium and her being highlighted in the media—it shows the rest of the world, African American girls watching TV at home, that maybe they can be an ice skater,” said Williams-Stewart. “It changes it for a young generation. They have another person of color to look up to and think, ‘Skating could be for me. She did it.’”

sphere in the professional sphere and we’re welcoming our community as we go up,” she continued.

“If I had mentors along the way, I would have had a different experience in hockey and felt like I had a community that stood behind me. I’m stressing that sense of community and being unapologetically Black in the sport.”

Starr Andrews performing her free skate at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships (U.S. Figure Skating photo)

Saroya Tinker brings her best to professional women’s ice hockey (PHF photos)

Hurts and the Eagles power their way to Super Bowl LVII

By JAIME C. HARRIS AmNews Sports Editor

There were many doubters. Was Jalen Hurts, who had been an elite player at every level since he was a preteen in Houston, TX, built to be a Super Bowl-caliber quarterback when then Philadelphia Eagles rookie head coach Nick Sirianni named him the team’s starter a little over two weeks before the opening of the regular season— just his second in the NFL?

Was Hurts accurate enough to be an effective passer? Could he proficiently identify complex coverages and shifts by defenses in pre-snap reads and adjust his offense accordingly? Could he be more than a stereotypical running quarterback?

There were other questions about his unproven skill set when the former college star, first for Alabama and then Oklahoma, was

drafted by the Eagles in the second round with the 53rd overall pick in 2020, the fifth of 13 quarterbacks taken in that class. But Sirianni, who has been masterful in piloting the Eagles, saw something that those who were myopic did not. Skeptics still remain, even after Hurts drove the Eagles to a 14-3 regular season record and the No. 1 seed in the National Football Conference, passing for 3,701 yards and 22 touchdowns and rushing for 760 yards and 13 more touchdowns. That comes with playing the most highly scrutinized position in sports.

However, nonbelief has been negated by appreciable results. The 24-year-old Hurts has been one of the best players in the league this season and can cap off an All-Pro campaign with a victory over the American Football Conference’s Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl

LVII on Feb. 12. The Eagles moved one win away from a league title by imposing their will on the San Francisco 49ers in a 31-7 win in the NFC Championship Game last Sunday in Philadelphia.

“I know it was a big surprise to many, but my favorite verse, I went through a lot of stuff in college, and it kind of stuck with me, John 13:7,” Hurts said after a tidy 121 yards passing, 39 rushing yards, and one touchdown against the formidable 49ers defense. “‘You may not know now, but later you will understand.’ Hopefully people understand,”he added. What they should understand is Hurts is resilient and steadfast. His relentless work ethic married to his physical ability is only surpassed by superlative leadership skills and an insatiable hunger to master the cerebral nuances of the game.

“We've got new moments,” Hurts philosophically intoned. “New moments and new times. I think my character, I have been raised to be who I am. And I think as the times change, character doesn't. So I always try to never get too high, never get too low. I always give my best.”

The Eagles-Chiefs matchup will have two Black starting quarterbacks in the Super Bowl for the first time in its 57-game history with the presumptive 2022 league MVP Patrick Mahomes trying to win his second in three tries. Mahomes and the Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV in 2020 and lost to Tom Brady— who announced his permanent retirement from playing the NFL on Wednesday—and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV a year later.

The Chiefs’ return to the Super Bowl is a historic appearance

By VINCE DAVIS

Special to the AmNews

The Kansas Chiefs are back in the Super Bowl. After winning the NFL title in 2020 and falling to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2021, they were denied a third straight appearance last season by the Cincinnati Bengals, losing at home in the AFC championship game.

The rematch this past Sunday was a tough, controversial battle with social media posts and sports talk shows claiming that poor officiating that favored the Chiefs had as much to do with their 23-20 victory over the Bengals than the players. But in the end, Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker’s 45-yard field goal with three seconds remaining sent his team to Super Bowl 57 in Glendale, AZ, on Feb. 12 to face the NFC champions, the Philadelphia Eagles.

It will be a historic matchup, as the game will feature two Black starting quarterbacks for the first time. Patrick Mahomes will be under center for the Chiefs, and Jalen Hurts will operate the Eagles’ offense. Mahomes led the Chiefs to a 31-20 victory over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl 54 in 2019, becoming the third starting Black quarterback to win the game. Washington’s Doug Williams was the first

in 1988, followed by Russell Wilson with the Seattle Seahawks in 2014.

“I’ve watched them all year long,” said Mahomes about the Eagles after the Chiefs topped the Bengals. "Great quarterback. Great entire team. It’s going to be a great challenge for us, but I’m going to celebrate this one first.”

Playing with a right high ankle sprain suffered the previous Sunday versus the Jacksonville Jaguars, Mahomes was magical against the Bengals, going 29-43 for 326 yards and two touchdowns. His scramble in the final seconds of the game gave the Chiefs a prime opportunity for the win. He was shoved in his back by Joseph Ossai

while already out of bounds and the Bengals linebacker was flagged for a 15-yard penalty, moving the Chiefs into position for the game clinching kick.

“The defense got stops for us,” Mahomes noted. “I knew I was going to do whatever I could to get us in field-goal range.” Ossai was clearly distraught as television shots showed him on the Bengals bench.

“We’re not going to make it about one play. There was plenty of plays we left on the field today that could have put us in a better position,” said Bengals coach Zac Taylor. “The character of this football team, that’s never going to change. We’ve got the right people in the locker room, the right men leading this team and this organization.”

The Bengals will be thinking about what could have been all offseason while the Chiefs look to add another Super Bowl to their trophy case.

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts continues his All-Pro season with a matchup versus the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII (57) on February 12 (Wikipedia All-Pro Reels photo)

Kansas Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes shakes hands with Cincinnati Bengals QB Joe Burrow after the Chiefs 23-20 win in the AFC Championship Game last Sunday (Bengals.com photo)