New York Amsterdam News Issue #10 March 9-15, 2023

HIT AND RUN KILLS HERO MOM

BK MOM OF 6 DIES SHIELDING SON FROM HIT-AND-RUN DRIVER

Councilmember Charles Barron: “Anti Poverty Policy would fight crime”

(See story on page 3)

NYPD ducks hearing on controversial unit after settlement with BLM protesters (See story on page 6)

(See story on page 11)

Lift the Charter School Cap, say advocates

(See story on page 28)

((Tandy Lau photo))

(Nayaba Arinde photo)

(Ariama C. Long)

Tamika Richards with son Ray-Quan Parker (Shaquana Folks photo)

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INDEX

Arts & Entertainment Page 17

» Astro Page 20

» Books Page 19

» 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

dividends for their shareholders.

Twenty agribusiness corporations —the largest in grain, meat, and dairy—gave as much as or more in dividends to their shareholders than could have fed the entire world’s most vulnerable people in a year.

RICH MULTINATIONALS PROFITEERING FROM FOOD SALES WHILE HUNGER IN AFRICA SOARS

(GIN) – Global hunger, once on the decline, has reversed course over the last 10 years as multinational food companies increasingly replace domestic production and leave populations “food insecure.”

According to a recent Greenpeace International report, food imports from factory farms have jumped 650 percent in Kenya alone, making huge profits for a handful of corporations and generous

“This reflects how, with the support of many African governments, the global food system forces imports on Africans, when they could be producing and profiting from a higher proportion of their own food,” Greenpeace found.

Multinational food corporations gave $53.5 billion to their shareholders in 2020 and 2021 — or more than enough to fund the basic needs of the world’s most vulnerable people in that year, according to the U.N. Four companies in the U.S. and Europe — Archer-Daniels Midland, Cargill, Bunge, and Dreyfus — control 70% to 90% of the world’s grain trade, but are under no obligation to disclose what they know about global markets, including their own

Nigeria still navigating the 2023 General Election

grain stocks. This allows companies to withhold information that would help to stabilize prices if it were published with full transparency, Greenpeace alleged.

“This is the new colonialism,” declared the group’s Communication and Story Manager, Hellen Dena. “Africa’s governments have allowed the ultra-rich of the U.S. and Europe to retain too much power over Africans and our food system. It’s because of them that war and plague lead to famine—and to the rich getting richer.”

Ghana, for another example, imports rice, wheat, soybean meal, and poultry; even bananas are imported from the U.S. Nigeria relies on $10 billion of imports to meet its food and agricultural production shortfalls (mostly wheat, rice, poultry, fish, food services, and consumer-oriented foods) and in 2021, food inflation rose to 22.95% with wide-ranging price increases in items such as cereals, yam, meat, fish, and fruits.

Europe, Asia, the United States, South America, and South Africa are major sources for agricultural imports from commercial food exporters.

“But it doesn’t have to be this way,” said Dena. “Africans are rising up to demand change. Smallholder farmers have filed a case in court over a punitive seed law that criminalizes farmers for selling and sharing seeds…Limiting farmers from sharing and selling seeds will reduce diverse seed access thus further aggravating food insecurity and over-dependence on imports in the country.

“Kenya’s government must promote sustainable farming methods such as ecological farming that are resilient to climate shocks and help producers and consumers control the food chain. Ecological farming will ensure that Kenyans have better access to food, it will protect jobs, reduce the emissions that cause extreme weather and protect the biodiversity we depend on,” Dena concluded.

Hugo Chávez was a maroon president

By IKENNA ELLIS EZENEKWE Special to the AmNews

Nigeria, the largest democracy in Africa, conducted its Presidential and National Assembly elections on February 25, 2023, and has scheduled its Governor and State Assembly elections for March 11, 2023. However, the outcome of the presidential elections became highly controversial, resulting in outrage within the opposition and general population.

There were 18 political parties presenting candidates for the presidential elections. Of the 18, three were the major contenders: Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the candidate of All Progressive Congress (APC), who scored 8,794,726 votes and won 12

states; Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 6,984,520 votes and won 12 states; and Peter Gregory Obi, candidate of the Labor Party (LP), who scored 6,101,533 votes and won 11 states plus the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

These results and numbers have been disputed ever since they were announced. A groundswell of Obi supporters—the so-called “Obidients”—and Atiku Abubadikar’s “Atikulants” are still calling for redress in court.

“Nigerians have lost confidence in the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), ” said Chief Timi Frank,

See NIGERIA ELECTION on page 36

By JESUS CHUCHO GARCIA Special to the AmNews

Translated

By KAREN

JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff

Ten years ago, on March 5, 2013, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez Frías died at the age of 58; he had succumbed to cancer after fighting the disease for nearly two years. People of African descent in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela remember Chávez as a cimarron or “maroon” president— someone with whom they shared a vision for African inclusion not only in Venezuela but throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

Being called a maroon has traditionally been seen as derogatory: It was a name that colonizers pinned onto formerly enslaved people when they broke––by force––free from the chains of slavery. Yet over time, the so-called maroon community made their mark: They helped diversify judicial, spiritual, cultural, and intellectual aspects of society. It was their way of transforming the oppressive global society they found themselves in.

Chávez was the perfect example of this: Although taught the oppressive military pedagogy of the time, he embraced a liberating military philosophy that helped make him one of the great leaders of the Party

See HUGO CHAVEZ on page 25

(GIN photo)

In this 2005 photo, Venezuela’s fallen leader, Hugo Chávez, stands with Rev. Jesse Jackson, who had spoken out in support of the president after televangelist Pat Robertson called for Chávez to be assassinated (Karen Juanita Carrillo photo)

I(kenna Ellis-Ezenekwe photo)

Councilmember Charles Barron: “Anti Poverty Policy would fight crime”

By NAYABA ARINDE Amsterdam News Editor

“Poverty is the main feeder of crime. We need to attack poverty with an equity economic solution for communities stricken with gun violence. That will make a massive difference,” Cure Violence, Crisis Management Systems advocate A.T. Mitchell told the Amsterdam News.

Currently, the New York City Council is holding budget hearings that will go on through March. Mayor Eric Adams will work on his executive budget through April. The City Council will review it, debate it, and go into negotiations before—it is hoped—presenting a decided city budget in June.

East New York City Councilmember Charles Barron told the Amsterdam News that allocating money to the correct resources would go a long way toward solving issues that ail the city. He is a member of committees including finance, public housing, land use, higher education, and hospitals.

“There’s enough in the budget to settle the union contracts; give violence interrupters $500 million so they can continue their success in curbing the violence in the streets; give city retirees their $600 million; and (provide)money for the NYCHA developments,” Barron said. “This mayor won’t do it, but it would go a long way to address poverty in this city, which in turn would address some of the crime (that) happens daily.”

Speaking with the New York Amsterdam News at the beginning of his tenure as CEO of New York City, Adams said a career is the anecdote to crime. Employed youth, he said, would not turn to unlawful options to have money. Part of his effort to address youth unemployment has been to increase funds for the 14- to 24-year-old Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) from $157 million to $236 million every year. At least 156,000 young

New Yorkers have applied to be accepted in the program.

Barron said that extending SYEP is a good move, but is still not sufficient.

“The mayor’s administration should fund a $500 million initiative for the violence interrupters: the Crisis Management Systems (CMS) with A.T. Mitchell, Man Up Inc., and (others),” he said. “They are on the streets daily, keeping the city safe, doing the work, meeting with the community. Meanwhile, they need things like healthcare and they need better equipment, not the pittance that the mayor is giving them. More talk than money. And then we need to have a serious multi-billion-dollar initiative to put a dent in homelessness. And then finally, mental health is the major issue and it’s woefully underfunded in this city’s budget, and that’s a damn shame.”

Despite the mayor’s recently rolled-out plans to address both issues, from busting down encampments to having presumed mentally ill homeless people taken out of subways and to area hospitals, Barron remains unimpressed.

"We eed an Anti-Poverty Initiative.

It's not his priority."

“It’s not his priority,” said Barron.

He acknowledges that crime is fueled by poverty, and there has to be a greater focus on resolving the cause, not the symptoms.

While many New Yorkers may not feel any actual difference, gun, major, subway, and above-ground crime are on the decline by 19%, according to Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell and the mayor.

The overall index crime for February 2023 declined by 5.6% compared to February 2022, according to NYPD statistics.

“This reflects the NYPD’s ongoing work to ensure the safety and security of all New Yorkers, and to combat crime and violence in every neighborhood,” they said.

“February 2023 also saw the number of overall shooting incidents and murders in New York City both continue their weekover-week and month-over-month de-

clines. Additionally, the number of hate crimes in New York City declined by 69% in February 2023 compared to the same period a year ago.”

According to Barron, “The budget is a document that should reflect the moral principles and the value system of an administration, and when you have $11 billion for the police and only a $120 million for the violence interrupters, that shows you where the priority is. That’s the problem. You have the rich getting richer...In 2021 and 2020, Wall Street profited (by) over $50 billion, and that brought an unexpected billions of dollars of tax revenue to the city. That money was not used for the most vulnerable, struggling Black and brown communities in New York City.

“The police got a good piece of the money for their agency. All other agencies had to have a 3% cut, and some of that money goes toward giving subsidies—which is welfare: free money for the developers to build housing in New York City and that housing is usually 75% market and the 25% of affordability, which is really not affordable for us.

“The gap between the poor and the rich is widening. It doesn’t matter whether you have a Black mayor or a white mayor when these principles exist, because we live under a colonial capitalist system, and these administrations don’t deal with the poverty that capitalism creates.”

A.T. Mitchell told the Amsterdam News that “we are in dire need of finances to expand upon our successes in the Cure Violence, Crisis Management Systems.”

The decades-long anti-gun crime and community advocate is now the Adams administration’s gun violence czar, but added, “We are still underfunded and cannot fulfill our community mandate to increase public safety in our neighborhoods. We need more money to cover more hours in the week. We only cover one shift a day, eight hours, five

NYCHA residents spearhead NYC Comptroller Office probe into repairs and evictions

By TANDY LAU

Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member

The NYC Comptroller’s Office recently announced a pair of New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) audits based on feedback from NYCHA residents. These probes were announced on Feb. 22 and rely on a steering committee composed of those living in public housing.

“Residents are the experts on what is broken in their homes, and their insight is an integral part of the oversight process to ensure that NYCHA is meeting its obligations,” said NYC Comptroller Brad Lander

in the announcement. “Problems with the repairs process and concerns about rising evictions rose to the top in our conversations, and our auditors will be diving in on the details to understand what’s happening and what needs improvement.”

The first audit probes how NYCHA repairs units, with special emphasis on how contractors are hired and graded on their work, in addition to what measures are taken against those who fail to perform properly.

Last month, anti-gentrification tenant organization United Front Against Displacement (UFAD) released repair requests for Harlem’s Manhattanville

Houses. The letters included photos depicting conditions of moldy walls, waterdamaged ceilings, and exposed piping. One resident was told by NYCHA, after reporting a mice problem, that an exterminator would not be available for months.

The second audit looks into eviction rates at developments under the rollout of the Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) program, the Big Apple’s version of the Obama administration’s federal Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD), which UFAD calls a “privatization scheme.” The initiative opened the door to Section 8, which

HPD Shares That Tenants Can Report Heat and Hot Water Issues Directly To the City

According to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, New York City tenants who are renting apartments have the ability to report heat and hot water issues directly to the city. All tenants should call 311 with heat or hot water complaints against landlords, the agency said. After a complaint has been filed, HPD will then contact the owner with the given issue. The landlord has 24 hours to resolve the problem. Private landlords are required to keep buildings or homes at certain temperatures from Oct. 31 to May 31. Also, between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m, the temperature inside must be at least 68 degrees if the temperature outside is 55 degrees or lower, the agency shared. The temperature inside should be set to at least 62 degrees between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Furthermore, hot water must be available 24 hours a day. If the given issue is not resolved within a certain timeframe, an inspector can visit the premises to check on the heat or hot water issue. While there, the inspector can also check for other violations, such as smoke detectors, window guards, and lead-based paint, according to HPD. The department can charge the landlord $250 to $500 per day for each initial heat or hot water violation, and up to $1,000 for each subsequent violation, the HPD also shared.

New York Public Library Kicks Off Women’s History Month

March is Women’s History Month, and The New York Public Library is kicking off the month by celebrating women past and present who have been impactful figures throughout history in all forms of media and storytelling. Join The NYPL for a variety of educational and fun activities such as reading, programs, resources, and more. Visitors will also have the opportunity to check out book lists that highlight the achievements of women writers and look back on the women who helped build NYPL. Speakers will also join the fun all month to share their contributions that have been made throughout journalism, S.T.E.M, and more, teaching other young girls and women that no dream is too big to achieve. The variety of events and programs that will be held are appropriate for all ages.

Mental Health Awareness: What are the signs?

Depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts can often be exhibited in a variety of ways. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention advises that if someone you know displays warning signs of suicide, you do not leave the person alone. Immediately call a prevention hotline and take the person to an emergency room, or seek help from a medical or mental health professional. Warning signs to watch out for in suicide can include talking about thoughts of death; sharing feelings of hopelessness, worthlessness, or feeling alone; and displaying extreme mood changes.

If you or someone you know is showing signs of suicide, contact the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255). It is a free, 24/7 service that offers support, information, and provides local resources. For more information on suicide prevention, additional resources and warning signs, you can visit the website, https://afsp.org/learn-the-facts.

Compiled by Morgan Alston

See NYCHA on page 27

See ANTI POVERTY on page 27

Biden’s truths; Trump’s lies

By HERB BOYD

Special to the AmNews

President Biden may have tripped again while boarding Air Force One, but his speech in Selma on Sunday to commemorate the 58th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” was flawless. Most of his remarks centered on voting rights and the ongoing voter suppression. “The right to vote, to have your vote counted is the threshold of democracy and liberty,” he said.

Biden addressed the crowd near the Edmund Pettus Bridge where marchers were assaulted by state troopers on March 1, 1965, an attack that highlighted the beating of civil rights icon John Lewis. Lewis, who died three years ago, was invoked by Biden when he said, “We know that we must get the votes of Congress to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Amendment Act, and the Freedom to Vote Act. I’ve made it clear I will

not let a filibuster obstruct the sacred right to vote.”

The president noted that “this fundamental right remains under assault. [A] conservative Supreme Court has gutted the Voting Rights Act over the years. Since the 2020 election, a wave of states (has passed) dozens, dozens of anti-voting laws fueled by the big lie,” alluding to the false claim that his presidential victory was fraudulent.

While Biden was recounting facts, Trump was still fulminating in a shower of lies at CPAC over the weekend. None of his falsifications were as obviously wrong as his announcement that “you couldn’t get into the building” to witness his speech. Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie mocked Trump’s failure to fill the conference hall. “You saw the scenes at CPAC,” Christie, once a Trump ally, said on ABC’s “This Week.”

“That room was half-full.”

What the room was full of after

Trump’s keynote address were lies and gross exaggerations, according to several reports. He claimed to have “saved Minneapolis” after the murder of George Floyd, saying he was ready to send the National Guard to Seattle, then troubled with demonstrations.

“The thing is, we’re not supposed to do that because it’s up to the governor, the Democrat governor. They never want any help. They don’t mind—it’s almost like they don’t mind having their cities and states destroyed. There’s something wrong with these people,” Trump said.

Trump glossed over the fact that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz sent in the Guard in 2020, more than seven hours before Trump threatened to do so, according to CNN. These comments fly in the face of his failure to get the National Guard to Capitol Hill before the January 6 insurrection, an upheaval he provoked that led to four deaths and countless injuries.

Still No Justice For Shanquella Robinson

By ARIAMA C. LONG

Mother and son firefighting duo inspire local community

Staying busy is not new to Karla Townsend— she is a driver, pump operator, and New Jersey- certified EMS first responder. Her list of achievements doesn’t end there: She is also the third woman to be hired as a firefighter in Trenton’s history. Townsend said the department is the second-oldest one in the country. Townsend not only inspires young girls and boys of the upcoming generation through community outreach; she also inspires her son, Solomon Townsend.

“She paved the way for me to pursue a dream and I’m glad that it happened,” Solomon said. He believes that it was his mother’s strength throughout her younger son Eli’s continuous battle with cancer that gave Solomon the courage he needed to make an impact on the community. His act of courage was ultimately present at the time of Eli’s death last year. Solomon and his mother have been working side-by-side in the department for a year. The bond they share has been resonating with those around them. A picture of Townsend and her son was posted on social media last Friday, showing them responding to the scene of a fire together, and gained the attention of the local community.

Amsterdam News

Staff, Report for America Corps Member

Civil Rights Advocate Attorney Ben Crump and partner attorney Sue-Ann Robinson are representing the family of Shanquella Robinson, a 25-year-old Black woman who died on vacation with six “friends” in Mexico back in October 2022.

“I don’t wish this terrible nightmare on anyone,” said Robinson’s mother.

The lawyers held a press conference with the Robinson family last Friday morning in Washington, DC to highlight the U.S. State Department’s failure to take action. They are demanding high level diplomatic intervention from President Joe Biden to help bring Robinson’s murders to justice.

“Obviously this has been a long journey,” said Crump at the press conference. “Shanquella Robinson’s life mattered.”

President of the NAACP Washington DC Branch Akosua Ali feels that Black women who have been victimized and murdered are categorically overlooked compared to white women. “As we stand at the beginning of Women’s History Month, it is appalling that we have to lift up not only the mantra that ‘Black Lives Matter’ but ‘Black Women Matter’,” said Ali.

Robinson, a hairstylist and entrepreneur from North Carolina, had reportedly died of alcohol poisoning while at a luxury resort in Cabo San Lucas. Conflicting autopsy reports and statements from friends in attendance on the trip led the family to doubt the circumstanc-

es of her death. Afterwards, a video of Robinson being dragged and beaten in her hotel room with her traveling group went viral, prompting an international investigation. However, it’s been several months and there have been no arrests.

Activist Tamika Mallory added that the situation is not even remotely complicated since there is video evidence.

“There was no fight that took place. There was an attack against one person. In fact we hear the other individuals on the video asking her whether or not she was willing to fight back as they joked while she was naked,” said Mallory. “Her neck and spine were broken, and she returned home to her family in a box.”

Crump said that there is a witness that has identified Dejanae Jackson as one of the people beating Robinson in the video.

Attorney Robinson (no relation) recently returned from a week-long trip to Mexico to question the Mexican gov-

ernment and medical officials. She said that beside the language barrier, the Mexican police were more cooperative and empathetic about the family’s struggle to find closure. She said that the U.S. State Department is not doing enough in terms of transparency and has been known to not do enough for Black female victims.

“You’re dealing with two different countries with two different criminal justice systems that have to cooperate. In order to do that, the U.S. government has to intervene and take responsibility,” said Attorney Robinson.

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

The mother and son duo said the strength of their fellow firefighters keeps them motivated.

Heart disease in women

March is Women’s History Month, which is the perfect opportunity to acknowledge women’s rights and accomplishments, and become more familiar with the variety of issues that women still face today.

Being educated and aware of heart disease in women is an important factor in improving the lives of women everywhere. Heart disease is a killer that strikes more women than men, and is more deadly than all forms of cancer combined. A myth about heart disease is that it only happens to the older community. However, heart disease affects women of all ages. For younger women, the combination of birth control pills and smoking boosts heart disease risks by over 20%.

According to the American Heart Association, 64 percent of women who die suddenly of coronary heart disease displayed no previous symptoms. Since these symptoms vary greatly between men and women, they can often be misunderstood. Women are somewhat more likely to experience shortness of breath, nausea or vomiting, and back or jaw pain. Other symptoms women should be aware of is sudden dizziness, a feeling of lightheadedness or fainting, pain in the lower chest or upper abdomen, and extreme fatigue.

Although women who are born into a family with a history of heart disease are at higher risk, there are steps to take to dramatically reduce it. Contact your physician to create an action plan to keep your heart healthy.

Screenshot of Robinson family press conference with lawyer Ben Crump. (Ariama C. Long photo)

From analog to digital with the Schomburg's Gina Murrell

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

More often than not, the thought of a beloved library conjures up the image of old tomes, page-worn books, and reading between the lions. That’s changing as of late as the city pivots to honor the classic library while catering more to a digital age. New York Public Library Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture’s Digitization Coordinator Gina Murrell is doing the work.

“I really wanted to work at the Schomburg for a while,” said Murrell. “It’s just a phenomenal institution, highly respected for its role in preserving, sharing, and educating on Black culture. Not just in the U.S., but across the African diaspora. The history is just amazing. And it feels amazing just to be a part of it.”

Hired just this January, Murrell is largely responsible for managing digitization projects at the Schomburg for its exhibitions, publications, and public programs. She also handles copyright and permissions questions. Murrell’s goal is to increase the digital presence and the accessibility of Schomburg’s historical collections. The library features stories, books, archival materials, video, and audio about prominent Black figures, like founder Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, Malcolm X, Lorraine Hansberry, Frederick Douglass, Richard Wright, and Paul Robeson. Murrell is a Washington, D.C., native. She

earned a degree in English language and literature and went into the publishing in-

dustry for about 20 years. In 1997, she made the move to New York City for an internship in journalism. She’s worked at Out magazine, Gruner + Jahr publishing, the Village Voice, National Enquirer, Penthouse magazine, and Condé Nast among other places.

“During that time, I was wondering did I want to work in publishing for the rest of my life,” said Murrell, “and I remembered that in undergrad, I worked in campus libraries.”

Murrell enjoyed the small staff and libraries she worked in, prompting her to switch careers. In 2011, she went to school to get her master’s in library science from Queens College. Her first position as a digital librarian was in Oregon at the public university. Now she’s bringing her years of experience to the Schomburg.

Her favorite part of the Schomburg collection is a Stormé DeLarverie photograph collection. DeLarverie was a Black lesbian activist from New Orleans who was pivotal in the LGBTQIA+ movement in the U.S. before the Stonewall uprising occurred in 1969.

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

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If you have experienced housing discrimination: https://dhr.ny.gov/journey-fair-housing or call 844-862-8703

Learn about how your credit and background check will be individually reviewed: https://on.ny.gov/3uLNLw4

Photo of Gina Murrell (Contributed photo)

NYPD ducks hearing on controversial unit after class action settlement with South Bronx BLM protesters

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

The City of New York recently agreed to pony up millions to Black Lives Matter demonstrators over abusive police crowd-control tactics, concurrent with the NYPD’s absence last Wednesday, March 1, at a City Council hearing about one of the units responsible.

Rob Rickner, one of the protesters’ lawyers, told the Amsterdam News that the class action settlement largely stems from the department’s Strategic Response Group (SRG) “kettling” participants in a George Floyd protest in the South Bronx neighborhood of Mott Haven on June 4, 2020.

There are more than 300 plaintiffs. Most of the plaintiffs will receive $21,500 each. Some will receive an extra $2,500. Their lawyers say this is probably the most money ever awarded per person for a mass arrest lawsuit in New York City.

The settlement, agreed upon on Feb. 28, landed just a day before a previously scheduled oversight hearing on the SRG by the

City Council’s Public Safety Committee. Subsequent news broke about the payout shortly before the proceedings started. A Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) spokesperson told the Amsterdam News that present members from the police watchdog agency only found out about the settlement minutes before the hearing started.

But nobody from the NYPD showed up, despite an invitation to testify. The department submitted a written statement instead, much to the displeasure of many present. Council Member Tiffany Cabán called the NYPD’s absence “bull” and later alleged in her newsletter that the no-show stemmed directly from the Mott Haven settlement.

“The real reason they didn’t show up?” she said. “As The New York Times revealed, during the hearing, the NYPD had been ordered by a judge to compensate hundreds of protesters it brutalized in the summer of 2020 to the tune of $21,500 each. Of course, it is the people of New York City—already hurting from sky-high rent, ConEd, and food prices—who will

have to foot the bill. The department simply didn’t want to face the music.”

Yet the SRG is, ironically, designed for confrontation. Officers are armored with riot gear and equipped with military-grade sound cannons. Originally founded in 2015 for counter-terrorism purposes, the SRG quickly developed a reputation for protest-busting among local activists despite then-Chief of Department James O’Neill’s explicit insistence that the special operations unit would not be deployed to demonstrations. Since inception, the SRG’s ranks have doubled from around 350 to 700 officers and its budget has swelled from $13 million to $90 million.

Sisters Amali and Samira Sierra— two of the five named plaintiffs in the Mott Haven class action lawsuit—told the Amsterdam News that NYPD officers blocked the protesters from entering Manhattan, funneling them back to the Bronx. From there, they said, cops with shields and batons created a wall around them.

See BLM on page 29

Pounding the pavement: Black elections candidates during petitioning season

By ARIAMA C. LONG

Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member

March marked the beginning of petitioning season: Electoral candidates of various races scramble to collect signatures from enough constituents to qualify to get their names on a ballot in June. It’s the definition of grueling grassroots work for candidates and canvassers alike.

Judicial delegate candidate Vladimir Edouard, 29, is a young Haitian man currently canvassing in Brooklyn (Kings County) for the 42nd Assembly District. He said that judicial delegate and alternate judicial delegate races rarely get the spotlight during petitioning season. He often will knock on someone’s door or stop a person for a signature and end up drawing them into a short civics lesson.

The position he’s running for reports back to a district leader on viable candidates for New York State Supreme Court judge roles.

At times the process can be scary, said Edouard, when he approaches someone’s door whom

he doesn’t know. It can be grueling in crowded areas or when there’s inclement weather. Still, he believes it’s worth it. He dreams of eventually holding a seat as a member of Congress.

“What’s definitely motivating me is getting everyone engaged in the political process—letting them know and learn what it is,” Edouard said. “Even in a miniscule position of politics, it can affect their lives. Even the smallest form of politics—greater change can come from that.”

The number of signatures required for petitioners depends on that elected office they’re running for. As of yesterday, Edouard had 21 signatures; he needs at least 37. Running for a City Council seat requires at least 450 to 900 signatures.

This year, all 51 City Council seats are up for grabs due to redistricting of voting lines, leaving first-year and incumbent council members pounding the pavement for supporting signatures. Most candidates, like Edouard, or campaign volunteers tend to aim well above what is necessary to get

as many signatures as they can in the next month.

The challengers to some of these seats are also out en masse to get their names on the ballot. The Amsterdam News reached out to Harlem’s District 9 candidates in Manhattan for a petitioning tagalong as they race against incumbent Councilmember Kristin Richardson Jordan.

Assemblymember Al Taylor said

in a statement there is a “deep sense of skepticism and wariness about politics” in disadvantaged communities, but that he is seeing hundreds of people come forward each day to sign his petitions because they are engaged with his vision of Harlem.

“The campaign is out and about in the 9th Council District,” said the campaign office of Assemblymember Inez Dickens in a state-

ment. “We have volunteers and ardent supporters hitting the pavement and collecting signatures to get Inez on the ballot. We look forward to seeing Inez’s name on the ballot in June so that she can finally put her plan in action to make Harlem a place where people can live, thrive, and visit.”

On Monday, activist Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five invited the Amsterdam News and student reporters from Columbia University to follow him as he walked the district. He’s supported by the Frederick E. Samuel Community Democratic Club (W. 135th Street) that was established by former City Councilmember Fred Samuel, a three-term councilmember for Harlem who died in the 1980s.

Despite the biting cold, Salaam and his team stopped to converse with residents outside delis and on street corners. Black men and women who have lived in the district for decades and vividly remember the Central Park Five case spoke to him about much-needed

Advocates and elected officials call to disband the SRG at October 2022 rally. (Tandy Lau photo)

City council candidate Yusef Salaam for Harlem District 9 gathering signatures along W 135th Street. (Ariama C. Long photo)

OF HIGH DRUG PRICES?

THERE IS A CURE. TELL OUR LAWMAKERS TO LOWER Rx PRICES.

Do you feel sick when you see the price of prescription drugs? Americans pay more than three times what people in other countries pay for the same medicine. New Yorkers shouldn’t have to choose between buying groceries and buying the medicines we need. Patients shouldn’t have to ration their prescriptions or put retirement plans on hold. Unfair drug pricing is a life and death issue.

We have the power to push our lawmakers to crack down on shady deals that delay bringing affordable drug prices to market and hold drug companies accountable by shining a light on prescription drug price gouging.

Tell your lawmakers to pass a state budget that includes Rx price reforms. Act now.

Go with the Flo

Newark unveils long-awaited Harriet Tubman monument

By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff

Tongues are wagging that Lenny Kravitz will perform during the In Memoriam segment of the Oscars on March 12, reports UPI. The four-time Grammy award-winning musician and actor, who is the son of the late Roxie Roker from “The Jeffersons,” cousin of Al Roker, and father of actress Zoe Kravitz, recorded songs such as “Are You Gonna Go My Way,” “Let Love Rule,” and “American Woman.” He also appeared in the films “Precious” and “The Butler,” among others. As an author, Kravitz released his memoir, “Let Love Rule.” in 2020. The In Memoriam segment of the Oscars will pay tribute to everyone associated with the film business who died in 2022–2023.

Rihanna will perform “Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” on the Academy Awards telecast. Jimmy Kimmel will host the Oscars for the third time…

In other Rihanna news, in addition to being nominated for an Oscar, her song “Lift Me Up” also created inspiration for an award-winning installation at the Philadelphia Flower Show, which is taking place until March 12. As flowerpowerdaily.com reported, Rihanna’s song, as well as her Fenty lipstick color, Unlocked, lifted up an inspired Samia Zellner to seek out glorious cherry carnations and Pink Floyd roses as a special nod to Rihanna. “I always wear her lipstick because it gives me confidence and I am inspired by her entrepreneurship,” says Zellner, who is part of the Black Girl Florists network exhibit led by Valerie Cristostomo…

Media moguls Byron Allen and Tyler Perry are both vying to buy a majority stake of BET Media Group in the midst of reports that owner Paramount Global is contemplating selling. Variety has confirmed that Perry is in talks to purchase the cable network, while Allen’s spokesperson said the founder of the Allen Media Group is also “interested in buying BET, and he will be pursuing the acquisition of the network.” Currently, Perry owns a minority stake in the operation, which includes BET and VH1, and also produces many shows on BET and BET+, which he helped launch in 2019, including “House of Payne,” “Sistas,” “The Oval,” “Ruthless,” “Zatima,” and “Assisted Living.”…

On March 3, Dove and Stellar Award-winning artist Kierra Sheard-Kelly released her highly anticipated seventh studio album, “ALL YOURS” (RCA Inspiration/Karew Entertainment). The chart-topping singer/songwriter continues to create her own sound on her latest album, an uplifting 12-track project, celebrating God’s love, wisdom, and finding personal freedom in letting go and trusting God. Said Sheard-Kelly of “ALL YOURS,” “This album was very special to make. When you radically stand for the Lord, there’s a sound He’ll give you. He will also give you innovation, strategy, and ideas that become game changers. That’s what he did for me. There’s a song for everyone on this album, encouraging them to walk with the Lord.”…

The city of Newark, N.J., revealed its long-awaited Harriet Tubman monument on March 9 during a celebratory event that brought out elected officials and local artists.

Michele Jones Galvin, the great-great grandniece of Harriet Tubman, and the city’s own celebrity, Queen Latifah, who performed the monument’s on-site audio experience, were in attendance to deliver remarks for the occasion. The unveiling took place downtown, in Harriet Tubman Square––the park that was renamed to honor Tubman.

The monument to the freedom fighting abolitionist replaces a statue of Christopher Columbus that was removed from the park in June 2020.

Tubman is today the Underground Railroad’s most well-known conductor. Nicknamed the “Moses of her people,” she made 13 trips to the South to lead African Americans out of bondage, even though her former enslaver had placed a bounty on her head. Tubman reportedly used Newark as one of her central stops on the Underground Railroad as she helped lead formerly enslaved Blacks from Maryland to Pennsylvania.

Nina Cooke John, a professor of architecture and design strategy at Parsons the New School for Design and Columbia University, was commissioned to create the Harriet Tubman monument, which is officially titled “Shadow of a Face.” She said she has primarily worked in architecture for the last 20 years and recently expanded into public art. She is also the owner of Studio Cooke John.

The architect and artist spoke with the AmNews about the importance of working on a monument to honor the Underground Railroad’s most celebrated conductor.

AmNews: Why it was important for you to be selected to create this monument?

Nina Cooke John: You know, it was really important for me as, well, as a woman, as a Black woman, as a mother of daughters. And as someone who lives 20 minutes away from where the monument is going to be––I have raised my family 20 minutes away. I think those were the primary reasons why this is really important to me.

It’s important because it represents the legacy of a woman who historically [is not well-known], even though we know some [things] about her. Being able to fill out her profile in terms of the complexity of her character and putting that on view in a public space for other young women to be able to come and engage with and learn from and be inspired by—that was really important for me as a mother of daughters.

There are very few statues of women, and most of the monuments that exist

are commemorating some act of war or another…If what we’re doing is allowing for the inclusion of people in our written history in a way that it’s way more inclusive, it’s really important to address that in a public space, too. I think after COVID, we realize how important public space is to all. Not only just to be able to get out of our houses, connect with other people in our community, either directly or indirectly, but in how the physical aspects of our public space really do impact how we see ourselves and how we represent ourselves.

AN: What are the dimensions of the piece?

NCJ: The central figure of Harriet Tubman is about 25 feet tall. That is the larger-than-life kind of anchoring aspect, which can be seen from across

the park. The monument sits in a park that still has [statues of] other men— other white men—in it, so she really needed to kind of claim space and be seen. The width of it I think is about 40 feet. It’s something that pulls you in— you walk in and through and around, and not just kind of walk around it, as you might have with traditional statues.

AN: If there are children walking by it, or adults, who do not know who Harriet Tubman is, God forbid, how does this work introduce them to who she is and what she was about?

NCJ: There is text engraved on the outer surface of what we’re calling the learning wall. So that’s one of the in-

Nina Cooke John designed Newark’s new Harriet Tubman monument

Ghanaian

community hosts

65th Independence Day flagraising in Manhattan

In honor of their 65th Independence Day on Monday, March 6, 2023, the New York-based Ghanaian community hosted a flag-raising

in celebration at Bowling Green, next to the Charging Bull statue in Lower Manhattan. Mayor Eric Adams spoke at the celebration.

Written by David Goodson

Wu Tang Clan. Period.

If you stay around long enough in the public eye, there’s a point when you’re gonna have your actions questioned, even if you’re one of the pillar entities in the annals of hip-hop. If a group told you straight from the gate that “Cash Rules Everything Around Me,” why wouldn’t you believe them? Thus the scuttlebutt surrounding one of the most ambitious projects in music history comes as a surprise.

Published to coincide with the 30th anniversary of their seminal 1993 album “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)” comes a new coffee table book called “Legacy.” Encased in a 400-pound, globeshaped steel chamber, referred to as the 37th Chamber, the offering is a strictly limited-edition collaboration between the band, publishing house Art Of, and artist Gethin Jones, a protégé of sculptor Antony Gormley.

Printed and bound in Italian leather, the enclosed 300-page book features never-before-seen photos of all 10 members of the group at various stages of their lives, captured by photographers including Danny Hasting and Kyle Christy.

John Mook Gibbons, CEO of WuTang Management, described the project: “From conception to the present day, this is the story of the undisputed greatest hip-hop group of all time being unveiled through rare and never-before-seen photos.” He said further that it’s not just the labor of the artist that makes the book what it is, however. “A lot of the people we deal with are

fans of the group; not just associates or business partners but fans, so when they get to putting work in, it’s coming from the heart. Yes, they’re getting paid, but there’s passion behind it.”

So far, so good. Now here lies the problem. The project is limited to just 36 copies total, and comes with a lofty price tag of $360,000. Said Gibbons, “Five hundred years from now, we’ll be here. If there’s life on other planets and they come to Earth, they’ll know that the WU was here. It’s expensive, but the investment is worth it.” Where, then, does that leave the average-guy fan who’s been riding with the Clan for decades? Fret not, according to Gibbons: “I hear y’all and we not going Hollywood on our day 1’s. Just bear with us. We have something special for y’all. Just be patient.”

Real followers of the clan know and understand that the game is chess, not checkers, so different irons in the fire are a must. With that, it’s not just imperative to have various streams of income or of creativity. From the mouth of RZA: “I learnt a long time ago that I’m an artist and as such, I’m going to find different ways to express myself. And I refuse to let somebody tell me what I can’t do.”

“We wanted to show the human side of the Wu-Tang Clan,” RZA said. “We wanted to show their relationships, their conflicts, their dreams, and their failures.”

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

Method Man (David Goodson photo)

(Bill Moore photos)

Comptroller report says Black and Latino-owned businesses not winning city contracts

By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff

A paltry 2% of New York City contract dollars went to Black- and Latino-owned businesses in fiscal year 2022, according to a report issued by New York City Comptroller Brad Lander.

This shocking statistic comes even though both the city and state of New York have in the last few years been national standouts in terms of awarding a greater number of contracts to minority and women-owned businesses (M/WBE). Running a business anywhere is a challenge, and New York City can be a particularly difficult location to have to try to pay rent, hire employees, and develop sellable products. The opportunity to win a contract and provide billable services to the city can be a lifeline for local businesses. But Black- and Latino-owned businesses have long been locked out of this taxpayer funded network of services for the city.

Lander’s Annual Report on M/WBE Procurement notes that “despite many efforts in recent decades, the city of New York has historically procured goods and services overwhelmingly from businesses owned by non-certified firms, including white men. The city’s procurement process and systems have historically fostered an inequitable landscape that requires M/WBEs to jump higher over bureaucratic hurdles only to earn lesser returns.”

His report found that while companies owned by Black, Latino, and Native American people, as well as Asian American women, received less than 2% of contracts in 2022, 70% of M/WBE contracts were awarded to firms owned by white women or Asian American men. Even when M/WBEs received contracts, the average value of the work amounted to $670,000––eight times smaller than the $5.01 million average contract awarded to a non-M/WBE certified firm. And the report found that, “When M/WBEs do receive contract awards, they are not paid on time. Approximately 55% of M/WBE contracts registered in FY22 were retroactive, worse than the citywide rate of approximately 52%. This is a particular challenge for smaller firms without sufficient working capital to endure long wait times for payment.”

The Mayor’s Office of Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprises (M/WBE) was created to tackle the problem of systemic racism in city awarded contracts. The city even recently passed Local Law 174 (LL 174), which requires city agencies to audit

their use of contracts with M/WBEs. And yet Lander’s report finds that even when businesses were certified as M/WBEs with the city, they were granted less than 18% of city-certified contracts, purchase orders, or approved subcontracts.

Bertha Lewis, founder and president of the The Black Institute (TBI), told the AmNews: “Actual progress cannot be achieved if we ignore and perpetuate systemic inequality in our contracting and procurement processes. To call ourselves a

Koch all the way up to Mayor Adams.”

Adams has appointed Michael Garner, the former chief diversity and inclusion officer with the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) to serve as the chief business diversity officer with the city. Garner’s job will be to ensure that more city contracts are awarded to M/WBEs.

“This administration has placed economic equity front and center as the city recovers economically and emerges from the pandemic,” Amaris Cockfield, the deputy press secretary at the New York City Mayor’s Office, told the AmNews .

“Earlier this year, Mayor Adams established ambitious new OneNYC goals for total M/WBE spending and signed an executive order—to address the ‘disparity within the disparity’ and to appoint Michael Garner as chief business diversity officer of the Mayor’s Office of Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprises—all in an effort to truly build out support systems and create new opportunities for M/WBEs in New York City. And while city agencies and authorities awarded $6.5 billion in contracts to over 1,800 unique M/WBE firms last year and more than a quarter of eligible contracts were awarded to M/WBE firms in the first three-quarters of this administration—both historic highs—we recognize there is much more we can do to build a more equitable city. That’s why Mayor Adams has already made it clear to city agencies that they will be required to provide more regular updates on how they are progressing to meet their M/WBE goals. We appreciate the recommendations in this report, and still recognize we have a long way to go on the road to increasing access for groups that have been persistently and negatively impacted by procurement inequities.”

TBI’s Lewis commented, “Appointing Michael Garner as the chief business diversity officer is a step in the right direction toward addressing the longstanding issue of diversity and equity in our city’s contracting practices.”

According to the latest Census, Black New Yorkers make up 23.4% of the population, Latinos are 28.9% and the Asian population sits at 14.2%. As of 2021, New York City counted 223,015 Black or African American-owned businesses.

truly progressive city, we must ensure that Black and brown businesses have a fair and equal opportunity to compete for and win contracts. The M/WBE report from Comptroller Lander is outrageous. The problem has grown progressively worse from Mayor

He added, “It is encouraging to have someone we can hold accountable in this role finally. However, we must ensure that his appointment is not in name only and that he is given the resources and support needed to make real change. The Black Institute has been calling for someone to be in this role for years, and we hope that this administration takes this issue seriously and works towards a more equitable and inclusive city for all. The chief has a lot of work to do, and we will be watching.”

While Black, Latino, Asian American women-owned, and Native Americanowned companies received less than 2% of contracts in 2022, 70% of M/WBE contracts were awarded to firms owned by white women or Asian American men.

BK Mom of 6 dies shielding son from hit-and-run driver

By NAYABA ARINDE Amsterdam News Editor and TANDY LAU Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member

The city is shaken. Another hit and run has taken the life of a New Yorker. On her way to the store past Friday, March 3, Tamika Richards, 41, a Brooklyn mother of six and grandma to a sixthmonth-old grandson, was fatally struck by a hit-and-run driver in Coney Island. Her final act was reportedly one of love: shielding her son Ray-Quan Parker, 18, from the oncoming red truck.

At press time, Ray-Quan is in stable condition after having just undergone surgery. He is still recovering in the hospital.

Richards is also a member of the Amsterdam News extended family via her sister, Shaquana Folks, who is the paper’s Legal and Classified Advertising consultant.

Richards was the mother of six children and the oldest of eight siblings.

The Folks and Richards are a family with members both in New York and down South.

Through her grief and tears, Shaquana told the Amsterdam News, “To the person that killed my sister Tamika Richards with her son, my nephew Ray-Quan Parker, please turn yourself in. You know why? Because you caused such a huge hurt and turmoil for the family and made a hole that will never be fixed!”

“My heart goes out to the families broken by traffic violence this weekend,” said Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers in a statement. “Tamika Richards should be home with her six children tonight. She died fighting to protect her child in Brooklyn from an oncoming driver who fled the scene.”

The incident occurred between the intersection of Mermaid Avenue and West 24th Street. Police said the collision was reported to them right before 9 p.m. last Friday night. Richards was a block away from her home. The NYPD added that the driver absconded westbound on Mermaid Avenue, where he probably drove past a nearby police station.

Shaquana added of her oldest sister, “She was my father’s firstborn. She was the one that made

him a father. My sister’s not coming back, and I’m completely broken. The driver should give himself or herself up.”

Prof. Chris Herrmann, a GIS-expert at John Jay College, identified

multiple traffic cameras along the driver’s presumed route, which he said greatly increases the chances of catching the driver. But justice in hit-and-run cases involving serious injuries and/or death is hard to

come by in New York City, with only four of 79 cases solved last year.

NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey asked the Amsterdam News to pass on his message: “First and foremost, I want to extend condolences to the family. It’s terrible. This was a life taken too soon. She was a mother of six, a grandmother, a sibling with a family that looked up to her. They depended upon her. To the person who did this, look at the pain you have caused. Turn yourself in. The NYPD will spare no expense to look for you. We will never stop trying to find you, and we will.”

“We want to thank everyone for their love and support, and as a family, we ask if people will please allow our privacy as we continue to mourn and are preparing for our final arrangements,” Shaquana Folks told the Amsterdam News.

We, her colleagues, send our deepest sympathies and sincerest condolences to the family.

A GoFundMe has been established by Richards’s family to support her children and pay for funeral costs. It can be found at https://gofund.me/4cfd6148

Tamika Richards with her son, Ray-Quan Parker (Shaquana Folks photo)

Take your seat, Rep. McClellan!

Yes, Virginia, you have your first Black woman in Congress. Jennifer McClellan was sworn into the House of Representatives on Tuesday, holding the poll tax receipt her father had to pay to vote. Her mother did not vote until the Voting Rights Act was enacted in 1965. This marks a major achievement in a state that was once the bastion of the Confederacy, and leaves voters in northern states wondering when they will have a female representative. And when will New York elect a Black woman as senator or governor?

There is one thing New Yorkers can boast about—in 1969, Shirley Anita Chisholm became the first African-American woman in Congress.

At her swearing-in ceremony, McClellan recounted the struggle her family endured just to register to vote, noting how momentous the occasion was: “The fact that I’m the first from Virginia, the birthplace of American democracy and the birthplace of slavery, is kind of poetic justice,” she told reporters on Monday.

In this phase of American history, with Roe v. Wade being demolished and women struggling for equality in this society, it’s heartwarming to have another woman taking a seat in Congress, especially as we celebrate Women’s History Month.

With each barrier hurdled, we are reminded just how much farther we have to go to get equity for women, and giant steps farther for Black women.

But, alas, McClellan is on her way to Congress after failing to become governor, and that’s one of the elected positions that remains rare territory for women. It’s enough just to hold onto a mayoral position—ask Lori Lightfoot.

Her victory, and the efforts she extended in spearheading the state’s Voting Rights Act, coincides perfectly with President Biden’s recent comments about the necessity of voting rights. Maybe, if we continue to push harder, we can get a Black senator to join Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, all women of color. Such a success will give the emblematic purple an even darker hue.

Rikers Island killed my son. Mayor Adams must not wait to close Rikers

By LEZANDRE KHADU

I want to say first that I never wanted to write this. I didn’t have my child so he could end up on Rikers and then in the Vernon C. Bain Center, aka “the Boat,” tortured and murdered.

My son was Stephan Khadu, but he’s also now known as Casualty #12—the 12th person to be killed by Rikers Island in 2021, one of the 36 people to die in the custody of the New York City Department of Correction in the past two years.

The last 16 months have been a nightmare for me. My son’s death constantly replays itself in my mind. My life has stopped. Many days, I can’t even think straight enough to go to work. I see a therapist, and have been diagnosed with

depression, anxiety, and PTSD. I’ve lived a productive life, contributing to my community, and taught my kids the same. So why must my family and others continue to go through these ripples of harm, all because our city can’t keep people safe in pre-trial custody? My son’s mistreatment by the City of New York started well before they put him on Rikers. As a child, he was continually racially profiled by the police. He would be stopped for no reason while coming home from school, weightlifting, or football practice. They didn’t care about my boy; they just saw him as a potential threat. As an immigrant from Trinidad, I know this is not what my family expected when we came here. We thought the United

States was a place where each person’s civil rights are protected. It seems like there’s a different standard for our Black and brown boys.

When he was picked up and sent to Rikers and then the Boat, I thought he would go through some things and then come home fine. That, of course, didn’t happen. I still haven’t been given answers about what led to him contracting meningitis, but I know that it is not typically a deadly disease if detected and given proper medical treatment. His friends on the inside told me how they felt about losing him, watching the DOC’s lack of care that led to my son’s death.

Many people agree Rikers Island needs to close, for good reason. But the Boat is just as bad, and needs to be closed,

too, as part of the plan to close Rikers. I experienced the full force of this when I went there on July 7, 2021, the day after my son was first hospitalized. My first reaction when I came upon it was, “Oh, my God, it’s really a boat.” My second reaction was to the terrible smell: garbage, feces, rotten eggs. It was a maze to get into, and I thought at least once I would have to walk right into the water to get onto the facility. All the time I was thinking, If it’s like this here, what’s it like inside? I cried all the way home after I left. The DOC never did let me see my son, and the staff gave me no care or respect. They acted like it was a joke when I said my son’s name. “DOC doesn’t go over CHS

The importance of controlling the narrative

by DESMOND BOLLERS

History is commonly defined as the chronological record of events (as affecting a nation or people), and usually presenting an explanation of their causes.

Controlling the narrative enables one group to exercise mind control over another group by influencing the way they see the world around them, and the way they perceive their place in the world. The profound importance of a people being in control of the narrative regarding their history was understood by the character Winston Smith in George Orwell’s novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four” when he came to the realization that, “Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present, controls the past.”

Member

Alliance for Audited Media

Elinor R. Tatum: Publisher and Editor in Chief

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

It is clear that for the governors of the two most populous southern states in the U.S., this realization is at the forefront of their thinking. They are working diligently to rewrite the history of race relations in the country with particular reference to slavery, Jim Crow, and race riots, including La Matanza. In this regard, the Roman Catholic Church was ahead of

the game by trying to rewrite the history of the church’s involvement in slavery. The movie “Trumbo” was about Martin Dies Jr. of the House of Representatives, who was that chamber’s equivalent of McCarthy in the Senate, targeting, labeling, and persecuting filmmakers in Hollywood as un-American and Communists. One of the colleagues of Chairman Dies commented, “It’s just a movie.” Dies’ response was, “A movie isn’t just a movie. It’s about perception.” This is a profound statement that deserves to be discussed because the same can be said of books and all other media, which influence not only how others see us but also how we see ourselves. Children in the so-called developed world grow up on stories of their heroic ancestors, and this shapes their perception of who they are. We owe it to the children of the Caribbean to also shape their self-perception by introducing them to the heroism of their ancestors.

From the late 1970s to early 1980s, there was an effort in the Caribbean to publish adventure novels based on actual events in Caribbean history targeting the 11-14 age group. By the 1990s this effort had petered out, and books such as “The Young Warriors” and “Sixty-five,” both written by V.S. Reid, had disappeared from bookstore shelves in the Caribbean. I can personally attest to this, because in the 1990s I visited the main bookstores in the capitals of The Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica,

St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Trinidad to purchase those two books for my son. I inquired of each store owner or manager why they were not carrying them, and in every instance, they explained that they used to carry the books, but eventually stopped because nobody bought them.

We in the Caribbean need to understand and appreciate the importance of introducing our children to their history so that they can grow up with an awareness of our heroic ancestors, and adventure novels based on actual events and the lives of real people are an excellent way to do this. There is a super abundance of individuals and events that provide suitable material for adventure novels in Caribbean history, be it the valiant struggles of the Tainos and Kalinago to retain possession of their ancestors and survive on their land; the determined efforts of the maroons to maintain their hard-won freedom; or the courageous uprisings of enslaved Africans seeking to end their servitude.

It is not by accident that the stories of our ancestors’ bids for freedom are not well known. It is the result of a deliberate and concerted effort by enslavers and oppressors to blot out these events from the narrative. It made absolute sense for the enslavers to suppress news of conspiracies, insurrections, plots, rebellions, revolts, and uprisings by the enslaved at the time these occurred, because of their well-founded fear of the

See RIKERS on page 31

Biden must exert "raw power" in big-decision moments as president

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

President Joe Biden stands at a pivotal moment in his presidency.

Every president wields a certain level of power. Regardless of their party affiliation, their background, their training, or their political ideologies, these elite individuals will always have bestowed upon them a unique ability—and even understanding—that with the office comes a level of power they can use to advance a good greater than themselves.

I’m not referring to authority, defined here as the duties, roles, and tools of the office holder by sheer virtue of the office itself. That is clearly delineated by Article 2 of the Constitution, federal laws, and other statutory instruments that set out those duties reserved only for the commander-in-chief.

No, I’m talking about raw power: the unspoken influence that every holder of the highest office in the world possesses. An undefined yet potent and palpable sense to steer the body politic as they discern.

What that individual chooses to do with power is the X-factor that makes a good president great, or even a bad president good.

Washington, Jackson, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Kennedy, Reagan—these presidents presidents, and many more, knew the intrinsic value of the power that came with the office, and they used it to change the course of history.

What can be said of today?

Biden stands at a pivotal moment in his presidency. One in which the initiatives he’s decided to pursue— or not—will shape how history writes his chapter in Liberty’s great narrative.

I’m not convinced he is up to the task, largely because he has used the power of his presidency to advance causes and programs that present a position of weakness instead of strength, of regression instead of advancement,

Climate Change is Real

for our great Republic.

Biden’s State of the Union address punctuated what I had quietly lamented for months. Aside from the fact that it was a classic nod to special interests that have crowded the smoky halls of Democratic circles for decades, Biden’s remarks failed to signal any show of force and dominance that America’s interests will always be the lens by which he makes his decisions.

Nowhere is this failure and weakness more prevalent than his remarks about China. A Communist, totalitarian regime that is hellbent on destroying any competitor is caught red-handed spying over American soil. Biden’s response? Tepid, overwhelming, modest, bare minimum. His remarks before millions of Americans on the one stage where his power should have been on full display were even more forgettable: past-tense pabulum about how threats to America will be dealt with. I’m sure that sent chills through the spines of the Chinese politburo.

Other global leaders sense this weakness, and have stepped into the vacuum that was left. Russian President Putin’s move this week to suspend the country’s obligations under the new START nuclear missile agreement signals that he fears no American repercussions for his actions. Even if he’s losing in Ukraine and his citizens are disillusioned, he is clearly moving into a position of strength—likely the last of only a few diplomatic moves he has remaining. Has Biden sensed this geopolitical flank left exposed by Putin and led? I don’t think so.

The southern border is another example of Biden’s weakness as president. Suspend for a moment the argument about any workable solution, and the simple fact is it took nearly two years into his presidency for Biden to even

travel to Texas and address the issue head on.

Presidents with power seize moments such as these, they lead even if it costs them politically, and they drive various factions toward a solution. What did Biden do? What only weak presidents can muster: He sent Kamala Harris. History is littered with the debris of presidents who dispatched their second in command to tackle tough issues they themselves had no idea how to address.

Bear in mind that Biden’s presidential impotence is not the result of one signature failure, but rather the accumulation of missteps, misreads, and sheer misjudgment that lead many poll watchers to simply shake their head in dismay.

The toxic train spill in Ohio and the Biden EPA’s slow and incomplete response. The gushing of dangerous drugs such as fentanyl across our borders and Biden’s empty pledges to win the drug war. Debilitating inflation. Entitlement spending and $30+ trillion in American debt. The list sadly goes on.

These are the times that try our souls. And these are the times that demand strength and a convincing sense of what needs to be done. I wish Biden could stand in the gap for the sake of all Americans. But right now, I’m not even sure he can stand and address any one of these issues head on.

And that may be the greatest display of weakness history has known. I pray that I am wrong on this account.

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

I do not want to sound alarmist, but I am worried. Climate change is real. It’s here. And I’m not sure enough leaders are taking it seriously. As I read each week about the melting polar ice caps and glaciers or massive ice drifts breaking and contributing to rising sea levels, I fear we are doing irreversible damage to our fragile planet.

As I tried to better understand the effects of climate change and why we should care about melting glaciers, I was told that these frozen parts of our planet essentially serve as the earth’s natural air conditioner. Once they are gone, they are gone forever. We will see rising temperatures and we will find it impossible to cool our planet. Hence, 70 degree days (or warmer) in February in New York City could become commonplace. Similarly, the number of cities in the summer that experience temperatures well over 100 degrees will continue to grow and those temperatures will only get hotter and hotter as the years go on.

Much of the urgent migration we are seeing across the world has roots in a changing climate, the inability to grow crops and make a living, and scarcity and exploitation, which lead to desperation and families making the difficult choice to leave everything they know and love and take often risky journeys to a new homeland.

For northeasterners, warm weather in the winter may seem like fun until we step back and think of the damage being done to our flora and fauna. The warming of our planet and the hy-

per-exploitation of natural resources are creating deadly consequences for communities across the world. Hurricanes and tornadoes are more severe, causing death and destruction in unimaginable ways. While some communities are struggling with excessive rainfall that is literally wiping away their towns, homes, crops, and more, other communities are suffering from neverending droughts destroying any chance for farming, raising livestock, or fishing. Wildfire season has extended and become more severe, destroying forests, animal populations, and entire towns. All of these negative incidents are due to a rapidly changing climate. We are beyond the casual data collecting phase—we must now act. There are far too many politicians in the pockets of corporations who profit off of extracting resources from our planet and expediting adverse climate effects. We must identify those politicians and get them out of office. We must boycott the corporate climate offenders and make climate change a priority in our personal lives, work environment, and larger community. We must educate ourselves on what we can and should do to help contribute to saving the planet and slowing down the damage being done. We must work together and act now.

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

CHRISTINA GREER PH.D.

Caribbean Update

Opposition: Guyana’s Indo-led government is racist

By BERT WILKINSON Special to the AmNews

When slavery was abolished back in the early 1830s, the British in Guyana replaced African slave labor with indentured servants from India, offering them conditions that were better than those for the Africans, including land to plant vegetable gardens and build small homesteads, and even help in returning to India if they so desired.

In an effort to also drive Blacks back to plantation lands to work for free, the British deliberately flooded many of the areas where freed slaves had bought and occupied land, while sparing the Indians such trauma and agony.

That early effort to divide and rule, rights activists say, easily set the stage for simmering racial tensions that persist to this day. Now, opposition lawmakers and activists, including

the New York-based Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (GCID), point to a slew of recent, racially tinged political events in the Caribbean Community’s largest and most resource-rich nation that are once again laying the groundwork for clashes between the country’s two ethnic groups.

The Indo-led government doesn’t seem to care, opposition lawmakers say. More than 150 people were killed in race riots in the 1960s, leading to the destruction by fire of large parts of commercial Georgetown and the migration of thousands to England and North America.

For example, tensions in the country flared last weekend when the government ordered the pre-dawn demolition of the office of the main opposition and Afro-supported People’s National Congress (PNC) in a southwestern region near the border with Brazil.

PNC leaders say authorities even used illegal Venezuelan migrants to assist in the demolition of its office, just weeks after the government bulldozed homes belonging to mainly Afro Guyanese PNC supporters in an area just south of the capital, Georgetown. Then, police fired tear gas to disperse protesting residents and also used bulldozers to bury pigs and other commercial domestic animals alive in open pits. Homes of other Black people in Linden town, about 65 miles from the city, were also demolished.

So upset was the opposition Working People’s Alliance (WPA) that the party, in a public statement, made little secret of its belief that there is a racial campaign against Blacks in Guyana:

“These actions are in stark contrast to the issuing of land titles to ‘squatters’ in communities deemed to be supportive of the government. The government cannot not

know that the perception and reality of unequal treatment undermine its own stated mantra of One Guyana,” the party said. “Further, the option of forced removal of mainly people of African descent, whether it is in Linden, Mocha Arcadia, or Georgetown where the stalls of vendors were recently demolished against their will, represent[s] acts of brutality and terror that have no place in modern society. The events in Mocha Arcadia, therefore, open the government to charges of racial profiling and racial discrimination in the process of governance.”

Meanwhile, opposition leader Aubrey Norton said he has started a campaign to alert the international community about the situation in Guyana. He met and briefed Bahamian Prime Minister Phillip Davis in Nassau last weekend. Davis is also chair of the 15-nation Caricom bloc. “I have started that work

with the international community focusing on clear racial discrimination in Guyana, the fact that Blacks are getting little or no state contracts, the blatant use of unnecessary force against our people, and the misuse of the anti terrorism law to shut down and terrorize people, among other issues,” Norton said.

For its part, government said it is pursuing a One Guyana policy that covers all six racial groups, denying that its policies are racist.

“This government is going to work in every single community,” President Irfaan Ali said recently, repeating, as he did during an engagement in Mocha-Arcadia in September, that no political party controls any community.

Ali said those obstructing the work of the government have “used the propaganda of race and the propaganda of division so intensely in their political work

Trinidadian artist’s exhibit opens March 9 in NYC

Nicola Vassell Gallery is pleased to present “Che Lovelace: Bathers,” a series of paintings chronicling the artist’s exploration of the body in and around water. With an expressionistic hand, Lovelace weaves stories of life, freedom, and post-colonialism in his native Trinidad into a tapestry of abstracted landscapes, still lifes, and portraits. His creative process is expository and expansive, articulating scenes of Caribbean life with complexity and dimension.

Meditating on famed depictions of bathers throughout the art historical canon, Lovelace was particularly fascinated by artists who were lesser known for the subject.

One such, Edvard Munch, rendered bathers with energy and “vitalism,” a philosophy germinated from Aristotelian times that emphasized the

vital forces of nature and good health. Framing this immemorial trope in the specificity of his own culture, Lovelace celebrates the bather as an intrinsic figure of the Trinidadian vernacular. Throughout the Caribbean, the river is a site for both daily routine and sacred work. In each painting, he portrays the bather as a vessel of duality: echoing the classical and the contemporary, the West and the Tropics, the solitary and the communal, the Christian baptism and Yemanja of the Orisha faith.

“I am aligning myself with tradition, but I am also trying to clear a new space for how one can interpret bathers,” he reflects/ “I felt there was a sense of familiarity with the term.”

Composed of tropical hues and gestural strokes, Lovelace’s work is infused with

an intimate sense of place. In Trinidad, to engage with the water is to connect with the

soul. It offers a moment of solace, a resting place for reflection. Each canvas depicts

that the sight of ministers of government working in every community and destroying that narrative is really hitting them hard.”

Although Ali denies his government is racist, it surprisingly cut off budget funding last year to the International Decade for People of African Descent gathering in Guyana, saying it had poor accounting systems even though the organization has repeatedly proven otherwise publicly. The organization was set up in response to the United Nations-designated decades for people of African descent.

The Ali administration just announced plans to give grant aid payouts worth $112 million to 242 indigenous Indian communities from money given by the Hess Corporation (oil) for purchasing carbon credits to help the country maintain its stock of forest cover.

bodies submerged in rocky waterfalls, shallow pools, and river limes: the capillaries of Trinidad’s Caribbean landscape. Whether referencing the Gulf of Paria, Valencia, or Matura, his audience can identify with the experience of wading in water—a portrayal catalyzed by the artist’s process of revisiting themes and reworking compositions, layering the memory of various locations onto the same canvas for months, sometimes years. Positing water as a unifying element, Lovelace feels “the work is rooted in this experience, in little moments of quiet, but also of community. There are some paintings that I feel are slightly more symbolic, almost mysterious, alluding to a space that is not even here, but are portals to.”

Like parallel universes, Lovelace’s multi-panel

paintings establish dynamic exchange between the foreground and background. He rearranges his panels like puzzle pieces, shifting positions to disrupt order and ignite unexpected focal points until a complete image is revealed. Whether painting the tranquility of a singular bather in the sea, or the unified entanglement of bodies at Carnival, Lovelace creates an axis for energy, mystery, and movement across the image plane. By illuminating the intricate characteristics of Trinidadian life, Lovelace paints a rapturous vision of his people and his home.

Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 am–6 pm. The gallery is located at 138 10th Ave. New York, NY. For more info, visit www.nicolavassell.com.

Che Lovelace, “The Embrace at the Falls” (2022)

terlocking curved elements. And it has the dates—important dates from the timeline of her life. There’s also corresponding audio that comes in intermittently that essentially narrates similar information that’s in the text. And then also, in the inner portion of this learning wall, we expand the information beyond just Harriet Tubman to the Underground Railroad in Newark, because we really believe that she was supported by the Underground Railroad. If not for the Underground Railroad, she wouldn’t have been able to make it in and out of Maryland so often and keep everyone safe, essentially. And so, there are panels engraved in steel that have detailed information about the different players; the Black Liberation struggles in Newark and how they contributed to this effort. That information is also narrated and included in the audio experience of the monument.

And then we kind of connect Harriet’s story—the Newark Liberation participant story—to current-day Newark stories in their audio that we collected during workshops, as well as a mosaic of tiles that they made at these workshops with the prompt, “Tell us your story of personal liberation, whether big or small.”

AN: How does the audio keep going? How is it operated?

NCJ: We hired an audio specialist who’s

also a sound designer, who created an algorithm. There’s also a light rail station right next to the monument that has loudspeakers, so he actually incorporated [the light rail’s schedule] to make sure our audio isn’t competing with that audio. And then there’s bits and pieces––I think 20 second pieces––a mixture of the community voices, the Tubman narration, and the Newark Liberation narrations that gets mixed in according to this algorithm. At certain times of day, you’ll hear longer snippets and more of it, and certain times of the week. It’s this complexly designed algorithm and so each time you come, you might hear something different. We don’t want to disturb our neighbors in the apartment buildings

across the street, so it won’t be coming on in the middle of the night—things like that were considered.

AN: Did you work with a big team on this project?

NCJ: I had a big team, yes, in terms of fabrication and getting this built––a very big team from the makers to our collaborators at the Newark Museum of Art, which helped with all the workshops. Our collaborators at the public library, which helped with the audio because we were able to put an audio booth in the library that people could come in and listen. Our collaborators at Audible, who helped with the technical details of the sound editing and oversaw all the narration and composed the score. And the city of

Newark and Newark Arts––so yes, there was a big team. But in my office, it’s really just me and one other person.

At first, it was an open call and I sent in my portfolio and a letter of interest. And then once you were shortlisted, [there was] about six weeks to research and come up with a design. It was mostly me sketching through ideas, using the two primary things that I knew had to be in it regardless of what it looked like.

One is how do I express the duality of Harriet Tubman: larger than life, standing tall, but also connecting to her, but on a human scale, right? Because I think it’s through that connection on the human scale that you really are inspired to act because you feel like, “OK, maybe I can do that.” That duality needed to be in the design, and I wasn’t sure how it was going to play out.

And then also this needed to be a public space. People needed to feel they were welcome to come into it and feel ownership over this monument as their monument, and it needed to be able to activate the park that it was in. Before, people were just kind of walking through the park and I wanted it to be a place where they can kind of sit and stay and engage; engage with the monument and engage with each other. So a lot of sketching, a lot of kind of 3D modeling with my assistant at the time, and developing it. And I have close colleagues who I’m lucky enough to be able to discuss my ideas with and get feedback, so definitely a collaborative effort all along the way.

Rendering of Nina Cooke John’s Harriet Tubman monument, “Shadow of a Face”

Health

Diabetes drug maker announces insulin cap

newly diagnosed with diabetes in the United States every year, according to the American Diabetes Association, but costs associated with treating the disease have also increased.

sure that we’re addressing health disparities.”

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

“Eli Lilly, the largest manufacturer of insulin in the United States, announced that they are lowering their prices, capping what patients pay out of pocket for the drug maker’s insulin products at $35.” This statement, from President Biden on March 1, 2023, is potentially life-altering for many Americans. What are the implications, who will it help, and when will it take effect?

Eli Lilly will begin a nationwide public awareness campaign for discounted insulin that will apply to individuals regardless of insurance status. Details and instructions are at www.insulinaffordability.com.

Diabetes is more common among Black and brown individuals. Not only has the prevalence of type 2 diabetes risen, with 1.4 million people

According to the World Health Organization, “[d]iabetes is a chronic, metabolic disease characterized by elevated levels of blood glucose (or blood sugar), which leads over time to serious damage to the heart, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys, and nerves. The most common is type 2 diabetes, usually in adults, which occurs when the body becomes resistant to insulin or doesn’t make enough insulin. In the past three decades, the prevalence of type 2 diabetes has risen dramatically in countries [among] all income levels.”

In an interview with the AmNews, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said that “over the last couple of years…, we have really started to appreciate and understand how important health care is for us as a nation and understand that if any part of our country isn’t getting the care that they need, it affects us all… There’s this new awareness and a heightened sense of urgency to make

In his March 1, statement, Biden said that “[f] or far too long, American families have been crushed by drug costs many times higher than what people in other countries are charged for the same prescriptions. Insulin costs less than $10 to make, but Americans are sometimes forced to pay over $300 for it. It’s flat wrong… Last year, I signed a law to cap insulin at $35 for seniors and I called on pharma companies to bring prices down for everyone on their own. Today, Eli Lilly did that. It’s a big deal, and it’s time for other manufacturers to follow.”

Biden’s announcement came as Eli Lilly announced price reductions of 70% for its most commonly prescribed insulins. Eli Lilly also expanded its Insulin Value Program, capping patient out-of-pocket costs at $35 or less per month.

“I talked to someone who takes 15 different medications…it’s a serious cost for people who are seniors and people with disabilities, and it not only affects the person—it affects their spouse, it affects the family trying to make sure that they can get the care they need,” said Brooks-LaSure.

Eli Lilly will cut prices for some older insulins later this year and immediately give more patients access to a cap on costs they pay to fill prescriptions.

“The Inflation Reduction Act [is] really a game-changer in terms of giving Medicare more tools to make sure prescription drug costs are affordable and having tangible results for people over the next couple of years that will make a huge difference in people’s ability to get the drugs that they need and also to make sure that they don’t bankrupt themselves [in] trying to pay for those things,” she added. To learn more about diabetes, symptoms, and ways to prevent the disease, visit the American Diabetes Association’s Health Living Overview or the NYC Health Diabetes Action Kit.

Abyssinian Baptist Church brings health, wellness, and vaccines to Harlem

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

In response to continuing efforts to protect communities in underserved parts of New York City from deadly viruses such as COVID-19 and the flu, the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem recently hosted a COVID and flu vaccination clinic in partnership with the VIP StarNetwork. Individuals ages 12 and older were invited to get free COVID and flu vaccines and boosters.

Linda Thompson, the church’s health ministry leader and health navigator, said in an interview with the AmNews that “in February 2020...Reverend Butts said this is serious...I said COVID is going to be big. We may have to shut the city down and we’re going to have to prepare...We already had...[certain] things in place. We’ve been live-streaming for 10 years.” Thompson said in-person sermons for the church ended on March 15, 2020.

As the pandemic progressed, so did the outreach from Abyssinian Baptist Church. According to Thompson, “when the tests became available, we got the tests here...at the church. The lines were around the corner, down the block, for people to come and get tested. Then came the vaccines.” The church turned one of the floors into a vaccine center and the lower floor into an area for people to wait for 15 minutes after getting vaccinated.

According to Thompson, “it was phenomenal. The lines wrapped around the corner, people had to get reservations. It was a learning process, especially for the seniors. Many of them didn’t know the internet. We had to teach folks how to use the internet quickly.”

The church held another such vaccine hub on Sunday, Mar. 5, 2023, in partnership with the VIP StarNetwork.

According to Dr. Sandra Bonat, one of the physician advisors at VIP StarNetwork, the church is part of the Choose Healthy Life Program, which brings providers in to administer vaccinations for their communities.

“People have questions—whether or not they can get the vaccine, whether they can get it depending on medications they’re on,” Bonat said. “Parents like having a physician there if they’re getting their kids vaccinated—it makes them feel more comfortable.

Our company tries to put either physicians or mid-level nurse practitioners or [physician assistants] to help people getting the vaccine.”

From a racial health disparities perspective, the stakes could not be higher. According to NYC Department of Health data, 86% of adult Latino New Yorkers have completed the primary series of COVID-19 vaccines compared to 70% of adult Black New Yorkers. Adult Asian American New Yorkers outpace all groups with an astounding 99% primary series completion rate.

Dr. Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, told the AmNews, “[t]he first research that I published about the pandemic..., I found that mortality for white Americans during the pandemic is still not as bad as it is for Black Americans in the best of times when there’s no pandemic.

“I was writing this in the spring and summer of 2020, when we were actually doing all these mitigation efforts. [It] really sparked the See HEALTH IN HARLEM on page 31

(AP Photo/Pablo Salinas)

Deacon Susan Miles (L) and Naomi Graham (R) attend a vaccination drive at Abyssinian Baptist Church. (Heather M. Butts photo)

Arts & Entertainment

Film Independent honors 2023 Spirit Awards winners

By MARGIRA Special to the AmNews

There’s something beautiful about the determination of Film Independent, the nonprofit organization, and their absolute determination to help foster storytellers. They have been about diversity and inclusion for 30 years—30 years, and that was before a person could be canceled by the power of a hashtag. It’s because of that vision and grit that I remain a firm supporter of the organization.

This year, comedian Hasan Minhaj hosted the Indie Spirit Awards, and from my view inside the tent, on the Santa Monica pier, he bombed. Sorry, my brother, I am taking this statement from the groans of the assembled and then the cricket silence when joke after joke failed to land.

But Minhaj is one of the brightest minds working in the industry today and he did bring up a few issues that did deserve contemplation, the biggest elephant in the room being the fact that the IFC cable channel (which broadcasted the show in past years) did not renew their contract.

Instead, the annual Indie Spirit Awards was broadcast live on IMDb’s YouTube channel, as well as Film Independent’s YouTube and Twitter accounts.

Minhaj’s acid comments continued with the comic and host dragging the industry outlet Deadline, accusing them of creating headlines that feel and act like “clickbait.”

The host asked nominee Cate Blanchett to make “some unhinged expressions” for the cameras to generate “clickbait thumbnail” photos for the show’s YouTube broadcast. Her response: Literally hiding under her table to avoid taking part in the routine, which might be an awards show first. Minhaj asked, “Is she coming out the other end?” but Blanchett continued hiding.

This year’s ceremony, the 38th in Film Independent’s history, was marked by a number of firsts. Most notable was a switch to gender-neutral acting categories, as well as the introduction of a Best Breakthrough Performance award.

Leading the way among the award winners was “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which ended the ceremony with seven wins. These included Best Feature, Best Director, and Best Screenplay for Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert; Best Lead Performance, Michelle Yeoh; Best Supporting Performance, Ke Huy Quan; Best Breakthrough Performance, Stephanie Hsu; and Best Editing, Paul Rogers.

Among the other films and artists honored, “Aftersun” won Best First Feature; John Patton Ford, Best First Screenplay for

“Emily the Criminal”; Florian Hoffmeister of “TÁR,” Best Cinematography; “Joyland,” Best International Film; and “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” Best Documentary.

For the third time in its history, this year’s Spirit Awards also honored exceptional content in television. This year’s major winners in the TV categories were

“The Bear,” which won Best New Scripted Series and Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series for Ayo Edebiri; “The Rehearsal,” Best New Non-Scripted or Documentary Series; Quinta Brunson of “Abbott Elementary,” Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series; and

“Pachinko,” Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series.

The 15th annual Robert Altman Award, which was created in 2008 in honor of legendary film director Robert Altman, who was known for creating extraordinary ensemble casts, went to “Women Talking” director Sarah Polley, with casting directors John Buchan and Jason Knight, as well as ensemble cast members Shayla Brown, Jessie Buckley, Claire Foy, Kira Guloien, Kate Hallett, Judith Ivey, Rooney Mara, Sheila McCarthy, Frances McDormand, Michelle McLeod, Liv McNeil, August Winter, and Ben Whishaw.

Also celebrated were “The Cathedral” with the John Cassavetes Award, given to the best feature made for under $1 million (raised from $500,000 in previous years); Nikyatu Jusu of “Nanny,” Someone to Watch Award, recognizing a filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition; Reid Davenport of “I Didn’t See You There,” Truer Than Fiction Award, presented to an emerging director of nonfiction features who has yet to receive significant recognition; and Tory Lenosky, Producers Award, which honors emerging producers who demonstrate the creativity, tenacity, and vision required to produce quality independent films with limited resources.

The winners of the Film Independent Spirit Awards are voted on by Film Independent members. Membership is open to the public.

In the winners’ room, Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series winner Quinta Brunson, “Abbott Elementary” (ABC), was asked what has kept her grounded as her career continues to rise. “Family, friends, tragedy,” the Indie Spirit winner replied. “I’ve had a lot of death in my life as all this has been going on and that will keep you grounded big time, and having to literally work and having to think about the next season of ‘Abbott [Elementary].’”

For more info and a complete list of the winners, visit www.filmindependent.org.

Indie Spirit Awards 2023 (Sunil Sadarangani photos)

Ke Huy Quan, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (A24) (Sunil Sadarangani photos)

Quinta Brunson, “Abbott Elementary” (ABC)

“Creed III” lands a solid punch

By DWIGHT BROWN NNPA News Wire

For a first-time director, actor Michael B. Jordan lands a solid punch. As soon as the bell rings, it’s on.

Continuing a boxing movie franchise that started in 1976 with the Oscar-winning film “Rocky” and sustaining that winning spirit for more than 47 years is quite a responsibility. Filmmaker Ryan Coogler (“Creed” and “Creed II”) was up to that task, and passed it on to Jordan. With characters established by Coogler and now further nurtured by screenwriters Keegan Coogler and Zach Baylin for “Creed III,” another well-written script respectively continues the legacy. Three-dimensional characters, weighty backstories, fated destinies, revenge, regret...They all push the narrative forward.

Former World Heavyweight Champion Adonis Creed (Jordan) has nothing to prove. His glory days, titles, and legendary wins are history. Now he resides in a tony part of L.A., comfortably rich. His understanding and emotionally stabilizing wife Bianca (Tessa Thompson, “Passing”) keeps him grounded. Their young daughter Amara (Mila Davis Kent) adores him. He owns the Delphi Academy where boxers train and the current WHC Felix Chavez (Jose Benavidez) is coached by his old friend Tony “Little Duke” Burton (Wood Harris, TV’s “Empire”). Minus his mom’s (Phylicia Rashad) failing health, life is good.

got out. Adonis: What’s the plan? Dame: I wanna be champ!

On the surface, the ex-boxer just wants a chance to compete. Underneath, something is burning like a man wronged looking for payback. With love and generosity, Adonis takes his old buddy into his life and heart. Mistake?

The screenplay takes its time building the characters and giving them deep emotions, from happiness and sadness, to fear and rage. That thoughtfully drawn blueprint pulls viewers into Creed’s and Dame's lives, struggles, and ambitions. It’s more than enough to keep viewers glued to multiple plights for an hour and 56 min-

drag, like an elongated lunch in a diner scene with Dame and Adonis. Or when Adonis confesses his feelings, or lack thereof, to Bianca. These extended moments could have been a snooze. But the script is earnest, the actors are deep into their craft, Jordan’s direction is fluid, and Kramer Morgenthau’s eyecatching cinematography makes the visuals strong.

Maybe the real measure of Jordan’s creative abilities is best displayed in the boxing scenes. He doesn’t disappoint. Fights with Chavez, Dame, and Adonis are innovatively shot—especially the final fight, when it seems like the two boxers are in a world of

With most of the “Rocky” and “Creed” movies, the protagonist is so beaten, far down on his luck, and victimized by misfortune that a comeback seems impossible. You have to root for them. That’s the secret sauce. But here, Dame is the one who has that hunger. After spending almost two decades in prison, recovering from an incident as an adolescent that estranged him from Adonis and crashed his boxing career, winning can be his only salvation. On the other hand, Adonis is a bit bougie. He isn’t broke. He isn’t desperate. Only one of them has the real eye of the tiger, and the flaw is that it isn’t the Rockytype main character.

The musical playlist jumps right from the get-go, with beats by Big Sean, Ari Lennox, Kehlani, and J. Cole while Joseph Shirley’s score rocks the house, too. Sylvester Stallone’s presence is missed as the weathered champ-turned-trainer Rocky Balboa—a bridge to the past. But the cast finds their own way. Thompson exhibits a wonderful sensitivity as the family-focused, careerminded, and loving quintessential modern Black woman. Benavidez, an actual boxing pro, brings a touch of realism to Felix, as does Selenis Leyva (“Orange is the New Black”), who plays his manager.

Every performance is professional, but Majors as the aggrieved Dame and Jordan as the guilt-ridden Adonis really bring the gravitas. They melt into their characters, are buff, and as bromantic, envious, and hateful as Cain and Abel. Working-class Crenshaw in one corner. Moneyed Angeleno in the other. May the best man win.

Admirers of this boxing saga, adults craving drama, genre fans looking for a fight, and those who enjoy excellent acting will go the rounds with Creed III. Why? Because Jordan doesn’t pull any punches. He lands them.

One day, an old buddy and boxing mentor from his teenage years shows up. When Damian Dame Anderson (Jonathan Majors, “The Last Black Man in San Francisco”), an ex-con, appears in a parking lot, the ”old boys from the hood” reunion seems uncomfortable. Dame: I just

utes, thanks to editors Jessica Baclesse and Tyler Nelson. Everyone will feel invested in Adonis and his family, triggered by the interloper's duplicitousness, and waiting for the reckoning and big fight.

Largely, the movie doesn’t disappoint. Even when some dramatic scenes

their own. They are. The camera is invisible as it zooms around like a ghost. The attractive sets (courtesy of production designer Jahmin Assa) disappear. The focus is on two pugilists working out their demons and trying to punch or mindf-k their way to victory.

Michael B. Jordan and Jonathan Majors in Creed III (Photos courtesy of Dwight Brown)

Michael B, Jordan, Mila Davis Kent, and Tess Thompson in “Creed III”

Michael B. Jordan in “Creed III”

Morrison short story, Recitatif; Five Sorrows, and Black Earth Wisdom

By JORDANNAH ELIZABETH Special to the AmNews

In writing for the last 14 months or so almost solely on literary releases at the start of the new year, there’s been an intuitive progression of the books that I’ve chosen to highlight. Lately, there has been an invigorating and inspiring mix of classic Black literature ranging from debuts to widely published authors who have written extensive collections of work. For all of Toni Morrison’s brightness and international acclaim, particularly within the Black culture and lexicon, there are still works to be discovered: “Recitatif” is Morrison’s only short story, an outlier of her poignant expression that should be remembered and read, as the 1983 piece ages beautifully. “Five Sorrowful Mysteries,” an Observer Best Debut Novelist for 2023 by author Stephen Buoro, and “Black Earth Wisdom,” the third book from Black environmentalist Leah Penniman, are new releases that bring new dimensions of understanding, whether through the craft of fresh literary storytelling or the hyper-awareness of rarely explored Black voices in the environmental and climate change realm.

“Recitatif” by Toni Morrison (Published in Confirmation: An Anthology of African AmericanWomen, 1983)

Zadie Smith writes in the New Yorker in January 2023: “Not the familiar one that divides black and white, but the one between those who live within the system—whatever their position may be within it— and those who are cast far outside of it,” of Morrison’s written experiment where she gave herself the task of

writing a short story about race and the racial divide without noting race in way, shape, or form; yet in the context of a story where she felt this detail was crucial. Though this is a shorter piece, in the enigmatic spark of Morrison’s style—vivacious, intelligent, and colorful—she tells the story of two orphans placed in room 406 in St. Bonaventure’s children’s shelter, whose adventures and friendship are humorous and starkly complex.

“Black Earth Wisdom: Soulful Conversations with Black Environmentalists” by Leah Penniman (Harper Collins)

The African American Book Club writes: “Leah Penniman reminds us that ecological humility is an intrinsic part of Black cultural heritage. While racial capitalism has attempted to sever our connection to the sacred earth for 400 years, Black people have long seen the land and water

as family and treating the Earth as a home essential.” Black Earth Wisdom is a unique collection of interviews and essays highlighting prominent Black voices in environmentalism including Awise Agbaye Wande Abimbola, Savonella Horne Esq, and T. Morgan Dixon. This book is an enlightening work for all interested in climate justice and land preservation.

“Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa” by Stephen Buoro (Bloomsbury Circus)

Kuhelika Ghosh writes of “Five Sorrowful Mysteries” in Brittle Paper:

“Growing up in the shadow of colonialism and communal violence in Nigeria, the main character Andrew Aziza has a hard time balancing his math classes, personal life, and larger political events taking place. According to the publisher, Buoro’s tragicomic novel provides a lens into ‘contemporary African life, the complicity of the West, and the impossible challenges of coming of age in a turbulent world,’” and tells the story of a teenager whose trials and tribulations he must traverse throughout the crux of adolescents, love, and civil unrest. “Five Sorrowful Mysteries” is a harrowing tale of youthful resilience and survival.

New Nonfiction: ‘Why Am I Like This?’ & ‘Trafficking in Antiblackness’

By JORDANNAH ELIZABETH

Special to the AmNews

There is a heaviness to the history and experiential reality of Black life that has truly and quite recently been revised (revisionist history) by Black voices and scholars to disrupt the centuries-long Western history that has denoted our culture as less than, as the people who have never quite rebuilt, healed, and found an equal footing in colonial lands.

“Why Am I Like This?” and “Trafficking in Antiblackness” are two nonfiction works released this year that are structured to correct the destruction that slavery and misogyny have caused in the past.

“Why Am I Like This?: How to Break Cycles, Heal from Trauma, and Restore Your Faith” by Kobe Campbell (Thomas Nelson)

“There are such intangible lived things that Black women have experienced,” said author and therapist Kobe Campbell in an interview with the AmNews. “A lot of what I do is experiential therapy. I primarily

serve Black women, and the therapy includes [our] body and movement that help [us] process the emotions that you become aware of. Black women are so intelligent…I was just giving them the language for what they already knew or what they were already feeling.”

“Why Am I Like This?” chronicles the pain and trauma of a young Kobe, who found healing through a mysterious text message from a friend that led her to seek solace in God and Christianity. This book is not just faith-based; it is a testament to the work Campbell currently does in her therapy practice, which is centered on Black women’s healing.

“Trafficking in Antiblackness: Modern-Day Slavery,White Indemnity, and Racial Justice” by Lyndsey P. Beutin (Duke University Press)

“Drawing on contemporary antitrafficking visual culture and media discourse, [Beutin] shows how a constellation of media, philanthropic, NGO, and government actors invested in ending human trafficking repurpose the history of transat-

lantic slavery and abolition in ways that undermine contemporary struggles for racial justice and slavery reparations,” according to Duke University Press in describing the depth and important work of Lyndsey Beutin. Beutin unfolds the important modern reformation of history of transatlantic slavery by examining ways that the history’s narrative has been written to benefit the privilege of elite racial justice organizations.

TAROTSCOPES By K

March 9, 2023—March 15, 2023

FOR ARIES/ARIES RISING/ARIES MOON:

Six of Pentacles: It’s a week of give-and-take, an invitation to see where in your life you’re maybe being too generous—with your money, your time, your attention, etc.—and assess whether you’re getting the same in return. Conversely, make sure you’re not accidentally taking others for granted, and make sure you give thanks and gratitude when and where due. You may receive a loan or grant, and if you need something, now is a very good time to ask.

FOR TAURUS/TAURUS RISING/TAURUS MOON:

Four of Cups and Temperance: You could be offered an interesting opportunity this week, but you might be feeling so jaded, so vaguely dissatisfied, so convinced that you’ve already seen and heard it all before, that you’re in danger of missing out on it altogether. Take a moment to give thanks for what you already have, and try to look at what’s going on with a fresh eye. You’ll feel a lot more balanced and Divinely guided if you do. A Sagitarrian might be somehow involved.

FOR GEMINI/GEMINI RISING/GEMINI MOON:

Three of Pentacles: You’re getting well-deserved attention for a pet project or for something you’ve been wanting to get off the ground. Your reputation is growing and you’re good at what you do, and folks are starting to notice. Keep doing the work, and accept the accolades and offers of help— you’re on the right path for getting where you want to go.

FOR CANCER/CANCER RISING/CANCER MOON:

Nine of Wands: You may feel like you’re in the last leg of an exhausting race and wondering how you’re going to finish everything. But if you persevere and tap into that last reserve of energy, you’ll get to the finish line and be able to rest fully in the knowledge that you finally made it. You know what you have to do, and you’re so close to completing it all. You do have what it takes, even if it doesn’t always feel like it.

FOR LEO/LEO RISING/LEO MOON:

Eight of Wands: It should be smooth sailing this week, and things that were formerly stuck should start to flow—and flow quickly. Keep your overnight bag and toiletries case handy, because you may have a trip or two coming up, especially short-term travel or weekend jaunts. If you get a spontaneous invitation, go for it and see where it takes you.

FOR VIRGO/VIRGO RISING/VIRGO MOON:

Four of Swords: Deep, deep rest is called for here. The recent full moon in your sign may have left you feeling a little drained (that, or just being your usual efficient, perfectionist self). Now is the time to turn off the phone, clear your schedule, and do the most restful, peaceful things possible, however that may look for you. It’s crucial, and you will be so glad that you did.

FOR LIBRA/LIBRA RISING/LIBRA MOON:

Ten of Swords: Something that needed to end is finally done, and the worst is over. Use the energy of the waning moon over the next two weeks to help clear away all residue and get ready to usher in some newer, fresher energy. Hope and optimism are now featured; after this, it will finally be time to renew and refresh, and it will happen at exactly the right time. The need for acupuncture might also be indicated.

FOR SCORPIO/SCORPIO RISING/SCORPIO MOON:

Six of Wands: This card indicates success and accolades for work well done. Your efforts are paying off in a big way. You have a ton to be proud of and folks should be singing your praises, but don’t forget to thank those who helped you along the way.

FOR SAGITTARIUS/SAGITTARIUS RISING/SAGITTARIUS MOON:

The World: This is a time of completion and integration. A cycle has ended and a new one is getting ready to begin, and you’re bringing forward all of the skills and knowledge you’ve gained along the way. Everything you’ve been through is now a part of your toolkit, and it shows in how well you’re navigating things. Get ready—you’re about to level up.

FOR CAPRICORN/CAPRICORN RISING/CAPRICORN MOON:

The Hermit: The wisdom and answers you’re seeking lie within— if you can just create the quiet and the space needed to hear them properly. If you feel like you might want to keep some things to yourself, definitely do it; this might be the right week to turn down any and all social invitations and have some much-needed alone time. An older male relative, and/or a Virgo in your life, might also be featured.

FOR AQUARIUS/AQUARIUS RISING/AQUARIUS MOON:

Ten of Pentacles: Your ancestors are close, and they want you to remind you that they’re there for you. You might be handling family paperwork and legal issues, or dealing with things that involve the concept of “legacy.” Give thanks for what provides stability and security in your life, and think about how you might want to expand and build on that.

FOR PISCES/PISCES RISING/PISCES MOON:

Queen of Pentacles: Your needs and desires need to take precedence this week. Give yourself permission to make what you want your first priority. Guidance can be found in your senses and it’s important to fully ground yourself, now more than ever. Take extra care with what you eat, too, and try to always go for the healthy option—this week, nourishing your body = nourishing your soul.

Read below for tarot guidance for your sign, rising sign, and/or moon sign for the week ahead.

Family staycation ideas that won’t break your budget

Family vacations are a great way to bond and take a step back from the hectic schedules that accompany everyday life, but time or money (or both) can make planning an elaborate trip a non-starter.

However, a staycation—a vacation you take right in your hometown (or nearby)—can be much less expensive and fit into nearly any amount of available time, with the added bonus of skipping out on potentially stressful travel. Consider these staycation ideas to take advantage of your local area’s attractions and prove you don’t have to go far to spend quality time together.

Visit local landmarks. Just because it’s not a traditional vacation doesn’t mean you can’t pretend to be tourists. Start by visiting the places you recommend to friends and family from out of town, or pick up a city guidebook to uncover hidden spots you may not even know exist. Make a plan to seek out historic sites, visit local landmarks like museums, or try an out-of-the-way restaurant (or two) you’ve never tried before.

Camp out in the backyard. Camping doesn’t have to be done far from home—it can be done right in your own backyard. Pitch a tent to sleep under the stars

and plan a night full of traditional camping activities, like roasting s’mores, telling spooky stories by flashlight, and trying to identify stars and constellations.

Set up a picnic in the park. Pack a basket with sandwiches, fruit, and other treats and head to the park. You can enjoy a casual meal, then take advantage of the open space for a family walk or game of tag before retreating to the playground to let the little ones expend any leftover energy.

Have a home spa day. If you’re looking for some relaxation but don’t want to splurge on the full

spa treatment, plan an at-home oasis instead. Light some candles, run a bubble bath, and break out the facial masks and fingernail polish.

Visit an amusement park. No matter where you live, there’s probably an amusement or water park within driving distance. A quick online search before you

arrive can help you prepare a strategy for hitting the mostpopular thrill rides and waterslides while skipping those that may not provide quite the same entertainment value. Find more tips and tricks for enjoying family time together at eLivingtoday.com.

(eLivingtoday.com)

(Pexels photo by Biova Nakou)

(Pexels photo by Ron Lach)

(Pexels photo by Ron Lach)

(Pexels photo by Kampus Production)

AmNews Food

Bring your family together with breakfast for dinner

Despite busy lives and full schedules, finding time for regular meals with loved ones encourages connections and conversations that can benefit mental and physical well-being. Gathering your family, friends, co-workers, or neighbors at least once a week to spend time together over a meal provides opportunities to decompress and socialize.

If you’re looking for a little delicious inspiration, the American Heart Association (AHA) recommends scheduling one night

per week to create a recurring tradition and enjoy favorites such as breakfast for dinner.

Recipes like Egg, Avocado, and Black Bean Breakfast Burritos and Southwestern Quinoa and Egg Breakfast Bowls from the Healthy for Good Eat Smart initiative, which is nationally supported by Eggland’s Best, are perfectly suited for sharing while making time to destress at the dinner table.

In fact, according to a study by “Canadian Family Physician,” regular meals at home with loved ones can reduce stress,

Egg, Avocado, and Black Bean Breakfast Burritos

Servings: 4

Nonstick cooking spray

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups liquid egg whites

1 can (15 1/2 ounces) no-salt-added black beans, rinsed and drained

Lightly spray large skillet with nonstick cooking spray. Warm over medium heat.

In skillet, stir egg whites constantly with rubber spatula to scramble. Cook until eggs are almost set. Add beans, stirring until combined and heated through.

Microwave tortillas on high for 45 seconds. Transfer to work surface.

4 whole-wheat tortillas (6 inches, lowest sodium available)

2 medium avocados, sliced

1/4 cup hot sauce or salsa (lowest sodium available, optional)

Spread egg mixture in center of each tortilla. Top with the avocado and hot sauce, if desired.

For each burrito, fold two sides of tortilla toward center. Starting from closest unfolded side, roll burrito toward remaining unfolded side to enclose filling. Transfer to plates with seam side down.

boost self-esteem, and make everyone feel connected with mealtime conversations that allow a chance to unplug and unwind.

Meals don’t have to be elaborate for a successful evening together. Despite the perceived effort involved in preparing a meal, research published in “Preventive Medicine” shows that having frequent meals with others—particularly parents with their children—may improve social and emotional well-being.

In addition to the mental and emotional

benefits of meals with loved ones, eating together can also encourage healthier choices when better-for-you recipes are on the menu. Dining as a group can provide inspiration to try heart-healthy recipes that include the wide variety of vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and healthy protein sources recommended by the AHA to help prevent heart disease and stroke.

To find recipe ideas, conversation starters, and more tips for mealtime, visit heart.org/together.

Southwestern Quinoa and Egg Breakfast Bowls

Servings: 4

Nonstick cooking spray

Ingredients:

1/4 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed and drained

2 medium tomatoes, chopped (about 2 cups)

1 cup no-salt-added frozen corn, thawed

1/2 medium avocado, pitted and diced

Cook quinoa according to package directions. Remove from heat.

Spoon quinoa into four bowls. Top each with tomatoes, corn, avocado, green onions, and cilantro, if desired.

Lightly spray large skillet over medium-high heat with nonstick cooking

1/4 cup chopped green onions

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

4 large eggs

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Red hot-pepper sauce, to taste (optional)

spray. Crack eggs into skillet. Sprinkle eggs with salt and pepper. Cook, uncovered, 3 to 4 minutes, or until egg whites are set but yolks are still runny. Using spatula, transfer one egg sunny-sideup into each bowl. Sprinkle with hot sauce, if desired.

(Family Features)

Belauded aims to provide Black luxury fashion without compromises

By BRENIKA BANKS

Belauded, an emerging global platform for Black designer fashion, was created for consumers to shop from Black designers, as well as a tool to support up-and-coming Black designers.

“We’re coming for the title of world’s destination to shop for all Black designers in the world,” said Belauded founder Jaleel Thomas. The site offers what they call “pressure-pack premium boxes and deluxe boxes” of “top quality and true culture” clothing. The 27-year-old created the concept for Belauded sitting in traffic on the Cross County Parkway while battling COVID.

“I asked God, ‘Hey, give me that next thing, you know [what] my heart desires, you know that I want to do things for my people…’ and, literally while I was driving from getting food, the idea clicked,” said Thomas. His goal is to establish Beluaded as a celebration of Black people.

Belaud means “to extol or praise

excessively.” The root word “laud” means to applaud or celebrate. The importance of Thomas launching his company in February was to coincide with Black History Month and his birthday, which was five days prior to Belauded’s official launch. Thomas is also the creator of the Black Graduation at CUNY’s Baruch College in NYC. He believed it was important for Black students to effectively receive praises for their hard work at the business school. “I wanted Black students to feel like they are being celebrated for who they are, what they’ve created, the milestones that they’ve achieved,” said Thomas. “Moments like that inspired me to take this step in creating Belauded.”

The global Black directory launched on the heels of NYFW, from which Thomas hopes his site can build momentum. The Chicago native has traveled and met designers in Paris, Egypt, London, and throughout the United States. Although the fashion world lives strongly in these cities, there are not enough luxury brands who

fully support the Black community. Thomas sees the missing link to this and understands the need for a Black retailer to become a business while catering to Black consumers.

“As it relates to fashion, maybe you don’t have the chance to kick it in Los Angeles and see the designers out there or have the chance to be in Paris,” said Thomas. “Belauded is that attempt to bring all those Black designers to one platform.”

Designer Diosdado Sima views Belauded as a method to unite different creators who represent the Black community into one hub.

“Their strength in numbers reminds me of a Black Wall Street concept,” said Sima. “It’s a way to build our community and bring us together.” Sima’s Visionary Society fashion brand is a part of Belauded’s network of Black designers who were on board for the site’s early stages.

Sima believes the lack of representation in the fashion industry needs to be changed. As an immigrant designer, he views Visionary Society as a medium to express himself and his people in ways that

may not be accepted in a non-Black fashion spaces. “Visionary Society is our world painted in the way we would love to see it for our community,” said Sima.

According to Nielsen, African Americans are more likely to say they shop at high-end stores including Saks Fifth Avenue (63%), Neiman Marcus (45%) and Bloomingdales (24%). There is little to no data that shows how non-Black luxury brands support Black people as much as their dollars support those same brands. Black buying power, which was at $910 billion in 2019, could be more beneficial if spent in places where the betterment of the Black community was the goal.

Black people continue to wear and embrace luxury brands that aren’t interested in their value as much as their money. These luxury brands fail to accept Black people as their priority demographic. Major brands such as Montclair, Gucci, Prada, and Balenciaga have had very questionable occurrences that were insensitive to the Black com-

munity. “These glorified brands run into instances where maybe some of their leadership hasn’t really considered everybody in the room or everybody that they’re trying to sell to,” said Thomas.

Sima applauds Thomas for his well explained concept of Belauded and was thrilled to participate in this Black directory. “Working with Jaleel has been nothing short of amazing,” said Sima.

In a couple of years, Thomas looks forward to having Belauded donate clothing to Black students going through hardships. He envisions Belauded’s growth to continue through word of mouth, connecting with other Black creators and Fashion Week’s Black designers. Thomas anticipates another way of growth through marketing dollars which will help financially grow the business. Social media is expected to be a major driving force for the website.

“This platform is going to connect Black designers to consumers forever,” said Thomas.

For more information, visit https://belauded.com/.

(Brenika Banks photo) Thomas on Graduation Day in 2020 (@realjaleel IG photo) Jaleel Thomas (Shane Miller photo)

Wayne Shorter, the quintessential saxophonist and composer whose sound and improvisational playing enhanced American music, along with his many compositions, which became the definitive grail of jazz standards, died on March 2. He was 89.

Shorter died in a hospital in Los Angeles, according to his representative, Alisse Kingsley. No cause of death was given.

Shorter was a visionary and explorer. As Roberta Flack’s song states, he chose “to dream the impossible dream,” which propelled him to the stars. At this year’s 2023 Grammy Awards, the NEA Jazz Master won his 12th Grammy, with pianist Leo Genovese, for “Best Improvised Jazz Solo,” and was nominated for Best Live Instrumental Jazz Album for “Live at the Detroit Jazz Festival” with Terri Lyne Carrington, Genovese, and Esperanza Spalding. In 2022, Park Place in Newark, New Jersey (home of WBGO radio), was renamed Wayne Shorter Way.

Scott retired from his seven-decade performing career due to health reasons, but followed a longtime ambition: writing an opera titled “Iphigenia,” with Esperanza Spalding writing the libretto and scenic design by architect Frank Gehry, which premiered in 2021.

“Wayne Shorter was a serious, intense individual, but when that rare moment came when he smiled or laughed, it was like the sun had risen on a cloudy day,” said NEA Jazz Master, bassist, composer, and former bandmate Reggie Workman.

“Now, thinking back about this unusual character, the many unique compositions and approach to harmonic progressions, those uncanny statements [that] emerged at the most unusual times—he will be missed but never forgotten. I cherish his contribution to the universe.”

Shorter played music that made you listen. His sound was all-engrossing, straight-ahead, fusion, futurism, blues, and avant garde edge. His music boosts an openness, a freedom to dance on the edge of his notes without a net, falling back and rejoicing in the eye of his hurricane, or—more appropriately—swinging in the middle of his “All Seeing Eye (Blue Note 1966).” He was our inter-galactic admiral, who took us on wondrous journeys not to be duplicated. During a discussion of “Philosophy Through Life and Jazz” on International Jazz Day in 2014, he said, “Life wants to create and all concepts negotiating reality comes through in your work. I like hard to do because faith is to fear nothing.”

Shorter’s later musical concepts were partly based on his spiritual teachings of Buddhism. “We have a phrase [in Buddhism]: hom nim yoh,” ‘From this moment forward is the first day of my life,’ so put

100 percent into the moment that you’re in because the present moment is the only time when you can change the past and the future,” he said in an 2013 NPR interview.

Shorter was born on August 25, 1933, in Newark, New Jersey. His mother Louise worked for a furrier, and his father Joseph was a welder at a Singer sewingmachine factory. He had an early interest in music and his father encouraged him to study clarinet, which he did, although his first love at that time was art. At age 12, he won a citywide art contest and, on his teacher’s recommendation, he applied to Arts High School in pursuit of becoming a visual artist.

Ironically, the inquisitive young Shorter found more interest in cutting classes and hanging out around the corner at the Adams Theater to see a movie or stage play. He said he always made it back to school for his favorite classes. However, with an accumulation of unexcused absences, he was sentenced to a creative form of detention: He had to take a music theory class. It was this class that pushed him into the music pond for life. Taking clarinet lessons helped with his new music class, which eventually led him to start playing the tenor saxophone. He was already quite interested in bebop, having been introduced to Charlie Parker recordings in his music class and having seen Parker and Dizzy Gillespie perform live at the Adams Theater.

By his junior year in high school, Shorter felt proficient enough to start a little combo with his older brother Alan, who played alto saxophone, and local friends. Their repertoire was built around bebop,

although it was a struggle for them to play. During an interview with writer and author Nate Chien, Shorter said, “We did crazy stuff, we’d play these dances at the YMCA, and maybe 10 people would come, trying to dance to this kind of stuff. We’d play a dance on Saturday night wearing galoshes when it wasn’t raining. We would say that’s what bebop was about.”

He graduated from Newark Arts High School in 1952.

Early on, Shorter and his brother were known for doing stuff differently. Shorter admitted that while other boys were out playing sports or trying to impress girls, he was reading comic books and science fiction or listening to his favorite radio serials: “Lights Out,” a supernatural horror, and “The Mysterious Traveler,” which opened with a voice of mystifying intrigue. Shorter later gave the title to his 1974 album with Weather Report. It didn’t come as odd when another Newark native son, Amiri Baraka, dedicated a chapter to Shorter in his book “Black Music,” where he noted, “the two weird Shorter brothers, it even became a metaphor…‘As weird as Wayne.’”

The moniker never bothered Shorter because he was always dreaming of the beyond, looking for the next dare. His other nickname was “Mr. Gone,” which was rather hip, in my opinion. It later became an album title for Weather Report (ARC/Columbia 1978).

“Recording and touring with Wayne was invaluable. What I cherish most was sitting with him in his home listening to hours of his compositions while discussing a plethora of musical styles and ap-

proaches to rhythm,” said drummer and composer Will Calhoun. “He turned me on to many books, which led me to become a voracious reader. What I will miss most is Wayne’s laughter. That sound was as beautiful as his horn playing.”

After graduating from New York University in 1956, Shorter served in the U.S. Army. In 1959, he enjoyed a four-year stint with the bootcamp master Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, where he became the band’s musical director. In 1964, he joined Miles Davis’s Second Great Quintet.

“Working with Miles, we never rehearsed and we never talked about music,” said Shorter. “Then I figured out the conversation was the rehearsal.”

Shorter and Miles were kindred spirits, always moving forward, not looking back. Miles loved his compositions, which led to the memorable Miles quote to Shorter, “make sure you bring the book.” Miles offered him a freedom to explore new sounds while he was still playing tenor saxophone.

After the quintet parted ways in 1968, Shorter remained with Davis on the beginning of his fusion journey, playing on the recordings “In a Silent Way,” “Bitches Brew,” and “Filles de Kilimanjaro.” It was during this period that Shorter began playing soprano saxophone.

While with the Davis quintet, there were Shorter’s epochal Blue Note albums of the 1960s, including “Night Dreamer,” “JuJu,” and “Speak No Evil.”

After his departure from Miles, Shorter formed his own fusion group Weather Report with Davis bandmates keyboardist Joe Zawinul and bassist Miroslav Vitous. Throughout the band’s existence, many musicians contributed to their varied sound, like bassist Jaco Pastorius. Weather Report’s music was a sparkling infusion of Latin jazz, funk, bebop, and futurism— it was Shorter’s spaceship, his brewing kettle, his path to the unknown.

As a tech sci-fi musician, Shorter explored all the sounds and spaces in his galaxy of life. His playing style, those lyrical layers, his choice of notes around and about up and down. To say he was a genius or legend is inadequate. He was like SunRa, that unique human being from the galaxy beyond the clouds, where minds are open to ponder, to dream, to create.

With Brazil in mind, Shorter joined with Brazilian composer and vocalist Milton Nascimento and Herbie Hancock for “Native Dancer” (Columbia 1974). He was introduced to a wider fanbase when he appeared on 10 Joni Mitchell albums from 1977 through 2002. He later tapped another market when he played an extended solo on the title track of Steely Dan’s album “Aja,” in 1977.

“Jazz shouldn’t have any mandates,” said Shorter. “Jazz is not supposed to be something that’s required to sound like jazz. For me, the word ‘jazz’ means, ‘I dare you.’”

Wayne Shorter (Jonathan Chimene photo)

From the July 2, 1977 issue of the AmNews

Hugo Chavez

Continued from page 2

of the Venezuelan Revolution and Armed Forces of National Liberation (PRV-FALN).

Chávez allied with progressive segments of the country, and subsequently oriented his identity to what he had not been taught in formal or military schools: the truth about his Indigenous and Afrodescendant heritage. It was the Red de Organizaciones Afrovenezolanas (Network of Afro-Venezuelan Organizations) that explained to him issues of racism, discrimination, and the failure to include the moral, political, economic, spiritual, and cultural contributions of Africans and their descendants in Venezuela.

THE PANDEMIC HAS SHOWN THAT SUPPORTERS LIKE YOU UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE OF LOCAL NEWS AS A SOURCE OF RELIABLE INFORMATION.

on March 28, 2012, he created the National Council for the Development of the Afrodescendant Communities of Venezuela (CONADECAFRO) to promote and strengthen public policies for Afro-descendants.

YOUR DONATION TO THE BLACKLIGHT INVESTIGATIVE UNIT, VIA THE LOCAL MEDIA FOUNDATION, WILL DIRECTLY SUPPORT THIS JOURNALISM.

It was after this that Chávez and his ministers began accelerating the nation’s awareness about Afro Venezuelans: In 2005, he created the office of the Vice Ministry for Africa and authorized the establishment of May 10 as Afro Venezuelan Day; in 2009, he passed an education law that promoted inclusion of Afrodescendant contributions in the national curriculum; and

Chávez increased his relationships with Black organizations in the Americas and encouraged stronger Venezuelan ties with African nations. He promoted, with Brazil and Nigeria, the Africa-South America Summit (ASA), the most important one held in Margarita Island in September 2009, in which he summarized the South-South aspiration so longed for by Tanzania’s anti-colonialist president, Julius Nyerere.

This past February, those taking part in the III National Afro Venezuelan Congress in Caracas reaffirmed their defense of the advances Hugo Chávez helped build for the Afro-descendant community.

The congress helped reassert the African viewpoint that “the dead are not dead, they live with us with their ideas, their projects, and their dreams.”

TELL ALBANY: KEEP FILM JOBS IN NY

The Film Production Tax Credit has turned film and TV production into a multi-billion dollar industry in New York, generating hundreds of thousands of good jobs, supporting diverse local businesses and creators, and spurring economic growth. Expanding the program is a win for New Yorkers across the state.

SCAN the QR Code to donate.

Or TEXT “blacklight” to (202) 858-1233

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In this 2006 photo, Venezuela’s fallen leader, Hugo Chávez, speaks from the pulpit at Harlem’s Mt. Olivet Baptist Church (Karen Juanita Carrillo photo)

Rev. Dr. William J. Simmons, educator and publisher

By HERB BOYD Special to the AmNews

Setting out last week to glorify Lucy Wilmot Smith, the unheralded journalist and suffragette, I stumbled on William J. Simmons. Okay, he was only a little bit better known than Smith, and accomplished considerably more, but the intersection of their lives was mutually indispensable. Smith, as readers may recall, became Simmons’s private secretary, and later, through his recommendation, was able to launch her prominence in journalism.

William J. Simmons, born into slavery on June 29, 1849, should not be confused with a white namesake affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan. In fact, there is a plethora of information to set them apart, none more notably than Simmons’s renowned academic and anti-slavery commitment. His advocacy against slavery possibly stemmed from his mother, who, when he was very young, took him and his two sisters from Charleston, South Carolina, to Philadelphia. For a brief spell, they resided there with Alexander Tardiff, an uncle, who later relocated to New Jersey, where he began educating the children.

For two years beginning in 1862, Simmons served as an apprentice to a dentist. Thereafter, he served in the Union Army for one year, taking part in several major battles, and was present when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered. After the war, he returned to dentistry, and in 1867, he converted to Baptist and joined a white Baptist church, pastored by Rev. J.W. Custis. Through this congregation, he attended Madison University, now Colgate University, from which he graduated in 1868.

In 1873, Simmons received his bachelor’s degree from Howard University. On the advice of Horace Greeley, he moved to Arkansas and began his teaching career. A year later, he married Josephine Silence and they moved to Florida. Together, they had seven children. He began harvesting oranges and later became principal of Howard Academy’s teaching training program, and also pastored a church. When Rutherford B. Hayes began his bid for the presidency, Simmons campaigned on his behalf.

Two years later, at the State Convention of Colored Men of Kentucky, his reputation was greatly enhanced by a resounding speech in which he declared: “Fellow citizens, When a free people, living in a body politic, feel that the laws are unjustly administered to them; that discriminations are openly made; that various subterfuges and legal technicalities are constantly used to deprive them of the enjoyment of those rights and immunities belonging to the humblest citizen; when the courts become no refuge for the outraged, and when a sentiment is not found sufficient to do them justice, it becomes their bounden duty to protest against such a state of affairs.

To do less than vigorously and earnestly enter our protest is to cringe like hounds before masters, and to show that we are not fit for freedom.

We are robbed by some of the railroad companies who take our firstclass fares and then we are driven into smoking cars, and, if we demur, are cursed and roughly handled. Our women have been beaten by brutal

brakemen, and in many cases left to ride on the platforms at the risk of life and limb. We are tried in courts controlled entirely by white men, and no colored man sits on a Kentucky jury. This seems no mere accident, but a determined effort to exclude us from fair trials and put us at the mercy of our enemies, from the judge down to the vilest suborned witness.

“When charged with grave offenses,” he continued, “the jail is mobbed, and the accused taken out and hanged; and out of the hundreds of such cases since the war, not a single high-handed murderer has been ever brought before a court to answer. Colored men have been deliberately murdered, and few if any murderers have been punished by the law. Indecent haste to free the criminal in such cases has made the trial a farce too ridiculous to be called more than a puppet show. The penitentiary is full of our race, who are sent there by wicked and malicious persecutors, and unjust sentences dealt out by judges, who deem a colored

criminal fit only for the severest and longest sentences for trivial offenses. In all departments of the State we are systematically deprived of recognition, except in menial positions. In our metropolitan city, and even cities of lesser note, we are not considered for the appointments in fire companies, police force, notary public, etc. In fact, we are the ruled class and have no share in the government.”

After being ordained in 1879, Simmons moved to Lexington, Kentucky, where he pastored the First Baptist Church. The following year, he became the second president of the Kentucky Normal and Theological Institute, serving there for 10 years. The school would eventually be named Simmons College of Kentucky in his honor.

In 1881, he acquired a master’s degree from Howard University and an honorary doctorate from Wilberforce University.

Simmons soon extended his political affairs as chair of the State Convention of Colored Men. In 1882, he was elected editor of the journal The American Baptist, taking exception to the publication’s failure to be more involved and demanding in Black progress and civil rights. (As readers may recall, he soon recruited Smith to write for the journal.)

Simmons was also president of the American Baptist Company and in 1886, defeated T. Thomas Fortune as president of the Colored Press Association. A year later, he organized the Baptist Women’s Educational Convention, and in 1884, he was appointed commissioner for the state of Kentucky at the 1884 World’s Fair in New Orleans.

In 1886, when the American National Baptist Convention was founded, Simmons was elected president. Three years later, he was the leader at the group’s convention and composed a resolution to provide aid for African Americans fleeing violence in the South. He was the publisher of Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising in 1887, in which he is featured along with 172 other distinguished Black men.

Simmons was working on a companion publication devoted to Black women when he died on October 30, 1890, in Louisville, Kentucky.

ACTIVITIES

FIND OUT MORE

There is an extensive account of his life and legacy in the Men of Mark publication authored by the noted Henry McNeal Turner.

DISCUSSION

It is not known how far along he was with the sister-companion of Men Of Mark, but if it was anything like its predecessor it would have been a remarkable addition to the African American canon.

PLACE IN CONTEXT

Simmons’s productive life stretched across most of the 19th century and he was a major participant in many of its historic moments, including the Civil War.

CLASSROOM IN THE THIS WEEK IN BLACK HISTORY

March 6, 1857: The Supreme Court issued the Dred Scott decision, claiming that Black Americans had no right to citizenship.

March 7, 1965: “Bloody Sunday,” when Black marchers in Selma were brutally attacked by state troopers.

March 8, 1964: Malcolm X, upon returning from Mecca, leaves the Nation of Islam.

Rev. Dr. William J. Simmons

Anti poverty

3

days a week. We don’t have enough resources for the three shifts a day needed. There are about 50 city groups in the gun violence awareness movement, but only about 15 in the CMS that are funded.”

Mitchell echoed other perspectives on this issue. “Poverty is the main feeder of crime,” he said. “We need to attack poverty with an equity economic solution for communities stricken with gun violence. That will make a massive difference.”

Barron said he spoke this week with the NYC Office of Management and Budget and the mayor’s office, “which is projecting $2 billion less than what the Independent Budget Office and the financial department are suggesting so they can justify the cuts. They call them Programs to Eliminate the Gap (PEGS), they call them Programs to Eliminate Services (PESTS) because that’s what they’re doing.”

Asked about a surplus, Elizabeth Brown, communications director for the New York City Independent Budget Office, told the Amsterdam News, “In our recent Budget Snapshot, responding to the Mayor’s Preliminary Budget, IBO estimated that

there would be roughly $2.8 billion in current-year surplus, above what the mayor has estimated, and $2.6 billion in surplus in fiscal year 2024. In fiscal years 2025 and out, we forecasted substantial but manageable gaps. However, since the publishing of that report, the city has come to a tentative agreement with (union local) DC37, which represents a large portion of the municipal workforce. Assuming that the other unions follow a similar pattern of wage increases outlined in this agreement, this would increase city spending, reduce our surplus projection for this year, and likely create a shortfall for next year, as well as increase future year gaps.”

Barron, a former State Assemblymember, said in response, “There’s 8.3 billion dollars in the reserve budget, and there’s unexpected $2 to $3 billion (in) unexpected revenue. I would use that money to go into neighborhoods like East New York, Brownsville, and neighborhoods in the Bronx, and I would immediately increase the workforce development programs in those communities, by hundreds of millions of dollars. I would immediately have a youth entrepreneurship program — millions for youths to start their own businesses.

“There is a $169 billion 10-year capital budget. He could take a mere $200

million out of that and build a center like the PJ center we have in East New York in every Black and brown low-income community, and hire the young people to run it like Man Up, Inc., does in East New York.

“He could also give millions of dollars for community land trusts. These are community groups that can get land that the city is giving to rich developers. Give it to the community and then give them subsidies to build affordable housing, so we can wipe out poverty, or at least put a dent in it through homeownership. He could do that today.

“He could stop privatizing NYCHA. I am putting in a bill to support (letting) the residents manage the NYCHA developments in which they live. Let them get all the Section 8 money and money from the financial institutions.” Education is also a part of a plan to eradicate poverty, he concluded.

“The curriculum should be Afro-centric in Black communities especially. All our schools should have computers and science labs and what they call wraparound social services for the families.

“Let us build up our neighborhoods so that we can fight poverty and crime.”

Mayor Adams could not be reached by press time.

New Jersey News

Continued from page 4

Entrepreneur and fashion designer Aku Frika is making her mark

New Jersey is a diverse state that is known for significant African American history and continues to shed light on achievements and accomplishments. The state carries on this legacy as Black entrepreneurs keep making their mark throughout Jersey.

Aku Frika has already left a strong impression throughout Jersey City with her original fashion brand, Aku Frika. She sells African fabric, clothing, accessories, and a 100% shea butter that is homemade with love.

All of the fabrics and clothing items are listed for purchase on her social media accounts, making it easy to order. Customers also get free shipping for orders of $100 and up. To see some of her handcrafted work, check out her instagram: @akuafrika.

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greenlit NYCHA’s ability to bring in private management.

“As the RAD/PACT program continues to expand to NYCHA developments, we as residents want to ensure that there is accountability and oversight of this program,” said NYCHA resident Brenda Temple. “I am grateful to Comptroller Lander for creating the resident committee so that our voices are heard throughout this process. City resources must be directed toward robust outreach to tenants in converted buildings to learn more about their experiences of RAD/PACT.”

A Comptroller’s Office spokesperson told the Amsterdam News the audits are currently in process and direct inquiries would be limited to maintain the independence and objectivity of the audits.

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.

WITH PRIZES

Compiled by Morgan Alston

AKAs, Redemption Bank offer financial services to Black community

By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff

Two new Black-owned financial institutions have announced plans to provide services to the Black community.

In Utah, Black investors announced on Feb. 28 that they have purchased a whiteowned depository bank. Their investment group, Redemption Holding Company (RHC), said it wants to re-orient the bank to serve a majority Black clientele.

RHC purchased the assets of Utah-based Holladay Bank and Trust. Once they receive federal regulatory approval, the company plans to rename the institution Redemption Bank and provide banking services to Black people in the Mountain West region.

The establishment of Redemption Bank will be a historic first: the first time a whiteowned commercial bank is converted to a Black-owned Minority Depository Institution––a bank with a board of directors who are mostly people of color, and that is mostly designed to serve people of color.

RHC counts among its investors Ashley Bell, the former Southeast regional director for the U.S. Small Business Administration under the Trump administration and a former White House Policy Advisor for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Bell will serve as RHC’s executive chair and chief executive officer.

Rev. Bernice King, an attorney and the daughter of Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King Jr., will be RHC’s senior vice president of corporate strategy and alliances.

Retired NFL linebacker Dhani Makalani Jones, who played four seasons with the New York Giants and has since taken part in several business ventures, is an RHC investor who will serve on the advisory board. Bell told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the Atlanta-based group of Black investors wanted to establish Redemption Bank to help promote wealth generation. “This system has offered no grace and no mercy for Black people in our country,” Bell was quoted as stating. “We think that having a

bank called Redemption, where grace and mercy will be bountiful for people who need it, is important.”

Black-owned financial institutions have been declining in the last few years: Between 2001 and 2018, the number of Blackowned banks in the U.S. decreased by more than 50%, the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research organization, reported. Last year, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) counted only 16 Black-owned banks in the U.S. RHC would boost that number to 17.

It’s a problem that organizations like the National Black Bank Foundation (NBBF), which Bell and Dr. King established in 2020, have been formed to address, because when financial institutions are owned by Blacks, it benefits the community.

“Black-owned banks focus their lending on small businesses, nonprofits (e.g., churches), and Black homebuyers,” the Urban Institute’s report said. “They have always maintained their focus on predominantly Black communities, increasing their

Lift the Charter School Cap, say advocates

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

Parents, students, and teachers packed the street in front of City Hall Park on Tuesday morning to rally support for raising the cap on public charter schools in the city, especially in Black and brown communities.

According to NYC Charter School Center research, an estimated 141,000 students are enrolled in New York City’s 275 charter schools. Of them, 49% are identified as Black and 41% Latino, more than 80% are considered economically disadvantaged, about 9% live in temporary housing, and about 9% are English Language Learners (ELL).

Assemblymember John Zaccaro Jr., a proud public school graduate and parent of a charter school student, said that the legislature is starting to have this conversation now but it’s been happening silently for years.

“I’m just here, lending my voice with parents, with students, with teachers, with administrators and operators, and saying that we need options,” said Zaccaro. “In a society today where we talk about equity, where we’re giving options across the board and (in) all fields of life, education shouldn’t be one that we have to fight for.”

A recent poll from Democrats for Education Reform New York (DFER NY) showed that voters have a favorable view of public charter schools. Polling results said that 51% of Democratic respondents support raising the cap.

On the frontline of the rally were other Black and brown parents and advocates sharing personal stories on behalf of their students.

Harlem public charter parent Kathryn Marrow, who has a son in the 11th grade who attends a KIPP NYC school, said a charter school did nothing but benefit her son. The small classroom sizes, job placement, credible counselors, and teachers helped him to succeed. “He said, ‘Mama, when you go down there, you let them know, you tell the governor we need our charter schools,’” Marrow told the crowd.

East New York native Anyta Brown, the grandparent of a Brooklyn public charter school student and president/chairperson of ENY StudentFirst, is adamant about raising the cap to give children better options.

“I want to tell the state Albany legislators that you ought to be for the people and not the politicians,” said Brown. “I have grands and I have great grands, and have seen the struggle in the educational system for them. I stood there and I fought.”

Rafiq Kalam Id-Din II, founder and managing partner of Ember Charter Schools, said that policy-makers and education officials have ignored the vast racial equity gaps in public schools and charters. He said a lack of Black and brown teachers and charter school founders of color only hurts the students. “Representation matters—the data says so, and now, as you hear from so many of us, the community, the people say so as well,” said Id-Din.

Crystal McQueen-Taylor, executive director of StudentsFirstNY, said the argument over charter schools boils down to a parent’s right to choose where to send their children to school.

“I think a lot of that charter versus district it a little bit of a made-up argument that has become highly politicized,” she said. “We have families (who) have kids who are making a decision about a public school for one kid and a charter school for another kid. Different kids need different things. Choice should not be only for folks who can afford it, who can move to the right districts.”

McQueen-Taylor said most of the conversations held have been with assembly members but she believes that “politics is getting in the way of making the right decisions.”

mortgage lending to these communities and to Black borrowers during the housing crisis, while other institutions backed off. These banks are willing to serve their communities and generally lend in greater shares to moderate- and low-income communities in ways that may protect diversity in these neighborhoods.”

Another financial service coming on offer this year will be for members of the African American sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA), Inc. The AKAs opened a For Members Only (FMO) Federal Credit Union, it was announced on Feb. 3.

The AKAs––the oldest Greek-lettered organization established by African American college-educated women––were granted a federal charter from the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). Their new FMO Federal Credit Union will offer share accounts, share draft accounts, online banking, direct deposit, debit cards, and personal loans to sorority members, their families,

See BANK continued on next page

Governor Kathy Hochul has already proposed lifting the state’s cap on charter schools regionally and filling vacant “zombie” schools. Mayor Eric Adams has publicly supported the move, provided the state has financial aid to cover the additional $1.3 billion a year it would cost the city to fully implement Hochul’s plan.

Assemblymember Brian Cunningham is firmly on the side of providing parents with as many options as possible to better educate children. With Hochul’s plan to build 800,000 units of new housing, he said, there should be infrastructure plans that include more schools to accommodate families who will potentially occupy those spaces.

“I think I’ve been pretty clear (in) saying that a woman has the right to make a decision whether or not she brings a child into the world, and she also gets to decide where she educates a child or the parents have that right,” Cunningham said at the rally.

Reportedly, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) is opposed to the mayor’s support of charter schools and his administration has faced backlash when co-locating charters within traditional public schools.

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

Parents, students, and advocates gather to demand more charter school options at City Hall park on Tues, March 7. (Ariama C. Long photo)

Other officers zoomed down the street on bicycles, making it even more difficult to leave. Protesters were encircled, trapped, and squashed together by police in the practice best known as kettling. A bullhorn blared warnings that the demonstration was in violation of an 8 p.m. curfew set by then-Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Emergency Executive Order No. 119.

The Sierra sisters said the officers involved were in the SRG. They also recalled that the officers began encircling them before 8 p.m.

They were soon connected to attorneys by National Lawyers Guild members and decided to spearhead the lawsuit.

“Members of this class action did not take any legal action after they were violated,” said Samira Sierra. “It’s not a coincidence that after they were extremely violated and terrorized on June 4, they did not take legal action. The majority of the people were Black and brown folks; the majority of these people are Bronx natives. And the majority of people live in the community, which is the poorest congressional district in the United States.”

A Department of Investigations (DOI) report corroborated the Sierra sisters’ recollection of the Mott Haven demonstrations, adding that mass arrests were made by the NYPD and enforced by “physical force against protesters, including striking them with batons.” The findings also allege the NYPD detained non-protesters such as legal observers, medical workers, and journalists at the rally, some of whom were ziptied and shoved onto the street.

So far, direct complaints against only three SRG officers involved in the Mott Haven protests have been substantiated by the CCRB. But this is by design, according to Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. In his testimony, he alleged officers made concentrated efforts to impede the watchdog’s probe by concealing their identities during the protests and delaying bodyworn camera footage. He also said he has personally witnessed and experienced abusive practices by NYPD officers at protests, including from members of the unit.

“Deploying the SRG to police protests has demonstrably resulted in unnecessary abuse and violence, and their presence should no longer be allowed at protests,” said Williams in his statement. “It is unsurprising that the SRG frequently uses excessive force, as they are a specialized unit trained to respond to terrorism and violent crime; over time, the NYPD has conflated terrorism and protest, leading to the deployment of officers and militarized gear to largely nonviolent demonstrations.”

An NYPD spokesperson responded with a statement calling the protests “a challenging moment” for the department and said lessons were learned from the handling of demonstrators.

“Two-and-a-half years after the protests

of 2020, much of the NYPD’s policies and training for policing large-scale demonstrations have been re-envisioned based on the findings of the department’s own, self-initiated analyses and on the recommendations from three outside agencies (that) carefully investigated that period,” said the police spokesperson.

Advocates from the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU)—a long-time critic of the SRG—are not convinced.

“The NYPD has taken no substantial steps to even take accountability and acknowledge the harm that has been done,” said NYCLU Organizer Isabelle Leyva. “We’ve had many conversations with protesters— hundreds of people have met with us to talk, even when we were thinking about what this campaign could be to disband this unit. The overwhelming feedback that we got is that there is no going back with the SRG and there is no moving forward with the SRG.”

“I don’t think we’ve seen anything from the NYPD thus far to say that there is a new approach or real reforms that have been made,” said NYCLU Assistant Policy Director Michael Sisitzky. “If anything, that doubled down on their defense of the SRG and its tactics, rather than acknowledge that there was a fundamental flaw in the very creation and implementation of this unit.”

NYCLU representatives added that the recent class action lawsuit is just one of the first legal dominos to fall. Other cases stemming from the NYPD’s handling of George Floyd demonstrations are still ongoing, including those seeking injunctive relief that would mandate the department drop certain policing practices.

“The biggest benefit to trying to achieve change through litigation is that if you get to the settlement table, you are—for the most part—directly talking to higher-up officials in the NYPD or in the mayor’s office,” said NYCLU Senior Staff Attorney Daniel Lambright. “And you are negotiating back and forth as to how those individuals will be making changes. In some sense, you cut through the City Council process where you try to subpoena the SRG to come—and they don’t come. It’s a more directed process.”

But those pending court battles reportedly served as an excuse note for the NYPD’s absence last Wednesday. The NYPD’s claims of a legal gag order stemming from those cases and preventing its participation at the hearing were reportedly disputed and refuted by Hell Gate NYC. Lambright confirmed with the Amsterdam News that no gag order exists for the NYPD in the NYCLU’s current lawsuit. Two previous attempts for a City Council oversight hearing about the SRG were also rebuffed by the department and subsequently delayed. As Wednesday showed, the third time was not the charm.

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

Petitioning

Continued from page 6

reforms to the criminal justice system, but housing and affordability seemed to be the main concern.

“This is literally sparking a movement to resuscitate and push life back into our community, so this can’t be politics as usual because politics has been seen as something very dirty,” said Salaam. “The truth of the matter is that…we deserve better. We need better, we’ve been wanting better. But the problem is that we’ve been getting the same thing consistently over the course of time.”

The Independent Neighborhood Democrats (IND) are supporting multiple City Council candidates, including Councilmembers Crystal Hudson in District 35 and Shahana Hanif in District 39. It’s only a few days in, but IND President Ilyssa Meyer has a whole squadron of volunteers standing under scaffolding and inside subway stations to churn out filled petitions, as well as at the political club she runs in Brooklyn. Some IND members have been around since the ’70s and have lived in their districts for more than 30 years. They tend to bring in a lot of signatures when canvassing, said Meyer.

That doesn’t discount the younger canvassers, who find innovative ways to connect with constituents all the time. Meyer said they are in the process of collaborat-

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and AKA employees who open accounts. In press releases, the sorority has claimed a membership of “355,000 members in 1,061 graduate and undergraduate chapters in the United States, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, Dubai, Germany, Japan, Liberia, South Africa, and South Korea.”

Establishing the FMO Federal Credit Union is one segment of the sorority’s 2022 through 2026 target initiatives. It falls under their “Build Our Economic Wealth” plan, which calls for “launching our most

ing with the Brooklyn Young Dems to host happy hour events to get younger voters more involved.

IND is also petitioning for lesserknown county wide races, with multiple judicial candidates for Municipal Court, Civil Court judgeships, and Surrogate’s Court judge. Their endorsements include women of color who are running for Civil Court judge: Betsy-Jean Jacques, Linda Wilson, Monique Holaman, and Marva Brown.

Meyer strives to be friendly and have a positive disposition, no matter how long getting signatures takes. “I was standing out on the avenue for Crystal Hudson this weekend and within an hour, I got 30 signatures, which means I probably asked [about] 130 people to sign,” she said. Meyer said volunteers are trained to keep a sharp eye out for duplicate signatures and check for registered voters in the proper party and district. At the end of the month, they aim to turn over all their petitions to a lawyer for a pre-review before turning them in for official certification by the deadline of May 1.

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

progressive and revolutionary economic initiatives this century.” The sorority said it “will further encourage and equip our members to place key strategies into action to build personal, organizational, and community economic wealth.”

NCUA Chairperson Todd M. Harper said in a statement: “This charter is…in keeping with AKA’s current initiatives to assist members in building economic wealth, promote social justice, and uplift communities, all of which are fundamental to the statutory mission of credit unions. Congratulations to AKA’s leadership for bringing this effort to fruition. I look forward to watching their credit union grow and thrive.”

PUBLIC NOTICE

Dated: Monday, March 6th 2023

MEETING OF BOARD

OF TRUSTEES

Pursuant to Section 104 Public Notice of the Open Meetings Law, and pursuant to Executive Order 202.1, this notice is to inform the public that the board of trustees of Democracy Prep New York School will hold a remote meeting by teleconference on

Religion & Spirituality

Thank you and goodbye to our magnificent Aunty Mildred McGee

Activist attorney Roger Wareham called the Amsterdam News to announce the death of his “exceptional” New York City community advocate and aunt, Mildred Emily (née Wareham) McGee.

“Aunty Mildred” was born at home to Samuel and Esther Wareham on June 29, 1927, the last of three children, in the village of Harlem at a time when African Americans were not allowed in Harlem Hospital. She was educated in Harlem and graduated from the High School of Music and Art, where she was an art major. She went on to the Parsons School of Design where she completed two years of the three-year designer program, only to be told that she “didn’t sew fast enough” and had to be let go. She went on to work at various jobs and learned to sew “quickly.”

In November of 1949, she married Hansel L. McGee, who became a New York State Supreme Court Justice.

In her early 20s, McGee taught sewing at the Inwood House for Unwed Mothers and was a school aide and crossing guard for the NYC Board of Education. She also worked as a pre-kindergarten assistant teacher and in a Narcotics Education Program at East Side House in the Bronx, a drug prevention program for teenagers.

McGee earned a bachelor of arts in histo-

ry, a master of science in education, and an advanced certificate in supervision and administration from Hunter College.

She taught for many years as a fourthgrade teacher at various schools in East Harlem and also taught reading and language arts during the summers. During this time, she took up art again, studying at various institutions. She exhibited and sold some of her works.

During her working years and in retirement, McGee traveled all over the world, including West Africa, the Asia Pacific region, Europe, the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, and Canada. She also traveled extensively in the United States.

McGee started her faith journey at Harlem’s St. James Presbyterian Church, where she was baptized, confirmed, and married. Her first position in the church was as a deacon at the age of 16, a position not traditionally held by a teenager or a woman at that time. She held many positions in the local church, such as Sunday School teacher, Sunday School superintendent, ruling elder, chair of the Worship Committee, member of the choir, and youth director, and wore many other “unofficial” hats.

She later held many committee positions in the NYC Presbytery, including serving on the General Council, Committee on Prep-

aration for Ministry, Committee on Representation, Committee on Ministry, and Presbyterian Judicial Committee.

She also graduated from the Certified Lay Pastor program at Auburn Theological Seminary, part of Union Seminary in Manhattan, and served as a commissioned lay pastor at Featherbed Lane Presbyterian Church in the Bronx.

During the pandemic, McGee was an active participant in a nonagenarian Presbyterian women’s group that met weekly on Zoom. One of her proudest moments as a verified lay pastor occurred when she performed the wedding of her granddaughter Delia and Leonard Davis.

McGee served on the Advisory Committee of the Kenneth Folkes Group Home in the Bronx, a home that was co-founded by her late husband. It was part of the former Edwin Guild Services for Children, where she served on the board and was honored for her exemplary service and devotion.

She was the past president of both the Parents Association of PS 77X and Barristers’ Wives of New York, and past vice president of the Parents’ Association of IS 145X. She also volunteered as the supervisor for the Youth Program in Concourse

Village in the Bronx.

Until her death, McGee served as a member of the Board of Trustees and served on the Education Committeeat the Harriet Tubman Charter School (HTCS) in the Bronx. HTCS was founded by her husband in the South Bronx in 1999 and opened in 2000.

She was also president of the Hansel and Mildred McGee Foundation, a scholarship program for Bronx high school seniors, started to commemorate the 50th wedding anniversary of the McGees.

She was predeceased by her husband, NYS Supreme Court Justice Hansel L. McGee; her brother, Alton Wareham; and her sister, Carmine Wareham. She is survived by her daughter Elizabeth McGee; son Leland McGee (Denise Elbeck); nephew Roger Wareham; nieces Lynn Howell and Leslie Jones; granddaughter Delia McGee Davis (Leonard); grandnephews Rahsaan Wareham (Julee), Kehinde Howell, and Azrael Howell (Donora); grandnieces Naima Davis (Eric) and Bryna Jones; Wanda Wareham, Payton Crossley, Harry Payne, Mark Payne, John Danavall (Linda), Kevin Lennon, Viola Gibson; and a host of great-grand nephews, cousins, and friends, all of whom she loved dearly.

Mildred McGee's family

Mildred McGee (Roger Wareham photos)

Rikers

Continued from page 12

[Correctional Health Services],” one of them said. “But he’s not dead.” Within two months from then, he was dead.

When I hear our mayor talk about people incarcerated at Rikers as “violent” or “bad,” I see an active effort to dehumanize others and make it easier for New Yorkers to look away from the 36 deaths in DOC custo-

Narrative

Continued from page 12

Demonstration Effect—that is, that news of bids for freedom in one territory would inspire or incite similar activity in other territories. The highest number of revolts or planned revolts by enslaved Africans in the Caribbean occurred during the tumultuous decade of the 1790s, which was when the people of St. Domingue were fighting for their freedom. Recognizing the importance of exerting mind control over the enslaved Africans,

Health in Harlem

Continued from page 16

question of why are we willing to say, ‘Let’s reimagine how everything works to avoid these pandemic deaths but not to avoid the deaths that happen to Black Americans in the ordinary

dy over the past two years. My son was a good person. He refused to be that “criminal” they expected him to be, even in a jail floating in the Long Island Sound.

Recently, I saw the mayor show some kindness to asylum seekers when he went to spend a night with them at the homeless shelter at the marina. Maybe it was mostly a press stunt, but I felt like by doing that, he was recognizing them as human beings at a basic level.

As I saw that, my first thought was, Why

the British in 1807 published what became known as the Slave Bible. The actual title was “Parts of the Holy Bible, selected for the use of the Negro Slaves, in the British West-India Islands,” which coincided with the promulgation of the Act of Parliament abolishing the slave trade, with the goal of convincing enslaved Africans that they should meekly accept their lot and await their redemption in the afterlife. This attempt clearly didn’t work because three of the biggest revolts by enslaved Africans in the British colonies— indeed, in the entire American continent—

course of things that are actually at the same level.’...It’s actually a series of choices that we make.”

Abyssinian Deacon Susan Miles attended “first because I have health concerns that would trigger me to become even sicker if I acquired COVID, so that’s first and foremost. Second, I need to keep my

don’t you get a pillow and go spend the night at Rikers? The mayor is selectively empathizing, like it’s acceptable to empathize with immigrants but not someone we call a criminal, even if they haven’t been convicted of anything. That’s what Rikers and the Boat are designed to do: make us think that some people deserve to be sent far away, forgotten, and treated with indifference and cruelty.

Just as incarcerated people need empathy, our communities most affected by incarceration need support. The mayor frequently

occurred after this bible was introduced. Ironically, two of those three revolts were instigated and led by a preacher or deacon. Clearly, they interpreted the heavily truncated bible differently from what the enslavers had anticipated.

With the end of slavery, the colonial ruling classes and their acolytes moved to erase the story of those bids for freedom from the narrative as a means of continuing to exert mind control over the majority population, instilling in our minds the notion that we are only free because of their good intentions.

family safe. I need to keep my community safe...People...hear all types of stories [historically] about vaccinations, so I think it’s extremely important that we listen to the science—we’re educated now—and that we get the care and vaccinations that we need.” Thompson vowed that the work

says, “If you don’t educate, you will incarcerate,” and I agree. Jail starts with the lack of education, but so far, he’s chosen to cut funding for education, jobs, and housing, but keep the dollars flowing for policing and punishment. We need to flip this script, go upstream, and invest in communities, instead of institutions of death like the one that killed my son.

Lezandre Khadu is an advocate and a member of Freedom Agenda, one of the organizations leading the Campaign to Close Rikers.

As I am at pains to explain in the free online course, Freedom Fighters of the Caribbean, this was most definitely not the case. It is our responsibility to ensure that we tell our story from our perspective, because when we allow others to write the narrative, their interpretation of the events that make up our past may be influenced by their biases, whether implicit or conscious.

Desmond Bollers presents Freedom Fighters of the Caribbean, found at https://www. facebook.com/desmondbollers2 or https:// www.caribfree.net/.

will continue. “We talk to people.

What do you want to hear about?

What do you want us to do for you?

Then I go and I get the doctors to do it. You want a lecture on mental health? You want a lecture on eye health? Hearing? We do that. We’ve done vision. You name it. Cancer programs. The list is long, so we try

to tackle it as best we can. That’s what we’re supposed to be doing.” For additional resources about COVID-19, visit www1.nyc.gov/site/ coronavirus/index.page or call 311. COVID-19 testing, masks, and vaccination resources can also be accessed on the AmNews COVID-19 page: www.amsterdamnews.com/covid/.

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This is to announce that the next meeting of the Harlem Children's Zone Promise Academy I Charter School Board of Trustees will occur in person on Wednesday, March 15th, 2023, at 7:30 am. The meeting will transpire at 245 West 129th St, NY, NY.

101 LEGAL NOTICES

This is to announce that the next meeting of the Harlem Children's Zone Promise Academy II Charter School Board of Trustees will occur in person on Wednesday, March 15th, 2023, at 7:30 am. The meeting will transpire at 245 West 129th St, NY, NY.

101 LEGAL NOTICES

No tice is hereby give n that an On-Premises Liquor License for beer, wine and spirits has been applied for by the undersigned to permit the sa le of beer, wine and spirits at retail rates for on-premises consumption (Hotel) at Tempo by Hilton Times Square locate d at 1568 Broadway, New York, NY 10036 unde r the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law Times Square Hotel Op erating Le ssee, LLC and Tempo Ho tel Management LLC.

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF NEW YORK

CRYSTAL UP! LLC filed Arts of Org. with the SSNY on 12/02/2022. Office loca tion: One Commerce Plaza, 99 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12231, New York County.

SSNY has be en designated as agent of the LLC upon wh om process against it may be served and shall mail process to: Mary Ternovsky, 422 E. 72nd St., Apt 37C, NY, NY, 10027. Purpose: Any lawful activity

No tice of Fo rmation of AT-

LANTIC AVENUE GP LLC Arts of Org. file d with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/31/23. Office lo cation: NY Co un ty Prin c. office of LLC: 7 Penn Plaza, Ste. 600, NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon wh om process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr of its princ. office Purpose: Any lawful activity

INDEX NO. 8 50232/2022

Plaintiff designates NEW YORK as BUT SOLELY AS OWNER TRUSTEE FOR RCF 2 ACQUISITION TRUST, the place of trial situ s of the real property

U.S. BANK TRUST NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, NOT IN ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY

Plaintiff,

SUPPLEMENTAL SUMMONS vs

Mortgaged Premises:

AYRIN WIDJAJA A/K/A AYRIN POOR, if living, and if she/he be dead, any and all persons 50 PINE STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10005 un known to plaintiff, claiming, or wh o may claim to have an interest in, or general or specific Block: 41, Lot: 1015 lien upon the real property de scribed in this action; such unknown persons being he rein generally described and intended to be included in the following designation, namely: the wife, widow, husband, widower, heirs at law, next of kin, descendants, executors, admin istrators, de visees, legatees, creditors, trustees, committees, lienors, and assignees of such deceased, an y and all persons deriving interest in or lien up on, or title to said real property by, through or under them, or either of them, and their resp ective wives, widows, husbands, widowers, heirs at law, next of kin, descendants, executors, ad ministrators , devisees, legat ees, creditors, trustees, committees, lienors an d assigns, all of whom and whose na mes, except as stated, are unknown to plaintiff; BOARD OF MANAGERS OF 50 PINE STREET CONDOMINIUM; NEW YORK CITY PARKING VIOLATIONS BUREAU; NEW YORK CITY ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL BOARD; NEW YORK CITY TRANSIT ADJUDICATION BUREAU, THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK; UNITED STATES OF AMERICA; ADAM REDICH; MELISSA SILVERWOOD,

"JOHN DOE #3" thro ugh "JOHN DOE #12," the last ten names being fictitious and unknown to plaintiff, the persons or parties intended be ing the tenants, occupants, pe rsons or corporations, if an y, having or claiming an interest in or lien upon the premises, described in the complaint, De fendants.

To the above named De fendants

YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to answer the Complaint in the above entitled action and to serve a copy of your Answer on the plaintiff?s attorney within twenty (20) days of the service of this Summons, exclusive of the day of service, or within th irty (30) days after service of the same is complete where service is made in any manner other th an by personal delivery within the State. The United States of America, if designated as a defendant in this action, ma y answer or appear with in sixty (60) days of service. Your failure to a ppear or to answer will result in a judgment against you by default fo r the relief demande d in the Complaint In the event that a deficienc y balance remain s from the sale proceeds, a judgment ma y be entered against you.

NOTICE OF NATUR E OF ACTION AND RELIEF SOUGHT

TH E OBJECT of the above caption action is to forecl ose a Mortgage to se cure the sum of $1,000,000.00 and interest, recorded on March 28, 2006, in CR FN 20060 001 71967, of the Public R ecords of NEW YORK County, New York., covering premises known as 50 PINE STREET, NEW YORK, N Y 10005. The relief sought in the within action is a final judgment directing th e sale of the premises described above to sat isfy the debt secured by the Mortgage described above.

NEW YORK County is designated as the place of trial because the real property aff ected by this action is located in said county

NOTICE

YOU ARE IN DANGER OF LOSING YOUR HOME

If you do not respond to this summons and complaint by servi ng a copy of the answer on the attorney for the mortgage company who filed this foreclosure proceeding against you a nd filing the answer with the court, a default judgment may be entered and you can lose your home.

Spea k to an attorney or go to the court where your case is pending for further information on how to answer the summons and protect your property.

Sending a payment to the mortgage company will not stop the forecl osure action.

YOU MUST RESPOND BY SERVING A COPY OF THE ANSWER ON THE ATTORNEY FOR THE PLAINTIFF (MORTGAGE COMPANY) AND FILING THE AN SWER WITH THE COURT

Da ted: February 17, 2023

ROBERTSON, ANSCHUTZ, SCHNEID, CRANE & PARTNERS, PLLC Attorney for Plaintiff Matthew Rothstein, Esq. 900 Me rchants Concourse, Suite 310 Westbury, NY 11590 516-280-7675

Under this agreement rates are subject to change with 30 days notice. In the event of a cancellation before schedule completion, I understand that the rate charged will be based upon the rate for the number of insertions used.

Under this agreement rates are subject to change with 30 days notice. event of a cancellation before schedule completion, I understand that rate charged will be based upon the rate for the number of insertions

SUPPLEMENTAL SUMMONS

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF NEW YORK HILTON RESORTS CORPORATION, Plaintiff, -aga in st- FOLAYEMI ANIFOWOSHE, if living, and if they be dead, an y and all persons unknown to Plaintiff, claiming, or who may claim to have an interest in, or generally or specific lien upon the real property described in this action; such unknown perso ns being herein generally described and intended to be in cluded in the fo llowing desig nation, namely: the wife, widow, hu sband, widower, heirs-at-law, next of kin, de scendants, executors, administrators, devisee s, legatee s, creditors, trustees, committees, lienors and assig nees of such de ceased, any and all persons deriving interest in or lien upon, or title to said real property by, th rough or u nder them, or either of them, and their respective wives, wido ws, husbands, widowers, heirs-at-law, next of kin, descendants, executors, administrators, devisees, le gatees, cred itors, trustees, committees, lienors and a ssigns, all of whom and wh ose names, except as stated, are unknown to Plaintiff, Defendants. INDEX NO.: 850029/2020 FILED: February 16, 2023

TO THE ABOVE NAMED DEFENDANTS:

YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to an swer the comp laint in this action, and to serve a copy of yo ur answer, or, if t he complaint is not served with th is summons, to serve a no tice of appearance on the Plaintiff's attorney with in 20 days after the service of this summons, exclusive of the day of service or within 30 days after comp letion of service where service is made in any other manner than by personal delivery with in the State. In case of your failure to appear or answer, judgment will be taken against you by de fault for the relief demanded in the complaint.

TO THE ABOVE NAMED DEFENDANTS: The foregoing Summons is served upon you by p ublication pursuant an Order of the Hon. FRANCIS A. KAHN, III, a Justice of the Supreme Court, New Yo rk County, dated January 24, 2023 and entered January 31, 2023

NOTICE OF NATURE OF ACTION AND RELIEF SOUGHT

THE OBJECT of the above captioned action is to foreclose a Timeshare Mortgage in the amount of $28,125.00, re corded in Ne w York County Clerk's Office on August 14, 2014, in CRFN: 2014000 27 1605 of Mo rtgages covering the 5,000/28,402,100 undivided tenant in common in terest in the Timeshare Unit ident ified as HNY CLUB SUITES Phase I which comprise s a portion of the NYH Cond ominiu m at th e premises also referred to as the New York Hilton, 1335 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 1 0019-6012

The relief sought in the within action is a fina l Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale directing the sa le of the 5,000/28,402,100 undivided tenant in common interest in th e Co nd ominium Un it known as the Timeshare Unit identified as HNY CLUB SUITES Phase I which comprises a portion of the NYH Co ndominium at the premises also referred to as the Ne w York Hilton, described a bove to satisfy the debt secured by the Mortgage.

Ne w York County is desig nated as the place of trial on th e basis of the fact that the real property affected by this action is located wholly within said County.

Da ted: Westbury, New York October 28, 2022 Maria Sideris, Esq. DRUCKMAN LAW GROUP PLLC Attorneys for Plaintiff 242 Drexel Avenue Westbury, NY 1 1590 (516) 87 6-0800 WE AR E ATTEMPTING TO COLLECT A DEBT AND ANY INFORMATION OBTAIN ED WILL BE U SED FOR TH AT PURPOSE

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF NEW YORK

INTERAUDI BANK, Plaintiff, -against- SOHO 1602 OWNER LLC, BOARD OF MANAGERS OF TRUMP SOHO HOTEL CONDOMINIUM NEW YORK, TRUMP INTERNATIONAL HOTELS MANAGEMENT LLC, NEW YORK CITY ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL BOARD, and JOHN DOE NOS. 1-5, Defendants. PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that pursuant to a Judgment of Fo reclosure and Sale dated September 6, 2022 and entered on September 9, 2022, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at pu blic auction at the New York County Courthouse located on the portico at 60 Centre Street, New York, NY on March 29th, 2023 at 2:15 p.m. the following premises identified as Block: 491 and Lot: 1276, located in the premises identified as Block 491 Lot: 36 and Block: 491 Lot: 34, situ ate, lying and being in the Borough of Ma nha ttan, City, County of Ne w York, known as Unit No 1602 in the condomin ium kn own as "Spring Street Condominium f/k/a Trump SoHo Hotel Condominium" toge ther with an undivided 0.1315% interest in the common elements, said premises, Block: 491 and Lot: 1276, to be sold in one parcel. All bidd ers must wear a face mask/shield at all times and social distancing must be observed by all bidders at all times. Bidders who do not comply with the face mask and/or the social distancing mandate will be removed from the auction. Sa id premises known as 246 SPRING STREET, UNIT 1602, NEW YORK, NY

Approximate amount of lien is $376,915.68 plus atto rney's fees of $18,287.45, intere st and co sts. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment an d Terms of Sale

Index No. 850039/20 22

ALLISON FURMAN, ESQ., Referee

Do na ld Pearce

Attorney for Plaintiff 260 Madison Avenue, 17 th Floor

Ne w York, NY 10016

(212) 221-8733

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

INDEX NO 850377/2015 COUNTY OF NEW YORK

BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON TRUST COMPANY,

Plaintiff designates NEW YORK as N.A. AS TRUSTEE FOR MORTGAGE ASSETS the place of trial situs of the real property MANAGEMENT SERIES I TRUST,

Plaintiff, SUPPLEMENTAL SUMMONS

vs Mortgaged Premises: 340 WEST 57TH STREET, UNIT 9-E PUBLIC ADMINISTRATOR OF NEW YORK AS DISTRIBUTEE NEW YORK, NY 10019 OF THE ESTATE OF MARIAN S. O'HARA; UNKNOWN HEIRS AND DISTIRBUTEES OF THE ESTATE OF MARIAN S. O'HARA, Block: 1047 , Lot: 1096 an y and all persons unknown to plaintiff, claiming, or who may claim to have an interest in, or general or specific lien upon the real property de scribed in this action; such unknown persons be ing herein gen erally described and intended to be included in the following designation, namely: the wife, widow, husband, widower, he irs at law, next of kin, descendants, executors, administrators, devisees, legat ees, creditors, trustees, committees, lienors, and a ssignees of such deceased, any and all persons deriving interest in or lien upon, or title to sa id real property by, through or under them, or either of them, and their respective wives, widows, husbands, widowers, heirs at law, next of kin, descendants, executors, ad ministrators , devisees, legat ees, creditors, trustees, committees, lienors and assigns, all of whom and whose names, except as stated, are unknown to plaintiff; BOARD OF MANAGERS OF THE PARC VENDOME CONDOMINIUM; SECRETARY OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT; NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF TAXATION AND FINANCE; UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Defendant(s), _______________________________________X

TO: THE ABOVE NAMED DEFENDANT(S)

YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to answer the Complaint in the above entitled action and to serve a copy of your Answer on the plaintiff's attorney within twenty (20) days of the service of th is Summons, e xclusive of th e day of service, or within thirty (30) days after service of the same is complete where service is made in any ma nner other than by personal delivery within the State. The United States of America, if designated as a defendant in this action, may answer or ap pear with in sixty (60) days of service. Your failure to appear or to answer will result in a judgmen t against you by defau lt for the relief demanded in the Complaint In the event that a deficienc y balance remain s from the sale proceeds, a judgment ma y be entered against you.

NOTICE OF NATURE OF ACTION AND RELIEF SOUGHT

THE OBJECT of the above caption action is to foreclose a Mortgage to se cure the sum of $625,500.00 and interest, recorded on February 24, 2009, in CRFN 200 9000055488, of the Public Records of NEW YORK County, New York., covering premises known as 340 W EST 57TH STREET, UNIT 9-E, NEW YORK, NY 10019.

The relief sought in the within action is a final judgment directing the sale of the premises described above to satisfy the debt secured by the Mortgage described above. NEW YORK County is designated as the place of trial because the real property af fected by this action is located in said county.

NOTICE

YOU ARE IN DANGER OF LOSING YOUR HOME

If you do not respond to this summons and complaint by serving a copy of the answer on the attorney for the mortgage company who f iled this foreclosure proceeding against you and filing the answer with the court, a default judgment may be entered and you can lose your home

Spea k to an attorney or go to the court where your case is pending for further information on how to answer the summons and protect your property

Sending a payment to the mortgage company will not stop the forecl osure action.

YOU MU ST R ESPOND BY SERVING A COPY OF TH E ANSWER ON TH E ATTORNEY FOR THE PLAINTIFF (MORTGAGE COMPANY) AND FILING THE ANSWER WITH THE COURT

Da ted: January 25, 2023

SUPREME COURT-NEW YORK COUNTY- HILTON RESORTS CORP., Pltf v. STANLEY WILLIAMS, JULIA F. WILLIAMS, BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE HNY CLUB SUITES OWNERS ASSOCIATION, INC., NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE PARKING VIOLATIONS BUREAU, Deft. - Inde x #850135/2021 Pursua nt to Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale da ted June 14, 2022, I will sell at pu blic au ction Outside the Portico of th e NY County Courthouse, 60 Ce ntre Street, NY, NY on We dnesday, March 15, 2023, at 2:15 pm, a fractiona l interest of 5,000/28,402,100 in the timeshare known as HNY Club Suites located at 1335 Avenue of the Americas, in the County of NY, State of NY Approx imate amount of judgment is $6,700.96 plus costs and intere st as of August 26, 2021. So ld subject to terms and condition s of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale which includes a nnual maintenance fees and charges Hayley Greenberg, Esq., Referee. Cruser, Mitche ll, Novitz, Sanchez, Gaston, & Zimet LLP, Attys. for Pltf., 341 Conklin Street, Farmingdale, NY

ROBERTSON, ANSCHUTZ, SCHNEID, CRANE & PARTNERS, PLLC Attorney for Plaintiff Ma tthew Rothstein, Esq. 900 Merchants Concourse, Suite 310 Westbu ry, NY 11590 516-280-7675

SUPREME COURT-NEW YORK COUNTY- HILTON RESORTS CORP., Pltf. v. AILEEN E. WARREN, ROBERT W. WARREN, BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF 57TH STREET VACATION OWNERS ASSOCIATION, INC., Defts - Inde x #850181 /2021. Pursuant to Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated Nove mber 21, 2022, I will sell at public auction Outside the Portico of the NY County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, NY, NY on Wednesday, Ma rch 15 , 2023, at 2:15 pm, a fractional interest of 0.009864 00000% in the time share known as 57th Street Vacation Suites located at 102 We st 57th Street, in the County of NY, State of NY. Approximate amount of judgment is $20,07 9.37 plus costs and interest as of January 17, 202 2. Sold subject to terms and cond itions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale which includes a nnual maintenance fees and charges Jerr y Merola, Esq., Referee. Cruser, Mitchell, Novitz, Sanchez, Gaston, & Zimet LLP, Attys. for Pltf., 341 Conklin Street, Farmingd ale, NY

NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF NEW YORK Morgan Stan ley Private Bank, National Associatio n, Plaintiff AGAINST Joseph J. Ceccarelli, III aka Jos eph J. Ceccarelli; Susan K. Lagholz aka Susan L. Ceccarelli aka Su san Langholz Ceccarelli; et al., Defendant(s) Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale du ly entered Ap ril 29, 2021 I, the undersigned Refe ree will sell at public auction at the Portico of the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre St, New York, NY 10007 on April 12, 2023 at 2:15 PM, premises known as 200 Ea st 32nd Street, New York City, NY 10016. All th at certain plot piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements erecte d, situate, lyi ng and being in the Boro ugh of Manhattan, County, City and State of NY, Block 912 Lot 1165. Approximate amount of judgmen t $1,6 76,660.05 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index# 850018/2017. The auction will be con ducte d pursuant to the COVID-19 Po licies Concerning Public Au ctions of Foreclosed Property established by the First Judicial District Arthur Greig, Esq., Referee LOGS Lega l Group LLP f/k/a Shapiro , DiCaro & Barak, LLC Attorn ey(s) for the Plaintiff 175 Mile Cro ssing Boulevard Rochester, Ne w York 1462 4 (877) 430-4792

Dated: December 7, 20 22 74355

SUPREME COURT - COUNTY OF NEW YORK

CAPITAL ONE, N.A., Plaintiff -against- MAJESTIC HOLDINGS (USA) LLC, THE BOARD OF MANAGERS OF CIPRIANI CLUB HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION A/K/A THE BOARD OF MANAGERS OF CIPRIANI RESIDENCE AT 55 WALL CONDOMINIUM, Defendant(s). Pu rsuant to a ju dgment of foreclosure and sale dated October 7, 2022 a nd entered on October 7, 20 22, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at pub lic au ction on the portico of th e New York Coun ty Courthouse located at 60 Centre Stree t, New York, NY on Ma rch 29, 2023 at 2:15 p.m. premises situate, lying and being in the borough of Manhattan, County of New York, City and State of New York, bounded and described as 55 Wall Street, Unit 714 , New York, New York being the same property conveyed by 55 Wall Associates LLC to Majestic Hold ings (USA), LLC and recorded on 11 -24-2006 under CRFN 20060 00 651956

All Bidders must wear a face mask/shield at all time s and social distancing must be observed by all bidders at all times. Bidders who do not comply with the face mask and/or th e social distancing mandat e will be removed from the auction. Said premises known as 55 WALL STREET, NEW YORK, NY

Approximate amount of lien $960,250.96 plus interest and costs

Premises will be so ld subject to provisions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale

Index Number 850024/2015

JOSEPH BUONO, ESQ., Refe ree

MENASHE AND LAPA LLP, ATTORNEY(S) FOR PLAINTIFF

400 RELLA BLVD., SUITE 19 0, SUFFERN, NY 10901

DATED: February 16, 2 023

Notice is hereby give n that a license, serial #13587 19 for beer & wine has been applied for by the undersigned to sell beer & wine at retail in a restaurant unde r the ABC Law at 80 Nassau St., NYC 10038 for on -premise s consumption; Me Kong 88 Inc.

RHG Chelsea LLC filed Arts of Org. with the SSNY on 01/12/2023. Office: New York Co un ty SSNY ha s been designat ed as a gent of the LL C upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail to: Gary Wallach, 2 Renwich St., NY, NY, 10013. Purpose: an y lawful act.

SUPREME COURT-NEW YORK COUNTY- HILTON RESORTS CORP., Pltf. v. GARY D. LOWER, JESSICA M. LOWER, Defts.- Index #850259/20 21 Pu rsuant to Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale da ted December 22, 2022, I will se ll at public au ction Outside the Portico of the NY County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, NY, NY on Monday, March 20, 2023, at 2:15 pm, a 0.00986400000% tenant in common interest in the timeshare kn own as 57th Street Va cation Suites located at 102 W. 57th Stre et, in the County of NY, State of NY Approximate amount of judgment is $14,673.01 plus costs and inte rest as of May 17, 2022. Sold subject to terms and condition s of filed Judgmen t and Terms of Sale which includes annual ma intenance fees and charges Hayley Greenberg, Esq., Referee. Cruser, Mitche ll, No vitz, Sanchez, Gaston, & Zimet LLP, Attys. for Pltf., 341 Conklin Street, Farmingda le, NY

No tice of Qualification of MAROON PEAK MANAGEMENT LLC Appl for Auth filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/10/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 06/01/22. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon wh om process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr of LLC: CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmingt on, DE 19808. Cert of Form. filed with DE Secy of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity

No tice of Formation of NYPC CROWN, LLC Arts of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/26/23. Office location: NY County. SSNY de signated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Purpo se: Any lawful activity

No tice of Qualification of OTCex Derivatives Hold ing LLC Appl for Auth filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/24/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in De laware (DE) on 03/07/22. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upo n whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Co rporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 122072543. DE addr of LLC: 251 Little Fa lls Dr., Wilmin gton, DE 19808. Cert. of Form filed with DE Secy of State, 401 Federal St - Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity

No tice of Qualification of JLT HOLDINGS, LLC Appl for Auth filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/06/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Virginia (VA) on 01/29 /19. NYS fictitious name: JLT HOLDINGS 197 1 LLC SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. VA addr of LLC: 13511 Split Creek Dr., Ch ester, VA 23831. Cert of Form. filed with State Corp Commission, 1300 E. Main St., Richmond, VA 23219-3630. Purpose: Any lawful activity

Adalys Trains LLC filed Arts of Org. with the SSNY on 1/10/2023. Office: NY County SSNY ha s been de signated as agent of the LLC upo n wh om process against it may be served and shall mail process to : 530 East 88th St., #1B, New York, NY, 10128

Purpose: any lawful act.

No tice of Qualification of ASTON 41C LLC Appl for Auth filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/14/22. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in New Jersey (NJ) on 08/19/22. Princ. office of LLC: Ira Z. Kevelson, 410 Ce ntral Park West, #3A, NY, NY 10025. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon wh om process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Irina Stanovitch, 7 Berkley Pl., Co lts Neck, NJ 07722. NJ addr of LLC: 7 Berkle y Pl., Co lts Neck, NJ 07722. Cert of Form filed with Acting State Treasurer, 33 W. State St., Fifth Fl., Trenton, NJ 08646. Purpose: Any lawful activity

No tice of Qualification of energyRe Services, LLC Appl for Auth filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/15/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in De laware (DE) on 11/04/22. Princ. o ffice of LLC: 30 Hu dson Yards, NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corp oratio n Service Co (CSC), 80 State St., Alban y, NY 12207-2543. DE addr of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 1 9808. Cert of Form filed with DE Secy of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 40 1 Federal St - Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19 901. Purpose: Any lawful activity

RADER COMMUNICATIONS

LLC, Arts of Org. filed with the SSNY on 11/28/2022. Office loc: NY County. SSNY ha s been designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served & sh all mail process to: 250 West 94th St., Suite 15D, NY, NY 1002 5. Purpo se: Any Lawful Purpose.

RHG Time Square LLC file d Arts of Org. with the SSNY on 01/12/2023. Office: New York County. SSNY has been de signated as a gent of th e LLC upo n whom process against it may be served and shall mail to: Gary Wallach, 2 Re nwich St., NY, NY, 10013

Purpose: any lawful act.

No tice of Formation of THE DIGGING CREW LLC Arts of Org. filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/27/23. Office lo cation: NY Co un ty SSNY de signated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Sam Karp, 279 Crown St., New Haven, CT 06511. Purpose: Any lawful activity

TICKET ME PINK LLC Arts of Org. filed with the SSNY on 02/13/23. Office : New York County. SSNY de signated as agent of the LLC upo n wh om process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, 178 Duane Street, 3rd Floor, Ne w York, NY 10013. Purpo se: Any lawful purpose.

Un ited Laundre LLC filed Arts of Org. with the SSNY on 11/16/2022. Office location: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agen t of the LL C upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: 2320 Frederick Douglass Blvd ., Ne w York, NY, 100 27 Purpo se: Any lawful activity

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MERCER CM, LLC, Arts of Org. filed with the SSNY on 12/09/2022. Office loc: Bronx Co un ty SSNY ha s been designat ed as agent up on wh om 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 Purp ose.

Formation of NORTHERN STANDARD CONSULTING, LLC filed with the Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 2/17/2023. Office loc.: NY

Co un ty SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. The address SSNY shall mail process to 517 W. 147th St., Apt. 32, New York, NY 10031. Purpose: Any lawful activity

CHRISTIAN G CAROLLO MANAGEMENT, LLC filed Arts of Org. with th e Sect'y of State of NY (SSNY) on 1/6/2023. Office: NY County. SSNY has be en designated as agent of the LLC upon wh om process against it may be served and shall mail process to: c/o The LLC, 12 Ash Pl., Huntin gton, NY, 11743. Purpose: any lawful act.

Guangstar LLC filed Arts of Org. with the SSNY on 1/17/2023. Office loca tion: NY County. SSNY has been de signated as a gent of th e LLC upo n whom process against it may be served and shall mail to: 307 W. 111th St., Apt. 2R, NY, NY, 10026. Purpo se: 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, Ne w York, NY 10011. Purpo se: Any lawful activity

Good Kid En tertainment LLC Arts of Org. filed with SSNY on 10/12/2022. Office Loc: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served against it & shall mail to: Omar Diongue, 233 West 111th St., Apt. 3C, NY, NY 10026 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 Co rporate Service Bureau Inc., 283 Wash ington Ave., Albany, NY 12206. Purpose: Any lawful activity

KLM Advisory, LLC filed Arts of Org. with the SSNY on 1/15/2023. Office loca tion: NY County. SSNY has been de signated as a gent of th e LLC upo n whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: KLM Advisory, LLC, 64 East 94th St., #6F, NY, NY, 10128. Purpo se: Any lawful act.

No tice is hereby give n that an On-Premises Liquor License for beer, wine and spirits has been applied for by the undersigned to permit the sa le of beer, wine and spirits at retail rates for on-premises consumption (Movie Theater and Re staurant) at LOOK Dine-In Cinemas located at 657 West 57th Street, New Yo rk, NY 10019 under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law LOOK Cinemas V, LLC

UTOPIAN COLLECTIVE LLC filed Arts of Org. with the SSNY on 11/11/20 22 Office location: NY County. SSNY ha s been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served and sh all mail process to: Elitia Mattox, 19 90 Lexington Ave., Ap t. 3K, New York, Ne w York, 10035. Purpose: Any lawful activity

No tice of Formation of DD ATLANTIC AVENUE LLC Arts of Org. file d with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/31/23. Office lo cation: NY Co un ty Prin c. office of LLC: 7 Penn Plaza, Ste. 600, NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon wh om process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the Corporation at the princ. office of the LLC Purpo se: Any lawful activity

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Nigeria election

Continued from page 2

a Nigerian-based political activist and former deputy national publicity secretary of the APC. “His words and his promises mean nothing. He has started again by promising free and fair governorship and State Assembly elections but Nigerians are no fools because they know he will do exactly the opposite. Prof. Yakubu has shown himself to be a practical disgrace to Nigeria and has brought shame, disgrace, and embarrassment to Nigerians in the global community.”

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He made these remarks while calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the chair of INEC. “The failed February 25, 2023 voting exercise brought grim repercussions. Before February 25, 2023, the excitement within the youth population was significant, reaching a record-breaking voter registration of over 12 million. However, after the February 25, 2023, exercise, the excitement waned and turned into apathy, distrust, and anger,” said Frank.

“The 2023 general elections were expected to usher in a much more improved and digitized electoral process in Nigeria,” said Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani), chair of the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), who was an election observer in the February 25, 2023, presidential elections. “It is in this regard that INEC received an unprecedented whopping sum of 355 billion Naira ($473 million) to conduct a credible election. Despite this humongous financial commitment, and the incredible support received from the international community and civil society organizations, INEC failed to deliver on a straightforward mandate of meeting the expectations of Nigerians.”

Olisa Ezea, a prominent youth leader based in Lagos State, the commercial capital of Nigeria, who heads the Eastern Nigeria Youths Association [ENYA], told the Amsterdam News that this election was his first, like millions of other youth voters who participated in the 2023 election for the first time. He said, like other youths, he was angered by the process and conduct of the election after having encouraged his members to actively participate in the process. “I will never repeat such a mistake. Our votes don’t count in this country. With fraudulent elections like this, they are wishing for anarchy,” he said.

This new development comes against an already divided Nigeria that has been managing to heal the wounds from past religious and tribal clashes between regions in the country. In the almost eight years of Buhari’s administration, Nigeria witnessed the bloodiest period since the Nigerian military invasion of Biafra in July of 1967, where 3 million people were reported dead in two and half years. The Buhari years reopened wounds and fault-lines. Fulani militia and other tribal agitators such as the Eastern Security Network (ESN) and the Odudua movement were activated and operational.

Managers of the Nigeria electoral process find themselves at a sensitive juncture where the fear of ethnic agitations and religious terrorism has become a concern.

Firebrand ethnic organizations have already joined forces. Two of the major apex socio-cultural organizations in Nigeria—the Ohanaeze Youth Council under the leadership of Comrade Igboayaka and the Yoruba group,

Afenifere, under the leadership Pa Ayo Adebanjo—have aligned to reject the presidential election results. They refused to recognize Tinubu, the declared winner, as president-elect.

Igboayaka urged the chair of INEC to tell Nigerians about the deal he struck with the APC and its presidential candidate, Tinubu.

“The fraudulent election conducted by Prof. Mahmood under the watch of President Buhari is an invitation to anarchy. It is our believe [sic] that Prof. Mahmood deliberately caused the malfunctioning of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and stopped the transmission of results in order to perfect his dirty deal with Bola Tinubu,” said Igboayaka.

Published reports indicate the INEC chair had knowledge of what transpired in the failed election. During the build-up to the presidential election, the INEC chair transferred a certain Chidi Nwafor out of the INEC headquarters in Abuja and reassigned him to a desk as an administrative assistant at an office in a rural part of Nigeria.

Nwafor is the IT expert credited as the developer of the BVAS used by INEC to accredit voters and upload results to the INEC web portal. His alleged refusal to reprogram the BVAS to compromise the presidential elections was his offense. Adding gravitas, Femi Odubiyi, a former commissioner of Science and Technology to Tinubu while he was governor of Lagos State, was used to replace Nwafor. Odubiyu took over the ICT facility in INEC and became responsible for jamming the network that halted transmission of the presidential election results.

Some religious leaders have called for calm.

Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, the sultan of Sokoto State and chair of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, appealed to presidential candidates who lost to accept the outcome of the February elections in good faith and to encourage and preach peace and stability among their supporters. He asked that politicians stop any acts that could disrupt peace among the people of Nigeria. Also calling for calm was Adekunle Thomas, pastor of Jesus Palace Church in Ilorin, Kwara State. He advised politicians to embrace peace before the March 11 elections. “Whatever may be the outcome of the forthcoming election, let us embrace peace and not instigate any violence by our actions or utterances. Nigeria’s unity should be the priority. Say no to violence and embrace peace. Politics is not a do-or-die affair. No need to shed blood because of any politician. We can only vote and pray for a better Nigeria after the election.”

(Ikenna Ellis-Ezenekwe photo)

The Mets and Yankees balance youth and experience

By RASHID MCDONALD

Special to the AmNews

Major League Baseball’s winter hot stove season, when trades and signings lay the foundation for teams’ aspirations, was sizzling for the Yankees and Mets. Completing record-breaking and impactful deals for the likes of Aaron Judge (Yankees) and Justin Verlander (Mets) also caused expectations to go up.

The MLB is now a little over two weeks into its spring training games, and questions remain for the two New York franchises that haven’t won a World Series title for a collective 51 years—37 for the Mets, who last won in 1986, and 14 for the Yankees, whose last World Series title was in 2009. Both are trying to balance youth and experience in what many followers view as a championship-or-bust season. They were in the postseason last year and have added, through trades and free agency,

players that can help them reach their ultimate goal.

When Steve Cohen became the Mets’ majority owner in November 2020, he said this at his introductory presser: “One team wins the World Series every year, so that’s a pretty high bar. But if I don’t win a World Series in the next three to five years—I would like to make it sooner—then obviously I would consider that slightly disappointing. I’m not in this to be mediocre. I want something great.”

To accomplish greatness and sustain it, the Mets and Yankees would be wise to model the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers. The latter have drafted and developed young players and also spent billions in the free agent market, while the Braves have been arguably the best organization at drafting, growing, and keeping their young homegrown stars under team-friendly long-term contracts.

The Yankees’ talented youth include shortstops Anthony Volpe

and Oswald Peraza, outfielder Jasson Dominguez, and versatile utility player Oswaldo Cabrera. All are highly rated prospects. For the Mets, third basemen Brett Baty and Mark Vientos; No. 1 overall MLB prospect Francisco Alver-

ez; and Dominican Winter League MVP, shortstop Ronnie Mauricio, could at some point this season be key contributors.

If veterans Darin Ruf, Tommy Pham, and Omar Narvaez don’t consistently produce for the

Mets, then the youngsters are likely to get opportunities. It’s a long baseball season, and the Mets and Yankees will continue to try and create a formula that will be the answer to their long World Series droughts.

World Baseball Classic increases in popularity

By JAIME C. HARRIS AmNews Sports Editor

When the World Baseball Classic made its debut in 2006, there was widespread skepticism, including a column penned by this journalist, that in essence asserted it was an urgent and desperate attempt by Major League Baseball (MLB) to expand a declining U.S. fan base among the preteen, teenage, and 20- to 30-year-old demographics whose interests, viewership, and ticket and merchandising purchasing habits skewed heavily toward the NFL and NBA.

Major League Baseball, which throughout much of the 20th century was the most popular sport in the United States, had a precipitous drop in its following beginning in the 1960s as the emergence of television broadcasting on a national scale presented broader options for a population that was becoming more ethnically diverse, with varied viewing preferences.

In succeeding decades, football and basketball—both professional and college— experienced rapid escalation in televised games, coinciding with MLB splintering into a more regional composite. Just 11% of adults in the U.S. polled by the Washington Post in 2021 responded that baseball was their favorite sport, with 34% listing football. More concerning is only 7% of those under 30 said baseball was their top choice.

Watching the World Baseball Classic inspires a more entertaining and festive experience than MLB contests. The international

tournament has elements of the Olympics, a music concert, and Independence Day celebrations because the energy and emotional investment of fans attending the games is palpable. The WBC was slated to hold a tournament every three years, but changed to be staged every four years after the first two tournaments (2006 and 2009).

Japan won back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2009. The Dominican Republic took the title in 2013 and the U.S. captured the championship in 2017. The current tournament began yesterday, with 16 teams representing five regions in the world—the Americas, Asia, Australia, Europe/Africa, and the Pacific—engaging in a round-robin format that will lead to an eight-team single elimination setup.

Teams are divided into four pools, playing at LoanDepot Park in Miami, Chase Field in Phoenix, Intercontinental Baseball Stadium in Taiwan, and the Tokyo Dome in Japan. The top two teams from each pool will move on to the quarterfinals. The semi-finals will take place on March 19 and 20, and the finals on March 21, all in Miami.

The United States is in Pool C with Mexico, Colombia, Canada, and Great Britain. Some of the game’s most decorated and notable stars will be playing for their respective countries, including Mookie Betts, Mike Trout, and Pete Alonso for the United States; Shohei Ohtani for Japan; Franciso Lindor for Puerto Rico; and Manny Machado and Rafeal Devers for the Dominican Republic.

The WBC is being televised on Fox, FS1, FS2, and Fox Deportes.

The Mets’ 21-year-old shortstop prospect Ronnie Mauricio has his sights set on making the Mets’ 40-man roster and ultimately being a key contributor to the ball club (Minor League Baseball milb.com photo)

Shohei Ohtani, the 2023 AL MVP, will lead two-time WBC champion in their pursuit of a third title. (Photo credit: Wikipedia Mogami Kariya, Shohei Ohtani (52251723213) (cropped 2), CC BY-SA 2.0)

Columbia women’s basketball earns Ivy League Championship SPORTS

By LOIS ELFMAN Special to the AmNews

Last Saturday, Columbia University women’s basketball proved that with vision and commitment, history can be made. Sometimes victory is a matter of believing you can win, and the Lions proved just that. Trailing by as much as 12 points, Columbia came back, tying the game and sending it into overtime. In those final 5 minutes, the players asserted their dominance over a very determined and aggressive Cornell University team, pulling away for a 69–64 victory.

“Cornell came out with a mission. They could have ruined our season,” said Columbia head coach Megan Griffith.

Instead, the Lions proved they know what it takes to win, doing so in front of a sold-out crowd of 2,602—quite the difference from the audience at games when Griffith took over the program seven years ago.

“I remember trying to recruit people to… come to our games,” said Lilian Kennedy, one of seven seniors honored before the start of the game. “It is insane the difference that has been since my freshman year to now.”

That sold-out crowd got to witness the program’s first Ivy League Championship in its 37-year history. Cutting down the net is not a familiar sight on Schiller Court at Levien Gymnasium,

so the crowd savored the experience.

For the seven seniors, this was a moment that took patience, persistence, and positive attitude. Let’s celebrate them, starting with Sienna Durr, who

joined the program when it was mainly a vision in Griffith’s head. As new players came to Columbia, Durr has seen her minutes diminish, but she has always been an exemplary teammate.

Kennedy, Madison Hardy, and Hannah Pratt have played different roles at different times, but have always contributed to the team’s good energy and focus. Guard Carly Rivera has been a spark that has changed the momentum in many games.

Two players have been consistent standouts—Kaitlyn Davis and Jaida Patrick, both of whom have garnered Ivy League honors, including Player of the Week, this season. Patrick came to Columbia as a transfer after two years at Duke. She has proved to be the missing ingredient that pushed this team to the next level.

Lastly, Davis has been a remarkable player, teammate, and leader. Her accomplishments these past two years have been all the more amazing because she didn’t have a sophomore season, due to the Ivy League’s decision to cancel sports for the 2020–21 academic year. Her story continues at this weekend’s Ivy League Tournament.

Stony Brook women’s hoops heads to first CAA Tournament

By LOIS ELFMAN Special to the AmNews

Stony Brook University women’s basketball starts play in its first Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) tournament tonight, and the Seawolves are determined to make their mark. New to the conference, the team notched an

11–7 record in conference play, but lost the last three games. The tournament brings a fresh start and the opportunity to keep the team on the national scene.

“It’s been a journey with our team,” said secondyear head coach Ashley Langford. “We lost a lot of experienced veteran players from last year. My staff

and I were able to bring in some transfers to help us be able to compete in this new league, which is obviously a higher level of competition. Our goal is to every day get better. I think we’ve done that. We had players [who] needed to gel and that takes time.”

This year’s Stony Brook team consisted of seven new players and six returners. Langford said it takes time to build chemistry, and the team became more and more cohesive as the season progressed, leading to a good debut in the CAA. Her goal is to win the conference, but she’s also proud of the team’s progression and the ability of players to adapt to new roles.

Langford, who earned her undergraduate degree at Tulane University, appreciates the high academic standards of Stony Brook. “I want players [who] value academics; I love that type of environment,” she said.

“To me, it’s not just about basketball. Obviously, I’m here to win, but I like young women [who] want to go out

and do things in this world and make a difference.”

The Seawolves’ top two scorers are graduate student guard Anastasia Warren and sophomore forward Sherese Pittman. Warren, a health science major, is the lone holdover from the 2020–21 team that advanced to the NCAA Tournament. “She brings that experience and leadership,” Langford said. “This year, she’s had to grow into the mentality—‘This is my team and Coach needs me to take these shots.’”

Pittman is new to the Seawolves this season, but Langford has been acquainted with her for several years and recruited her to play at James Madison, where Langford was an assistant coach before coming to Stony Brook. “She’s stable, consistent, tough,” said Langford. “She even played out of position this year and she’s been able to flourish because she wants to play and help us win. She’s really versatile…Another player [who] competes every day.”

Columbia celebrates being Ivy League Champions (Columbia University Athletics/Joshua Wang photo)

(R) Sherese Pittman brings consistency to Stony Brook (Stony Brook Athletics)

Anastasia Warren brings veteran experience

Indoor track concluded, St. John’s heads outdoors with decisive goals

By LOIS ELFMAN Special to the AmNews

Tatyana McKenzie’s collegiate career has taken her on a journey: St. John’s University is the third school the sprinter from Kingston, Jamaica, has attended. Her final indoor season wrapped last weekend with the ECAC Championships in Boston. The week before, McKenzie was named Most Outstanding Performer (MOP) at the Big East Indoor Championships and also honored on the All-Big East Indoor Track and Field Team.

“I put in the work during the fall, so I would say [a good indoor season] was expected, but I have more to give,” said McKenzie, who is in her second year at St. John’s. “Coming in, I had a lot to accomplish, and I think that’s what really drives me.”

McKenzie does all the sprints, but considers the 200 and the 400 her best events. The MOP honor at the Big East Championships meant a lot.

“That was my goal from last year,” she said. “I’ve been through a lot. I’ve been injured a couple of times, but I kept the faith throughout the whole season.”

Following graduation, McKenzie plans to try professional track. For now, her focus is on the outdoor season, which begins with a meet this weekend in Flor-

ida. “I’m really looking for some great times,” she said. “I put in the work, so I’m going to enjoy the moment. Let’s just see what’s going to happen.”

Junior sprinter Brooklyn Chestnut also received All-Big East honors. She took a leap of faith in attending St. John’s because she was unable to make a campus visit due to the pandemic. Now approach-

ing her third outdoor season, she’s happy with her choice and working for new personal bests this spring.

“The progression has been really nice,” said Chestnut, a biology major who hopes to go into animal research or marine biology. “For the fitness journey, it’s been a long time coming…The pandemic cut my senior season of high school. Coming in

and running [slow times] was really frustrating. Distancing ourselves in workouts, we were not able to work out as well as we wanted. We wore masks when we ran. It was all a challenge. To finally be able to get out of that, I feel we’re now back on track.”

The next two weekends, St. John’s competes at meets in Florida. On April 1, they have the Big Hurt, a home meet in Queens.

The Giants place their short-term future in the hands of QB Jones

By JAIME C. HARRIS AmNews Sports Editor

This past season was enough to convince Giants head coach Brian Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen that quarterback Daniel Jones was worthy of the team’s short-term future. After not picking up the fifth-year option on Jones’ rookie deal last April, Daboll and Schoen, who were only three months into their tenures after being hired in late January by team CEOs John Mara and Steve Tisch, put Jones in a show and prove situation.

He did both sufficiently enough to be signed to a new four-year deal worth $160 million with $82 million guaranteed. The 26-year-old Jones, who was plagued by high turnovers and injuries in his first three seasons, had a breakout year in 2022. He passed for 3,205 yards, completed a franchise record 67.2% of his 472 attempts, had a 92.5 pass rating, and, most significantly, had just five interceptions in 16 games played. Daboll sat him out of the regular season finale after the 9-7-1 Giants had already clinched a wild-card spot in the playoffs, their first appearance since the 2016 season. Additionally, Jones rushed for 708 yards, second on the team behind Pro Bowl running back Saquon Barkley, and scored seven touchdowns on the ground.

Jones, who will turn 26 in May, said he accepts the weight of now being ascribed a franchise quarterback relative to his contract.

“I’ve always felt that responsibility,” he said in a meeting with the media along with Schoen yesterday at the team’s facilities in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

“And playing this position, especially for a team like the New York Giants and this city, you have that responsibility. And I take that very seriously. It certainly doesn’t change.

“I certainly do feel that,” Jones expanded, “and it’s my goal to earn that every day and in the offseason while we’re preparing for the season and when we get to the season, doing my best and preparing this team to win games and me to put us in a position to do that. Yeah, I take that responsibility very seriously.”

Schoen added the Giants can now continue the process of improving on last season. “We are all pleased that we were able to come to an agreement prior to today’s deadline. This gives us a greater ability to continue to build our roster.”

The Giants also placed the non-exclusive franchise tag on Barkley, which will now allow them to negotiate with him up until the July 17 deadline for reaching a new deal. If no agreement is reached, Barkley will be paid $10.91 million next season.

The Giants signed quarterback Daniel Jones to a four-year, $160 million deal on Tuesday and placed the non-exclusive franchise tag on running back Saquon Barkley (Bill Moore photos)

(Center) Brooklyn Chestnut (R) Tatyana McKenzie (St. John’s Athletics photos)

Daniel Jones

Saquon Barkley

Sports

Mikal Bridges lifts Nets in heat of playoff race

By VINCENT DAVIS

Special to the AmNews

With 17 games remaining in the Brooklyn Nets’ regular season schedule and exactly one month left before NBA playoffs begin, the Nets are 37–28 and were the No. 6 seed in the East after a 118–96 road victory over the Houston Rockets on Tuesday night. It was their third win in a row after dropping the previous four.

The Nets are in Milwaukee tonight (Thursday) to play the Bucks and then will face the Timberwolves in Minnesota tomorrow and the Nuggets in Denver on Sunday. The Bucks are currently the No. 1 seed in the East and the Nuggets the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. The

Timberwolves are at No. 7 in the West in a tightly contested race for the playoffs and Play-In Tournament. As of last night (Wednesday), the No. 6 seed Golden State Warriors (34-32) and the No. 10 seed New Orleans Pelicans (3134) were separated by just 2.5 games in the standings.

The Nets’ recent surge has been fueled by forward Mikal Bridges, who came over to the team in the trade that sent Kevin Durant to the Phoenix Suns. Bridges scored 45 points versus the Miami Heat on February 15 in a 116–105 win; 30 or more in three of the last four games, including 30 against the Rockets; and 25 or more in all 10 games as a Net.

“My teammates just kind of (found) me,” Bridges said after

pouring in 33 points to pace the Nets to a 102–86 win over the Charlotte Hornets at the Barclays Center on Sunday. “As I kept making shots, they just kept looking for me, Coach drawing up plays.”

After the Nets’ double-digit victory over the Rockets, Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn spoke about some of Bridges’s positive qualities.

“He is very unselfish,” Vaughn said. “He gives up his time, his knowledge in the locker room, during the games, so it’s really been a joy to be around and learn [about] him as an individual.”

The Nets end their five-game road trip versus the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday and return home to host the Sacramento Kings next Thursday.

Heading West, the Knicks look to hold playoff positioning

The Knicks will need guard Jalen Brunson to maintain his stellar play and forward RJ Barrett to gain consistency to secure a favorable playoff seed in the Eastern Conference. (Bill Moore photos)

By JAIME C. HARRIS AmNews Sports Editor

Was Tuesday night at the Garden more an aberration than a sign the Knicks are wearing down ahead of a potentially grueling fourgame, six-day Western Conference road trip beginning tonight against the Sacramento Kings? They gave up a 66-50 halftime lead to the Charlotte Hornets, a team that at 21-46 has the fourth worst record in the NBA when they play the Detroit Pistons tonight, before fading late in the fourth quarter to lose by 112-105.

“Our defense wasn’t there, the rebounding wasn’t there, so we didn’t give ourselves a chance to win it in the end,” said Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau.

The defeat ended the Knicks’ exceptional ninegame winning streak dating back to Feb. 11 in which

they passed the Brooklyn Nets in the standings and snatched the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference. They ended Tuesday 39-28, two games behind the No. 4 seed Cleveland Cavaliers, which were 41-26 when they played the Miami Heat on the road last night.

In their loss to the Hornets, the Knicks showed obvious residual effects of their gripping 131-129 double-overtime road win over the East’s No. 2 seed Boston Celtics on Sunday.

“We ran out of gas. That’s all,” said Knicks forward Julius Randle. “We gave them confidence early. You can’t just turn it on and off. We gave them confidence to start that third quarter, just trading baskets, then we ran out of gas and they picked it up a notch. So, [we] have to tip our hats to them.”

No one was more fuel-depleted than third-year guard Immanuel Quickley, who put on a masterful and career best performance versus the Celtics. Quickley logged 55 minutes and registered 38 points—his most as a pro—seven assists, eight rebounds, and, remarkably, just one turnover filling in for starting point guard Jalen Brunson, who was out with a sore foot.

Brunson was also sidelined for the Hor-

nets game, and Quickley was much less effective than he was against the Celtics, shooting 5-16, and missing seven of 10 3-point attempts for 14 points in 35 minutes. All-Star forward Julius Randle, who also played 35 minutes, was uncharacteristically inefficient, shooting 5-17 and 2-9 on 3-pointers to finish with 16 points, nine below his season average of 25. He played 47 minutes two nights earlier in Boston. RJ Barrett, who has been inconsistent in his fourth season in the NBA, led the Knicks with 27 points, but took 24 shots to hit that number, another indication of the team’s collective tired legs. Barrett was on the court for 50 minutes facing the Celtics and had his most productive and efficient overall output during the Knicks’ win streak, scoring 29 points on 10-22 from the field (3-9 on 3s), and recording 11 rebounds.

Nets forward Mikal Bridges has scored 25 points or more in his first ten games since becoming a Brooklyn Net. (Bill Moore photo)

RJ Barret (L)

Jalen Brunson