New York Amsterdam News Issue April 18 - 24, 2024

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EDITORIAL

Executive & Investigative Editor – Damaso Reyes

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Managing Editor – Kristin Fayne-Mulroy

KFM@AmsterdamNews.com

News Editor – Aaron Foley

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Digital Editor - Josh Barker

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STAFF WRITERS

Karen Juanita Carrillo

Karen.Carrillo@AmsterdamNews.com

Shannon Chaffers

Shannon.Chaffers@amsterdamnews.com

Ariama C. Long

Ariama.Long@AmsterdamNews.com

Tandy Lau

Tandy.Lau@AmsterdamNews.com

Helina Selemon

William "Bill" Atkins (212) 932-7429

William.Atkins@AmsterdamNews.com

DIGITAL, BRANDED

CIRCULATION

International News

MULTINATIONAL EFFORTS LAUNCHED TO END DEVASTATING WAR IN SUDAN

(GIN)—Enormous humanitarian needs are facing the war-torn Sudanese nation after a year of war. The number of reported casualties—15,000 deaths and an estimated 33,000 people injured to date—is likely to be an underestimate, according to a spokesperson for the World Health Organization. Since war erupted a year ago, more than 8.6 million people have been displaced, according to the International Organization for Migration.

A multinational conference is slated for this week, April 15, focusing on the Sudanese situation from both political and humanitarian angles. Organized by France in collaboration with Germany and the European Union, the conference is going forward despite the absence of official Sudanese representation.

At the International Humanitarian Conference for Sudan and its Neighbors, participants will discuss how to move toward a political solution to the conflict and raise funds for Sudan’s humanitarian aid programs that have been severely underfunded. The goal is not to bring about any sort of ceasefire.

Last month, U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan Tom Perriello announced that peace talks aimed at ending the war were possible “as soon as Ramadan is over.” When that came and went, he moved the date for talks by April 18. Perriello has now admitted that talks were “unlikely to resume” and has not given any alternative dates for when they might begin.

The UN is requesting an additional $4.1 billion to address Sudan’s humanitarian needs, but funds raised have only reached 5% of the needed amount so far, said Perriello, adding, “The international response has been pitiful.”

The medical relief group Doctors without Borders said, “The world has turned a blind eye as the warring parties intentionally block humanitarian access and the delivery of aid.”

“This is why we are desperately concerned that 5 million people at emergency levels of food insecurity are likely to move into catastrophic levels in the coming months,” said Michael Dunford, regional director for East Africa at the World Food Program. “There is a very real risk of becoming the largest hunger

crisis anywhere in the world—if not already.”

About $400 million is needed immediately so aid workers can pre-position supplies before the lean season, and an additional $700 million to sustain the response in the coming months.

Members of the warring parties in Sudan have rejected the conference, saying it was organized without representatives of Sudan’s military government. The Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed “utmost astonishment and condemnation” about the conference, saying it was convened “without consultation or coordination with the Sudanese government and without its participation.”

The international community should “fulfill previous pledges instead of wasting resources and efforts in holding new conferences,” they said, adding that these conferences “will be nothing more than political and propaganda festivals.”

Khaled Farah, Sudan’s ambassador to France, claimed that the conference would only serve to prop up the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group that the Sudanese military government has been at war with for almost a year.

“Under the pretext of concern for the tragedy of the Sudanese people, the conference will help the RSF,” he said.

Sudanese junta leader Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan predicted an early victory for his troops. “The battle will soon be resolved in the people’s favor,” he said. “The army, backed by the people, will not be vanquished…To those who dream of disbanding the armed forces, we call this an impossible dream.”

U.S. LOSES AN AFRICAN PARTNER AS NIGER WELCOMES A RUSSIAN ONE (GIN)—When Niger suspended military cooperation with the U.S. earlier this year, it was a major story for a country rarely in the media spotlight.

The story has only grown bigger since then.

This week, thousands of Nigerien protesters gathered in Niamey, capital of Niger, calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. About 1,000 U.S. soldiers had been bivouacked at

a remote drone base in Niger’s desert to fly drones and track movements of extremist groups throughout the region.

Once a foothold for U.S. military operations in the Sahel region, including a $100 million drone base referred to as “Nigerien Air Base 201,” Niger has turned against the U.S. and welcomed 100 Russian instructors who are part of Russia’s Africa Corps. This struck a blow to the ability of the U.S. to project power in the region.

It took the United States three months to label the July 2023 ouster of President Mohamed Bazoum by the country’s presidential guard as a coup. By formally designating the military takeover as a coup, it immediately invoked legal limitations for security cooperation and counterterrorism operations with Niger.

Niger’s alliance with Russia goes back years. They bought military helicopters from Russia in 2016 and the two countries signed an agreement on military cooperation and training two years later.

The strengthened Russia-Niger alliance leaves a black eye for Washington in Niger, said Cameron Hudson of the Washington, DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). “The arrival of the Russian forces is the cherry on the top.”

Over the years, Niger received precious little from the U.S. and France aside from military weapons, while Nigerien artisans were exposed to physical hazards as they dug for gold, making $68 a month.

In a country rich in minerals, social spending is abysmal: Education receives only 3.5% of the budget, school attendance is low (34%), infant mortality is high (274 per 1,000, due to poor health and inadequate nutrition), and life expectancy is 62 years.

Niger’s decision to cut ties with the U.S. was spurred in part by paternalism; specifically, warnings from the U.S. delegation against developing closer ties with Russia, to which the Nigerien leaders took offense.

Colonel Major Amadou Abdramane described these warnings as an attempt to deny “the sovereign Nigerien people the right to choose their partners and types of partnerships capable of truly helping them fight against terrorism.” He also said the recent visit by a U.S. delegation failed to follow diplomatic protocol by not sharing the date of arrival of the delegation, its composition, and its agenda.

“The government of Niger forcefully denounces the condescending attitude accompanied by the threat of retaliation from the head of the American delegation toward the Nigerian government and people,” said Abdramane.

Catherine Nzuki of the CSIS Africa Program summed up the situation in a commentary, saying that “a military-first approach cannot address the root causes of insecurity in the Sahel: poor governance, deeply rooted corruption, poverty, scarcity of resources, and local grievances.”

NYS electeds get behind ‘Hospital Closures Moratorium Act’

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

A growing movement against hospital closures in vulnerable communities has prompted New York State electeds to rally behind a newly introduced bill called the Hospital Closures Moratorium Act (S08907/A9819).

If passed, the bill, sponsored by Senator Kristen Gonzalez, would declare hospital closures a healthcare emergency, and all hospital closures or downsizing of healthcare facilities, emergency services, intensive care services, urgent care services, and pediatric services would be suspended until the state Department of Health (DOH) can complete its study on how that decision impacts the community.

Grassroots efforts to save hospitals, like State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Health Science Center in Brooklyn and Mount Sinai Beth Israel in Manhattan, have sprung up widely and received more attention in the years since the pandemic.

“That starts with SUNY Downstate and the incredible organizing that the Brooklyn electeds, like Senator Myrie, have been leading for some time now. And in my own district, it relates to Mount Sinai Beth Israel. They’ve moved to close Beth Israel

See HOSPITAL CLOSURES on page 25

According to lawmakers, there are at least 12 hospitals that have filed applications for closure, while 21 rural hospitals throughout the state are at risk of immediate closure. The rash of potential closures is concerning in communities where race-related health disparities are high. “As a lot of folks have seen, we’ve seen a trend in hospital closures, whether it’s the shutting down of services or the proposed closures of entire hospitals,” Gonzalez said about the bill.

Clocking In: Asylum seeker shares job-hunting experience as arrivals meet employment challenges

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

For New York City’s thousands of asylum seekers, all in a day’s work is anything but. Most migrants in the Big Apple need to wait 150 days after filing their initial asylum case before the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) can issue an employment authorization document (EAD) to legally work.

Sidelining arrivals for roughly five months can be detrimental in the country’s most expensive city, compounded by a move last year to limit stays in temporary shelters. Beyond the wait, case workers told the AmNews even the filing process for asylum cases can be challenging. But for those who remain in the city after the

wait period, what does the job hunt look like?

For Jorge, an asylum seeker from Colombia whose last name is withheld for protection, landing a gig as a residential doorman meant a career change and culture shock. Before coming to the U.S., he worked nearly two decades in information technology while his wife was a nurse.

“When [we] finally received work permits, [we] were on the hunt finding jobs within those fields,” he said. “Every time [I] went to any place, they all asked for certifications [from the U.S. or New York] and so because of that, it made it hard and there were a lot of obstacles to overcome in order to continue that field here.

“While being here in New York, for it to be in that specific field, [employers are] asking [us] to be at a specific level of English.”

Instead, he and his wife completed

mentorship programs as part of their job search, linking them to colleagues with various professional credentials. Jorge found his new job through a shelter staff member who learned about his familiarity with surveillance cameras and connected him with a security company.

Since starting the job, Jorge says he’s cautiously moving through the onboarding process—sending over documentation, filing his fingerprints and obtaining his driver’s license. He’s nervous about starting and told the AmNews that he needs to adjust to American work culture which prioritizes efficiency.

“[I] like giving good results and not bad results,” he said. “[I will] have to work on speeding up the process of how [I do my] work, but also make sure that I still maintain the [quality].”

A spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams says the city assisted with 18,179 work authorization permits as of this week through an application help center opened last June.

New York Immigration Coalition’s Kim Corona translated the interview.

A Black New Yorker was convicted after confrontation left two firefighters with knife wounds. Surveillance shows he tried to walk away.

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

Arthur Sumpter paid a visit to Dive 75 on March 12, 2019 as a triumphant man. By then, he had clocked two decades of working in data analytics, which paid the bills. But his true passion was stand-up comedy. Earlier that night, Sumpter performed a “particularly amazing” five-minute set at Carolines on Broadway— no easy task for a beginner.

He started his celebration with five friends with wine immediately after the set. When his buddies started to bicker, Sumpter decided to round out the night alone by grab-

bing a drink in a calmer environment and enjoy his success peacefully. He headed to Dive 75, assuming the Upper West Side bar would be vacant on a Monday Night.

Then-FDNY lieutenant Ryan Brito also found himself at Dive 75 that night, albeit with less deliberation. He was a regular. Brito was also celebrating a special night: His friend, a fellow firefighter James De Leon now retired in California, was visiting to watch his nephew perform a concert at Carnegie Hall. The two met at the bar and were later joined by De Leon’s family and Brito’s romantic partner. None of the bar’s patrons were in high spirits by the night’s end. Sumpter was taken from Dive 75 in handcuffs, while Brito and

De Leon were taken to a hospital for knife wounds. Brito’s injuries in particular were life-threatening.

Last month, a jury found Sumpter guilty on all four charges against him: first degree assault, attempted first degree assault, second degree assault and fourth degree criminal possession of a weapon. Today, he will count down to his April 22 sentencing date on Rikers Island , remanded last month after the conviction, despite his ex-lawyer’s request to keep him on bail to handle his personal affairs.

Brito, who was not charged, missed nearly a year of work while recovering

See SUMPTER on page 25

Speaker Adrienne Adams and Council Members hold vigil to call attention to the plight of asylum seekers. (John McCarten/NYC Council Media Unit photo)

Arthur Sumpter (Photo contributed by Mike Paul)

Assemblymember Latrice Walker at a “Save SUNY Downstate” press conference in Albany on Feb 6, 2024. (United University Professions (UUP) photo)

Biden leads Trump in several new polls

By HERB BOYD Special to the AmNews

The latest presidential poll numbers should please Biden: He leads Trump in the Florida Atlantic University and Mainstreet, RMG, Quinnipiac, and several other notable polls. Of course, we are still seven months from the election, but this is a dramatic change in the outcome of most recent polls, that had the candidates either tied or Trump out front.

The Quinnipiac University poll, conducted March 27 with more than 1,400 registered voters, found that 48 percent of voters support Biden with 45 percent for Trump, with a margin of error of 2.6 percent. Ipsos, the poll for Reuters, reported that 41 percent of registered voters chose Biden compared to 37 percent for Trump, who at the moment is squirming in court in the “hush money” trial. This poll was conducted between April 5 and April 9, with 833 registered voters and a 4 point margin of error.

According to Heath Brown, an associate professor of public policy at City University in New York, the results were very close. “The polling over the last several months indicated this is a very close race. I wouldn’t read too much into any one or two polls at this point,” he said. “The trend seems to be that the campaign will be a very tight one and I suspect the polls will reflect that until November.”

As Trump’s criminal trial opened on Monday, the prosecutors asked the judge to fine Trump and to remind him that he could go to jail for violation of the gag order. It will be interesting to see to what extent the voluble Trump accedes to the order that bars him from intimidating and threatening potential witnesses.

Activists convene for Climate Reality Leadership Training

By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore’s 55th Climate Reality Leadership Corps training drew nearly 3,000 attendees to the Jacob Javits Center across a twoday summit designed for climate activists and the climate curious from April 12-14.

Participants came in from across the mid-Atlantic and the northeast, and as far as other parts of the world, all convening to discuss the devastating effects of fossil fuel polluters and the lack of supportive climate financing to protect the environment. Speakers addressed crowds on issues like climate justice, advances in environmental policy and clean energy, and the various grassroots groups who’ve helped foster resilient communities.

Faith Cummings, a Harlembased climate leader who cochairs the NYC Metro Area’s chapter of the Climate Reality Project, characterized the training as a chance to get together with like-minded folks who care about the climate crisis: “People who want to mitigate the harm that’s being done and really want to take action,” she said.

“Former Vice President Gore has a lot of information. He’s been doing this for decades. Part of it is

Former Vice President Al Gore hosted a panel discussion with Michael S. Regan, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, during the Climate Reality Leadership Training. (Karen Juanita Carrillo photo)

that he kind of gives this presentation so that we get the tools to be able to give to others. And really, it helps us to be educated on what’s happening, not just in our community, but around the world with the climate crisis. You really leave after the few days feeling very informed, like you could talk to your parents about it, or you could talk to your company, or you could talk to your community. It’s really a helpful tool.”

Climate Reality Project training events included breakout sessions; panel discussions with podcasters, scientists, government officials, activists, actors,

NYC retirees vow to fight Medicare privatization

By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff

Members of the group Crossunion Retirees Organizing Committee (CROC) showed up at Manhattan’s 26 Federal Plaza on April 12 to deliver a letter addressed to President Joe Biden to bring attention to the concerning direction they see Medicare going in.

CROC members are mostly New York City municipal retirees who said they wanted to deliver a letter to Medicare and Medicaid Services representatives about something they call a “(Dis)Advantage” plan, a play on Medcare’s Advantage plan terminology.

Members of the group Cross-union Retirees Organizing Committee (CROC) rallied in front of Manhattan’s 26 Federal Plaza on April 12. They came to deliver a letter, demanding that President Biden help save Medicare.

There is also the question of security, although on the first day of trial, there was little turnout.

“We are mostly New York City retirees, and the city has been trying for three years to take away our wonderful Medicare,” said Julie Schwartzberg, a CROC founder who also once served as vice president of AFSCME District Council

Local 768. “We

found out that all over the country, the same thing is happening. In states all over the place, in cities, they’re taking away retirees’ Medicare and putting people on Medicare Advantage.”

“Medicare Advantage is profit-making. We don’t want it,” she added.

Security guards at the federal building refused entry to CROC representatives after the rally. The group was asked to mail in their letter and stand by for a response from Biden regarding their concerns.

CROC members have reacted to the changes in Medicare by helping to form the National Alliance for Retiree Health Care. They say they’ve been joined in this new national effort by retirees in Vermont, Delaware, California, Minnesota, Washington, and Tennessee who stand ready to unite nationally to fight against any tweaks to access to Medicare.

In their letter to the Center for Medicare Services and Biden, the national movement asks that instead of having Medicare privatized, there be more of an effort to expand it.

“We are an alliance of retiree organizations fighting for See MEDICARE on page 36

Trainees attending Al Gore’s 55th Climate Reality Leadership Corps training at NYC’s Jacob Javits Center. (The Climate Reality Project photo)

(Karen Juanita Carrillo photo)

Growing Black businesses with Khalilah Webster

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

Khalilah Webster, 43, is a digital media entrepreneur and educator who makes it her mission to help people and organizations succeed. She is the co-founder and managing partner of Minority Ventures Partner (MVP) Accelerator, Inc. and the Open Door Arts-in-Education Project

Webster has used her dual experiences in media business to work to dismantle systemic racism with pathways to economic equity. The MVP Accelerator is a business incubator geared toward Black and minority entrepreneurs in New York City. Her second startup, the Open Door Arts in Education project, is an ed-tech company specializing in technology, entrepreneurship, arts, and media education for K–12 students.

Webster grew up in Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood. Her father worked for the city’s Department of Education (DOE), but she said he was also an enthusiastic entrepreneur. She attended schools mostly in Canarsie, at the behest of her mother, to have better access to educational opportunities. “At the time, Canarsie was predominantly Italian and Jewish,” Webster said, “and my aunt lived [there]. I don’t know if it was something legal, but we used my aunt’s address to go to a better school. My mom wanted me to be a part of this special gifted program in Canarsie.”

Black New Yorker

cause at the time I actually started my first business,” said Webster. “My business partner and I both went to LaGuardia—she was a dance major, and we decided to start a performing arts center in the neighborhoods we grew up in.”

The Talent of Purpose Performing Arts Center served more than 500 students in the Brownsville, East New York, and Canarsie area successfully from 2002 until the economic downturn hit in 2008. They decided to close down the center in 2009.

“At the time, I thought that I had failed,” Webster said. “But I didn’t—I just missed the mark. I was able to learn the lessons I needed to learn so I could start all over and apply those lessons to my new business.”

Webster is deeply committed to leveraging her platform and resources to uplift and empower the communities that have shaped her. By equipping the next generation of innovators with the tools they need to thrive, she is not only investing in their individual success, but also in the long-term prosperity and resilience of her borough and city.

She was accepted into the LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. Her education exposed her to different ways of thinking and life experiences. She first pursued ambitions of becoming an actress, but was turned off by the auditioning process. She still attended Brooklyn College as a theater major, but eventually changed her major to communications and journalism.

“Didn’t even do any of those things, be-

Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member who 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

Co-founder/managing partner at Minority Ventures Partner (MVP) Accelerator, Inc. Khalilah G. Webster (Contributed by Keith Forest)

Health

‘People need help now’—Why NYC’s unique Long COVID programs aren’t enough

COLLABORATION WITH

By BETSY LADYZHETS Special to the AmNews

Four years after COVID-19 first hit New York City, the disease is no longer a dayto-day concern for many New Yorkers. City testing sites have closed, businesses and public spaces no longer require masks, and leaders have encouraged people to return to pre-pandemic habits—but forgetting about COVID-19 is impossible for the thousands of people in the city now dealing with Long COVID, the chronic disease that can last for months or years after infection.

Once an early epicenter for COVID-19, the city has now become an early leader in responding to Long COVID. The health department and Health + Hospitals, the public healthcare system, both have unique programs to understand this complex, chronic disease and meet patients’ needs, particularly in communities that have been hardest hit by the pandemic.

The health department recently launched a new survey to study Long COVID and other long-term impacts of the COVID-19 crisis, which will follow up to 10,000 participants over several years and inform new programs for people dealing with these health issues. Meanwhile, Health + Hospitals is now two years into operating three COVID-19 Centers of Excellence—public clinics for Long COVID, along with a hotline that connects New Yorkers to the clinics and other resources.

New York City has served as a model for other state and local health agencies trying to tackle Long COVID, said Kate Murray, program manager of the Minnesota Department of Health’s Long COVID program. For example, MDH “took a lot of the inspiration from our statewide survey” thanks to research done in New York City, she said.

“I’m happy to see that there is more light being shed on Long COVID and that there are a lot more resources out there now than they were back when I first started to experience symptoms in the fall of 2020,” said Evette Alba, a New Yorker living in Manhattan.

However, some Long COVID advocates

and community leaders say the city could and should be doing more to address this disease. In particular, advocates say that people with Long COVID need more protection from new COVID-19 cases and more services that go beyond healthcare, such as access to food, housing, employment accommodations, disability benefits, and more.

“I think the services that were provided for COVID—they ended too suddenly,” said Reverend John Udo-Okon, pastor of the World of Life International Church, which runs a food pantry and other support programs for the church’s South Bronx community.

Udo-Okon worries that, while programs like the health department survey may lead to useful recommendations for new Long COVID services, the information may arrive too late for some people who are currently suffering.

seen more than 60,000 patient visits in total.

Thanks to funding from the city, Health + Hospitals was able to renovate new spaces specifically for Long COVID care. The facilities include primary care doctors, as well as a variety of specialists, from lung and heart experts to mental health services and reproductive health. The clinics can also connect people to social workers and other services.

With many specialists in one place, the Centers of Excellence make it easy for patients to see multiple doctors or have different tests done in one visit, Johnson said. “I wish more patients had access to something like that.”

Alba, who started experiencing Long COVID symptoms in 2020, said she’s glad that new patients have more resources available than she did then. “When I look back at those first few months, I felt very alone and no one had any answers for me,” she said.

People protest in the hallway during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions hearing. (AP Photo/ Mariam Zuhaib)

“People need help now,” Udo-Okon said. “People need to know where they can go for treatment, where they can go to get food, where they can get health insurance.”

Public clinics offer multidisciplinary care

One of New York City’s most unique Long COVID services is the COVID-19 Centers of Excellence—public clinics for New Yorkers dealing with Long COVID or other health issues after COVID-19 infection. Unlike the Long COVID clinics operated by private hospitals and research institutions, the Centers of Excellence are “committed to providing every New Yorker with care in a holistic fashion, with dignity and respect, regardless of your ability to pay,” said Dr. Amanda Johnson, a primary care doctor and director of the AfterCare hotline at Health + Hospitals.

Health + Hospitals runs three of these centers, each in a neighborhood that was hard hit by COVID-19: the West Bronx; Jackson Heights, Queens; and Bushwick, Brooklyn. All three opened in early 2022 and have since

To make an appointment at the Centers of Excellence, New Yorkers dealing with Long COVID symptoms can call the AfterCare hotline at 212-COVID19 or 202-268-4319. This hotline evolved from Health + Hospitals’ contact tracing efforts earlier in the pandemic, but is now a more permanent program connecting people to different resources they may need after a COVID-19 case, Johnson said. For people who call the hotline, the Centers of Excellence are “the top resource we promote for patients who really want to connect with medical care,” Johnson said. AfterCare may also refer callers to other Long COVID clinics in the city that aren’t located near one of the three Centers of Excellence, although Johnson acknowledged that different clinics may be stricter about insurance or have other requirements, such as asking patients to show positive COVID-19 tests.

After medical care, the most popular resources for AfterCare callers are NYC Care, a public health insurance program, and mental health resources. Unfortunately, other resources that

were present early in the pandemic, like emergency cash and rental assistance, are no longer as available as in the past, even though people may still need them, Johnson said. AfterCare is also no longer able to refer patients to a Long COVID peer support group that closed last spring due to limited funding.

In response to that group’s closure, the city should create and fund other peer support options for people with Long COVID, said Gabriel San Emeterio, an advocate with the group Long COVID Justice who is living with Long COVID as well as HIV. There should be “support groups that are culturally attuned so that they can serve different communities,” San Emeterio said. Alba agreed that she’d like to see more support groups in New York City, because she has found them beneficial.

Collecting data to understand community needs

The health department’s recently announced long-term survey may inform new programs for New Yorkers struggling with Long COVID and other challenges following COVID-19 cases. “We know that the end of an emergency must also be the beginning of a process of learning and understanding so we are better prepared and can support COVID survivors over time,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan in a press release announcing the study.

To study a wide range of potential COVID-19 impacts, the department will survey a random sample of New Yorkers rather than specifically recruit people who identify as Long COVID patients. The project, which will recruit up to 10,000 participants and follow them for several years, starting with an initial survey this spring, will be used to inform future policies and programs around Long COVID, according to a statement from the agency.

It’s important for local health agencies like New York City’s to study Long COVID because then they can ask questions that are more specific to their communities, said Murray. Surveys by federal agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provide a “10,000-foot view” and don’t capture local needs and challenges, she said.

Minnesota’s department is doing its own Long COVID surveys, similar to New York City. In both places, health officials are consulting with community members on the research. The New York City department has set up an advisory group that includes Long COVID advocates and leaders of organizations serving communities disproportionately affected by COVID-19. This group has “provided feedback on questions and topics to be covered in the first survey, as well as recommendations on survey accessibility,” said

department spokesperson Patrick Gallahue in a statement.

Data from the survey “will inform policy makers and program planners on the needs and barriers to support services for those experiencing long-term physical and mental health problems,” Gallahue said. The current study builds on a smaller-scale study that the health department conducted in 2022, along with input from academic and government researchers, he said.

Udo-Okon, who has been involved with the advisory group, said he hopes the survey will help inform new Long COVID programs, but wants to make sure a diverse group of New Yorkers is represented in the data. People who may not have internet or smartphone access or have other barriers to conducting an online survey should still be included in research, he said.

Doja A., founder of local public health project the Health Stellium, who asked not to use their last name, similarly said the survey is “a good first step,” but has to include a wide variety of New Yorkers. Accurate data is important to establishing exactly how Long COVID is affecting the city—and which communities have been hardest-hit—so the city can “allocate funding appropriately,” they said.

The health department’s Long COVID research may expand further if a City Council bill is passed. This bill, introduced last fall by Councilmember Tiffany Cabán, would require the health department to assess “needs and gaps in services for people experiencing Long COVID and associated diseases in New York City.”

“Suffering a potentially debilitating illness is terrible enough without policymakers leaving wide-open gaps in the programs and services landscape,” Cabán said in a statement to the Amsterdam News and the Sick Times. “This community needs assessment will help us identify and understand those gaps, so that we can take action to address them and ensure that our neighbors who are suffering can get the care and support they are currently being denied.”

More direct services are needed

While New York City’s government has taken more action on Long COVID than other cities and states, health advocates like Doja and San Emeterio say the city could do more to support people who are currently sick, as well as those who are at risk of developing Long COVID.

“New York is continuing to talk about COVID as if it’s in the past,” Doja said. “It’s not. There are people still getting COVID… getting Long COVID every day.” They pointed to the city school district ending its required quarantine for students who test positive for COVID-19, after a recent guidance change from the CDC, as one example of a policy that could lead to more Long COVID cases.

To address the ongoing risks of COVID19 and Long COVID, the city should continue to make tests, masks, treatments, and other resources easily available and advertise them to people, Doja said. The Health Stellium is fundraising to provide some of these resources, in the absence of more public services. While there are still a handful of public testing sites and a hotline to

help people access Paxlovid, the COVID-19 antiviral, they’re poorly advertised and inaccessible for many New Yorkers, Doja said.

More outreach about Long COVID is crucial, said San Emeterio—“There needs to be a twopronged approach: educating [healthcare] providers and educating the public.” Without public education, people who may be dealing with Long COVID may not recognize their symptoms and seek care, San Emeterio said.

In one initiative to improve outreach, the health department has supported a program called Building Resiliency and Vaccine Equity (BRAVE) that will fund community and faithbased organizations to raise awareness about COVID-19 and flu vaccines, as well as Long COVID. “Hopefully, this new program will put boots on the ground” and give people valuable information, said Udo-Okon, whose church received a grant from BRAVE.

Eric J. Chow, chief of communicable disease epidemiology and immunizations at the Seattle & King County health department in Washington State, agreed that COVID-19 resources and communications can still be valuable for higher-risk people. “I know a lot of people who have Long COVID or are concerned about Long COVID feel like they’re left behind” when leaders take emphasis off COVID-19 precautions, he said.

Like New York City, the Seattle & King County health department is working on Long COVID research, although it doesn’t have the funding to conduct a survey like New York’s, Chow said. Additional federal funding for local agencies to address Long COVID would help more places follow NYC’s footsteps, he added.

Along with COVID-specific resources, many New Yorkers still facing long-term challenges from this disease need direct support for food, housing, employment, and other aspects of day-to-day life, Udo-Okon said. He remembers how, early in the pandemic, city agencies and many organizations collaborated. “COVID brought us closer together,” he said. “Finding ways to keep that mobilization is critical” in preparing for the next crisis.

This story was a collaboration between the Amsterdam News and the Sick Times, a nonprofit newsroom focused on Long COVID, related chronic diseases, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Go With The Flo

FLO

ANTHONY

Tongues are wagging that Teyana Taylor attended the Revolve Festival in Palm Springs, California during the second day of Coachella Music and Arts Festival on April 13. The actress has been very busy. Taylor was recently a guest bartender at Dreamville Festival in Raleigh, North Carolina where she celebrated her new Hennessy Cognac Made for More campaign. Along with “Snowfall” actor Damson Idris, Taylor is the face of the campaign for five cocktails that aim to shake up perceptions of the cognac inside the Hennessy Lounge. ....

Charles Barkley and Gayle King’s weekly talk show on CNN has reportedly ended following a six-month run. The basketball Hall of Famer and CBS Mornings co-host headed a weekly call-in show that debuted back in November but never gained the audience it was expected to. Nielsen ratings showed that the retired NBA player and Oprah Winfrey’s BFF had the lowest-rated primetime weeknight series debut in CNN over the last 10 years......

Author Theresa Merritt-Watson recently published her most recent book “Black Tech: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow–Leaders in Technology,” a children’s book designed to not only educate Black Americans about Black inventors, but all people. Says Merritt-Watson, “‘Black Tech’ is written for first-to-third-grade readers, but its content is applicable to all ages. In the book, a young narrator presents Black inventors and their unique inventions in a colorful way that captivates readers. Gladys West, Alexander Miles, Jesse Russell, and Frederick Jones are among the inventors highlighted in the book.....

Actress, model and philanthropist Amanda Booth will be honored on April 20 at the Jonathan Foundation Spring Fundraiser for Children with Learning Disabilities. The event will take place at the Sheraton Universal Hotel in Universal City, California. Sponsored by L’Oreal Paris, the annual event honors individuals who have supported the foundation and raises funds to address the needs of children with autism, educational, emotional and behavioral challenges. The proceeds go to the student assessments program for children with special needs. Celebrity hosts are James Pickens Jr. and Kathleen Bradley. Other celebrities expected to attend include Marla Gibbs, Freda Payne, Jayne Kennedy Overton, and more....

The National Action Network recently held its 33rd convention with Joy Reid of MSNBC, Dr.

Michael Eric Dyson, and Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie among the high-profile attendees.

President speaks (Bill Moore photos)

Rev. Sharpton and Joy Reid

DEI March

Dr. Michael Eric Dyson and Rev. W Franklyn Richardson

Rev. Al Sharpton Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie and Rev. Richardson

Harlem Stage CEO Patricia Cruz stepping down after 25 years of leadership

By LEAH MALLORY Special to the AmNews

Harlem Stage, the local performing arts center, is marking the end of an era as its CEO and Artistic Director Patricia Cruz steps down from her position, closing the chapter on a 25-year legacy of artistic innovation and representation.

“This is at a point where we’re celebrating the incredible achievements that the institution has had in the past, and looking to what will happen in the future with excitement and real enthusiasm for the change that’s in front of us,” said Cruz.

The performing arts center on Convent Avenue supports artists of color through various programs and opportunities. Cruz is responsible for pioneering efforts to restore the building, an achievement she views with utmost pride.

“The most important thing that I’ve been able to do was to lead the campaign that we did in 1998 when I first came, which was to restore the Harlem Stage gatehouse,” she said, “Our facility is our chief treasure. It is the place where our community gathers, where artists are able to make very important work.”

Several other initiatives have emerged under Cruz’s leadership, including the commissioning program WaterWorks and the dance series E-Moves.

WaterWorks plays a crucial role in supporting artists financially, allowing them to create new art and connect with the community through residencies and educational activities.

“People have this misunderstanding that just because you know an artist’s name means they’ve got money, money, money rolling in,” said Courtney Lee Mitchell, president of the Harlem Stage Board of Directors.

Mitchell started working for Harlem Stage eight years ago, over a decade after Cruz assumed her position. She found Cruz’s influence—known for providing spaces for artists of color and representing of Harlem’s cultural diversity—easily observable

“I think both in terms of the artists that we present, as well as the audiences that we’re working with, we are a community,” Cruz said. “And that community is diverse in terms of age, in terms of economic standing, in terms of racial identity, and the places that they come from. And we’re living in a Harlem that is rapidly changing as well.”

Yet the organization never loses

sight of its original priority—the Black community.

“While we’re being inclusive and making sure that we include other groups of color into what we do, [we’re] also remembering our foundation and the African diaspora that exists in Harlem, and never forgetting that component of who we are at Harlem Stage,” said Mitchell.

Craig Harris, a trombonist who’s been with Harlem Stage for 40 years, praised Cruz for her sincere

diversity efforts, contrasting them with the performative diversity of other organizations.

“[At] a lot of organizations, there’s an insincere sense of diversity—I’m talking about the most prestigious organizations in the world. They need some African people in February, and they need some women in March,” said Harris. “[At Harlem Stage], I have a home, and I know people are sincere about the work and that they’re very sincere about

the work and my growth.”

Cruz’s transition comes in the middle of the organization’s strategic five-year plan, which details the succession process. The plan includes a Succession Committee that is responsible for facilitating the transition and raising $25 million to support programming and staffing.

The organization will announce Cruz’s successor at its 40th Anniversary Gala on June 3, 2024.

“We always thought that this would be a good time for me to step aside and bring new leadership and look to the future of our incredible institution,” said Cruz. Cruz will take a smaller advisory role within the organization on officially stepping down in July, offering her continued guidance and influence as the organization navigates its next chapter. For more info, visit www.harlemstage.org.

Tony Award-winning playwright and composer Stew (left) with Patricia Cruz. (Marc Millman photos)

Flor de Toloache performing at Harlem Stage’s Uptown Nights Latin Music Series in 2023.

Craig Harris in “Tongues of Fire (in a harlem state of mind)” at Harlem Stage, October 2023. (Derrick St. Pierre photo)

Union Matters

Seven weeks in, Mobilization for Justice staff still picketing

By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff

After nearly two months, talks between the staff at Mobilization for Justice (MFJ), an organization that provides free housing legal assistance to low-income New Yorkers, and its management have made little to no progress.

A small crowd of workers showed up at 100 William Street on Friday, April 12 to picket in front of MFJ’s Manhattan offices. MFJ’s legal service workers––its attorneys, paralegals, support staff, receptionists, and front desk workers––have been striking since February 23. All are members of the MFJ Union, which is under the Legal Services Staff Association (LSA Local 2320) and part of the local United Automobile Workers (UAW) union.

Staff members carried picket signs and marched in front of a 10-foot-tall inflatable union rat. They came to show their determination to stay out on strike until they get a new contract.

MFJ Union members circled the front of the entrance to their work building and chanted in call-and-response tempo: “What’s injustice? Union busting! What’s injustice? Union busting!”

“Do what’s fair, do what’s right: MFJ can stop the strike.”

“They say cutbacks, we say fight back! They say cutbacks, we say fight back!”

“We’re on strike! Shut it down: New York is a union town!”

Workers had announced their walkout against MFJ management after being in

negotiations for a new contract since midDecember of 2023. Out of the MFJ Union's 110 members, 93% voted to reject management's last contract offer and declare an indefinite strike.

MFJ Union members have spent the last few weeks picketing at a different location every day: at the steps of the Bronx and Manhattan Housing Courts, in front of MFJ’s Manhattan and Bronx offices, and at City Hall. They are resolute in being seen by management and by the clients they normally work with. They’ve even taken on other actions, like handing out fliers in front of the homes of MFJ board members and rallying neighbors to email and ask board members to fight for workers to have a fair contract.

Weekly bargaining sessions

“We’ve been on strike for almost eight weeks now and they’re not bargaining in good faith,” said Wendy Grullon, who has worked as a paralegal in MFJ’s Bronx office since 2019. “They haven’t really made any movement at the table, so we’re escalating [our picketing] at this point.” Grullon claims that MFJ’s Bronx office has at least 20 vacant positions that it has not been able to fill. That means the staff who do work there often take on extra tasks, even while they’re not receiving a salary they feel they can live on.

“I’m a paralegal and right now the salary I make is not a living wage for the current economic situation in New York City,” Grullon said. “So, I feel like I’m helping people with their housing situations while I’m

last seven weeks, and they know we’re not okay with that [and] they know we won’t vote to ratify that, but that has still been their offer. To me that’s not bargaining in good faith [and] that’s not listening to your employees. And that’s why we’re still out here and we’re not going to stop until we get some sort of relief.”

Calls to the MFJ office for comment about the strike and contract negotiations went to a pre-recorded message.

Meanwhile, a member of the MFJ Union Communications department told the AmNews that the union has also had problems maintaining contact with management representatives.

Management has upheld its offer of 2% raises in the first, second, and third years for the vast majority of MFJ workers––which the union says is a pay cut and is unacceptable. They do appear somewhat interested in the idea of having equitable remote work flexibility, so that support staff, like other MFJ workers, can also do some of their work remotely on a rotating basis. But on crucial issues like healthcare and time off, both sides remain at odds.

having my own housing situation.”

For at least the past month, union and management representatives have been meeting in weekly bargaining sessions, but those sessions haven’t been productive.

“They’re just not moving,” said Nikita Salehi-Azhan, an MFJ tenant advocate and housing attorney. “Like they meet with our bargaining team, but they don’t bargain in good faith. In terms of a salary increase, they don’t move. It’s been a 2% raise for the

One MFJ Union bargaining team member wrote in a report that, “despite our efforts management has shown minimal movement since the strike began particularly regarding overall salary increases and protecting our vulnerable workers. This week we agreed to mediation in hopes for real progress. However, without a substantial shift in management’s approach at the table, we’re unsure if this will help or if it’s just a delay tactic.”

‘Newly Arrived’ and Black: an often overlooked immigrant experience

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

Black migrants from Caribbean and African countries, often lumped together despite differences in their journeys to the U.S., are increasingly banding together to share their untold stories on immigration and New York City’s ongoing asylum seeker crisis, a conversation they say they’ve long been left out of.

More than 182,000 individuals have sought asylum in New York City since April 2022, officials say. Upon arriving in the U.S., the majority of immigrants have to quickly conform to the country’s legal system and culture, which can be tedious, emotional, and overwhelming.

Black migrants coming to the U.S. have the additional challenge of confronting pre-existing racial disparities and a prejudiced criminal justice system upon arrival, something unfamiliar and difficult to

navigate for aspiring citizens, local advocates and electeds say. Viral images of African migrants sleeping outside of Roosevelt Hotel in the city or a white border patrol agent on horseback cracking a whip at Haitian migrants in Texas are all bitter examples of this disparate treatment.

Amaha Kassa, the executive director of African Communities Together (ACT), said that although the journey to the U.S. can be dangerous and life-threatening, it doesn’t deter people who have crossed oceans and continents for a chance at a better life.

“I am speaking on behalf of the African immigrant. I left my country for security. The journey was not easy,” said one woman from Conakry, the capital of Guinea, who was filled with emotion while sharing her experience at an ACT roundtable with U.S. Department of Labor Acting Secretary Julie Su in Harlem last week.

“There were obstacles. I have witnessed women that had sexual abuse during my journey. Rapes. Some women have arrived

with pregnancies.” The woman spoke in French while a member of the AfriLingual Cooperative interpreted beside her, embracing her as she broke down in tears.

African languages and dialects are so numerous that they are difficult to list in totality. At least 25 are commonly listed, including Wolof, Creole, Amharic, Zulu, Hausa, Yoruba, Arabic, French, Swahili, Xhosa, Igbo, Portuguese, Spanish, Somali, Fulani, and English.

Aminata Chabi Leke, an Afrilingual worker-owner who helped found the 10member translator organization, discussed the pressing need for cultural and religious competency, translation and interpretation services, as well as expedited work permits for Black migrants. She suggested that many native African speakers who are gifted with speaking many languages can be trained to assist others that are newly arrived. It’s also crucial that these local groups are provided adequate funding to continue this work, Leke said.

“It’s a great way to integrate a professional workforce because just based on my experience that has been a path for me. Just being able to speak multiple languages,” Leke said at the roundtable. “It’s important to have an organization to facilitate the integration of the newly arrived migrant. It allows them a really easy way to navigate the system. It’s a great alternative as well to do something while they are waiting, maybe for immigration status.”

Senator Cordell Cleare and Assemblymember Al Taylor echoed the need for capable translators and interpreters for Black migrants in their districts in Harlem, and called for more funding in the state budget to be directed to immigration resources.

“It’s been well over two years now that we’ve been addressing the influx of West African migrants in Harlem, which has largely been an invisible crisis. We have encountered primarily young men from West

MFJ Union members were out picketing and circling a 10-foot-tall inflatable union rat in front of their downtown Manhattan work offices. (Karen Juanita Carrillo photo)

Jackie Robinson Day celebrated at Citi Field with Rachel Robinson in attendance

On April 15 in 1947, Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball. We were informed that his widow (he died in 1972), Rachel Robinson, 101, would be in attendance at Citi Field to celebrate Jackie Robinson Day on April 15 of this year in the second Black Legacy Game.

Many Americans are fully aware of Robinson’s achievements on and off the field, but might not know much about his widow. Born Rachel Annetta Isum on July 19, 1922, she is a former professor and registered nurse. Since Jackie’s death, she has been tirelessly committed to keeping her husband’s legacy active through the Jackie Robinson Foundation. Like her husband, Rachel is the recipient of a trove of awards, including the Commissioner’s Historic Achievement Award in 2007 and the Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017.

She met Jackie in 1941 when they were students at UCLA. Four years later, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in nursing. They had three children: Jackie, Jr. (1946–71) and Sharon, born in 1950, and David, born in 1952.

In 1959, she earned her master’s degree in psychiatric nursing from New York University and later worked in the Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s Department of Social and Community Psychiatry for five years. Subsequently, she became an assistant professor at Yale School of Nursing and later director of nursing at the Connecticut Mental Health Center. In 1973, she dedicated her life to the Jackie Robinson Foundation, which has provided educational and leadership opportunities for minority students. Along with Lee Daniels, she co-authored “Jackie Robinson: An Intimate Portrait.”

Rachel Robinson was not about to rest on Jackie’s or her own laurels. We were at Citi Field this April 15 with hopes of being in her immediate presence as she has been for so many Americans.

An uninhabitable earth is NOT inevitable

By JORDAN J. MCINTOSH

The very first time environmental issues alarmed me, I was a middle school student attending Saint Phillips and James, a Catholic school in the Wakefield area of the Bronx. During a lesson on the solar system, my teacher decided to go off-script, straying from the curriculum—he foreshadowed a distant future, featuring an opaque and uninhabitable Earth. After providing the classroom with his gloomy prediction, he instructed us not to worry because the scene he described, according to him, wouldn’t become a reality for centuries. Although he attempted to soften the blow at the end, I couldn’t help but feel helpless and uninspired by his assertion. Instead of downplaying our ability to offset the adverse effects of climate change, it would have behooved him to encourage us to think critically about the role we want to play in Earth’s evolution. Why not challenge us to live in a more sustainable way?

As I grew older, discussions focused on climate change seemed to be happening more frequently. There was a growing number of people championing environmental justice. As the voices of those activists grew louder, so did the voices of the pundits. On one side of the spectrum, you have people like my middle school teacher, convinced that we’ve done irreversible and reprehensible damage to our planet, while on the other side you may hear the complete opposite. Former president Donald Trump has been quoted many times referring to climate change as a mythical hoax. As seemingly credible people stand on both sides of the argument, it can be difficult to form a stance or generate an opinion on the issue, but what if the truth lies somewhere between the two polarized groups?

Evidence suggests that we have done a considerable amount of damage to Earth’s infrastructure, yet I believe we can still make amends. An uninhabitable Earth is not inevitable.

In Ron Gonen’s book, “The Waste-Free World: How the Circular Economy Will Take Less, Make More and Save the Planet,” he lambastes the linear economy, describing it as “wasteful and environmentally catastrophic,” but he doesn’t stop there. Gonen also out -

lines solutions, including, but not limited to, transitioning away from plastic packaging in favor of more biodegradable material, reducing food waste and reducing water waste.

Although Gonen holds an MBA from Columbia, it does not require a man with his level of education or corporate success to ensure that our planet remains habitable; we can each play a significant role in the battle against climate change. My assertion is evidenced by the work being done by the Environmental Leaders of Color.

The Environmental Leaders of Color (ELOC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to preparing marginalized communities for the adverse effects of climate change through advocacy and education. In the summer of 2023, during ELOC’s Student Summer Energy and Environmental Program for Teens, high school students presented a project highlighting the dangers associated with pouring cooking oil down your drain, and the benefits of recycling it. This project and presentation lead to the ELOC students’ “Don’t Strain Your Drain” campaign. Improperly disposing of oil and grease down drains may seem harmless, but over time it leads to significant issues. The substances solidify, causing clogged drain openings, and often leads to flooding. When we think about flooding, the immediate concern is property damage, but the destruction doesn’t stop there. If flood-related property damage isn’t ad-

dressed, moist dry-wall, beams, studs, and flooring create a breeding ground for mold and mildew, which pose serious health risks. The aftermath requires costly oil cleanup from storm drains and repairs for homeowners, renters, and landlords. This financial burden ripples through the community, impacting taxpayers who shoulder the costs through increased taxes for ongoing drain maintenance and cleaning. Unfortunately, these issues disproportionately impact communities of color.

As a solution, ELOC students formed partnerships with two Mount Vernon fire stations to provide residents and small restaurants with a safe alternative option for the disposal of cooking oil. Oil drums were set up at 470 East Lincoln Avenue and 50 West 3rd Street in Mount Vernon for oil drop-offs. This begs the question: If high school students can team up to find solutions to environmental issues, why can’t you? The responsibility to ensure that Earth remains habitable for generations to come falls on all of our shoulders. We can’t afford to become despondent and disengage with the fight against climate change. Earth’s future is in our hands.

Jordan J. McIntosh is a journalist, producer, and activist. He is the associate producer of WABC-TV’s Black public affairs program Here and Now. McIntosh is also a member of the Environmental Leaders of Color’s board of directors.

My party, right or wrong

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

To paraphrase President Theordore Roosevelt, to declare that there must be no criticism of your political party—that you are to stand with the party, right or wrong—is unpatriotic, servile, and morally treasonable to the country.

“My party, right or wrong,” however, is the battle hymn of most American voters. It is the source of multiple political ills: extreme partisanship, political paralysis, the reduction of civic discourse to juvenile name-calling, gerrymandering, and dishonoring democratic processes.

The latter are our deliverance from tyranny or the law of the jungle. Gerrymandering, which encourages partisan mulishness, would be impossible without hard and fast partisan voters. President George Washington’s farewell address feared that such partisanship would tear the county into shreds.

In sum, the state of politics is rotten, and the prime culprits are the us. Thomas Jefferson observed, “The government you elect is the government you deserve.” Elected officials are characteristically constitutionally clueless and ignorant because voters do not demand or know anything better. They customarily vote along party lines without investigating what policies a candidate pro -

poses to advocate or the candidate’s reputation for honesty. A party vote is a lazy person’s vote. No research or understanding of the issues or the candidate is required. George Santos (R-NY), whose infinite lies were in plain view, could never have been elected without blind partisan support. Candidates who reflect the Aristotelian mean, however, are the most trustworthy and deserving.

Only 37 percent of Americans even know the name of their district’s congressional representative. Such ignorance is inexcusable. We live in the digital age. The greatest books, the greatest wisdom, and limitless sources of information are instantly retrievable from the internet. Employed correctly, the internet can be made equivalent to a cost-free education at an elite university. Don’t squander your time on TikTok. Read! Read more! Read still more! As James Madison put it, “Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”

Voters keep sending extreme, uninformed partisans back to Congress or the White House to whom compromise is a dirty

word. The heartland of enlightened politics is compromise, with the implied recognition that you could be wrong. Liberty and justice teach that politics should not be a zero-sum game—that what one side gains, the other side loses. All should be winners in politics, at least in part. We sink or swim together.

The first words of the Constitution are “We the People of the United States.” They are first because ultimate sovereignty resides with the people. No government is legitimate without the consent of the governed. Elected or appointed officials are only temporary custodians of citizen sovereignty. In other words, citizenship is the highest de facto office in the land, with correlative duties.

The greatest menace to freedom is an inert people. Informed and respectful public discussion is obligatory. Citizens who are derelict should be ostracized.

Voters should learn from each other. They should listen to different points of view. There is no reason for disagreement leading to disagreeableness. Their votes should always be available to any candidate, regardless of political affiliation based on issues, democratic temperament, and unwavering defense of constitutional process -

Earth Day

CHRISTINA GREER, PH.D.

es. All citizens should have one common litmus test: They should never vote for a candidate who does not pledge to scrupulously honor the outcome of the election after all legal and constitutional avenues of peaceful redress have been exhausted. Any candidate who refuses to make such a pledge is a traitor to our form of government.

Bitter and rancorous partisan politics are not inherent to our system. The country enjoyed an “Era of Good Feelings” from 1815–1825, when party differences were suppressed or erased. The Constitution does not establish political parties, and the government can operate without them.

This country will have a short shelf life unless citizens repudiate Historian Henry Brooks Adams’s cynical definition of politics as the “systematic organization of hatreds.” Citizens can’t be saved from themselves. Self-government without an informed, moderate, active citizenry is an illusion.

Armstrong Williams (@ ARight-Side) 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 remember celebrating my first Earth Day in middle school, many many years ago. It may just be me, but it seems like April 22 isn’t celebrated in the same way it used to be when I was younger. During my early Earth Day celebrations, I learned about eco-friendly cleaning products, not to run water while brushing my teeth, ways I could be energy efficient in my home and decrease my electricity usage, and how to properly recycle everything from water bottles to paper goods.

For many, the environmental concerns are so large, it is difficult to see themselves as problemsolvers in the larger climate and environmental crises. When major corporations and countries, large and small, are polluting waterways and emitting toxins into the air at alarming rates, many people don’t see how changing their lightbulbs or not running their sprinklers in the summer will make a dent in the larger problem. I can’t say that I blame them for that logic, but we must all continue to contribute to solving environmental problems lest we overuse resources and reach a point of no return. In political science, we call this the tragedy of the commons, when everyone uses a resource and contributes to its scarcity until that resource is overused and nothing is left of it, and no one gets to enjoy it.

tivate elected officials to do what is best for their communities in the short and long run, lest they get taken in by large corporations that effectively use lobbying to continue following harmful environmental agendas.

We know that on a global level, the United States has often paid lip service when it comes to being serious about changing its antiquated ways. Indeed, the U.S. has gone around the world, finger-wagging at several nations to do better. However, it is imperative that the United States and its more than 330 million residents think more seriously about the ways we—as individuals and as a collective—are contributing to climate crises.

How will you celebrate Earth Day 2024 this April 22? Will you and your family make a plan to reduce your environmental footprint? Will you recommit to recycling in your home, school, or office? Will you do research about how to help decrease emissions? However you choose to celebrate, it is my hope that you will use this Earth Day as a way to recommit yourself to the collective good. It is also my hope that you will inspire young people to think of ways they can be leaders in the fight to save our planet.

Indeed, much more pressure has to be put on our elected officials to punish corporations that continue to violate environmental agreements. We must also mo-

Christina Greer, Ph.D., is an associate professor at Fordham University; author of “Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream”; and co-host of the podcast FAQ-NYC and host of The Blackest Questions podcast at TheGrio; and a 2023–24 Moynihan Public Scholars Fellow at CCNY.

Caribbean Update

Guyana steps up military spending as Venezuela presses territorial threat

BY BERT WILKINSON

Special to the AmNews

Guyana’s government is shopping around the globe for equipment to boost its military capabilities in the face of territorial threats from neighboring Venezuela, acquiring transport planes from India, sourcing patrol vessels from France, and helicopters and other hardware from the U.S. among other nations, using millions of dollars from its newly found offshore oil wealth, officials have said.

In the past week, the Caribbean Community (Caricom) nation signed a $42 million deal with France to acquire a brand-new offshore military patrol vessel capable of patrolling the high seas and monitoring offshore oil assets and waters claimed by Venezuela. Venezuela recently promulgated a law annexing Guyana’s mineral and oil-rich western Essequibo region, which it has claimed for decades as its own. The promulgation followed a controversial earlyDecember referendum to incorporate the region as Venezuela’s.

The French vessel will be put into service next year along with two Metal Shark military patrol vessels from the U.S. that will arrive in the coming weeks. The local military has already ordered four medium-range helicopters from Bell Corporation of Texas, a number of long-range drones, and night vision equipment, among other hardware, from the U.S. as well. And just last week, two 19-seater Dornier 228 fixed-wing aircraft arrived from India to join the growing fleet of the Guyana Defense Force as tensions between Guyana and Venezuela linger amid the recent annexation of the Essequibo and the creation of a Venezuelan state known as the Guayana Esequiba.

Guyana President Irfaan Ali has said that efforts to acquire other equipment to boost the capability of the military are ongoing. Initial spending is around $201 million.

“As we grow, the threats are going to become more sophisticated,” Ali told a recent military officers conference. “While we are a peaceful state, no one should underestimate our resolve at protecting our

territory and safeguarding national sovereignty. Let not our peaceful intent be mistaken for weakness. As I said recently, we will not bend to threats nor cower in the face of intimidation.”

The rebuilding of the military comes as a string of senior western and American government officials have visited the country in recent months, including Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, CIA Director William. J. Burns last month, U.S. Southern Military Commander Gen. Laura Richardson, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Western Hemisphere Daniel P. Erikson, and Western Hemisphere Senior Director Juan González, among others. French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné has also come calling, while the British have sent David Rutley, its minister of the Americas, Caribbean, and Overseas Territories for high-level talks as he reiterated unwavering support for Guyana.

The agreement with the French came in the same week that Venezuela filed its legal defense of its claims

to the Essequibo at the World Court in the Netherlands, beating the court by just a few hours.

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodrigues criticized the French acquisition in a social media posting this week, noting that the military build-up is part of a plot with the U.S. and western nations to ferment instability in Latin America. President Nicolas Maduro has also accused the U.S. of building military bases in Guyana, charges that Washington has denied.

“The false victim Guyana buys an ocean patrol vessel from a French company. Guyana, together with the United States, its Western partners, and its former colonial master, constitute a threat to the peace of our region. Venezuela will continue to monitor these actions by Guyana and will persist on the path of international legality,” Rodrigues said in the same week Guyana has asked the United Nations Security Council to discuss Venezuelan threats in a closeddoor session in New York.

Putting the spike in spending in context, Professor Nigel Westmaas

of Hamilton College in New York says the Venezuelan threat is both real and existential.

“One of the most pressing reasons for Guyana to increase its military spending is the long-standing territorial dispute with Venezuela over the Essequibo region, for which it has regional and significant UN support,” Westmaas said.

“Venezuela’s economic and political crises and President Maduro’s public statements and actions have exacerbated tensions, and Guyana may feel the need to strengthen its military as a deterrent against potential aggression.”

Westmaas added that “if the country’s focus shifts too heavily toward military expansion at the expense of critical infrastructure, such as the electrical grid, this could lead to more public dissatisfaction.”

Regular blackouts could undermine confidence in the government’s ability to use new wealth effectively for public welfare, which would have an impact on national unity—vital for maintaining Guyana’s territorial integrity alongside increased defense efforts.

USCIS extends automatic extension period for immigrants’ work permits

FELICIA PERSAUD IMMIGRATION KORNER

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has initiated a pivotal rule change to safeguard the work permits of thousands of immigrants facing expiration risks.

This significant adjustment follows extensive advocacy efforts led by New York Caribbeanborn Congressmember Adriano Espaillat and Senator Elizabeth Warren, backed by 70 members of Congress, and months of concerted lobbying efforts to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) last October.

Espaillat hailed the development as a significant victory for working immigrants and their families nationwide. He empha -

sized the crucial role immigrants play in the nation’s workforce and expressed relief that their work permits, jobs, and livelihoods will no longer be jeopardized solely by processing delays.

The latest temporary rule from USCIS extends the current 180day automatic extension period for immigrants’ work permits (EADs) to 540 days. The temporary final rule will also apply to eligible EAD renewal applicants who file their Form I-765 applications in a timely and proper manner during a 540-day period that begins with the rule’s publication in the Federal Register.

This extension grants USCIS ample time to process immigrants’ work permit renewal applications, which ensures stability for American businesses amid nationwide labor shortages and shields immigrants from involuntary job loss due to

USCIS’ often-protracted application processing times.

The measure will prevent already work-authorized noncitizens from having their employment authorizations and documentation lapse while waiting for USCIS to adjudicate their pending EAD renewal applications and better ensure continuity of operations for U.S. employers. This is the latest step by the Biden-Harris administration to get authorized individuals into the workforce, supporting the economies where they live.

“Over the last year, the USCIS workforce reduced processing times for most EAD categories, supporting an overall goal to improve work access to eligible individuals,” said USCIS Director Ur M. Jaddou. “However, we also received a record number of employment authorization applications, impacting

our renewal mechanisms. Temporarily lengthening the existing automatic extension up to 540 days will avoid lapses in employment authorizations. At the same time, this rule provides DHS with an additional window to consider long-term solutions by soliciting public comments and identifying new strategies to ensure those noncitizens eligible for employment authorization can maintain that benefit.”

By extending the validity period of certain EAD categories and streamlining adjudication processes, USCIS aims to provide greater stability and certainty to individuals seeking employment authorization. This temporary measure, applicable to eligible applicants who have filed EAD renewal applications since October 27, 2023, will mitigate potential disruptions in employment authorization for nearly 800,000 renewal applicants, spanning

various categories including asylees, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) beneficiaries, and green card applicants.

Furthermore, approximately 60,000 to 80,000 employers stand to benefit from this extension because it averts potential disruptions to their operations.

This development marks a significant milestone in ongoing USCIS efforts to support workforce integration and streamline processes, ultimately fostering a more inclusive and dynamic economy. USCIS has invited public feedback to inform future regulatory actions, underscoring the agency’s commitment to transparency and responsiveness.

For further details, visit uscis. gov.

Felicia J. Persaud is the publisher of NewsAmericasNow.com, a daily news outlet focusing on Black immigrant issues.

John Jay College’s Data Collaborative for Justice expands on findings for racial disparities in NYPD criminal summons issuance

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

Last June, the Amsterdam News reported initial findings by the John Jay College’s Data Collaborative that 85 percent of NYPD-issued summons in 2022 disproportionately went to Black and brown residents. The full report was published last March, expanding on the disparities with low-level offense enforcement.

Such findings stem from the city’s official police reform plan, which the department implemented in 2021 in compliance with then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s statewide executive order.

“There were explicit goals in the police reform plan and they were to have lighter-touch enforcement to unnecessary contact with law enforcement or possible violence on minor matters,” said report co-author Michael Rempel. “In addition, there was an explicit goal, [to] reduce any known disparities in law enforcement contact based on people’s race, ethnicity, and income.”

Criminal summons are substituted for arrests if an individual is charged with a lower-level, non-fingerprintable offense. Issuance typically tackles “quality of life” concerns like fighting and disor-

derly conduct. Police typically move to arrests when enforcing these offenses if a violation arises when identifying the charged person.

Criminal summons differ from desk appearance tickets (DATs), which simply instruct individuals to attend a court date and do not detail formal charges. But both eschew pre-arraignment detention, allowing those issued to return to court on their own. That practice “tends to be heavily discretionary” according to the research, just as DATs are, as reported by the Amsterdam News last month.

White residents received just 8 percent of summons issued citywide between 2020 and 2022. Even in higher-income ZIP codes, Black and brown residents were issued more than 70 percent of the criminal complaints. Lower-income neighborhoods saw the widest disparities, with Black and brown residents receiving 97% of summons in ZIP codes with median incomes under $35,000.

2022 also marked the first increase this decade in summons issuance, jumping from 22,603 in 2021 to 36,621. While the uptick aligns with the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rising numbers notably exclude any mairjuana enforcement, which made up 29% of criminal summons issued just two years previ -

ously; marijuana possession was once a prominent charge, but the drug’s legalization led to no summons for that issued in 2022.

Researchers point to specific NYPD precincts in the Bronx and Brooklyn, such as Mott Haven’s 40th, as fueling the increase.

“One of the biggest things that pops out is [that] four of the city’s 77 precincts issued almost 22% of all summonses in 2022, so there’s such a small portion of precincts that are really driving this increase,” said report co-author Anna Stenkamp. “When looking at the neighborhoods based on ZIP codes, you can see that…the top ZIP codes have a majority or plurality Black or Hispanic population.”

The study attributes the previously steady reduction in criminal summons issuance to the Criminal Justice Reform Act (CJRA), which redirected five low offenses, including littering and public urination, from the criminal courts to civil tickets back in 2016.

When the City Council passed the CJRA, nearly 300,000 summons were issued the previous year, with open container violations—one of five offenses reclassified as civil summons by the law—exceeding 96,000. Even with 2022’s aberrant increase, issuance has plummeted dramatically since the early-mid 2010s.

The residual effects of the pandemic on criminal summons are not linear, according to the study. While stay-at-home orders probably led to a decrease in enforcement, the urgency about containing the spread of COVID-19 led to unique offenses for criminal summonses like mask-wearing.

A criminal summons rarely leads to direct carceral penalties: Just 9 percent ended in a conviction in 2022. Meanwhile, 63 percent were dismissed and 28 percent ended in an ACD, which punts the case to a future date but increases the probability of a dismissal should the defendant stay out of trouble. However, penalties are frequently harsh for those charged in what the authors called a “process of punishment,” in which residents have to catch up after lost time and wages from frequent court appearances.

NYPD did not respond to requests for comment.

Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who 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.

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City Council members join Garifuna Heritage Month celebration in City Hall

Councilmembers Hon. Althea Stevens of the Bronx with Leader Amanda Farias, Rita Joseph, and Julie Menin, honoring Arnol Gulty-Marthinez, Adrian Cacho, and Evelyn Arauz Chamorro at Garifuna Heritage Month (March 11–April 12) Celebration. Councilmember Stevens welcomed the Wabafu Garifuna Dance Theater. (Bill Moore photos)

Arts & Entertainment

NY born & bred opera singer Justin Austin stars in ‘COTTON’ at 92Y April 18

By NADINE MATTHEWS Special to the AmNews

Perhaps it was inevitable that multifaceted singer Justin Austin, who stars in the upcoming New York City premiere of the operatic production “COTTON” at the 92nd Street Y, would be singing behind the likes of Mary J. Blige and Elton John before he was even 20 years old.

Austin, who attended the Choir Academy of Harlem, LaGuardia High School, and received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, recently told the Amsterdam News that not only was he exposed to music early in life, he was surrounded by it in his immediate and extended family. “Both of my parents were opera singers,” he said. “They met at the Juilliard School. My uncles and aunts are opera singers and many of my parents’ friends are opera singers. Even my babysitters, when my parents had date nights, were singers, so music was always a part of my life from the very beginning.”

“COTTON” is not a full-length opera, but a song cycle. Inspired by and set against the backdrop of the photography of John Dowell, it is an immersive work dramatizing African American history and resilience. Composed by Damien Geter and originally commissioned by the organizers of Philadelphia’s Lyric Fest, it incorporates the words of poets Nikki Giovanni, Michael Weaver, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, and others, with Laura Ward on piano.

Austin also said that it was later on in life, after encountering other Black opera singers who reported feelings of isolation, when he realized how lucky he was. “I realized I was always surrounded by Black opera singers. I grew up with lots of Black opera singers, so it felt normal to me. It shielded me from the insecurities of feeling like I may not be invited to certain rooms.”

As an adult, he has been encouraged by how the opera world is evolving by telling more stories that originate with Black cast members. “More Black stories are being told, such as ‘Fire Shut Up in My Bones,’ ‘Champion,’ and ‘COTTON,’” Austin said. “They’re no longer just relying on ‘Porgy and Bess.’ The stories are not just being written but people want to produce them. People want to put them on their stages, people want to buy tickets.”

Austin also believes that adding Black artists who aim to do what are considered Black stories gives the companies the op-

portunity to cast them in more traditional or classic operas. “It allows the companies to kind of see you and hear you in a different light, and they want to know where else they can put you. You can tell them, ‘Hey, I sing Mozart. I sing Donizetti, I sing Rossini,’ and then they can make that happen, which is very positive.”

About “COTTON,” Austin said, “‘COTTON’ is probably one of the most beautiful and interesting projects I’ve ever been a part of. It is told through fully multi-faceted, multi-dimensional multi-media. It represents a very dark time in our country, but it also represents hope, the future, and how we are economically powerful.”

As Austin explained the origin of the production, “Dowell took a trip to the South and was really moved by the beauty of the cotton fields. He took these gorgeous photos of cotton and he ended up superimposing them onto photos of Harlem. He has photos of the cotton kind of wrapped around buildings on Wall Street. Those were the photos

that really affected and struck the co-founders of Lyric Fest, who decided to commission a song cycle dedicated to these photos.” “COTTON” sets poetry around these photos. “They asked Black poets from all different generations to write whatever they felt was appropriate—whatever came from their heart—when they looked at these photos,” Austin said. “They all were uniquely tragic, uplifting, and everything that you could imagine a piece about cotton to be about.” Ultimately, they ended up with an eight-movement cycle where each song has a different librettist. Originally, opera legend Denyce Graves was slated to perform “COTTON” solo. It was later suggested that a male point of view was also needed, so parts for baritone were written. When Austin’s name was floated as fitting for the role, Graves and Ward, who were unfamiliar with him, went to see him perform in Lynn Nottage’s “Intimate Apparel” at Lincoln Center. “They came to my show and they became

fans instantly, and they said ‘Yes, we have to have Justin,’” he recalled.

Austin is aware that many New Yorkers see opera as something foreign to them, even with some of the greatest stages being in New York City. “People can feel like they’re not intellectual enough or they’re not cultured, and that’s not the case,” he said. “If you go see a movie, and you don’t [like it], you don’t leave the theater saying, ‘I don’t like movies.’ You just didn’t like that movie. Go see a different movie. Same with opera: If you don’t like one, go see another.”

People might also think that opera is about only people who are wealthier than they are—but “the most popular opera, ‘La Boheme,’ is about people who can’t pay their rent,” Austin said. “No, it’s not fancy at all. It’s real. If you allow people the opportunity to understand that, people will realize this is accessible. ‘This is something that I can be interested in. This is for me.’”

For more info, visit https://www.92ny.org/ event/denyce-graves-and-justin-austin.

“COTTON” star Justin Austin (Matt Brown Studio photo)

‘The Wiz’ is back on Broadway!

By LINDA ARMSTRONG Special to the AmNews

Proclaim it throughout the land: “The Wiz” is back on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre!

Originally premiering on Broadway in 1975, the production went on to win seven Tony Awards, and this beloved musical has returned with Nichelle Lewis making a charming Broadway debut as Dorothy and approaching the role with sweetness, innocence, and an amazing vocal instrument.

Avery Wilson is adorable and funny as Scarecrow; Phillip Johnson Richardson is phenomenal as Tinman (he can sing and dance his a—off); and Kyle Ramar Freeman is absolutely delightful as Lion. Deb -

orah Cox is stunning as Glinda; when she sings “If You Believe,” you will be moved!

Wayne Brady as the Wiz is wonderful. He looks like he’s having a great time, and that man can dance .

At the performance I attended, Allyson Kaye Daniel played Aunt Em/Evillene. When she sang “Don’t Nobody Bring Me No Bad News,” the theater went wild! The stage was filled with talented ensemble members who performed ballet, jazz, and hip hop moves courtesy of choreographer JaQuel Knight.

The storyline has been updated a bit for a new generation of viewers. The musical features a book by William F. Brown, and music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls with songs that will make you laugh or will touch your heart. When Dorothy sings “Be a Lion”

with Lion, Scarecrow, and Tinman, you will feel chills; in fact, quite a few numbers gave me chills to my bones, in a good way. The harmonies of these four characters are beautifully executed. I knew there would be some foot-tapping moments with the beloved and familiar repertory of songs, and I was right. Schele Williams directs this beloved musical to deliver an updated, fun take on this classic. There are eye-popping costumes, creating that ’70s vibe and working the vibrant colors, from costume designer Sharen Davis. The choreography by JaQuel Knight, with additional material from Amber Ruffin, will definitely have you cheering. Hannah Beachler’s scenic design is marvelous to behold.

Every creative aspect of this production is captivating, including lighting design by Ryan J. O’Gara; sound design by Jon Weston; music supervision, orchestrations, and music arrangements by Joseph Joubert; hair and wig design by Charles G. LaPointe; stupendous makeup design of Kirk Cambridge Del-Pesche, which marvelously created the characters of Tinman, Scarecrow, and Lion; and video and projection design by Daniel Brodie. The powerhouse production team also includes Kristin Caskey, Mike Isaacson, Kandi Burruss, Todd Tucker, and more.

Ease yourself on down the road to the Marquis Theatre and don’t miss this marvelous redux.

For more info, visit www.wizmusical.com.

Deborah Cox as Glinda in “Believe in Yourself.” (Jeremy Daniel photos) Wayne Brady as the Wiz.

The Emerald City

A scene from “The Wiz,” playing at the Marquis Theatre (l–r): Kyle Ramar Freeman, Nichelle Lewis, Phillip Johnson Richardson, and Avery Wilson.

Avery Wilson as Scarecrow.

Nichelle Lewis as Dorothy and Melody Betts as Aunt Em in “The Feeling We Once Had.”

Ballet Hispanico’s City Center season, April 24–28, is a celebration

By ZITA ALLEN Special to the AmNews

Eduardo Vilaro, the artistic director of Ballet Hispanico for the past 15 years, is seated at the front of the spacious rehearsal studio in the dance company’s Upper West Side headquarters. His back is to the wall-towall mirror and his gaze is fixed on the phalanx of some 14 dancers whipping across the dance floor, executing a succession of leaps, turns, and kicks, and devouring space with rhythmic precision and intoxicating speed. They are magically mesmerizing, whether performing the controlled precision of classical ballet or, knees bent, arms outstretched, and torsos tilted, executing the undulating ripples that begin at the base of the spine and snake upward to the top of the head, replicating ritual dances found along the African diaspora.

When the dust settles, at the center of this activity are two charismatic male dancers, one tall, dark, and at first detached; the other fair, shorter, and quietly in control as he manipulates the tilt of the other’s head or the placement of an arm. The power dynamic is clear until it shifts dramatically.

The two dancers at the center of the swirling vortex that is Vilaro’s ballet “Buscando a Juan” (“Looking for Juan”) are Leonardo Brito and Antonio Cangiano. The dance, which will be premiered during the company’s upcoming season, depicts the complex, multi-faceted relationship between the Spanish painter Diego Velázquez and his recently highlighted Afro Hispanic slave-turned-assistant-turnedmaster painter, Juan De Pareja (1606–70).

Vilaro pointed out that one form of this ballet was originally commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art for its 2023 exhibition of Pareja’s work. With the Afro Hispanic painter as the central character, Vilaro said his dance seeks to capture the complex intersectionality of the Hispanic and African diasporas. It is an intersectionality embodied not only by the Afro Hispanic painter but also by Ballet Hispanico through both its dancers and its repertoire—a core concept since dancer/choreographer Tina Ramirez (1929–2022) founded Ballet Hispanico back in 1970.

During a recent interview with the Amsterdam News, Vilarjo spoke of the diasporic nature of the company. “I’m Cuban and so I have that in my DNA and in the movement,” he said. “I thought this work was the perfect opportunity to bring that forth because, even in the Latin culture, so many people don’t understand how much the African diaspora runs through our veins, our movement, and our music. Also, this dance, ‘Buscando a Juan,’ is accompanied by the music of an Argentinian Jewish composer, who is also fascinated by syncretization. The music is a mass and, if you listen closely, you hear Puerto Rican music, African music, and the last song is a Kaddish, which is Jewish prayer, but there are these drums, which is perfect because we’re looking for who Juan de Pareja is.

“While we know the diaspora he’s from, we

don’t know that much about him, but we are taken by that intersectionality of cultures because it is us.”

Vilaro said that many of the company’s dancers come from different places along the Hispanic diaspora. “Leo is Brazilian, which is also Latinidad, and there are dancers from Mexico, Puerto Rico, and more. I love dancers [who] come from a variety of backgrounds, including technical training backgrounds,” he said, underscoring the richness that technical diversity also brings to the company. “A lot of the dancers have ballet backgrounds and more. For example, Leo studied at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, but before that, he was studying in Brazil, so he also has an Afro Brazilian dance background.

“In fact, when Tina [Ramirez] started the company, she drew on works by Trinidadian-born Geoffrey Holder [and] African Americans Alvin Ailey, Talley Beatty, and George Faison, among others. Those are the powerhouses that were here,” Vilaro said in offering more examples of the company’s intersectionality.

Today, Ballet Hispanico is the largest Latinx/é/Hispanic [cq] cultural organization in the United States and has been recognized by the Ford Foundation as one of America’s Cultural Treasures, Every program expands on Ramirez’s original vision, which includes the upcoming City Center season celebrating Vilaro’s 15th season at the forefront of the company with three repertory performances, an En Familia Matinee, and a Gala Performance.

Performance highlights include the world premiere of “Buscando a Juan”; reconstruction of ”House of Mad’moiselle,” a celebration of Latina fierceness and representation by choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa; and “18 + 1” by Gustavo Ramírez Sansano, a romp through some of Perez Prado’s big band hits with Ramírez’s signature athletic

movement vocabulary; and more.

The En Familia Matinee offers a journey through Latin American culture and traditions as Vilaro leads the audience on an interactive and fun-filled afternoon featuring excerpts from classic pieces in the company’s repertory; a restaging of Talley Beatty’s “Recuerdo de Campo Amor”;’ ”Sombrerísimo” by Anna-

belle Lopez Ochoa; Geoffrey Holder’s Caribbean-influenced “Danse Creole”; and the Latin social dance extravaganza “Club Havana” by Pedro Ruiz. With cultural and historical content and movement exercises for the whole family, the audience is in for a performance to remember. For more info, visit www.ballethispanico. org and www.nycitycenter.org.

THUR, MAY 16 | 8PM

Nona Hendryx and an all-woman band pay tribute to the ferocious funk disrupter and agitator Betty Davis, whose influence rippled through the decades.

Musical director Etienne Stadwijk.

Rehearsals for “Buscando a Juan” (Paula Lobo photos)

Eduardo Vilaro, Artistic Director and CEO of Ballet Hispanico (Rachel Neville photo)

HOROSCOPES BY KNOWYOURNUMB3RS

Dec 22

Jan 21

By SUPREME GODDESS KYA

Jan 22

Feb 19

WWW.KYAFRENCH.COM | CONSULTATIONS 866-331-5088

Here comes the old and new with the current. Remember, moving forward is the best action. The old news, folks, things, and familiarity will appear for whatever the cause is to settle and even things out or make amends. There’s always a lesson with a message in everything we do on a daily basis. Finance, romance, home, and any innovation or renovation are in your forecast this week. From April 18 around 10:10 a.m. EST until April 20 around 11:00 p.m. EST, simply love the things you do as you continue to build on your foundation of your dream to secure the establishment. Obstacles appear as you break through the barriers to progress forward in life.

The wait-and-see process attached to all sorts of information from north, south, east and west is coming to you. Decipher what information sources you trust and run with, since everything is not yet clear. Have a bit of patience this week to fill in the details of it all. It’s a week to work on your humanitarian efforts to assist when the spirit calls on you and be silent about everything else you are working on. From April 20 around 11:08 p.m EST until April 23 around 11:15 a.m. EST, review, revise, rejuvenate, study, and seek what you need to know. What you seek will respond to you. Seek and you shall find, ask and it shall be given to you.

Neptune in Pisces is currently reaching its last degree before its retrograde on July 2, 2024. What you gained here is invaluable information. Take heed of what you are doing now and the changes occurring in your life. These times are critical until Neptune in Pisces fully enters into Aries for a new beginning and direction. Stay focused on what’s ahead as distractions can either be tasteful or distasteful. From April 23 around 11:20 a.m. EST until April 25 around 9:30 p.m. EST, put in the work by all means necessary in areas of health, education, wealth, emotions, spirituality, creativity, and finance. Only you can stop you—no one else can. Be mindful of what and who you allow in your environment. You have work to do and time is of the essence.

Feb 20

Mar 20

It’s a cosmic week to be aware of the physical and spiritual realm showing up in your life, be it a sudden meeting, messages, signs, symbols, a touch, a thought, something you do, or things you see. There is a feeling that’s consciously making you aware of what’s happening. Channel your emotions when you feel you need to react, just know this cycle week is a test to see how well you overcome certain behaviors and patterns. The hidden things will show up when you least expect them. As the night begins on April 25 around 9:37 p.m. EST, go deep within to find peace in your heart and in your plans and also in how you operate. Life is always changing to bring out the best version of self. Believe what you see and hear at certain moments throughout your day.

Mar 21

Apr 21

It’s a cycle week to attend community activities, partake in organizational establishments, and meet to converse on certain topics for a resolution. The above information applies to home, be it getting more organized, attending business matters or taking inventory. Listening is key this week and remember, the less you say, the more you gain as things will be revealed to you. From April 18 around 10:10 a.m. EST until April 20 around 11:00 p.m. EST, with the current grand conjunction of Uranus and Jupiter in Taurus, expect things to occur swiftly. Your ancestors are in the background cheering you on, opening the roads for you. That awkward feeling you get is just the beginning until Jupiter leaves the sign of Taurus, passing you all the notes and information needed for the next generation.

Apr 22

May 21

Short- and long-distance traveling for business, work, and pleasure, and handing business from afar are featured in your weekly forecast. Most importantly, make sure you are paid for the work you do, know what you are getting into, and have a plan. Things may get tough this cycle week which is part of the task or job to reach certain avenues. From April 20 around 11:08 p.m EST until April 23 around 11:15 a.m. EST, “To whom much is given, much will be required” (Luke 12:48); consider the required sweat, a bit of pressure, and the time and effort it took to be where you are now. The rewards are in the process, the recognition is after. Spread your wisdom and build your dream enterprise. Time waits for no one, not even the dead, yet you can run red lights during a funeral procession.

May 22

June 21

June 22

July 23

Leo

July 24

Aug 23

Aug 24

Sept 23

Libra

Sept 24

Oct 23

21

-David Burkus

The celestial planets in the cosmos are in the congregation, attending meetings with the board of the supreme beings and ancient wise-counsel ones, distributing and reforming the old way of doing things. The Rebirth of a New Nation is ushering in an old grandmother/grandfather way. Just as a retail store, a mall, liquor store, gas station, a company or any other organization experiences the process of “under new management,” challenges occur and things shut down as the new agenda is out in position for forward movement. Challenges arise due to folks not wanting to let go of a played-out system that’s no longer operating the same. The energy of the Uranus and Jupiter harmony conjunction at 21 degrees on April 20 has a lagging effect before and after. Jupiter’s recent retrograde in 2023 was an appetizer; now the entree is being prepared with dessert. This is the old-school flip of the coin, the “I heard it through the grapevine” information spreading high and low as this world is trading places under new management. Remember, all things are possible, and trust your gut. “Different teams require different team hiring methods.”

It’s a cycle week to put the pedal to the metal and accelerate. This acceleration requires change, and if you are not willing, then no worries as the universe will make sure you get to moving. Decide on whatever it is and develop a plan to reach those end results. Have you ever wondered why you see the end result and not the details of the process? Well that part is for you to fill in the blanks until the vision of the end result occurs. From April 23 around 11:20 a.m. EST until April 25 around 9:30 p.m. EST, make the plan simple and work towards it every day. Control your emotions and if it helps, purge whatever it is in you that keeps you in comfortable safe mode. Get in the risk mode and see what happens when you take a leap.

Your health takes primary focus this week. Safeguard your ears, nose, and throat and be mindful of where you are stepping. Otherwise, this is a phenomenal week of events gathering around high-profile people, doing work in the community, and of you having a new beginning. As a reminder, look back on the process of your progression of where you are today, of the people who were in position, and even the fines that faded away. As the night begins on April 25 around 9:37 p.m. EST, the folks who are in your background as your cheerleaders are meant to be there for guidance, as are those special unique folks. You have the plan and now it’s time to make a grand move or entrance of a new beginning heading into new different directions.

Whatever you do this cycle week make it solid, as your words have an impact on those with whom you interact. When you have talent, utilize it to the maximum to receive the best benefits. This is not the time to procrastinate. From April 18 around 10:10 a.m. EST until April 20 around 11:00 p.m. EST, the time is now. You have a lot of tools and resources within your repertoire that you can use to create and now it’s time to create a master plan to tie it all together. Life is one big hub and everybody knows somebody yet it’s who you know that can assist to open certain doors that not everyone is privy to.

It’s a cycle within which to create, sketch, outline, and draw out the foundation of your plan. Take each subject line of your outline and add a story to the foundation of your vision. Only then will you gain a clear innerstanding of what you are creating. More information will come to you as you continue to work on and develop the mission ahead. From April 20 around 11:08 p.m EST until April 23 around 11:15 a.m. EST, decisions linger for a bit only to get your mind to gather up a report to send information for new concepts, ideas and a way to proceed. The right people will show up when it’s time for them to play their part.

It’s time for self improvement in areas of your choice; also, schedule some solitude time to rejuvenate your body, mind and soul. For this cycle week you are definitely going on a ride spiritually, traveling in the cosmos then resurfacing back on the physical realm. Take notes of what you can recall. The facts that stick out more relate to you in some shape or another. On April 23 around 11:20 a.m. EST until April 25 around 9:30 p.m. EST, sudden departures are indicated, either a trip, or even just leaving the home to run an errand and meeting someone who inspires you to follow through on your plans. We are all walking testimony of our life and how it’s unfolding for others to see the good and indifferent. No matter what line of work you choose you must apply yourself. Take the initiative.

Rewards of financial gain come in the form of assisting the elders, community work, finishing up any loose ends, and clearing space with a vibrant attitude. Polish up on the way you operate and connect with people, as you are plugging into a village of resources, contacts, you name it. You are a phone call away. As the night begins on April 25 around 9:37 p.m. EST, be clear and concise in what you mean and in the work you do for others. Balance, boundaries, and benefits are all needs that need to be met for all parties. No one is left behind or cut out of the deal. All parties involved have a seat at the dinner table.

AmNews Food

A salad to satisfy the senses

By KELLY TORRES

Special to the AmNews

Whether it is the canned version your granny used to buy, the bougie farmer’s market find, or your typical supermarket green beans that are sitting in a large pile next to the loose Brussels sprouts at the bottom rung of the vegetable aisle, to me, green beans are the chosen veggie for those picky guests. It seems to me that everyone loves green beans.

Green beans are an excellent choice to add to salads, especially when blanched in boiling water for 1 ½ minutes and then shocked in an ice bath. This retains the crunch and also provides a vibrant, green color.

This salad was inspired by my craving for that creamy crunch found in Caesar’s salad and the protein-rich boiled eggs and tuna found in a Niçoise—except I didn’t want either, so I created a salad that satisfies some of their respective components. The addition of an Italian

delicacy called bottarga is grated over the plated salad, offering a briny, seafood flavor that complements the eggs and the white sauce dressing.

Bottarga is often imported from Italy and is the roe sac found in gray mullet fish. Because it is a laborious process to dry and cure bottarga, this food item is costly, ranging somewhere upward of $20. Bottarga can be enjoyed in many ways, including by grating a hefty portion straight onto cheesy pasta dishes and softly scrambled eggs. If bottarga is not your cup of tea, try substituting grated parmesan over this salad instead.

Green Beans with Baby Gem, Medium-Boiled Eggs, & Grated Bottarga Serves 4

Ingredients for the salad:

1 lb green beans, trimmed, blanched & shocked, cut into 1 ½-inch pieces

4 heads of baby gem lettuce, cut into bite sized pieces, washed & spin-dried

4 medium eggs, boiled and halved

Croutons, desired amount

White sauce dressing, desired amount

2-inch chunk bottarga, grated generously

Ingredients for the croutons:

4 slices of sourdough bread, pulled apart by hand into bite-sized pieces

Extra virgin olive oil, generous drizzle

Salt & pepper, to taste

Dried Italian seasoning, to taste

Instructions for the croutons:

Set broiler to high heat.

Spread torn pieces of bread evenly onto a sheet tray.

Drizzle extra virgin olive oil over the torn pieces of bread. Sprinkle the bread with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning, to taste.

Broil for 1 to 2 minutes, in 30- and 45-second increments. Set aside.

Ingredients for the white sauce:

⅓ cup mayonnaise

⅓ cup sour cream

½ tsp hot mustard (such as Colman’s mustard)

2 cloves of garlic, grated

2 tsp rice wine vinegar

¼ tsp garlic salt

Instructions for the white sauce:

In a mixing bowl, thoroughly combine the mayonnaise, sour cream, mustard, grated garlic, rice wine vinegar, and garlic salt. Set aside.

Assembly:

Combine baby gem lettuce and green beans in a bowl, toss until combined. Add desired amount of greens to serving plates. Top with halved eggs and croutons.

Pour a desired amount of white sauce over the salads.

Grate bottarga generously over each salad.

Enjoy!

‘The Outsiders’ is outstanding on Broadway!

By LINDA ARMSTRONG Special to the AmNews

“The Outsiders,” playing at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on West 45th Street, is an example of Broadway beauty. This musical has heart, strength, love, struggle, tragedy and triumph, and in no way sugarcoats life. It tells a poignant story of the Greasers, poor youth in 1967 Tulsa, Oklahoma and the Socs, rich youth. It also tells the story of three brothers trying to live after their parents die in a car accident. The new musical, based on the novel by S. E. Hinton and Francis Ford Coppola’s motion picture, has an intoxicatingly engaging book by Adam Rapp and Justin Levine with phenomenal music and lyrics by Jamestown Revival (Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance) and Justin Levine.

Levine also provides music supervision, orchestration, and arrangements.

Ponyboy Curtis introduces us to his older brothers, Darrel and Sodapop. We also hear about his plight as a young person from the poor side of town and how he and his friends are bullied by the Socs. But he is driven by his talent and a dream. His best friend is Johnny Cade. Dallas Winston tries to look out for Ponyboy.

The songs in this musical may bring tears to your eyes. You will definitely experience thrills, chills, joy and sadness throughout the many incredibly moving and unforgettable moments. Danya Taymor’s dynamic direction will leave you stunned and wanting more. The choreography of brother Rick Kuperman and Jeff Kuperman is exhilarating to witness. I’ve never seen anything so capti-

vating as the fight scene—not through just the moves, but the use of lighting by lighting designer Brian MacDevitt. Every element of this musical flows from the scenography of AMP featuring Tatiana Kahvegian, to the costumes of Sarafina Bush, sound design by Cody Spencer, projection design by Hana S. Kim, special effects design by Jeremy Chernick and Lillis Meeh.

This cast is outrageously talented, including the three brother characters onstage who are a triple threat, as all three actors are making their Broadway debuts in “The Outsiders.” What a way to start on the Great White Way! I have a feeling they won’t be outsiders after this. Brody Grant is making a spectacular Broadway debut in the role of Ponyboy Curtis. I know we will see a lot more of this young man. He is phenomenal-

ly talented and knows exactly how to pull at our heartstrings. Brent Comer is marvelous in his debut as oldest brother Darrel. Jason Schmidt is tremendous in his debut as Sodapop. Sky Lakota-Lynch is devastatingly wonderful as Johnny Cade, whose character shows a lot of depth. Joshua Boone is mesmerizing as Dallas; he plays the role with a great deal of power, care, and heart. The other company members truly are fantastic as well and include Emma Pittman as Cherry; Kevin William Paul as Bob; Dan Berry as Paul, Sarahgrace Mariani as Marcia, Daryl Tofa as Two-Bit and Kevin William Paul as a cop. The ensemble of dancers definitely is electric to watch!

“The Outsiders” is outstanding on Broadway! For more info, visit www.outsidersmusical.com.

The Greasers from “The Outsiders” playing at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre (top row): Jason Schmidt, Renni Anthony Magee, Daryl Tofa, Tilly Evans-Krueger, Sky Lakota-Lynch, Joshua Boone, Brent Comer, (front row) Brody Grant. (Matthew Murphy photo)

New Black music memoirs from Alice Randall, Darius Rucker

By JORDANNAH ELIZABETH Special to the Amnews

In wading through the endless collection of Black literature, it is rare that two music memoirs emerge from two genres existing outside of the stereotypical Black music cultural norm, but books about alternative rock and country arrive at the same time to empower and inspire Black musicians (including acoustic guitarists and traditional Americana instrumentalists) who yearn to learn more about the music of their interest. No longer will Black rock, folk, and country musicians be left without a blueprint or stories from artists who lived the life on the road in the massive music business machine that, in Darius Rucker’s case in particular, were able to reach the rare stratosphere of rock stardom amidst the sea of white rock bands during the peak of stardom. Alice Randall’s “My Black Country” and Darius Rucker’s “Life’s Too Short” are breaths of fresh air in a world lacking experiences and perceptions of the reality of Black contemporary instrumental music.

My Black Country Music by Alice Randall (Simon & Schuster)

In Alice Randall’s new memoir, “My Black Country,” the author invites readers into the heart of American country music, a genre often overlooked in discussions of Black cultural influence. Drawing from her own experiences as a pioneering Black woman in the

industry, Randall weaves a rich tapestry of history, personal anecdotes, and musical insights that resonate long after the final page is turned.

At the core of “My Black Country” lies Randall’s deep connection to the music that shaped her life. From her early days of bonding with her activist mother over country

tunes to her groundbreaking achievement as the first Black woman to co-write a number-one country hit, Randall’s journey is as inspiring as it is illuminating. Through her eyes, readers gain a fresh perspective on the genre, discovering the hidden stories of Black pioneers like DeFord Bailey, Lil Hardin, Ray Charles, Charley Pride, and Herb Jeffries,

whose contributions to country music have often been overlooked or forgotten.

Life’s Too Short: A Memoir by

Darius Rucker (Harper Collins)

Darius Rucker, lead singer and guitarist in one of the pinnacle bands of the 1990s, opens his heart and soul to readers in his raw and heartfelt memoir, “Life’s Too Short.” The book chronicles his journey through the highs and lows of a life lived in the spotlight. From his humble beginnings in Charleston, South Carolina, to his meteoric rise as the lead singer of Hootie & the Blowfish and his subsequent success as a solo country music artist, Rucker’s story is one of resilience, determination, and the enduring power of music.

At the heart of “Life’s Too Short” is the story of Hootie & the Blowfish, the band that catapulted Rucker to international fame with their diamond-certified debut album, “Cracked Rear View.” Through candid and often humorous anecdotes, Rucker shares the highs and lows of life on the road, from the exhilaration of playing sold-out arenas to struggles with fame, addiction, and personal demons that threatened to derail it all.

Rucker’s memoir is not just a recounting of triumphs and tribulations. It’s a celebration of the transformative power of music. As he reflects on the songs and artists that shaped his life, from classic rock legends to contemporary country stars, Rucker invites readers to join him on a musical journey unlike any other.

New Black Poetry: ‘Sonnets for a Missing Key’ & ‘A Midnight Moon’

By JORDANNAH ELIZABETH Special to the AmNews

How can one count the ways Black poetry has broadened, enlightened, healed and enriched Black lives through empathy, raw honesty and the purity of what the heart, mind and soul are capable of oozing, understanding and experiencing? Without an extensive vocabulary, it may be difficult to express the complexities of our emotional states, and even more so, without the emotive extension; without poetry taking us by the collar and sitting us down to take a moment and delve into silent components of our infatuation, love and grief, we would be far less likely to understand ourselves. We need Black poetry. Without it, it is very likely we would be lost, and left sullen, expressing our feelings with archaic or jarring outbursts because we have no words or literary precedence to help us understand what is going on within us.

“Sonnets for a Missing Key” and “A Midnight Moon” are compasses to help guide our Black culture through the confusing emotions and experiences of love, loss, loneliness and everything in between.

“Sonnets for a Missing Key” by Percival Everett

Percival Everett’s “Sonnets for a Missing Key” is a mesmerizing collection that transcends the boundaries of conventional poetry. Each poem is a window into Everett’s intricate mind, offering glimpses of profound emotion, philosophical musings, and poignant observations about the human condition. Everett’s masterful command over language and his use of imagery is vivid and evocative, painting scenes that linger in the mind long after the poem is finished. Whether he’s describing the

beauty of nature or delving into the complexities of human relationships, Everett’s words have a way of captivating the reader and pulling them into his world.

While the title suggests a traditional sonnet structure, many of the poems could be considered a light deviation from this format, incorporating elements of free verse and prose poetry. This willingness to push the boundaries of poetic convention results in a refreshing and dynamic reading experience.

A Midnight Moon by r.h. Sin

Noted as r.h. Sin’s best work yet, “A Midnight Moon” showcases his mastery of the poetic form and his ability to touch the hearts of his readers and conjure powerful imagery and emotions through his poetry. His words resonate with authenticity, drawing readers into a world of whispered confessions and scintillating depth that draws one into peaceful long and introspective contemplation. With each poem, Sin skillfully crafts scenes that leave a deep impression long after the book is closed.

With its eloquent verses and profound insights, this book is a testament to Sin’s talent as a poet and storyteller. Highly recommended for anyone seeking a poetic journey through the depths of human experience.

Carnegie Hall, Global Mashup, BHT

The tenor saxophonist and composer Jimmy Heath often dropped this piece of riddled wisdom in the presence of young people: “How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice!” Well, we aren’t sure pianist Cyrus Chestnut was ever in hearing distance of Heath’s tidbit, although he did engage in practicing, from the age of 6, when he first began piano lessons and played as a youngster at the Baptist church, through his degree from Berklee College of Music.

Moving into the late 1980s and onward, Chestnut’s talent earned him stints and recordings with the likes of Donald Harrison, Terence Blanchard, Freddy Cole, and Carla Cook. He has recorded consistently as a leader since 1992 with his first albums—“The Nutman Speaks” (Alfa Jazz) and “Nut “(Evidence/Alfa Jazz); his most recent CD is “My Father’s Hands” (HighNote Records 2022).

It happens that on April 19 at Carnegie Hall (8 p.m.), the Cecilia Chorus of New York, led by music director Mark Shapiro, will present the world premiere of Chestnut’s “Power in the Blood,” along with Beethoven’s “Christ on the Mount.” Soloists will be soprano Nicoletta Berry, tenor Travon Walker, bass Matthew Anchel, and Chestnut’s trio.

“In 2021, word reached me about a large-scale choral project Cyrus was working on, planned for a prestigious hall…I reached out to him…asking if he might be interested in a collaboration,” said Shapiro. “He said, yes and we agreed, he would create a new 45minute composition for the Cecilia Chorus of New York. We would give its world premiere, with Cyrus himself joining us from the keyboard in his first-ever experience headlining at Carnegie Hall.”

The Cecilia Chorus of New York was founded in 1906, of which Shapiro has been the music director since 2011. The 150-voice chorus has been described as “reliably venturesome” (the New Yorker, 2017).

“These arrangements of Easter songs come from a larger work

entitled ‘The Saga of the Cross.’

It is the story of Easter told from the African American perspective,” noted Chestnut. “This work combines European and African musical traditions. Elements of gospel, jazz, and classical idioms work together to present this story of love.”

For ticket information, visit carnegiehall.com or ceciliachorusny.org.

Flushing Town Hall (137–35 Northern Blvd.,n Queens) has been intent on delivering a diverse musical concept that brings together two global music artists who share their music. The ongoing series is called the Global Mashup, where two cultures meet on one stage with an open dance floor. It’s a scene where different worlds of music can be absorbed. If the beat hits you, jump on the dance floor.

On April 20, the Global Mashup features “Mali meets Mexico.” Master kora player (a 21-stringed plucked instrument) Yacouba Sissoko from Mali will share his music to expand the awareness of West African history and culture, and empower his listeners to take charge and realize their imagined goals. Sissoko was born to a wellknown Djeli family in Kita, Mali. For centuries, Djelis have been the musical storytellers. They are the keepers of the factual history and fictional fables. Djeli, like Griot, are words of French derivatives, both denoting the West African oral tradition, historians, poets, and/or musicians, which are the roots of African American folklore.

Sissoko’s Mashup partners will be multi-genre performers Julia del Palacio and Claudia Valentina as Juntas Chicas, an experimental project that aims to amplify female voices working in traditional Mexican music in New York City.

In 2023, Paula Sánchez-Kucukozer joined the band and now Juntas Chicas is led by all three women. Together, Juntas Chicas mix son jarocho—the traditional music, dance, and song from

Veracruz, Mexico, with jazz, cumbia, and flamenco, with sounds inspired by their experiences of living and playing music in New York City.

A Q&A will follow the performance. For tickets, visit flushingtownhall.org or call 718-463-7700. The concert starts at 7 p.m.

Since its 1972 inception, the Billie Holiday Theatre (aka the “Billie” or the BHT) has provided the best in Black theater, along with culturally significant elements of the African diaspora. The Billie, in the center of BedfordStuyvesant (1368 Fulton Street), reflects its roots in the Civil Rights and Black Arts Movements, a revolutionary spirit of expressionism that provides an inside view of Black life in America through the aesthetics of performance, dance, music, and art.

The Billie’s current art exhibit, “Sky’s the Limit: Music is My Resistance,” runs through May 30. As the title suggests, the artists’ works of sculpture, painting, and photography reflect how the broad kaleidoscope of Black music continues to play through what seems to be an infinite fluctuating struggle.

The exhibition’s pivotal high -

light is sculptor Sherwin Banfield’s mammoth 9-foot-high stainless steel and bronze installation, created in tribute to Brooklyn’s born and raised son the Notorious B.I.G., who is considered one of the important hip hop artists of his generation. The sculpture consists of a crowned bust of Biggie’s head on top of a steel frame, supported by panels that display the rapper’s achievements.

The mixed media monument offers a different representation of Black artists in public art and seeks to inspire and “spread love the Brooklyn Way.” The structure also includes an exclusive mix curated by DJ Mister Cee and playing on its internal solar-power speakers.

Smaller Biggie-centric sculpted pieces created by Banfield are on display, including limited edition Biggie portrait busts, as well as framed prints and postcards. The exhibition includes works by 21 visual artists and photographers, such as Ron West’s images of Bob Marley and the Wailers, along with Stevie Wonder, during their U.S. tour (both musicians’ lyrics remain a force of resistance).

Banfield’s artform reflects the

ancient times of Egyptian sculpting when statues paid homage to great pharaohs and gods; most memorable are the Seated Statue of Khafre and the Great Sphinx of Giza. Banfield acknowledged his work has historical significance, but added, “I am monumentalizing the giants of hip hop, who inspired me and shifted the music scene of American culture.”

Banfield is also hoping his “Biggie Smalls” sculptures inspire young people to take to sculpting, while noting that “you need resources to present sculptures to the public. I am doing my part with the little I have”—as did early Harlem sculptor Augusta Savage. The exhibit highlights a unique three-dimensional mini collection of musicians by Derick Cross, using polymer clay, and a colorful painting of Billie Holiday on metal by Italian artist Massimo Chioccia.

“Sky’s the Limit: Music is My Resistance” is free and open to the public daily Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–9 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.–9 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. All art is available for purchase. For more info, visit www. thebillieholiday.org.

Cyrus Chestnut (Photo courtesy of the artist)

Hospital closures

Continued from page 3

which would potentially leave 400,000 lower Manhattanites affected by this because they wouldn’t have a nearby emergency room,” continued Gonzalez.

The effort to save hospitals also includes the updated Local Input for Community Hospitals (LICH) Act (S3131/A02251), sponsored by Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon. This bill would ensure communities receive notice of a hospital’s pending closure and can provide input during the process. The LICH Act passed in the state assembly this April.

The moratorium and LICH were intended to work in conjunction with one

Sumpter

Continued from page 3

from injuries sustained that night. After he returned to his post, he was promoted to FDNY Captain last year.

Witnesses gave differing accounts of what they saw during the trial which was held this past March. But most agree that tensions began to brew when Sumpter approached Brito’s party to address a dispute over collecting the belongings of a woman he met at the bar.

As shown by surveillance footage, Brito is initially off to the side talking with De Leon , but soon inserts himself, animatedly. In his testimony, the firefighter said he frequently “talks with his hands.” Regardless, pointing and waving accompanied his words, as seen in surveillance footage from the bar. The bartender beckoned Sumpter to close out and leave. He does, after another extended exchange. Witness testimony and surveillance video both track Brito following Sumpter out. Sumpter pulls out his knife as the firefighter “barrels” toward him, and a physical altercation ensues. De Leon is shown attempting to get between them as other patrons add to the fray, eventually holding Sumpter over a railing as they try to wrest the knife from him. When police arrive, Sumpter is pinned to a car by several men.

During the trial, Sumpter told the courtroom that he carried a knife out of fears of anti-Black and far-right violence, pointing specifically to an October 2018 incident on the Upper East Side that led to two Proud

another, said Gonzalez.

“Your ZIP code should not dictate the quality of healthcare you receive,” Assemblymember Latrice Walker said about the closures of safety net hospitals. “Many times we find that the reason for suggesting that a hospital close is because the hospital is not receiving the sort of resources it needs in order to stay open.”

The bill’s data is mandated to also study hospitals that receive disproportionately large shares of Medicare and Medicaid recipients— usually in communities of color—as well as examine patient demographics, geographic distribution, financial viability, quality of care, the number of medical staff employed, and transportation options for users of the facility.

State lawmakers maintain that “playing with people’s lives” can no longer be accept-

Boy members being convicted of attempted gang assault. The incident, Sumpter said, happened just a few blocks from the Target and Best Buy he regularly shopped at. He said he followed the legal parameters while shopping for the weapon through a “layman’s Google perspective,” ensuring the blade was not too long and did not retract. Knives “are not illegal, but become illegal based upon how they are used or possessed,” according to the NYPD.

Witnesses offered varying perspectives on what prompted the fight at Dive 75. Sumpter’s defense maintained he played rounds of Connect Four with a woman he met there, while prosecutors and Brito’s supporters argued Sumpter had more amorous intentions for the woman and that Brito stepped in to help get her home safely. The woman , identified as Katherine Sammis, ended her night hospitalized with a high alcohol blood volume and was treated with sedatives.

A bartender called to testify recalled Sumpter and the woman chatting before she invited him to play Connect Four; the bartender said he also noticed her talking to Brito’s partner after leaving for the bathroom. Sammis herself testified that she thought Sumpter was hitting on her and asked Brito’s party if she could stand with them while she used her phone to order an Uber ride. She said she could not recall other details, pointing to “drinking a lot.”

Throughout the trial, Sumpter’s defense attorney alleged potential racial bias during the incident against his client, citing a 2018 federal discrimination lawsuit against the

ed and that in the long term, serious structural change is needed.

“We know what it is we have to do,” said Walker. “We have to put our money where our mouth is and not just go towards a closure of a hospital but instead provide a right-sized healthcare delivery system that serves communities of color [and] also provide top-notch, quality healthcare that our communities deserve.”

In the meantime, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on April 15 that state funds will be committed to hospitals and Medicaid in the state’s $237 billion Fiscal Year 2025 State Budget agreement.

For “distressed hospitals,” there is $3.9 billion allocated in the budget, while a $20 billion multi-year payout to “build new healthcare in-

FDNY that named Brito as a defendant. The City ultimately settled with the plaintiff for $80,000.

In the complaint, a former would-be firefighter accuses Brito of pressuring him to leave the department during his probationary period, “on account of his race and his perceived homosexuality.” The trainee, who is Hispanic, alleged that Brito, who also identifies as Hispanic, and another firefighter “ganged up” on him for leaving a funeral early, even as white colleagues who also took off prematurely were not subjected to similar treatment.

Brito and another firefighter are also named in the complaint for allegedly berating the plaintiff for playing Pokémon Go, an augmented reality spinoff of the long-running franchise where players travel public spaces “catching” the fictional creatures. Days later, the trainee allegedly found a fake sign-in sheet containing an anti-gay slur that mockingly invited others to play Pokémon Go with him.

During the trial, Sumpter’s defense said the settlement was reflective of internalized racial bias and discrimination that fueled the Upper West Side incident. Brito denied any discriminatory views played a role in the confrontation, as well as denying any allegations of bullying the trainee in the previous case. He told the courtroom that his father, who is Mexican, came out as gay later in life.

Then there’s the matter of self-defense. Witnesses, which mostly comprised of the other patrons who pinned down Sumpter and at-

frastructure, expand Medicare coverage for seniors and pregnant New Yorkers, and increase the home care worker minimum wage.”

Hochul had previously pledged $300 million to help buttress SUNY Downstate with its financial deficits and during its “transformation” process, where it was controversially proposed that inpatient services be downsized and moved across the street to a neighboring hospital.

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.

tempted to disarm him, gave differing accounts of whether Brito and De Leon hit him while trying to subdue him. Sumpter was later held in pre-arraignment detention for three days after the incident, and it remains unknown if he sustained any injuries in the fracas—although an officer did ask him to raise his shirt.

In his testimony, Brito admitted to running after Sumpter despite convincing him to leave the bar and “barreling” through the bar entrance, saying he was “manipulated” by Sumpter taunting him. Surveillance video shows the two continuing to exchange words while Sumpter finishes his beer and backs out of the bar. Brito did say in cross-examination that he made the “first aggressive move.” He said he was aware that Sumpter was carrying a knife when he rushed at him, informed by one of the other patrons after stepping outside previously during the exchange. But Brito said he did not think Sumpter would use it.

Sumpter’s family said that they believed he acted in self-defense and also believed racial bias was present during the incident.

“Arthur now has a new legal team and much more will be coming soon, including all actively seeking for Arthur Sumpter’s recent verdict at trial to be set aside before his sentencing, which is currently scheduled on 4/22/24 in Manhattan,” the family said in a statement released to the media. “Many are

Dr. William Strickland, scholar and political activist

By HERB BOYD Special to the AmNews

“William Strickland embraced the challenge of the writing of Malcolm’s life and he did so in spite of the numerous scheduling constraints placed upon a project whose release must coincide with a broadcast date. We owe him a debt of thanks for his patience, persistence, and willingness to cooperate. Bill’s perspectives helped us all on the film and book teams to understand better what it was we were trying to accomplish,” wrote Henry Hampton, executive producer of “Eyes on the Prize” and “Malcolm X: Make it Plain.”

What Hampton had to say about Dr. William (Bill) Strickland provides a compelling aperture to a life dedicated to Black scholarship and its importance to American history. Word of his passing has been announced on social media platforms, but we still await the specifics of his death. Meanwhile, the specifics of his life are well-known and he is held in high esteem in academic and activist circles.

A native of Boston, Strickland was a graduate of Boston Latin School and Harvard University. After fulfilling his military obligations as a Marine, he became active in the Civil Rights Movement and the Black liberation struggle. He applied his leadership skills to several political and educational organizations, including serving as executive director of the Northern Student Movement and working for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and as Northern Coordinator of the party’s Congressional Challenge.

Strickland was a founding member of the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) in 1964 and 1969. He was also instrumental in the creation of the Institute of the Black World in Atlanta. He was widely heralded for his research skills, writing ability, and general commitment to accuracy and thoroughness in scholarship. He used these proclivities effectively as a faculty member in the Afro-American Studies department at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. A tireless administrator

Dr. William Strickland, during a Library of Congress interview (Image courtesy of the Library of Congress)

and teacher, his expertise on the life and legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois was acclaimed, and for many years, he was director of Du Bois’s papers, a position he held until his retirement in 2013.

The vast collection of papers are indicative of Strickland’s commitments during his time at UMass and elsewhere. Included in the collection is documentation of the time he spent working with the Rev. Jesse Jackson during Jackson’s presidential campaign, as well as his efforts in commemorating the life of baseball groundbreaker Jackie Robinson in 1996–97. This endeavor was highlighted on April 15 of this year, as major league baseball saluted Robinson’s memory and achievements.

A good example of Strickland’s scholarship and interests was published in the “Black World” in 1975, where his extended essay about Black intellectuals and the social scene aroused considerable attention. “Black America does not exist in a vacuum,” he wrote. “Analyzing the condition of Black people in America, therefore, cannot be separated from the task of analyzing America itself. And the American condi -

tion, some 10 years before George Orwell’s prophetic 1984, is one of brooding apocalypse.

“Indeed, the smell of apocalypse rises, like a stench, from every corner of the land. The cities teeter on the edge of bankruptcy; the hospitals maim and kill rather than heal and cure; the schools no longer even pretend to teach; and the economy feeds, like some Bela Lugosi vampire, on the ever-shrinking income of the citizenry. Politically, the so-called ‘two party system’ reveals itself to be little more than a second-rate Abbott and Costello comedy, while administrations past and present surface daily as skin-tight accomplices of the Mafia, the CIA, or both. Like Humpty Dumpty, the American social order is tumbling down. This breakdown in the American social order poses a particular challenge to Black intellectuals because it reveals, at the same time, a parallel breakdown of American intellectual life.

“Most American intellectuals having dedicated their lives and their careers to huckstering for ‘the greatest system the world has ever known,’ are totally unprepared to admit the meaning of

the deep and searing faults which now bubble up in scandal after scandal from the nation’s democratic depths. So, at precisely the moment when new social answers are required, American intellectuals, because of their blood-knot commitment to already failed political, economic, and cultural systems, and their inability to conceive of structures, forms, modes of thought and action outside of those systems are unable even to pose the proper questions. They are trapped in the fabrications of yesteryear, enmeshed in a time which shall not come again. Black intellectuals, on the other hand, have a different legacy to draw upon, one which makes it impossible for most of us to join the anvil chorus of self-celebration which is the substance of the American intellectual tradition. We belong to the tradition of America’s victims, a tradition which has given us a particular angle of vision largely at odds with America, a tradition which has led to the repudiation, ridicule, exile and assassination of our prophets by a society determined to deny the validity of their vision and the truth of our history.”

ACTIVITIES

Strickland’s abundant ideas and intellectual curiosity are clear in his collected papers at UMass.

DISCUSSION

The last we personally heard from Strickland was an email from Spain, but with no information of why he was there.

PLACE IN CONTEXT

Bill Strickland’s politics and cultural commitments were formidable during the 1960s and continued into the ’90s with no decrease in activity.

THIS WEEK IN BLACK HISTORY

April 15, 1947: Baseball immortal Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball.

April 16, 1852: Slavery was abolished in the nation’s capital.

April 17, 1983: Author Alice Walker received the Pulitzer Prize.

Key findings from AP’s investigation into police force that isn’t supposed to be lethal

By REESE DUNKLIN Associated Press

Every day, police in the U.S. rely on common use-of-force tactics that, unlike guns, are meant to stop people without killing them. But when misused, these tactics can still end in death.

Over a decade, more than 1,000 people died after police subdued them through physical holds, stun guns, body blows, and other means not intended to be lethal, according to findings in an investigation led by the Associated Press. In hundreds of cases, officers weren’t taught or didn’t follow best safety practices for these types of force, creating a recipe for death.

Medical officials cited law enforcement as causing or contributing to about half of the deaths. In many others, significant police force went unmentioned and drugs or pre-existing health problems were blamed instead.

These cases included George Floyd, whose 2020 death under the body weight of an officer sparked a national reckoning over policing. While Floyd’s encounter happened to be caught on video, capturing his last words of “I can’t breathe,” many others throughout the United States have escaped notice.

Here are takeaways from the AP’s investigation, carried out in collaboration with the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism programs at the University of Maryland and Arizona State University, and FRONTLINE (PBS).

Who was affected?

The deadly encounters happened just about everywhere, according to an analysis of a database AP created: big cities, suburbs, and rural America. Red states and blue states. Restaurants, assisted-living centers, and—most commonly—in or near the homes of those who died.

The deceased came from all walks of life: a poet, nurse, saxophone player in a mariachi band, truck driver, sales director, rodeo clown, and even a few off-duty law enforcement officers. All but 3% of the dead were men. Most tended to be in their 30s and 40s. The youngest was just 15, the oldest 95.

The toll fell disproportionately on Black Americans: They made up a third of those who died despite representing only 12% of the U.S. population. Others feeling the brunt were those impaired by a medical, mental health, or drug emergency, a group particularly susceptible to force even when lightly applied.

If incidents turn chaotic and officers make split-second decisions to use force, “people do die,” said Peter Moskos, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and former Baltimore police officer. “The only way to get down to zero is to get rid of policing,” he added, “and that’s not going to save lives either.”

How force began

When the force came, it could be sudden and extreme. Other times, the force was

minimal, and yet people nevertheless died, sometimes from a drug overdose or a combination of factors.

In about 30% of the cases, police were intervening to stop people who were injuring others or who posed a threat of danger—but roughly 25% of those who died were threatening no one or, at most, committing minor infractions, AP’s review of cases showed. The rest involved other nonviolent situations with people who police said were trying to resist arrest or flee.

What led up to the force was sometimes unclear. In more than 100 cases, police either withheld key details or witnesses disputed the officer’s account—and body-camera footage didn’t exist to help add clarity.

Best practices not always followed

In hundreds of cases, officers repeated errors that experts and trainers have spent years trying to eliminate. Perhaps the best example is how officers were warned that it is dangerous to hold someone facedown in what is known as prone restraint. Many policing experts agree that someone can stop breathing if pinned on their chest for too long or with too much weight. The Department of Justice has issued warnings to that effect since 1995.

Reporters identified dozens and dozens of cases in which officers disregarded people who said they were struggling for air or even about to die, often uttering the words “I can’t breathe,” but with no standard national rules, what police are taught about the risks of prone restraint is often left to the states and individual departments.

Some officers involved in fatalities testified they had been assured that prone position was never deadly, AP found, while many others were trained to roll people onto their sides to aid breathing and simply failed to do so.

Officers were usually cleared by their departments in internal investigations. The AP investigation identified just 28 deaths where officers ended up charged by prosecutors.

Feds don’t keep count very well

The AP and its partners focused on local police, sheriff’s deputies, and other officers patrolling the streets or responding to dispatch calls. Reporters filed nearly 7,000 requests for government documents and body-camera footage, receiving more than 700 autopsy reports or death certificates, and uncovering video in at least four dozen cases that has never been published or widely distributed.

Those records led them to identify at least 1,036 deaths after police had used what is known as “less-lethal force” during the decade of 2012 through 2021—an average of two a week.

The federal government, for its part, has struggled for many years to count these deaths.

Congress started trying to get the Justice Department to do so in 2000. The department has acknowledged its data is incomplete, blames spotty reporting from police

Timere Jones (right) carries life-sized picture of his brother Jameek Lowery as he and others visit Lowery’s grave in Garfield, N.J. Lowery was among more than 300 Black people who died after encounters with police in which officers used force that isn’t supposed to be fatal, including restraints, punches, and stun guns. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

departments, and does not make whatever information exists publicly available.

Mortality data maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also has gaps. The AP found that when a death certificate does not list words such as “police” and “law enforcement,” the CDC’s language-reading software doesn’t label the death as involving “legal intervention.” This means the death data flagged police involvement in, at most, 34% of the deaths the investigation identified.

Because the country has no clear idea how many people die like this and why, meaningful reforms will remain difficult, said Dr. Roger Mitchell Jr., a leader in the push to improve tracking and one of the nation’s few Black chief medical examiners when he held the office in Washington, D.C., from 2014 to 2021.

“Any time anyone dies before their day in court, or dies in an environment where the federal government or the local government’s job is to take care of you, it needs transparency,” he said. “It cannot be in the dark of night.”

This story is part of an ongoing investigation led by the Associated Press in collabora-

tion with the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism programs and FRONTLINE (PBS). The investigation includes the Lethal Restraint interactive story, database, and the documentary, “Documenting Police Use of Force,” premiering April 30 on PBS.

Contributing to this story were Thalia Beaty, Martha Bellisle, Jacques Billeaud, Michael Catalini, Brett Chambers, Mary Dalrymple, Trenton Daniel, Ryan J. Foley, Kristin M. Hall, Roxana Hegeman, Carla K. Johnson, Angeliki Kastanis, Denise Lavoie, Andy Lemberger, Jeff Martin, Jennifer McDermott, Brian McDonnell, Holbrook Mohr, Aaron Morrison, Sean Mussenden, Serginho Roosblad, John Seewer, Rhonda Shafner, Taylor Stevens, Mitch Weiss, and Helen Wieffering. The Associated Press receives support from the Public Welfare Foundation for reporting focused on criminal justice. This story also was supported by Columbia University’s Ira A. Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights in conjunction with Arnold Ventures. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Story has been lightly edited for AmNews style.

Education

ArtsConnection struggles to bring art to NYC youth amid major citywide budget cuts

By LEAH MALLORY

Special to the AmNews

Arts education and creative programs are struggling to stay afloat amid major citywide budget cuts. ArtsConnection, an organization dedicated to bringing the arts to NYC youth through in-school, after-school, and community programming, faces its third round of cuts in the last three years.

“Our budgets are shrinking,” said Dionne Thornton, director of teen programs and community engagement for ArtsConnection. “You add increasing student numbers with shrinking budgets, and then the increase in the cost of everything from food to tickets. We are put between a rock and a very hard place in terms of servicing our students to the best of our ability.”

For Thornton, serving students means providing experiences that only become possible through ArtsConnection programming. The organization prides itself

on showcasing the variety of art available across the boroughs, especially art that reflects the diversity of its students.

“They need to know that their identity is being expressed creatively around the city and in various ways,” said Thornton. “Providing that opportunity for them to say ‘Okay, I see myself here’ speaks as well to bringing equity inclusion into the conversation, into our curricula, our structure, and whom we hire.”

But decreased funding hinders these efforts and leads to staffing shortages.

“This year, we actually did have to downsize—downsize in the amount of work and also downsize in staff to be able to continue to run, so that has had a significant impact,” said Rachel Watts, executive director of ArtsConnection.

Watts explained that ArtsConnection relies heavily on funding from the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA). During her tenure, however, they have experienced significant budget cuts from the DCA.

Until recently, they also regularly received

federal funding, but Watts said they have been unable to secure such funding lately.

“In terms of the government support, there was a significant shift in supporting me as a leader and the organization as a whole,” said Watts.

The lack of government support is forcing ArtsConnection to seek funding elsewhere. Thornton said the organization has been combining budgets across departments and asking for favors from community partners.

“For example, we do community activities with cultural partners like The Shed, where we’re not paying base rental fees that we would otherwise have to pay. That frees up some amount of money,” said Thornton. “There’s a lot of sacrifice across organizations to try to continue to do this work.”

For teaching artists who provide lessons and residencies, funding is crucial for their survival.

“That’s how I make my money,” said Kim Grier-Martinez. “I went from having a roster of schools and teaching to almost

not having a roster because of budget cuts.”

While cuts threaten the volume of ArtsConnection’s programming, Watts said the quality remains consistent. She said art offers young people a range of skills that benefit their day-to-day existence, which illustrates the importance of arts education.

“When you practice the arts, you’re learning to problem-solve,” she said. “You’re dealing with ambiguity. You’re learning to work with other people as an ensemble; you’re learning to think and know when to step up and when to step back, and those are valuable skills of being a fully formed human.”

Thornton echoed similar sentiments, looking toward the future of arts education at ArtsConnection and throughout the city in the face of budget cuts. “There isn’t humanity without the arts,” she said. “We are creating space for young people to explore, engage, and connect with the arts. Come hell or high water, we’re going to figure out how to do that.”

Students in performance courtesy of ArtsConnection (Brian Hatton photo)

Think tank with ties to Trump lays out plan to deny free education to undocumented students

By KALYN BELSHA

An influential conservative think tank has laid out a strategy to challenge a landmark Supreme Court decision that protects the right of undocumented children to attend public school.

The Heritage Foundation, which is spending tens of millions of dollars to craft a policy playbook for a second Trump presidential term, recently released a brief calling on states to require public schools to charge unaccompanied migrant children and children with undocumented parents tuition to enroll.

Such a move “would draw a lawsuit from the Left,” the brief states, “which would likely lead the Supreme Court to reconsider its illconsidered Plyler v. Doe decision,” referring to the 1982 ruling that held it was unconstitutional to deny children a public education based on their immigration status.

Plyler has survived challenges for more than 40 years, but some legal experts and advocates for immigrant children say the newest proposal to undermine it should be taken seriously, given Trump’s extreme anti-immigrant rhetoric, a steady drumbeat of headlines about the “migrant crisis,” and the conservative-led Supreme Court’s recent willingness to overturn established legal precedent.

“The politics right now of illegal immigration and the picture that conservatives, and even some liberals, have painted of stressing the resources of states and localities— I think that that’s a huge factor,” said Brett Geier, a professor at Western Michigan University who wrote a book about K–12 schools and the Supreme Court. “I do think that this court has the chutzpah to say, ‘We’re going to take it on and overturn it.’”

But others say the real intent is to rile voters in an election year, and that Plyler v. Doe isn’t truly at risk.

“Every time there’s an election, all of a sudden immigration becomes a big problem, and [we hear] ‘We have to do something about these immigrants, and get rid of them, and not pay for their schooling,’” said Patricia Gándara, a research professor at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education who has written extensively about how immigration enforcement affects children and schools. “Then, after the election is over, it dies away.”

Charging school tuition in Texas led to Plyler ruling

A growing number of Americans, and Republicans in particular, say immigration policy is a top concern right now. And immigration issues are getting a lot of attention in this year’s presidential race.

Trump has campaigned on a series of hardline, restrictive immigration policies, including the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants and the end of refugee

resettlement. He’s also falsely claimed that migrant children have displaced other kids in New York City’s public schools.

The focus on immigration comes as the country is seeing a significant increase in migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. Federal officials counted nearly 2.5 million people reaching the southern border last year. That was a 43% increase from two years earlier, although not all were admitted. A rising share are families with children.

More than three-quarters of Americans view what’s happening at the border as a major problem or a crisis, a recent poll by the Pew Research Center found. Just under a quarter of U.S. adults said they were concerned that the rise in migrants would be an economic burden on the country.

The Heritage Foundation taps into those concerns with its recent brief, titled “The Consequences of Unchecked Illegal Immigration on America’s Public Schools.” In it, the organization criticizes President Biden’s approach to immigration policy, saying it’s led to “large influxes of non-English-speaking children” enrolling in public schools.

The document cites examples of Texas schools holding lessons in hallways, and a Brooklyn high school that had students learn virtually for a day after the school housed migrant families overnight during a rainstorm.

In response, the Heritage Foundation is calling on states to prohibit schools from housing undocumented immigrants and to require schools to collect student enrollment data by immigration status “so that accurate cost analyses can be done.” States should require school districts to charge undocumented children tuition to attend public school, the brief states.

It was this exact practice nearly half a century ago—in the same state that’s defying the federal government by handling its own immigration enforcement—that led to the Plyler v. Doe ruling.

Texas passed a law in 1975 saying that public schools would not receive state funding for the education of undocumented children and districts could bar these students from attending public school for free.

Two years later, the Tyler Independent School District started charging undocumented children $1,000 a year to attend school—a sum district officials knew would be unaffordable for the area’s immigrant families, who often worked in Tyler’s rose industry, as well as in meat-packing plants and on farms.

“I don’t think any family could have paid that,” James Plyler, the district’s superintendent, told an Education Week reporter in 2007. “One thousand dollars back in 1977 was lots and lots of money, and most of those families who came in were working for minimum wage.”

Four families whose children were blocked from attending school sued Plyler and the school district, and eventually won at the Supreme Court. In the 5-4 opinion for the majority, Justice William Brennan wrote that denying undocumented children the ability to learn how to read and write would take an “inestimable toll” on their “social, economic, intellectual, and psychological well-being.” (The dissenting justices agreed it was wrong to deny undocumented kids an education, but argued it wasn’t a constitutional violation.)

Now, the Heritage Foundation says those education costs have grown too high, and states and schools should be able to recoup them. The federal government could help, said Madison Marino, a senior research associate who coauthored the Heritage Foundation brief, or parents or sponsors of undocumented students could pay.

“We really aren’t looking to deprive these kids of their education,” Marino said.

“We’re calling for everyone to contribute.” Most undocumented families today probably would struggle to pay school tuition, as they did in 1977, and federal aid seems unlikely. Congress is bitterly divided over how to fund immigration policy and whether schools need more funding in the wake of the pandemic, and the U.S. Department of Education has historically devoted only a tiny fraction of its budget to educating English learners and immigrant students.

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment about the Heritage Foundation’s proposals to challenge Plyler, but observers widely believe the think tank would play a crucial role in a second Trump administration. Elsewhere, the campaign has said that external groups do not speak for Trump or his campaign, and that policy recommendations are just that.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.

Migrant children prepare to board school bus while guided by their guardians in front of Row Hotel that serves as migrant shelter (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

Religion & Spirituality Eid Mubarak! NYS Senator Cordell Cleare hosts celebration in Harlem

New York State Senator Cordell Cleare hosted the third annual EID celebration this week at the Millbank Center in Harlem, along with Hon. Yusef Salaam,

Hon. Charles

Hon. Eddie Gibbs. The day of food, fashion, games, and more was co-sponsored with community

HAVE YOUR LOVED ONES MEMORIALIZED IN THE AMSTERDAM NEWS’ OBITUARY SECTION.

were welcome to the gathering.

Fall,

masjids. All

Assemblymember Eddie Gibbs, Hon. Cordell Cleare, and Jordan Wright, the son of Manhattan Democratic Party leader Keith Wright (Bill Moore photos)

Families of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Tyre Nichols, and A.J. Owens

Hon. Dr. Yusef Salaam poses with his mother, Sharonne Salaam

Immigrants

Continued from page 10

African countries, who have different food, different dialects, languages, religious and cultural needs other than some migrant populations in the district,” said Cleare. “In my district I have hundreds of African migrants who are eager to work and learn.”

Taylor recalled a lithium-ion battery fire in Hamilton Heights in February where the assumption that the displaced African immigrants at the scene were speaking French caused a delay in care as people scrambled to find a Wolof interpreter that could help during the emergency.

“We’ve come a long way, but we still live in a very polarized, racist society. What we’re talking about here is basic humanity and people being treated with dignity, which they don’t do,” Taylor told the roundtable. “We pivot too slow when it comes to Black people and there’s a language barrier.”

In a city council hearing on immigration and hospitals lasting for more than six houirs, headed by Councilmembers Alexa Aviles and Mercedes Narcisse, electeds, advocates, and thousands of migrants showed up to testify to the difficult experiences Black migrants face.

“After today the government cannot claim it did not know of the gaps and their profound impacts on people. I will attest we have known, and asked why hasn’t ‘getting stuff done’ in a ‘city of yes’ fully

30- and 60- day eviction notices from city shelters. Even before settling in a new city, Black migrants are more likely to be detained in detention centers at the border. Many asylum seekers are from countries that lack Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation, which delays the application and approval process. And Black Muslims struggle with access to religious accommodations and foods.

“You are visible. You mean something,” said Narcisse, who is a native of Haiti, speaking to fellow immigrants at the hearing.

ceedings date back to lawmakers wanting to discourage illegal border crossings and fraudulent asylum claims in 1996, reported the New York Times

The city’s crisis has prompted everyone from Gov. Kathy Hochul to Mayor Eric Adams to pressure the Biden administration to reform immigration systems, provide funding, and shrink the wait time for work permits.

reached newly arrived Black people,” said Councilmenber Alexa Aviles, who helped spearhead the April 12 hearing, “We see the same patterns of disinvestment, anti-Black media narratives, and disproportionate negative impacts in U.S.-born Black communities as we do with Black new arrivals. We can and must make different choices.”

During the hearing, commenters expounded on additional hurdles for Black migrants. Access to translation services in migrants’ native languages and dialects is slim to nonexistent. New residents from Black countries are more likely to receive

The immigration bills reviewed in the hearing, Introduction 0084-2024 and Introduction 0085-2024, would require the mayor’s office to develop a workforce development survey and an anonymous health survey of migrants and asylum seekers. The Resolution 0340-2024 calls on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to eliminate filing fees for humanitarian benefit applications and subsequent employment authorization applications.

The general consensus among African support organizations, like African Bureau for Immigration and Social Affairs (ABISA) and Afrikana with activist Adama Bah, is that newly arrived Black migrants want and need to work, continuing the loud and persistent calls for federal agencies to expedite work authorization permits. At present, asylum seekers must wait six months after asylum applications are filed to begin the work permit process, which could still take years to complete. The lengthy pro-

“This question of how we connect people who want to work, in particular immigrants and newcomers, to good jobs in their communities. New York is not the only place that we are doing this but it really is at the forefront in terms of being the first because of the incredible leadership here in the state and in the city and also because of organizations like ACT, who can make sure that we do this in the right way,” said Su about what the federal government is working on at the roundtable. “And that is why I say we are creating an ecosystem in which the federal government, the state leaders, the cities, as well as organizations, like ACT along with the job seekers, the immigrants are so key to working together.”

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

Thousands of Black new arrivals gather at City Hall on April 16. (John McCarten/NYC Council Media Uni photo)

NYU’s Africa House recently welcomed three African bank leaders to New York City for a conference about “Digital Technologies, Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), and Economic Development”: Armando Manuel, chair of Angola’s Sovereign Wealth Fund; H.E. Dr. Ernest Kwamina Addison, governor of Ghana’s Central Bank; and H.E.

Caroline Abel, governor of Seychelles’s Central Bank (Bill Moore photos)

Fadimatou Mossi (Left to right) Honorable Daniel Kingsley Atta Boafo, Professor Yaw Nyarko, and Armando Manuel Student Fellowship Winners Art Program

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NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF New York, Wilmington Trust, National Association, not in its individual capacity, but solely as Trustee for MFRA Trust 2014-2, Plaintiff, vs. Antonios Gabriel a/k/a Anthony Gabriel, Defendant(s).

Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Decision + Order on Motion duly entered on May 26, 2023 and an amended Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Decision + Order on Motion duly entered on June 27, 2023, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the New York County Courthouse, Courtroom 130, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY 10007 on May 22, 2024 at 2:15 p.m., premises known as 77 West 55th Street, Unit 15G, New York, NY 10019. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County, City and State of New York, Block 1271 and Lot 1507 together with an undivided 0.5147 percent interest in the Common Elements. Approximate amount of judgment is $995,652.99 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index #850250/2019. COVID-19 safety protocols will be followed at the foreclosure sale.

Joseph F. Buono, Esq., Referee

Friedman Vartolo LLP, 85 Broad Street, Suite 501, New York, New York 10004, Attorneys for Plaintiff Firm File No. 171138-3

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF New York , U.S. BANK TRUST NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, NOT IN ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY BUT SOLELY AS OWNER TRUSTEE FOR VRMTG ASSET TRUST, Plaintiff, vs . Lindsay Frimodt, if living, and if she be dead, any and all persons unknown to Plaintiff, ET AL., Defendant(s).

Pursuant to an Amended Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Decision + Order on Motion duly entered on March 28, 2024, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY 10007 on May 22, 2024 at 2:15 p.m., premises known as 72 East 3rd Street, Apt. 5D, New York, NY 10003 a/k/a 72-74 East 3rd Street, Apt. 5D, New York, NY 10003. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County, City and State of New York, Block 444 and Lot 1018 together with a 4.75 percent undivided interest in the common elements. Approximate amount of judgment is $339,431.59 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index #850114/2019. Cash will not be accepted. COVID-19 safety protocols will be followed at the foreclosure sale.

Doron Leiby, Esq., Referee

Knuckles & Manfro, LLP, 120 White Plains Road, Suite 215, Tarrytown, New York 10591, Attorneys for Plaintiff

Winthrop Consulting LLC, filed with SSNY on 3/6/2024. Office: NY County. SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail copy to: Kathleen Adams 34 West 139th St., #2P, NY, NY 10037. Purpose: any lawful act.

RICHARD SALTOUN LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 12/19/23. Office: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, 19 E. 66th Street, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10065. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF NEW YORK US Bank National Association as Trustee for CMSI REMIC Series 2007-03REMIC Pass-Through Certificates Series 2007-03, Plaintiff AGAINST Chaya Gottesman a/k/a Chayala C Gottesman a/k/a Clare C Gottesman, et al., Defendant(s) Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly entered February 9, 2022, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the New York County Courthouse in Room 130, located at 60 Centre Street, New York, NY on May 22, 2024 at 2:15PM, premises known as 127 West 82nd Street, Unit 1B, New York, NY 10024. All that certain plot piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, City, County and State of New York, BLOCK: 1213, LOT: 1159. Approximate amount of judgment $873,418.90 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index #850006/2018. The aforementioned auction will be conducted in accordance with the NEW YORK County COVID-19 Protocols located on the Office of Court Administration (OCA) website (https:// ww2.nycourts.gov/Admin/oca. shtml) and as such all persons must comply with social distancing, wearing masks and screening practices in effect at the time of this foreclosure sale.

Joseph Buono, Esq., Referee Frenkel Lambert Weiss Weisman & Gordon, LLP 53 Gibson Street Bay Shore, NY 11706 01-086495-F00 79168

New York, NY 10022 a/k/a Block 01164, Lot 01137 Approx. amt. of judgment is $54,142.31 plus costs and interest. Sold subject to terms and conditions of filed judgment and terms of. PAUL SKLAR Referee. THE DELLO-IACONO LAW GROUP, P.C., Attys. for Pltf., 312 Larkfield Road, Lower Level, East Northport, NY. File No. 22000024- #101136

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF New York, NYCTL 2021A Trust, and The Bank of New York Mellon as Collateral Agent and Custodian for the NYCTL 2021-A Trust, Plaintiff, vs. Tindaya Properties of New York II Corp., Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Decision + Order on Motion dated December 18, 2023 and duly entered on December 20, 2023, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at Room 130 of the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY 10007 on May 8, 2024 at 2:15 p.m., premises known as 60 Riverside Boulevard, Unit 3602, New York, NY 10069. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County of New York, City and State of New York, Block 1171 and Lot 4447 together with an undivided 0.7128 percent interest in the Common Elements. Approximate amount of judgment is $358,849.98 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index #158815/2022. Paul Sklar, Esq., Referee Bronster, LLP, 156 West 56th Street, Suite 703, New York, New York 10019, Attorneys for Plaintiff

May 15, 2024 at 2:15 p.m. prem. k/a 9 West 20 th Street, Unit #2, New York, NY a/k/a Block 00822 Lot 1202 Approx. amt. of judgment is $146,114.72 plus costs and interest. Sold subject to terms and conditions of filed judgment and terms of sale and the right of the United States of America to redeem within 120 days from the date of sale as provided by law. ELAINE SHAY, Referee. THE DELLO-IACONO LAW GROUP, P.C., Attys. for Pltf., 312 Larkfield Road, Lower Level, East Northport, NY. File No. 22-000002 #101089

ELIZON MASTER PARTICIPATION TRUST I, U.S. BANK TRUST NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS OWNER TRUSTEE, Plaintiff, AGAINST SHEHARBANO ALI, et al. Defendant(s)

Pursuant to a judgment of foreclosure and sale duly entered on March 6, 2024.

I, the undersigned Referee, will sell at public auction at the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre St, New York, NY 10007 on May 8, 2024 at 2:15 PM premises known as 303 East 43rd St 9A, New York, NY 10017.

Please take notice that this foreclosure auction shall be conducted in compliance with the Foreclosure Auction Rules for the First Judicial District, New York County, and the COVID 19 Health Emergency Rules, including proper use of masks and social distancing.

All that certain plot piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan City, County and State of New York. Block 1336 and Lot 1023.

Approximate amount of judgment $1,480,531.27 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment. Index #850131/2015.

Elaine Shay, Esq. , Referee, Aldridge Pite, LLP - Attorneys for Plaintiff - 40 Marcus Drive, Suite 200, Melville, NY 11747

Application for Authority of Curated Planet, LLC filed with the Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 3/15/2024. The fict. name under which the LLC will do business in NY is Your Tour, LLC. Formed in DE on 1/26/2018. Office loc.: NY County. SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. The address SSNY shall mail copy of process to 400 E. 70th St., #2002, New York, NY 10021. The office address required to be maintained in DE is 838 Walker Rd., Ste. 21-2, Dover, DE 19904. Cert. of Formation filed with the Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., #4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of FSFHP OWNER LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/04/24.

SUPREME COURT - COUNTY OF NEW YORK.

ONESTONE LENDING LLC, Plaintiff -against- ALTA OPERATIONS, LLC, et al Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated November 17, 2023 and entered on November 27, 2023, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction in Room 130 of the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street New York, NY on May 8, 2024 at 2:15 p.m. premises situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County and State of New York, known as The Tower Unit 10A in the building known as "One Riverside Park Condominium" together with an undivided 0.3653% interest in the common elements. Block: 1171 Lot: 2508. Said premises known as 50 RIVERSIDE BOULEVARD, UNIT 10A, NEW YORK, NY 10069. Approximate amount of lien $1,027,596.74 plus interest & costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale. Index Number 850198/2020.

JERRY MEROLA, ESQ., Referee. The Camporeale Law Group PLLC, Attorney(s) for Plaintiff, 585 Stewart Avenue, 770, Garden City, NY 11530

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF New York , Home Loan Investment Bank, F.S.B. F/K/A Ocean Bank, F.S.B. , Plaintiff, vs . Jocely Padilha , ET AL., Defendant(s).

Pursuant to an Amended Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Decision + Order on Motion duly entered on July 21, 2022 and a Decision + Order on Motion duly entered on January 5, 2024 , I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the New York County Courthouse, Room 130, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY 10007 on May 8, 2024 at 2:15 p.m., premises known as 210 East 47th Street, Unit No. 2C, New York, NY 10017 - all that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County of New York, City and State of New York, Block 1320 and Lot 1408 together with an undivided 1.212 percent interest in the Common Elements (“the Premises”). Approximate amount of judgment is $280,884.71 plus interest and costs. The Premises is being sold subject to the lien of the portion of the first mortgage of Specialized Loan Servicing, LLC that is not subordinated to Plaintiff’s lien pursuant to the Order of the Court dated November 5, 2021. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index #850158/2019. Referee will not accept any cash payment(s) for any deposit or portion of the purchase price. COVID-19 safety protocols will be followed at the foreclosure sale.

Bruce N. Lederman, Esq., Referee

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., Jackie Halpern Weinstein, Esq., One Battery Park Plaza, 18th Floor, New York, New York 10004, Attorneys for Plaintiff

NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT, NEW YORK COUNTY, CONNECTONE BANK, Plaintiff, against WADSWORTH LP, AARON DRAZIN, et al., Defendants.

Pursuant to a Final Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated December 18, 2023, and entered on December 19, 2023, I, the undersigned Referee appointed in said Judgment, will sell at public auction at the New York County Supreme Courthouse, on the portico at 60 Centre Street, New York, New York, on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, at 2:15 p.m., the premises known as and located at 140 Wadsworth Avenue, New York, NY 10033. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements situated, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan and County of New York, State of New York, Block 2163, Lot 61. Premises will be sold subject to the terms of the filed Judgment, Index No. 850052/2023, and the Terms of Sale, all of which are available from Plaintiff’s counsel upon request. The approximate amount of the Judgment is $9,647,319.27 plus interest and costs, as provided in the Judgment. COVID-19 safety protocols will be followed at the foreclosure sale.

Thomas Kleinberger, Esq., Referee. Rosenberg & Estis, P.C., Attorneys for Plaintiff, 733 Third Avenue, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10017, (212) 867-6000, Attention: Richard Y. Im, Esq.

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF New York, PS Funding, Inc., Plaintiff, vs. 236 West E&P LLC, Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Decision + Order on Motion duly entered on November 28, 2023, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the New York County Courthouse, Courtroom 130, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY 10007 on May 15, 2024 at 2:15 p.m., premises known as 235 West 136th Street, New York, NY 10030. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County of New York, City and State of New York, Block 1942 and Lot 116. Approximate amount of judgment is $1,849,325.16 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index # 850143/2021. COVID-19 safety protocols will be followed at the foreclosure sale.

Georgia Papazis, Esq., Referee Chartwell Law, One Battery Park Plaza, Suite 710, New York, New York 10004, Attorneys for Plaintiff

Secret Society Dance Company LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 01/04/2024. Office location: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: 1-05 Astoria Blvd 1D, Astoria, NY, 11102. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF NEW YORK

U.S. Bank Trust, N.A., as Trustee for LSF9 Master Participation Trust, Plaintiff

AGAINST

Llewellyn C. Werner a/k/a

Llewellyn Werner Individually and as the sole member of Hawkes AP, LLC; et al., Defendant(s)

Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly entered December 7, 2022 I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the New York County Courthouse in Room 130, located at 60 Centre Street, New York, NY 10007 on May 15, 2024 at 2:15PM, premises known as 160 West 66th Street Unit 46-G a/k/a 160 West 66th Street, Apartment 46G, New York, NY 10023. All that certain plot piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County, City and State of New York, Block 1137 Lot 1272. Approximate amount of judgment $2,290,728.13 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index #810045/2010. The auction will be conducted pursuant to the COVID-19 Policies Concerning Public Auctions of Foreclosed Property established by the First Judicial District.

Edward H. Lehner, Esq., Referee LOGS Legal Group LLP f/k/a Shapiro, DiCaro & Barak, LLC

Attorney(s) for the Plaintiff 175 Mile Crossing Boulevard Rochester, New York 14624 (877) 430-4792

Dated: January 11, 2024

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

COUNTY OF NEW YORK

HSBC BANK USA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS TRUSTEE FOR DEUTSCHE ALT-A SECURITIES INC. MORTGAGE LOAN TRUST, MORTGAGE PASS-THROUGH CERTIFICATES SERIES 2005-3, -againstROBERT A. DEL VENTO, ET AL.

NOTICE OF SALE

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN pursuant to a Final Judgment of Foreclosure entered in the Office of the Clerk of the County of New York on June 12, 2023, wherein HSBC BANK USA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS TRUSTEE FOR DEUTSCHE ALT-A SECURITIES INC. MORTGAGE LOAN TRUST, MORTGAGE PASS-THROUGH CERTIFICATES SERIES 2005-3 is the Plaintiff and ROBERT A. DEL VENTO, ET AL. are the Defendant(s). I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the NEW YORK COUNTY CIVIL SUPREME COURTHOUSE, ROOM 130, 60 CENTRE STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10007, on May 1, 2024 at 2:15PM, premises known as 335 EAST 51ST STREET, APARTMENT 9D, NEW YORK, NY 10022; and the following tax map identification: 1344-1074.

THE CONDOMINIUM UNIT (HEREINAFTER REFERRED TO AS THE "UNIT") KNOWN AS UNIT NO. 9D IN THE BUILDING (HEREINAFTER REFERRED TO AS THE "BUILDING") KNOWN AS THE SENATE EAST CONDOMINIUM AND BY THE STREET NUMBER 335 EAST 51ST, BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN, CITY, COUNTY AND STATE OF NEW YORK

Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index No.: 850055/2019. Mark McKew, Esq. - Referee. Robertson, Anschutz, Schneid, Crane & Partners, PLLC 900 Merchants Concourse, Suite 310, Westbury, New York 11590, Attorneys for Plaintiff. All foreclosure sales will be conducted in accordance with Covid-19 guidelines including, but not limited to, social distancing and mask wearing. *LOCATION OF SALE SUBJECT TO CHANGE DAY OF IN ACCORDANCE WITH COURT/CLERK DIRECTIVES.

SUPREME COURT-NEW YORK COUNTY- HILTON RESORTS CORP., Pltf. v. MASANAO TANJI and KAZUMI TANJI, Defts. - Index # 850056/2023. Pursuant to Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated January 30, 2024, I will sell at public auction in Room 130 of the New York County Courthouse located at 60 Centre Street, New York, NY on Thursday, May 2, 2024, at 2:15 pm, an interest of an undivided 0.00986400000% tenant in common interest in the timeshare known as 57TH STREET VACATION SUITES located at 102 West 57th Street, New York, NY. Approximate amount of judgment is $26,554.59 plus costs and interest as of October 25, 2023. Sold subject to terms and conditions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale which includes annual maintenance fees and charges. Matthew D. Hunter III, Esq., Referee. Cruser, Mitchell, Novitz, Sanchez, Gaston, & Zimet LLP, Attys. for Pltf., 341 Conklin Street, Farmingdale, NY.

Supreme Court - New York County - Hilton Resorts Corp., Pltf. v. Any unknown heirs to the Estate of Nick Fravala, next of kin, devisees, legatees, distributees, grantees, assignees, creditors, lienors, trustees, executors, administrators or successors in interest, as well as the respective heirs at law, next of kin, devisees, legatees, distributees, grantees, assignees, lienors, trustees, executors, administrators or successors in interest of the aforesaid classes of persons, if they or any of them be dead, all of whom and whose names and places of residence are unknown to the plaintiff, et al., Deft. - Index # 850212/2016. The foregoing supplemental summons is served upon you by publication pursuant to an Order of the Honorable FRANCIS KAHN, III, Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York, dated the 17th day of October 2023 and duly entered the 16th day of November 2023 in the office of the Clerk of the County of New York, State of New York. Cruser, Mitchell, Novitz, Sanchez, Gaston, & Zimet LLP, Attys. for Pltf., 341 Conklin Street, Farmingdale, NY, 5165868513.

TO THE ABOVE-NAMED DEFENDANTS:

YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to answer the complaint in this action and to serve a copy of your answer, or, if the Complaint is not served with this Summons, to serve a notice of appearance, on the Plaintiff's attorney, within twenty (20) days after the service of this Summons, exclusive of the day of service (or within thirty (30) days after completion of service where service is made in any other manner than by personal delivery within the State) In case of your failure to appear or answer, judgment will be taken against you by default for the relief demanded in the Complaint.

NOTICE OF NATURE OF ACTION AND RELIEF SOUGHT

THE OBJECT of the above captioned action is for the foreclosure of: An undivided 0.00986400000% tenants in common interest of 57th Street Vacation Suites located at 102 West 57th Street NY, NY. Block: 1009 Lot: 37. Mortgage bearing the date of November 19, 2015, executed by Nick Fravala to Hilton Resorts Corporation, a Delaware Corporation, to secure the sum of $50,915.00, and interest and recorded in the Office of the Clerk of New York County on March 22, 2016, in CRFN 2016000101557. The relief sought in the within action is a final judgment directing the sale of the Mortgaged Premises as described above to satisfy the debt secured by the Mortgage described above. YOU MUST RESPOND BY SERVING A COPY OF THE ANSWER ON THE ATTORNEY FOR THE PLAINTIFF AND FILING THE ANSWER WITH THE COURT.

Notice is hereby given that a license, Appl ID: CL-24-10264301 for beer, wine & liquor has been applied for by the undersigned to sell beer, wine & liquor at retail in a restaurant under the ABC Law at 65 Sherman Ave., NYC 10040 for on-premises consumption; Casa Emilio Restaurante Corp. Green Ductors LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 12/26/2023. Office location: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: 57 West 57th St, NY, NY, 10019. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Alana Kaminetsky Psychological Services PLLC Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY on 2/8/24. Office: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail copy to: 2248 Bdwy, #1104, NY, NY 10024. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Notice is hereby given that a license, serial #NA-0340-24111126 for beer, wine & liquor has been applied for by the undersigned to sell beer, wine & liquor at retail in a restaurant under the ABC Law at 23 2nd Ave., NYC 10003 for on-premises consumption; Kitchen Nuggets LLC

Supreme Court – New York County – Hilton Resorts Corp., Pltf. v. Any unknown heirs to the to the Estates of MELVIN S. JANIS and SHARON F. JANIS, next of kin, devisees, legatees, distributees, grantees, assignees, creditors, lienors, trustees, executors, administrators or successors in interest, as well as the respective heirs at law, next of kin, devisees, legatees, distributees, grantees, assignees, lienors, trustees, executors, administrators or successors in interest of the aforesaid classes of persons, if they or any of them be dead, all of whom and whose names and places of residence are unknown to the plaintiff, MICHAEL S. BROOKS, NYC TRANSIT ADJUDICATION BUREAU, and NYC DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE, PARKING VIOLATIONS BUREAU, Defts. – Index # 850185/2021. The foregoing supplemental summons is served upon you by publication pursuant to an Order of the Honorable FRANCIS KAHN, III, Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York, dated the 17th day of October, 2023 and duly entered the 18th day of October, 2023 in the office of the Clerk of the County of New York, State of New York. Cruser, Mitchell, Novitz, Sanchez, Gaston, & Zimet LLP, Attys. for Pltf., 341 Conklin Street, Farmingdale, NY, 5165868513.

TO THE ABOVE-NAMED DEFENDANTS:

YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to answer the complaint in this action and to serve a copy of your answer, or, if the Complaint is not served with this Summons, to serve a notice of appearance, on the Plaintiff’s attorney, within twenty (20) days after the service of this Summons, exclusive of the day of service (or within thirty (30) days after completion of service where service is made in any other manner than by personal delivery within the State) In case of your failure to appear or answer, judgment will be taken against you by default for the relief demanded in the Complaint.

NOTICE OF NATURE OF ACTION AND RELIEF SOUGHT

THE OBJECT of the above captioned action is for the foreclosure of: An undivided 15,000/28,402,100 tenants in common interest of HNY Club Suites located at 1335 Avenue of the Americas NY, NY. Block: 1006 Lot: 1302. Mortgage bearing the date of July 25, 2019, executed by Melvin S. Janis, Sharon F. Janis and Michael S. Brooks to Hilton Resorts Corporation, a Delaware Corporation, to secure the sum of $56,469.32, and interest and recorded in the Office of the Clerk of New York County on October 25, 2019, in CRFN 2019000348437. The relief sought in the within action is a final judgment directing the sale of the Mortgaged Premises as described above to satisfy the debt secured by the Mortgage described above. YOU MUST RESPOND BY SERVING A COPY OF THE ANSWER ON THE ATTORNEY FOR THE PLAINTIFF AND FILING THE ANSWER WITH THE COURT.

Notice of Formation of 515 W18 1804 LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/01/24. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 515 W. 18th St., #1804, NY, NY 10011. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: To purchase, own and sell real estate in New York.

ANASTASIA DOES ASTROLOGY LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 3/10/24. Office: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: 276 W 71st St, 7, NY, NY 10023. Purpose: Any lawful act.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY. NAME: OUR NYC HOME, LLC. Articles of Organization were filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 04/21/2023, office location Bronx County. SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of the process to the LLC, 4632 Third Avenue, Bronx, NY 10458. Purpose: For any lawful purpose.

Notice of Qualification of PORTA MANAGEMENT, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/08/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/28/18. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 122072543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form.

Supreme Court – New York County – Hilton Resorts Corp., Pltf. v. Any unknown heirs to the to the Estate of SID HAMLER, JR., next of kin, devisees, legatees, distributees, grantees, assignees, creditors, lienors, trustees, executors, administrators or successors in interest, as well as the respective heirs at law, next of kin, devisees, legatees, distributees, grantees, assignees, lienors, trustees, executors, administrators or successors in interest of the aforesaid classes of persons, if they or any of them be dead, all of whom and whose names and places of residence are unknown to the plaintiff, et al., Deft. – Index # 850122/2017. The foregoing supplemental summons is served upon you by publication pursuant to an Order of the Honorable FRANCIS KAHN, III, Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York, dated the 26th day of October, 2023 and duly entered the 27th day of October, 2023 in the office of the Clerk of the County of New York, State of New York. Cruser, Mitchell, Novitz, Sanchez, Gaston, & Zimet LLP, Attys. for Pltf., 341 Conklin Street, Farmingdale, NY, 5165868513.

TO THE ABOVE-NAMED DEFENDANTS:

YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to answer the complaint in this action and to serve a copy of your answer, or, if the Complaint is not served with this Summons, to serve a notice of appearance, on the Plaintiff’s attorney, within twenty (20) days after the service of this Summons, exclusive of the day of service (or within thirty (30) days after completion of service where service is made in any other manner than by personal delivery within the State) In case of your failure to appear or answer, judgment will be taken against you by default for the relief demanded in the Complaint.

NOTICE OF NATURE OF ACTION AND RELIEF SOUGHT

THE OBJECT of the above captioned action is for the foreclosure of: An undivided .009864% tenants in common interest of 57th Street Vacation Suites located at 102 West 57th Street NY, NY. Block: 1009 Lot: 37. Mortgage bearing the date of May 2, 2009, executed by Sid Hamler Jr. to Hilton Resorts Corporation, a Delaware Corporation, to secure the sum of $30,510.00, and interest and recorded in the Office of the Clerk of New York County on August 17, 2009, in CRFN 2009000258365. The relief sought in the within action is a final judgment directing the sale of the Mortgaged Premises as described above to satisfy the debt secured by the Mortgage described above.

YOU MUST RESPOND BY SERVING A COPY OF THE ANSWER ON THE ATTORNEY FOR THE PLAINTIFF AND FILING THE ANSWER WITH THE COURT.

Notice of Qualification of 885 HOSPITALITY LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/05/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 06/07/23. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Jeffrey W. Bullock, Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of DD 82ND STREET PARTICIPANTS LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/06/24. Office location: NY

County. Princ. office of LLC: 7 Penn Plaza, Ste. 600, NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Jeffrey Levine at the princ. office of the LLC. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of ACI VI CLARKSON SH LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/12/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 01/12/24. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of DD ST. NICHOLAS LLC

Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/06/24. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 7 Penn Plaza, Ste. 600, NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF SALE

WILMINGTON TRUST, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS TRUSTEE FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE REGISTERED HOLDERS OF JPMBB COMMERCIAL MORTGAGE SECURITIES TRUST 2014-C24, COMMERCIAL MORTGAGE PASS-THROUGH CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2014-C24, BY AND THROUGH ITS SPECIAL SERVICER, LNR PARTNERS, LLC, Plaintiff v. IRONWOOD REALTY CORPORATION, BEN ASHKENAZY, NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF TAXATION AND FINANCE, NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE, ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL BOARD OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, THE CITY OF NEW YORK, and PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, Defendants, Index No. 850274/2021 . Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Decision and Order on Motion dated December 1, 2023, and duly entered in the above-entitled action and filed in the Office of the New York County Clerk on February 6, 2024 (the “Judgment”), I the undersigned Referee in said Judgment named, will sell at public auction to the highest bidder at Room 130 of the Courthouse, located at 60 Centre Street, New York, New York, the premises directed by said Judgment to be sold. The premises will be offered for sale, as one parcel, on Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 2:15 p.m. The premises therein described are located at 635 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10022, also known as Block 1374, Lot 21 on the Tax Map for the County of New York, together with the buildings, improvements, fixtures, machinery, equipment, personalty and other rights or interests of any kind or nature located thereon, and more particularly described in the Judgment. The premises will be sold subject to the provisions of the filed Judgment, Index No. 850274/2021 , and the Terms of Sale, all of which are available from plaintiff’s counsel upon request.

The approximate amount of the Judgment, for the property referred to therein, is $99,758,265.13, plus interest and costs, as provided in the Judgment. The successful bidder will be required to deposit 10% of the bid by certified or official bank check, unendorsed, made payable to the Referee.

Matthew D. Hunter III, Esq., Referee ( 718) 309-1660

Herrick, Feinstein LLP, Attorneys for Plaintiff, Two Park Avenue, New York, New York 10016, (212) 592-1461, Attention: Scott T. Tross, Esq.

Matousek LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on March 1, 2024. Office location: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: 304 E 41st St, Apt 604A, NY, NY, 10017. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of 322W80 TRUE HOUSE LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/19/24. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 322 W 80th St., NY, NY 10024. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Engel & Davis, LLP, 620 Fifth Ave., Ste. 200, NY, NY 10020.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of formation of Jeff Multi-Service LLC Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) 02/10/2022 Office in NEW

Notice of Qualification of AMO DYNAMIC RISK PREMIA ONSHORE FUND, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/11/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 01/24/24. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 122072543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State of DE, Dept. of State, Div. of Corps., John Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of DD SACK WERN DEVELOPER LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/11/24. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 7 Penn Plaza, Ste. 600, NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of CERTIFIED ORNAMENTAL, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/07/24. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of DD ATLANTIC PARTICIPANTS LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/06/24. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 7 Penn Plaza, Ste. 600, NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Jeffrey Levine at the princ. office of the LLC. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of 22 VANDERBILT LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/12/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/01/24. NYS fictitious name: 22 VANDERBILT2 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. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of the State of DE, c/o Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of MACCABEE VENTURES FUND II GP, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/22/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 01/23/24. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY122072543. DE addr. of LLC: CSC, 251 Little

Notice of Qualification of 200 INVESTORS GP LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/18/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 03/11/24. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Jeffrey W. Bullock, Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity. GBM Capital LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 3/5/24. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: 405 E 54th St., #12D, New York, NY 10022. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/11/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 05/31/17. Princ. office of LLC: 352 Park Ave. S., 10th Fl., NY, NY 10010. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the princ. office of the LLC. DE addr. of LLC: Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 820 N. French St., 10th Fl., Wilmington, DE 19801. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

purpose.

Notice of Formation of ARTONUS, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/06/24. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, 38 W. 32nd St., Ste. 1101, NY, NY 10001. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of LUMI STUDIOS, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/25/24. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of VERY BEST FEATURE, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/21/24. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Purpose: A show that will be based off a theatrical production.

Notice of Formation of ESSENCE SELTZER, LLC

Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/26/24. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 6 Greene St., Ste. 600, NY, NY 10013. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of SPRING US ESTATES LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/28/24. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Impulso Media LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 09/02/2023. Office location: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: 536 Isham St, #52B, NY, NY 10034. Purpose: Any lawful act.

INWOOD BREAD LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 2/26/24. Office location: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: 30 Seaman Ave, 4M, NY, NY, 10034. Purpose: Any lawful act.

VD Legacy, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 1/8/24. Office location: BX County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: 1266 Olmstead Ave. Apt. 3E, Bronx, NY 10462. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

PB Aesthetics LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 12/08/2023. Office location: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: 327 West 35th Street, NY, NY 10001. Purpose: Any lawful act.

The Residual Effect LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 02/13/2024. Office location: Bronx County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: 416 E. 134th Street, Bronx, NY 10454. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of STANDBY DEPOSITS LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/28/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/11/23. Princ. office of LLC: 575 5th Ave., NY, NY 10017. NYS fictitious name: STANDBY SERVICING LLC. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: To provide services related to security deposits to renters and owners and operators of property.

ABOTOS

02/12/2024. Office location:

Climate

Continued from page 4

and comedians; and networking opportunities for attendees to learn more from each other about ways to protect and regenerate a healthy planet.

Ashley Beale Nutrition, PLLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 3/14/2024. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: 33 Park View Ave, Jersey City, NJ 07302. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Digital Quill Publishing LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 9/24/2023. Office location: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: 400 Chambers St, 9B, NY, NY 10282. Purpose: Any lawful act.

250 MANHT FURN ROOMS

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“I want to start by once again formally thanking everybody here for taking the time to come here,” Gore told trainee attendees the first day. “The very fact that you’re here is extremely important. Whatever it was that caused you to make the decision to take this time, that’s really the most important thing. Keep in close touch with the feeling and the passion that caused you to make the decision to come here. We’ll do our best for these next few days to give you the state of the art of science on both the causes and the solutions to the climate crisis and [to] connect you with others of like-minded heart, get you into networks that can help you magnify your ability to advocate

Medicare

Continued from page 4

the expansion of our public Medicare benefits and against the ongoing privatization of traditional Medicare,” one portion of the letter reads. “We retirees served our communities for years, paid into Medicare every paycheck, and were promised strong public Medicare when we grew older.

“Now retirees all over the country are being forced into for-profit Medicare Advantage plans, without their consent. Many other seniors have chosen Medicare Advantage because they cannot afford expensive private Medigap plans or are deceived by false advertising.

“These plans are literally killing us. The National Bureau of Economic Research estimates that 10,000 Medicare Advantage patient lives could be saved every year if insurance

for change, give you the opportunity to gain some new skills if you wish, and to get inspired by the people who

companies did not delay and deny the care their doctor ordered as a method of increasing their profits.”

“Medicare (Dis)Advantage screws everyone”

“Through the years we always thought that the enemy was the Republicans who were against Social Security and— like Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan—against Medicare,” Stuart Eber, Council of Municipal Retiree Organizations (COMRO) president, remarked during the stand-in. “Then we woke up in the 21st century and we have Democrats and Republicans who are foisting Medicare Advantage on us.”

Eileen Moran, a member of the Professional Staff Congress’ (PSC) retiree executive committee said that because it’s propelled by the need to make a profit, she believes “Medicare (Dis)Advantage screws everyone.”

“The PSC Social Safety

are here with you.”

The next Climate Reality Leadership Training will take place in Rome

Net early on was skeptical of the agreement that the [Municipal Labor Committee] made with the city both in 2014 and then again in 2018, because there was no way that you could save $600 million a year every year without denying care. But that’s the route that the MLC and the city took. And that’s why we’re here because we’re urging Biden to make sure that regular Medicare is protected––real Medicare, not Medicare (Dis)advantage. And if we begin to claw back that $140 billion that’s being wasted going into corporate executive salaries and advertising to lie to people, then we could actually go without a Medigap policy, and we could expand Medicare to cover dental, eyeglasses, hearing aids, etc––all of which is not covered now. But instead, we’re flushing money down the toilet to make people in the 1% richer and richer and richer.”

Schwartzberg said CROC

from June 28-30, 2024. For more information, visit: https://climaterealityproject.org/rome

believes Medicare could be financially buttressed with the funds the federal government has won in lawsuits against the largest insurance companies who, according to Physicians for a National Health Program, overbill Medicare Advantage. Many of these companies have had to pay milliondollar fines for fraudulent and inflated bills, according to a 2022 congressional report. “We are saying, take that money that the insurance companies are robbing––and there’s an estimate that it is up to $140 billion a year––and put it into Medicare. Why does Medicare make us pay 20%? Why don’t they have dental? Why don’t they have optical? Why can’t we take the money from the fraud and …make Medicare whole? That’s why we’re here. That’s why we’re going up and delivering a letter to President Biden saying, this is what you can do.”

LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the

on

Trainees attending Al Gore’s 55th Climate Reality Leadership Corps training at NYC’s Jacob Javits Center. (The Climate Reality Project photo)

Yankees’ Marcus Stroman is a true Jedi on the mound

By JUSTIN PETRILLE MLBbro.com

Special to the AmNews

LOS ANGELES—There is nothing like the spotlight of New York, especially when you’re a showman like Marcus Stroman.

The Stro Show is off to a sizzling launch in 2024. He’s started three games, including the Yankees home opener, and has a 2.12 ERA. His first two starts were simply dominant: He gave up zero earned runs and seven hits on 12 combined innings, with 10 total strikeouts.

“He’s been terrific, I mean, he’s right in line with how he’s been [building up] the last couple of months, execution’s been excellent,” manager Aaron Boone said about Stroman’s buildup from spring training to his first two starts. “Command, excellent—where he wants to be, the misses he wants. Staying off the barrel, big pitches in some spots where he’s had to make one, but really sharp.”

Stroman’s third start on April 10 was not as terrific: He gave up four earned runs in the top of the third inning, after allowing a one-out single to score one, and a three-run homerun to cap off the inning. He went

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five innings that day, and even with that tough third inning, he only gave up one combined hit through the other four innings.

“I thought the stuff was good. He had good swing and miss going, but just not as sharp, especially with how sharp he was in the first two,” said Boone

after Stroman picked up his first loss of the season. Stroman signed a two-year contract worth $37 million in the offseason with the Yankees. He earned his payday with the Yanks after having arguably his best season in 2023 with the Cubs, which included his

second career All-Star appearance, a 3.58 ERA, and the best day on the mound he’s ever had: a one-hit shutout against the Rays on May 29, which included one walk and eight strikeouts.

The Yankees were 12-5, the best record in Major League

Baseball, when they took on the Toronto Blue Jays on the road on Tuesday night. Stroman was scheduled to start yesterday afternoon in the final game of the Yankees three-game set against the Blue Jays. They’re doing this without Gerrit Cole, who’s expected to be out until late May to early June with a right elbow injury. With their star pitcher out at least the first third of the season, someone had to step up and fill that hole. So far, Stroman has been that guy.

He went into yesterday with the second-most strikeouts of anyone on the team with 17, and is tied with the lowest WHIP of the starting rotation at 1.06.

Even with Stroman being the Yankees best pitcher, the team was 1-2 before yesterday’s game when he’s been on the bump. The offense had only scored one run in the 17 innings that Stroman pitched.

The season is still very young, so the Yankees’ offense is bound to pick up when Stroman gets the nod. Yankees fans and management shouldn’t have to worry about their pitcher too much when he’s on the mound, because he’s set a standard for himself these past few seasons where excellence is expected.

Despite Lindor’s struggles, the Mets find their stride

By JAIME C. HARRIS AmNews Sports Editor

As his team has climbed out of an 0-5 start to rise above .500 at 9-8 after a 3-1 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates at Citi Field on Tuesday night, Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor has been trying to break out of an early season slump.

He was batting just .145 in 69 at-bats with only one home run and two RBI and a meager .477 OPS entering the final game of a three-game series versus the Pirates yesterday afternoon in Queens. Lindor’s statistics are well below his career marks of a .272 batting average and .810 OPS. History suggests the rough patch the 30-year-old, 10-year veteran is going through will end soon and he will gradually, maybe even rapidly, reach his batting norms.

Although the four-time All Star (2016-19) and three-time Silver Slugger Award (2017, 2018, 2023) winner’s production has uncharacteristically lagged, Mets fans have still been supportive, including giving Lindor a standing ovation at home in his first at-bat last Friday in the team’s 6-1 win over the Kansas City Royals.

“I wasn’t expecting that at all,” Lindor said following the victory in which he was 1-3 and walked once. “But it definitely felt good. It feels good to be able to come home and feel the love of the fans, when I’m playing well or playing bad. It fills my heart, for sure.

“At the end of the day, I will always be Francisco Lindor— on good or bad days. And I will always play as hard as I can and do whatever it takes to help this team win, day in and day out.

Everybody that came out— thank you for the love. It doesn’t go unnoticed.”

Conversely and disturbingly, Lindor also expressed that his wife, Katia Reguero, had received death threats and vile messages via social media. In the face of his issues, team owner Steve Cohen, manager Carlos Mendoza and his teammates have rallied around Lindor and his family.

The Mets will begin a three-game road series versus the Los Angeles Dodgers tomorrow and then head to San Francisco to meet the Giants for three games Monday through Wednesday, before returning to Citi Field next Friday to host the St. Louis Cardinals for three games.

Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor has labored at the plate over the first month of the 2024 MLB season. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)

into yesterday’s game versus Toronto Blue Jays on the road, Yankees starter and Long Island native Marcus Stroman has been stellar. (AP Photo/Peter

Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese move from college to the WNBA

Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, with WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, was the No. 1 overall pick by the Indiana Fever at Monday’s WNBA draft.

LSU star Angel Reese was selected seventh overall by the Chicago Sky in the WNBA draft. (AP Photos/Adam Hunger)

By LOIS ELFMAN Special to the AmNews

In a surprise to no one, with the first pick of the 2024 WNBA Draft the Indiana Fever chose Caitlin Clark of the University of Iowa. Women’s college basketball’s second most noted player, LSU’s Angel Reese, was selected by the Chicago Sky with the seventh overall pick.

It was revealed that in second grade Clark wrote down her future dreams, and among them were being drafted in the WNBA. One must assume her dreams as a seven-yearold child didn’t also include a massive congratulatory billboard in Times Square from State Farm, a new Gatorade commercial, and being the first WNBA or NBA player dressed by Prada for the draft.

As people talked about this year’s super rookies and extolled Clark’s impending impact on the WNBA, Clark proved what a gracious person she is by thanking those who came before her during a pre-draft appearance on “Saturday Night Live.” She also promised to enjoy this next step of her basketball journey and said she looks forward to playing alongside Aliyah Boston and Erica Wheeler.

“I’m 22 years old, and I don’t have all the answers in the world,” said Clark

WNBA draft produces Columbia’s first-ever pick

By LOIS ELFMAN Special to the AmNews

With the 11th pick of the first round of the WNBA Draft, held on Monday at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the New York Liberty selected Marquesha Davis of Ole Miss. The six-foot guard is expected to be a strong defensive presence.

“I would say something that stood out to me is them looking basically for a two-way player and me being just that,” said Davis. “Knowing that I can come in and be a two-way player and make an impact that way is something that I look forward to…Just coming in and having a certain role and knowing what’s expected of you and knowing that you don’t have to be the superhero or anything like that.”

After forgoing most of its draft picks in 2023, the Liberty had four this year. In the second round, they chose Esmery Martinez of the University of Arizona and Jessika Carter from Mississippi State. In the third round, the team selected a face familiar to New York City basketball fans: Kaitlyn Davis, who played three seasons at Columbia University and this year played at USC as a graduate student.

Columbia senior Abbey Hsu was also

on Monday at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where the event was held. “This is something new to me. This is a new challenge. That’s something I’m excited for. But having those types of people around me to lean on and ask questions, or when things get hard, to be there for me.”

Joining Clark in Indiana is Long Island native Celeste Taylor, a 5’11” guard chosen in the second round. Taylor’s journey to the WNBA was a bit circuitous, having played her college ball at three different universities. This past year at Ohio State showed the power and range of her game.

“[I’m] obviously a very, very big defensive-minded kid, but at the same time, I’m willing to do whatever it is that a team needs me to do,” said Taylor, who previously played alongside Clark on the USA Basketball team. “I’m willing to come in there and make an impact. I’m really big on community. So just getting my hand in the community and continuing to be who I am and continuing to make an impact.”

First round picks included Cameron Brink (No. 2) of Stanford and Rickea Jackson (No. 4) of Tennessee, both selected by the Los Angeles Sparks, and this year’s Final Four most outstanding player, Kamilla Cardoso of champion South Carolina, taken No. 3 by the Chicago Sky.

drafted, picked in the third round by the Connecticut Sun. Hsu watched the draft with her teammates, friends, and family on the Columbia campus.

“There were so many emotions; it was pretty much a roller-coaster—nervousness, excitedness, all of it—but being surrounded by my teammates, my coaches, my girlfriend, my sister, and my mom was comforting,” said Hsu. “I was very happy to experience that outcome with them. It was very special.”

Hsu shared happiness for herself and Davis as Columbia’s first-ever WNBA draft picks. She expressed her appreciation for Coach Megan Griffith’s belief in them and in the program. “Me and KD made history, but it wasn’t just us; it was the whole Columbia program,” said Hsu.

A prolific scorer throughout college, Hsu knows that is the first thing she brings into the pros. She’s also ready to develop new skills. Speaking at the conclusion of the draft, Sun general manager Darius Taylor said the team had followed Hsu throughout this past college season.

“She’s a really good shooter; she’s also a very good rebounder,” said Taylor. “We know that she has a high ceiling and potential to grow into an even better player.”

Abbey Hsu is first-ever Columbia player selected in WNBA Draft. (Columbia Athletics photo)

The Liberty chose Marquesha Davis of Ole Miss with 11th pick in first round of WNBA draft. (Ole Miss Athletics photo)

Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia to meet for the first time as pros

By DERREL JOHNSON Special to the AmNews

This Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, WBC super lightweight world champion Devin Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) will defend his title against Ryan Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs). The fight will be broadcast and streamed live on DAZN PPV. The two fighters have a lot of history, as they matched up six times as amateurs, with each winning three of the bouts before starting their respective professional careers.

“I’m feeling good. I’m on track to make weight,” said the 25-year-old Garcia last week after his media workout. Garcia lost his first professional fight a year ago to Gervonta Davis and blamed the loss on the rehydration clause that prevented him from adding significant weight after the weigh-in.

“I was at around 146 yesterday and we’re continuing to train hard like we always do,” he said, “I know I am training hard. I am feeling great, looking good in the gym.” Garcia exuded confidence ahead of the match but could be playing

a psychological game with Haney, which will have little effect once the bell rings for Round 1 to begin.

“It’s going to be light work for me,” he declared. “I am going to cook Devin Haney. Just another day in the office. Devin is not on my level and he will never be on my level.”

Haney, like Garcia is 25 and taking a business as usual approach to the impending clash.

“Camp has been amazing,” Haney said earlier this month. “I’m in the zone, always. I’m obviously getting more adjusted to this new weight class.”

Haney, who defeated Regis Prograis in his first fight at super lightweight in December, maintained he is getting stronger and in the best physical shape of his career.

“Not having to go down the extra five pounds has been a tremendous

help for me,” he said. “I had been at 135 for a long time. At 140, it just feels so different. My performance against Regis Prograis showed that.”

He also addressed the numerous comments about him by Garcia posted on social media and other platforms.

“At the end of the day, Ryan Garcia is going to say what he is going to say,” Haney said. “No matter what, I am going to do my job to be the very best Devin Haney I can be. Whichever version of Ryan shows up on April 20, I will be ready for him. Ryan Garcia is just another opponent to me. I am in competition with greatness. That is why I train so hard, that is why I stay so disciplined.”

This past Saturday, undefeated heavyweight Jared Anderson (17-0, 15 KOs) defeated Ryad Merhy in Corpus Christi, Texas, by a 100-90, 99-91, 100-90 unanimous decision.

“I stayed sharp for 10 rounds, that’s the biggest takeaway,” Anderson said after his win. “I made some mistakes. I got hit with a few punches. I shouldn’t have gotten hit at all because he didn’t even come here to fight.”

Candice Hill returns home for her first head coaching position

By LOIS ELFMAN Special to the AmNews

Candice Hill knew she would be attending the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Next Generation Institute, a program for assistant coaches aspiring to become head coaches, held in conjunction with the Final Four. Just prior to departing, Hill got some excellent news—she was selected as the new head coach at University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). While her position was squared away, Hill still listened intently to all the information during the program.

“I took away some great nuggets about…accepting that everybody goes through ups and downs. It’s really about the resilience you and your program have,” said Hill. The WBCA has been a big part of her journey. As a college student, she participated in the So You Want to Be a Coach program and was later named to the WBCA’s Thirty Under 30.

She joins UMBC after three seasons with St. John’s University women’s basketball, serving as associate head coach and recruiting coordinator this past season. She served a crucial role in helping the Red Storm return to the NCAA Tournament in 2023

and is deeply appreciative for the knowledge Coach Joe Tartamella imbued. Hill was pivotal in upping the skills of star guard Unique Drake, who was MVP of

the Seniors All Stars Game played during the Final Four.

“Coach Joe Tartamella brought me in as a piece to the rebuild of his program, and I believe that’s

what I’m going to do here [at UMBC],” Hill said. “Another thing I will be able to take away from not only St. John’s but every stop I’ve been at is the effort to build relationships within the university’s community and outside of the community.

“Joe Tartamella taught me how to win, how to be strategic and honestly allowed me to be me,” she added. “I’m going to do the same thing with myself and with my staff. I’m going to have people on my staff that are proven winners, that have experience and bought into what I’m trying to do at UMBC.”

She is thrilled to not only take this next step in her career, but to do it in her hometown of Baltimore. There are some highly competitive Division I and II programs and Maryland, and Hill is looking forward to being part of the community.

“Growing up here makes UMBC so attractive to me, but it’s also based in a city where I know I can recruit to,” said Hill, who played her college basketball in Baltimore at Loyola University.

WBC super lightweight champion Devin Haney will face Ryan Garcia this Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. (Golden Boy/Cris Esqueda photo)

Former St. John’s associate head coach Candice Hill will now lead her own program after being named the new head coach for UMBC’s women’s basketball team. (St. John’s Athletics photo)

The 50-win Knicks enter the playoffs as the East’s No. 2 seed Sports

By JAIME C. HARRIS AmNews Sports Editor

It has been a remarkable season for the Knicks.

Not only did the team persevere through a Jan. 27 seasonending shoulder injury to their two-time All-NBA power forward Julius Randle, the Knicks excelled. Their regular season schedule culminated on Sunday at Madison Square Garden fittingly with a dramatic and hard-fought 120119 overtime victory over the Chicago Bulls to secure an unlikely No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. It also produced the 50-32 Knicks’ first 50-plus win season since they went 54-28 in the 201213 campaign.

“It’s a goal to be the best team we can be by the end of the year, and for us now it’s just move on from that,” said Knicks star point guard Jalen Brunson, whose 40-point, seven-assist, eight-rebound dis-

play of indomitable will was a microcosm of the 27-year-old player’s astonishing season.

“It’s something to be crossed off

and [we] have to get better from here,” added Brunson. This is the star’s 11th 40-point game this season, tying Patrick Ewing for the

second most in a single season in franchise history. Bernard King reached or exceeded the 40-point mark 13 times in the 1984-85 slate. Brunson, in only his second season with the Knicks, also reached 36 games scoring 30 or more, tying Richie Guerin (196162) and Ewing (1989-90) for the franchise record. His 28.7 points per game average was fourth overall in the league.

“I got teammates and coaches in this locker room who trust me and I trust them and we all try to go out there and make the right play every single time,” said Brunson. “No matter what’s going on out there, no one really cares about the credit or anything. We’re just trying to win and so we do whatever it takes, and I have their back out there.”

Now Tom Thibodeau will lead his team into the playoffs for the third time in four seasons since becoming the Knicks’ head coach in July of 2020. Their first round

NBA playoffs begin with compelling first-round matchups

By DERREL JOHNSON Special to the AmNews

After a long (82-game) regular season schedule, the NBA playoffs begin this weekend with four games on Saturday and four on Sunday, featuring a compelling Western Conference matchup of the No. 4 seed Los Angeles Clippers meeting the No. 5 seed Dallas Mavericks in a best-of-seven series.

Only one game separated them in the final standings as the Clippers go into the postseason 51-31 and the Mavericks 50-32. They will open at crypto.com arena in the Clippers’ last season at their shared home with the Los Angeles Lakers, before moving to the Inglewood, California, Intuit Dome next season.

Six-time NBA All-Star and twotime NBA Finals MVP forward Kawhi Leonard led the Clippers in scoring with 23.7 points per game in 68 games. Nine-time NBA All-Star forward Paul George was second with 22.6 points in 73 appearances.

L.A. made a big splash when they acquired 10-time NBA AllStar guard James Harden from the Philadelphia 76ers on October 31.

After an initial adjustment period, losing six in a row after his acquisition, they went 14-2 over their

next 16 games. The turnaround came after head coach Tyronn Lue shuffled the lineup, moving future Hall of Fame guard Russell Westbrook to the role of sixth-man. Harden was fifth in the NBA in assists this season at 8.5 as the Clip-

opponent, either the Philadelphia 76ers or Miami Heat, was determined last night when they faced each other in Philadelphia in an NBA Play-In Tournament matchup. The Knicks were 2-1 against Miami this season and 3-1 versus the 76ers.

They open the playoffs at the Garden for Game 1 this Saturday (6 p.m.) with Game 2 on Monday evening also at MSG.

“I think when you have competitors, it doesn’t matter. Competitors compete,” Thibodeau said of the impending playoff matchup.

Brunson emphasized the Knicks’ approach will be consistent with how they have carried out their business thus far.

“Making sure our mentality is the same, if not, better,” he said. “Making sure we’re getting right and making sure we’re watching and preparing, getting our minds right. And that’s what is most important.”

pers’ primary facilitator.

As for the Mavericks, five-time NBA All-Star guard Luka Doncic, guided by head coach Jason Kidd, led the NBA in scoring, averaging 33.9 points per game while dishing out 9.8 assists—was good for third in the league—and grabbing 9.2 rebounds a game in 70 games. Kyrie Irving, himself an eight-time NBA All-Star guard, averaged 25.6 points per game in 58 games, making the pair arguably the most dangerous offensive backcourt in the league.

The Mavericks improved as a collective when they acquired forward P.J. Washington from the Charlotte Hornets and center Daniel Gafford from the Washington Wizards as complementary pieces to Doncic and Irving. Dallas had a seven-game winning streak in March and a five-game winning streak in April.

The Clippers have 47 combined All-Star selections versus the Mavericks. While su-

perior offense will be on display throughout the series, since both teams ranked in the top 12 of scoring with Dallas at No. 7 and the Clippers No. 12, defensive stops at critical moments of games may decide the outcome. The Clippers were 10th in opponents’ points per game (112.3), but the Mavs were in the lower third at 115.6, which was 20th. The Clippers won two of three against the Mavericks this season, but the teams last faced each other in December.

As of AmNews press time, the other Western Conference first-round pairing was the No. 3 seed Minnesota Timberwolves taking on the No. 6 seed Phoenix Suns.

Jalen Brunson scored 40 points on Sunday, leading the Knicks to a 120-119 overtime win over the Chicago Bulls at Madison Square Garden in their final game of the regular season. (AP Photo/John Munson)

Los Angeles Clippers center Ivica Zubac (40) and forwards Kawhi Leonard (2) and Paul George (13) will take on Dallas Mavericks in opening round NBA Western Conference playoff series beginning this Sunday. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)