New York Amsterdam News June 27, 2024 by AmsterdamNews

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INDEX

Arts & Entertainment Page 17

» Astro Page 20

» Jazz Page 24

» Theater Page 17

Caribbean Update Page 14

Classified Page 32

Editorial/Opinion ................................................Pages 12,13

Education Page 28

Go with the Flo Page 8

Health Page 16

In the Classroom Page 26

Community Page 9

Sports Page 40

Union Matters Page 10 MAIL

International News

LGBTQ+ ACTIVISTS WIN LANDMARK JUDGMENT FROM NAMIBIAN HIGH COURT

(GIN)—Namibia’s high court has overturned a law that criminalized gay sex. The ruling is a victory for LGBTQ+ activists after a number of setbacks in the battle for rights in African countries in recent years.

Namibia inherited a law banning sodomy and “unnatural offenses” when it gained independence from South Africa in 1990. While the ban was rarely enforced, activists said it contributed to discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, including violence by the police.

Friedel Dausab, the Namibian LGBTQ+ activist who brought the case, said he felt elated.

“I’m so happy. This really is a landmark judgment, not just for me, but for our democracy. I’m sitting next to my mum and we’re hoping that this message filters through to all families, so that kids are no longer estranged.”

The judgment, made by three high court judges, said the laws amounted to unfair discrimination under Namibia’s constitution, and noted that the same consensual sexual conduct was not criminalized if it was between a man and a woman.

“What threat does a gay man pose to society, and who must be protected against him?” the court said in its ruling. “We are of the firm view that the enforcement of private moral views of a section of a community (even if they form the majority of that community), which are based to a large extent on nothing more than prejudice, cannot qualify as such a legitimate purpose.”

It was not clear whether Namibia’s government would appeal the ruling. Officials in the attorney general’s office were not available for comment.

In a pan-African survey of 34 countries conducted between 2019 and 2021, Namibia ranked as the third-most tolerant on the question of how people felt about having gay neighbors, with 64% of those responding saying either that they would like it or not care about it.

However, two high-profile court cases had driven a conservative backlash. In March 2023, the Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s decision to grant citizenship to the children of a gay couple born abroad via surrogacy. In May that year, the court also recognized same-sex marriages conducted abroad between Namibian citizens and foreign spouses. In response, the country’s parliament passed

a bill that defined marriage as “between persons of the opposite sex,” although that has yet to be signed into law by the president.

Activist groups said that since that decision, the number of hate crimes have risen. Six LGBTQ+ Namibians have been killed since the bill was passed, according to the campaign group Equal Namibia.

Of the 64 countries globally that criminalize same-sex relations, 31 are in Africa, according to Human Dignity Trust, a UK legal charity that supported Dausab.

SOUTH AFRICAN PARLIAMENTARIAN STRIPPED OF POST OVER TAPED RACIST RANT

(GIN)—Renaldo Gouws of the white-led Democratic Alliance (DA), a recently swornin member of the South African parliament, has been suspended for using racist language against Black people.

The suspension of Gouws highlights the uneasy alliance between the DA and its governing coalition with the African National Congress (ANC), the former liberation movement that fought apartheid in South Africa.

“The DA has established that the video, in which Renaldo Gouws uses execrable language, is in fact genuine and not a fake as initially suspected,” the party said. “The DA federal executive has therefore suspended Mr Gouws with immediate effect.”

A video clip of Gouws saying “Kill all the kaffirs”—a racial slur for Black people—and then repeating the phrase using a swear word and the N-word, went viral online.

“Black people are discriminating against white people and the Black people are singing about killing white people,” Gouws, a YouTuber, said in the video, referring to Julius Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters and one-time ANC youth leader, singing the anti-

apartheid song “Shoot the Boer.”

“In essence, this is a new apartheid and I’m the sufferer of that,” Gouws said in the clip, which appears to be from 2010.

Other viral video clips include Gouws using the homophobic slur “fag” and mocking a traditional praise singer in a 2024 livestream of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address, using a string of babble to imitate the singer’s Siswati language.

South Africa’s Human Rights Commission has also said it will be taking legal action against him in the Equality Court.

In the now-deleted video, posted in 2010, Gouws appears to call for killing Black people before saying that his statement is intended to make an analogy with Black activists singing a decades-old anti-apartheid chant that has stirred controversy in recent years.

The controversy comes as Ramaphosa warned of the dangers of “toxic cleavages” in a speech after his inauguration for a second term as president.

“We have made great strides in building a new society, and yet, despite this progress our society remains deeply unequal and highly polarized,” Ramaphosa told an audience. “There are toxic cleavages, often incipient social fragmentation, that can only turn into instability.”

These still-sharp divisions included those between Black and white South Africans, and between people with jobs and the unemployed, Ramaphosa said. More than four in 10 South Africans are out of work and, 30 years after the first fully democratic elections, the country’s deep economic inequality still plays out largely along racial lines.

Dr. Saths Cooper, president of the Pan African Psychology Union, said it was disturbing to see DA representatives, including their leadership, initially defending Gouws when the videos surfaced online. He added that if the situation were reversed and a person of color made similar statements, the DA would probably respond differently.

“He’s racist. He does not need to remain in our political landscape and certainly not in the government of national unity,” Cooper said of Gouws. “…To say he was a student is rubbish because he was already well into his twenties when the video was made. He’s made other horrific videos. Surely their checks should’ve brought this out and stated it was fake and it must be AI-generated [speaks volumes]…He’s a blatant example of the worst white racism that we thought we got rid of 30 years ago.”

Moreover, the DA representatives’ failure to explicitly call Gouws’s remarks racist, instead attempting to redefine his comments, has also drawn significant criticism and distrust.

WHY IS COVERAGE OF SUDAN’S CIVIL WAR RELEGATED TO THE BACK PAGES?

(GIN)—The biggest hunger crisis in the world is unfolding in Sudan. As of now, more than half of the country’s 45 million people urgently need humanitarian assistance.

(GIN photo)

Winners on the ballot: AOC in Congress, Wright and Zinerman in State Assembly

By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff

The votes are in.

Here’s a comprehensive listing of how Tuesday night unfolded as votes came in from the June Primary, which featured several Black and Brown candidates running for critical seats in Congress and the State Assembly.

Early voting capped at 46,241 voters as of the close of polls just before Tuesday. The most votes came in from Queens.

An Election Night recap, accord-

ing to unofficial city and state election night results posted by the Board of Elections (BOE), reported these results:

Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) took an early lead and ultimately won her reelection over candidate Marty Dolan in the 14th Congressional District, with 80% of the votes.

Incumbent Congressmember Jamaal Bowman took an early lead with nearly 84% of the votes in his highly anticipated smackdown with Westchester County Executive George Latimer in the 16th

Congressional District. Then, Latimer started to outpace Bowman with 58% of the votes shortly after the close of polls and Bowman’s lead dropped to 41%. Outlets called the race in Latimer’s favor.

“We have so much work still to do,” said Bowman in a livestreamed speech in response to the results. He thanked his on the ground team and staff. “Let’s keep building coalition.”

In response to the results, National Director of the Working Families Party Maurice Mitchell added in a statement, “Rep.

Jamaal Bowman faced an avalanche of outside spending from AIPAC and its GOP donors. Even with a powerful, multi-racial coalition behind him, it wasn’t enough to overcome the onslaught of attack ads and misinformation.”

In the five eagerly watched state assembly races in Harlem, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, here’s who took home the gold:

Harlem Assembly candidate Jordan J. G. Wright scored the coveted 70th District Assembly seat to

DA Bragg holds gun buyback in Washington Heights

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

Manhattan District Attorney (D.A.)

Alvin Bragg’s gun buyback in Washington Heights on Saturday, June 22, brought in 17 guns to be turned into cash. Anyone other than law enforcement was allowed to surrender firearms in exchange for money as part of ongoing efforts to get guns off the street this summer.

State Senator Robert Jackson and Assemblymember Manny De

Los Santos—who both represent Washington Heights, Inwood, and Marble Hill—told the AmNews that getting guns off the street is crucial in their district. The lawmakers mentioned a Father’s Day shooting in Inwood that killed two people and injured another as a recent incident; police arrested and charged a 16-year-old for two counts of second-degree murder. One of the victims, Alejandro “Alex” Ramirez, was a pillar in the community.

“This week, a hardworking man working [long hours at a] pizzeria

literally died while he was getting… home,” De Los Santos said. “He was a beloved member of the community…, and someone (who), when we talked about hard work and working class, we looked to people like Alex.” Washington Heights is one of several neighborhoods the D.A. is targeting for gun violence reduction. Other areas of focus include Harlem and the Lower East Side, where previous buybacks have been hosted. Last summer, the D.A. office’s Cash for Guns event at Harlem’s Memorial Baptist Church reeled in 50

firearms. Many were illegally homemade or 3D-printed, dubbed by law enforcement as “ghost guns.” However, none such guns were collected at the June 22 buyback.

“I was surprised because of that trend that we did not get ghost guns today,” Bragg told the AmNews. “We’ve seen them more and more in our buybacks and gun practice.”

The office offered $200 for every ghost gun turned in; $500 each for handguns and assault rifles; $75 for a working rifle or shotgun; and $25 for an air or replica gun, as well as an

inoperable firearm. While buyback programs do work, Bragg said there are also other ways to tackle gun violence. He pointed to recently prompting YouTube to remove and/or age-restrict content that encourages firearm use. The video-sharing platform implemented those recommendations, which went into effect on June 18.

The new rules include bans on videos demonstrating removal of safety devices on firearms and limiting content that shows realistic

See GUN BUYBACK on page 25

Ali Forney Center fights for more equitable treatment of LGBTQIA+ youth in city’s foster care system

PRIDE MONTH

By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff

In honor of Pride month, the Ali Forney Center (AFC) pushed for an historic agreement with the city’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) to address homophobic and transphobic treatment of LGBTQIA+ youth.

Over the last year, AFC cited a sharp uptick in blatant attacks on queer youth by the state, ACS caseworkers, and foster care families, despite policies and training aimed at negating discriminatory treatment. This is especially concerning considering the widespread bans targeting queer youth in several states.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is tracking 523 anti-LGBTQ bills across the nation, which range from banning gender-affirming care and books that center queer characters, to forced outing in schools. Just this week, a ban on gender-affirming treatment

in Tennessee has officially made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Months earlier, the Supreme Court declined to make a decision in the battle over bathrooms for transgender students.

New York City, for all its progressive stances, still struggles to fully protect LGBTQIA+ youth, who are overrepresented in the foster care system. According to an ACS study from 2019, more than one out of three youths aged 13 to 20 in the city’s foster care system identify as queer—most of whom are Black or Latinx.

“I am currently in a shelter, and not too long ago I overheard a staff member talking about their trans client and they were referring to them not as who they are,” Dan Alvarez, a youth advocate from Youth Represent, says. “Overhearing that made me upset. It really did irk my spirit and didn’t sit right with me, especially because the person wasn’t there to defend themselves.”

Alvarez, 19, is a native Brooklynite and a trans male. He was at a rally held at Christopher Street pier on June 11 to advocate for LGBTQ

youth in foster care and who have experienced homelessness. “I know what needs to change is making the uncomfortable comfortable.”

Because of their gender identity, queer youth are more likely to be placed in group homes as opposed to a family; less likely to see family members or have a community they felt they could rely on; were at higher risk for depression; and are

more likely to be criticized for their gender presentation and behavior, according to the report. They were also more likely to run away or become homeless because of the compounded traumas of family rejection, experience criminalization by police, be exposed to sex work or drug use, or have suicidal ideation

Ali Forney, a homeless gendernonconforming person living on the

streets of the city in the 1990s, exemplified these hardships that many queer youth continue to face today. “Ali was rejected by his family at 13. Mother had [a] big issue, he was bullied by the community. He was put into the foster care system where they bounced him around for two years. They couldn’t place him. At the

See ALI FORNEY CENTER on page 34

(Element5 Digital via Pexels photo)

Photos from the Ali Forney Center (AFC) drop-in center. (AFC Photographer Anthony Randazzo, 1028 Photography)

See BALLOT on page 25

Debate debacle?

By HERB BOYD Special to the AmNews

It will probably come as a great surprise to viewers and pundits if the June 27 debate moves the political needle one way or the other. Will Biden deliver the goods to alter the dead heat race, improve his numbers with the angered youth, and close the gap he faces with Trump in the key battleground states?

Which candidate will take advantage of this moment that will be under the jurisdiction, so to speak, of CNN, with its rules, no audience, and muffled mics when one opponent is speaking? We have more questions than those possibly posed by the commentators.

One of the concerns being raised by interested parties is how early the debate is occurring with the next one not scheduled until sometime in September. Issues such as inflation and immigration are sure to be among those raised, and the Biden team ought to be ready for this one, just as the Trump team should be prepared for a response to his conviction and July sentencing. Debates rarely have provided a turning point in an election. This may not be the case however with this one, during a time many experts have defined as an inflection moment—possibly a significant element in separating the contenders, both of whom are old candidates with troubling political baggage.

A mumbling, stumbling Biden has a degree of advantage over a foulmouthed, insult-hurling Trump, but, as they say in tennis, so much depends on who holds serve, particularly with their political base. What may be of importance to voters is the extent to which of the candidates are fit for the job, one on the age factor and the other on mental acuity.

To be sure, the war between Israel and Hamas, the ongoing combat in the Ukraine, and the United States involvement in both conflicts will be thrown at them. Then there’s the question of Trump’s running mate, which may not be disclosed until the Republican convention. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and Sen. Marc Rubio of Florida are being discussed as the frontrunners.

Many experts believe Biden should focus on his successes, particularly as it pertains to student debt relief, employment increases, and lower costs for prescription drugs. Meanwhile, Trump can gloat about the amount of donations he’s raised since his conviction and (falsely) that the last election was stolen. Let’s hope the results are not a pile of insults from Trump and miscues from Biden, and a real debate and not a debacle.

Stay tuned.

New Title IX regulations expand protections for LGBTQ+ students

By ASHLEIGH FIELDS Special to the AmNews

This year, students across the country will return to their schools with new protections under Title IX because President Joe Biden worked alongside the Department of Education to write-in permanent legislation known as the “Final Title IX Regulations,” which are geared toward preventing discrimination and harassment in academia based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics.

This standard will be enforced at K–12 schools in addition to colleges and universities, using 235,000 public comments that were taken into consideration when the department drafted Title IX’s new language.

Federally funded education programs can no longer legally minimize the experiences of LGBTQ+ students by ignoring acts of bullying, forcing them to learn separately, or treating them differently from other students. This ban will have a substantial impact on the day-to-day lives of transgender youth who are disproportionately targets for discrimination in educational settings.

“These final regulations build on the legacy of Title IX by clarifying that all our nation’s students can access schools that are safe, welcoming, and respect their rights,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona after the announcement in April.

The rule will go into effect on August 1, allowing students the freedom to have their chosen identity respected instead of subscribing to their gender given at birth, which was previously mandatory.

School staff will now be held accountable for “outing” students, and administrators who are reported for doing that may face dis-

ological sex,” Reeves wrote. “Based on the ‘pervasive’ nature of pronoun usage in everyday life, educators likely would be required to use students’ preferred pronouns regardless of whether doing so conflicts with the educator’s religious or moral beliefs. A rule that compels speech and engages in such viewpoint discrimination is impermissible.”

Kentucky’s attorney general, Russell Coleman agreed, saying the expansion is “unlawful and beyond the agency’s regulatory authority” and would undermine equal opportunities for women.

Other entities have posed questions about how realistic it is to implement these policies just a few months before students return to campus.

cipline through a standardized procedural process for grievances. Adults can no longer use intimidation tactics, threats, or broader coercive efforts to interfere with scholars’ rights under Title IX. The department’s amendment will also ban institutions from forcing students to participate in sex-separate activities except in limited circumstances such as living facilities and athletic teams.

Despite the clear language, many conservative judges have pushed back on the issue, claiming the rule offers a loophole for transgender children to integrate team sports.

U.S. District Judges Terry A. Doughty and Danny C. Reeves both used their power to temporarily block the expansion from taking place in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, and West Virginia.

“The rule includes a new definition of sexual harassment which may require educators to use pronouns consistent with a student’s purported gender identity rather than their bi-

“We appreciate areas of the rule that provide additional flexibility and clarity, allowing our campuses to better serve students,” said Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education. “However, in several respects, the rule will expand already-complex regulations in ways that create significant new obligations for campuses, requiring an enormous amount of retraining for campus administrators and employees. That includes new and broadened reporting responsibilities touching virtually every employee on campus.”

The 2024–25 academic school year will ultimately prove whether these new protections can be successfully introduced in classrooms across the country. Lawmakers are awaiting positive results and stories about the learning enhancements from teachers, as well as families, throughout various states.

“These final regulations clarify Title IX’s requirement that schools promptly and effectively address all forms of sex discrimination,” said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine E. Lhamon. “We look forward to working with schools, students, and families to prevent and eliminate sex discrimination.”

Defend Harlem: Locals push back against Columbia University “land grab” at Juneteenth conference

By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff

Harlem electeds and housing advocates took to the streets for the Juneteenth holiday in continued protest against the expansion of Columbia University’s campus into Black and Brown neighborhoods—a grassroots student movement that has received legislative support from Senator Cordell Cleare.

Fears of Columbia University gentrifying Harlem date back to at least 2008, when the state inked a $170 million West Harlem Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) with the university, known as the Columbia University Education Mixed-Use Development Land Use Improvement and Civic Project Modified General Project Plan. The plan allowed the university to develop 17 acres of land between 125th Street and 133rd Street.

The school has since used eminent domain and the courts to acquire large swaths of property in the community, and has been

Demonstrators advocating for transgender rights and healthcare stand outside Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/ Patrick Orsagos)

Senator Cordell Cleare at June 19, 2024, Harlem rally to denounce Columbia University “land grab” (Contributed by Senator Cordell Cleare office)

Looking back at 30 years of ‘B-Boy Blues’

By AARON FOLEY

AmNews News Editor

Before there was “B-Boy Blues,” there was an admirer of “The Color Purple” who was so put off by an AmNews reader’s misogynistic critique of the film after its 1985 release, he clapped back in a letter to the editor. A few months later, the letter-writer became an AmNews contributor, expanding the letter into a full-fledged commentary reminding Black consumers of film and TV that there’s more than one way to tell a Black story—and earning his first published byline in the process.

“The AmNews was the only newspaper I purchased; I looked forward to it every Thursday,” says James Earl Hardy, the letter-writer, the commentator, and then-future author of “Blues,” a bona fide classic in Black gay literature. “I loved how the paper covered us and made no apologies for that, so seeing my byline in it was a big deal to me, as well as my family. It felt like I had arrived as a writer, both professionally and culturally.”

Hardy grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant a block away from where Spike Lee filmed “Do the Right Thing,” but has called Kips Bay home for the past 30 years. He’s written for several publications and published book after book along the way, but earned a permanent place on bookshelves with

his debut: “B-Boy Blues,” first published in 1994, which is noted as the first hip-hop love story centering Black gay characters.

It hit like a hurricane with young Black gay readers at the time; 30 years later, it still finds its way into the hearts of the generations of readers that came after.

“Back then, I received hand-written letters mailed in envelopes with stamps of Ella Fitzgerald and MLK; today it’s social media posts and DMs,” he said. Not that it was easy. The 1990s were an uneasy time for Black authors; Alice Walker, “Purple” author, publicly beefed with Terry McMillan after the success of “Waiting to Exhale,” dividing Black readers of more literary-minded works aligned

Black

with the former and the rush of contemporary storytelling associated with the latter that came to dominate the decade. Hardy entered the sphere and would go on to be one of the most visible gay authors of the era.

“You were expected to walk through one door—Black or gay—and the novel unapologetically embraced and celebrated both,” he said. “For them, as well as the rest of society, ‘gay’ was a white thing while ‘Black’ was specifically seen through a prism of heterosexuality. ‘B-Boy’ was too gay for some heteros, too Black for some whites—as well as the wrong kind of gay for certain white gay folk and the wrong kind of Black for certain Black hetero folk.”

Hardy added that “The question was always, ‘Who is going to read a Black-onBlack gay love story?’ The answer, it turns out, was everybody. I knew something special, transcendent was happening when I’d travel to Brooklyn and there were sistas reading ‘B-Boy’ on the A train. Many folks who aren’t Black and/or gay and/or male have told me that they got 50, 60 pages into the novel and totally forgot it was about two men.”

“Blues” has spun off into a series penned by Hardy, a film adaptation that debuted on BET+ in 2021, and a stage adaptation offBroadway in 2022.

Black gay representation in the media is having a little bit of a moment, but is far from saturation. While “Blues” marks 30 years of shelf life, few Black gay authors have been presented alongside Hardy in the same timespan.

“We’ve definitely moved from the ‘Invisible Men’ era of the ’90s; it truly was a desert back then,” he said, referencing his late counterpart, E. Lynn Harris, and Harris’s debut novel, “Invisible Life.”

“Today, we’re featured more in corporate entertainment, but too often we’re the sidekick—if not an outright accessory—to a heterosexual woman. I’m interested in seeing us at the center of our own narratives, where we’re not only presented but represented.”

New Yorker

James Earl Hardy

Looking back with Pride: Examining our coverage of the queer community

PRIDE MONTH

By AARON FOLEY AmNews News Editor

I tell people that I grew up in the Black Press. When I was 4 years old, my mother began her first journalism job as a reporter for the Michigan Chronicle, the oldest Black weekly in its state, and stayed in various roles for nearly a decade, eventually becoming the first woman to hold one of the highest-ranking editorial posts there.

It’s because of my early education in Black newspapers that I was well aware of the history and impact of the New York Amsterdam News before I accepted the role of news editor in February of this year. I’ve worked in all types of newsrooms and outlets, each with their own strengths and weaknesses; the AmNews is not unique in this regard. We, like any other publication, face the challenge of delivering quality journalism in the face of an ever-changing, sometimes terrifying, news business.

But one thing about the Black press is that it’s unquestionably Black and thus, a story like that of O’Shae Sibley, who was stabbed to death on the penultimate day of July last year, would have no problem getting through decision-makers and gatekeepers in a newsroom. Holding the rank of decision-maker is why I came here, because I could not only push a story like Sibley’s with my direction and oversight, but can empower other staffers to do so as well. And I had a specific mission of making sure that stories at the intersection of Blackness and queerness would not be overlooked on my watch.

The AmNews did cover Sibley, to be clear, but in my short time here, I wanted to know where our paper stood with Black and queer New Yorkers, and if there was an opportunity to tap into those communities for story ideas. A story that went under the radar in most of the New York press was the closure of the Anchor Bar in Greenwich Village, the leading Black gay hangout in that neighborhood.

Black gay bars and lounges are slowly disappearing across the country, and the fact that the only one in the mostly white and wealthy Village couldn’t hold on was devastating among the Black gay men in my circles. I came to the newsroom with coverage like that in mind, but was cautioned to assess how we’ve covered the LGBT community before. “We’ve never covered Harlem Pride,” one staffer said during one of many (many) meetings over the course of a typical working week in a newsroom, and I was caught off guard by my incorrect assumption that it had been. One of the Blackest pride celebrations in arguably the most iconic Black neighborhood in the country, incidentally where our offices have been for a century…and…never?

An uneven legacy

As much as the Black press has been there for Black people, historians both trained and casual can agree that our coverage of Black queer communities is solidly mixed.

From a journalist’s standpoint, the staffing of Black newspapers has historically been small. Few Black newspapers anywhere will have as many staff journalists as the major mainstream local newspaper. The AmNews, though, would be comparable to a nonBlack publication of a similar size—think the Village Voice

New York is a big city and it is impossible for small papers to get to all the news. With more

Black people in this town than anywhere else in America, that makes it just as hard for us to get to all the Black news. But my, oh my, let me just say for the record: After 114 years, we’ve gotten to a lot of it.

With smaller yet nimble staffs, decisions in coverage clearly have to be made. I was tasked with assessing a century’s worth of archives here at the AmNews to see how we covered queer people, queer issues, queer anything. Again, keeping the dynamics of our news business in the forefront, it’s easy to understand why some historic queer topics—the Lavender Scare of the 1940s, for example—did not get as much coverage as

the things that did.

Much of the AmNews’ first 75 years of operation runs the gamut of the entire Civil Rights Movement, the documentation of Harlem from destination for Southern migrants to the center of New York’s Black middle class and subsequent rise of a cultural capital of the Black diaspora at large, and the many notables at every level of recognizance—from neighborhood legends like Hazel Dukes to world-changers like Malcolm X—in between. And that’s just to name a few.

From a reader’s standpoint, though, and if you are someone who carries both Black and queer identities, you would wonder why you’d only feel half or part of yourself when reading the paper of the week. The Black press has owned, and is revered for, its role in documenting Black America where mainstream newsrooms didn’t—and, even if they tried, couldn’t. This is our historic record, born from the refusal and inability to chronicle our time when we were enslaved in this country.

Just as much as the Black press holds the identity of Black America, it has also molded our audience’s impression of it. Its influence on how communities at large view ourselves, particularly during subscription and circulation booms that came with more and more Black folks being able to buy a newspaper as they formed larger and larger economic classes in the mid-century, cannot be understated. That’s why going through the AmNews archives just now, I found myself both in awe of the things we did cover in the line of Black queerness, recoiling at other things we covered with a not-so-gentle touch, and a little bewildered at what didn’t make it in at all.

In short, the AmNews, like every other paper regardless of size, audience, or publication frequency, also has a mixed legacy when it comes to how we’ve historically covered the queer community.

Searching for ‘gay’

Search “gay” in the online archives of the AmNews (which you, dear reader, can do at the Schomburg Center in Harlem), and you find a lot of coverage of social groups and events. “Gay” was used in the names of a lot of well-to-do clubs and organizations for the prim and proper—where galas and debutante balls were fixtures of the social calendar alongside the regular trips upstate. Rare is it used as a descriptor of a person attracted to the same sex in the first few decades of the paper’s operation.

It’s important to note this because of how society at large came to assign the term gay to those people, and what other terms were used throughout the decades. Gay didn’t quite enter the mainstream—and as a caution, a mostly white one—as what it means now until the 1960s and 1970s. The term was used before then, often as code or in-jokes for people who were homosexual, and in some contexts as a derogatory put-down. The actual put-down

used at large during most of the early century was the term “homosexual,” which had taken on a psychological identity that sounded, in those contexts, more like a condition. An affectation. A mental illness. Something that was wrong, or needed to be fixed.

The term “homosexual” first appears in the AmNews in the April 27, 1932 , edition in a book review. The book, a “miscegenation novel,” is a tawdry, scandalous (for its time) tale about a white woman who gets drunk and wakes up married to a Black man; a side plot includes the white character’s “homosexual” brother who’s actually in love with the guy. Said character is also described in the novel as a “pansy.”

From the 1920s until roughly the late 1940s, several coded words were used alongside or in place of homosexual: pansy, fairy, queer, dandy, bull, queen, “feministic male.” Sometimes these terms were used as mere descriptors to identify someone who is gay or lesbian. More often than not, it was used in a mocking or derogatory context.

The ball culture that we all came to know and love through seminal media works like “Paris is Burning” and “Pose” have deep roots in Harlem and greater New York City—and we have this on record because the AmNews covered ball culture since its inception in the 1920s; by that time, as many reports in the paper noted, balls had been going on for decades, and were tradition by that point. But it’s here where that “mixed” feeling comes in full force: On one hand, we have this indelible record of the earliest days of a uniquely Black and queer form of expression, but on the other is how such events were described.

“3,000 people gathered…to watch the antics of 2,000 more who are regularly attracted to the annual masquerade and civic ball which Hamilton Lodge No. 710 G.U.O. Oddfellows has been giving for the past sixty-one years,” reads a dispatch from an infamous masquerade ball in the February 20, 1929, edition . The ‘3,000 people’ constituted the normal ones who looked on in mirth at the girlish antics of the other 2,000, whose acts certainly class them as subnormal, or, in the language of the street, ‘fairies.’ Among those who looked on were some of Harlem’s best known people… Among those who seized the opportunity of a masquerade to get off some of their abnormality in public were some of the most notoriously degenerate white men in the city.”

I’m not sure if even Elektra Evangelista could deliver a read that nasty.

Coverage of similar gatherings—almost all of them are fundraisers for various causes and charities—throughout the 1920s and 1930s reads the same each time. There will be attention paid to gorgeous outfits, fine fabrics, and jewels—“gossamerlike crepe silk” in a 1937 issue. Mentions of finery alongside the elite guests, money raised, and big turnouts are overlaid with sardonic descriptions of men behaving like “pansies” and “blossoms,” or behaving like the women guests also in attendance.

We should not, obviously, hold coverage of a ball in 1924 to editorial standards in 2024, but the associations made between queerness and the then-socially unacceptable would

echo throughout in many different coverage areas of the paper.

Growing pains

The growing pains of booming Harlem in the 1940s and 1950s become evident in the pages of the AmNews as more reports of narcotics abuse, sales, and crime begin to become the norm in weekly headlines.

Dope—picking your poison depends on the decade—was always around Harlem and the rest of New York. “Reefer Madness”-style panic hits near-comical peaks in some AmNews coverage in the 1930s and lingers well into the 1960s, but heroin becomes the big moneymaker by the 1950s. As a result, reporters found themselves covering more and more of society’s “degenerates,” and the paper’s commentators over these years began issuing more and more warnings to readers about

the dangers associated with drugs.

In the January 27, 1951 , issue, a story caught my eye about weed and smack hitting the streets at the same time and the lengths, allegedly, people would go to for a fix. I say allegedly because the piece is unbylined and relies on anonymous sourcing, but it hones in on growing drug use among teenage girls, and the direct path between casual drug use to being “enslaved by pimps” once they get strung out.

“‘Once teen-age girls become confirmed users of heroin, they’ll do anything to get a shot. That’s when the pimps get them, but many times the procurers for lesbians get them first. This is quite easy because they are sold the idea that there is no risk of pregnancy involved,’” an unidentified police officer told the AmNews back then.

By the 1940s, a strong correlation between

queerness and all things both illegal and immoral begins. “Perverts,” “inverts,” and “deviants” begin to appear more frequently alongside lesbians, gays, and homosexuals— all or some of these words used in tandem. And while the decades-long fear of infiltration by “degenerate” whites in these scenes were still a concern, there were increasing worries of grooming at the hands of adults. For three consecutive weeks in February 1955, the AmNews ran a three-part series titled “Are the Fairies Running Harlem? ”, an investigation that, albeit laced with unsavory undertone, essentially details how gay men— called “queens, swishes, gays, homosexuals” in this context—were becoming more visible in Harlem. It’s possible this series has many firsts, or at least some publishing milestones: the use of the term “trade” (“Queens do occasionally pick up a stray young man (trade)”; a photo of two Black men kissing each other on the mouth (caption: “A queen and his mate… openly display their tendencies”); and, in a roundabout way, a challenge to the gender binary—albeit, very awkward in hindsight, as some gay men here are perjured as “the third sex” while others are acknowledged for not wanting to identify as men at all because “they think of themselves as more female than male.”

Throughout the entire series, and peppered throughout the decade, there are cautions about older gay men going after younger men, and the perceived fears within.

In efforts to either investigate, educate, or pontificate, AmNews staffers found themselves on the wrong end of criticism for some of its coverage. In 1957, under the headline “Singer Says Many Men In Harlem Choirs Are ‘Queer ,’” the opening paragraph questions whether society should “take steps to curb sexual perversion” by essentially bringing men suspected to be gay out of hiding— we might classify this as “outing” now—or leave people and their “abnormalities” alone. But when a locally popular tenor singer went See PRIDE on page 30

Go With The Flo

In his first major solo performance since the Oscar fiasco, Will Smith is going to perform a new original song at the BET Awards live on June 30 at 8 pm ET/PT on BET. According to Variety, Smith is performing with Colombian star J Balvin who he appeared with at Coachella back in April. Taraji P. Henson is returning to the BET Awards as host. Usher will receive the Lifetime Achievement BET Award, while Drake leads all nominees with seven nominations........ Keke Palmer has debuted a new single featuring Divagurl, called “S.O.B. (Stand on Business).” The song was produced by Kenneth “KP” Paige and written by Kenneth Dickerson Taylor, Lauren Palmer, Nathalia Marshall, Marcus Lomax and Corey Cooper. Said Keke, “I heard a few songs from the Divagurl album and I fell in love. I was so impressed that I asked them to open for me on tour and we even documented it for my network KeyTV.”....... Tongues are wagging that Sherri Shepherd is a woman on the move. The Emmy/NAACP Award-winning talk show host/comedienne/actress stopped by producer Roz Nixon’s weekly jazz nights June 20 at the Victoria Theater Restaurant inside the Renaissance Hotel in Harlem. Aside from serving customers a dose of melodic live jazz, the restaurant also offers a delicious southern menu by Chef Melvin. Meanwhile, June 24, it was announced that Shepherd will grace the iconic Hollywood Walk of Fame in the class of 2025. Other inductees will include Bill Duke, Nia Long, Glynn Turman, The Isley Brothers, Fantasia, Busta Rhymes and Prince, posthumously. ....

A visual presentation which pays tribute to the late hip hop legend DMX will take place in Los Angeles July 11-13 at the Latino Theater Company. “The Rise of Dark Man X: presented by DJ Superior,” is a presentation of NOFUN: Most Hated Entertainment, and ESM Representation. The event will feature DMX in unreleased footage of interviews, live performances, music videos as well as on unreleased songs and demos captured between 1987 through 1999 by DJ Superior, his producer, manager, and lifelong friend. The three night presentation is produced by DJ Superior, Jonah Levine and Kevin McGill.....

Greenwich Village building could landmark mid-1800s Black community

By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff

Manhattan could soon gain another landmarked property that helps chronicle the history of New York’s earliest Black residents.

On June 18, New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) voted to take the first step toward designating the three-story building at 50 West 13th Street a city landmark. The building, currently deserted and unoccupied, is a property that has, for centuries, been an important part of New York City’s cultural transformation.

“In the 19th century––for most of the 19th century––Greenwich Village was actually the center of Black life in New York and had New York’s largest Black community and Black population,” said Andrew Berman, executive director of Village Preservation, the historic preservation organization that has pushed for the landmarking of 50 West 13th Street. “It was mostly centered further south from here, around what’s now Minetta Lane and Minetta Street. But as we showed in some of the data that we submitted, there was this significant Black or African American population scattered all throughout the neighborhood, including on this block.”

An April 23, 1966, edition of the New York Amsterdam News reflected on the historical movement of Black communities throughout New York City. The article “How New York’s Negro Population Grew,” notes that “As early as 1860, Negro Colonies existed in Greenwich Village, the West Twenties and east Eighties. By 1930, Negroes tended to move to a single area in Manhattan––Harlem. In Brooklyn, Negroes moved to Bedford-Stuyvesant.

“An 1835 reference was made to a small Negro settlement in the Greenwich Village area. Some fifteen years later the majority of the city’s Negroes were living in the southern part of Greenwich Village and the area immediately south of it.”

Greenwich Village was “Little Africa”

By the time of the U.S. Civil War, so many Black people had settled in what is today Greenwich Village that the area was known as “Little Africa.”

Kat Lloyd, vice president, programs & interpretation at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, said that what we know of today as Soho and Greenwich Village was at that point the home to the largest Black community in the city. “About 15% of the neighborhood at that point were Black New Yorkers, which was larger than in any other area of the city,” Lloyd said. “This area was really the hub for the churches that were founded and run by Black New Yorkers, mutual aid societies, schools, literary societies, social organizations, just, you know,

the entire sort of social, political, cultural infrastructure was really centered in that area. In particular, that area right around Minetta Lane and Washington Square Park, which isn’t too far away from where this building is.”

Documentation submitted to the LPC by Village Preservation shows that 50 West 13th Street, a Greek Revival style row house, was owned by the businessman Jacob Day between the years 1858 and

1884. A successful private caterer and one of New York City’s wealthiest African Americans, Day was a member and served as the treasurer of the Abyssinian Baptist Church (at the time, located on Waverly Place), and was a supporter of Little Africa’s branch of the Freedman’s Bank. Once he purchased the West 13th Street property, Day’s family lived upstairs while he and his sons ran his

Brooklyn Grand Army Plaza’s legacy of activism and unity endures in recent times

By ENOCH NAKLEN Special to the AmNews

Before the year 1867, Flatbush and Ninth Avenues were separated by an unusually large, clumsy section of grass—a scene that hardly benefitted those commuting toward Prospect Park. With funding from the New York State Legislature in the early 1860s, the city of Brooklyn embarked on a project to create an entrance that would effectively separate the bustling downtown city from the borough’s largest natural attraction.

This monumental task fell on the shoulders of Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted, known as the “Father of Landscape Architecture.” Their mission was to design a “wide and picturesque approach to the park, (complete with) ornamental roads free of commercial traffic”—a sanctuary introducing a section dedicated to peace and tranquility. However, over the following century and a half, Grand Army Plaza underwent numerous renovations, often commemorating progressive political leaders and movements throughout American history.

With these intentions, or perhaps in defiance of them, Grand Army Plaza has over the

years doubled as an assembly point for protesters and demonstrators, spreading awareness of movements for equality throughout the city and the nation.

On Saturday, June 15, hundreds of protesters gathered around the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Arch at the Plaza, demonstrating in solidarity with pro-Palestinian support. The arch, originally built in 1892 to commemorate the Defenders of the Union during the Civil War, now stands as a symbol of unity among American civilians from various backgrounds amid unrest in other parts of the world.

Among the attendees was Joseph Khon, a Jewish rabbi and pro-Palestinian activist, who frequently joins protests at the plaza.

“It’s important to be out here for those who can’t,” Khon declared.

Brooklyn’s history is steeped in activism, with issues of gender, race, and identity equality often at the forefront. As the community grappled with these challenges, public voicing of opinions became crucial. Grand Army Plaza, designed as a space for heightened awareness, has played a pivotal role in these expressions. Suffragists fought for voting rights in the 1910s, with protests continuing until passage of the 19th

Amendment in 1920. Civil rights leaders later blocked off the same intersection, advocating for racial equality until significant progress was made in the mid-1960s.

The plaza’s significance as a site of protest continued into modern times. A protest in the Abner Louima case drew 7,000 protestors and began at Grand Army Plaza before proceeding across the Brooklyn Bridge to New York City Hall in Manhattan. In 2020, amid the George Floyd protests, supporters gathered at the plaza, showcasing unity and resilience in the face of adversity.

The elephant in the room rears its head— issues of public safety have been of concern from the city during these protests, which are often met with forced limitations presented by public authorities such as the NYPD. The most recent case occurred about two weeks ago on May 31, when more than 200 protestors were arrested at a pro-Palestinian protest led by the Wolpalestine organization. The protest was met by police officers who reportedly “brutally kettled, tackled, and brutalized protesters at random against the backdrop of the museum’s land acknowledgements, leaving several individuals bloodied and bruised.”

As important as the need to vocalize public opinion on certain matters is, there have been instances where the goal of these demonstrations gets lost within heightened emotions. However, in the 21st century, technology has provided efficient communication outlets. It is in the best interest of all parties that these demonstrations maintain the support and safety of public authority. Coordination and cooperation between protesters and authorities at Grand Army Plaza can ensure that demonstrations remain peaceful and effective, allowing voices to be heard without compromising public safety and vice versa.

Grand Army Plaza was not originally conceived to honor progressive activists like Abraham Lincoln or JFK, nor was it intended as a venue for protests and demonstrations against inequality. However, as the fight for equality among all races, genders, and identities remains an ongoing struggle, Grand Army Plaza has evolved into maintaining a profound social significance in Brooklyn and beyond. It now stands as a symbol of hope and peace, emblematic of what can be achieved through perseverance and bravery.

Demonstrators led by queer activists gather in Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza on June 23, 2024, to protest budget policy choices of administration of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, particularly funding cuts to New York Public Library system and approval of $225 million for a police training facility. Protesters also express objection to city’s involvement in Pride events, which they consider to be acts of propaganda. (Matthew Rodier/Sipa USA photo) (Sipa via AP Images)

SEIU’s new international president looks to help end poverty-wage work in America

By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO AmNews staff writer

April Verrett, the newly elected international president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), is ready to come out the gate running––or, at least, organizing.

Verrett says she plans to lead SEIU in a campaign of helping to unionize up to a million new workers over the next 10 years.

Talking with people about unions and helping them to understand that joining a worker’s organization is a way to build collective power is part of Verrett’s progressive stance. She said that “ultimately, as an organizer, I want to be able to say I did something to help end poverty and poverty-wage work in America.”

She told the Amsterdam News that “I believe we are in a moment of transformation. To be able to build enough worker power to end poverty-wage work calls on us to transform our labor movement—to organize like never before, and to make sure we take advantage of the newfound interest that many working people have in unions, particularly young people, and focus our effort on organizing everyone, particularly organizing those of us that have been the most marginalized: low-wage workers, workers of color, Black workers, women workers. That is how I’m choosing to use my time— to really lean in and focus us on this goal.”

Verrett comes from an organizing background. After her parents died, she was raised on the South Side of Chicago by her grandmother, who was a union steward at SEIU Local 46. As a steward, her grandmother guided other employees and showed them how they could unite to gain better pay and benefits.

Verrett took the example of her grandmother’s organizing zeal and has spent decades supporting community organizing. In addition to helping found Chicago’s United Working Families organization, Verrett has worked within the SEIU as president of California’s SEIU Local 2015, chair of the SEIU National Home Care Council, executive vice president of SEIU Healthcare Illinois and Indiana (HCII), and most recently for two years as SEIU’s secretary-treasurer.

This past May, SEIU members elected Verrett to serve as their international president, making her the SEIU’s first Black female leader. She is serving as president after the 14-year reign of Mary Kay Henry, the union’s first white female and LGBTQ president.

With nearly 2 million members, SEIU is one of the largest unions in the country. Its workers are employed in more than 100 occupations throughout the U.S. and in Canada. The union traditionally organizes healthcare workers; public service employees; and people who work in property

maintenance jobs, such as janitors and security guards.

An SEIU spokesperson said that, demographically, more than half of its members are women: They “are just roughly about a quarter Black, a quarter Latino, and just under 10% Asian American and Pacific Islander.”

SEIU’s retiring union president was a major backer of the Fight for $15 and a union movement that helped organize fast-food workers

Union members display talents at 32BJ art show

By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO

AmNews staff writer

By day they work as doormen, as property cleaners, in daycare centers, and as security officers. But once that work is done, these members of 32BJ SEIU (Service Employees International Union) realize their other life as fine artists.

Last Saturday, 100 union members came together to display their work at the 17th Annual 32BJ Art Show. Under the theme “Nothing is Impossible,” the artists shared paintings, photographs, drawings, and poems that gave their take on the world’s possibilities. Their artwork was spread across the fourth floor of the auditorium of the union’s headquarters at 25 West 18th Street in Manhattan and will remain on view for one month.

Ed Bochnak, who is originally from Poland, has been working as a superintendent for 21 years now. He was on a break from his job and took the time to talk about his work. “I have three pictures; this is from different parts of the Earth; I went to Ethiopia, Burma, and India…Last time, I went to the Zanskar in Tibet, climbing, hiking, making a movie, writing stories––

this is all my adventure.”

Bochnak said that he saves money all year and uses up his three weeks of vacation time to go on mountaineering and photography trips. He has traveled to Asia, Africa, South America, and throughout North America. His expeditions are documented in books and on his YouTube

channel, “EdsAdventures.”

“This is my hobby; this is not a job. This doesn’t make me money,” he said. “I have to pay; I have to spend my money to be there.”

Bochnak takes his art seriously. He’s one of the original founders of the 32BJ Art Committee, which was established in 2006. Committee members take part in

across the nation. Verrett said she wants SEIU to continue to bear down on its core industries, and to further its inroads into industries where workers don’t have representation.

“Our goal is to organize those who have been the most marginalized, and that’s often folks who work in the gig economy,” Verrett said. “Today, we represent over 700,000 caregivers, workers in home care—it’s the fastest-growing job classification in the country. It will continue to be a big area of focus for us. And we will continue to organize folks in the fast-food industry, in airports.

“We are an organizing union, whether it’s organizing not-yet union workers or organizing voters. It’s all about how we are organizing workers, putting workers in motion to have agency and self-determination over their own lives. We’re organizing to build power, whether it’s to build power in the workplace or build a new power at the ballot box. And we are a union that’s very invested in electoral politics. Across our union, we’re going to spend over $200 million in this [national election] cycle, leading up to November, to make sure we contact 6 million [of what] I call…high-opportunity voters—others call them infrequent voters or most simply voters, but we are going to contact 6 million voters, largely voters of color, in eight key battleground states, to make sure we elect pro-union champions up and down the ballot.”

monthly meetings and try to help promote the union and the concept of organizing with their art. In 2013, the committee invited members of 1199 SEIU to also display their artwork in the annual show.

Naja Quintero, another 32BJ Art Committee founder, works in a Jersey City childcare center with children who range in age from six months up to 12 years old. A 20-year union member, Quintero said she is privileged to be able to teach children that they can make art with recycled materials.

“I also try to introduce them to the idea that it’s not just the paint, the oil, the brush, but that we also must look for inspiration in simple things, in things that someone else might think is garbage,” she said. “We can use coffee grounds, seeds, nuts, rice, wheat and dry them and assemble them for art.”

Practicing art is therapeutic, said Quintero, who is originally from Ecuador. “When I’m angry, I try to calm myself down: I go to my room, and I have my studio there. I stay there for a few seconds; then I say, ‘I need to create.’ It’s like a pressure relief. I suffer from lupus, and the doctor told me that I

April Verrett is SEIU’s new international president. (SEIU photo)

Connie Brown with his paintings a 32BJ Art Show. (Karen Juanita Carrillo photo)

Opinion

Simply a-MAYS-ing

The statistics and numbers Willie Mays compiled as a Major League Baseball Hall of Famer are stunning—and perhaps even more beyond computation is what his phenomenal, incomparable performance meant at the turnstiles of the stadiums. Like a rock star, he drew fans to the ballparks wherever he played. There was his unique way of catching the ball, whether basket-style or over his left shoulder; his prowess on the base paths and ability to hit the ball with power and consistency were unmatched. He even possessed a showman’s instinct, making sure his cap flew off his head as he sped on the field.

There is no way to compute what he meant at the box office, nor the impact he had on attendance, but he was as magnetic an attraction as he was graceful on the diamond. As one noted commentator stated upon hearing of his death at 93 on June 18, Willie came as close to perfection as you can get in baseball.

Before the 1963 season, Willie signed a contract worth a record-setting $105,000 per season, equivalent to a little over a million dollars last year. That salary is minuscule to the millions of dollars the club owners raked in, but there was rarely a complaint from Willie. “All I want to do is play baseball,” he often told reporters.

In today’s market where the top players are commanding huge payouts, Willie’s agent would bring him wheelbarrows of cash if he were roaming centerfield, banging the ball out of Candlestick Park, or just available to meet the demands for autographs nowadays, which he often did graciously.

He never lost that Alabama charm, that “Aw, shucks” personality, a prepossessing dignity and integrity that endeared him to fans and foes.

No matter the numbers he registered in the record books and the countless dollars that followed him to the plate, Willie, as more than one sports writer has noted, was simply “a-MAYS-ing.”

Representation matters during Pride and throughout the year

By KARINE JEAN-PIERRE

Last year, I took a question in the briefing room from a young Black girl who was visiting the White House for “Take Your Child to Work Day.” I could tell she was nervous, but she quickly composed herself, asked her question (what’s the most difficult part about my job?), and told me that she aspired to be in my shoes one day.

As the first Black and openly queer person to hold the position of White House press secretary, this moment reinforced for me that representation matters. It matters to our kids, and makes our nation stronger. When I was young, I never dreamed I would be speaking on behalf of the president of the United States, let alone a president and vice president who encourage me to show up and serve every day as my full, authentic self.

I try to honor the people that came before me and always remember I didn’t get here on my own. When it was my turn to continue the tradition of naming a new lectern in the Press Briefing Room, I took the opportunity to honor the legacies of Alice Dunnigan and Ethel Payne, the first two Black women to join the White House press corps. The candidness with which they shared the reality of being Black women reporters in the ‘40s and ‘50s gives me the courage to be open about my own journey.

I was fortunate to grow up in New York City, one of the most diverse places in the world, but even that environment couldn’t shield me from feeling alone and sometimes invisible. My family emigrated from Haiti and brought with them the values they knew. Simply put, queer identities weren’t something to be acknowledged in any form at home, much less celebrated. But in time, my family came to the same realization that other families come to at dinner tables across America—who you love doesn’t change who you are, what your passions are, or the mark you work to make on the world.

Elinor R. Tatum: Publisher and Editor in Chief

Damaso Reyes: Executive & Investigative Editor

Editor

Cyril Josh Barker:

That is the American Dream that LGBTQI+ Americans should have the freedom to pursue. We have a long way to go but the work is worth it. Those behind us are depending on it.

Now more than ever, our community faces the scary reality with each new bang of a gavel or stroke

of a pen that the hard-won rights we have secured in recent years remain under relentless attack. A record number of anti-LGBTQI+ bills—over 600 in 2023 alone—were filed in statehouses across the country. For 2024, that record is on track to be shattered before the end of this Pride Month. Across the nation, we are seeing a spike in book bans that disproportionately remove books about LGBTQI+ communities and communities of color. It’s wrong.

That’s why we must continue to speak up and call out attacks on our fundamental freedoms. The freedom to be who you are and love who you love. The freedom to access medical treatment and gender-affirming care. And the freedom to show up in all spaces regardless of how you identify.

For me, that freedom set me on the path to speak up from the most powerful lectern in the world—and have the privilege of doing it for a president that evolved just like my family did, setting an example for the rest of America in the process.

In a 2012 appearance on “Meet the Press,” then-Vice President Biden was asked about his well-documented opposition to samesex marriage. But this time, something had changed. In an ever-changing news cycle, it was a clear indicator of progress that made the nation stop and listen.

“I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that [same sex couples] are entitled to the same exact rights…And quite frankly, I don’t see much of a distinction beyond that,” Biden said.

The entire exchange with anchor David

Gregory took just three minutes, but the matter-of-fact way Joe Biden validated my existence and those of countless other queer Americans moves me to this day. Now as president, he has transformed the sentiment shared that day into structural change, driving his administration to advance equality for our community and protect civil rights here at home. Thanks to his leadership, we are combating dangerous and cruel practices of so-called “conversion therapy,” implementing a new national strategy to end the HIV epidemic, and ending the disgraceful practice of banning gay and bisexual men from donating blood.

But I know that despite these strides, many in my community across the country, LGBTQI+ youth especially, unfortunately still feel the same loneliness and invisibility I once did. For those who are struggling, the president and his administration launched the 988 line to help— and we have a line dedicated to serving LGBTQI+ young people that can be reached by dialing 988 and pressing 3. Please know that you are loved exactly as you are and that we will always have your back.

The Biden-Harris Administration will never stop fighting to end discrimination within our borders and around the globe, to stand against the avalanche of unjust state laws that aim to legalize hate, and to guarantee everyone the fundamental right and freedom to be who they are.

Karine Jean-Pierre is the Assistant to the President and White House Press Secretary.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin photo)

Morality in America’s future

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

We inhabit a world that is characterized by distractions. The task of maintaining focus on the things that are truly important has become increasingly challenging in a world where we have access to an endless supply of entertainment and a constant stream of individuals vying for our attention. With so many things that divide us, it has become more critical now than ever to revisit and recommit to the moral principles that have long guided us and our nation to prosperity.

Morality, at its core, is the distinction between right and wrong, good and evil. It is the act of conducting yourself in a manner that is respectful of your dignity as well as the dignity of those around you, thereby ensuring the prosperity of both yourself and society as a whole. It transcends political ideologies and religion; morality is the foundation of any flourishing society. The fabric of society will begin to unravel in the absence of a robust moral framework.

Consider the current state of our political discourse. The divisions that dominate today’s political landscape are indicative of a deep moral crisis. The American people are supposed to be a diverse group of individuals who are united under a single flag and who, irrespective of their personal beliefs, place a greater value on the principles that the flag embodies than the divisions that may exist between them. These ideals encompass liberty, equality and justice for all. They are ideals that should be embraced by all citizens who hold this nation and its principles in high regard. However, under the justification of safeguarding the values that the flag represents, Americans on both sides of the political spectrum have continued to undermine it.

Our willingness to adhere to the famous words, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to

the death your right to say it,” is the defining characteristic that separates our society from ruin. However, politicians today appear to prioritize gaining cheap political points over public service, pursuing a greater number of “gotchas” rather than sound policy. These leaders are not exemplary role models for our children or the adults who support and vote for them—and their continued presence only serves to bolster the legitimacy of their actions. Even worse, the ordinary citizens who continue to vote for them, encourage them to perpetuate the destruction of our nation’s values.

Education is intricately linked to morality. The capacity to think critically is a result of the knowledge we acquire at a young age. Education can be acquired through classroom instruction or experiential learning. Unfortunately, numerous young children are deprived of both, as they are compelled to navigate an education system that shows little regard for them and a lack of parental attention. This only exacerbates the morality crisis and instills a distorted sense of morality in children and young adults, where self-preservation ultimately takes precedence over all other considerations. Children are incapable of becoming responsible, upright members of society in the absence of a system that instills in them compassion and responsibility. However, even students in good schools continue to encounter the increasing obstacles posed by educators who force political ideologies down their throats, cognizant of the fact that they are impressionable and that their lessons will have a lasting influence. It is unsurprising that parents across the nation have expressed increasing outrage toward school administrators for substituting or minimizing fundamental lessons with ideologically specific ones. It is immoral to

indoctrinate a child when you are aware that your lessons will have a profound impact on their impressionable minds. However, this immorality is celebrated by a significant number of individuals who believe that this action is necessary for the success of our nation.

Social media has also been a significant factor in the misdirection of children. Children are now confronted with algorithms that are intentionally engineered to captivate their attention and maintain their engagement in echo chambers that distort their perceptions of reality—as if navigating the distinction between political and non-political content in school were hard enough. This is the reason why an increasing number of young people are embracing a greater number of fringe values and why so many are experiencing anxiety and depression.

It is imperative that we maintain our awareness of the significance of morality. Leaders worldwide must demonstrate that the very things that divide us are what make us great, that we can all respect one another and be united under one flag even if we disagree, by committing to moral principles and leading by example. But the citizens of this nation must also hold themselves and their leaders accountable. They must vote out politicians who consistently score cheap political points and make their voices heard when their children are being indoctrinated by social media or educated improperly. A citizenry that maintains a high moral standard, regardless of the challenges, is a citizenry that will thrive.

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

CHRISTINA GREER, PH.D.

I have been mulling over this concept of collective joy as of late. The COVID-19 lockdown and isolation seems like a distant memory, however, we have never fully dissected or discussed what we went through as a collective. Everyone experienced the concept of a global pandemic, but we all experienced the nuances of COVID-19 and the lockdown in different ways. As I emerge from the haze of 2020 (and 2021, if we’re being honest), I am thinking more about how I spend my time and who I spend my time with as I try to process these past few years. We made it. We somehow survived this mysterious phenomenon as others around our country and the rest of the world died quickly or slowly. As I think about the construct of time, family, friendship, the purpose of work, and the meaning of it all, I am thinking more and more about the importance of collective joy in my life. Some were overwhelmed by all of the people suddenly in their homes 24 hours a day.

Others were incredibly lonely, not seeing another human being for weeks at a time. The days dragged on, and for others who were juggling so much, the feeling of fleeting days blending into one long, never ending day was almost maddening. The construct of time began to warp, and how I thought about spending my time also shifted. I began to ask myself, “If it can all end at any moment, why am I doing anything that doesn’t bring me joy?”

Part of my reflection

on living a life filled with joy was the conscious effort to spend time with people who bring me joy: friends and family as well as strangers. As I mentioned in a previous column, I began attending sporting events and even treated myself to Knicks season tickets because being around other people who are experiencing joy invigorates me. Collective joy at a Mets game, or a Giants or Jets game, or a Knicks or Liberty game has brought me so much happiness—even when the teams aren‘t winning. Experiencing collective emotions has helped me feel connected to my fellow New Yorkers.

Going to a musical performance or a play has also helped me feel the energy of other human beings who, like me, are continuing to emerge from their respective caves over four years since lockdown. We are forever changed from the events of 2020, from COVID-19 to police violence to racial reckonings. We are forever changed, even if we do not still actively speak about what occurred. For me to fully process it all, I must keep my 2020 feelings accessible. I must remember what it felt like to miss my fellow New Yorkers. And mostly, I must access the collective joy around me.

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.

Caribbean Update

Haiti’s interim administration appears to be settling in

By BERT WILKINSON Special to the AmNews

Haiti’s new interim government appears to be settling in and is focusing on a number of pressing problems, including pushing the Kenyans to lead a multi-nation international peace-keeping force to the island to tackle gang violence, as well as generally improving the tenuous security situation and helping the newly minted cabinet ministers settle into their jobs.

Prime Minister Gary Conille last week summoned an urgent meeting of the superior council of the national police system as the group sought to come up with ways to curb street crime such as burglaries of homes and commercial entities, and recapturing territory and districts in the city and outskirts that have been under the control of heavily armed gangs for more than two years.

The security meeting came hours after Conille held a virtual meeting with top Kenyan officials as they pre -

pared for an imminent deployment of about 1,000, mostly police officers, to lead the United Nations-approved force to retake city streets from gangs that have killed hundreds of people since street violence spiked in the aftermath of the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise. Conille said he is determined to bring stability back to the Caribbean Community (Caricom) nation of about 11 million.

“I had a major meeting with the members of the national police,” Conille told reporters. “We discussed the insecurity that is destroying our society. I would like to announce that the government will take several urgent measures to send a clear signal to provide a response to this security crisis. Peace and stability must prevail throughout the country.”

Kenya is due to begin deployment in the coming weeks with support from several fellow Caricom nations, as well as other countries around the world.

The 15-nation Caricom grouping, of which Haiti was the last nation to join

back in 2002, had done much to force out the remnants of the unpopular previous government and, with the international community, helped to facilitate formation of the current interim administration, which is charged with restoring order, revitalizing the economy, and preparing the country for fresh general elections in about two years.

The island has no formally elected government nor parliamentarians at this point, because delayed elections meant that most legal terms have expired.

Conille recently called for a special cabinet retreat to streamline various ministries awarded to interim council members, saying that time is not on the side of the cabinet.

“Your commitment to the service of your country honors you and at the same time, it obliges you to succeed for the good of our nation,” Conille said in a published letter to colleagues. “The difficulties and expectations are immense, but your dedication is boundless. Ministers are required not to consider any

Why did Joe wait this long?

President Biden has been in office since January 2021, coming in with a flourish of promises of significant immigration reforms to undo the previous administration’s draconian policies, but it took until now—five months before the November 2024 elections— for him to announce a simple executive plan that provides a pathway to legalization for about 550,000 undocumented migrants. This could have been done years ago.

This plan offers legalization, not immediate citizenship. Citizenship may take years, and for some, might never happen. Applications will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Eligibility under the presidential executive order requires spouses to be married and living in the U.S. for at least 10 years as of June 17, 2024, and not pose a threat to public safety or national security, according to a DHS fact sheet. The process of obtaining permanent residency or a green card can take months or even years.

Those granted permanent residency can then apply for U.S. citizenship. Previously, undocumented spouses had to return to their home countries to apply for citizenship, a process that could take three to 10 years, and might include a re-entry ban.

Biden’s initiative appears politically motivated, similar to former President Barack Obama’s 2012 DACA move.

Obama, after deporting many immigrants, implemented DACA to secure the immigrant vote and a second term. Similarly, Biden, facing dwindling support all around, including among immigrants, has introduced this initiative to regain favor. This action could have been taken years ago, but seems strategically timed. Biden’s words, “The Statue of Liberty is not some relic of American history. It still stands for who we are,” seems contradictory after his June 4 announcement barring migrants from receiving asylum who crossed the southern border unlawfully.

Despite the political undertones, this initiative is welcome and echoes Past President Bill Clinton’s move before leaving office to allow any undocumented immigrants with a qualified sponsor to apply for residency.

Biden’s plan will enable the children of these immigrants to attain U.S. cit -

izenship. A White House statement highlighted the goal of keeping families together and supporting long-term undocumented immigrants.

“They [undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens] have to leave their families in America with no assurance that they will be allowed back in the United States, so they stay in America, but in the shadows, living in constant fear of deportation without the ability to legally work,” said Biden.

To be considered on a case-by-case basis for this process, an individual must be present in the United States without admission or parole; have been continuously present in the United States for at least 10 years as of June 17, 2024; and have a legally valid marriage to a U.S. citizen as of June 17, 2024. They must also have no disqualifying criminal history or pose a threat to national security or public safety.

Non-citizen children of potential requestors may also be considered for parole if they are physically present in the United States without admission or parole and have a qualifying stepchild relationship to a U.S. citizen as of June 17, 2024.

An individual will have to file a form with USCIS, provide supporting documentation, and pay a fee. Further in -

administrative measures regarding the addition of personnel or internal movements having a budgetary or strategic impact unless there is an urgent, justifiable need.”

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has authorized the release of just over $100 million to Haiti to acquire military equipment, including armored vehicles for police officers, dozens of whom have been killed by gangsters in recent months. Republican representatives had been opposing the aid to Haiti for months, but Blinken said he had found ways of circumventing the release of money to Haiti. It is unclear whether this is part of an already-approved $300 million grant that was announced back in March.

To prepare for deployment, Canada has organized training sessions for troops and police officers in Jamaica and for personnel from Jamaica, the Bahamas, Belize, and other Caricom member nations that have volunteered to contribute to the security force.

formation about eligibility and the application process will be published soon. USCIS will reject any filings received before the application period begins later this summer.

On receipt of a properly filed request, USCIS will determine on a case-by-case basis whether a grant of parole is warranted. All requests will consider the applicant’s immigration history, criminal history, background checks, and any other relevant information. To ensure the integrity of the program, USCIS has processes in place to identify and address potential fraud.

Another overdue move concerns Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients or “Dreamers.” Last Tuesday, Biden announced that companies employing DACA recipients can apply for H-1B work visas for them, paving the way for recipients to achieve permanent residency.

Both are commendable moves, but it remains to be seen whether these actions will sway immigrant voters and help Biden retain his position or if this last-minute effort is too little, too late.

Felicia J. Persaud is the publisher of NewsAmericasNow.com, a daily news outlet focused on positive news on the Black immigrant communities of the Caribbean and Latin America.

PERSAUD

NYCLU-backed research points to surprising aversion to

‘tough-on-crime’ platforms in swing districts

By TANDY LAU

Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member

With the primary season in full swing, is “tough-on-crime” really the best platform to campaign on? The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) doesn’t think so, after collecting feedback from swing voters in the state’s most competitive districts.

Its findings from earlier this month showed participants preferred Democratic candidates whose platform of “solutions and prevention” increased voter engagement head-to-head against Republican candidates compared to those espousing “tough-on-crime” narratives.

NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman told the AmNews that the race for NY-3 House seat vacated by George Santos reinforced prevailing narratives that the research disputed. The special election saw Santos’s predecessor, centrist Democrat Tom Suozzi, champion stricter border policies and subsequently win.

“The general wisdom with regards to how they talk about public safety and immigration is that tough on crime is what the people want to hear,” Lieberman said in a video conference interview. “I’ve truly been concerned about the general

wisdom because it doesn’t comport with our values. It doesn’t encourage problem solving. And it perpetuates biases, stereotypes and negativity.

“We decided to look into some swing districts upstate to find out what motivates voters…the Suozzi election perpetuated the tough-on-crime narrative. And we wanted to see if that was true.”

So the nonpartisan NYCLU enlisted Lake Research Partners to poll the state’s two most competitive political battlegrounds on whether swing and independent voters truly-preferred “tough-on-crime” messag-

ing over those calling for investments in housing, education, mental healthcare and employment, deemed as “solution-based.”

The researchers polled voters in two swing districts, NY-19 and NY-22, in March. Both boast Republican incumbents but favored Pres. Joe Biden against ex-Pres. Donald Trump in the 2020 election. NY-19 spans Central New York from Catskill to Ithaca while NY-22 sits north covering both Syracuse and Utica.

They found that 71% of respondents viewed non-carceral crime prevention “solutions” favorably and 63% said they would vote for a candidate in a House election who championed such messaging. Meanwhile the $200 billion spent nationally on incarceration “resonated” with 62% of participants.

Polling also found that residents in these districts hear about public safety and immigration from Republicans far more than Democrats. 46% of participants told re-

searchers they are currently more likely to vote Republican while just 27% said they are more likely to vote Democrat.

Ultimately, the polling determined status quo messaging did not work on the participants, who represent key voters that not only influence statewide elections, but national politics.

“We’ve seen over 40-50 years that public officials [and] politicians have learned that the surest way to take a victory lap or to make political hay out of a bad situation [or] tragedy is to look at a police response,” said Lieberman. “Much of what is really not up their alley, has been put on the police… it has nothing to recommend [for] it yet, except for the perception that it’s politically expedient, and or attractive or appealing.

“People want to hear about plans to provide housing, to provide quality schools to provide jobs and job training rather than the tired old ‘lock them up and throw away the key.’ And that’s encouraging.”

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.

Voting booths in NYC for primary election. (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

‘Everything is at stake’ for reproductive rights in 2024, Harris says as Biden-Trump debate nears

By AAMER MADHANI Associated Press

WASHINGTON—Vice President Kamala

Harris said “everything is at stake” with reproductive health rights in November’s election as the Biden campaign steps up its focus on contrasting the positions taken by Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump on the issue before their debate this week.

Harris’s comments come as the campaign announced it would hold more than 50 events in battleground states and beyond to mark Monday’s second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that overturned the federal legal right to an abortion. Biden and his allies are trying to remind voters that the landmark decision in 2022 was made by a high court that included three conservative justices nominated during Trump’s White House tenure.

“Every person of whatever gender should understand that, if such a fundamental

freedom such as the right to make decisions about your own body can be taken, be aware of what other freedoms may be at stake,” Harris said in a joint MSNBC interview with Hadley Duvall, an abortion rights advocate from Kentucky who was raped by her stepfather as a child. Part of the interview aired Sunday.

The Biden campaign believes that abortion rights can be a galvanizing issue in what is expected to be a close general election.

Trump has taken credit for Dobbs with his conservative base while stopping short of supporting a national abortion ban sought by supporters on the religious right, should he return to the White House.

In April, Trump said he believed the issue should be left to the states. He later stated in an interview that he would not sign a nationwide ban on abortion if it were passed by Congress. He has declined to detail his position on women’s access to the abortion pill mifepristone.

At a campaign event Saturday, Trump said

See HEALTH continued on page 29

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at Planned Parenthood, March. 14, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. Harris said “everything is at stake” with reproductive health rights in November’s presidential election. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)

Arts & Entertainment

Celebrating Lady Irene Gandy: Proud press agent, B’way producer, entrepreneur, and honored member of the theater community

By LINDA ARMSTRONG

Special

to the AmNews

Lady Irene Gandy has an incredible background. At age 80, she is a proud member of the LGBTQ community and is known far and wide in the Broadway and off-Broadway scene as a publicist, press agent, and producer for over 50 years. Gandy, the recipient of the 2020 Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre, began her career in the business in 1968 as a publicist with the Negro Ensemble Company—pioneered by Douglas Turner Ward and Robert Hooks—and worked on over 100 Broadway shows. She has been a member of both the Drama League board of directors and of Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers (ATPAM) for over 50 years. She’s also worked with Broadway producer Jeffrey Richards for over 30 years. Ms. Gandy is a Tony Award-winning producer for “Porgy and Bess,” producer for “Lady Day at Emerson Bar and Grill” which starred Audra McDonald, and is the co-producer of the National Tour of the South African musical “Sarafina.” Gandy’s visage is on glorious display at Sardi’s Restaurant, where in 2008 she became the first female press agent to be the subject of a Sardi’s caricature. And in 2015, Gandy, known for her impeccable fashion sense, started the Lady Irene Furs Collection, which was featured in Vogue. For her full career story and list of honors visit her website at www.irenegandy.com. But for now please enjoy an AmNews interview with Ms. Gandy who has received awards over the years for her support of LGBTQIA+ community. In 2015, she won the Pioneer Award for Black Pride NYC, and the NAACP-LGBTQ David Weaver Prize for Excellence in the Arts in 2019. She is also being honored by Harlem Pride this year, with an award presented to her by Kara Young, and she will take part in the Pride Parade on Sunday on a float with her dear friend Melba the Restaurateur, who is providing the parade with 4,000 Pride cakes. Gandy recently received the Audra McDonald Legacy Award from Black Women on Broadway, and a Proclamation of Appreciation from the Manhattan Borough President. Taking the time to speak with the AmNews, she shared a piece of her journey.

AmNews: Irene, what challenges did you face in this industry, being a member of the LGBTQ+ community, especially when you started?

Irene Gandy: When I started 50 years ago, the challenges you faced were just being Black

in America. I’m very fortunate in my industry that most people are in the LGBT community. But basically, 50 years ago people weren’t talking about it…. And I wasn’t a threat, so I really didn’t think about it. But, the challenges that I had were when the AIDS epidemic came out, that’s when the challenges came and that knew no color.

AmNews: Irene, what have some of your roles been over the years, in looking out for Black folks in this business, and for members of the LGBTQ community specifically?

IG: Because I’ve been doing it so long, I’ve been on the road so long, I always look out for the Blacks first, because I have information. I’m at the table. I’m not just at the table, I built the table in some instances for some things. I’m able to help them negotiate things that they wouldn’t ask for. When you’re from an African American family, you’re bought up with the mantra of ‘Don’t make any waves, be the best, be better.’ And, then you come into a situation where people can just be people and they are making 100,000 mistakes and they think they’re okay, and nobody is correcting them. I try to take that weight off of them. When I’m in the room working on a Black show and advertising is discussed, I bring up the Black papers for advertising. ‘What about the Amsterdam News, the New York Beacon, WBLS?’ When it comes to LGBTQ people and people of color, there are a lot of people who still don’t come out because they are chastised by the church, or their mothers who are very religious, and they don’t want to disappoint them. I try to live by example, ‘Look at me, I have a great life, I’m a mother.’ It doesn’t have to be all gloom and doom.

AmNews: How many people have you taken under your wing and what type of assistance have you given them?

IG: I don’t know how many people I’ve helped. If someone comes to me and they need a connect, I give it to them because I can. I really don’t think about it. I just live my life as fabulous as I can because God gives me that grace. My biggest accomplishment is Mira, how great is that? When she presented the Special Drama Desk Award to me, how wonderful was that! She said ‘Mommy I know you better than anyone else.’

AmNews: What advice would you give members of the LBGTQ community who want to follow in your footsteps, whether as a publicist, agent, producer, or entrepreneur?

IG: You have to live your authentic life. When my daughter was 13, she said her friends saw me in pictures with women and she asked if I liked women. I told her ‘I’m your mother and I love you… Me loving who I’ve loved is not so bad, and I’m your Mom and

I’ve always been there for you, ride or die.’ The only advice that I would give to members of the LGBTQ community is just be truthful with yourself. Be strong and realize the challenges you face as a person of color, whether you know it or not. The people that love you are going to love you and don’t worry about anyone else.

AmNews: What would you like to say to young people in the community who have doubts in themselves and are questioning whether it is worth it to be themselves, or whether they should try to conform to what people expect of them? When family and friends are not accepting of who they are?

IG: Always be your authentic self, just be you, just do you. You don’t have to conform. Don’t come with ‘I’m ugly, I’m fat,’ or any negative view of yourself because you’re already starting off being defeatist. Remember one thing: God doesn’t make any mistakes and God loves you. I don’t do anything without faith.

For the full interview, please visit www.amsterdamnews.com

Mira Gandy and Debbie Allen partner to provide art program, safe space for LGBTQ+ youth

Artist Mira Gandy, daughter of Irene Gandy and founder of the Gandy Art House (GAH), is partnering with Debbie Allen to provide art classes for queer youth at Debbie Allen Dance Academy (DADA), located at 1850 S. Manhattan Place in Los Angeles. The six-week program, named “Free to Be,” will be held on Sundays from 4-6 p.m. from July 7 to August 11. This six-week program is free; registration is required.

The program will provide a safe space for LGBTQ+ young people, ages 12-17, to express their individuality through painting, drawing, and journaling. Visit thegandyarthouse.org or debbieallendanceacademy.com to register.

The Gandy Art House offers physical and emotional space to explore artistic and creative expression for underserved and marginalized communities in the Los Angeles area.”It is proven that making art helps relieve anxiety, depression, and stress, and builds confidence and self-identity, and the statistics about LGBTQ+ youth’s mental health are alarming,” says Gandy, who is passionate about making art accessible and creating opportunities to bridge creativity and community. For more than 15 years, she has provided art instruction to

audiences of all ages and has expanded her community reach through the Gandy Art House. This non-profit organization offers free visual, performance, and healing arts programs to LGBTQ+ youth, families, and young artists of color.

Irene Gandy (Photo courtesy of Irene Gandy)

Mira Gandy (Rhonda Windham photo)

ArtsConnection’s benefit event reinforces importance of arts

By BRENIKA BANKS Special to the AmNews

NYC is one of the best places in the world to experience art in its varying forms. ArtsConnection, an organization that recognizes the importance of arts education, has provided access to the arts in NYC public schools since 1979. Now operating as a full educational partner, the program held a benefit event earlier this month in NYC. They raised nearly one million dollars with benefit tickets, donations, and a silent auction.

A grades compared to 43.7% of non-arts students. Watts revels in ArtsConnection working with public schools, grades K through 12, in all five boroughs teaching all art forms. “The arts are about helping young people learn to think creatively, learn to think independently, learning how to problem solve, learning how to work with others—those are things you need to be a fully functioning human being,” said Watts. With all the positive influences, ArtsConnection gladly welcomed alums and their art to join their 2024 benefit event. One alum who was thrilled to see Watts and enjoy

Rachel Watts, ArtsConnection’s executive director, emphasized how much young adults need arts education, especially in their younger years. Watts doesn’t believe young people should find art only outside of school; it should be included in their education the same way a fine art credit is needed to obtain certain college degrees.

“The impact of what we do with young people, it’s just so meaningful and powerful,” said Watts. “Every time I go to a school, I’m like, ‘I’m drinking the Kool-Aid’—I’m just in love with all of it.”

ABC7’s Sandra Bookman, hostess of the benefit event, shared how she loved everything this organization has done in its 45 years. “Without ArtsConnection, thousands of young people every year would not have the arts as a part of their education,” said Bookman. “In fact, since 1979, the organization has impacted the lives of more than three million students.” The young artists, the adult allies, and the generous supporters help make the arts important to the young people a part of the organization. A study by the National Endowment for the Arts concluded students engaged in arts education demonstrate higher academic performance, with 63.8% of them earning mostly

being an artist today. “Now, I’ve been able to exhibit my work around the world.”

Pulgarín mentioned Latina actress Zoë Saldana’s team discovering his work. He eventually met her five years ago, and Saldana now owns a few of his creations. “It’s been this whirlwind,” said Pulgarín. His photographic collage, “Pa La Playa Vamos,” meaning “to the beach we go,” was on display at the benefit event. In this piece, he aims to take the power back from the overfetishization of Latino men. “I’m dealing with an archive of images from the late ‘90s, early 2000s where a lot of Latinx cis male bodies

the evening was Antonio Pulgarín.

“I got introduced to ArtsConnection when I was about 11 years old,” said Pulgarín. The 35-year-old artist with a Colombian background is grateful for the organization’s African dance program years prior, which helped him gain confidence. “That program was an incredible moment for me, to be empowered about my body image as a young person, also being empowered through the arts.” He was also an English language learner at that age, eventually learning English from art. ArtsConnection’s teen art program helped Pulgarín exhibit his photography, which he felt was essential to his

alum present at the event. “I joined ArtsConnection when I was nine years old at P.S. 130,” said Michelin. This Brooklyn elementary school had a band that piqued Michelin’s interest in becoming a drummer. “It was the first time that I ever had a Black music teacher—he had deep, rhythmic sensibility, sense of community, sense of pride,” said Michelin. “He was a good person to meet at that time.” Now a principal at Gotham Professional Arts Academy in Brooklyn, Michelin’s journey from elementary school to being a musician in college was possible because of ArtsConnec-

were being fetishized, in weird, printed media,” said Pulgarín. He’s creating and incorporating cultural patterns that speak for the culture while stripping away the white, fetishized lens imposed on Latino men. “A lot of it is, I’m creating a counter archive and reimagining what these images could look like in today’s time.”

Pulgarín expressed being forever grateful for a program like ArtsConnection, “from teaching artists, the administrative team, everything that goes into building this. And I think being a part of that legacy [in] any capacity, it’s an honor.”

Robert Michelin was another successful

tion. “And now, full circle, my daughter’s in ArtsConnection. It’s amazing,” said Michelin. “It’s a testament to the public school system committing to ArtsConnection, and ArtsConnection committing to the public school system.”

Principal Michelin aims to be an inspiration to his students by helping them navigate life without imposter syndrome. He envisions that when his students “leave my school with that sense of ownership along with their ability to navigate art spaces,” he has done an excellent job. Michelin spoke very highly of Watts, referring to her as “brilliant at recognizing the talents in people.” He described Watts as “perfect” for her position and credited her for “building a capacity inside ArtsConnection for it to grow sustainably.” Michelin added, “As someone who is advocating for kids in the city, I don’t want to know an ArtsConnection without Rachel Watts in it.” ArtsConnection programming continues with their “exclusively summer” program during July called “Map Free City.” This is a FREE summer program for NYC teens to explore arts across the city.

For more information, please visit www. artsconnection.org.

Antonio Pulgarín posing with his work at ArtsConnection’s June 2024 benefit event. (Brenika Banks photos)

Antonio Pulgarín’s photographic collage, “Pa La Playa Vamos,” at ArtsConnection’s June 2024 benefit event.

ArtsConnection Executive Director Rachel Watts speaking at their June 2024 benefit event.

ABC7’s Sandra Bookman hosting at ArtsConnection’s June 2024 benefit event.

From the archives: Remembering Raoul Abdul

PRIDE MONTH

Raoul Abdul, longtime classical music columnist for the Amsterdam News, was a concert vocalist, author, voice teacher, and literary assistant to Langston Hughes. Our jazz columnist Ronald E. Scott gave an eloquent tribute to Abdul in a column last year, when discussing the Met Opera’s pioneering production of Terence Blanchard’s "Champion" during its 2022–23 season. Scott’s words about Adbul are comprehensive and heartfelt, and we include them here.

—Kristin Fayne-Mulroy

“This piece about ‘Champion’ is dedicated to the classical music critic for the New York Amsterdam News Raoul Abdul, whose column was titled ‘Reading the Score.’ Abdul was a concert baritone and German lieder expert who studied voice with William Warfield and Marian Anderson. He founded Coffehouse Concerts in Harlem and performed at Carnegie Hall and in Europe. Abdul served as Langston Hughes’s literary assistant from 1961 until Hughes’s death in 1967.

“During his years with the Amsterdam News, Abdul covered classical music and opera performed by prominent singers and composers such as William Grant Still, soprano Camilla Williams, and baritone Simon Estes among the many classical/opera artists who performed in his Coffee House series. He probably covered Leontyne Price’s inaugural performance for the opening of the Metropolitan Opera House in 1966. He promoted and shared his knowledge of opera music for years and was well aware that a Black audience existed and was agitated over the fact that major opera houses in NYC and around the country were not more inclusive….

Abdul would have rejoiced as the Met has finally become more inclusive and welcomed its first Black composer, Terence Blanchard, after over 130 years. Thank you, Abdul, for keeping the legacy of opera alive in the Black community and around the world (1929–2010).

“‘Be satisfied to serve art without regard for financial rewards— they will come in time,” said Abdul in an interview some years ago.’”

HOROSCOPES BY KNOWYOURNUMB3RS

Capricorn

By SUPREME GODDESS KYA

Focus on the vision, as July indicates swift changes within the home, family, work, and any prior or past obligations. Opportunities may require you to travel or be in the public arena; or a change of direction within your work and network in different arenas might be indicated. There will be a lot of back and forth, going here and there, which is all part of filling in the blanks this coming month. From June 30 at 8 a.m. until July 2 at 11:41 a.m., assist when you are led by your spirit this cycle week; it will be your contribution, and beneficial to you in the long haul. Stay grounded in handling your affairs.

Write down your vision or next move and make it plain and simple like an outline. Once you outline the vision, begin to formulate the masterpiece by filling in all the details. Remember, foundation is key to keeping your focus on the end goal. From July 2 at 11:50 a.m. until July 31 at 4:51 p.m., no matter how odd things get, it’s all part of the process. Do for yourself and try something new, like changing your daily routine and meeting new people. Go out and explore life.

The Alpha and Omega make your move and make room from the new. Think grandly about all aspects of your life. Allow the up-in-the-air to just be, as it brings you vital information to decide on something you’ve been wanting to do. From June 26 at 2:08 a.m. until June 28 at 4:43 a.m., allow your creativity to spark and be free within your spirit and soul to let go and embrace what life has to offer you. It’s a cycle of self-growth to upgrade your vision and image.

July is tough-lessons-of-life medicine, giving you what you’ve been putting out to the universe. Only you know what areas in your life have outstanding dues or need a bit of work, healing, or tune-up; otherwise, this is a time for being rewarded. July starts slow, heavy with responsibility and obligations and will pick up towards the end of the month. From June 28 at 4:52 a.m. until June 30 at 7:53 a.m., apply the footwork, guesswork, and gather your paperwork together for the transformation to occur. Enjoy the ride— July has much to offer. It may throw you for a loop like a train derailment, then get you back on track once you handle your affairs.

Late June into July, show off your skills, build your reputation, network with people higher than your status, and stay inspired to keep climbing the mountain. Be grandiose with your work, words, actions, people you are building with. The first week of July is about your foundation and being adaptable to change within a moment’s notice. From June 30 at 8 a.m. until July 2 at 11:41 a.m., your ancestors got your back; just keep moving forward with your agenda. No one can stop you—only you. Move like the wind.

Although you like to have fun and enjoy life’s amenities, July is a month for you to nurture and nourish yourself from the inside to ignite the outside. Take time to clean and purge your home, space, car, and anything that will clear your path for harmony and peace. During the first week of July, apply the footwork, following all the necessary steps to fulfill your mission. From July 2 at 11:50 a.m. until July 31 at 4:51 p.m., create a weekly agenda to assist you, and by the end of July you will see the difference in how you feel and will see results.

Rebirth of A New Nation: July starts off slow with some very Neptune energy: deja vu, revelations, and what he said-she said is manifesting sooner rather than later thanks to Jupiter transiting into Gemini. Your words and actions are more powerful. Listen before you speak, look before you walk, think before you act and talk. Remember the golden rule is in effect within this numerically eight year. Tough lessons, assignments, homework, quizzes, and tests are in effect. Keep pushing through and be purposeful everyday, knowing what you do either helps someone or provides for a need, and it helps you to progress in life. In July, reup your skills a bit more by adding certain features, like when an artist features another artist on a hit song. “Don’t define the game by the list of the features. Define it by the experience you want to have.” —Todd Howard

July is the mastermind piece to fully advance to a higher level. Take a deep review of all areas of your existence, including your professional life. Take inventory of the necessities that allow your household and business affairs to run smoothly. From June 26 at 2:08 a.m. until June 28 at 4:43 a.m., as the new is ushered in, the old fades away into wisdom and growth as new opportunities expel that which no longer serves a purpose. Take the initiative and surround yourself with new alliances. Initiate a new journey.

June was insightful on purpose, for the final pieces of a story, project, or whatever you began a few months ago to come into fruition. From June 28 at 4:52 a.m. until June 30 at 7:53 a.m. take note of any messages that come to you by dreams, revelations or deja vu. It’s a time for expansion in areas of business and personal to elevate to a new level.

When was the last time you went to the park and played on the swings? July is about the initial process that leads up to a huge stepping stone, just like when you swing: you start off slow, pushing yourself forward and backwards until you reach a certain height. July is a month to take heed of the details after you begin a new chapter in your life. From June 30 at 8 a.m. until July 2 at 11:41 a.m., visit a body of water, drink plenty of water, soak your body in a sea salt bath, and nourish your body and your home. Everything will work out the way it needs to.

Shine bright like a diamond in all of your glory to showcase your talent, product, service, etc. It’s a cycle month to renew and rejuvenate your reputation, to set the tone to build your foundation. The first week will give you a bit of pushback with visions and questions to the answers you seek. Everything is changing. What matters is how you maneuver those changes. From July 2 at 11:50 a.m. until July 31 at 4:51 p.m., allow the obstacles you experience to be your strength, guides, tools, and resources to come out on top. Great rewards have great assignments, lessons, and tests before advancing to the next task.

Take your time and time will tell. Do your research, get involved, and ask questions to your answers. The master plan you have been working on is now bearing fruit; it’s just a matter of time before you present your work. Stick to the plan as this week has heavy lessons, tests that will pop up like a Pop-Tart in the toaster. From June 26 at 2:08 a.m. until June 28 at 4:43 a.m., remember that the key is to stay focused, even when you encounter detours. They are your guides, showing you another perspective to what you are doing.

The theme is moving forward rather than back. New level, new devil. Lesson: how to not allow what people say, do, or think disrupt your peace or plans you have for yourself. From June 28 at 4:52 a.m. until June 30 at 7:53 a.m., you have cheerleaders that will support you, as well as those who will boo you. Proceed to the next assignment, and not the revolving door that wants to pull and suck you back in life like a vacuum. You have the green light for a reason.

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure attraction is Disney World’s newest gem

By Cyril Josh Barker AmNews Digital Editor

Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom opens the doors to its latest attraction this June with “Tiana’s Bayou Adventure” featuring Disney’s first Black princess “Tiana” from the 2009 animated film “The Princess and the Frog.”

The ride replaces the water ride Splash Mountain, which featured a 52-foot drop that had been a staple to the theme park since 1992. The attraction was closed in 2023 for a makeover featuring a more familiar and relevant character.

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure invites guests to see characters from “The Princess and the Frog,” including Mama Odie and Louis, a trumpet-playing alligator, with the backdrop and flavors of New Orleans, where the film takes place. The ride features dozens of audio animatronics figures and a story about what happened to Tiana after the film.

“We talked about how beautiful Tiana is and the fact that she comes from a real place that exists and a real culture,” the ride’s executive producer Charita Carter told the AmNews. “We had an opportunity while we were expanding

her story to showcase the culture from which she came. We want to expose guests to something new in some aspects, because not everyone has experienced Southern or New Orleans culture.”

“The Princess and the Frog” is a retelling of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale “The Frog Prince,” set in the Big Easy in the 1920s. The film’s protagonist, Tiana, has dreams of opening her own restaurant and works as a waitress to save money. After kissing Prince Naveen, who has been turned into a frog by a voodoo witch doctor, Tiana becomes a frog herself and the two must find a way to turn human again.

The story on the log flume ride takes place after the final kiss in the film as Naveen and Tiana, both human again, embark on her latest adventure of hosting a Mardi Gras celebration. Now the owner of her own food production business, Tiana asks riders to find musicians in the Louisiana Bayou for the celebration. The attraction features the same 52-foot drop as the former Splash Mountain where riders are sure to get soaked.

Voices and sounds familiar to guests include various styles of New Orleans music and voice

talents from the film, including Jenifer Lewis as voodoo priestess Mama Odie, and Anika Noni Rose as Princess Tiana. Music on the ride includes a new song by Rose and music from New Orlans natives PJ Morton and Terence Blanchard.

“This ride just isn’t about Black culture, but it’s about something different in America,” Blanchard said. “One of the things I loved about this place is that they call it Disney World and there are a lot of different influences from all different parts of the globe here, so why not have our culture here too? This should be the turnkey for other things to come in as well.”

In an effort to keep the ride authentically Orleanian, the attraction is christened with artistry from the Crescent City. Works include pieces from Louisiana artists Malaika Favorite and Sharika Mahdi and an original metalwork weathervane from third-generation master blacksmith Darryl Reeves and his apprentice, Karina Roca.

The concept for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure arose after the 2020 police killing of George Floyd as many companies strived to do away with what was perceived as racist imagery. Splash Mountain, the former ride, featured charac-

ters from the 1946 live-action animated film “Song of South.” The film featured an elderly Black plantation worker and storyteller named Uncle Remus, who is presumed to have once been enslaved. Uncle Remus was played by James Franklin Baskett. The film also features Black actress and Oscar winner Hattie McDaniels, known for her role as Mammy in “Gone With the Wind.”

The film, set after the Civil War during Reconstruction, has been blacklisted by Disney for its stereotypical portrayal of African Americans at the time and is not available for purchase or on Disney’s streaming service. Baskett and McDaniels were not mentioned or seen on Splash Mountain; however, there had been calls to change the ride because of its ties and unfamiliar characters.

Dr. Howard Robinson, Black historian and archivist at Alabama State University, said that while Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is a ride, it is a step in the right direction for Disney and its diversity and inclusion efforts to appeal to a wider audience.

“I would argue that some of the exhibits, the more outdated exhibits, or the older exhibits at a place like Disney World, reflect a

point of view in the American experience in time,” Robinson told the AmNews. “One of the things that I think is valuable about this idea of diversity and inclusion is to look at our experience, look at the shared experience, not just from one lens.”

Disney Executive and Imagineer Carmen Smith told the AmNews that the ride will be inspiring to all children, but that it’s an opportunity for Black children to be able to see themselves when visiting Walt Disney World.

“Young girls, young boys, their moms and dads, and their grandparents are going to have the opportunity to be on an experience where they can say, ‘They see me, they hear me.’” Smith said. “The richness of New Orleans allows us to go deeper into the story, which is layered in music and art, cooking and family and community. We are just excited that families will see themselves in every aspect of this ride.”

Disclosure: The Walt Disney Company paid for the travel and accommodations for several media outlets, including the AmNews, to cover the Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. Disney did not review or approve any of our coverage.

(Josh Barker photos)

Black Music Month commentary: Historic papers of Howard University music professor and composer discovered in Brooklyn Heights

By LAWRENCE H. LEVENS Special to the AmNews

Until recently, the only surviving artifacts of Will H. Dixon’s musical career are a handful of published scores from 100 years ago—but a newly discovered cache of unpublished orchestral works and popular music scores thought to be lost were discovered in a Brooklyn Heights co-op apartment. They were composed by the late Will H. Dixon, an American ragtime, classical and early jazz musician of note. Dixon was a virtuoso pianist, a prolific composer and arranger, an influential singer and songwriter, savvy publisher, and an unsung playwright. He was an acclaimed music conductor, stage manager, and animated bandleader of several pioneering musical troupes and orchestras. Dixon’s choreography was full of novelty; he was dubbed The Original Dancing Conductor by James Weldon Johnson.

This cache also includes other rare musical manuscripts dating back to 1915. Will H. Dixon died a premature death in 1917 and left behind scores of untitled compositional works, some unfinished, and many other unpublished orchestral scores. Many were composed between 1900 and 1917. Because they were stored away in the dark for decades, many of these scores are tattered, making them very fragile to handle. Some are notated with “No title, but good” written in Dixon’s own hand. He died before he could fully complete and publish many of these new works.

It was reported in the New York Age newspaper that Will H. Dixon’s “chief aim prior to his untimely death was to secure the production of an opera (mainstream) to which he had written both the libretto and composed the musical score.” Rick Benjamin’s four-year reconstruction of the Scott Joplin opera Treemonisha was recently premiered to great acclaim at San Francisco’s Stern Grove Festival.

The personal papers and archives also include a collection of African American musical ephemera reflecting the life and times of Miss Francesca “Frankye” A. Dixon, who was a Howard University professor, and the papers of Miss Dixon’s family members, including the musical manuscripts of her father Will, and the personal letters and papers of Mrs. Maude Dixon Myers. This treasure trove of historical papers and artifacts were salvaged in 2013 from the Brooklyn Heights co-op apartment cleanout where Miss Margaret Patricia Barnes last resided. Born in 1932, Miss Barnes, aka “Pat,” was a classically trained opera singer, a member of Amato Opera, Co., and a Howard University graduate of music in 1955. She inherited the Dixon’s family possessions as a surrogate. Barnes passed away in 2013. The papers reflect the fascinating life and times of Miss Dixon and her family. The bulk of the papers and other ephemera provide an in-depth look and cultural insight into Frankye’s personal and professional

activities as an accomplished classical musician, pianist, concert artist, accompanist, music educator of piano, voice, and music theory for grade, high school, and college. She was an esteemed choral-choir director and musicologist of note. Miss Dixon was well known in musical circles for her excellent scholarly work in music and academia. She performed on stage and in top music halls as the vocal coach and accompanist to a number of professional concert artists including Margaret Barnes, Aubrey Pankey, George Marshall, Margaret Tien, Louise Burge, and Italian opera singer Milo Picco, among others.

Will H. Dixon’s unpublished compositional works have remained unknown to modern scholarship until now, and have the potential to fill up a recorded 3-CD set. And according to Rick Benjamin, founding director and stage conductor of the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, “We see Dixon’s amazing potential in his compositional writing of his instrumental pieces, particularly his four light classic works—1913–14’s

“Ardente Ivresse” Valse, lente de (published in Paris by Ricordi), “Delicioso,” “Brazilian Dreams,” and “Breath of Autumn,” Benjamin has recorded the works of several pioneering African American composers on his “Black Manhattan Trilogy’’ series, including several of Will H. Dixon’s orchestral classics listed above. These composers featured on the revelatory recordings of Black Manhattan represent the cream of Manhattan’s Black Bohemia’s musical happenings at the Marshall Hotel on 53rd Street. Gaining their confidence and acceptance, Dixon was invited to join the theatrical group The Frogs, Inc. after its founding in 1908. Will H. Dixon was a founder of the Clef Club Orchestra, a full-fledged member and central player in the Black Manhattan story. Will H. Dixon’s most prominent compositional scores and recorded titles include “Des Innocences douces,” “La Nativa,” “September Eve,” “The Chase Fox Trot,” “Go ‘Long, Mule, Go ‘Long” (a four-part chorus for men’s voice), “Fesia,” “Malinda,” “Carrie,” “Kid,” “Don’t Make Me Laugh Bill,” “Everybody Knows I’m Crazy ‘Bout You,” “Dance of The Bugs” and “Come Right In, Sit Right Down, And Make Yourself At Home,” a big hit made famous by Bert A. Williams. Dixon ran in the top circles of “Black Manhattan’s Music Society’’ (James Europe, Ford Dabney, Joe Jordan, Ernest Hogan, Williams, and Walker) while making significant contributions to American music. He experienced a decade of musical notoriety from 1905-1916, and earned membership into ASCAP and the Guild of Writers and Composers.

Will Dixon died in 1917 at the age of 38, a few months after the death of the King of Ragtime Scott Joplin who also died that year. Will Dixon composed ballards, popular and coon songs, light classical (instrumental), 16-part orchestral compositions, as well as voice and piano solos. As a play-

See DIXON continued on page 31

Cropped cover image of WIll H. Dixon’s Musical Composition “ Deliciosco,” recorded by G. Ricordi & Co. (Photos courtesy of Lawrence H. Levens)

Will H. Dixon

Mrs. Maude S. Dixon with her daughter, Miss Frankye A. Dixon.

Nikki M. James on embodying Ida B. Wells in B’way’s ‘Suffs’

BY LINDA ARMSTRONG

Special

to the AmNews

Actress Nikki M. James (NMJ) plays the captivating role of historic figure Ida B. Wells in “Suffs” on Broadway at the Music Box, located at 239 W. 45th Street. James brings a great deal of power, ferocity, and intensity to the role. She shows how Black women played an integral role in white women gaining the right to vote— although even when the right was won, Black women could not benefit from it. James demonstrates the frustration and sacrifices Black women made in this American story. She recently took out time to speak with the AmNews about performing this incredible character.

AmNews: How did you come to do this role?

NMJ: I was working on Shaina Taub’s musical adaptation of “Twelfth Night” for the Public Theater’s Public Works program at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. It was a magical experience from start to finish, and I loved working with Shaina and singing her music. When I asked her what she had up her sleeve, she told me about a musical she was developing about the women’s suffrage movement. I’m sure I said something like, “Tell me more,” because actors are always looking for our next job [ha!]. In all seriousness, her passion for this project excited me, and when she asked me to be a part of a small, informal sing-through of a first draft, I said YES. It was a thrilling day in January of 2018 when just five singers sang 45 or so minutes of what was to

become “Suffs.” I just kept saying yes to her as Shaina [who did the book, music, and lyrics] and Leigh [Silverman, the director] continued to do this work. I’m so glad I did.

AmNews: How did you prepare to do this character, who is based on a real person?

NMJ: Lucky for me, Ida wrote a lot. Her writing is stirring, incisive, and fearless. I also read scholarship about her by other authors. It’s a lot to digest. Of course, I wanted to gather as much factual information about Ida as I could. And why not? She’s a fascinating and inspiring person. At some point, I put all the research aside, trusted that I knew who Ida was, and then approached the character of Ida as she exists in “Suffs” the same way I would with a fictional character. I had to find Ida in my body and my voice. Still, I find myself revisiting Ida’s own words. It’s nice to have that touchstone as we enter what I hope is a very long run.

AmNews: What do you think is the significance of Ida B. Wells’ character in history and in informing people that Black people were part of a fight from which they could not benefit?

NMJ: When tackling any part of American history, it’s important to recognize and highlight the people who participated in these big moments, whose names have either been forgotten or whose contributions have been minimized or ignored. It’s too easy to focus on the names of those who have historically been written in bold. I was so glad to find that in trying to dig

into the unsung story of the women who fought for women’s right to vote. Shaina didn’t make the mistake of ignoring Black women’s contribution.

AmNews: What message is your character giving about the issues Black people faced at that time?

NMJ: I don’t imagine that the marginalization of and violence toward Black people in the 1900s will come as any surprise to the audiences who see “Suffs.” I hope that our show highlights the vigor and courage of civil rights activists like Ida and Mary [Church Terrell]. Black leaders in the 1900s, men and women alike, were writing, fighting, organizing, and agitating—people whose names we don’t know but whose work we reap the benefits of every single day.

AmNews: Every number is a showstopper. How do you all keep up the energy?

NMJ: Keeping up the energy is a discipline you learn as a theater actor. Remembering that the audience is experiencing this show for the first time really helps. We also get by with a lot of work offstage, be it voice lessons, physical therapy, good coffee, and LOTS and LOTS of laughter. This company of actors is genuinely a blast to be around, so we’re very good at lifting each other up.

AmNews: How do you want women and girls in the audience to feel?

NMJ: I hope they feel seen; I hope they feel proud; I hope they feel angry; I hope they feel inspired; I hope they feel hopeful.

AmNews: What are things that we as women can do to make things better for ourselves, especially as Black women?

NMJ: I certainly can only speak to this from my unique position. But since you asked, I would offer that the first step to making things better would be for people from all backgrounds to be less afraid of conversation. We certainly can’t solve any problems if everyone is too afraid to have honest conversations with one another—respectful discussions with the intention of really being open and willing to hear one another.

AmNews: Nikki, where is your family from and how were you raised as a young Black girl?

NMJ: I was raised in New Jersey by immigrant parents. My mother is from Haiti, and my father is from St. Vincent. I grew up in a home with many cultural traditions. I was raised to be proud, respectful, and bold. Education was important to my parents, as was following my dreams. My parents have always encouraged my love of the arts and creative expression. I hope I am making them proud.

AmNews: Why should everyone come and see “Suffs?”

NMJ: Great songs, some incredible talent, and a story about the flaws and features of our democracy—this show is both a critique of the system and a celebration of what’s possible. It’s not a history lesson, but you’ll still walk away having learned a few things our textbooks left out.

A scene from “Suffs” at the The Music Box Theater (l-r) Anastacia McCleskey, Laila Erica Drew and Nikki M. James. (Joan Marcus photo)

Will Calhoun, Louis Armstrong

On June 29, the engrossing drummer Will Calhoun, who draws inspiration from the ancestors of Africa. Harry Belafonte, Art Blakey, and the world of Black rock Afrofuturism with Living Colour—the group of which he is a member—will bring his eclectic musicianship to full circle at Express Newark (54 Halsey Street). Calhoun’s mix of assorted ingredients is great gumbo for Black Music Month.

According to the Express Newark website, the center focuses on socially engaged art and design in Newark, N.J., where people co-create, collaborate, and make art for social change. Calhoun said during a phone interview, “I went there for an interview and afterwards I walked around to see the exhibits. I was so impressed, I stayed in that place for four hours. This space represents the creative projects that young people are doing and my performance gives me an opportunity to pay tribute to Amiri Baraka for the great creative contributions he made to the Newark community and the country.”

Calhoun’s one night affair is entitled “Blues People,” the same title of Amiri Baraka’s 1963 book (William Morrow), and will be based in the blues. He will be playing solo, something his iconic predecessor

Max Roach would do live on stage and in recording sessions. He will be playing multiple instruments, including indigenous instruments like the Chinese Bawu flute and Nigerian Udu drum. “The instruments tell a story in time as it relates from the past to the future, from the future to the past. The music is traveling in both realms in a 360degree pattern,” said Calhoun. It is essentially part of the mathematical paragon of ancient Timbuktu.

Calhoun will devote a few tunes in celebration of Roach’s centennial, aesthetically blending them with his multimedia scope of photography and video images from around the world, which will be projected during his live performance.

This performance is free and open to the public. The program begins at 6:30pm, with a show at 7:30pm to be followed by Q&A with Calhoun.

From an African American music perspective, the most important thing that happened during the 1964 World’s Fair was the Louis Armstrong concert. On June 30, the late legendary Queens resident will be honored at a special 60th anniversary concert right where it happened in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, in the Claire Shulman Theater (14 United Nations Avenue South), 3-5pm.

Alphonso Horne and the Gotham Kings will take the stage, showcasing their deep passion for Armstrong’s music. Horne has put together an all-star band that weaves the sound of Black music with New

Orleans flair. Inspired by the music of King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, Gotham Kings uses the virtuosity of the young Armstrong and genius of King Oliver to take you on a journey of sound that encompasses the history of the trumpet and the story of jazz through rags, stomps, shouts and funk! Tickets are $17. For more information visit queenstheatre.org. or call the box at office 718-760-0064.

Juneteenth celebrated at the Shrine in Harlem

Ina Norris of the Kwanzaa Film Festival hosted a Juneteenth celebration at the Shrine Music Venue in Harlem titled “Rhythm in Blue J’ouvert Band and Drum Circle.” Dancers, spoken word performers, and singers all joined in the celebration

Moore photos)

Will Calhoun (Photo courtesy of the artist)

(Bill

Gun buyback

Continued from page 3 Firearms collected at Saturday’s gun buyback in Washington Heights. (Photo courtesy of Manhattan District Attorney’s Office)

automatic weapon and homemade gun use to adult audiences. News and military organizations were excluded from the age restrictions.

“These updates to our firearms policy are part of our continued efforts to maintain policies that reflect the current state of content on YouTube,” said spokesperson Javier Hernandez. “For example, 3-D printing has become more readily available in recent years, so we’re expanding our restrictions on content involving homemade firearms. We regularly

review our guidelines and consult with outside experts to make sure we are drawing the line at the right place.”

To be clear, guns can be swapped for $200 at police precincts at any time, a fact that Jackson underscored. Buybacks, however, minimize interacting with law enforcement. Jackson offered a solution for his constituents dissuaded from surrendering a gun due to police presence: “If, in fact, someone brought a gun to the precinct…, they get…money as if they were coming here,” Jackson said at the buyback event.

“We wanted to have the lane open to bring in something as long as you

know what to do…if someone has a gun in my district and they want to avoid this and they may be a little afraid, then call my office.

“I will go there and get it from them and make sure that it’s taken into the precinct so no one knows who it is.”

To do so, “wrap it up, tape it up, and bring it in,” Jackson advised.

Ballot

Continued from page 3

replace longtime Assemblymember Inez Dickens, who is slated to retire this year. Wright maintained an early lead with 48% of the votes. Opponents Maria Ordoñez garnered nearly 30%, Shana Harmongoff nearly 17%, and Craig Schley got nearly 5%.

“As my good friend and future colleague in government Yusef Salaam says, you have to be young enough to take on the counsel of those who came before you and old enough to do something about the conditions that you’re in,” said Wright at his watch party. “I plan on doing just that with the help of everyone around me.”

Incumbent Assemblymember Eddie Gibbs took an early lead with nearly 43% of the votes in District 68 over candidates Tamika Mapp (17%), Xavier Santiago (nearly 34%), and William Smith (6.44%), clinching his reelection.

Incumbent Assemblymember Al Taylor garnered nearly 71% of the votes over candidate Julien Segura in District 71. Segura got 28%.

Assemblymember Landon Dais, newly elected via special election, beat out challenger Leonardo Jose Coello in District 77 with almost 59% of the votes. Coello was close behind with 41%.

Incumbent Assemblymember Stefani Zinerman and newcomer Eon Tyrell Huntley in District 56 were neck and neck. Zinerman maintained an early lead with 52% of the votes. Huntley was close behind with 47%.

“I congratulate the projected Democratic Primary Election winners across Brooklyn and New York City—and the Brooklyn Democratic Party thanks each and every voter in our borough who made their voices heard and these wins possible,” said Brooklyn Democratic Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn in a statement. “Let’s remember: We’re all Democrats. I express my utmost respect for all candidates who took part in our vital election process, which represents the bedrock of our democracy. Just as importantly, I thank all the volunteers, election workers, and voters who played a vital part in this pivotal primary as we remain in steadfast focus on winning the General Election in November.”

CLASSROOM IN THE

Frances Wills, one of first two Black women in the WAVES

By HERB BOYD Special to the AmNews

A couple of weeks ago, we featured a profile of Harriet Pickens with the promise to also do one about Frances Wills, who shared the spotlight with Pickens as the first two African American female officers commissioned by the U.S. Navy. This week, we keep that promise.

Wills, like Pickens, was an outstanding member of the WAVES.

Born on July 12, 1910, in Philadelphia, Wills moved with her family to New York, where she later attended Hunter College. She continued her education at the University of Pittsburgh, earning a master’s degree in social work. Her fortuitous meeting with poet Langston Hughes led to her becoming his secretary. Along with this task, she spent several years working with the YMCA as an organizer and social aide.

Wills had returned to New York City and was working as a social worker when she enlisted with the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES), which was established in July 1942. Many African American women sought to join the WAVES, but were rejected by U.S. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox. When Knox died suddenly in April 1944, it led to a renewed effort by Black women for admission. By that October, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized Black women to be included in the WAVES, which was to be entirely integrated. Pickens and Wills were selected as the first recruits and enlisted in the WAVES on November 13, 1944.

As we noted in the profile of Pickens, both women were sent to the WAVES training facility in New York City, where Wills became a classification test administrator for the enlisted. By the end of the war, more than 70 more African American women had joined the ranks of the WAVES. Wills was discharged from the Navy at the end of the war and later published a memoir about her experiences called “Navy Blue and Other Colors: A Memoir of Adventure and Happiness.”

Here is an excerpt from the prologue: “On the morning of July 10, 1987, I was waiting for an elevator on the banquet floor of the Marri-

ott Hotel in Chicago...It was my first time and first day ever to participate in a reunion of Navy women. I stood near the elevators, plotting how best to locate Chris, assistant to the reserve officer who was responsible for the logistics of this meeting. I had met her the night before and she had suggested that we go together to the memorial service to be held this morning in a nearby church. The service would honor all women of the Navy who had died in the year just passed.

“Suddenly a buxom woman of commander rank emerged from the elevator, stopped just before me, and looked startled. She said, through nearly clenched teeth, ‘Weren’t you the first, first…?’ and then faded away, unable to complete her query. Her companion, younger, of lower rank, and evidentally in better mental health, tried to help. ‘Go ahead. Just spit it out,’ she said, the first Black officer in the WAVES?’ ‘Yes.’ The Commander repeated now, almost firmly, ‘The first

Black officer in the WAVES?’”When I answered ‘Yes,’ she said without inflection, ‘You’ll be on the dais at lunch.’ Several hours later I was there—on the dais. The commander, presiding, was at center stage behind the speaker’s stand....

“The commander stood to introduce the dais guests and had no problem until she came to the very end—me. This time she was able to say without hesitation, ‘the first Black’— but then, after a pause, she finished with ‘yeoman.’ Someone nearby must have sent her a strong signal because she corrected immediately, in a firm tone, to ‘officer.’ That morning in front of the elevators, when the commander had had such a difficult time asking me a simple question, I had thought: Forty-three years later and she still has not accepted the idea that we were all in there together. “Now, on the dais, as my anger rose, I thought of Harriet Pickens, my roommate at Northampton where we had

trained. We had been roommates not only because we were the only Black officers who had come in immediately when the Navy had invited us, but also because, by the time of our arrival three weeks after the class had begun, everybody else had roommates. Harriet used to say every morning during those arctic November and December risings when we would pry our frozen washcloths off the ends of the metal bed frames, ‘Here we go again.’

“After more than four decades, I thought, ‘Here we go again.’ In the intervening years, there must have been hundreds of African-American WAVES. There was something bizarre, I thought, while the speeches droned on, that this woman in charge had been left so far behind.’

Wills also became president of the Brooklyn Botanical Garden Auxiliary in Palm Coast, Fla. Her husband was Charles L. Thorpe. She died on January 18, 1998. A memorial service was held for her in Sag Harbor, N.Y.

ACTIVITIES

FIND OUT MORE

From the prologue, her memoir is sure to be a repository of memories to fill in the gaps not covered here.

DISCUSSION

The memoir will probably answer any questions we might have about her early years, time in the service, and time working with Langston Hughes.

PLACE IN CONTEXT

Frances Wills lived nearly a century and spent an interesting phase of her life in the military.

THIS WEEK IN BLACK HISTORY

June 24, 1933: The historic Apollo Theater opens after beginning under two other names.

June 25, 1942: NBA Hall of Famer Willis Reed, Jr. was born in Hico, Lincoln Parish, La.

June 26, 1974: Yankee great Derek Jeter was born in Pequannock Township, N.J.

Ens. Frances Wills, one of first “Negro Waves” to be commissioned; member of final graduating class at Naval Reserve Midshipmen’s School (WR), Northampton, Mass. (Photo Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, Naval Photographic Center)

Defend Harlem

highly criticized for its role in gentrification of the area and the decrease of affordable housing stock.

In 2022, student-led groups such as United Front Against Displacement (UFAD), Student Worker Solidarity, and Columbia Housing Equity Project gathered on Columbia’s campus to protest the land development of Harlem. Many cited the intended closure of the Red Balloon Early Childhood Learning Center, a local lowcost preschool, as a clear sign that the university was no longer for the community.

The preschool’s space was provided by Columbia free of charge back in 1972.

“I have heard from the community repeated concerns—rents are astronomical, families are finding it more and more difficult to live in our community and are rapidly being pushed out,” said Cleare. “Small businesses are failing because of rents. Not only is affordable housing disappearing; housing is disappearing, according to the (Community Service Society (CSS)) report. We are in a housing crisis and as we struggle to find ways to build affordability, one of the greatest tools in our toolbelt is to preserve the housing that we already have. This Columbia expansion is a direct threat to the preservation of affordability in Harlem.”

Cleare introduced Senate Bill 9028, which calls for a pause on further projects from

the 2008 Columbia plan, last year. Other Harlem electeds chimed in with their support at the rally.

“I am supportive of what the senator is doing to demand on behalf of the entire diverse community to call for an investigation and a reopening of what was passed in 2008,” Assemblymember Inez Dickens said in a statement. “This deal was not inclusive and has not met the needs of our community, whether we are talking about affordable housing, small businesses support, and the availability of community space for programs such as the youth, senior, small business programs. Residents and businesses can no longer afford to stay in the community they were raised or started in.”

According to the CSS, Harlem’s demographics have changed drastically. Community District 9 lost about 14% of its Black population and 10% of its Hispanic population between the 2010 and 2020 census tallies. Conversely, the area has seen an influx of high-income Asian and white residents with incomes above $200,000 moving into the district, reported the CSS.

Adding to the issue is a decline in affordable housing stock available for rent. The district’s private rent-regulated housing stock has shrunk while residents grapple with the city’s Rent Guidelines Board’s (RGB) perpetual rent hikes on their units. Meanwhile, Columbia “bought out and emptied” at least two residential build-

ings in the neighborhood (602 West 132nd Street and 3289 Broadway), paying residents for relocation costs and moving expenses at about two months of median asking rents in the area, reported the Columbia Spectator.

Harlem’s eviction rates for Black and Brown residents also remain statistically higher than in the rest of the city. The CSS reported that evictions were common in the northern part of Harlem near Columbia’s expanding campus in 2017.

“The demographic and affordability changes in Upper Manhattan, including in West Harlem, are alarming and moving in the wrong direction,” Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine said in a statement.

“Black, Hispanic, and lower-income residents whose families have weathered the toughest years uptown are being replaced, unable to afford rents uptown. We must protect vulnerable tenants, build much more affordable housing, and assist small Black and Brown-owned businesses that are also being displaced.”

Harlem advocates at the rally don’t think Columbia has lived up to the CBA’s promises to invest in the community.

In response to “land grab” accusations, a Columbia University spokesperson said that the Manhattanville project has “benefitted from the strong support” of elected officials and residents.

“We are exceedingly proud of the successes of this project to date and grateful for these partnerships[,] which have created

thousands of jobs for the residents of Upper Manhattan, brought new local businesses and economic opportunity to an under-resourced and underserved community, and led to the development of new affordable housing as well as opportunities for longtime local residents to become first-time homeowners,” said the spokesperson in a statement. “But unfortunately, our community is not immune to the affordable-housing crisis playing out in neighborhoods across New York City, and we all bear the responsibility of helping to address it.”

The spokesperson said that the university’s CBA contains a historic $24 million investment in local affordable housing.

“Along with our partner, the West Harlem Development Corporation, we welcome the input of elected officials and other local stakeholders to help maximize and leverage the impact of that investment,” said the Columbia spokesperson. “Beyond the CBA, we have always seen the need and opportunity to do more to address the needs and priorities of the local community. To that end, we engage daily with elected officials, government partners, community leaders, and local groups and we will always welcome any opportunity to engage with additional stakeholders to hear their ideas for how the university can address the needs and priorities of the local communities, including through the development of affordable housing, improvements to public transportation, support for local small businesses, and improved quality of life.”

Eric Adams Mayor

Education

Early childhood education is essential, but is funding it? City in final days of budget negotiations

By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff

New York City parents are in an uproar over childcare this month. Mayor Eric Adams had repeatedly promised 3-K seats would be available for early childhood education services, but more than 2,500 families said they couldn’t get placement.

“New Yorkers are relying on the City to deliver a budget that prioritizes and funds early childhood education,” said speaker Adrienne Adams in a statement. “The Council is fighting for equitable opportunity for working families, investments in our children’s education, and dignity for our providers. The reality is that not every child has a seat, and we must confront that with investments that fund and fix the system. Now is the time to strengthen 3-K, Pre-K, preschool special education, and Promise NYC to make good on our promise to New Yorkers. Our children and families need us to get this right.”

Parents and education advocates have called for the restoration of proposed $170 million city cuts to pre-K and 3-K programs, as well as expansion of free seats to include full-day and full-year scheduling for all kids under the age of 5. To heighten matters, the city budget deadline is on June 30.

“The city’s been making cuts. That has consequences. They don’t have seats in the right area where kids are, which is the other issue. Kids got into places just too far away,” said Rebecca Bailin, executive director of New Yorkers United for Child Care (NYUC). “They have not prioritized it or invested in it.”

Last year, the Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York (CCC) released a report that concluded the “vast majority of New York City families cannot afford any form of child care” for children under 5 years old. This escalating problem feeds into a child’s overall development and has ramifications for the city’s economy. Families in the Bronx and Brooklyn experience the highest childcare cost burden, the CCC found.

In general, childcare costs can range from $20,000 to $40,000 annually, said Bailin. Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Staten Island continue to have the most extreme shortages of 3-K seats, according to a Gothamist analysis, while other neighborhoods in north Brooklyn or the Lower East Side had hundreds more 3-K seats available than applicants.

Bailin said she isn’t sure whether the mayor’s repeated promise was an outright lie or just misleading.

“Child care has been an enormous strain on our budget,” said Suz Kroeber, a mother from Washington Heights and a member of New Yorkers United for Child Care. “My wife

and I both have major school debt and the $29,000 a year we spend on child care for our 2 year old is a real hardship. New York City is famously unaffordable, but the fact that there was the promise of free child care made it feel like we would be insane to leave. But now we’re deeply concerned about the future of our city. The idea that the mayor would take away something that’s helpful, beloved, and represents our values is mind-boggling.”

A coalition of parents partnered with NYUC to deliver about 6,000 petitions to City Hall on June 6 and demonstrate their growing frustration with Adams. The coalition was joined by United Federation of Teachers (UFT) and local electeds such as Public Advocate Jumaane Williams; Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso; and councilmembers Jennifer Gutiérrez, Pierina Sanchez, Lincoln Restler, Tiffany Caban, Julie Won, and Alexa Aviles.

“The city has said that 3-K would be universal, yet clearly, many families are still unable to access these programs,” Williams said in a statement. “This is alarming, as cuts deny services at critical ages for children to learn and grow. Access to this care is especially important for low- to middle-income working parents, often Black and Brown families facing existing inequities and injustices. The promise of every applicant getting a seat regardless of neighborhood, income, or immigration status should be fulfilled not only in words, but results.”

The New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) also joined in demanding $25 million in funding for Promise NYC, which provides childcare vouchers for immigrant families.

“Data from my office shows that the number of children and young people living in shelters in NYC has more than doubled since January 2022, largely due to newly arrived asylum seekers,” said City Comptroller Brad Lander in a statement. “As a city, we should be increasing our support for new

New Yorkers, not ending programs that serve English Language Learners (ELL) and immigrant students. Immigrant families need child care that provides safe, enriching spaces for their children so they can work to build new lives here. Schools must be able to help newly arrived parents navigate enrollment, homework, vaccinations, and so much more. This is why we urgently need sustainable funding for programs such as Promise NYC, Immigrant Communication and Outreach, and ELL transfer schools.”

Councilmember Rita Joseph, education committee chair, NYUC, and unions held an additional rally last week Thursday to call on Adams to restore cuts to the early childhood education programs ahead of the looming budget deadline.

“We are here to address a critical issue that impacts every one of us: the future of our children and the vitality of our city,” said Joseph.

“Our youngest New Yorkers deserve the best start in life and it’s our duty to provide it. Service providers across New York City are the backbone of the family, of early childhood education. They dedicate their lives to nurturing, teaching, and guiding our children during their most formative years. These educators need our unwavering support and robust funding to continue their invaluable work in time.”

According to the city council, at the end of the 2022-2023 school year, more than 1,100 students were waiting for a seat in a preschool special education class and 12,300 children didn’t receive a preschool special education seat or at least one of their mandated preschool special education services.

“The high cost of child care is forcing many families to make difficult choices and sometimes resulting in even leaving the city,” continued Joseph. “This is unacceptable. New York City should be a place where families can grow and prosper, not a place they feel

compelled to leave due to financial strain.” Council members also drilled down on the need to pay early childhood education providers equitably and on time.

The mayor’s office has since pushed back on the disinvestment narrative and reversed some unpopular budget cuts.

A city hall spokesperson said in a statement that the administration deeply believes every child deserves the opportunity to succeed. Compared to five years ago, three times as many children are applying for seats, they said. They maintained that more children are getting a seat with their top choice and more seats are available.

“Under our administration, the system is serving more young New Yorkers than ever before, and with recent investments of more than $640 million for educational programs and school budgets, we are investing in our young people and making our city more livable for working-class families,” the spokesperson said.

The city received a $4 billion commitment from New York State for Child Care Block Grant funding over four years, the spokesperson added. This funding was used to increase the number of children enrolled with Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) low-income vouchers—by nearly 500%, to more than 38,000 children. It also funded child care for eligible families who wanted an ACS voucher or have an active cash assistance case, or for infant, toddler, and Extended Day 3K/Pre-K seats through city public schools.

“Thanks to our efforts, the overwhelming majority of children are getting into the early childhood programs their parents wanted them in. Already this year, despite the fact that the number of applicants more than tripled in the last five years, 94% of families have received an offer compared to just 67% in 2019,” the spokesperson said.

Girl in a classroom (Photo by RDNE Stock project via Pexels)

Councilmembers and parents held rally for early childhood education investments in front on City Hall on Jun 20, 2024. (Gerardo Romo / NYC Council Media Unit)

Continued from page 2

A conflict on this scale should top the news agenda, but it has been relegated to the back pages, in part because of what is happening in Gaza and Ukraine.

In May, the United Nations warned that 18 million Sudanese are “acutely hungry,” including 3.6 million children who are “acutely malnourished.” The western region of Darfur, where the threat is greatest, is nearly cut off from humanitarian aid.

According to one projection, as much as 5% of Sudan’s population could die of star-

vation by the end of the year.

This situation is not the result of a bad harvest or climate-induced food scarcity. It is the direct consequence of actions by both sides of Sudan’s civil war.

Since April 2023, the Sudanese Armed Forces, headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, have been locked in a conflict with the Rapid Support Forces, a heavily armed paramilitary group led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagolo, known as Hemedti.

As the two former allies struggle for supremacy, both have used starvation tactics to advance their war aims. The RSF fighters operate like human locusts, stripping cities and

countryside bare of all movable resources.

Heirs of the Janjaweed militia—the ethnic Arab fighters who inflicted massacre and starvation in Darfur between 2003 and 2005, leaving more than 150,000 civilians dead—use this plunder to sustain their war machine.

The SAF, which is the dominant power in the United Nations-recognized government of Sudan, has blocked humanitarian aid to the vast areas of the country under RSF control.

Now, for the first time, Karim Khan, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, has requested international arrest warrants against top Israeli officials for

the crime of “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare” in the Gaza Strip, citing substantial evidence of the deprivation of food, fuel, and water; threats to aid workers; and drastic restriction of the flow of humanitarian aid in Israel’s eight-month campaign there.

If the court approves the warrants, it could create an important precedent for Sudan, where even greater numbers are being subjected to these same tactics—and where ICC jurisdiction still runs, pursuant to a UN Security Council resolution in 2005.

On June 11, Khan announced that he was stepping up an urgent investigation of war crimes in Sudan.

Continued from page 16

his administration did “something that was amazing” with Dobbs, while acknowledging the political peril of pressing further on the issue at the moment.

“Every voter has to go with your heart and do what’s right, but we also have to get elected,” he said.

Biden has begun private preparations at Camp David for the debate Thursday night in Atlanta. Trump is expected to hold meetings at his Florida estate this week as part of an informal prep process.

Duvall, of Owensboro, Kentucky, first told her story publicly last fall in a campaign ad

during the governor’s race in her home state discussing the consequences of abortion restrictions, particularly those without exceptions for rape or incest.

Duvall also joined first lady Jill Biden at a Pittsburgh campaign rally Sunday where the two criticized Trump for supporting the Dobbs decision.

“He thinks we can be ignored,” Biden said of Trump. “He doesn’t know that when our bodies are on the line, when our daughters’ futures are at stake, we are immovable and we are unstoppable.”

Duvall’s home state of Kentucky has enacted a near-total abortion ban following the Dobbs decision. The state bans abortions except when carried out to save the mother’s life. It does not include exceptions for preg-

nancies caused by rape or incest.

Trump in a Fox News interview earlier this month said the way some states are enshrining abortion rights and others are restricting them was “a beautiful thing to watch.”

“I would like to ask him: What is so beautiful about telling a 12-year-old girl that she must have the baby of her stepfather who raped her?” Duvall said.

Harris is scheduled to mark Monday’s anniversary of the Dobbs decision with campaign events in Arizona and Maryland. Her husband, Doug Emhoff, is headed to Michigan on Monday.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., was heading to Wisconsin on behalf of the Biden campaign with Amanda Zurawski, a Texas woman who was initially denied an abor-

tion after being told she had a condition that meant her baby would not survive. Zurawski was forced to wait until she was diagnosed with a life-threatening case of sepsis before being provided an abortion.

“If there is a woman who is in that reproductive age, then her life is at stake during this election,” Duvall said in the MSNBC interview. “And it does not matter if you have never voted Democrat in your life. It’s get off your high horse, because women, we don’t get to choose a whole lot, and you at least can choose who you can vote for.”

The Associated Press does not normally identify sexual assault victims, but Duvall, 22, chose to be identified and has spoken out publicly about her experience and its connection to the debate over abortion.

on to say that most folks in Harlem’s music scene were a little bit queer, readers were incensed and wrote responses by the ream before the next issue hit stands. Some readers said another person’s business isn’t the paper’s to print, others were shocked at the level of “perversion” in the piece. But a hopeful, progressive comment comes at the end of a follow-up report to that story: “Many current men of great ability are homosexuals… but they are not degenerate.”

Making inclusive strides

Amid the more fear-mongering tones of some archival coverage (which, as I must reiterate often, were in lockstep with the attitudes of the day), the AmNews was concurrently positioning itself as a future journal of Black queer upstarts and pioneers who’d become legends with each passing issue on newsstands.

James Baldwin, and his outsized presence in the culture during his lifetime, was regularly featured in the paper’s pages; it would be incorrect to say all queer coverage in the paper was negative. And although Langston Hughes was not out during his lifetime, it’s worth noting that the frequent AmNews coverage of him makes the paper essential to archiving his timeline, allowing for future historians to contextualize his work in modern queer contexts.

Hughes’s assistant and confidant, Raoul Abdul, makes his first appearance in the paper as a featured performer in a preview of a night at the opera in a May 16, 1958, issue. Abdul, a trained baritone whose performances are covered regularly well into the 1960s, makes his debut as a writer in 1962, and between gigs and hosting star-studded parties, starts regularly writing a column for the paper in the mid-1970s, going on to become the AmNews’ long-running classical music columnist—and occasional chronicler of POVs directly from a gay man; several of his columns frequently included personal anecdotes from the colorful singer’s day-to-day life.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, as the term “gay” becomes more widespread, the AmNews previous style of reporting on gays in the context perverts and druggies starts to become old hat among increasingly progressive—or perhaps just fed up—readers, with no starker change in tone than in November of 1975. An unbylined piece in one issue that week charged that “lesbian gang members” were wreaking havoc on an allgirls’ school in Manhattan by molesting or attacking students.

The problem with the story? It was all based on rumor; no students interviewed on the record could confirm any such rumor. Printing a rumor did not go over well with readers; gay rights’ activists swiftly and publicly condemned the story, with a leading activist writing a letter to the editor hoping that “your journalism will show the respect for gay people that you show toward other minorities.”

Gradually, subsequent coverage did just that, but not without discourse. The 1970s brought increased awareness of the Gay Liberation Movement, increased mention of out gay and lesbian personalities, and increased attention to how politicians were grappling with attracting support from voters of color and LGBT voters. In many ways, combing through AmNews archives chronologically from 1970 until the end of that decade reads like a real-time conversation about the further intertwining of Black civil rights with gay civil rights—today, progressive activists see both as one and the same.

In that same time period, however, the paper frequently printed opinions from clergy condemning gays and lesbians, and incited a new kind of fear that echoed the Black is Beautiful mantra of the era: a (less homophobic than it is podcast-level chauvinistic, actually) perception that if a single woman can’t find a man, she’s destined to become a lesbian. All along the way, though, readers increasingly wrote letters to the editor, and we published rather than ignored them, with more calls for the paper to more and more consider not only Black readers who are also gay, but also to be more considerate of the queer community period.

A pronounced tonal shift in coverage of gay communities comes as AIDS ravaged Black and Brown America in the 1980s. After decades of winks, teasing, and innuendo, the AIDS crisis, for better or for worse, prompted many members of the Black LGBT community to firmly take a stand and let people know that they weren’t hiding anymore. Institutions like the Black church, Black political elite, and Black press especially, were forced to take notice.

“The press in general, and especially the Black press, has never gone into homosexu-

ality, although a fair portion of Black males— 10 percent—are homosexual, and until a few years ago the number was rising,” longtime AmNews writer Abiola Sinclair writes in the first piece of a series exploring AIDS in Black communities, partially titled “New face of homosexuality.”

That was in August 1985, a month before President Reagan would acknowledge the virus by name for the first time, two months before Rock Hudson became the first celebrity to die from it, and a few months before Dr. Anthony Fauci would deduce that nearly 1 million Americans had died from the virus so far.

“Every Black family, if it is large enough, has one gay member somewhere—a brother, a cousin, or nephew. Blacks deal with it by not dealing with it. They simply accept them, providing they’re not too outlandish,” Sinclair continues.

A new era

The AIDS epidemic, which is still ongoing, was not the only extent of covering Black queerness in the AmNews. Well into the 1990s and 2000s, Black queerness in general was difficult to ignore, as evidenced by increased coverage of LGBT-owned businesses, queer film festivals, and other events that would be commonplace in the gay community.

That said, I looked at our coverage of the aforementioned Harlem Pride. We were there when Harlem Pride kicked off its first celebration in 2010; technically, my coworker’s assertion that the paper had never covered it was incorrect, but you wouldn’t fault them for being totally wrong. In 14 years since Harlem Pride has been established, one might guess there would be 14 archival pieces in the AmNews vault. There aren’t, and I’m not here to throw anyone under the

bus because of that. That we covered it at all is a powerful testament as is.

I’m here with 114 years’ worth of digging to ask out loud: What role did we have in shaping the identity of people who are Black and queer all that time, and what role will we play going forward?

We can stand in the legacy that we have chronicled the likes of Hughes and Baldwin, but also Audre Lorde, E. Lynn Harris, Barbara Jordan, and Richard Bruce Nugent. We have published—in some cases, been the first to publish—queer writers like Charles Michael Smith and James Earl Hardy, who have done the work to amplify LGBT culture not just in our pages, but in other mediums beyond our weekly product.

We can also look ahead to all the possibilities for more, while acknowledging the journey, however arduous it might have been, along the way. Our archives are part of the long-running conversation about where Black people who are also queer stand in this community—yes, even if the language is a bit crude and cringe-worthy at times. Queerness in Black communities has shifted over the century from being mocked, feared, silenced, ignored, scandalized, misunderstood, and—at least I’d like to think— almost equalized. It sounds very much like the journey of Black Americans regardless of how else they might identify.

Both paths—and by now, yes, they do run parallel—are not complete, and we’ve got so far to go in many respects.

Even as we celebrate the progress we’ve made, as a news organization and as a community, it is vital that we examine and remember our past so when future generations look back at us, they understand that we did our best to fully represent the Black experience in all its diversity and glory.

catering business on the downstairs level. “By the time of his passing in 1884,” Village Preservation notes state, Day “had properties in Brooklyn on Prospect Place, Jamaica, Queens; Fishkill, New York; and at 50 West 13th Street.”

On top of increasing his personal wealth with real estate, Day was a Black community activist. He was an abolitionist before the Civil War, campaigned against efforts to repatriate Blacks back to Africa following the conflict, and pushed to eliminate the requirement that city residents needed to own property before they could vote. Census records and city directories show Day rented out his apartments at 50 West 13th Street to like-minded progressive African Americans. Before marrying Henry Highland Garnet in 1875, the educator/suffragist Sarah Smith Tompkins rented a unit at Day’s house from 1866 to 1874. This was as she served as the city’s first Black female public school principal: she taught and led the (Former) “Colored” School No. 4, in a building located at 128 West 17th Street, which was designated a landmark by LPC just last year.

Incredibly significant cultural history Village Preservation began lobbying to save 50 West 13th Street in 2020, following the death of Edith O’Hara. O’Hara had

Dixon

Continued from page 22

wright, he co wrote plays and composed musical comedies with a partner, Chicago’s noted Black lyricist Alfred Anderson, aka “Alf.” Dixon was, as the New York Age newspaper would later put it, “Chock Full of Ambition.”

In 1907, Dixon entered the music publishing business in New York. A firm bearing his name and moniker The Will H. Dixon Music Publishing Co. opened its doors in the Theatre Exchange Building at 1431 Broadway in Longacre Square, as it was known then. Will H. Dixon’s musical legacy has been gaining renewed interest in the past few years, and he has been the subject of recent recordings of articles, entries, honorable mentions, and newly posted biographical sketches. Dixon submitted the following statement in the Annual Report to Howard Dean of Music Vada E. Butcher and the university’s president on behalf of her father and his musical contemporaries. “My first attempts in creative writing were focused from 19391950 in the role of music critic and editorial writer for the leading New York paper the Amsterdam News. This service served as a basis in my development in making my life’s work more meaningful, productive and enjoyable,” she wrote.

“While [my] writing exposure has been that of a dabbler, modestly, I can attest to the unsung contributions of my deceased

held a minority stake as a co-owner of the building: in 1972, she began running the 13th Street Repertory Theater out of its basement. Following its ownership by the Day family in the 1800s, the building went through a couple of iterations, with its spacious lower level serving as a commercial store, then being used for classes, and

later occasional performances. In the late 1960s, the building was the location where the Afro American Folkloric Troupe would create performances based on the words of Black poets and folklorists.

With the start of the off-off Broadway movement in the 1970s, 13th Street Repertory Theater had its own illustrious histo-

father Will H. Dixon (1879-1917.) He was esteemed and respected for his popular piano and vocal publications (Schirmers, Ricordi. Penn.) He [along] with a few other living Black pioneer composers, discharged a great and central service in music to raise the level of human understanding for those of music’s (future) generation(s).”

Lawrence H. Levens, is the Custodian and Guardian of the (DBM) Barnes/Dixon/Myers Historical Harlem Papers, Archives and Musical Manuscripts Collection.

ry there: it was lauded as a location where the musician Barry Manilow had his first musical performed, and where actors like Bette Midler, Richard Dreyfus, and Chazz Palminteri once graced the stages.

Ever since O’Hara passed in 2020, Village Preservation has been urging LPC to landmark the property. The nonprofit worked with the independent historian Eric K. Washington to document the sites’ ties to Black history. But the LPC had reportedly remained reluctant to landmark the building––if based solely on its architectural assets. With the structure rapidly deteriorating, Village Preservation has insisted that landmark designation would be the only way to prevent the building’s destruction.

“We submitted requests and documentation to them year after year starting in 2020, and they continually refused to act. And for whatever reason, only recently, very recently, obviously, they did,” Berman told the AmNews. “When they voted, the focus was largely on the cultural history of the building, both Jacob Day, Sarah Smith-Garnet, and the 13th Street Repertory Theater. They did speak to the architecture of the building as well, but I have no doubt that were it not for the incredibly, incredibly significant cultural history of the building, they would not have moved. But they’ve been aware of that cultural history for a couple of years now and did not act. So, I’m not sure what got them to the tipping point, but we’re glad they did.”

Current view of 50 West 13th Street, a building with ties to 19th century civil rights activists. (Karen Juanita Carrillo photo)

Miss Dixon at the piano.

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Notice of Formation of NORTHCREST GARDENS HOUSING, L.P. Cert. of LP filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/21/24. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LP: 30 Hudson Yards, 72nd Fl., NY, NY 10001. Latest date on which the LP may dissolve is 12/31/2123. SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Name and addr. of each general partner are available from SSNY. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of 251 WEST 91ST STREET 4A LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/23/24. 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.

FEATHERS MANAGEMENT, LLC, filed App. for Auth. with the SSNY on 1/25/2024. Office: New York County. LLC formed in DE on 6/10/2021. SSNY is designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served and shall mail process to: c/o Blair Feldman, 30 W 57th St, NY, NY 10019. Address required to be maintained in DE: 1105 N Market St. Ste 801, Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert of Formation filed with DE Sect’y of State, 401 Federal St #4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of ARTEMIS INVESTOR HOLDINGS, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/14/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 05/07/24. 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, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

TOP CHOICE SERVICING, LLC. App. for Auth. filed with the SSNY on 05/14/24. Originally filed with the Secretary of State of Delaware on 9/27/2023. 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, 1500 Broadway, 2022, New York, NY 10036. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Formation of FAIRVIEW HOUSING I AND II, L.P. Cert. of LP filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/21/24. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LP: 30 Hudson Yards, 72nd Fl., NY, NY 10001. Latest date on which the LP may dissolve is 12/31/2123. SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Name and addr. of each general partner are available from SSNY. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Zyero LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 4/7/2024. 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: 228 Park Ave S PMB 416142, New York, NY 10003. Purpose: Any lawful act.

DK LEGAL LLP. Notice of Registration filed with the SSNY on 06/13/24. Office: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLP, 502 Park Avenue, 9D, New York, NY 10022, which is also the location of the partnership. Purpose: For the practice of the profession of Law.

Breakfast Bar Books LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 5/31/2024. Office location: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: Cohen Schneider Law, P.C., 275 Madison Ave., Suite 1905, New York, NY 10016. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of FIVE IRON GOLF KIRKLAND LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 2/26/2024. Office location: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 883 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS, NEW YORK, NY 10001. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of HAUTE HOME LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/29/24. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 17 E. 84th St., Apt. 9A, NY, NY 10028. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Sandi Harris Pleeter at the princ. office of the LLC. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of H 18 & 8TH, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/18/24. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 115 W. 30th St., Ste. 1107, NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP, 605 Third Ave., 15th Fl., NY, NY 10158. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

McDonough Engineering Practice, PLLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 06/27/2023. 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: 3528 80th Street, Jackson Heights, New York, 11372. Purpose: Any lawful act.

TAMARES CORNER OF MAIN LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 09/20/19. 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, c/o Braunstein Turkish LLP, 7600 Jericho Turnpike, Suite 402, Woodbury, NY 11797. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Qualification of BST KNOX LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/01/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 04/22/24. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co., 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., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of 980 MADISON AVENUE HOLDINGS LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/30/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 06/14/07. 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, NY 122072543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., #4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of FORTHILL WALKER HOLDER, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/20/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 05/16/24. 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, 802 N. French St., 10th Fl., Wilmington, DE 19801. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of DD BEDFORD PARKING LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/09/24. 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 Qualification of BMH Penn, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/16/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Pennsylvania (PA) on 06/21/18. Princ. office of LLC: Three Logan Sq., 1717 Arch Street, Ste. 5100, Philadelphia, PA 19103. 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. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of the Commonwealth of PA, 302 N. Office Bldg., 401 North St., Harrisburg, PA 17120. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Compass Rose Publishing LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 4/27/2024. 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: 7014 13TH AVENUE, SUITE 202, BROOKLYN, NY, 11228. Purpose: Any lawful act.

STARLIGHT EVENTS GROUP LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 02/24/2024. Office location: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: 7014 13th Ave Ste 210, Bklyn, NY 11228. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Formation of NORWALK NORTH HOUSING, L.P. Cert. of LP filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/21/24. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LP: 30 Hudson Yards, 72nd Fl., NY, NY 10001. Latest date on which the LP may dissolve is 12/31/2123. SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Name and addr. of each general partner are available from SSNY. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Ambitious Soule L.L.C. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 03/08/2024. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & mail a copy to: 7014 13th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11228. Purpose: Any lawful act. Pure Holding LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 12/08/2023. Office: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail copy to: 7 Sutton Square, NY, NY 10022. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Lanark Consulting LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 3/18/24. Office location: Queens County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: 983 Wyckoff Ave #1, Ridgewood, NY 11385. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Velvet Riot Creative LLC Auth. filed w/ SSNY 5/20/24. Off. in NY Co. Cert. of Form filed w/ SSDE 4/4/24. Process served to SSNY - desig. as agt. of LLC & mailed to the LLC, 2912 Hostetler St, Raleigh, NC 27609. Add. maint’d. in DE: 3500 S Dupont Hwy, Dover, DE 19901. Name & add. of auth. officer in DE where Cert. of Form filed: SSDE Div. of Corp, 401 Federal St, Ste. 4, DE 19901. Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Qualification of AlleyCorp Exavir 2022, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/23/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/07/22. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, 220 5th Ave., 17th Fl., NY, NY 10001. DE addr. of LLC: Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

SUPREME COURT - COUNTY OF NEW YORK

CITIMORTGAGE, INC., Plaintiff -against- TREVOR C. MORAN, et al Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered herein and dated April 22, 2022, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the New York County Courthouse located on the portico at 60 Centre Street, New York, NY on July 10, 2024 at 2:15 p.m. The Unit known as Residential Unit No. 10A in the building known as The Heritage at Trump Place, 240 Riverside Boulevard, in the Borough of Manhattan, City, County and State of New York, Together with an undivided 0.7911% interest in the common elements. Block: 1171 Tax Lot: 2111. Said premises known as 240 RIVERSIDE BOULEVARD, UNIT 10A, NEW YORK, NY 10069. Approximate amount of lien $5,673,292.89 plus interest & costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale. If the sale is set aside for any reason, the Purchaser at the sale shall be entitled only to a return of the deposit paid. The Purchaser shall have no further recourse against the Mortgagor, the Mortgagee or the Mortgagee’s attorney. Index Number 850110/2019.

THOMAS KLEINBERGER, ESQ., Referee, David A. Gallo & Associates LLP, Attorney(s) for Plaintiff 47 Hillside Avenue, 2nd Floor, Manhasset, NY 11030. File# 5025.1930

Notice of Qualification of ARTEMIS MANAGEMENT MERGER SUB, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/14/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 05/07/24. 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, NY 122072543. DE addr. of LLC: CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

KREISMANN ADR SERVICES, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 5/09/2024. 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: 2500 Westchester Ave, STE 117, Purchase, NY 10577. Purpose: Any lawful act.

RIVIERA DEL CORALLO LLC.

Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 06/12/24. 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, 1-50 50th Avenue, Apartment 2508, Long Island City, NY 11101. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Formation of NORTHCREST GARDENS HOUSING GP, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/17/24. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 30 Hudson Yards, 72nd Fl., NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF NEW YORK Morgan Stanley Private Bank, National Association, Plaintiff AGAINST Eric Braverman a/k/a Eric R. Braverman; et al., Defendant(s) Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly entered February 22, 2024 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 July 17, 2024 at 2:15PM, premises known as 200 Chambers Street Unit 26C, New York, NY 10007. 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 142 Lot 1183. Approximate amount of judgment $4,900,532.49 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index# 850253/2019. The auction will be conducted pursuant to the COVID-19 Policies Concerning Public Auctions of Foreclosed Property established by the First Judicial District. Matthew D. Hunter, III, 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: February 26, 2024 79829

The Missouri Rowe Collective LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 03/07/2024. Office location: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: 228 Park Ave S PMB 321009, New York, NY, 100031502. Purpose: Any lawful act.

GEBAYA LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 04/04/2024. 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: 420 EAST 111TH STREET, P.O. BOX 689, NEW YORK, NY 10029. Purpose: Any lawful act.

CORE SETON AVENUE PROPERTIES, LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 06/12/24. 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, 3184 Westchester Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

ALL ANGLES PRODUCTIONS LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 06/03/2024. Office location: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: 40 Bruckner Blvd, Apt 1213, New York, NY 10454. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

LF 2024 RETAIL LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 05/09/24. 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, c/o Larstrand Corporation, 500 Park Avenue, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10022. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF New York, The Board of Managers of the 184 Thompson Condominium, Plaintiff, vs. Tet Thye Chan, Defendant. Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Decision + Order on Motion duly entered on October 5, 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 July 24, 2024 at 2:15 p.m., premises known as 184 Thompson Street, Unit LD, New York, NY 10012. 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 525 and Lot 1731 together with an undivided 0.9553 percent interest in the Common Elements. Approximate amount of judgment is $62,853.50 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index #850156/2022. COVID-19 safety protocols will be followed at the foreclosure sale.

Allison Furman, Esq., Referee Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., Attn: Courtney Lerias, Esq., One Battery Park Plaza, 18th Floor, New York, New York 10004, Tel: 212.825.0365, Attorneys for Plaintiff

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF New York , U.S. Bank National Association as Legal Title Trustee for Truman 2016 SC6 Title Trust, Plaintiff, vs . Moshe RahImi , ET AL., Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Sale and Decision + Order on Motion duly entered on February 15, 2024 , 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 July 31, 2024 at 2:15 p.m., premises known as 635 West 42nd Street a/k/a 627-635 West 42nd Street, Unit 15J, New York, NY 10036. 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 1090 and Lot 1351 together with an undivided 0.12612 percent interest in the Common Elements. Approximate amount of judgment is $570,028.95 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index #850111/2020. COVID-19 safety protocols will be followed at the foreclosure sale.

Paul R. Sklar, Esq., Referee Friedman Vartolo LLP, 85 Broad Street, Suite 501, New York, New York 10004, Attorneys for Plaintiff. File Firm No.: 201235-1

Notice of Formation of LP PRESERVATION HTC LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/23/24. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 116 E. 27th St., 11th Fl., NY, NY 10016. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 122072543. Purpose: Real estate.

NOTICE OF SALE

In pursuance and by virtue of a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly granted and entered in an action entitled NYCTL 2021-A Trust and The Bank of New York Mellon as Collateral Agent and Custodian for the NYCTL 2021-A Trust v. South Atlantic Trading Ltd., et al., bearing Index No. 157450/2022 on or about February 29, 2024, by the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York, I, the Referee, duly appointed in this action for such purpose, will expose for sale and sell at public auction to the highest bidder on July 24, 2024 at 2:15 p.m., at the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, Room 130, New York, New York 10007, the liened premises designated as Block 1419, Lot 1740, in the City of New York, County of New York and Borough of Manhattan, State of New York and known as 214/216 East 65 th Street (a/k/a 225/235 East 64 th Street a/k/a 220 East 65 th Street), Unit 18L, New York, New York 10065 , directed in and by said judgment to be sold. The sale will be conducted pursuant to the Court’s Auction Rules and any COVID Restrictions.

The approximate amount of the judgment is $118,585.40 plus interest and other charges, and the property is being sold subject to the terms and conditions stated in the judgment, any prior encumbrances and the terms of sale which shall be available at the time of sale.

Dated: June 20, 2024 New York, New York Matthew D. Hunter III, Esq. Referee 71-01 Austin Street Forest Hills, New York 11375 (718) 309-1660

David P. Stich, Esq. Attorney for Plaintiff 521 Fifth Avenue, 17th Floor New York, New York 10175 (646) 554-4421

Notice of Application of Authority of Limited Liability Company Zen Org LLC (“LLC”). LLC Application for Authority filed with the Secretary of State of New York (“SSNY”) on February 13, 2024. N.Y. Department of State Office location: One Commerce Plaza, 99 Washington Avenue, Albany NY 12231. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served. The Post Office address to which the SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against LLC served upon it is c/o the LLC: Zen Org LLC, 401 Ryland Street, Suite 200-A, Reno, NV 89502. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of 170 EAST 83RD STREET OWNER

LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/24/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 05/07/24. 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 c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543, regd. agent upon whom and at which process may be served. DE addr. of LLC: CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808-1674. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

SUPREME COURT, COUNTY OF NEW YORK, BOARD OF MANAGERS OF TOWERS ON THE PARK CONDOMINIUM, Plaintiff against CLAUDETH R ADAMS, ALLEN HEZEKIAH, and SECRETARY OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered February 26, 2024. I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the front steps of the Supreme Court, County of New York, 60 Centre Street, Room 130, New York, New York on the 31st day of July, 2024 at 2:15 p.m.; premises described as follows: All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being partially in the Incorporated County of New York, State of New York. Said premises known as 300 Cathedral Parkway, Unit 11K, New York, New York (Block: 1845, Lot: 1110). Approximate amount of lien $136,333.24 and such additional common charges and assessments and late fees, legal fees as may accrue up to the date of sale or so much of it as the purchase money of the mortgaged premises will pay of the same not previously included in the computation and upon presentation of proofs of same to Referee, together with interest thereon pursuant to the common charge lien. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed judgment and terms of sale and any amount owed on underlying mortgage. Index No. 157781/2020, Scott H. Siller, Esq., Referee. Ian J. Brandt, Esq, Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP Attorney(s) for Plaintiff 605 Third Avenue, 34th Floor, New York, New York 10158 (646) 428-3291

SUPREME COURT-NEW YORK COUNTY-HILTON RESORTS CORP., Pltf. v. MICHAEL G. STRUNK, Deft. - Index # 850616/2023. Pursuant to Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated May 10, 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, July 11, 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 $42,026.00 plus costs and interest as of December 19, 2023. Sold subject to terms and conditions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale which includes annual maintenance fees and charges. Sofia Balile, Esq., Referee. Cruser, Mitchell, Novitz, Sanchez, Gaston, & Zimet LLP, Attys. for Pltf., 341 Conklin Street, Farmingdale, NY.

SUMMONS

SUMMONS IN TAX LIEN FORECLOSURE –SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, COUNTY OF NEW YORK– NYCTL 19982 TRUST AND THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON AS COLLATERAL AGENT AND CUSTODIAN FOR THE NYCTL 1998-2 TRUST, Plaintiffs, against Annabelle Baires de Garcia-Rossi as Heir and Distributee of the deceased Ernesto Juan Garcia-Rossi and unknown Heirs and Distributees of the deceased last owners of record Dr. Francis A. Garcia-Rossi, Ana Maria Dina Garcia-Rossi,, if living, et. al., Defendants. Index No. 160295/2022 . To the above-named Defendants –YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to answer the complaint in this action within twenty days after the service of this summons, exclusive of the day of service or within thirty days after service is completed if the summons is not personally delivered t o you within the State of New York. In case of your failure to appear or answer, judgment will be taken against you by default for the relief demanded in the complaint. Plaintiffs designate New York County as the place of trial. Venue is based upon the county in which the property a lien upon which is being foreclosed is situated. The foregoing summons is served upon you by publication pursuant to the Order of the Hon. Francis A, Kahn III, J.S.C., dated June 12, 2024. The object of this action is to foreclose a New York City Tax Lien covering the premises located at Block 1342 Lot 1013 on the Tax Map of New York County and is also known as 309 East 49th Street, Unit 3C, New York, New York. Dated: June 14, 2024. BRONSTER LLP, Attorney for Plaintiffs, NYCTL 1998-2 TRUST AND THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON AS COLLATERAL AGENT AND CUSTODIAN FOR THE NYCTL 1998-2 TRUST, By: Josef F. Abt, Esq., 156 West 56 th Street, Suite 703, New York, NY 10019 (347) 246-4776

SUPREME COURT-NEW YORK COUNTY- HILTON RESORTS CORP., Pltf. v. HASMAIK ESTEVEZ IT SERVICES, LLC and HASMAIK ESTEVEZ, Defts. - Index # 850115/2022. Pursuant to Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated May 15, 2023, 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, July 25, 2024, at 2:15 pm, an interest of an undivided 0.00493200000% 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 $25,164.06 plus costs and interest as of January 4, 2023. Sold subject to terms and conditions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale which includes annual maintenance fees and charges. Scott H. Siller, Esq., Referee. Cruser, Mitchell, Novitz, Sanchez, Gaston, & Zimet LLP, Attys. for Pltf., 341 Conklin Street, Farmingdale, NY.

Notice of Qualification of PRIVACORE CAPITAL ADVISORS, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/02/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/05/24. Princ. office of LLC: 1411 Broadway, 17th Fl., Ste. B, NY, NY 10018. 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, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Investment advisor.

Notice of Qualification of Cameron Enterprises A Limited Partnership filed with the NY Secretary of State on January 30, 2024, Office Location New York County. LLC formed in Oklahoma (OK) on 2/18/1986. Secretary of State of New York is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. Secretary of State of New York shall mail process to 28 Liberty Street, New York, NY 10005. Oklahoma address of LLC is 9000 Cameron Parkway, Oklahoma City, OK 73114. Certificate of Formation filed with OK Secretary of State, 421 NW 13th St., Ste 210/220, Oklahoma City, OK 73103, Purpose: any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT, NEW YORK COUNTY, ROYS REALTY GROUP LLC, Plaintiff, against EIGHTH AVENUE 154 LLC, et al., Defendants.

Pursuant to a Final Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated January 18, 2024, and entered on February 23, 2024, I, the undersigned Referee appointed in said Judgment, will sell at public auction at the New York County Supreme Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, Room 130, New York, New York, on Wednesday, July 17, 2024, at 2:15 p.m., 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 767, Lot 74. Said premises known as 154 8th Avenue, New York, NY 10001. Premises will be sold subject to the terms of the filed Judgment, Index No. 850022/2022, and the Terms of Sale, all of which are available from Plaintiff’s counsel upon request.

The approximate amount of the Judgment is $8,462,096.48 plus interest and costs, as provided in the Judgment.

The foreclosure sale will be conducted in compliance with the First Judicial District’s Covid-19 Policies concerning public auctions of foreclosed properties and the New York County Foreclosure Auction Rules which can be found on the Court’s website.

Clark Whitsett, 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.

100 BARCLAY 16M LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 06/05/24. 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, 100 Barclay Street, 16M, New York, NY 10007. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

The West Prjct LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 3/14/2024. Office: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: 110 Horatio St #111, New York, NY 10014. Purpose: Any lawful act.

One Golden Eagle LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 03/23/2024. Office location: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: U.S. Corp. Agents, Inc., 7014 13th Ave., Ste. 202, Bklyn, NY, 11228. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Crowned Marketing Solutions LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 6/6/2024. 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: 88 Greenwich St #809, New York, NY 10006. Purpose: Any lawful act.

SUPREME COURT-NEW YORK COUNTY- HILTON RESORTS CORP., Pltf. v. ELIZABETH BARON and BRUCE R. BARON, Defts. Index # 850531/2023. Pursuant to Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated May 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, July 25, 2024, at 2:15 pm, an interest of an undivided 0.00493200000% 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 $20,123.92 plus costs and interest as of February 27, 2024. Sold subject to terms and conditions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale which includes annual maintenance fees and charges. Scott H. Siller, 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. NAYDA FIGUEROA AND CARISSA R. VILLANUEVA, if living, and if they be dead, any and all persons unknown to Plaintiff, claiming, or who may claim to have an interest in, or generally or specific lien upon the real property described in this action; such unknown persons being herein generally described and intended to be included in the following designation, namely: the wife, widow, husband, widower, heirsat-law, next of kin, descendants, executors, administrators, devisees, legatees, creditors, trustees, committees, lienors and assignees of such deceased, any and all persons deriving interest in or lien upon, or title to said real property by, through or under them, or either of them, and their respective wives, widows, husbands, widowers, heirs-at-law, next of kin, descendants, executors, administrators, devisees, legatees, creditors, trustees, committees, lienors and assigns, all of whom and whose names, except as stated, are unknown to Plaintiff, Defts. - Index # 850135/2020. Pursuant to Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated May 10, 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, July 25, 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 $42,303.39 plus costs and interest as of February 9, 2024. 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.

SNF Global LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 3/23/2022. Office location: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: 100 W 31 St Apt 20D, NY, NY 10001. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Mega Mode LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 02/19/2024. Office location: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: 207 W 110th St, Unit 16, New York, NY 10026. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of COMBINED BUILDING SERVICES, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/07/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 06/24/86. Princ. office of LLC: 150 E. 42nd St., Fl. 7, NY, NY 10017. 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, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of ARTEMIS OUTDOOR HOLDINGS, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/14/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 05/07/24. 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, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Ali Forney Center

Continued from page 3

Senator Jabari Brisport at press conference about homophobia and transphobia in foster care on Jun 11, 2024 at Christopher Street pier. (AFC Photographer Anthony Randazzo, 1028 Photography)

dated and clear guidance on how to identify homophobia and transphobia in the home and during social welfare calls, hold workers and foster parents accountable, and provide mandatory training.

AFC’s proposed policy reforms were supported by Senator Jabari Brisport, the first openly queer person of color to be elected to the state legislature in 2020; Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal; and representatives of Councilmember Althea Stephens at the rally.

Notice of Formation of 2125TH9B LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/01/24. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 212 Fifth Ave., 9B, NY, NY 10010. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 122072543. Purpose: Rental.

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age of 16, after consistent homophobia and transphobia in foster care, he figured the streets were safer,” AFC Executive Director Alex Roque said. Forney embraced other queer youth like him while homeless, demanding the police investigate a string of murders of his friends, fighting back against harassment, and preaching about preventing the spread of sexually transmitted infections to the community. During this time, Forney resorted to “street work” and drug use to survive. Forney’s life, and subsequent murder in 1997 at the age of 22, inspired AFC’s founder Carl Siciliano to create a safe space and drop-in center for all homeless queer youth in 2002. The center started with six cots in a church basement and has grown to 13 sites in three boroughs, assisting over 2,200 Black and Brown youths each year with medical and mental health services as well as food and housing, said Roque. About half of the kids that show up for care at the center

are from New York City, but about 40% are unhoused or abused youth from other states, and 10% are international, added Roque.

“A couple of years ago, I met a young man who wrote notes to a boy in his class. His mother did laundry and found the notes, and she figured out what was happening. He was put in conversion therapy to cure being gay. After some months of this, he was going to end his life,” said Roque. “He was looking for bridges to jump off of and he confided in a friend that was what he was going to do. The friend found us on the internet. They showed up at our doors with nothing but garbage bags in his hands, flush with tears and grief. In many ways this lighthouse is a beacon. People feel connected to the work we do.”

Roque said that instances of misgendering, deadnaming, or harassment in foster care should be considered child abuse under ACS’s policies. The center is suggesting ACS provide staff with more up-

“Ali Forney did incredible work to sound the alarm for queer youth and I’m glad ACS has taken the first step, which is acknowledging the problem,” said Brisport in a statement. “I look forward to seeing what plan they devise and learning how they wish to implement it.”

In a statement, Stevens said, “NYC ACS must immediately overhaul its current practices to ensure that LGBTQ+ youth are not only safe but also supported in every aspect of their development, with programs that focus on the importance of acceptance, the use of correct pronouns, and the devastating impacts of discrimination. By fostering a culture of understanding and empathy, we can transform the foster care system into a haven of safety and inclusion for all LGBTQ+ youth.”

ACS has been cooperative in listening to the center’s complaints, said Roque, vowing to expand their policy revisions and keep LGBTQ+ children safe in their identities and homes. Though he admits he’s nervous about the gap of reality that often forms between policy and implementation, he hopes that ACS workers on the ground will be able to adapt. The overarching goal is to develop the city agency’s policies into a state law named after Forney, said Roque.

“It is of the utmost importance that all of the youth and families we serve are treated and cared for in an affirming manner,” said Marisa Kaufman, an ACS spokesperson. “We look forward to working in partnership with the Ali Forney Center and benefitting from their expertise so that every young person and family in contact with ACS feels affirmed and supported.”

Vice President Kamala Harris addresses voter disenfranchisement in honor of Juneteenth

By ASHLEIGH FIELDS Special to the AmNews

After many Black Americans learned of their freedom in 1865, they joined forces to educate one another on how to obtain their full rights as citizens. It took years of determination and planning before Black men were given the opportunity to cast their ballot, subsequently followed by white women and last of all, Black women.

The suffrage movement has survived and is now thriving over a century later as thousands of Black descendants of the diaspora and other minorities continue to fight for protections against voter discrimination.

Vice President Kamala Harris addressed this topic in a letter to the Equal Ground Education Fund on Juneteenth, a holiday she dubbed a National Day of Action on Voting this year.

“Across our nation, extremists have attacked the sacred freedom to vote. This not only harms voters in every state but also disproportionately harms Black voters throughout Florida,” Harris wrote.

The Equal Ground Education Fund is an organization based in Florida with a focus on uplifting Black voters. While poll taxes, literacy tests and Jim Crow laws don’t exist today, other egregious suppression efforts still do. For example, in Georgia, voting centers are prohibited from providing food and water to those waiting, despite heat, and any voter can also come to a county clerk’s office and challenge the voter registrations of as many people as they would like.

“As we commemorate 159 years since enslaved Black people across the country were freed from slavery, we also live with the reality that extreme lawmakers are rewriting that very history and working to silence us just like they did nearly 160 years ago,” Genesis Robinson, Equal Ground interim executive director, said in a statement.

Georgia’s governor Brian Kemp, alongside Florida’s leader Ron DeSantis, have both created election police units specializing in the arrest and prosecution of fraudulent voters. These policies oftentimes recriminalize people with past convictions who may be confused about their voter eligibility. DeSantis proudly touted that the Office of Statewide Prosecution had charged dozens with voting crimes already.

Harris used the open letter to reaffirm the Biden administration’s commitment

to equal voting rights and opportunities in spite of recent repeals.

“As you all know, the freedom to vote is fundamental. Our democracy is stronger when everyone participates, and it is weaker when anyone is left out,” Harris wrote.

However, Black individuals across the country are continually being excluded and attacked. According to the Brennan Center, Georgia enacted a law in 2022 that makes it a crime for election officials to accept private funding or anything else of value for election administration.

In Arizona, lawmakers are requiring voters to show proof of citizenship for a cross check with state forms that list your country of birth. This process inherently creates a barrier for naturalized citizens who could easily be turned away in the case that election officials take issue with the country of birth listed. In Texas, a bill being considered aims to increase the maximum number of voters that can be assigned to a polling place which could also increase wait times disproportionately impacting communities of color.

“We will continue to fight to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act—federal legislation that would expand voter registration and voting access while fighting discrimination,” Harris concluded in her letter.

Although the bill passed in the House, it awaits further approval from the Senate. If championed there, it has the potential to impact elections vastly by ensuring voters are notified of changes to voting practices and require review before redistricting and changes to election methods can be made in areas with high rates of minority voters.

Public Hearing

In December 2023, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) issued a Proposed Final Plan to redesign the Queens Bus Network to better match rider needs and improve service for customers (https://new.mta.info/document/128476). We are holding this public hearing to gather ﬁnal comments about all bus service in the borough. If approved by the MTA Board, phased implementation is currently targeted for mid-2025.

What is the Queens Bus Network Redesign?

The Queens Bus Network has not substantially changed in decades, despite shifting demographics and travel patterns. The Queens Bus Network Redesign focuses on reimagining the bus network to increase connections, improve reliability, speed up travel, and simplify service. The redesigned Queens Bus Network has simpler, more direct routes, improved bus stop balancing, enhanced connectivity, and improved frequency on key routes. Learn more about the proposed changes to your bus route, stop, and schedule here: https://new.mta.info/project/ queens-bus-network-redesign

Date, Time, and Place of the Hybrid Hearing

Wednesday, July 24, 2024 • Hearing begins at 5:00 PM • Hearing ends at 8:30 PM

The Helen Marshall Cultural Center at Queens Borough Hall

120-55 Queens Blvd. Kew Gardens, NY

Meeting Space: Atrium

Note: All Attendees must enter through the main entrance on Queens Blvd. and pass through building security.

Registering for the Public Hearing

To register to speak at the hybrid public hearing, please sign up to comment either in-person, online at https://new.mta.info/2024-qbnr-hearing or call the Public Hearing Hotline at (646) 252-6777. Registration will close at 6:30 pm on Wednesday, July 24, 2024. All comments will be transcribed and made part of the permanent record of this hearing.

Joining the Public Hearing

If you are registered to speak, you may join the Zoom webinar either online, in-person or by phone following these instructions:

Join Zoom Webinar Online: To access the Zoom webinar online, visit the website https:// new.mta.info/2024-qbnr-hearing. You can also go to Zoom.us/join and enter the Webinar id 87883645568.

Join Zoom by PC/Tablet/Smartphone: Join link https://mta.zoom.us/j/87883645568

Join Zoom Webinar by Telephone: To access the Zoom webinar by telephone, please call 1- 877-853-5247 (Toll Free) then enter the Webinar ID 87883645568, followed by the pound (#) sign.

View Only Online: Members of the public who wish only to view the hearing may access the event live at https://new.mta.info/2024-qbnr-hearing.

Additional Ways to Comment or Request Information

For More Information, to Pre-Register to Speak, or to Submit Comments

Those wishing to pre-register to be heard at the Public Hearing must register on the website, https://new.mta.info/2024-qbnr-hearing or in person at the hearing, or by dialing (646) 2526777. Telephone agents are available from 6 am to 10 pm daily. Verbal presentations will be limited to two (2) minutes. You may present verbal testimony or submit written statements in lieu of or to supplement oral testimony concerning the proposed project. Written comments will be accepted online at https://new.mta.info/2024-qbnr-hearing. Comments may also be submitted via postal mail to: MTA Government & Community Relations, Attn: QBNR Public Hearing, 2 Broadway, D16.94, New York, NY 10004. All letters must be postmarked by July 26, 2024. All written and online comments must be received by 8:00 pm on July 26, 2024. Comments received after this date and time will not be included in the ofﬁcial hearing record.

Accessibility and Language Assistance Services

At the public hearing CART captioning and American Sign Language Services will be available. Members of the public who are deaf or hard of hearing can use their preferred relay service or the free 711 relay service, and then ask to be connected to the public hearing hotline at (646) 252-6777.

Members of the public who are blind or have low vision can request accommodations on or before July 22, 2024, by submitting a request online at https://new.mta.info/2024-qbnr-hearing or by calling the public hearing hotline at (646) 252-6777.

Members of the public who do not have access to a computer or to the internet, can dial in to the hearing by calling the Zoom webinar at 1- 877-853-5247 (Toll Free) then enter Webinar ID: 87883645568 followed by the pound (#) sign. If language assistance or any other accommodations are required, please submit a request at least ﬁve business days before the hearing in one of the following ways:

1. Online at https://new.mta.info/2024-qbnr-hearing

2. Calling the public hearing hotline at (646) 252-6777, or by

3. Sending a letter to: MTA Government & Community Relations, Re: 2024 QBNR PH, 2 Broadway, D16.94, New York, NY 10004.

Vice President Kamala Harris. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Art Show

have to do something that fascinates me, that relaxes me. And that, to me, is art.

“When I paint, that’s what really relaxes me, it’s what makes me connect. If I had enough money, this is who I would be: someone who had the time to create what I like.”

Retired security officer and Harlem native Gerald Timberlake used the “Nothing is Impossible” theme to paint a fictitious gathering of famous Black female entertainers. He used markers to draw depictions of Tina Turner, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Phyllis Hyman, Whitney Houston, Minnie Riperton, and Nina Simone. In another piece, he looks at the representation of Black women in the fashion industry— particularly in the 1960s, when they were rarely seen as fashion models. His third piece shows that there’s nothing impossible in love.

Connie Brown also exhibited paintings at the 32BJ Art Show. Brown, who is retired now, has been creating art since the age of 6. He said that when he initially moved to New York City, he spent his first five years just staying at home after work, lying on the floor, doing his artwork, and listening to music. “And I said, you need to get out and meet people,” he told himself. “Nobody knows you’re in here.”

He did start socializing, but continued making art in his spare time.

Julius Gaston Sr., started painting after he came home from the military in 1981. He lives in Pennsylvania and works as a porter, taking care of three buildings in Queens. Five days a week, he does a two-hour round trip drive to and from work.

Once he’s home, he spends time with his family. “After I shower and have dinner, I’ve got to help the children with their homework and talk to the missus. And then I paint as much as I can until it’s time to go to bed. And then on weekends, when I’m off, I try to paint as much as I can when I’m not cutting into time with the family.”

Gaston paints in a style called traditional realism, and has been commissioned to do portraits, landscapes, and nudes.

Jamaica-born Ricardo Buchanan has worked as a maintenance/handyman in a Harlem residential building since 1985 and has been a vocal member of 32BJ for the same amount of time. His charcoal drawing of the April 8, 2024, solar eclipse is on display at the 32BJ Art Show alongside a poem he wrote based on this year’s art show theme.

“Nothing is impossible and with faith and hope, we learn to cope to defeat the impossible,” one part of his poem says. “Organize and centralize and we will compel the world to realize that nothing is impossible, just give yourselves a try. Nothing is impossible.”

(Karen Juanita Carrillo photos)

Julius Gaston Sr. with his traditional realistic paintings.

Meeting in the Subway Series, the Mets and Yankees head

in opposite directions

By DERREL JOHNSON Special to the AmNews

The Mets and Yankees met on Tuesday night for the first of four games this season between New York City’s Major League Baseball teams.

They opened the aptly named Subway Series headed in opposite directions and continued on different paths in the opener, with the Mets beating the Yankees 9-7 at Citi Field in Queens. It was the Mets’ 11th win in their previous 14 games to lift them to 38-39 after they were 24-34 to begin the month of June. The Mets are in third place in the National League East and were 13 games behind the division-leading Philadelphia Phillies before hosting the Yankees again last night at Citi Field. The New York squads will reconnect at Yankee Stadium on July 23 and 24 for two games.

Tuesday’s loss was the eighth in the Yankees prior nine games to drop them to 52-39.

As manager Aaron Boone looks to navigate them out of the slump, the Yankees remained in first place in the American League East, two games in front of the Baltimore Orioles, which were 49-30 when yesterday’s

MLB schedule began. Over the weekend, the Yankees learned unpleasant news that they would be without designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton for what is expected to be four weeks with a strained left hamstring injury, the eighth time in the last six seasons he has suffered a left hamstring setback. Stanton was putting together a strong campaign with 18 homers and 45 RBI.

In his second outing of the season on Tuesday after returning from right elbow nerve inflammation and edema, reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole allowed seven hits, including four home runs, and gave up six-earned runs while walking four and striking out none.

Emerging Mets third baseman Mark Vientos did most of the damage to Cole with solo home runs in the second and fourth innings. Reliever Dedniel Nunez registered the win, tossing 2 2/3 innings directly after starter David Peterson went 4 1/3 giving up just one earned. In total, Mets first-year manager Carlos Mendoza used five pitchers.

Yankees center fielder Aaron Judge, who had five RBI, hit a grand slam in the eighth inning, his 29th homer this season, which led MLB as of yesterday, but the Mets held on.

Mets third baseman Mark Vientos celebrates in the second inning hitting the first of his two home runs on Tuesday night in the Mets’ 9-7 win over the Yankees Tuesday night at Citi Field. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Judge was supportive of Cole following the defeat. “…He’s still working back. That’s our ace,” he said. “That’s our guy and we want him out there every single five days. Games like this happen. Just have to move on.”

The Yankees will play the Toronto Blue Jays for four games on the road beginning tonight, then will host the Cincinnati

in the Bronx for three games starting on Tuesday, including a Fourth of July 1:05 p.m. matchup. The Mets will take on the

for three games this weekend and play four versus the Washington Nationals on the road Monday through Thursday.

Reggie Jackson recalls Rickwood Field and America’s ugly past

By JALYN SMOOT MLBbro.com

Special to the AmNews

Major League Baseball made history on Thursday night when the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals competed in the league’s first game at Rickwood Field. Built in 1910, Rickwood Field is the oldest existing professional ballpark and once served as home to the Negro League’s Birmingham Black Barons.

Before the start of Thursday’s contest, Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson recounted the racism he experienced during his time in Birmingham, Ala., and admitted that it was difficult to return to the historic ballpark. In 1967, before he advanced to the majors, Jackson was one of the few Black players on the Birmingham A’s Double-A Southern League team. The team played at Rickwood Field until 1963.

Asked during a pregame interview by former MLB superstar Alex Rodriguez, now a baseball broadcaster for Fox Sports, what the emotions were like to return to Rickwood Field, the 1973 AL MVP spoke about how challenging it was to travel to where his baseball career began.

“Coming back here is not easy—the racism when I played here, the difficulty of going through different places where we traveled,” Jackson said. “Fortunately, I had a manager

Baseball Hall of Famer

Reggie Jackson experienced virulent racism during his days playing for the Birmingham Black Barons at Rickwood Field. (MLBbro.com photo)

and I had players on the team that helped me get through it, but I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.”

Despite being well-received on the Black Barons, Jackson was often forbidden from restaurants and hotels where his white teammates were welcomed. “I’d walk into restaurants, and they would point at me and say, ‘The n—– can’t eat here.’ I would go to a hotel, and they say, ‘The n—– can’t stay here.’ We went to Charlie Finley’s country

club for a welcome home dinner, and they pointed me out with the N word.”

Jackson’s retelling of his experiences highlighted America’s dark, segregated, and notso-distant past. Born just two years before the integration of the U.S. military in 1948 and nearly 20 years before President Lyndon B. Johnson legally ended segregation with the Civil Rights Act, Jackson, now 78, lived through one of the nation’s cruelest periods. Despite his talent, the baseball legend was

constantly antagonized and rebuked during his time in the minors.

Jackson spoke about his AA manager, Johnny McNamara, who managed him in Birmingham and came up to manage the major league A’s in 1969, reuniting with Jackson for the end of 1969 and the 1970 season: “Fortunately, I had a manager in Johnny McNamara that if I couldn’t eat in the place, nobody could eat,” Jackson said. “We’d get food to travel. If I couldn’t stay in the hotel, they’d drive to the next hotel and find a place where I could stay.” In addition to McNamara, Jackson named Rollie Fingers, Dave Duncan, and Joe Rudi, along with his wife, Sharon, as figures who defended him and helped him navigate such trying times. “I would have never made it. I was too physically violent; I was ready to physically fight someone. I’d have gotten killed here because I’d have beat someone’s a–, and you’d have [seen] me in an oak tree somewhere.”

Thankfully, Jackson was able to suppress his anger and avoid any fatal racist encounters. After his days in Birmingham, the talented outfielder carved out a legendary career in the majors.

America is not without its flaws and still has a long way to go.

“People asked me today and said, ‘Do you think you’re a better person? Do you think you won when you played here and conquered?’ I said, ‘You know, I would never want to do it again.’”

Reds

Houston Astros

The Liberty’s surge is interrupted by a loss to the Lynx in the Commissioner’s Cup

New York Liberty forward Kayla Thornton scored 20 points in her team’s 98-88 victory over the Los Angeles Sparks at the Barclays Center on Saturday. (Brandon Todd/New York Liberty photo)

By LOIS ELFMAN Special to the AmNews

The New York Liberty went into Tuesday night’s WNBA Commissioner’s Cup championship having won 11 of their previous 12 games and holding the best record in the league. Their opponent, the Minnesota Lynx, guided by head coach Cheryl Reeve, who will lead the USA’s women’s Olympic team next month in France, are also a title contender this season. So in what was a potential WNBA finals preview, the Lynx came away with a hard fought 94-89 win.

The game was held at UBS Arena on Long Island, located at Belmont Park and home of the National Hockey League’s New York Islanders, moved from the Barclays Center, the Liberty’s home building, due to the arena being prepared for the NBA Draft.

Lynx forward Bridget Carleton scored a team-high 23 points and fellow forward Napheesa Collier, a member of Team USA, scored 21 to lift the Lynx to a 13-3 record, third best in the league when today’s schedule tips off.

The Liberty were paced by their pair of Olympians as forward Breanna Stewart topped all scorers with 24, the most in the four years

the Commissioner’s Cup has been staged. New York point guard Sabrina Ionescu continued her impactful play, posting 23 points and 10 rebounds, although she only shot 2-11 on 3-point attempts, well below her career average of 38%. Despite the loss, the Liberty maintained the best record in WNBA. They are 15-3, the best start to a season in franchise history, and one game ahead of both the Lynx and 13-3 Connecticut Sun.

“What do we have to do for you guys really to start believing in us,” Reeve sternly said to the media at the postgame presser. “Now you gotta say ‘ok, we just beat a superteam.’ You know how hard that is to do? Cause you guys love your superteams, man!”

The game also marked the return of Liberty guard Courtney Vandersloot after she took off to be with her family during her mother Jan Vandersloot’s final days in a two-year battle with cancer. Jan Vandersloot sadly passed away last weekend.

”She’s been through so much, but it’s good for her to come out on the bench tonight (versus the Dream),” said Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello on Sunday, “and be a part of that because even though she hasn’t been playing, we’ve been doing our best to rep-

resent her well.”

Almost 27 years to the day from when the WNBA league began with a game between the New York Liberty and the Los Angeles Sparks, the two teams faced off in back-to-back games at the Barclays Center last Thursday and Saturday. The Liberty emerged victorious in both, coming away with 93-80 and 98-88 wins respectively before ending an tiring stretch of three games in four days by defeating the Atlanta Dream 96-75 on the road on Sunday.

Ionescu dropped 26 points and added 11 assists versus the Dream. Veteran forward Jonquel Jones added 15 points and 11 rebounds, and Stewart had a complete outing with 17 points, eight rebounds, six assists, three steals and two blocked shots.

In the absence of starting forward Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, who was sidelined with a right knee injury, rookie Marquesha Davis came off of the bench to provide nine points on 4-8 shooting.

“I’ve been trying to stay ready and each time I get in just embrace the opportunity,” said Davis.

The Liberty will next play this Sunday hosting the Dream in Brooklyn and then face the Lynx again at the Barclays on Tuesday.

Connecticut Sun share winning strategies with new AI Mindset Lab

By LOIS ELFMAN Special to the AmNews

The Connecticut Sun are not only sitting atop the WNBA standings, but the team is offering an opportunity to take part in a groundbreaking 52-week program. The Connecticut Sun Mindset Lab, launched with the AI-powered mindset company Dailyhuman, has invited 5,000 athletes to take part in the program designed to enhance their personal and athletic growth.

Participants have weekly interactive sessions in which they’ll gain information from Sun players Moriah Jefferson, Rachel Bonham and Olivia Nelson-Ododa, as well as assistant coaches Abi Olajuwon and Briann January.

“It’s been a really cool way to connect and get involved with our team,” said Morgan TuckSawi, a former pro player and

now assistant general manager and director of franchise development for the Sun.

The Mindset Lab sessions provide tailored coaching to help the young athletes develop skills they need in sport and in life. Through pre-recorded messages, the players share experience, provide insights and offer affirmations that will help the athletes build a sports mindset. Participants can access this from a home computer or cellphone.

“Moriah, Rachel and Olivia have been built into a Mindset Law, which is a way to work on elevating how we think and feel about ourselves and what we’ve experienced in life,” said Kim Bach, cofounder and chief people officer at Dailyhuman. “Every single interaction with the lab is around a prompt or a question to reflect on. Each of those questions has been answered by one or more of our players. So, when a fan or a

young athlete answers their own reflection, what comes back is the answer from a player. We’re teaching mindset through modeling and reflection.”

“My favorite part is the accessibility of it,” said Tuck-Sawi. “Our players had to take a little bit more time to be able to answer some of the questions. It allows the user on the other end to get a deeper insight. … With the technology, it can be more specific to the user.”

Users receive weekly prompts that are the same prompts that the players and coaches were given. “It’s a cool way that people can reflect for themselves and think about these prompts and affirmations as well as hearing how the players and coaches respond,” said Tuck-Sawi. “This is a way that people get a little bit more of a personal insight into our players, how their minds work and how they process things.”

Chelsea Hammond Ross will bring her family with her to Paris this summer to receive reallocated Olympic medal. (Photo courtesy of Chelsea Hammond Ross)

Diversify Ice SkateRaiser24 brings out legend of the sport Debi Thomas

By LOIS ELFMAN

Special to the AmNews

As a young figure skater growing up, Karissa Williams met few skaters who looked like her, so U.S. and World Champion Debi Thomas was her inspiration. Despite limited resources, Williams persisted in the sport, even choosing a college that had a skating team, University of Michigan. Her time as a competitor finally came in the adult ranks (competitions for skaters 25 and older), where Williams became the first and still only Black woman to win a U.S. adult title.

After a 30-year wait, Williams finally met Thomas when they participated in Diversify Ice Foundation’s SkateRaiser24, held in Chicago June 14 and 15. Both assisted with the skating clinic held day one.

“I literally was grinning from ear to ear. To be on the ice with her was incredible. Seeing her on the ice teaching the kids was otherworldly. I felt I was that little kid watching Debi skate,” said Williams. Prior to the clinic, she skated com-

pulsory figures with Larry Holliday, a historic adult competitor, who has battled brain cancer and is now on the road to recovery.

Other high profile skaters on

hand were U.S. and World Pair Champion Tai Babilonia, former U.S. ladies competitors Kristine Musademba and Megan Stewart, current U.S. ladies competitors

Starr Andrews and Alexa Gasparotto, U.S. novice ice dance medalists Anaelle Kouevi and Yann Homawoo, and former U.S. men’s competitor Emmanuel Savary.

“It really was this past, present and future culmination of champions for a super beautiful event,” said Diversify Ice founder Joel Savary. “There were a lot of adult skaters that came in. These were their idols, Debi and Tai. To be there with them and actually learning from them in the training camp and then watching the beautiful performances the next day, I think everyone had a great time. We’re able to make an impact.”

Several awards were distributed, including the Diversify Ice Icon Award and Trailblazer Award, given to Holliday, the first skater to land a triple jump at the U.S. Adult Figure Skating Championships. Young skater Caiyla Shaw, who will attend Howard University in the fall, received a $2,500 scholarship from Diversify Ice and the Fredrick Watson Foundation, which she can use for both her education and skating training.

“It was amazing to see so many Black people, Brown people, underrepresented minority people all coming together for the advancement of figure skating,” said Williams.

WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson returns to Newark July 6

By DERREL JOHNSON Special to the AmNews

WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson (21-0, 10 KOs) returns to his hometown of Newark, New Jersey, on July 6 to make his inaugural defense of the title against German Olympian Artem Harutyunyan (12-1, 7 KOs) at the Prudential Center. Stevenson’s last match was a 12-round unanimous decision over Edwin De Los Santos last November in Las Vegas.

The co-feature will see WBC junior lightweight champion O’Shaquie Foster (22-2, 12 KOs) defend his title versus Brazilian Olympic gold medalist Robson Conceição (18-2-1, 9 KOs). The opening fight of the card, which will be televised on ESPN, ESPN Deportes, and ESPN+, has Keyshawn Davis (10-0, 7 KOs) facing Mexican veteran Miguel Madueño (31-2, 28 KOs).

“It feels good to be going back home to Newark, where they appreciate a young legend, and to make my first title defense at 135,” Stevenson said. “On July 6, Down Goes Artem!”

Stevenson spoke exclusively with the Amsterdam News regarding media assessments that he is the world’s best boxer at and around 135 lbs, as well as his mentors in the sport.

“Honestly, it comes with the territory,” Stevenson said. “I’m really not too big on what people have to say because one day they may say something good, one day they may say something bad, and opinions change overnight.”

Stevenson, who turns 27 on June 28, said what matters most to him is how he sees himself and his place in the sport rather than the judgments of others, positive or negative.

“Am I the best? I feel that I am the best and I believe that I’m the best,” he expressed. “I think that’s really all that matters and I think all that just comes with the territory.”

For years, Stevenson has been mentored by boxing great Andre Ward, who retired in 2017 at the young age of with a 32-0 record after defeating Sergey Kovalev a second time to retain his WBA IBF, and WBO light heavyweight championships. Stevenson is also mentored by Terence Crawford, widely considered the best pound-for-

Shakur Stevenson, center, celebrates an April 2022 win over Oscar Valdez with mentor Terence Crawford (left), the current WBA and WBO welterweight champion. (AP Photo/John Locher)

pound fighter in the sport after dominating Errol Spence in their bout last July. Crawford will move up to junior middleweight to face WBA champion Israil Madrimov on Aug. 2 in Los Angeles after becoming undisputed in both the junior welterweight and welterweight divisions.

“Them dudes are like family to me, like it is deeper than boxing with them,” Stevenson said. “They’ve been around me my

whole career. With Bud (Crawford’s nickname), he’s been around me before I even was a pro. Even Andre was, he was around me before I was even pro. So, honestly, it is deeper than boxing. I appreciate them guys.

When I need something I call them,” Stevenson continued. “And when I say when I need something, I’m talking about game and all that kind of stuff. They always got good answers for me, so I ap-

preciate them guys.”

On Saturday, Brooklyn’s Teofimo Lopez (20-1, 13 KOs) will defend his WBO junior lightweight championship against Steve Claggett (38-7-2, 26 KOs) in Miami on ESPN. Also on Saturday, Juan Francisco Estrada (44-3, 28 KOs) will defend his WBC junior bantamweight title against Jesse Rodriguez (19-0, 12 KOs) at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona, and live worldwide on DAZN.

Ice dancers at SkateRaiser24 (l-r), former competitor Nathan Truesdell, 2024 junior competitor Kristina Bland, and 2024 U.S. Novice Ice Dance medalists

Anaelle Kouevi and Yann Homawoo. (Leslie Cao photo)

Skating coach/adult competitor Karissa Williams meets her skating idol Debi Thomas. (Photo courtesy of Karissa Williams)

Sports

Knicks move to strengthen their championship aspirations acquiring Bridges

By JAIME C. HARRIS AmNews Sports Editor

The key decision makers for the New York Knicks, led by team president Leon Rose, watched the Boston Celtics, the newly crowned NBA champions, sweep through the regular and postseasons in near historic fashion with a cumulative record of 80-21, driven by a bevy of elite two-way wing players. In a league where matching up with opponents, particularly the NBA’s best, is schematically vital, the Knicks moved to counter the Celtics by agreeing to a deal that had social media ablaze on Tuesday night, acquiring multiskilled forward Mikal Bridges from the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for what was first reported by ESPN to be forward Bojan Bogdanovic, four unprotected first-round picks (2025, ‘27, ‘29, ‘31), a 2025 protected pick from the Milwaukee Bucks, a pick swap in 2028, and a 2025 second-round pick. In addition to Bridges, the Knicks will receive a 2026 second-round pick to the deal. The Knicks, as of AmNews press time, still held the 24th and 25th overall picks in last night’s NBA Draft held at the Barclays Center.

The trade for Bridges signals that Rose, Knicks’ executive vice president William Wesley, general manager Gersson Rosas, and head coach Tom Thibodeau had strong conviction the team could be a title contender next season with the attainment of Bridges, at 27 one of the best two-way wings in the world, and that he was equivalent to or

exceeded the assets they relinquished. The Knicks have reached the Eastern Conference semifinals the past two seasons. For the Nets, who are in rebuilding mode, they now have draft capital, which they severely lacked prior to swapping Bridges.

A 2022 All Defensive First Team selection, Bridges also averaged 26.1 points as a

member of the Phoenix Suns and Nets two seasons ago and 19.6 last season. The Philadelphia native will be rejoining former Villanova teammates Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo. A durable player, Bridges has appeared in 474 of his teams’ 492 games over six seasons. He has two years left on his contract at $23.3 million next season and $24.9 million in the 2025-26 campaign.

Now the Knicks will look to secure forward OG Anunoby, who declined his player option for next season, to a long-term contract at an average annual salary of roughly $37 million. Locking in Anunoby is immensely important to constructing a championship core that would be composed of Brunson, Julius Randle, and now Bridges. Re-signing center Isaiah Hartenstein, who had a career year this past season, seems unlikely due to the meteoric rise in his value. The Knicks inked the 26-year-old Hartenstein to a two-year, $16 million deal in July 2022. He markedly outperformed that number and the league’s collective bargaining agreement limits the Knicks to offering Hartenstein at most a four-year, $72 million contract. He will be enticed by significantly more from several bidders.

Bittersweet performances on the track highlight the U.S. Olympic Trials

By JAIME C. HARRIS

AmNews Sports Editor

Sixteen-year-oldQuincy Wilson is a rising star in the sport of track and field. Wilson, who recently completed his sophomore year of high school at the Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland, less than 15 miles from Washington, D.C. set two under-18 world records in the 400-meters at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.

The 5’8”, 150-pounder, who also plays for Bullis’ football team, blazed 44.66 last Friday in his opening heat to smash the record set by Darrell Robinson in 1982, then lowered the mark in his semifinals round on Sunday clocking 44.59.

“I’m feeling great,” he said exuberantly a day before Monday’s final. “I’ve never been this happy a day in my life on the track.”

The phenom was vying to become the youngest male U.S. track and field Olympian ever but ended up sixth in the finals at 44.94, a race won by Quincy Hall in 44:17. Michael Norman (44:41) and Chris Bailey (44:42) were second and third respectively to earn spots in the open 400-meters in Paris next month. But Wilson is likely to join them as part of the United States’ 4x400 meters relay contingent.

Unfortunately for reigning women’s 800meters Olympic champion Athing Mu, she won’t have the opportunity to defend her title. The electrifying 22-year-old native of Trenton, New Jersey and the 2022 800meters world champion, shockingly lost her footing among a cluster of runners

midway through the event and abruptly fell onto the track in Monday’s finals. She rose to finish the race but had no chance to catch the pack, crossing the line in last of the nine competitors. Nia Atkins (1.57.36), Allie Wilson (1:58.32) and Juliette Whitaker (1.58.45) took the three Olympic spots.

Mu’s appeal was denied to the dismay of her coach Bob Kersee. “I’ve coached it, I’ve preached it, I’ve watched it,” he said to the Associated Press. “And here’s another indication that regardless of how good we are, we can leave some better athletes home than other countries have. It’s part of our American way.”

In the men’s 100-meters, 2023 world champion Noah Lyles was the victor to secure a trip to Paris. Lyles, 26, is also the 2023 200-meters world champion and is seeking a berth in that event as opening rounds begin today.

Sha’Carri Richardson, who captured the women’s 100-meters world championship last summer, made her first Olympic team in winning the 100 at the Trials this past weekend. The 24 year old rolled to a 10.71 and will now set her sights on the 200 starting today.

Forward Mikal Bridges will rejoin three of his former college teammates, including Jalen Brunson (right), as the Villanova alum has been traded by the Nets to the Knicks. (AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh)

Teenage sensation Quincy Wilson set two world records in the men’s 400-meters at the U.S. Olympic Trials while reigning women’s 800-meters Olympic champion Athing Mu will miss the Paris Games after falling in her qualifying race. (AP Photos/Charlie Neibergall/George Walker IV)

New York Amsterdam News June 27, 2024

DIRECTORY

INDEX

International News

LGBTQ+ ACTIVISTS WIN LANDMARK JUDGMENT FROM NAMIBIAN HIGH COURT

Winners on the ballot: AOC in Congress, Wright and Zinerman in State Assembly

DA Bragg holds gun buyback in Washington Heights

Ali Forney Center fights for more equitable treatment of LGBTQIA+ youth in city’s foster care system

PRIDE MONTH

Debate debacle?

New Title IX regulations expand protections for LGBTQ+ students

Defend Harlem: Locals push back against Columbia University “land grab” at Juneteenth conference

Looking back at 30 years of ‘B-Boy Blues’

Black

Looking back with Pride: Examining our coverage of the queer community

PRIDE MONTH

An uneven legacy

Searching for ‘gay’

Go With The Flo

Greenwich Village building could landmark mid-1800s Black community

Brooklyn Grand Army Plaza’s legacy of activism and unity endures in recent times

SEIU’s new international president looks to help end poverty-wage work in America

Union members display talents at 32BJ art show

Opinion

Simply a-MAYS-ing

Representation matters during Pride and throughout the year

Morality in America’s future

ARMSTRONG WILLIAMS

Caribbean Update

Haiti’s interim administration appears to be settling in

Why did Joe wait this long?

NYCLU-backed research points to surprising aversion to

‘tough-on-crime’ platforms in swing districts

‘Everything is at stake’ for reproductive rights in 2024, Harris says as Biden-Trump debate nears

Arts & Entertainment

Celebrating Lady Irene Gandy: Proud press agent, B’way producer, entrepreneur, and honored member of the theater community

Special

Mira Gandy and Debbie Allen partner to provide art program, safe space for LGBTQ+ youth

ArtsConnection’s benefit event reinforces importance of arts

From the archives: Remembering Raoul Abdul

PRIDE MONTH

HOROSCOPES BY KNOWYOURNUMB3RS

By SUPREME GODDESS KYA

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure attraction is Disney World’s newest gem

Black Music Month commentary: Historic papers of Howard University music professor and composer discovered in Brooklyn Heights

Nikki M. James on embodying Ida B. Wells in B’way’s ‘Suffs’

Special

Will Calhoun, Louis Armstrong

Juneteenth celebrated at the Shrine in Harlem

Gun buyback

Ballot

CLASSROOM IN THE

Frances Wills, one of first two Black women in the WAVES

ACTIVITIES

FIND OUT MORE

DISCUSSION

PLACE IN CONTEXT

THIS WEEK IN BLACK HISTORY

Defend Harlem

Education

Early childhood education is essential, but is funding it? City in final days of budget negotiations

A new era

Dixon

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Vice President Kamala Harris addresses voter disenfranchisement in honor of Juneteenth

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