The AmsterdamNewsassumes no responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. Photographs and manuscripts become the property of The Amsterdam News. Published weekly. Periodicals Class postage paid at New York, N.Y. POSTMASTER: Send address corrections to NYAmsterdamNews,2340 Frederick Douglass Blvd., New York, NY 10027.
New law fast-tracks restoring gas outages at NYCHA
By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff
Gas and utility outages have long plagued tenants in aging New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) buildings. This month, Governor Kathy Hochul signed a law that expands the definition of vital services to include gas and would fast-track NYCHA gas outage repairs.
The law, S220B/A3866, was sponsored by Senator Zellnor Y. Myrie and Assembly-
member Chantel Jackson. The bill requires NYCHA to remedy gas service interruptions as soon as possible by coordinating with relevant city, state, and utility company partners and quickly applying for permits necessary to make such repairs. It also mandates that NYCHA make efforts to update residents as often as possible.
“Like so many of our strongest bills, the idea for this legislation came directly from our constituents, who told us horror stories about gas outages that routinely last for
days, weeks, or even months,” said Myrie. “NYCHA residents shouldn’t be left to fend for themselves with [having to use] hotplates and meal deliveries while government agencies and utility companies point fingers at each other. This legislation will ensure meaningful communication with residents and better coordination [for] timely repairs.”
As of Oct. 9, there are 41 active gas outages at NYCHA developments across the city, according to www.my.nycha.info, and four heat and hot water service interruptions and 80 elevator outages at NYCHA buildings citywide.
“My district [has] 21 NYCHA developments,” said Jackson. “One of the main complaints I receive from my constituents who live in NYCHA [buildings] is disruptions in vital services like hot water, electricity, or gas. All New Yorkers, no matter their income or neighborhood, deserve transparency when services that impact their quality of life are disrupted.”
NYCHA’s Tenant Association (TA) presidents are often left to complain about outages to higher-ups on behalf of residents for weeks or months. They seemed excited by the law and hope it would actually work.
“As a NYCHA resident, I am pleased to hear this news. On many occasions, Redfern Houses has experienced gas outages, mostly in the winter months,” said Eugenia
Staffers flee City Hall as Feds hand out more indictments
By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff
Yet another turbulent week has passed at City Hall, marked by resignations and indictments related to Mayor Eric Adams and alleged 2021 campaign fraud.
It was widely reported that Gov. Kathy Hochul decided to pressure Adams to “clean up City Hall” and let go of any administrators even peripherally related to the federal indictment cases rather than outright remove him from office. Rumor has it she’s avoiding seeing her old boss, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, seize power as mayor in the vacuum that Adams would leave behind.
MAIL SUBSCRIPTIONS INFORMATION
“I had a great conversation with the governor over the weekend,” said Adams in his latest press conference on Tuesday, Oct. 8. “She gave me some of her suggestions. We implemented some of her suggestions.”
As of Oct. 9, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, mayoral aide and Director of Asian Affairs Winnie Greco, Schools Chancellor David C. Banks, Deputy Mayor of Public Safety Philip Banks III, Public Safety Adviser Timothy Pearson, Mayoral Legal Counsel Lisa Zornberg, NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban, and Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Dr.
have all opted to resign from office; the majority of whom were longtime friends of
Adams has maintained that many left his administration because they wanted to do something different with their lives. “At the same time, people were saying, ‘Eric, I want to do other things in my life,’ like Banks, who
I don’t think we really fully understand what he has brought,” said Adams about the departures. “And, you know, men and women leave government normally. And then they also leave government when they feel as though people are not treating them with the respect that they deserve.”
See INDICTMENTS on page 25
Ashwin Vasan
Adams’s.
See NYCHA on page 25
Mayor Eric Adams holds an in-person media availability at City Hall. Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024. (Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)
Senator Zellnor Myrie held a press conference in East New York on Oct. 2. (Photo contributed by Myrie’s office)
Daniel Penny’s defense fails to block potentially unfavorable evidence in Jordan Neely killing trial
By TANDY LAU Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member
Footage of Daniel Penny’s statements to NYPD officers will remain as evidence in his upcoming manslaughter and negligent homicide trial over the alleged killing of unhoused Black New Yorker Jordan Neely on May 1, 2023, after Judge Maxwell Wiley denied Penny’s lawyers’ motion to suppress such information to a jury.
Jury selection kicks off later this month for the high-profile incident where Neely, a prominent Michael Jackson impersonator who struggled with mental health and homelessness, entered an uptown bound F train with an unprovoked outburst.
Passengers recalled Neely throwing his jacket on the ground, pleading for food and threatening willingness to go to prison, but nobody recounts Neely touching anyone during the encounter. Penny, an ex-Marine now studying engineering and architecture, allegedly intervened with a chokehold. Neely later died from compression of the neck, as determined by the city’s medical examiner.
The parties met for a pre-trial hearing about the motion on Thursday, Oct. 3, in Penny’s first in-person court appearance since this past January. Dressed in a gray suit and purple tie, Penny did not say a word as the footage played and the officers in question testified throughout the day.
“Before the prosecution can introduce statements made by the defendant into the trial…the defense has an opportunity to argue that those things should not be admitted into evidence [and] suppressed because they were obtained illegally,” said defensive attorney Ron Kuby. “Specifically, what happened here is known as a Dunaway/Huntley. What the defense is maintaining is that Daniel Penny’s statement he made to the police should not be admitted into evidence because there was no basis to arrest him, and that’s patently ridiculous.
“There was clearly a basis to arrest him. He choked a man to death. Whether he’s guilty of that crime or not, there certainly was probable cause to arrest him.”
Video from body-worn cameras and interview room recordings show Penny divulging details to police after the incident of how he put Neely in a chokehold, includ-
ing physically demonstrating the maneuver to NYPD detectives after they read him his Miranda rights.
The footage also confirms that Penny told police he “put [Neely] out,” which was documented in the prosecution’s omnibus motion.
The defense counters that such statements were procured through what they call a “custodial interrogation” when Penny was still a witness in the investigation. He was arrested roughly a week after.
“Given the nature of the investigation, the fact that police chose to release the defendant that day does not belie the existence of probable cause, but instead appears to have been an understandable step in an investigation into the facts and circumstances of the incident before bringing charges,” wrote Wiley.
Marq Claxton, director of the Black Law Enforcement Alliance and a former NYPD detective, said such a process is routine.
“What the investigator is not going to do is say to him, ‘Hey, wait a second before you go any further with all these beautiful spontaneous utterances that I’m going to use later on; let me Miranda you,’” said Claxton. “They will wait until an opportunity comes where they can now read your Miranda [rights], and then perhaps have you formalize your statement that you made to them verbally. We can videotape it at some point later on, so this way everything will be admissible, because what [the] defense will say, always in these cases, [is] that anything before
Miranda is inadmissible.
“That’s not always the case. Sometimes people make spontaneous utterances before you’ve even established that they are the suspect, or before you’ve established probable cause.”
While the defense generally wanted to exclude body-worn camera footage obtained by the responding officers, the recordings did capture favorable witness statements on the subway platform. Fellow passengers told police they felt in danger during Neely’s outburst and defended Penny’s actions. His lawyers presented their own compilation video, stitching together those accounts, including from body-worn cameras on officers who did not testify.
Penny’s lawyer, Thomas Kenniff, hopes the witness statement footage will push back on the case’s racial narratives, since multiple Black passengers are shown animatedly vouching for Penny.
A wide divide formed from the case, with more than $3 million raised for Penny’s defense fund and many top donations coming from right-wing figures like podcaster Timothy Pool and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Meanwhile, justice protests sprung up citywide demanding accountability for Neely’s death, with officials like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams pointing to antiBlackness as a key cause.
“Mr. Penny is white, Mr. Neely was
Hamas attack on October 7 anniversary is thwarted
By HERB BOYD Special to the AmNews
As if the people of Israel needed another reminder of the devastating catastrophe it endured a year ago on Oct. 7, multiple rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip on Monday. However, like the 200 missiles launched from Iran, but unlike the nation’s Iron Dome that intercepted most of the missiles, the Israeli Air Force intercepted the five launches. According to the Jerusalem Post, only two people were injured after being hit by shrapnel.
Black, but I don’t think those facts, in and of themselves, in any way make this a racial case,” said Kenniff over the phone. “I think there are people that tried to racialize the case. There are people who tried to politicize the case, on both sides…to the extent that anyone might be coming into this trial and thinking that there’s a racial component to it, the evidence is going to immediately disabuse them of that.”
To be clear, the prosecution only has to prove Penny’s recklessness, not intent, given the manslaughter charge. Deadly force can only be used in self-defense when responding commensurately to deadly physical force. When police searched Neely for weapons, they found nothing but a muffin.
While racial animus is not a factor and Penny does not face hate crime charges, Kuby said nobody “should underestimate the racism of the New York City public when they see a threat” when it comes to public support.
“The issue in the case is who gets to kill whom over what,” said Kuby. “In the State of New York, you’re allowed to use deadly physical force if you reasonably believe that deadly physical force is about to be used against you or somebody else. Operative words are ‘reasonably believe’ and ‘imminent and deadly physical force.’ In other words, you cannot kill someone just because they’re scary. You can’t kill them because they’re Black and scary and
See DANIEL PENNY on page 25
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) wrote on X that “Sirens sounded in Israeli communities surrounding Gaza a few moments ago. At exactly this time last year, sirens were sounded all over Israel, marking the beginning of Hamas’ October 7 massacre.”
Before the attack this week, the IDF said its troops had struck “Hamas terror targets and launchers throughout the Gaza Strip,” and thus thwarted any “immediate threat.”
The IDF reported that the Israel Air Force successfully targeted and hit an underground Hamas infrastructure. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited a memorial in Jerusalem on Monday for civilians and saluted first responders and troops killed in the 2023 Hamas attack.
“We remember our fallen; our hostages—whom we are committed to return; our heroes who fell in defense of our homeland and country. We went through a terrible massacre a year ago and we arose as a nation as lions,” Netanyahu said.
Vice President Kamala Harris called the attack “an act of pure evil.” She recited the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer of mourning, and talked about “our enduring belief in God, even in our darkest moments.”
President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden hosted a memorial ceremony and lit a candle that they placed on a small table at the center of the White House Blue Room before they observed a moment of silence.
Daniel Penny charged with manslaughter for placing a man in a deadly chokehold aboard a New York City subway train, departs Manhattan Criminal Court, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
One year on: White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention’s progress so far
SHANNON CHAFFERS
Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member
A little over a year ago, President Joe Biden announced the creation of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, to be overseen by Vice President Kamala Harris. The office is led by Director Stefanie Feldman, a longtime Biden policy aide, and Deputy Directors Greg Jackson and Rob Wilcox, who both had experience in gun violence prevention.
With legislative action on gun violence stalled in Congress, the mandate of the office was to ensure the implementation of existing laws and executive actions; develop additional measures that could be taken without Congressional approval; and build connections with politicians, gun violence survivors, and gun reform activists across the country.
When the office was first announced, advocates for gun reform were excited about the opportunity to accelerate change through a dedicated federal hub.
“I was ecstatic, because we always felt that there needed to be a whole of government approach to ending the gun violence crisis in our nation,” said Po Murray, chairwoman of the Newtown Action Alliance, who was involved in the coalition that lobbied the administration to create an Office.
One year later, Jackson said the office has taken action on all four of its original goals: implementing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, identifying additional executive actions the president can take to address gun violence, enhancing partnerships with leading cities and states, and coordinating federal government responses to communities affected by gun violence.
“Living right under the president and vice president’s leadership, we’ve been able to have a huge authority to help implement the work [by] partnering with our agencies and other parts of government,” Jackson said in an interview with the AmNews.
Stakeholders say they are pleased with what the office has done so far, and hope to see its capacity expanded through greater funding and more staff.
“I think they’ve surpassed expectations,” said Josh Horwitz, a longtime gun reform advocate and current co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.
“I think the one question is what happens in the future with a new administration? Are they going to get permanent funding?”
November’s presidential election may determine the fate of the office. It is funded through money that Congress appropriates to the White House each year, and many believe it is more likely to continue under a Kamala Harris presidency than a Donald Trump one, given their political leanings.
Here are some of the actions the office has taken so far.
Implementing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act
The scope of the office’s power is limited, as any major change to the gun regulation landscape would have to come from new laws passed through Congress. The office was created in the face of the administration’s struggles to make progress on its legislative priorities, which include an assault weapons ban, a national red flag law, and universal background checks. The office has instead focused on implementing existing laws and new executive actions.
Currently, the office operates as a four-person team. Jackson said the bulk of their day-to-day work within the federal government involves collaborating with staff at other agencies to advance their policy goals and develop new ideas.
One example of this collaboration comes through the office’s efforts to implement the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) of 2022, which was the first federal legislation on gun violence in almost three decades. Activists identified this work as one of the most significant actions the office has taken so far.
“The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act had many proposals in there that needed to be implemented, so it was imperative that there were people in the office working day and night to ensure that the implementation process went well,” Murray said.
One goal of the BSCA was to reduce the number of guns sold without background checks—a major source of illegal firearm traf-
ficking—by broadening the category of gun sellers required to obtain a Federal Firearm License. Before the law, people for whom the sale of firearms did not constitute their main source of income were not required to obtain a license and did not have to run background checks. This exception was known as the “gun show loophole” because these dealers often sold their firearms at gun shows, but it also applied to sellers who sold their firearms online or at other informal venues.
To ensure proper enforcement of the BSCA’s new policies, the office worked with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to introduce a rule that clarifies what types of commercial activity indicates that a seller should obtain a license. In effect, the rule requires those who sell firearms at flea markets, gun shows, or online to register for a license and pass background checks.
The DOJ estimated the rule would apply to 23,000 dealers when it was announced, but did not respond to requests for data on its impact so far. The rule has faced legal challenges in states like Florida and Texas since its adoption in May, but remains in effect in most states.
Another pillar of the BSCA was its allocation of $250 million in federal funding toward community violence intervention programs. Community violence intervention (CVI) refers to a multitude of community-based strategies to provide services and mentorship to people most likely to engage in community gun violence, which disproportionately
affects Black and Brown communities. The federal government has invested a further $150 million in CVI through annual appropriations from Congress, bringing the total amount distributed to $400 million.
Four community-based organizations in New York each received a $2 million grant from the DOJ through its Community Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative. One of those organizations is Getting Out Staying Out (GOSO), which serves East Harlem.
GOSO’s CEO Michelle Pryce-Screen said the funding has helped bolster their CVI program, Stand Against Violence East Harlem (SAVE).
“Thanks to this funding, 200 participants in the SAVE program are now able to access GOSO’s Pathways to Graduation, job readiness, and career placement programs and therapy from our new satellite mental health clinic,” she said by email.
Building connections on the ground
Beyond federal policy actions, Jackson also highlighted office efforts to connect with people across the country who are working to prevent gun violence.
As part of its Safer States Initiative, Jackson said the office has formed partnerships with state lawmakers in 31 states to help them pass gun reform laws at the state level; 17 states have passed new laws so far, including safe storage laws in California and Rhode Island, and a See PREVENTION on page 27
Chart summarizes findings of RAND Corporation report, “The Science of Gun Policy,” which reviewed thousands of studies to determine efficacy of gun policies. Thicker lines indicate stronger evidence of effect.
Billy Giles: Master teacher of the sweet science
By MAL’AKIY 17 ALLAH Special to the Am News
No matter how talented a boxer may be, having an experienced trainer with a keen eye and a business-wise manager often determines how successful of a career they’ll have. Having toiled in New York City’s sweaty gyms for several decades, Harlemnative Billy Giles, a.k.a. Thrill, has earned his stripes and is regarded as one of this generation’s elite boxing trainers and managers.
“I started in the mid-70s and liked working with those younger than me, and I realized I could do what older trainers couldn’t do with the youths,” he reflected.
Starting out as a bodybuilder with Harlem’s infamous Iron Head and Gladiator squad, he was then under the tutelage of his uncle, legendary boxer and trainer Bobby McQuillar, who nurtured him in the art of the sweet science. He trained talented boxers like Tumbler Davis and Peewee Rucker before working with a 16-year-old Hector “Macho” Camacho, taking him to win three NY Golden Glove titles and his first pro world championship in 1983.
Billy
Around that time, he also formed alliances with renowned Detroit boxing trainer Emmanuel Steward and took his fighters to get work at the famed Kronk Gym, where he witnessed some competitive sparring sessions, like Camacho vs Sweet Pea Whitaker, Camacho vs Thomas “The Hitman” Hearns, and Mike “The Body Snatcher” McCallum vs Hearns.
“Those were something else to watch,” he recalled.
His success in the corner led to him assisting other outstanding boxers by the late 1980s, such as WBA Light Middleweight Champ Davey Moore and WBA Super Middleweight Champ Chris Tiozzo, among others.
“Thrill can watch an opponent, figure him out, then give you a fight plan on how to beat him,” asserted ex-boxer Joe “Trouble” Figueroa. “He’s also a great motivator.”
By the time the next decade rolled around, he took Aaron “Superman” Davis to win the WBA Welterweight title with an upset 9th round knockout win over Olympic gold medalist Mark Breland on July 8, 1990. He also brought his nephew,
Cam’ron Giles, to the gym, but the youth chose to play basketball and pursue a career in entertainment instead.
Unlike many other veteran trainers with such success, Thrill works with select amateur boxers on the rise. In the new millennium he worked with a young Devin Haney years before he became globally recognized. He also trained Paulie Malignaggi from the start of his pro career to his first world title shot against WBO Light Welterweight Champ Miguel Cotto in 2006.
He’s still helping young aspiring pugilists develop their skills in the ring, but reminds them the importance of learning life skills as well. He also says to be on the lookout for his current pupil, teenager Izzy Mitchell, in the years to come.
“I’m not only a trainer, I’m also a teacher. The streets got more wins than any boxer,” Thrill warns in closing. “Boxing helps build character, which helps people be competitive and be successful in life.”
To watch his interview, go to: https:// youtube.com/watch?v=kWfDveRCaGY& feature=shared
THE URBAN AGENDA
By David R. Jones, Esq
Under Fire, Mayor Adams Owes His Base Supporters Bold Leadership
Federal charges of bribery, conspiracy and campaign finance violations going back for years. The homes of his most senior staff searched, and their phones seized. Prosecutors publicly suggesting more criminal charges to come. Mayor Eric Adams is facing the worse crisis of his political career.
Like many Black New Yorkers, I am saddened and disappointed. New York City’s second Black mayor represents the hopes and dreams of so many people. We can all relate to Adams’ aspirational story: troubled city-kid-turned-police-captain, state senator, borough president and mayor of the nation’s largest city.
Politics is all about appearances. Right now, the optics are terrible. With his political future on the line, the mayor needs to demonstrate he can fulfill the huge responsibilities of the office. No small feat with federal prosecutors trying to build a case against you. However, Gov. Kathy Hochul should not use her power to remove the mayor from office.
Going forward, the mayor must use all his powers and remaining political capital to deliver for the people who put him in office. He should fight for high-impact programs, such as expanding Fair Fares to provide discount MetroCards to working-class commuters. He can also roll back stop-andfrisk and fare evasion arrests. With the stroke of a pen, he could alter the trajectory of meanspirited police tactics that target young Black and Latinx men.
These actions alone would yield dividends toward Adams’ legacy, especially if he finds a way to stabilize his administration, beat the criminal charges he’s facing, and run for reelection next year. Adams has signaled he intends to remain in office, following in the footsteps of Washington, D.C.’s Marion Barry and Newark’s Sharpe James, who soldiered on in the face of federal investigations.
The old adage, “the best defense is a good offense” applies to the mayor’s situation. Indeed, now would be a great moment for the mayor to partner with City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams to announce the expansion of Fair Fares, the program that provides 50 percent discounts on monthly Metro Cards for low-income city residents. Expanding the program from the current 145 percent of poverty to 200 percent of poverty would overwhelmingly benefit working-class, outer-borough New Yorkers who helped propel Adams into the mayor’s office.
Turning to policing, the mayor is certainly deeply involved in management of the NYPD since Edward Caban resigned as
commissioner last month. He should immediately direct his interim police commissioner to restore a creditable disciplinary regime and dial back aggressive policing, especially after a new court-ordered study last month that found the NYPD was lax in punishing officers who illegally stop and frisk people on the street.
The NYPD’s discipline protocol lists a three-day penalty for an illegal stop, frisk or search, but the study found “imposition of that level of discipline is a rarity,” undermining efforts to curb the widespread tactic that violates the civil rights of Black and Latino New Yorkers. The practice, part of an effort to get guns and drugs off the street by frequently stopping and searching people, has skyrocketed since Adams took office. Yet, city statistics show 90 percent of stops did not lead to a summons or arrest.
The study must be viewed in light of a lax attitude toward police discipline by the former police commissioner, who ProPublica reported killed more than 400 cases of alleged police misconduct this year that the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) had investigated and substantiated. Arva Rice, who led the CCRB, was pushed out by Adams after she criticized police, and sought more power and funding for the independent agency.
Perhaps the mayor is more sensitive to the plight of innocent people patted down by police, after his 57-page indictment unsealed in the Southern District of New York. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and has aggressively denied any wrongdoing. His lead attorney said he will push to have the entire case dismissed.
The downfall of Mayor Adams would be tragic for voters in the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn who formed the coalition –outside the city’s traditional political power structure – that brought him to office. The coalition also elected, for the first time, a City Council that looks like our racially and ethnically diverse boroughs.
After suffering through Mayor Bill de Blasio’s doublespeak, broken promises and missed opportunities, everyone was rooting for Adams to get things done. He pledged to make the streets safe, find solutions to the housing affordability crisis, create jobs, rally businesses and dial back aggressive police tactics. This is the time for the mayor to center his efforts, and that of his administration, on making good on these pledges.
To sum up, the mayor must go back to the basics: deliver on legacy projects that benefit the New Yorkers who put him in office.
Giles (Mal’akiy 17 Allah photo)
By ARIAMA
VOTER GUIDE 2024
’Tis the season for New Yorkers to cast ballots, and while voters should be abuzz with the prospect of voting for the nation’s first female president of color, Vice President Kamala Harris is not the only important candidate on the ballot. Stay up to date on what else will be on your ballot this year with our quick guide.
Battleground states for U.S. presidential election
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced nearly $2.5 million in investments last month to all 57 state parties. These funds were allocated to both traditionally red and blue states to help Democrats win in down-ballot races.
“The DNC is committed to electing Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz, and ensuring Democrats have the resources to run competitive races across the map in red and blue states alike,” said DNC Chair Jaime Harrison in a statement. “New York Democrats will ensure working families can get ahead, while standing up to Trump and Republicans’ extreme agenda to rip away Americans’ most fundamental rights. With Vice President Harris at the helm and record-breaking investments in coordinated campaigns, the DNC and Democratic state parties across the country have the momentum to strengthen coordinated operations in the critical final stretch to Nov. to deliver wins for Democrats and all New Yorkers.”
Presidential battleground states include swing cities like Phoenix, Arizona; Las Vegas, Nevada; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Atlanta, Georgia; Charlotte, North Carolina; Detroit, Michigan; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, according to civil rights attorney Areva Martin.
You can register to vote, find your polling place, and check your registration status by visiting www.amsterdamnews.com/election2024.
Important deadlines in New York City
• The deadline to submit a voter registration application by mail, online portal, email, or fax is Saturday, Oct. 26.
• Early Voting begins on Saturday, Oct. 26, and continues through Sunday, Nov. 3. Find your early voting site and hours at www.findmypollsite.vote.nyc/.
• The deadline to request early mail-in and/or absentee ballots is Saturday, Oct. 26.
• Early mail-in envelopes must be postmarked and an absentee ballot must be returned by Tuesday, Nov. 5. This is also the last day for voters to deliver an early mail-in and/or absentee ballot in person at the Board of Elections (BOE) or drop it off at a polling site.
• Election Day is on Tuesday, Nov. 5. Polls will be open from 6 a.m.–9 p.m. Find your poll site at findmypollsite.vote.nyc/.
“New York Democrats are grateful for this investment from the DNC to support our efforts to turn out voters in every community,” said New York State Democratic Party Chair Jay S. Jacobs in a statement. “We’ll be connecting with New Yorkers across the state, ensuring Kamala Harris
and Democrats down-ballot win in Nov..”
In New York, the DNC money is intended to go toward key battleground congressional districts and help engage Puerto Rican voters in those districts, according to the DNC. Dems are scrambling to flip a handful of congressional races in the state’s Republican-leaning districts, hoping that Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries becomes Speaker of the House, Sen. Chuck Schumer holds his position as Senate Majority Leader, and Harris has a cooperating Senate and Congress should she get elected. The state democratic organization has already deployed countless members of Democratic clubs, county parties, and political groups on buses to these districts and states to drum up votes.
Upcoming voter registration and other deadlines in key states
South Carolina Voter registration: Oct. 14, 2024, https:// scvotes.gov/voters/register-to-vote/
SC absentee ballot deadlines
• Request ballot (received by): Oct. 25 by 5:00 p.m. EST
• Return ballot by mail (received by): Nov. 5 by 7:00 p.m. EST
• Return ballot in person: Nov. 5 by 7:00 p.m. EST
• Return ballot by mail (received by) 8 p.m. on Nov. 5
• Return ballot in person by 8 p.m. on Nov. 5
PA voting deadlines
• In-person Nov. 5
• In-person mail ballot voting varies by location
Key New York congressional races
• Congressional District 3: Tom Suozzi
• Congressional District 4: Laura Gillen
• Congressional District 8: Hakeem S. Jeffries
• Congressional District 9: Yvette D. Clarke
• Congressional District 13: Adriano Espaillat
• Congressional District 14: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
• Congressional District 17: Mondaire Jones
• Congressional District 19: Josh Riley
• Congressional District 22: John Mannion
2024 NYC ballot proposals
There will be six proposals on the back of voter ballots this year, some of which are hotly debated. Ballot Proposal 1 is about protecting reproductive freedoms in the state, such as abortion, birth control, and IVF, which has been under attack across the country. Ballot Proposals 2 through 6 reflect the battle between the City Council and the tenuous Mayor Eric Adams administration, which began in May when Speaker Adrienne Adams introduced the advice-andconsent law. The law allowed for City Council approval over Adams’s city commissioner appointments. Shortly after the law’s introduction, Adams convened a Charter Revision Commission (CRC) to change the city’s constitution and added the proposals in spite of massive backlash.
THERE WILL BE SIX PROPOSALS ON THE BACK OF VOTER BALLOTS THIS YEAR, SOME OF WHICH ARE HOTLY DEBATED. BALLOT PROPOSAL 1 IS ABOUT PROTECTING REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOMS IN THE STATE, SUCH AS ABORTION, BIRTH CONTROL, AND IVF, WHICH HAS BEEN UNDER ATTACK ACROSS THE COUNTRY.
The state constitution version of the ERA prohibits discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, origin, age, disability, and sex. This ballot adds sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, and pregnancy outcomes. It would also protect those who seek access to reproductive healthcare and abortion from discrimination.
BALLOT PROPOSAL 2
CLEANING PUBLIC PROPERTY
BALLOT PROPOSAL 3
THE COST OF PROPOSED LAWS AND UPDATES TO BUDGET DEADLINES
BALLOT PROPOSAL 4
MORE NOTICE AND TIME BEFORE VOTES ON PUBLIC SAFETY LEGISLATION
BALLOT PROPOSAL 5
CAPITAL PLANNING
BALLOT PROPOSAL 6
MINORITY AND WOMEN-OWNED BUSINESS ENTERPRISES (MWBES)
The Department of Sanitation (DSNY) would have increased authority over all city property, parks, highway medians, and street vendors.
The City Council would have to provide cost estimates of proposed laws before voting on them and notify the mayor’s office before holding public hearings or votes on proposed laws. This proposal would also permanently extend the deadline for the mayor to publish the annual city budget.
The City Council would have to give 30 days’ notice before voting on public safety laws. The mayor and affected city agencies could also hold public hearings during this time.
The city must assess the cost of maintaining city facilities, infrastructure, and investments, and publish these assessments in capital planning reports.
The proposal would create a new role to support MWBEs, allow the mayor to designate which agency issues film permits, and merge two boards that manage city records into one.
NYC libraries champion digital fluency
By LEAH MALLORY Special to the AmNews
While technology continues to evolve, transforming how we go about our daily lives, one institution remains steadfast throughout it all: the library.
Widely recognized as centers of knowledge consumption, the traditionally book-lined institutions are increasingly filled with more computers, tablets, and projectors, becoming hubs for digital access.
“Everything is about computers right now, so it’s very helpful,” says 47-yearold library patron Luis M. “And people don’t have money—you have to pay for it, [but] this is free.”
Luis is referring to the TechConnect classes provided by the New York Public Library (NYPL) system. Just last week, he participated in his first Microsoft Excel lesson, at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL), where he learned the basics of the program. He said that without the library, he doubts he would have managed to learn the software on his own.
“I want to get a little more [smarter] about computers, and I think this is a good way to—the library is excellent,” he said.
The NYPL system, which encompasses 88 neighborhood branches throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island, offers a variety of resources and activities, including educational classes, community events, and exhibitions. Their TechConnect classes, offered several times a week, both online and in person, allow adult patrons to develop computer skills. With more than 100 technology classes available at no cost, the program attracts people from all walks of life.
“I would say that our demographic profile is pretty varied, so either it reflects the community that we’re teaching in at that moment [or] if it’s online, we literally have all five boroughs, pretty much, so I’ve had such a wide variety in my classes,” said NYPL instructor Richard Jones.
Data indicates that communities of color are among the hardest hit by the digital divide.
According to a 2021 study by the Urban Institute, Black and Hispanic youth exhibit lower digital skill levels than their white counterparts. Black youth are three times more likely than white youth to have no or limited independent digital skills, while Hispanic youth are nearly twice as likely as white youth to lack these skills.
A 2021 Pew Research Center survey found that Black (69 percent) and Hispanic (67 percent) adults were less likely to report owning a desktop or laptop computer than white adults (80 percent). Black and Hispanic adults
were also less likely to report having high-speed internet at home than white adults.
Although only a glimpse into the larger issue, institutions like the NYPL actively bridge the gap with their inclusive, student-centered approaches to technology.
“We try to meet patrons where they’re at,” said TJ Woods, associate director of Technology Training Programs at the
NYPL. She said instructors are trained in their soft skills and outlined the various classes and resources available to meet the varying technological needs of patrons.
“We have classes that focus on digital literacy basics—[for] people [who] are just interested in engaging with the technology,” she said. “We also try to move people toward more advanced programs if they’re interested in that.”
She mentioned a recording studio available to visitors at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation library for recording podcasts or similar projects: “Maybe they even want to lay down a track. It’s their dream to create music in New York, but it’s prohibitively expensive. They can record in our studio and use the software outside of our studio to continue editing and producing stuff.”
Jones has been with the NYPL for five years, starting as a librarian before becoming manager of the TechConnect team and an instructor. He develops the Office Readiness Series curriculum, a 12-week program focused on the Microsoft Office suite. Participants receive a certification upon completion.
He said they strive to tailor their programming to the goals and intentions of each student, whether “they are looking for jobs [or] they are just trying to upskill for their own personal benefit.”
Jones said he has had people graduate from the [Office Readiness Series] and immediately use those skills to get employment. “I’ve also had people graduate or take the course, and they were taking it purely to benefit themselves, develop their own tech skills, [and] develop their own digital literacy. A lot of them use it for communications with their families, creating photo albums in PowerPoint, writing letters, and doing things like that.”
Jones said the NYPL also makes a concerted effort to make the program available to patrons whose first language isn’t English, further ensuring equitable access to these digital tools.
“We also do try to hire instructors who are multilingual,” Jones said. “Those instructors don’t just teach— they also help translate our materials. When we can’t have them translate materials, or if we don’t have an instructor who speaks the language of one of our students, then we will pay externals and outsource so that we can get those materials translated.”
Beyond the Office Readiness Series, the library also provides one-on-one open computer lab sessions, coding lessons, digital design classes, and more, catering to individuals of all skill levels. When it comes to bridging the digital divide, libraries are undervalued champions of equity, providing tools to communities in places that may otherwise be inaccessible.
“Always promote and support libraries in your local community,” said Jones. “We are here for you. We are a space of access, and access is not determined by privilege. It’s access for everybody.”
This story is part of the Digital Equity Local Voices Fellowship lab. The lab initiative is made possible with support from Comcast NBCUniversal.
Black and Hispanic adults in U.S. are less likely than white adults to have traditional computer, home broadband (Chart from Pew Research Center)
NCNW strategy focuses on expansion and voter turnout
By KAYLYN KENDALL DINES Special to the AmNews
If you think you know the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), look again. Rev. Shavon Arline-Bradley, the first NCNW leader to hold the title of president and CEO, believes this “organization of organizations” is uniquely positioned to have an impact on voter turnout.
Arline-Bradley said she is honored to carry on the legacy of an organization that was founded in 1935 by iconic leaders: the late Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, an influential educator and activist, and the late Dr. Dorothy Height, who was NCNW’s president for more than 50 years.
The 61st NCNW National Convention, with the theme “Our Voice. Our Power. Together, Our Future,” is taking place this week in Baltimore, Md. Founders will be honored, and topics will include recognizing the NCNW’s accomplishments; global plans for expansion; and the NCNW’s Eight-State/All-State Strategy for voter mobilization.
Arline-Bradley, 46, is clear about her purpose-driven assignment, and emphasized that engaging college and high school students is essential, “I want NCNW to be a relevant, solvent institution forever. My job is to create the kind of infrastructure to do that.”
The NCNW comprises members, associates, affiliate organizations, and partner organizations. With more than 350 sections and 37 national Black women’s organization affiliates, the NCNW reaches 2 million women and men.
The range of “NCNW Priorities” includes education, entrepreneurship, financial litera-
cy, economic stability, health and healthcare access, civic engagement, and advocacy for public policy and social justice issues.
The group is also poised for growth. Arline-Bradley is leading an international expansion plan to establish charters in Africa and Caribbean next year. “We were the first Black American organization to have an NGO status with the United Nations,” Arline-Bradley said. “After that was Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Now, we’re expanding the global conversation because there is a desire for many women across the waters who are interested in making sure their issues are known…We have a lot of interest in Senegal, Jamaica, Bermuda, and the Bahamas.”
As the NCNW’s footprint expands, efforts to mobilize citizens in the United States are underway during this presidential election season. The NCNW Eight-State/All-State Strategy was created to increase voter turnout when compared to the presidential election in 2020.
The plan targets eight states: Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. A second tier of states includes Arizona, California, Colorado, Maryland, Nevada, New York, and Wisconsin.
A toolkit helps members, affiliates, and associates across the country mobilize and engage with Black women and voters between ages 17 and 24. According to ArlineBradley, when the strategy was created, there was a focus on battleground states, the electoral college, and geographic locations where the NCNW has a strong membership and could engage, including New York, which is a tier-two state in the NCNW’s plan.
“We are nonpartisan, but we’re very politically astute and factual about the way the map lands,” she said. “If a Black woman is to be the president of the United States, carrying New York is a basic requirement.”
“We are nonpartisan, but we’re very politically astute and factual about the way the map lands,” she said. “If a Black woman is to be the president of the United States, carrying New York is a basic requirement. It does not pan as a battleground, but it is a battle area because New York represents the country. It’s rural, it’s urban, it’s suburban, it’s progressive, it’s conservative, it’s moderate,” added, who believes New Yorkers have a great opportunity to collaborate with affiliate partners and identify high schools where seniors could be encouraged cast their vote of choice according to the rules by state.
In addition to voter registration, the NCNW plan is about helping people understand their right to take up space in a democracy during this historic moment.
“As nonpartisan as we are, it is also to talk about the history and the historical moment that we’re in,” Arline-Bradley said. “Kamala Harris a member of the NCNW. She is a member of two of our national affiliates, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and the Links, Inc. Kamala is Black. I want the world to know that she’s a proud graduate of Howard University.
“I’m blown away by the energy that I’m seeing. I’m also disheartened by a lot of the rhetoric that I’ve seen, and some of it comes
from our own community. Let NCNW be a place of information, of clarity, of debunking myths [so] sisters and brothers across this country can know there is a seat at the table for Black women.”
She credits NCNW’s team for the progressive shifts that are occurring within the organization, and through the Bethune-Height Changemaker Pathways program, a leadership development initiative for college students from both Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and PWIs (predominantly white institutions).
With the first cohort in progress, ArlineBradley said, “If NCNW is going to live, it’s going to live because we invested in young women…but I cannot be more proud to have brought that vision in and that vision is actually coming to pass.”
Arline-Bradley, who is a wife and mother, added that “NCNW is ready. NCNW is a place where every Black woman has a seat at a table. No, we’re not perfect. We’re an organization that’s almost 90 years old, with the only Black-owned, women-owned building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. We want to be the place that Black women find not only safe, but also…see themselves as valued and a part of a solution.”
For more info, visit www.ncnw.org.
Shavon Arline-Bradley, MPH, MDiv, president and CEO of National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) (Contributed photo)
Union Matters
We must reject the politics of division and embrace the politics of solidarity
What happens on Election Day, Nov. 5, won’t just determine the next four years. It will, truly, set the course of our nation for the next four decades. And as we get closer each day, the rhetoric coming from MAGA Republicans grows more and more extreme, as they double-down on the most divisive, xenophobic fearmongering they can muster. It’s the same strategy carried out time and again from authoritarian figures throughout history: the scapegoating of people of color, immigrants, Jews, Muslims, Catholics, Irish, the LGBTQ+ community, and so on. All are deliberate attempts to divide working people against our common interests. Most recently, we’ve seen vile attacks and lies spread about our Haitian immigrant communities, especially in Springfield, Ohio. We’ve witnessed Asian Americans falsely blamed for the COVID-19 pandemic. Central and Latin American refugees and asylum-seekers are regularly — and wrongly — accused of causing crime and taking jobs, when the actual data shows that this is simply false. Let’s be truthful: working-class people in this country aren’t the perpetrators of our nation’s economic problems, we are the victims. Do you know what the greatest form of theft is in the U.S.? It’s not retail theft. It’s not bank robberies, home burglaries, or car theft. It’s wage theft perpetuated by employers against their employees — some $50 billion per year, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
And in the Republican candidate for president, we have someone who proudly claimed just a couple weeks ago that as a business owner, he routinely schemed to avoid paying overtime to his workers (to say nothing of his many other criminal transgressions).
In Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, by contrast, we have the opposite kind of leaders. Leaders who seek to bring us together across our differences, rather than tearing us apart. Leaders who value the immense contributions of immigrants to our nation. Leaders who put working- and middle-class families ahead of the billionaire and corporate interests who seek to take away our hard-earned wages, rights, and freedoms. It is all too easy to want to cling to simple explanations of why the cost of living is too high, why healthcare, housing, and education are too expensive, and why wages aren’t growing as they should. Blaming marginalized people who don’t have the power and resources to fight back is no solution; we must not fall for this trap.
As working people, our similarities far outweigh our differences. We all want the best lives for our families. And rather than fighting among each other for a shrinking piece of the pie, we need to unite together to demand a bigger slice. That’s what this election is about, and why the healthcare workers of 1199SEIU are joining together in solidarity, rejecting the politics of hate and division, and doing all they can to win victory in the presidential race and beyond. Early voting in New York starts on Oct. 26. Let’s get ready.
George Gresham is the President of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, the largest union of healthcare workers in the nation.
Labor movement mourns the passing of William “Bill” Lucy
By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff
Labor and civil rights activists have remembered union leader William “Bill” Lucy, after it was announced that he passed away at 90 years old on Sept. 25, 2024.
Lucy helped organize the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike. He was the author of the famous “I Am a Man” phrase laborers carried on placards as they demanded recognition of their often-dangerous work.
In 1972, Lucy co-founded the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) and served as the social justice-oriented organization’s first president. Lucy also co-founded the Free South Africa Movement (FSAM) in 1984, served as secretarytreasurer of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) for 38 years, and he was the first African American president of Public Services International (PSI), an organization he helped push to form closer relations with Latin American and African countries.
“Bill Lucy has been the North Star
of the labor movement for more than five decades,” CBTU noted as it marked Lucy’s passing. “So many, including CBTU leaders across the country, have stood on his shoulders to reach their dreams.”
Lucy’s public viewing will take place at the Metropolitan A.M.E. Church, 1518 M Street, NW, in
Washington D.C., on Oct. 15 from noon to 8 p.m. Lucy’s homegoing service will be held on Oct. 16, beginning 11 a.m. and will also take place at Metropolitan A.M.E., Rev. William J. Barber is scheduled to deliver the eulogy. The homegoing service will be live-streamed on lucy90.com.
Longshoremen strike ends with gains for labor’s strength
By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff
The abrupt pause of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) strike has been welcomed throughout the U.S. economy.
On Oct. 3 –– just three days after it started –– the ILA strike was officially suspended and a tentative agreement was reached.
The ILA and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), the organization that represents shipping companies and port authorities, said in a statement that they had “reached a tentative agreement on wages and agreed to extend the Master Contract until January 15, 2025…”
Both parties were set to return to bargaining to settle their remaining issues. ILA workers had stated they were mainly concerned about the threats of automation and the small wage increases USMX was proposing.
The tentative agreement would reportedly grant a 62% increase to ILA workers’ wages. USMX was originally offering a 50% wage increase, while the union had been demanding a 77% increase.
Regarding the threats of automation, the ILA is one of the few unions with actual power: They have a monopoly on off-loading containers at ports around the country. But their jobs are threatened by automation.
ILA members run the giant cranes that move containers from ship to truck, or truck to ship. They sit 100 feet above the docks and peer through a window at their feet to position cranes for pickup. Efforts to automate dockworker jobs include the use of self-driving trucks, trains, and container equipment tools.
The Biden-Harris administration said it was urging both sides to continue talking and come to an agreement as the strike progressed. Once the strike ended, President Biden
said in a statement, “I congratulate the dockworkers from the ILA, who deserve a strong contract after sacrificing so much to keep our ports open during the pandemic. And I applaud the port operators and carriers who are members of the US Maritime Alliance for working hard and putting a strong offer on the table. “I want to thank the union workers, the carriers, and the port operators for acting patriotically to reopen our ports and ensure the availability of critical supplies for Hurricane Helene recovery and rebuilding. Collective bargaining works, and it is critical to building a stronger economy from the middle out and the bottom up.”
The ILA strike was another test of labor’s power in the U.S. economy and showed that by banding together and showing they could unite for a common purpose, laborers can demand certain changes to their working conditions.
GEORGE GRESHAM
Trade union leader William “Bill” Lucy was honored by those attending the recent African American Clergy and Elected Officials (AACEO) meeting on Friday, Oct. 4 at Brooklyn’s Antioch Baptist Church. (Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office photo)
Title VI: Jawboning the sleeping giant
Thanks to a recent article by Johnathan Smith in “Poverty & Race,” a publication under the aegis of PRRAC (Poverty & Race Research Action Council), we are reminded that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is now 60 years old. Smith’s focus on this landmark edict is on Title VI that declares that recipients of federal financial assistance cannot discriminate based on race, color or national origin.
Title VI, among several others discussed by Smith, is often referred to as the “Sleeping Giant,” that is, the unutilized potential of the ruling. “For decades, many civil rights advocates, especially in the environmental justice movement, have demanded that the federal government use Title VI more aggressively to address the discrimination and pollution impacting frontline communities and other communities that are most directly impacted by environmental harms,” Smith writes. He then notes that in the aftermath of the killing of Michael Brown, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, Title VI should have been utilized to hold law enforcement agencies accountable and withhold “funding from agencies involved in such conduct.”
The recent wave of protests on the nation’s campuses has also made Title VI a primary legal instrument, and another reason to awaken the Sleeping Giant. However, as Evelyn Douek and Genevieve Lakier of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University observe, the application of Title VI and how university administrators should respond to protests on campuses like the one that engulfed Columbia “is a difficult and contested question.”
“The Department of Education (DOE), which enforces Title VI, has made clear in its recent guidance that
Department of Probation takes innovative approach to reducing recidivism and enhancing safety in NYC
By JUANITA N. HOLMES
It’s been a little more than a year since I was appointed by Mayor Adams as commissioner for the New York City Department of Probation (DOP) and, in that time, I’ve attempted to bring transformational change to the agency. As a 30-plus-year veteran of the New York Police Department (NYPD), I have always sought out pathways to improve the department while making our communities safer. Since taking charge of the Department of Probation, I’ve focused on reducing reoffending rates and revitalizing an agency that has launched innovative practices over the years but has also been burdened by decadesold, outmoded policies, flawed data, and inefficiencies.
Undertaking change in any city agency, particularly in law enforcement, demands vision and the willingness to make hard decisions and take flak from those who want to preserve past practices that weren’t working. Launching an ambitious agenda that includes organizational restructuring, optimizing programs, and enhancing operational efficiencies is difficult.
Our goal is to align the DOP resources with its mission to break the cycle of recidivism — ending this cycle is not only important to our department, but is key to improving public safety across New York City.
The foundation of this transformation is a relentless focus on building momentum throughout the entire agency. This is not just about setting new goals; it’s about improving how the organization functions at every level, beyond surface-level improvements.
As I learned as the NYPD’s Chief of Training, supporting and training staff better and providing effective programs all contribute to improved community safety.
At the department, we’ve started to do this by embracing technological improvements and streamlining processes, which have already reduced inflated expenses and manual errors while optimizing workflows.
We’ve also worked steadfastly to improve case management and accelerate case resolution to better serve our thousands of clients. The department has expanded job training and support services to boost reintegration success.
For example, through our Neighborhood Opportunity Network (NeON), which helps connect clients with opportunities and resources, we helped launch the Big Russ Barber Training Program this past summer, in partnership with the Osborne Association. The program aims to support aspiring barbers in earning licenses and provides opportunities to enroll in a Master Barber License program, offering both 12-month and 24month options beginning in the fall. Participants also have the opportunity to earn an average
and initiatives––and our transformation of the DOP––is the recognition that no single entity can solve the problem of recidivism alone. I have actively sought new vendors and partners for additional resources to bolster the agency’s efforts. These collaborations are not just add-ons; they are integral to the agency’s strategy, providing fresh perspectives and tools critical to achieving the desired outcomes. This inclusive approach ensures that everyone is part of the solution, including other city agencies, such as the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD), and Department of Education (DOE). The DOP knows that better rehabilitation and re-entry must be achieved holistically and collaboratively; there is no one solution.
of $80,000 per year after completion of training.
Recently, we reached a milestone with more than 1,000 clients who have gone through our various NeON Works job training programs. We’ve accomplished this through targeted community engagement, increased outreach, and collaboration with local organizations.
Another promising effort we spearhead, the NeON Cooks program, is a unique and empowering initiative that equips participants with essential culinary skills and provides them with valuable certifications to advance their careers. Through this program, participants— particularly our clients—receive comprehensive training and, upon completion, earn a food pantry certification, qualifying them to work in community food pantries. In addition to this, our dedicated facilitators will guide the next cohort of participants as they work toward obtaining their food handler certifications this fall. Driving all of these programs
To date, our approach is beginning to bear fruit—we’ve seen a 17% increase in clients who qualified for early discharge from probation from 2022 to 2023. However, the ultimate goal remains crystal clear: Build a stronger, more effective organization that makes a meaningful difference in the lives of those we serve. That’s why we’ve grown our mentorship and family support services to help strengthen our clients’ reintegration into the communities they live in. We have also increased funding and facilities for treatment and counseling services. All of these efforts are focused on reducing recidivism. This is not just a target on a strategic plan—it is the heart of our mission, and I am resolute about accomplishing it. The stakes are high, but so are the rewards of reducing recidivism, successfully moving individuals out of the criminal justice system, and restoring faith in an agency that is critical in creating a safer New York City. Ultimately, that makes this journey worth every hard decision along the way.
Juanita N. Holmes is the New York City Department of Probation commissioner.
Elinor R. Tatum: Publisher and Editor in Chief
Damaso Reyes: Executive & Investigative Editor
Kristin Fayne-Mulroy: Managing Editor
Aaron Foley: News Editor
Josh Barker: Digital Editor
Commissioner Holmes
Stop lying, Trump didn’t solve Black unemployment
By KEITH BOYKIN Word In Black
“Black Vote, Black Power,” a collaboration between Keith Boykin and Word In Black, examines the issues, the candidates, and what’s at stake for Black America in the 2024 presidential election.
The new Black unemployment numbers came out today, and it’s a sign of good news for Black Americans.
Four years ago, when Trump was president, the Black unemployment rate was 11.9%. Today, the Labor Department reported it’s 5.7%. That’s a 52% drop in Black unemployment in the last four years.
While Trump tries to scare voters with lies about immigrants taking “Black jobs,” the truth is that 2.5 million more Black Americans have jobs than four years ago, and last year we had the lowest Black unemployment rate in history: 4.8%.
Even more impressive, last year was the first year on record when Black unemployment never rose above 6% at any point during the year. And despite all the talk of leaving Black men behind, the unemployment rate for Black men dropped to 5.1% in September, the first time in a long time when it’s been lower than Black women’s unemployment, which landed at 5.3%.
That’s remarkable.
Under Biden and Harris, the economy has now added 16.2 million new jobs. Some will complain that the comparison with Trump is unfair because his numbers were skewed by the COVID19 crisis.
Yes, COVID did affect the economy for Trump, but it also caused supply chain shortages, labor market disruptions, and demand surges that affected inflation for Biden. You can’t blame Biden for COVID-related economic problems of inflation and not blame Trump for the COVID-related economic problems of unemployment. The president’s job is to handle crises, and Trump failed to handle the COVID-19 crisis. Biden, on the other hand, passed the Inflation Reduction Act, and inflation dropped back down to 2.5%.
When Trump came into office, he inherited a thriving economy from President Obama and made things worse.
When Biden and Harris came into office, they inherited a failing economy from Donald Trump and fixed it.
Every single Republican in Congress voted against those checks
Contrary to Republican talking points, the economy didn’t just rebound when Biden and Harris took office because the pre-COVID-19 jobs magically came back. It grew because the federal government took active steps, like the American Rescue Plan that Joe Biden signed in March 2021. That law saved the economy from collapse and provided $1,400 stimulus checks to ordinary Americans.
Every single Republican in Congress voted against those checks — and every other part of the law. But they took credit for it anyway after they saw its positive effects.
That’s the way Republicans fool you. They take credit for anything good with the economy and then they blame Democrats for anything bad.
It’s even worse with Trump. He calls any information that’s not good for him “fake news.” And any information that is good for him is completely true — and it’s all because of him.
When Trump first ran for office in 2016 and Black unemployment was going down, he said the numbers were all “phony” and rigged by the government.
But as soon as he got in office, Trump turned around and took credit for Obama’s Black unemployment record and said the numbers were no longer rigged.
“They may have been phony in the past, but it’s very real now,” Trump’s former press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters.
Ha ha ha. We lied. Very funny. Whether it’s poll numbers, election results, crowd size, or unemployment numbers, Trump just creates his own reality.
The Trump White House even created a new term to justify their gaslighting lies. They called it “alternative facts.”
It turns out that Republicans are really good at marketing. But not so good for the economy.
Bill Clinton made this point at his Democratic Convention speech in August. “Since the end of the Cold
War in 1989, America has created about 51 million new jobs,” he said. Democrats created 50 million of those jobs and Republicans only created 1 million. Fact checkers verified it was true.
Clinton inherited a recession from Bush and dug us out of it. Obama inherited the worst recession since the Great Depression from the Second Bush and did the same. And Biden inherited an economic collapse from Trump, who mismanaged the COVID crisis, and the Biden-Harris administration had to dig us out of it too.
When Trump was president, we lost 2.7 million jobs in four years. Under Biden and Harris, the economy has now added 16.2 million new jobs.
In fact, the worst Black unemployment recorded was 21.2% under Republican president Ronald Reagan. And the best Black unemployment rate in history was 4.8% under Democratic President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Republicans want you to forget that history. They want to pretend that Donald Trump is a successful businessman who can make “America Great Again.” But Donald Trump is just a savvy salesman, who is willing to sell mugshots, Bibles, sneakers, NFTs, watches, and himself to the next sucker in line.
Why would you trust a guy who inherited $400 million from his daddy, lost it all, and filed bankruptcy six times?
Look at his record: Trump Casinos went bankrupt. Trump’s USFL Football Team collapsed. Trump Airlines failed. Trump Magazine failed. Trump Steaks failed. Trump Vodka failed. Trump Mortgage failed. Trump University went out of business for fraud, as did the Trump Foundation. Even his new business, Trump Media, has lost two-thirds of its value in the past six months.
The bottom line is that Donald Trump is a fraud. He’s not good for America. And he’s not good for Black America.
Keith Boykin is a New York Times–bestselling author, TV and film producer, and former CNN political commentator. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School, Keith served in the White House, co-founded the National Black Justice Coalition, co-hosted the BET talk show “My Two Cents,” and taught at the Institute for Research in AfricanAmerican Studies at Columbia University in New York.
Climate change is real
The more I think about the damage and destruction of Hurricane Helene, the more I am convinced that the threat of climate change is urgent. Every hurricane season, Americans are left to wonder which town or community will be affected or even leveled. Every hurricane season, we see pictures of devastation in the Caribbean where entire towns are washed away or destroyed beyond repair. I do not know what it will take to get people to wake up to the very real and present dangers we face. Unfortunately, if we do not act soon, we will reach a point where the damage done is irreversible and we will live on an increasingly hot planet with very little recourse.
If you have seen pictures from Helene, the most recent hurricane to touch down in the U.S., you will notice something slightly unusual. Hurricane Helene did not stick to the eastern seaboard. This particular hurricane moved inland to the western part of North Carolina and destroyed towns that have rarely, if ever, seen this type of natural disaster. Certain parts of the country are known hurricane zones and more prone to natural disasters, extreme weather, flooding, and devastation from nature than other areas, but this one demonstrated what very well could be the new normal: hurricanes touching down across a state and affecting communities far from the coastline. What does a country do if it is consistently addressing flash flooding, hurricanes, tornados, forest fires, droughts, extreme blizzards, and other catastrophic events? The United States is an incredibly large
country geographically, and the needs of its citizenry are vast. What does a nation do if it elects a party that wishes to defund the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) and other institutions and agencies that provide emergency services? As we think about participating (or abstaining) in elections, we must think about leadership in a multi-layered view. We cannot only think about voting for the presidency. We must think clearly and critically about how our governor and other elected leaders will act in a crisis.
What can we do to mitigate some of the dangers of climate change? We can begin to think seriously about decreasing our carbon footprints, recycling more, reducing our energy usage, and educating ourselves about the major and minor ways we can do our part. We can also put serious pressure on our elected officials to make climate change a priority in their various agendas. Jobs and the economy are often the primary focus of political debates, but I would argue that a safe and healthy environment is good for business in the short and long terms.
I implore you to read about climate change. I find www.earth.org to be a great resource, providing lists of books that address climate change, conservation, pollution, energy, and more. The time is now. We must act before the damage is irreversible.
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.
CHRISTINA GREER, PH.D.
(ALTEREDSNAPS photo via Pexels)
Caribbean Update
Haiti begs for help as gangs slaughter the innocent
By BERT WILKINSON Special to AmNews
Haitian interim Prime Minister
Garry Conille is on his way to Africa and the Middle East to beg for help with improving security back home in the wake of the weekend gang slaying of 70 people in the western agricultural region of Artibonite, police have reported.
Conille is targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kenya, which have been leading a fledgling international and multinational security mission on the ground in Haiti for the past year, trying to beat back heavily armed gangs that have been dominating life in the capital, killing police officers and civilians, controlling key areas, and disrupting economic life, while terrorizing citizens.
The visit to Nairobi comes just weeks after Kenyan President William Ruto visited the Caribbean Community (Caricom) nation while on his way to the United Nations General Assembly to inspect the initial batch of 400 police officers on the ground and prepare for
two more batches, totataling 1,000, expected to arrive before year’s end.
“Our next batch—another 600— is undergoing redeployment training,” a smiling Ruto had said. “We will be ready for the mission in a few weeks and look forward to the necessary support to enable their deployment. There are many people who thought Haiti was an impossible mission, but today they have
changed their minds because of the progress you have made.”
However, Conille thinks that the situation is so dire back home that he wants to push the Kenyans to bring the arrival date of the next two batches forward as soon as possible. “One of the aims of this trip is to go to Kenya to discuss with President Ruto how we can speed up the deployment…of the
Kenyan troops as quickly as possible to continue supporting the national police force,” Conille told local and international media.
The UN recently voted to extend the presence of the force for another year, even as the Central American nation of Guatemala has said it is preparing to send 150 soldiers to join the Kenyans and those from Caribbean nations like the Bahamas and Jamaica on the island. Barbados, Suriname, and a few others have pledged to add to the numbers in the coming months.
On the UAE visit, Conille said he is looking for financial and other help to beat back the violent armed gangs that have been on the rampage ever since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise by mercenaries.
Even as Conille does his shuttle diplomacy, though, trouble is brewing among the nine-person interim administration that regional and western governments had helped to establish earlier this year. Three of its key members are embroiled in a major corruption scandal and could face criminal charges in the coming
weeks. The local anti-corruption unit has called for charges against Louis Gérald Gilles, Emmanuel Vertilaire, and Smith Augusti. They are accused of demanding a $750,000 bribe from state commercial bank manager Raoul Pascal Pierre-Louis for him to keep his job at National Bank of Credit.
Pierre-Louis had complained about the issue to Conille, but was fired for doing so. It is unclear if and when the three will be asked to step down as interim cabinet ministers, since there is every indication that criminal charges will flow.
Additional details provided by the unit seem to show that the four had a special relationship; the manager had allegedly breached bank rules by approving credit cards with limits of up to $20,000. This is reportedly only done by directors. “These cards were issued under the direct instruction of Pierre-Louis, bypassing the board of directors. By accepting Pierre-Louis’ offer, the councilors abused their positions and engaged in bribery, violating Articles 5.5, 14, and 21 of the 2014 anti-corruption law,” the body said.
JD Vance shifts from pet-eating immigrant rhetoric to blaming them for housing crisis
Senator JD Vance of Ohio, the Republican vice presidential pick for the 2024 election, left all talk of Haitians eating cats, dogs, and other pets in Springfield, Ohio, in the CBS vice presidential debate on October 1, and marched right on down “scapegoating alley” to blaming immigrants for yet another ill; this time, the U.S. housing crisis.
“Look, in Springfield, Ohio, and in communities all across this country, you’ve got schools that are overwhelmed, you’ve got hospitals that are overwhelmed, you have got housing that is totally unaffordable because we brought in millions of illegal immigrants to compete with Americans for scarce homes,” Vance said, according to a CBS News transcript after the October 1 debate.
The senator’s rhetoric, like that of his presidential running mate, paints immigrants as the prima-
ry culprit for everything wrong in America—including the nation’s housing struggles. But does his argument hold any water?
Chris Herbert, managing director of Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, noted that while immigrants do contribute to overall housing demand, they cannot be blamed for the surge in housing costs that began in 2020. He pointed out that the pandemic, not immigration, was the primary driver of skyrocketing home prices and rents.
“When immigration reached its lowest levels in decades due to the pandemic, housing prices still surged,” Herbert said in a statement. “And when immigration began to pick up again in 2022 and 2023, the growth in home prices and rents actually slowed down.”
Even conservative think tanks like the Cato Institute, while acknowledging that immigrants increase housing demand, admit that most of the economic benefits from this growth flow to native-born Americans. In fact, Cato noted that im-
migrants are a critical part of the construction workforce, helping to increase the housing supply and ease market pressures.
Historically, immigrants have revitalized under-used or depopulated areas rather than competing directly for housing with nativeborn residents. Sharon Cornelissen, housing director for the Consumer Federation of America, pointed to immigrant communities that helped breathe life back into New York City and Los Angeles during the 1970s and 1980s after decades of urban decay. Similarly, Middle Eastern immigrants were key to revitalizing cities near Detroit like Dearborn and Hamtramck. Springfield, which has become a battleground in the national immigration debate, has experienced some revitalization along with a housing strain. According to City Manager Bryan Heck, while the city’s Haitian population has grown significantly in recent years, contributing to housing shortages, those problems predate the latest wave of immigrants. Without fed-
eral support, he said, cities like Springfield are simply not equipped to handle the housing demands of all residents.
“Despite 2,000 additional housing units set to come online over the next three to five years, this is still not enough,” Heck said, calling for more federal aid to help alleviate the housing crisis.
If Vance truly cares about solving the housing crisis in his state and the nation, he would do well to stop vilifying immigrants, start listening to the experts, and help come up with a real plan to tackle this national crisis. As even the Cato Institute admitted, immigrants are vital to the construction industry, which is essential to increasing the housing supply. Deporting them or halting future immigration would only exacerbate the problem.
Instead, Vance has introduced not a single bill on this issue that he claims is so very important. What he has spent most of his time doing since getting to Congress is to focus most of his time on attacking a woman’s right to choose with a bill about
prohibiting “discrimination by abortion against an unborn child on the basis of Down syndrome,” improving “the reporting of abortion data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” and prohibiting “the government of the District of Columbia from using federal funds to allow individuals who are not citizens of the United States to vote in any election, and for other purposes.”
Non-citizens cannot vote in elections, so this is a foolish bill and shows the ignorance of Vance. Much like his claim that the current VP can somehow solve all the current crises, including those left by his running mate and former President. Where are the houses Trump built for the middle class?
In the Vance game of pretending to care about “all Americans,” scapegoating, of course, always delivers the perfect illusion.
Felicia J. Persaud is the publisher of NewsAmericasNow.com, a daily news outlet focused on positive news about Black immigrant communities from the Caribbean and Latin America.
Doctors treat man at Saint Nicolas hospital in Saint-Marc, Haiti, who was shot and wounded during armed gang attacks, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
A Look at 7th Annual Africa Open for Business Summit during General Assembly
By JASON PONTEROTTO
Special to the AmNews
Hundreds gathered for the 7th annual Africa Open for Business Summit during the General Assembly of the United Nations, hosted by Djibril Diallo, president of the African Renaissance and Diaspora Network.
Held in the Trusteeship Council Chamber of the UN, this was the largest side event for Africans, convening older and younger leaders across the diaspora for dialogue about a host of topics.
At the start of the summit, Diallo asked attendees to stand and hold up their red cards
as a show of solidarity with the mission of protecting women and girls from discrimination and violence.
In an interview with the Amsterdam News, Diallo said the mission has two main objectives: “One, to reinforce the global movement against gender-based violence; number two, to have what we call ‘positive masculinity’...men as partners in the struggle for gender equality.”
During the three-hour summit, participants discussed tourism and economic development in Africa, and bridging the gap with African Americans.
Curtis Smith, a representative with the
See SUMMIT on page 31
How afrobeats, Nollywood, diaspora leaders are redefining Africa’s global image
By EDEN HARRIS Special to the AmNews
For many years, Africans in the U.S. have experienced ongoing disadvantages from negative narratives and have often been treated like they are incompetent.
A United Nations General Assembly report from the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent says these stereotypes perpetuate racially biased decision-making and continue to “harm people of African descent.”
The news media’s portrayal of poverty and an inadequate education system has shaped the perception of Africans among Americans and the global community. These portrayals have resulted in Africans being passed over for opportunities.
Bobby Digi, a Nigerian American and president of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organization New York chapter, knows this story too well. He said he was passed over for a job “back-to-back” even after training the individuals who were promoted instead of him.
“I trained him. He came on, and after maybe six or seven months, he was promoted. Imagine you train someone ... and you’re the one always available when your boss needs someone to step in for someone that’s not able to make it; you’ve done everything right, and then you get passed [over],” Digi told the New York Amsterdam News.
Digi said the narrative around Africa has
skewed America’s perception as well as the world’s view of their intellectual capabilities.
“For a very long time, people questioned your level of intelligence just because [American institutions] think you are subpar because your [African] education system can’t compete… And that actually isn’t true,” Digi said, reflecting on how the academically challenging African education system can be compared to schools in America. However, one thing changing the narrative of Africans and the continent is the
See AFROBEATS on page 31
BECAUSE THE GROUND FLOOR IS JUST THE BEGINNING.
Eric Adams Mayor
Patoranking performing on September 26, 2024, at the Apollo Theatre (Eden Harris photo)
Attendees at Africa Open for Business Summit holding hands as they listen to host Dr. Djibril Diallo in Trusteeship Council Chamber at United Nations Headquarters, Sept. 27, 2024 (Photo by Jason Ponterotto)
Ten Tips to Keep Your Business Cybersafe
A cybersecurity breach can present significant threats to your business. No matter the size of your organization, it’s important to take cybersecurity seriously. Your data is your company’s most important asset, and you need to keep your digital operations safe. Most businesses also rely on external partners and vendors, which can introduce cybersecurity risks that must be carefully managed.
Whether you’re a seasoned business leader or just beginning to prioritize cybersecurity measures within your organization, it’s important to equip your company with the knowledge and tools necessary to enhance cyberreadiness. These tips and best practices may help protect your organization in an ever-evolving threat landscape.
1) Create guidelines to access your data
Businesses should develop protocols for responsible use of technology resources within their organization. Users should only have access to the data they need to do their jobs, and should avoid accessing, sharing or disclosing sensitive information without proper authorization.
2) Keep an eye on your data
Internal control best practices can include classifying data based on sensitivity (e.g., public, internal, confidential), regular auditing and monitoring, employee training, building an incident response plan, completing data backup and recovery, instituting third-party vendor assessments, making regular updates and disposal of data.
3) Manage your network
Protect your network across traditional data centers, your cloud or other vendor-hosted environments. A secure and well-managed network reduces the risk of cyber threats, enhances productivity, and contributes to customer trust and satisfaction. Require strong, unique passwords and multi-factor authentication for all network users, regularly update and patch systems and complete regular security audits and assessments.
4) Maintain business continuity
Implement backup and disaster recovery plans to ensure business continuity in case of a breach or cyberattack. Test data recovery procedures and processes, and develop robust incident response and business continuity plans to allow for swift recovery.
5) Protect your data with encryptions
Encryption can help protect data from unauthorized access in transit (when it’s being transmitted over networks) and at rest (when stored on servers or devices).
This involves using technologies such as Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to encrypt
Stay Cybersafe
AmNews’ Elinor Tatum is E&P Magazine’s 2024 Publisher of the Year!
communications between servers, applications, users and systems. Ensure appropriate controls where encryption keys are stored, managed and accessed.
6) Create backup plans
Incident management helps to address and manage security incidents, breaches and other disruptive events that can impact your organization’s ability to deliver services and products effectively.
7) Identify vulnerable areas
Find security threats and vulnerabilities early to help reduce the risk of data breaches, financial losses, operational disruptions and customer dissatisfaction. Many industries have legal and regulatory requirements mandating incident response preparedness and reporting.
8) Ensure your business objectives are aligned
Outline goals and key performance indicators you want to align with your business objectives. Effective logging and monitoring help you maintain the reliability, security and performance of your services and products.
9) Consistently log and monitor
Continue to observe your systems, applications and networks to ensure they operate efficiently, securely and reliably. Identify problems before they impact users, which allows for proactive resolution, reduced downtime and fewer service disruptions. Consistent logs also aid in investigating security incidents and ensuring compliance with data protection laws.
10) Test your applications in a separate environment
By developing and training your applications in a test environment, you can work out any bugs in a safe environment to help minimize security risks. Creating a secure and efficient work environment minimizes distractions and misuse of resources.
Cybersecurity should be considered a top priority for your business. These cyber-safe steps are aimed to help small businesses address security gaps, to serve their clients and customers more securely. You can learn more about JPMorganChase’s Global Supplier Diversity program at jpmorganchase.com/supplierdiversity
and are not intended as specific advice/recommendation for any individual. Information has been obtained from sources believed to be
but JPMorgan Chase & Co. or its affiliates and/or subsidiaries do not warrant its completeness or accuracy.
By ANDY HARRIS Special to the AmNews
On Monday, October 7, Elinor Tatum was surprised with the news that she was chosen to be Editor and Publisher magazine’s (E&P) 2024 Publisher of the Year. Greeted by friends, colleagues, and E&P’s Editor-in-Chief Robin Blinder via Zoom, Publisher Tatum was emotionally overwhelmed when she saw a photo of herself with a caption reading “Publisher of the Year.”
“I knew Siobhan [Bennett] had put my name up for it, but I didn’t think it would go much farther than that,” Tatum said of her initial shock in learning she’d won the award. She was also stunned to see 30 people on the mentioned Zoom call to celebrate the announcement.
Editor & Publisher noted that “Today, [the] Amsterdam News has one of the fastest growing and largest digital readerships of any legacy Black newspaper. Their journalism excellence has garnered them more than 30 journalism and industry awards in the past three years. At a time when many outlets are experiencing layoffs and cutbacks, Tatum has added two editors, four journalists and countless interns to its newsroom.”
The list of individuals on the call included AmNews freelance writers, full-time reporters and editors, and Siobhan “Sam” Bennett, AmNews’ president and chief revenue officer, who is proud to see her friend have her accomplishments acknowledged in this manner.
Bennett has worked alongside Tatum since 2021, but they have been friends for a decade prior to her joining the newspaper’s leadership.
“Having run organizations for over four decades, I was deeply honored to join the Amsterdam News to work with Publisher Tatum on our highly successful digital, revenue, and editorial transformation. My deep respect for her has only grown over that time. She is the rarest of leaders — one who empowers others,” Bennett said.
President Bennett also acknowledged an important milestone: Tatum is the first Black woman to be given this award.
“This award is richly deserved and especially powerful given Publisher Tatum [is] the first Black woman publisher to be honored in the 125 years of this award,” she said.
Tatum was well aware of this history and made clear there should have been others before her. “But the fact that I am the first means that I’ve now opened [the way],” Tatum said.
Denise Barnes, publisher of the Washington Informer, congratulated Publisher Tatum on the announcement in a statement to AmNews
“I am sure that never in the minds of the founders of the Amsterdam News that their hard work and dedication invested in the weekly publication would end up in the hands of a young woman over 100 years later. Yet, here we are today celebrating Elinor Tatum, whose leadership is not only responsible for reviving the 115-year-old newspaper, but she has [also] led the evolution of the Amsterdam News into a thriving digital multimedia company. There are many women, like Elinor, who are publishing Black-owned newspapers across the country but I can proudly say, she is our shining star. Congratulations, Elinor, and to the entire Amsterdam News team. I wish you continued success,” Barnes said.
At 53, Tatum is still determined to continue the revitalization of the AmNews as well as the reinvigoration of journalism in general. She emphasized the importance of finding the humanity in the people journalists interview and recognizing that interviewees are more than just what they can bring to a story. “You’ve got to get to know people. You can’t just get a quote and move on,” she said. Publisher of the Year is the latest in a succession of honors that the AmNews staff have received under Publisher Tatum’s tenure including awards from the National Association of Black Journalists, the Deadline Club and the Solutions Journalism Network in 2024 alone.
AmNews publisher Elinor Tatum and E&P magazine award. (Courtesy of Editor & Publisher)
Arts & Entertainment
‘Flow States: #LaTrienal’ opens at El Museo del Barrio
By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff
The new “Flow States” exhibition, El Museo del Barrio’s second iteration of its triennial survey of contemporary artists, opened on Oct. 9 at the famed East Harlem art institution.
The museum’s first effort to display the work of current-day Latinx artists was called “Estamos Bien” and took place from 2020 through 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. While that show looked at the work of U.S. and Puerto Rico-based artists, “Flow States” serves as a glance at the work of what its curators term the “diasporic flows” of artists in the U.S., Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Mexico, Asia, the Caribbean, and Europe.
The show’s curators — Museo del Barrio Curator Susanna Temkin and Chief Curator Rodrigo Moura, along with María Elena Ortiz, a guest curator from the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth — selected works from 33 artists who span the extent of the Latinx diaspora. These are artists who convey wide-ranging artistic themes and focus on different ways of expressing who they are.
The cultural identities of the shows’ artists are also an effort to expand the idea of Latinx: the curators say they selected work from artists who go beyond the expected geographies of where you might find folks who identify as people of Latino descent. The show’s artists are not all from Spanish-speaking nations and don’t even all identify as Latinx — in the end, many may only come from a shared co-
lonial history in the Americas or have experienced a similar kind of imperialism.
“We do think that there are a lot of conversations that are being had amongst artists who are working across different places, coming from different backgrounds, using different media,” Temkin told the Amsterdam News . “So, we came up with this idea: the title is ‘Flow States,’ and we wanted it to have this kind of double meaning.
“A ‘flow state’ is like when you’re in the zone, in that creative flow — when you’re really kind of, like, feeling the juices: It’s a psychological term. But because of our interest in kind of breaking with the geography we wanted to add the ‘s’ to pluralize states, to really make it more heterogeneous. So, it’s not that you’re going to come to El Museo’s La Trienal and see one kind of art; you’ll see a whole variety of works by an intergenerational grouping of artists.”
The survey of works includes “Persona Non Grata” by Jamaica-born artist, Cosmo Whyte. The piece features a documentary image from the 1968 student uprisings in Kingston, Jamaica, which has been placed behind a beaded curtain. Viewers must part the curtain and walk in on an eerie, distant scene of protest, which gives the sense of experiencing and being a part of that moment.
Bahamas-born Anina Major’s mixed media installation “In the Marketplace II” looks at the tradition of the straw market and basket weaving to reflect on how the tourist industry — where woven baskets are commonly sold — can be
both exploitive and serve as a showcase for local culture.
Photographic pieces by Widline Cadet, who was born in Pétion-Ville, Ayiti, look at Black migrations and the ways Black people adapt and live in diasporic environments. The exhibition features her “Ant yè ak demen (Between Yesterday and Tomorrow), 2023,” “Pou kouri dèyè syèl la (To Chase the Sky), 2023,” “An Echo of Gratitude, 2023,” and “Santiman fantom (Ghost Feelings), 2023” on display.
In another piece, the Puerto Rican artist Tony Cruz Pabón drew with graphite on the museum’s wall and only recently finished “San Juan (Puerto Rico) / New York (de la serie “Dibujos de distancia”), 2024.” Pabón had been working on the piece at the museum for two weeks.
“He’s been transcribing or attempting to transcribe the distance between his
home in San Juan and New York City,” Temkin explained. “He’s referred to that as a very kind of mythical journey that many people have taken. Every day he’s been drawing very repeated lines on the wall: he just concluded by drawing, I think, over 4,000 lines. And he’s created this mask that’s meant to evoke the physical and also the mental and the conceptual distance between these two places.”
“Flow States” artists, who hail from the various locations where the culture of Latinidad has made an impact, will also take part in special events at El Museo del Barrio while the show remains up through March 9, 2025. This Friday and Saturday, Oct. 11 and 12, San Antoniobased artist Mark Menjívar will conduct a free artist-led bird walk in Central Park, in connection with his piece featured in the show, “La Misma Cancíon, 2024.”
Photographic pieces by Widline Cadet include “Ant yè ak demen (Between Yesterday and Tomorrow), 2023.” (Image courtesy of the artist)
Artwork by Jamaica-born artist Cosmo Whyte, featuring an image from the 1968 student uprisings in Kingston.
Ta-Nehisi Coates brings his ‘Message’ to the Apollo
By HERB BOYD Special to the AmNews
You wonder how author Ta-Nehisi Coates felt sitting on the stage of the Apollo Theater fielding questions from journalist Ayman Mohyeldin. It should have been him answering a pedestrian, a 125th street regular, who wanted to know why so many people were crowded outside the theater. “Who’s performing tonight?” the man asked. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this many people here.”
From the balcony to audience member Carl Dix seated in the front row of the orchestra, the Apollo was packed to SRO capacity. No writer in recent memory has attracted such a large and enthusiastic audience. The Apollo itself must have swooned with memories of James Brown, Aretha Franklin, and the Motown days when the lines wrapped around the block.
A celebrity approaching rock star-status, Coates seemed undaunted by the applause he received with the promise of his latest book, “The Message,” after touching the stump of the Tree of Hope and taking a seat across from Mohyeldin. This wasn’t his first time on the Apollo stage.
“I was really thinking about what in the world I could possibly say to introduce someone like Ta-Nehisi Coates,” Mohyeldin began. “I mean, you [all] already are here because you know who he is. You know his books. You already care …” Yes, they cared even if a vice presidential debate was occurring at the same time.
Wisely, the interviewer focused his questions about the sweeping book, which consists of four parts, to its last section, “The Gigantic Dream,” which has commanded the most attention. “Why did you leave out so much? Don’t you believe Israel has a right to exist? You write a book that delegitimizes the pillar of Israel. What is the role of the Palestinians in their own oppression?” Mohyeldin asked, repeating the words from a previous CBS Mornings interview with a less friendly interrogator, and echoing the responses that have come from readers of a New York Magazine article where Coates is pictured on the cover. “I haven’t read the articles. I haven’t read the press,” Coates replied. Mohyeldin quickly shifts gears, returning to the book’s format and an earlier section on Coates’s visit to Senegal, which, along with South Carolina and Palestine, are the three stops of his tour. In Senegal, Coates is defined as a person of mixed ancestry by an acquaintance. “Look, I understand that Black is in America. I get that you’re Black there, but here you are mixed. That’s how we see most Black Americans,” is a conversation from the book. Coates was told that being of mixed race in Senegal was seen as beautiful and that many women tried to lighten their skin and straighten their hair. “This surprised me,” he wrote.
Coates is asked if he sees a correlation between the ability to dehumanize people and the ability to subject them to control. “Yes,” he answers immediately. “And I’ll just go ahead of you. I don’t think the United States of America, and I want to be clear about this. I don’t think the United States should provide fighter planes as it’s doing to drop 2000pound bombs on schools, hospitals.” There was a loud round of applause.
Then Coates is questioned as to whether he is an anti-Zionist. “I just wouldn’t put labels on myself,” he said. “I don’t do that and that’s not special to anti-Zionism or anything. I guess the closest thing I’ve ever adopted for a label is like a humanist or something like that; you know, as a writer I think I always have to be worried about that.”
Mohyeldin said he had asked a friend of his who does not agree with Coates’s politics to attend the event. “She responded saying, ‘Oh, he went to Israel. He’s an expert
now. He’s been there for 10 days…’” Coates compared his short visit to a northerner going to the South during the slave era, and making certain judgments and being told by a southerner, “You don’t really know the Negro like we do. We live around the Negro …” Coates went to stretch his analogy to the George Floyd incident and the police’s explanation. “I know you saw that dude with his knee on this guy’s neck, but you don’t actually know what’s happening here.”
Coates further noted that his case concerning the Palestinians “is not based on the hypermorality of Palestinians. That’s not the root of it. People don’t have to be extra moral to deserve freedom.”
Toward the end of the interview, Coates made it explicitly clear where he stood on the current presidential election, when Mohyeldin then read from a statement where Coates said “… Should it turn out we have our first Black woman president and our first South Asian president, we continue to export 2000-pound bombs to perpetuate a genocide in defense of a state that is practicing apartheid. I won’t be able to just sit there and shake my head and say, well, that’s unfortunate.”
His final words at the Apollo resonated with the same passion and authority at the end of his book where he wrote “Palestine is not my home. I see that land, its peoples, and its struggles through a kind of translation — through analogy and the haze of my own experience — and that is not enough. If Palestinians are to be truly seen, it will be through stories woven by their own hands — not by their plunderers, not even by their comrades.” He concluded saying that “the corpus resists my analogies. It escapes my words. It demands new messengers, tasked, as are we all, with nothing less than saving the world.”
“The Message” may be a bit opaque and not as clear as many readers might demand, but there’s no dismissing its deepseated feelings and its sense of urgency.
Coates in conversation with journalist Ayman Mohyeldin
The packed-to-capacity crowd.
Author Ta-Nehisi Coates (Laylah Amatullah Barrayn photos courtesy of The Apollo)
AmNews FOOD
Talking SCHOP! Kin Gin: Stay Drink Place
Have you heard the word “izakaya” before and wondered what it means? The Japanese word is made of three characters that translate to “stay-drink-place.”
Think: your local pub, a dive bar, or any informal space where there is inexpensive food and drink. Izakaya are the after work gathering spaces we all know too well. You might even be at one right now reading this. And if so, “kanpai!”
While we know there is no dearth of izakaya-like spaces in the city, a new modern izakaya has opened on the ground floor of Hotel On Rivington in the LES. It is called Kin Gin. With Japanese small plates made with local ingredients plus an international G&T (gin and tonic) menu, it was calling my name. So my friend Kate and I went to check it out. Arriving at Kin Gin brought back some good memories of an overnight stay in the hotel above many years ago when there was no restaurant on the ground floor. Newly remodeled, the space serves midcentury modern Japanese minimalism. Walking in, one might confuse the hotel reception desk in the lounge with the host stand but, following the long marble bar, the space opens to a beautiful atrium and large marble fireplace.
Before Kate and I would peruse the menu, the libations needed to flow. From the G&T menu I couldn’t decide between the London or the Japan drink, and soon chose the latter for the Etsu yuzu gin, yuzu tonic, makrut (lime leaf), cardamom, and mint. When the goblet arrived I swooned at the first sip. Absolutely sublime.
Like any good izakaya, Kin Gin’s menu consists of small shareable plates for diners to build their meal. Kate and I built a doozy that lives rent free in my head.
We ordered an array of dishes that began with the raw bar. First, the stunningly presented sea scallop sashimi with uni (sea urchin), ikura (salmon roe), nori (seaweed), ume (plum), and dashi (broth). My goodness this gave me life. The miso-cured hamachi with
yuzu and avocado also hit.
Our other plates of note were: saka mushi of dashi-steamed clams, spicy miso, ginger, and house-made milk bread; chicken kara-age (Japanese fried chicken) with lemon curry espuma and pickled daikon; king crab chawanmushi with Ossetra caviar, bacon, and lion’s mane mushroom; and mushroom kamameshi with polished rice. All were really thoughtful plates. Later we sipped on our milky sake aperitivo while awaiting the unexpected battery of dessert
coming our way. Initially, there was nothing on the dessert menu of interest to me but when they hit the table it was on. The sweet potato crème brûlée was a well roasted Japanese yam opened, fluffed, filled with the crème mixture, and topped with brûléed sugar. Perfection sums it up! And the kakigori (shaved iced) with whipped mascarpone, condensed milk, and brown sugar syrup is a must for the table.
Kin Gin can get it again and again. I will see you there next
time with a G&T in hand.
The 17th Annual New York City Wine & Food Festival begins next week, Oct. 17-20.
For the first time the festival will be headquartered in Brooklyn with many new events for all.
See you at a Grand Tasting, Chef JJ Johnson’s Cook Out, Burger Bash, Foodie Con and more.
Tickets are still available at www. nycwff.org.
Happy eating and thanks for reading!
Harris is a chef, food writer and editor, culinary producer, consultant and owner of SCHOP!, a personalized food service in NYC for over 22 years. Follow her on Instagram, @SCHOPnyc and on Facebook, @SCHOPnyc.
Questions, comments, requests, feedback, invitations! Email us at AmNewsFOOD@SCHOPnyc. com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @NYAmNewsFOOD.
Kysha
Kin Gin’s scallop sashimi (Kysha Harris photos)
Kin Gin’s kakigori (shaved ice)
At the table with a Kin Gin Japan G&T
(Clockwise) mushroom rice, dashi steamed clams, steamed sablefish with clams The amazing sweet potato crème brûlée
KYSHA HARRIS FOOD EDITOR, @SCHOPNYC
Cissy Houston dies at age 91
By FLO ANTHONY Special to the AmNews
Emily “Cissy” Houston, the mother of the late Whitney Houston, passed away Monday, Oct. 7, at her home in Newark, New Jersey, while under hospice care for Alzheimer’s disease. The legendary singer, who recently turned 91 years old on Sept. 30, was surrounded by her family.
“Our hearts are filled with pain and sadness. We lost the matriarch of our family,” said Pat Houston, the daughter-in-law of Cissy Houston, who is married to former professional basketball player and singer Gary Houston.
In Saturday, May 12, 2012 file photo, Cissy Houston performs at Gospelfest in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/ Charles Sykes, file)
“Mother Cissy has been a strong and towering figure in our lives. A woman of deep faith and conviction, who cared greatly about family, ministry, and community. Her more than seven-decade career in music and entertainment will remain at the forefront of our hearts. May she rest in peace, alongside her daughter, Whitney and granddaughter Bobbi Kristina, and other cherished family members.”
Grammy winner and Kennedy Center and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame honoree Dionne Warwick also gave a statement about Cissy Houston, who was Warwick’s aunt.
“I’m so deeply saddened,” Warwick said. “However, knowing that my Aunt Cissy died peacefully and that she is in a much better
place is a consolation and comfort to me.”
Born Emily Drinkard, Houston rose from the ranks of the family gospel group the Drinkard Singers to become one of the recording industry’s leading studio vocalists. Her résumé included leading the Sweet Inspirations and providing background vocals on recordings by Elvis Presley, Luther Vandross, Burt Bacharach, Aretha Franklin, and Warwick. Houston also guided her daughter Whitney at the beginning of her career.
Funeral services will be private.
A$AP Rocky and Rihanna celebrate in NYC; Sugar Ray Leonard attends Living Legends Awards; Court TV lands new show
Rihanna and A$AP Rocky celebrated the Harlem-born rapper’s 36th birthday in the Big Apple, according to multiple reports. French chocolatier Amaury Guichon revealed that the billionairess commissioned him to create a Lego sculpture of Rocky, made out of chocolate. Rihanna presented the gift to Rocky during the celebration. On Oct. 5, Rihanna and Rocky continued the birthday celebrations with a late-night dinner at the trendy Italian restaurant Ambra, “Page Six” reported exclusively. When they arrived after midnight to find the kitchen closed, the eatery’s owner had pizza delivered for them from another one of his restaurants, Made in New York Pizza Parlor…
Tongues are wagging that well-wish-
ers gathered to meet First Female Siddha Master and Himalayan Great Saint Yogmata Keiko Aikawa at a workshop at the University Club in New York City recently. She held a unique one-day session where people could learn about the Himalayan teachings to help participants focus on beauty, managing stress in their lives, and aiming to increase longevity through the power of meditation…
The Living Legends Foundation, Inc. (LLF) held its annual awards dinner and gala on Oct. 4. The sold-out, star-studded event included celebrities from music, entertainment, film, television, and sports, including Sugar Ray Leonard, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Ray Parker Jr., David E. Talbert, Chanté’ Moore, Johnny Gill, and the Time’s Jerome Benton, who gathered to celebrate this year’s honorees at the Taglyn Cultural Complex in Hollywood. My friend, Dallas, radio personality Skip Cheatham, hosted the event. Honorees included Ed Eckstine, L. Londell McMillan, and the legendary Donnie Simpson…
LINCOLN CENTER OPEN HOUSE WHERE
OCTOBER 27 | David Geffen Hall from 11:00 AM – 8:00 PM
Reenactment event to recall founding of central NJ Mt. Zion AME Church
By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff
This weekend, the Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum (SSAAM) will be presenting a Camp Meeting Reenactment to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the founding of Mt. Zion AME Church in Somerset County, New Jersey.
The reenactment takes place this Saturday, Oct. 12, from 12-4 p.m. at Mt. Zion AME Church, located at 189 Hollow Road in Skillman, New Jersey.
Camp meetings, which are usually spiritually focused, are events where people come together for worship and to take part in family and cultural activities. This weekend’s event will feature a 16-person, all African American choral ensemble gospel choir but won’t solely focus on religion. SSAAM is presenting the camp reenactment because the museum is itself situated inside the former church.
Built in 1899, the Mt. Zion AME was a small, rural church that served as an active congregation up until 2005.
“Historically, the church that now houses the museum, Mount Zion AME, hosted annual camp meetings in Stillman from the 1800s to around 1930 when the tradition kind of died out,” explains Dr. Isabela Morales, SSAAM’s education and exhibit manager.
“Camp meetings were historically religious services, but also social gatherings. And we have oral history documentation that these were the biggest social events of the year.
“Because the area was so rural, with a lot of farmers and families that lived up on the mountain, they didn’t go to church on a regular weekly basis. This was a time when both Black and white members of the community came together and kind of saw each other and came in fellowship and friendship, in a largescale capacity, which didn’t happen throughout the rest of the year.”
SSAAM’s research of the
area’s oral histories found that the original camp meetings featured a popular song that was regularly performed at the camp meetings. “‘They stole my mother away,’ was sung by Manning George Blackwell, who is a descendant of enslaved people in New Jersey,” Dr. Morales told the AmNews . “The spiritual came from the time of slavery and kind of discusses the experiences of African American during slavery. In the oral histories, people talk about this song and how everyone wanted to hear it, and it brought the most money into the collection site for the entire day. They remembered bits and pieces of verses, but not the entire song and not the full melody. We’re working with an ethnomusicologist at Rider University to kind of recreate that song and we are going to have a soloist perform that song for the first time in 100 years at the camp meeting.” The camp meeting will also feature historical reenactors portraying key people who played a role in the establishment of Mount Zion AME’s history. The actress Leslie Bramlett will be present to portray Corinda True, a very devout member of the church whose family donated a portion of their five-acre plot of land so that the church would have a foundation to build on. Another actress will be present to discuss the life of Sylvia Dubois, who was born enslaved in New Jersey and lived to be nearly 122 years old. The camp meeting is also set to feature reenactors portraying members of the 6th Regiment United States Colored Infantry, African American soldiers who fought with the Union during the Civil War. Union Army veterans were an integral part of Mt. Zion AME’s congregation. With this year marking the 125th anniversary of when Mt. Zion AME was built, SSAAM has put together several programs to celebrate the church and promote educational programs for the community. For more information, visit www. ssaamuseum.org.
The Hubbard family dressed for a camp meeting, circa 1918. (Photos courtesy of the Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum)
Aerial view of the Mt. Zion AME Church and the historic Reasoner-True House.
‘Our Town’ is pure Broadway gold
By LINDA ARMSTRONG Special to the AmNews
The play is truly “the thing” to director Kenny Leon. And when Leon handles it, it is a beautiful thing. Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town,” playing at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on W 47th Street, is the timeless classic brought to life with a distinction that will hit you right away. Of course, with Leon bringing this to life, you can count on a phenomenal and diverse cast. And what makes me say that the play is “the thing” is that the only thing you see on stage are the amazing actors — there are no props used throughout the production. You find yourself truly focusing on the importance and value of the words that Wilder wrote. You find yourself listening to the story’s details with gripping attention.
Leon’s respect for the words and the story that Wilder tells of life in a small town is absolutely breathtaking, at times funny, and at times profound to experience; Leon has always been a dramatic genius when it comes to his unbelievably imaginative direction. Wilder wrote about the lives of the people in the small town, their relationships, the makeup of the town over the years, the deaths and struggles that the townspeople experienced. He showed the commonality that all of us share as human beings. This story will have you reflecting on the tremendous importance of appreciating and embracing the every-
day things in life — the dawn, the moon, the smell of flowers, spending quality time with family and friends. This play definitely will make you ponder the importance of realizing that life is quite a gift that we should not take for granted. The way that Wilder explains, through his detailed characters, what happens after you die and what the dead experience as they watch human beings carry on and mourn them is quite deep. The cast that Leon has assembled is absolutely marvelous. Jim Parsons is fantastic, funny and charming as the Stage Manager, who narrates the entire story, setting up the scenes, interrupting scenes; he is very amusing, until he’s not.
Billy Eugene Jones is incredible as Dr. Gibbs and has a wonderful, warm chemistry with Michelle Wilson, who plays his wife Mrs. Gibbs. Wilson delivers a stunning performance. Ephraim Sykes is delightful and charming as their son George Gibbs. If you know the story of “Our Town,” you know that the Gibbs family lives next door to the Webb family. The Webb family is movingly portrayed by veteran actor Richard Thomas as Mr. Webb, a newspaper publisher. Katie Holmes is engaging as Mrs. Webb and Zoey Deutch is adorable as Emily Webb. Sykes and Deutch have a great chemistry as they find young love. Safiya Kaijya Harris is memorable as Rebecca Gibbs. Donald Webber Jr. has a wonderful singing voice and great stage pres-
as he plays Simon Stimson, the choir director. Julie Halston is funny as Mrs. Soames. The stage is generously occupied by an amazing ensemble of thespians in this 28-member cast that include Ephie Aardema Sarnak, Heather Ayers, Willa Bost, Bobby Daye, Doron JéPaul, Shyla Lefner, Anthony Michael Lopez, John McGinty, Bryonha Marie, Kevyn Morrow, Hagan Oliveras, Noah Pyzik, Sky Smith, Bill Timoney, Ri-
‘Job’ is intensive, stirring theater
By LINDA ARMSTRONG Special to the AmNews
Watching “Job” at the Helen Hayes Theater (W. 44th Street), I was captivated from start to finish. In this startling, intense, engaging, mesmerizing tourde-force, the fantastic work of Max Wolf Friedlich, the characters Loyd (Peter Friedman) and Jane (Sydney Lemmon) will have you on the edge of your seat.
Loyd is a crisis therapist and Jane is his new patient, but theirs is not a regular therapy session. After experiencing an emotional break at work that has gone viral, Jane must undergo therapy with Loyd to be cleared to return to her job. The
session starts off in an unusual manner and just gets more bizarre as it goes along. Both therapist and patient reveal things about themselves, their families, and their approaches to life that will have you shocked. This play has more twists and turns than you could ever imagine. When it is all said and done, you realize that what you are witnessing is actually a completely different story from what you thought you were being told. Does that sound strange? Well, there are definitely plot twists that go beyond strange to unbelievably bizarre. This is one play that I truly don’t want to reveal much about. It is something that your eyes have to
behold, your mind has to wrap itself around, and your soul has to allow to come in.
Friedman and Lemmon are so agile on stage as they banter back and forth, you never see what is coming your way until the very end. And you might not be sure of what you thought you saw. Friedman and Lemmon are stunning on the stage, and their acting prowess is enhanced by the direction of Michael Herwitz. “Job” features scenic design by Scott Penner, costume design by Michelle J. Li, lighting by Mextly Couzin, and sound by Cody Spencer. This new play is a must-see on Broadway! For more info and tickets, visit www.jobtheplay.com.
Vázquez, Matthew Elijah Webb, Greg Wood and Nimene Sierra Wureh.
The play will officially open Thursday, October 10. “Our Town” is a play for our time! The non-traditional casting works beautifully, from the interracial casting of the two main families to the interesting casting of a milkman who communicates through sign language and everyone in the town communicates with him in that way.
When it comes to bringing innovation, creativity and the humanity in us all to a Broadway stage that is where Kenny Leon always hits the mark.
The play has set design by Beowulf Boritt, costume design by Dede Ayite, lighting design by Allen Lee Hughes, sound design by Justin Ellington, as well as hair, wig and makeup design by J. Jared Janas. For tickets to “Our Town” visit www.ourtownbroadway.com.
ence
cardo
(L-R): Ephraim Sykes, Richard Thomas and Zoey Deutch in a scene from “Our Town” (Daniel Rader photo)
Scene from “JOB” playing at Helen Hayes Theater. (Peter Friedman and Sydney Lemmon (Emilio Madrid photo)
Bobby Short, Roy Haynes, Ronny Drayton
Bobby Short was known as a cabaret singer, but he referred to himself as a saloon singer. “I began playing piano in dance halls and saloons, which are nice words for cabaret,” said Short during an interview with this writer for the AmNews in 2001. He was one of the most engrossing saloon singers of his era, along with Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra.
During Short’s 35+ years at the Café Carlyle, he surpassed the role of cabaret entertainer to become a New York institution—a symbol of Manhattan’s elegant culture. He attracted a chic international clientele, from royalty and celebrities to socialites and jazz enthusiasts. He played the swank club on Manhattan’s Upper East Side for six months each year, in a room where he was only a few feet from his audience.
During the interview, in Short’s luxurious apartment on Manhattan’s exclusive Sutton Place, with a picturesque view of the East River, Short invited me to attend his performance at any time. Jokingly, I said, “Suppose I want to come every night?” He just laughed, saying, “Well, at least you will be one person I won’t have to worry about showing up.” Of course, I took him up on his offer and saw him perform in his Carlyle kingdom more than a dozen times, each more engaging than the first. He was an exceptional pianist, but it was his wit and voice that captivated his audiences.
“The band and audience, to me, [are] a state of blitz. It’s certainly, at this moment, the best thing in my life,” said Short. His favorite phrase was “a big deal,” and be assured Bobby Short was A Big Deal.
October 10 will be the last evening of Bobby Short’s Centennial Celebration (September 15, 2024) at Dizzy’s Club, in honor of Manhattan’s most debonair entertainer. The 7 p.m. show will feature the Loston Harris Trio, known for his 22-year residency at the Carlyle. Like Short, Harris has an extensive repertoire that travels through the aisles of jazz, gospel, and blues. His trio features bassist James Cammack, Jr.; drummer Carmen Intorre, Jr.; and pianist and vocalist Harris.
For information and reservations, visit jazz.org
Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame (10 Columbus Circle) will celebrate the legendary Roy Haynes on October 15, at 7 p.m. The iconic drummer, who John Coltrane called his favorite drummer, will celebrate his 100th birthday on March 13; while he happily awaits his centennial, he can join in this special celebration in his honor, which will be followed by many more in the coming year.
The celebratory band on this auspicious occasion will feature former members of Haynes’s previous bands over the years: alto saxophonist Jaleel Shaw (a longtime member of Haynes’s Fountain of Youth Quartet), pianist Dave Kikoski (a member of the Haynes Quartet), bassist John Patitucci (of the Haynes Trio, with Danilo Perez), and drummer Marcus Gilmore (his grandson).
Haynes came into New York prominence when big band leader Luis Russell sent him a one-way ticket to New York to join his band, who were already performing at Harlem’s swinging Savoy Ballroom. Haynes, then still a teenager, had to get permission to leave his Roxbury, Mass home. Fortunately, his parents agreed, opening the door for him to become one of the world’s greatest jazz drummers. When Max Roach left Charlie Parker’s band, he had only three words for the iconic sax-
ophonist: “Hire Roy Haynes.” For more information, visit the website jazz.org.
When New York City’s borough of Queens is mentioned, it’s mainly a contextual reference to its suburbia housing, manicured lawns, backyards—and where a great number of jazz legends moved to avoid the city bustle, including Tony Bennett, the Heath brothers, Clark Terry, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, and Roy Haynes.
Those legendary jazz transplants proved to be of a historical and cultural period, but what about those musicians born and raised in Queens who came into their own during the 1970s? They elaborated on their jazz elders’ music by dismantling it and disregarding genre fences to forge their own inventive paths that took them around the world to much acclaim.
Those musicians included La La (La Forrest Cope), who led her own band—Jack Sass—and penned such hits as “All of You” (Lilo Thomas), “Show Me” (Glen Jones), and “Living for Your Love” (Melba Moore); keyboardist singer/songwriter Bernard Wright (Pieces of a Dream, Marcus Miller, Miles Davis, Solar Fares); drummer and senior president of SESAC Trevor Gale (Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, and Vanessa Williams); guitarist Eddie Martinez
was so prominent in their music for Queens,” said Vernon Reid (founder of Living Colour; guitarist, and composer). The all-star Queens contingency featured Adam Falcon with Eddie Martinez, Donovan Drayton (Ronny’s son), singer Kim Lesly, V. Jeffrey Smith (Family Stand), Bernard Fowler (Rolling Stones), 24-7 Spyz, guitarist Felicia Collins (Madonna, Al Jarreau, George Clinton), Burnt Sugar Arkestra conducted by Vernon Reid, and Black rocksoul innovators Nona Hendryx and Living Colour, all hosted by LaRonda Davis, president of the Black Rock Coalition.
“Ronny came with it all the time,” said Reid. “He changed my life.”
(Robert Palmer, Nona Hendryx, Mother’s Finest); and four-time Grammy winner trumpeter Wayne Cobham (Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Lou Reed, Sting).
Consider other Q natives like drummer JT Lewis (Henry Threadgill, Sting, Harriet Tubman Group, and Herbie Hancock’s Rockit Band), Mic Murphy, the System, etc., who helped usher in a new era of electronically based pop music, and Tony Bridges (B.B. & Q, Diana Ross).
“We played in Queens parks, and in garages,” said bass guitarist Warren McRae (Joe Cocker, Tina Turner, Lionel Richie, Chaka Khan).
“We had such great musicians in Queens. We just hung out, checking out each other’s music, whether it was practicing in basements or playing in parks. But Ronny Drayton [guitarist] was inspirational in bringing us all together.”
Drayton, who transitioned in 2020, was a major force in American Black music, crossing the boundaries of jazz, rock, blues, and funk, blending it into one stimulating sound, having played with the Chambers Brothers, Defunkt, 24-7 Spyz, Edwin Birdsong, and Nona Hendryx. “Ronny had citizenship on other planets,” said McRae.
A sold-out tribute/fundraiser was recently held at Manhattan’s Sony Music Hall. “We wanted to pay homage to Ronny—someone who
The performances were an explosion of brash Black rock, slamming on every level, entwined in outrageous funk, jump-up jazz riffs, and bouts of blues true to grit—an inventive journey of American Black music. All the songs related to Drayton in some way. His son Donovan performed a heartfelt original song he wrote for his dad. “I wanted to be with people who made my father move mountains,” said Donovan. Martinez, who flew in from Portland, said, “Ronny Drayton was a great guitarist and a friend from our teen years. His style of Hendrixian funk rock was unique and had [a] great impact in the global music scene, especially with Nona Hendryx and her band. I’m grateful that we were friends for all these years and will truly miss him.”
“Celebrating Ronny Drayton” was presented by McRae and Trevor Gale in association with Street Beats. Many of these same musicians also participated in a 2023 tribute to Jamaica, Queens, keyboardist and singer Bernard Wright, at Manhattan’s City Winery, which included bassist Marcus Miller (Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Luther Vandross)) and three-time Grammy winner drummer Lenny White, a Queens native and inspiring mentor.
Drayton, along with the Queens crew, introduced a new vibe that came from their playing and rehearsing in basements and garages. It was a Queens movement with a distinct style. Maybe it can’t be described as easily as the Detroit Motown Sound, the Sound of Philadelphia (TSOP), or Stax (Memphis soul), but it is more than relevant. These adventurers cultivated a Black Rock music scene that had roots in jazz, blues, funk, and more rock—a spectrum of the American Black Music kaleidoscope.
Roy Haynes (Ron Scott Associates photo)
Indictments
Continued from page 2
In addition to the resignations, top officials like Director of Protocol in the Mayor’s Office for International Affairs Rana Abbasova, special assistant Ahsan Chughtai, and Mohamed Bahi, a senior liaison in the Mayor’s community affairs unit, were all fired as prosecutors zero in on the illegal straw donor cases.
Bahi “resigned” on Oct. 7 and was arrested by feds the next day. He was charged with witness tampering and destruction of evidence in connection to the 2021 mayoral campaign. Bahi allegedly interfered with an active investigation by ordering third parties to lie to federal agents and deleting potentially incriminating correspondence from his personal phone and devices. He also allegedly participated in the 2021 straw donor scheme by making donations himself.
“As alleged, Mohamed Bahi obstructed a federal criminal investigation by instructing witnesses to lie and then destroying
NYCHA
Continued from page 2
evidence,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in a statement. “The charges unsealed today should leave no doubt about the seriousness of any effort to interfere with a federal investigation, particularly when undertaken by a government employee. Our commitment to uncovering the truth and following the facts wherever they may lead is unwavering.”
In short, time passed will not save anyone related to the corruption scandals from catching a charge as evidenced by the recent indictment of Erlene King, 71, on Oct. 2.
King served as the campaign treasurer for 2021 Brooklyn Borough President (BP) candidate and district leader Anthony Jones. She was charged with wire fraud in connection with her attempt to steal funds from the New York City Campaign Finance Board’s (CFB) public matching funds program, which is meant to ensure that candidates running for office in the city have a fair chance at raising enough small donor contributions.
For candidates who ran for BP in 2021, candidates received up to $8 in matching funds for each $1 of eligible contri -
butions. Campaigns needed to raise at least $50,000 to be eligible for any matching funds and could then receive up to $400,000 from the city. According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, King received fraudulent donations in a straw donor scheme using CashApp.
Again, Adams refused to resign from his position as mayor and carried on making new appointments to his cabinet as well as doling out the new crime statistics.
“First of all, when you look at it, I’m really blown away that we’re seeing all of these resignations. I have 300 hundred-something thousand employees. I have a ton of commissioners,” said Adams. “So I say to New Yorkers that are out there, look at what we have done since this investigation first was revealed to us and look at what we are continuing to do. And we’re going to do what I was elected to do. And that is to take our city into a place that those who have been betrayed by government will no longer be portrayed. This is the greatest city on the globe and I’m going to lead it in the right direction with the right team and with my fellow New Yorkers and organizations.”
Gibson, TA president of Beach 41st Street Houses in Queens, in a statement. “I have also expressed concerns to NYCHA about more than hotplates or crockpots for residents … [many of] these items do not fit residents’ baking needs. I asked NYCHA if residents would receive any rent breaks or compensation for the months the gas was out. But, with this bill, I trust residents will not live four, five, or more months without gas any longer.”
ESPLANADE GARDENS
*Based upon the number of persons in household. **Subject to change. OCCUPANCY STANDARDS: TWO-BEDROOM: Two – Four persons IMPORTANT NOTICE: (FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH ANY OF THE FOLLOWING WILL RESULT IN DISQUALIFICATION)
• Applications are not transferable.
• Applicant must be a New York State resident.
• Applicants must be financially responsible.
• Current Shareholders are not eligible to apply.
• Applicant/Head of household must be at least 18 Years old at the time of the lottery.
• Preference will be given to documented veterans selected in the lottery that are NY State residents only.
• Any applicant that does not have the proper family composition will automatically be disqualified.
• Applicants can only be on one waiting list at a development. If applicants have the right family composition, they can apply to more than one lottery. However, if they are selected for more than one lottery, they will have to choose which waiting list they prefer.
• ONE REQUEST ONLY PER APPLICANT. Any applicant placing a duplicate request will not be entered into the lottery.
An applicant can only submit a paper entry or an on-line entry. If applicants enter on-line and also mail in a letter or postcard, they have submitted a duplicate request and will not be eligible for the lottery.
• An applicant whose name is selected in a lottery cannot be included in the family composition of any other applicant who is selected in the same lottery for that particular housing company development. Failure to comply will result in the disqualification of both applicants.
Additional Information: A $75 non-refundable application fee will be required at the completion of the lottery for applicants that were selected. Waiting list will be established by a limited lottery. There will be a limit of 250 applicants drawn from the Two -Bedroom lottery.
HOW TO APPLY: ONLINE You can now apply to a lottery online through Mitchell-Lama Connect. Applying is fast, easy and you will be able to check the status of your entry to see if you have been selected. To apply on line go to: https://a806-housingconnect.nyc.gov/nyclottery/lottery.html#ml-home BY MAIL Mail Post Card or Envelope by regular mail. Registered and Certified Mail will not be
and last name, current address and last 4 digits of your social security number and the
Clearly print your full
lottery that you wish to apply for. If you do not include the last 4 digits of your social security number or fail to indicate the
lottery, you will not be entered into the lottery. Mail post card or envelope to:
Daniel Penny
Continued from page 3
appear to be mentally ill and homeless, so there’s no legal basis in this case for the claim of self defense. Everything that was said by everybody, including Penny himself when he was speaking to the police—no one asserted that they were afraid of getting killed.”
Claxton believes Penny’s background may have played a role in his initial police interactions, particularly during the detective interview.
“Every special kind of enforcement is going on in the Black and Brown communities, whereas the more affluent and whiter communities don’t have these special drug operations going on,” said Claxton. “They don’t have the level of street stops going on in their community, so they have limited interaction with police, and the interactions that they have with police tend to be more pleasant or innocuous.
“[Penny] was not in any way [feeling] threatened or set upon by [police], because that’s not his experience, so he was very comfortable in sharing and describing exactly what he did.”
Ciprian Noel, president of the Langston Hughes Apartments TA, added that “when we ask questions about utility disruptions, NYCHA, the city, and the gas company blame each other and give us the runaround.”
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
Public Notice Fact Sheet
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has received a Brownfield Cleanup Program (BCP) application and Draft Remedial Investigation Work Plan from 180 E 125th Realty LLC for a site known as180 East 125th Street Development Site, site ID #C231160. This siteis located in the Borough of Manhattan, within the County of New York, and is located at 180 East 125th Street. Comments regarding this application must be submitted no later than November 15, 2024. Access the application and other relevant documents online through the DEC info Locator: https://www.dec.ny.gov/data/DecDocs/C231160/
The documents are also available at the document repositories located at the Harlem Library, 9 West 124th Street, New York, NY 10027 and at the Manhattan Community Board 11,1664 Park Avenue, Ground Floor, New York, NY 10035 Information regarding the site and how to submit comments can be found at:
http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/60058.html
or send comments to Abdulla Elbuytari, Project Manager, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, Division of Environmental Remediation, 625 Broadway, Albany, NY 12233; via email to Abdulla.Elbuytari@dec.ny.gov or call (518) 402-9612
To have information such as this notice sent right to your email, signup with county email listservs available at:
Ernest Anderson, a magnificent one-hit film wonder
By HERB BOYD Special to the AmNews
In the early 1950s, when television was still in diapers, the appearance of a Black face on screen was a moment of celebration and the telephone lines would be jumping with the news. Those momentous occasions came to mind recently while watching one of the channels that features old movies. Suddenly there was the face of Ernest Anderson in the Warner Bros. film “In This Our Life” (1942). For his performance, he received a National Board of Review Award for Best Actor that year.
Neither Anderson nor the film is part of our recent memory, but it was one of those surprising moments to see his remarkable portrayal of a Black man in a non-servant role, while still being a victim of racism. Like so many films of that time, he is falsely accused of
manslaughter by a white woman (Bette Davis), who in real life was responsible for Anderson getting the role. But that gets us ahead of our story.
Anderson was born on August 25, 1915, in Lynn, Massachusetts, and raised in Washington, D.C. where he attended the famous Dunbar High School. Not much is known of his formative years, but he later earned a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University. Little information is available about his relocation to Hollywood and being employed by Warner Brothers. We do know that in his first acting role as Parry or Perry Clay, the accused Black man, his performance earned him a prestigious award, possibly instrumental in his winning more film parts.
A few years after a sterling film debut, Anderson served in the Army but soon returned to Warner Bros. to resume his film career with credited roles in a succession of films, including “The Peanut Man” (1947); “The
Well” (1951); “The Band Wagon” (1953); “North by Northwest” (1959); and “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” (1962), an opportunity to be in a picture once more with Bette Davis. It wasn’t much of a part for Anderson, who had a cameo as an ice cream vendor. And like his role in “The Band Wagon,” you better pay close attention or you will miss him as the train porter.
The next decade or so, Anderson’s parts were no better, though at least he was credited in “Tick, Tick, Tick” (1970) as Homer; First Doctor in “Coma” (1972); Uncle Stan in “Last of the Good Guys” (1978); and Dr. Mortoff in “The Return” (1980). None of these roles came close to his debut award-winning performance in “In This Our Time.” Film authority Donald Bogle has this to say about the film, writing that Davis, “...is a spoiled rich girl, who accidentally kills a child during a wild car ride, then drives away from the scene. The hit-and-run accident
is blamed on a young Black man, played by Ernest Anderson, the son of Davis’s family maid, played by Hattie McDaniel. Bright, dignified, and composed, the young man studies law at night in order, naturally, to improve his lot in life. Eventually, he’s proven innocent of the crime. His story is merely a subplot in the fast-paced melodrama, but director [John] Huston makes it compelling nonetheless.”
A review in Variety praised Anderson’s acting, noting he “stands out in brief appearance as the wrongly accused colored lad.” No scene in the film was more provocative and curious — particularly for those who knew of the relationship between Davis and Anderson — than when he was behind bars and heard Davis accuse him of a crime he did not commit.
Anderson was still active in films and television in the early seventies. He died in DeLand, Florida on March 5, 2011. He was 95.
ACTIVITIES
FIND OUT MORE
See: Thomas Cripps’s “Slow Fade to Black: The Negro in American Film, 1900-1942.” Oxford University Press, and Camille Michaels’s “African Americans in Film: Issue of Race in Hollywood.”
DISCUSSION
Perhaps there is more about his relationship with Davis in Julia Stern’s “Bette Davis Black and White.”
PLACE IN CONTEXT
Much of what we know about Anderson’s nearly century among us flickers on the screen and in the books by Thomas Cripps.
THIS WEEK IN BLACK HISTORY
Oct. 6, 1955: Tony Dungy, first Black head coach to win NFL Super Bowl was born in Jackson, Michigan.
Oct. 7, 1934: Activist, writer Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) was born in Newark, NJ. He died in 2014.
Oct. 8, 1941: The legendary activist and minister Jesse Jackson was born in Greenville, South Carolina.
Ernest Anderson in “In This Our Life.”
ghost gun ban in Vermont. In addition, Maine, Maryland, and Pennsylvania have created state Offices of Gun Violence Prevention after encouragement from the White House.
Brian Kavanagh, a Democratic New York state senator, attended a convening of state legislators that the White House Office organized last December to advance the initiative. The event allowed lawmakers from different states to share advice about passing gun reform laws. For example, Kavanagh said he discussed how New York passed its red flag law with the help of healthcare providers.
“For people who may be earlier in the process of trying to pass that [law], they [could] hear very specifically from legislators [about] how health care providers were engaged and how important they were in those efforts,” he said in an interview after the event.
Evidence of the efficacy of red flag laws (also known as extreme risk protection orders) in preventing homicides or mass shootings is limited, but they have been shown to reduce suicides. In general, research shows that states with more strict gun laws have fewer gun-related deaths.
The office has also built out an emergency response system, designed to provide federal support in the aftermath of incidents of mass violence.
“The most robust deployment we’ve had was in Lewiston, Maine,” Jackson said, referring to the mass shooting last October where 18 people were killed.
“We sent representatives from all 10 agencies and nearly 100 federal government employees out to the community to help with everything from school reopenings to emergency mental health support, to therapeutic support, to engagement directly with first responders and law enforcement,” Jackson said.
The office has kept an open line of communication with gun reform groups as well, meeting with them regularly to provide updates and receive input.
“They have had a number of briefings throughout the year to keep us abreast of what they’re doing, what they’ve accomplished, what they hope to accomplish,” said Yasmín Fletcher Braithwaite, the deputy director of federal policy at Giffords Law Center.
In addition to these briefings, the office has hosted a variety of in person convenings to connect with those affected by gun violence. In March, Oresa Napper-Williams attended a White House event for mothers from Black and Brown communities who had lost children to gun violence. Napper-Williams created the Harlem-based nonprofit Not Another Child after her son Andrell was killed in 2006.
“[We learned] about a lot of things that the White House was doing as far as legislation and funding,” she said, adding that the survivors also shared what they were working on in their communities.
An uncertain future
“Establishing the office and funding it to begin with is a good first step, but it definite-
ly needs more funding, it needs more capacity, and it needs more reach to really disrupt the cycle of gun violence that we all live in,” said Hudson Munoz, executive director of Guns Down America, His viewpoint was echoed by other gun reform advocates.
“I think that they’re doing a good job with listening to concerns, but I do also know that the office doesn’t have enough capacity to really address all of the concerns, because it’s made up of a three- or four-person team,”
Napper-Williams said.
Munoz also said he wanted to see the office take on more of a role in highlighting the dangers of gun ownership. “What I would like to see them do in the future is help shift the conversation away from the regulation of guns and the prosecution of gun crimes toward a new politics of rejecting guns,” he said.
Jackson acknowledged that “there’s a great deal of work to be done with limited resources in our current state.”
The biggest challenge the office faces right now is a sense of limited time, he said.
“When I think about challenges, I think about how much more time we have to keep doing this lifesaving work, and how can we build on and strengthen this momentum of this administration,” he said.
Jackson said he was more hopeful the office would continue under Kamala Harris than Donald Trump, who is aligned with the National Rifle Association and other gun rights lobbyists.
“We can’t predict what will happen, but we do know the [previous Trump] administration has been very clear that they’ve done nothing on this issue on purpose, and so I think that’s a clear indicator of what the future could be or could hold for these types of efforts,” Jackson said.
For now, the office shows no signs of slowing down. On September 26, Biden announced the passage of further executive action focused on combating emergent firearms threats like 3D-printed guns and improving school shooter drills.
The DOJ is also reviewing a proposed rule to reform victim compensation, a federal program designed to provide financial assistance to victims of violent crime. The AmNews has reported on inequities in the current system.
Advocates are holding out hope that the office continues, no matter the outcome of the election.
“I would hope under either administration that the office continues,” Fletcher Braithwaite said. “It is vitally important, and it would be a huge disservice to this country for this office to go away. It would undermine public safety, and it would have a detrimental impact on the work that the office has already done.”
Shannon Chaffers is a Report for America corps member who writes about gun violence for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a taxdeductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.
THE EPIC
10 UNITS AT 125 West 31 Street GARMENT DISTRICT, NEW YORK, NEW YORK
Application Due: NOVEMBER 8, 2024
Amenities: 24-hour attended lobby. Open kitchen designs, on-site laundry, outdoor terrace, state-of-thefitness center and resident lounge (fees apply) Income Restrictions Apply – No Application Fee – No Broker’s Fee Applicants will not be automatically rejected based on credit or most background check info
Application Due Date:APRIL 17, 2023
Must be postmarked by this date. Sending more than 1application may disqualify you.
This building was constructed with financing provided through the Secured Loan Rental Program of The New York State Housing Finance Agency.
Mustbepostmarked orsubmitted online by NOVEMBER8,2024 Sending more than 1 application may disqualify you Howto Apply: Online: WWW.FETNERAFFORDABLE.COM
Must be postmarked or submitted online by NOVEMBER 8, 2024. Sending more than 1 application may disqualify you.
How to Apply:
Request Application By Phone orEmail: 212-257-6857 OR AH@FETNER.COM By Mail or In-Person: Epic AffordableOperator,LLC FDRStation P.O.Box 96 NewYork,NY10150 Include youraddress&the nameand addressofthe building whereyou wantto apply.
LotteryDate &Location: APPLICATIONS WILL BE PROCESSED ON A FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED BASIS
Request Application By Phone or Email: 212-257-6857 OR AH@FETNER.COM By Mail or In-Person: Epic Affordable Operator, LLC FDR Station P. O. Box 69 New York, NY 10150
• Learn abouthowyourcreditand backgroundcheck will be individually reviewed: https://on.ny.gov/3uLNLw4
• 0 unitsareadapted forhearing/vision impairment
• All unitsare adaptableto bewheelchairaccessible
• Reasonable accommodationandmodificationsmay be requested
Include your address & the name and address of the building where you want to apply. Lottery Date & Location: APPLICATIONS WILL BE PROCESSED ON A FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED BASIS
YOU HAVE RIGHTS!
• If you have experienced housing discrimination: https://dhr.ny.gov/journey-fair-housing or call 844-862-8703
• Learn about how your credit and background check will be individually reviewed: https://on.ny.gov/3uLNLw4
ACCESSIBILITY INFORMATION
•0 units are adapted for mobility impairment •0 units are adapted for hearing/vision impairment
• All units are adaptable to be wheelchair accessible
• Reasonable accommodation and
Alfiee M. Breland-Noble launches the Mattie Fund to uplift women and girls Health
By HEATHER M. BUTTS, JD, MPH, MA
Special to the AmNews
Alfiee M. Breland-Noble is the founder of Mattie Fund. A psychologist and scientist, she is one of 12 global leaders who will be provided with a $20 million fund to distribute to various organizations dedicated to charitable work to improve women’s health worldwide. The fund will be supported by the Melinda French Gates-supported Pivotal Ventures. Breland-Noble spoke with the Amsterdam News about the fund, her career, and re-imagining philanthropic giving. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
AmNews: Could you speak about Pivotal, the Mattie Fund, and Advancing Women’s Justice?
Melinda French Gates really believes in trust-based philanthropy which she talks about in a New York Times Op-ed. As a part of her investment in women and girls globally, one of the things that was important to her was to put funding out into the world to back “Global Leaders” who have their finger on the pulse and who can help support getting those funds out to the people and organizations who are actually doing the work to make our world more just and fair with a specific focus on women and girls.
I am one of the dozen Melinda French Gates Global Leaders who was selected to manage a $20 million fund where we get to uplift and support diverse women and girls and diverse women and people. What Melinda French Gates is doing out here in the world is very powerful.
AmNews: What is your role in shaping the fund process?
Our goal is to reach a diverse set of organizations because equity, belonging, and inclusion have always been a core feature of my work for my entire career. It’s always been important to me to center, amplify, and uplift organizations and people who are out there trying to make the world better for everybody, particularly for those folks who are on the margins. Our goal is to seek out organizations that are deeply rooted in their communities and that have a mission and a vision that is aligned with how I have envisioned the Mattie Fund. My priority is to ensure that at the end of the day the funds go to entities and organizations who are appreciative of and invested in doing work to
Dr. Alfiee Breland-Noble
uplift people who are the most marginalized, with the focus on women and girls. It’s an honor to be selected, it’s an honor to be a person who gets to manage a $20 million budget, and it’s an honor to be able to reach out into the world and provide support for people who in many cases are often struggling to do what they do for the communities that are so meaningful to them.
AmNews: How important is it to have people involved with lived experiences?
People from communities with lived experience are scholars in their lived experience and I can’t do what I do if I don’t have their expertise. The idea of empowering people — when I talk about empowerment, it’s not an exchange of power — it’s how do I support you in what I call embodying the power that’s already there? What Melinda French Gates has done is, she has taken these diverse 12 people, from different corners of the world. People know what’s important for their communities and so how do we provide an opportunity to empower those folks to do what they know is right? I hope other people will pay attention and follow this model of trust-based philan-
thropy and allow people to do the good work that they’ve been doing for years and that they know how to do to serve their communities
AmNews: What is the future of the Mattie Fund?
We’re trying to be very strategic and at the same time disruptive of traditional ways that funds are dispersed. I say the best example of that is what Melinda French Gates did. To be mentioned in the same breath as someone I really admire: Ava DuVernay who’s always done [work] outside the box as a movie maker. Allyson Felix and all her gold medals and silver medals and bronze medals and being who she is and then Jacinda Arden, that to me speaks to another part of the process which is the power and the validation that can come from someone witnessing how you move in the world and saying I’m looking at these dozen people each one of them is bringing something to the table. Our goal is, right now, we’re in the process of carefully planning how we are going to distribute the funds effectively and equitably. We’re trying to think about what organizations are the right ones to start
with. I think the biggest thing for me is not relying on traditional ways and traditional selection processes. People self-select into it but we have to remember when we think about people with intersectional identities, sometimes we don’t see ourselves nominating ourselves for certain things because we’ve never seen people who look like us win. In my case, I care about mental health and emotional well-being.
AmNews: Is there anything else you want to tell our readers?
Having the opportunity to create this fund and name it after my mother who is a child of the Civil Rights Movement, it’s an honor. I am very grateful. I feel like it’s really important to express my gratitude. Finally, something my dad always said to me was, when you do good work, just keep doing the good work, somebody will see you. What I say to your readers is, whatever your field is, you have to stay focused on your vision. You’re going to have twists and turns and ups and downs, but if you can stay focused on your vision, I think those good things will come. Keep doing what’s important to you and the right people will find you.
South Bronx community celebrates health center with fall festival
By JIANA SMITH Special to the AmNews
South Bronx residents gathered near the future site of the HEArts community center to celebrate community and learn more about holistic health on Saturday.
The Fall Health Festival, an event organized by nonprofit organizations South Bronx Unite, the Mott Haven Port Morris Community Land Stewards, and Qi Zone Wellness, featured a variety of alternative health showcases, from tai chi and acupuncture sessions to Indigenous spiritual wellness services.
Mychal Johnson, co-founder of South Bronx Unite and the Community Land Stewards, said the fall festival served as a microcosm of what the HEArts Center will stand for.
“Things we envisioned in terms of bringing these elements together… it just brought on this real feeling of community,” said Johnson.
The event also featured art sessions and live music by the community student band Upbeat NYC.
Barry Kostrinsky, a longtime South Bronx community member, said he came to the Fall Festival to connect with longtime friends and see the work that has been done. “It’s nice to
see a community grow and change, see the people evolve,” he said. “Everybody tries to do good here.”
South Bronx Unite is a community organization devoted to social, environmental and economic justice in the Mott Haven and Port Morris neighborhoods of the Bronx. They joined forces with Mott Haven Port Morris Community Land Stewards in 2015 to take back spaces for the community in the form of community land trusts.
The group’s latest effort, the HEArts Center, will focus on health, education, and the arts by providing the community with a space for expression and programming.
Saturday’s Fall Festival was the organization’s first. Although the center will focus on education and the arts, Johnson said that health is “paramount to everything.”
“Because of some of the environmental situations and the unhealthy outcomes that [those] helped create, we knew we had to let this be a time where we really put a heavy emphasis on health,” he said.
The South Bronx is home to many environmental pollution factors, such as power plants, last-mile facilities, and the car-heavy expressway.
According to the NYC Environ-
unhoused people. (Jiana Smith photo)
ment and Health Data Portal, Mott Haven has some of the highest rates of asthma emergency visits in the city because of these pollutants.
Such hospitalizations can keep children out of school, harming their educational progress. Pollution can also directly affect cognitive abilities in growing children, according to the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health.
Both can harm children’s ability to find employment as they become adults, fostering a cycle of poverty. Bronx Community Board 1, which contains Mott Haven and Port Morris, has a poverty rate of nearly 33%, higher than the city average of around 18%, according to the NYU Furman Center.
“We had to make sure that the community was going to be educated and trained to not be left behind,”
said Johnson.
Many organizations at the Fall Health Festival are also working toward the same goal of fostering community health.
Bronx Móvil is a bilingual harm reduction organization that focuses on caring for people facing drug addiction. Its completely mobile outreach team distributes vital resources, such as Narcan, sleeping bags, and food, to unhoused people around the borough. The Bronx had the highest number of drug overdoses of any borough at around 786 in 2021, according to NYC Health.
Del Rio said that harm reduction organizations like Bronx Móvil can help humanize those who suffer from drug addiction. “It’s not just a person you should walk over like it’s nothing,” said Del Rio. “It’s somebody just like you.”
The building that will become the HEArts Center was once the Lincoln Detox Center, which was founded in 1970 by the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords, among other civil rights groups. The organizations took over the building to address drug-related deaths in the community and offer holistic health solutions such as acupuncture.
After the NYPD shut down the Detox Center in 1978, the building continued to be the site of acupuncture and other health services under NYC Health and Hospitals. It has been empty since the clinic relocated in 2013.
In 2023, after a decade of discussion about what to do with the abandoned space, the Land Stewards received approval to start developing the former detox clinic. The HEArts Center is still in the pre-development phase; plans are for it to open between 2025 and 2027.
Johnson said that while he is unsure what the center’s true impact will be, he hopes that its presence will help alleviate social pressures on the community.
“What we can do with the building is it can be continuous work and growth,” said Johnson. “I think it will manifest and grow beyond our wildest expectations.”
Need help with healthcare?
JP Morgan Chase CEO, local community leaders celebrate fifth anniversary of Harlem community center branch
BY JIANA SMITH Special to the AmNews
Local business and community leaders, joined by JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, met in Harlem to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the bank’s Harlem Community Center branch.
The celebration featured a roundtable discussion of the branch’s progress thus far and what further work needs to be done.
“We’re celebrating the five year anniversary of the initiative that started in Harlem, like many other things in Black culture,” said Jason Patton, northeast division head of community and business development at JP Morgan Chase. “Our community is telling us it’s working, and we listen to our community.”
The branch, launched in 2019, was Chase’s first community center in the U.S. Since then, 18 more community branches have been established nationwide. This spring, a new community center branch opened on Grand Concourse in the Bronx. The newest addition in Brooklyn’s BedfordStuyvesant neighborhood opened Wednesday afternoon after the roundtable.
Harlem was chosen as the location of the first community center branch due to its proximity to JP Morgan Chase’s headquarters on 270 Park Avenue, said Diedra Porche, national head of communi-
ty and business development, consumer banking. The branch was designed to help build community trust in financial institutions.
Porché told the AmNews that the branch represented partnership.
“When we started this initiative, it was really about us going out into the community and inviting people back in,” Porché said. “From there, we partnered with [key community leaders and stakeholders] to figure out what a space for a community center would look like.”
Porché said that Chase aimed to provide community members with an inviting space to learn financial literacy and work towards financial stability. This involves creating programming such as
Credit Journey, which helps clients improve their credit, and their Coaching for Impact program for entrepreneurs.
“We help small businesses grow and consumers get access to the services they need to buy homes and build wealth,” Porché said during the roundtable. “That’s really what it’s all about.”
The Harlem community branch has seen the highest increase of secure checking accounts of all Central Harlem Chase locations since it opened, according to a report made available at the event.
Around 125 entrepreneurs have completed its Coaching for Impact program, and its business deposit customers have grown by around 51 percent since its opening in Sep-
tember 2019 according to Chase.
During the roundtable, led by Nichol King, executive director of community banking at Chase, participants discussed the branch’s impact on their businesses, organizations and the wider Harlem community.
Sharene Wood, founder of Harlem Haberdashery and a Coaching for Impact program alumnus, said that the Harlem Community Branch has not only offered entrepreneurs capital but also the resources and network opportunities to scale their businesses.
“Those are going to be what helps the community and other entrepreneurs grow,” said Wood. “Not just access to capital, but access to strategy and strategic
partners that help them thrive, not just survive.”
“We have a lot of people that come into this community, and they make withdrawals,” said Melba Wilson, Harlem restaurateur and TV personality.
“Chase makes deposits.”
Wilson said that while the Harlem Community Branch has helped the community, it could be more proactive about making sure entrepreneurs of color are approved for loans.
She said she started her restaurant Melba in 2005 with around $312,000 stored under her mattress. She was told by a bank she would have difficulty getting a loan as a restaurant owner.
According to a report from Stanford’s Institute for Economic Policy Research, black entrepreneurs are less likely to apply for bank loans than white entrepreneurs because they fear rejection.
When they do apply, black entrepreneurs are also three times less likely to be approved or fully approved.
“People are afraid to come into a bank,” Wilson said. “How do we reach out to those people that still have a dream that has not been realized?”
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase, encouraged the continued growth of the Harlem branch.
“We’re not just doing it for JP Morgan,” Dimon said at the roundtable. “We’re doing it to lift up society, which I think is a very important thing that people do.”
Local community leaders celebrated the fifth anniversary of the Harlem Community Center branch with a roundtable discussion on the location’s impact and future.
JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon joined local community leaders at the roundtable.
Art at the Chase’s Harlem Community Center branch. The branch aims to be a welcoming space for the community to improve financial literacy and wellness.
Local restaurateur Melba Wilson and Diedra Porche, national head of community and business development, consumer banking at JP Morgan Chase, at the roundtable event. (Jiana Smith photos)
African Tourism Union, said Black Americans spend up to $20 billion a year on travel and less than 2% goes to Africa. He said miseducation is the main reason.
“[When] most people think of tourism in Africa, they think of animals or they think of poverty tourism. They don’t think of Africa for skiing. They don’t think of Africa for some of the top beaches in the world. They don’t understand the luxury hotels that are available in Africa,” Smith said.
Smith said African countries must “market” their countries better, highlighting countries like Senegal, which has attractions like the African Renaissance Museum, taller than the Eiffel Tower and Statue of Liberty, among other highlights.
“We have to show people what’s there, and then they’ll come,” Smith said.
Other topics included climate change and access to education.
Wantoe T. Wantoe, a Liberian climate and education activist and executive director of the Center for African Policy, was one of the youth panelists who spoke about his work in climate advocacy and the importance of amplifying youth leadership.
“Youth inclusion is not just about the future—it’s about creating solutions for the challenges we face now,” Wantoe said.
Awards were presented to leaders, includ-
Afrobeats
Continued from page 15
rise of Afrobeats and Nollywood. Its worldly influence has catalyzed how the world views Africa and the diaspora. Africans are mainly being met with curiosity by people from various backgrounds, asking what country they are from in Africa. When the Ghana government launched its Year of Return program in 2019, close to 1 million people visited the country during that year to learn about their background and the country’s offerings.
Digi attributes much of the newfound love and respect for Africa to Afrobeats, where he says success from artists such as Davido, Wizkid and Burna Boy have helped open up the sound.
“And now it’s kind of cool to be associated with Afrobeats, African fashion, even traveling to Africa and West Africa, the Year of Return to Ghana, and the different parties that happened there,” he said.
“And now [being African] is a thing to be proud of, to the point where you can take your friends, colleagues, elected officials, celebrities, to Ghana; they want to go to Nigeria, they want to go to Zanzibar, they want to go to Rwanda, so now it’s a cool thing,” Digi said.
Another Afrobeats artist who has helped change the narrative about Africa is Patoranking; he co-headlined a show with the Next Narrative Africa The Bridge at the Apollo Theatre. He said times are changing for Africans and their diaspora, and they feel empowered regardless of circumstances.
ing Ambassador Cheikh Niang, permanent representative of Senegal to the UN; Olivier Laouchez, founder of Trace Africa TV; and Dr. Kenneth Harris, president and CEO of the National Business League, which is based in Tuskegee, Ala.
Many guests from various countries and professions were able to network with each other during the summit. One was Zainabu Sesay-Harrell, 47, an appointed lecturer in Sierra Leone and professor in New York who was invited by Diallo. Sesay-Harrell said it was “overwhelming” to be a part of the Summit.
“It’s thrilling to know that we’re having dialogues on this level about Africa in the UN space, and that you have people from all walks of life attending, and they’re interested in what the conversation should be sounding like from people African descent, or people who are partnering with people from Africa, or people who are just interested in coming to Africa and doing business with Africa,” Sesay-Harrell said.
Among the special attendees were actor Richard Gant, Queen Mother Delois Blakely, African Ancestry co-founder Dr. Gina Paige, and Pan-African scholar and former chair of Black Studies at City College of New York Dr. Leonard Jeffries.
“These buildings were not constructed for us, but when you have them built, you can see what it pulls together: an enormity of the African community worldwide,” Jeffries said during his remarks.
“We are telling the world that we don’t need to bring our chair to the table, we are the table, come sit,” Patoranking said. “For every door that was locked, we are buying the whole building.”
Next Narrative Africa CEO, Akunna Cook, said. “We are looking for storytellers, content creators who have in their DNA and in their intentionality to change [these] negative stereotypes about Africans that exist on screen.”
President and CEO Travis Adkins of the U.S. African Development Foundation believes Africans have to take back their narrative.
“The narrative we have to change is the one we have created for ourselves, but it’s one that was created for us and is about us, without us,” he said. “For us, we know the beauty of the continent and its people. We know the richness of our spirituality and our traditions. We know the wealth that is in both the people and the land, and so what better way to tell that than for us to tell it ourselves?”
The Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent said that racial stereotypes and racial stereotyping continue to be prevalent in everyday life, encompassing advertisements and the media. However, the continuing rise of Afrobeats has helped change some negative views about the continent.
Patoranking believes that not much can stand in the way of Africans claiming a rightful place to be viewed in a continuous positive light now due to Afrobeats. “We have the resilient spirit. We don’t take no for an answer. We are unstoppable. We just like to get it done.”
Religion & Spirituality
Vote as though love and life matter, because they do!
“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for to write a new American story, to find a way to build fierce love in the world…We must connect across our differences and build strategies for a better tomorrow for the children we are called to love.” — Jacqui Lewis, Fierce Love
I know some of us are thinking about sitting this election out. The 24/7 barrage of sound bites about the candidates is part of the reason why. So much election coverage is reduced to 8-second video clips, referendums on the candidates’ personalities, “gotcha moments,” and color commentary. Listen, I’m not saying these details aren’t relevant—that it’s not illuminating when J.D. Vance refers to women without children as “weird cat ladies”; that we don’t learn something about Tim Walz by how he lovingly parents his disabled son; I love watching Vice President Harris dance, and giggle when Mr. Trump does. But elections are about much more than the individual personalities involved. They’re also about the policy platforms each party brings, the implications for how those laws would affect our lives.
What one faith lens demands
For those who claim to be Christian, which the four candidates do, the Bible explicitly instructs us that we should judge rulers
by their actions, particularly how their laws affect the poorest and most vulnerable people. “Those who oppress the poor insult their maker,” the book of Proverbs notes. “Those who are kind to the needy honor God.”
Jesus puts the situation even more plainly. In Matthew 25, he tells the disciples that when we feed the hungry, heal the sick, and clothe the naked. Those actions (or their absence) are how we treat Jesus himself. Scripture is filled with verses that echo Jesus’s focus: instructions in Leviticus to welcome and treat migrants in the same way we embrace citizens, Isaiah’s condemnation of “those who make unjust laws,” Amos’s fiery words about rulers who “sell the poor for silver.” The Bible is deeply concerned with rulers’ actions because, to quote Proverbs again, “When the righteous are in power, the people rejoice. But when the wicked rule, the people suffer.”
To be crystal-clear, these verses
also need to inform our foreign policy. They shape my deep grief and anger about the year-long horrific violence and unbelievable death toll in Gaza; about the hostages—Palestinian and Israeli—who remain in captivity, and the escalating war in the Middle East. It must end: the war, the occupation, the injustice, the rising antisemitism and anti-Islamic sentiment. There must be peace and freedom for Palestine and Israel, and we need to elect a candidate who will work to make it be so.
Coming back to domestic policy: While there are differences between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris’s personalities, the chasm that separates their policies is even wider. Harris is promising to fight corporate greed that’s driving up food prices and to lower taxes on working families, Trump wants more tax cuts for rich folks like himself. Harris wants to build millions of new homes to address the housing crisis, while Trump scape-
goats immigrants for a problem they didn’t create. Vice President Harris is promising to codify abortion access as national law, while the former president orchestrated stealing millions of people’s bodily autonomy. Harris has a comprehensive plan to address climate change, Trump wrongly claims that climate science is a hoax. Harris understands what it’s like to grow up in an immigrant family and the challenges Black women face every damn day—and offers tangible support. Even though he also comes from an immigrant family, Trump calls immigrants “animals” who should not find sanctuary in our nation, and repeats lies that Haitian migrants eat pets.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for
In my book Fierce Love, I talk about our collective responsibility to birth the country we deserve. “Each of us has the power to change the world around us, to build a more just society, to be the change we seek,” I write. “How we behave with friends and families, the stories shared in social media, conversations in the marketplace, how we vote and where we take a stand—these all testify to the values we have.” We all live in systems that determine what kind of choices are available—laws that can either help bring justice closer or push it further away.
For the next two months, my challenge to all of us is: How do we bring these staggering policy differences into the cultural conversation?
Instead of talking with a friend about the latest thing a candidate said, tell them about a policy pro-
posal that excites you. When you spend time with family, describe how proposed policies would affect your lives. Volunteer to knock on doors and, when you do, ask what issues are affecting your neighbors—then discuss laws that could make a difference. Let’s help each other fully understand what’s at stake this Nov..
We aren’t just voting for ourselves. The African philosophy of Ubuntu love demands we understand that we are inextricably bound to our neighbor—but also to every generation that comes next. God gave humans agency so we can build a beloved community together. Active participation to shape who governs us is an essential part of that work.
When I think about that responsibility, I think about my great-uncle George Jordan working with Fannie Lou Hamer to register voters in Ruleville, Mississippi— a decade before the Civil Rights Act. They risked their lives to nurture true democracy because they knew that legislation matters, that how we engage our politics is an expression of our faith. We don’t have to risk our lives to knock on doors, but make no mistake: The consequences of this election are life-and-death.
Let’s choose love and abundant life this election. And let’s vote.
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis is senior minister and public theologian at Middle Church in New York. Celebrated internationally for her dynamic preaching and commitment to building a just society with fierce love, Lewis champions racial, economic, and gender/sexuality justice.
REV. DR. JACQUI LEWIS FIERCE LOVE
(Amaury Laporte photo)
Title VI
Continued from page 12
university administrators are right to be concerned about their Title VI liability if they fail to take what the department views as adequate steps to regulate how students speak to one another, not only one-on-one but when they engage in collective protest and symbolic action,” Douek and Lakier write. “The DOE has also launched over a dozen investigations into how universities responded to student protests over the past year and reached settlements with several universities over their handling of antisemitic or Islamophobic incidents on their campuses. And it has met privately with administrators at schools affected by student protests to advise them about their legal risks under Title VI.”
Smith cites the Department of Transportation (DOT) in his article and the steps it has taken to move creatively and to ensure compliance with Title VI. “But they only represent the beginning phases of a process under which federal agencies can reimagine how they use Title VI pro-
actively and innovatively to work with their recipients and work to prevent discrimination. After 60 years, it is past time to wake up the sleeping giant,” he concludes.
Douek and Lakier warn that there is “good reason to worry that the DOE, in its recent efforts to enforce Title VI in the context of the campus protest movement, may
be violating the important First Amendment rule against jawboning — that it may be leveraging its power to regulate discrimination on campuses to get universities to crack down on protected student and faculty speech by threatening them with legal sanctions or investigations if they do not comply.”
At the conclusion of their arti-
cle, the writers insist that “more constraint and transparency are necessary to ensure that through its informal communications with universities about Title VI, the government does not end up doing an end run around First Amendment protections. The DOE’s mission to prevent discrimination in education is an
important one, but it must be pursued within constitutional limits. The DOE should not undermine this important goal with enforcement efforts that threaten protected political expression.” Obviously, much more needs to be said about the “Sleeping Giant” and “Jawboning” and we shall return.
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the 1964 Civil Rights Act as Martin Luther King Jr., and others look on. (Cecil Stoughton, White House Press Office photo)
CLASSIFIED ADS
RULES AND REGULATIONS
CANCELLATIONS must be made in writing by 12 Noon Monday.
The forwarding of an order is construed as an acceptance of all advertising rules and conditions under which advertising space is sold by the NEW YORK AMSTERDAM NEWS. Publication is made and charged according to the terms of this card.
Rates and regulations subject to change without notice. No agreements as to position or regulations, other than those printed on this.
Til forbid orders charged for rate earned. Increases or decreases in space take the rate of a new advertisement.
The New York AMSTERDAM NEWS reserves the right to censor, reject, alter or revise all advertisements in accordance with its rules governing the acceptance of advertising and accepts no liability for its failure to insert an advertisement for any cause. Credit for errors in advertisements allowed only for first insertion.
CLASSIFIED
• Classified advertisements take the regular earned rate of their classification. Four line minimum on all ads except spirituals and horoscopes (14 lines).
CLASSIFIED DISPLAY
• Classified Display (boarder or picture) advertisements take the regular earned rate of their classification. Display (boarder or picture) advertisements one column wide must be 14 lines deep; two columns, 28 lines deep; 3 columns, 56 lines deep. Classified Display (boarder or picture) placed as close to classifications as rules and makeup permit.
CLASSIFICATIONS
All advertisement accepted for publication is classified according to the standard classifications. Misclassification is not permitted.
BASIS OF CHARGE
Charges are based on point size and characters per line. Upon reaching 15 lines the rate converts to column inch. Any deviation from solid composition such as indentation, use of white space, bold type, etc., will incur a premium.
SUPREME COURT - COUNTY OF NEW YORK THE BOARD OF MANAGERS OF 435 EAST 117TH STREET CONDOMINIUM, Plaintiff -against- CHRISTINE HEALEY, et al Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated June 29, 2023 and entered on July 3, 2023, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the New York County Courthouse located in Room 130 of the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street New York, NY on November 6, 2024 at 2:15 p.m. premises situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, City, State and County of New York, known and designated as Section 6 Block 1711 and Lot 1203. Said premises known as 435 EAST 117TH STREET, UNIT NO. 3, NEW YORK, NY
Approximate amount of lien $57,680.99 plus interest & costs.
Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale. Index Number 152950/2022. GEORGIA PAPAZIS, ESQ., Referee
Mitofsky Shapiro Neville & Hazen, LLP
Attorney(s) for Plaintiff 152 MADISON AVENUE, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10016
NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT: NEW YORK COUNTY. NYCTL 19982 TRUST AND THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON AS COLLATERAL AGENT AND CUSTODIAN, Pltf. vs. SONIGIO LLC, BOARD OF MANAGERS OF 310 WEST 52 ND STREET CONDOMINIUM, Defts. Index #158610/2022. Pursuant to for judgment of foreclosure and sale entered October 6, 2023 and order to forfeit deposit and reset sale entered June 21, 2024, I will sell at public auction in Room 130 of the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY on November 13, 2024 at 2:15 p.m. prem. k/a 310 West 52 nd Street, Storage Unit 155, New York, NY 10019 a/k/a Block 1042 Lot 1470. Judgments amount: $2,827.20 and $2,494.69. Sold subject to terms and conditions of filed judgment and terms of sale.
JEFFREY R. MILLER, Referee. THE DELLO-IACONO LAW GROUP, P.C., Attys. For Pltf., 312 Larkfield Road, Lower Level, East Northport, NY. File No. 22-000139 - #101648
STAU LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 8/21/2024 Office location: NEW YORK County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: SOHO WORKSPACES, INC., 447 Broadway, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10013, USA. The registered agent of the LLC is SOHO WORKSPACES, INC., 447 Broadway, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10013, USA Purpose: Any lawful act.
NOTICE OF SALE
SUPREME COURT: NEW YORK COUNTY
BD NOTES LLC, Plaintiff -against- GAROFALO REAL ESTATE HOLDINGS, LLC, et al., Defendants. Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated June 3, 2024 and filed July 26, 2024 bearing Index No. 850162/2022, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction on November 6, 2024 at 2:15 pm at the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, Room 130, New York, NY 10013; 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 and State of New York, Block 1247; Lot 49, the premises known as 330 West 86th Street, New York, NY 10024. Premises sold subject to the provisions of filed Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Terms of Sale. Approximate Judgment amount $5,542,012.52 plus interest and costs. The foreclosure sale will be conducted in accordance with the New York County Supreme Court Auction Plan in effect at this time. Paul Sklar, Esq., Referee. Harry Zubli, Esq., attorney for plaintiff, 1010 Northern Blvd., Suite 306, Great Neck, NY 11021 (516) 487-5777.
NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF NEW YORK ALBANY AVENUE PARTNERS, LLC., Plaintiff AGAINST UPTOWN GAMBIT, INC., MICHAEL T. JOHNSON, ET AL., Defendant(s) Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly entered April 3, 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 on October 30, 2024 at 2:15PM, premises known as 3-5 West 122nd Street, Units 1B, 2C, 3C, 4A, 6A and 6D, New York, NY 10027. Units as identified as 1B, 2C, 3C, 4A, 6A and 6D may all be put up individually for bid. All that certain plot piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, City, County and State of New York, Block: 1721 Lots: 1002, 1007, 1011, 1013, 1021, and 1024. Approximate amount of judgment $989,442.32 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index #850429/2023. The aforementioned auction will be conducted in accordance with the NEW YORK County COVID-19 Protocols located on the Office of Court Administration (OCA) website (https://ww2.nycourts. gov/Admin/oca.shtml) and as such all persons must comply with social distancing, wearing masks and screening practices in effect at the time of this foreclosure sale. Doron Leiby, Esq., Referee Law Offices of Alan J. Waintraub PLLC 125-10 Queens Blvd., Suite 311 Kew Gardens, NY 11415 UPTOWN GAMBIT 80998
Notice of Formation of AUGUSTANA HOMES ACQUISITION, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/17/24. 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.
SUPREME COURT - COUNTY OF NEW YORK.
NYCTL 2021-A TRUST AND THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON, AS COLLATERAL AGENT AND CUSTODIAN, Plaintiffs -against- E4BOWERY LLC, et al Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered herein on May 9, 2024, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction in Room 130 of the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street New York, NY on October 30, 2024 at 2:15 p.m. premises situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County of New York, City and State of New York, known and designated as Block 459 Lot 1113 on the New York County Tax Assessment Map. Said premises known as 52 EAST 4TH STREET, #PH2, NEW YORK, NY 10003
Approximate amount of lien $219,013.09 plus interest & costs.
Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale.
Index Number 157609/2022.
MARK L. MCKEW, ESQ., Referee
Phillips Lytle LLP
Attorney(s) for Plaintiffs
28 East Main Street, Suite 1400, Rochester, NY 14614
214 WEST 11TH ST REALTY LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 12/23/19. 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, 214 West 11th Street, New York, NY 10014. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.
Notice of Formation of 60 E 8TH STREET LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/10/24. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: c/o Melissa E. Sydney, Esq., Tarlow, Breed, Hart & Rodgers, P.C., 101 Huntington Ave., Ste. 500, Boston, MA 02199. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
SUPREME COURT - COUNTY OF NEW YORK.
NYCTL 2021-A TRUST AND THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON, AS COLLATERAL AGENT AND CUSTODIAN, Plaintiffs -against- D.K.S LTD, et al Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered herein on May 14, 2024, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction in Room 130 of the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street New York, NY on October 23, 2024 at 2:15 p.m. premises situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County of New York, City and State of New York, known and designated as Block 1262 Lot 602 on the New York County Tax Assessment Map. Said premises known as 62 WEST 47TH WEST 47TH STREET #608, NEW YORK, NY 10036
Approximate amount of lien $236,520.13 plus interest & costs.
Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale. Index Number 158712/2022.
GEORGIA PAPAZIS, ESQ., Referee Phillips Lytle LLP Attorney(s) for Plaintiffs 28 East Main Street, Suite 1400, Rochester, NY 14614
This is to announce that the next meeting of the Harlem Children's Zone Promise Academy II Charter School Board of Trustees will occur in person on Tuesday, October 22, 2024, at 4:30 PM. The meeting will be held at 245 West 129th Street, NY, NY.
SUPREME COURT - COUNTY OF NEW YORK. NYCTL 2021-A TRUST AND THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON, AS COLLATERAL AGENT AND CUSTODIAN, Plaintiffs -against- CHINESE AMERICAN TRADING CO., INC., et al Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered herein on June 6, 2024, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction in Room 130 of the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street New York, NY on November 13, 2024 at 2:15 p.m. premises situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County of New York, City and State of New York, known and designated as Block 1314 Lot 1315 on the New York County Tax Assessment Map. Said premises known as 235 EAST 40TH STREET, #36B, NEW YORK, NY 10016
Approximate amount of lien $98,785.30 plus interest & costs.
Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale. Index Number 159713/2022. CHRISTY M. DEMELFI, ESQ., Referee Phillips Lytle LLP Attorney(s) for Plaintiffs 28 East Main Street, Suite 1400, Rochester, NY 14614
This is to announce that the next meeting of the Harlem Children's Zone Promise Academy I Charter School Board of Trustees will occur in person on Tuesday, October 22, 2024, at 4:30 PM. The meeting will be held at 245 West 129th Street, NY, NY.
Supreme Court-New York County – Hilton Resorts Corp., Pltf. v . Any unknown heirs to the Estate of CONNIE R. ADCOCK, next of kin, devisees, legatees, distributees, grantees, assignees, creditors, lienors, trustees, executors, administrators or successors in interest, as well as the respective heirs at law, next of kin, devisees, legatees, distributees, grantees, assignees, lienors, trustees, executors, administrators or successors in interest of the aforesaid classes of persons, if they or any of them be dead, all of whom and whose names and places of residence are unknown to the Plaintiff, et al., Deft. – Index # 850346/2018 . The foregoing supplemental summons is served upon you by publication pursuant to an Order of the Honorable FRANCIS KAHN, III, Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York, dated the 11 th day of September 2024 and duly entered the 13 th day of September 2024 in the office of the Clerk of the County of New York, State of New York. TO THE ABOVE-NAMED DEFENDANTS: YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to answer the complaint in this action and to serve a copy of your answer, or, if the Complaint is not served with this Summons, to serve a notice of appearance, on the Plaintiff’s attorney, within twenty (20) days after the service of this Summons, exclusive of the day of service (or within thirty (30) days after completion of service where service is made in any other manner than by personal delivery within the State) In case of your failure to appear or answer, judgment will be taken against you by default for the relief demanded in the Complaint.
NOTICE OF NATURE OF ACTION AND RELIEF SOUGHT THE OBJECT of the above captioned action is for the foreclosure of a fractional interest of 5,000/28,402,100 in the premises at Block 1006, Tax Lot 1302 located at 1335 Avenue of the Americas NY, NY. Mortgage bearing the date of July 31, 2015, executed by Connie R. Adcock to Hilton Resorts Corporation, a Delaware Corporation, to secure the sum of $15,750.00, and interest and recorded in the Office of the Clerk of New York County on October 11, 2011, in CRFN 2011000357147 . The relief sought in the within action is a final judgment directing the sale of the Mortgaged Premises as described above to satisfy the debt secured by the Mortgage described above. YOU MUST RESPOND BY SERVING A COPY OF THE ANSWER ON THE ATTORNEY FOR THE PLAINTIFF AND FILING THE ANSWER WITH THE COURT.
STATE OF NEW YORK
SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF NEW YORK SUPPLEMENTAL SUMMONS
Index No. 850060/2024
WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A.,
V. Plaintiff, ROHIN HATTIANGADI, STEPHANIE I. BRAUN- HATTIANGADI, THE JOHN WATTS CONDOMINIUM, JOHN DOE, Defendants.
To the above-named Defendants:
You are hereby summoned to answer the complaint in this action and to serve a copy of your answer, or if the complaint is not served with this summons, to serve a notice of appearance on the Plaintiff's attorneys within thirty days after the service of this summons, exclusive of the day of service, and in case of your failure to appear or answer, judgment will be taken against you by default for the relief demanded in the complaint. NOTICE YOU ARE IN DANGER OF LOSING YOUR HOME
If you do not respond to this summons and complaint by serving a copy of the answer on the attorney for the mortgage company who filed this foreclosure proceeding against you and filing the answer with the court, a default judgment may be entered, and you can lose your home. Speak to an attorney or go to the court where your case is pending for further information on how to answer the summons and protect your property.
Sending a payment to your mortgage company will not stop this foreclosure action. YOU MUST RESPOND BY SERVING A COPY OF THE ANSWER ON THE ATTORNEY FOR THE PLAINTIFF (MORTGAGE COMPANY) AND FILING THE ANSWER WITH THE COURT.
This is an attempt to collect a debt, and any information obtained will be used for that purpose.
The foregoing summons is served upon you by publication pursuant to an Order of Honorable Francis A. Kahn III, Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, signed the 9th day of September 2024 at New York, New York.
The object of this action is to foreclose a mortgage on the following property: Block 595 Lot 1208
THE UNIT (HEREINAFTER REFERRED TO AS THE "UNIT") KNOWN AS UNIT NO. 5-N IN THE BUILDING (HEREINAFTER REFERRED TO AS THE "BUILDING") KNOWN AS THE JOHN WATTS CONDOMINIUM AND BY THE STREET NUMBER 459 WASHINGTON STREET IN THE BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN, CITY, COUNTY AND STATE OF NEW YORK, SAID UNIT BEING DESIGNATED AND DESCRIBED AS UNIT NO. 5-N IN THE BUILDING, IN THE DECLARATION (THE"DECLARATION") ESTABLISHING A PLAN FOR CONDOMINIUM OWNERSHIP OF THE BUILDING AND THE LAND (HEREINAFTER REFERRED TO AS THE "LAND") UPON WHICH THE BUILDING IS SITUATED, PURSUANT TO ARTICLE 9-B OF THE REAL PROPERTY LAW OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK (HEREINAFTER REFERRED TO AS THE "CONDOMINIUM ACT"), WHICH DECLARATION WAS RECORDED IN THE NEW YORK COUNTY OFFICE OF THE REGISTER OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK ("CITY REGISTER'S OFFICE") ON JUNE 4, 2002 IN REEL 3530, PAGE 2444. THIS UNIT IS ALSO DESIGNATED AS TAX LOT 1208 IN BLOCK 595 OF THE BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN ON THE TAX MAP OF THE REAL PROPERTY ASSESSMENT DEPARTMENT OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK AND ON THE FLOOR PLANS OF THE BUILDING, CERTIFIED BY KISS & ZWIGARD, R.A. ON MAY 15, 2002, AND FILED WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK ON MAY 21, 2001, AS CONDOMINIUM PLAN NO. 1238.
Subject to easements, covenants, and restriction of record. These premises are also known as 459 Washington St #5N aka 459 Washington St 5N, New York, NY 10013. Woods Oviatt Gilman LLP
Attorneys for Plaintiff 500 Bausch & Lomb Place Rochester, NY 14604
The Speech And Accent House LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 7/23/24. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: United States Corporation Agents Inc., 7014 13th Ave. Suite 202, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11228. Purpose: Any lawful act.
Safari Atelier NYC LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 10/20/2023. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 900 W 190 ST #15B, New York, NY 10040. Purpose: Any lawful act.
OPDEE HOLDINGS LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 07/28/2024. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 347 W 57TH ST, Suite 40A, New York NY 10019. Purpose: Any lawful act.
FURDONNAS CUSTOM CREATIONS LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 07/08/2024 Office location: NEW YORK County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 2588 7TH AVE, BLDG 2, STE 6D, NEW YORK, NY 10039. Purpose: Any lawful act.
West Seneca Holding, LLC LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 09/06/2024. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: C/O West Seneca Holding, LLC,, 445 Park Avenue, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10022. Purpose: Any lawful act.
AMALIER LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 09/04/2024. Office location: NEW YORK County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 224 W 35TH ST STE 500, NEW YORK, NY, 10001. Purpose: Any lawful act.
Stay Strong LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 05/02/2024. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 400 West 43 Street 35R, NY, NY 10036. Purpose: Any lawful act.
Apparo NYC Cleaning Co LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 8/30/24. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 228 Park Ave S #689045, New York, NY 10003 R/A: US Corp Agents, Inc. 7014 13th Ave, #202, BK, NY 11228. Purpose: Any lawful act.
Twin Bull Properties LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 7/10/24. Office location: Fulton County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: Twin Bull Properties LLC, 693 Lakeview Road, Broadalbin NY 12025 Purpose: Any lawful act.
Tristate Bedbug Dogs LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 07/16/2024. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 500 8th , New York, NY 10018. Purpose: Any lawful act.
Sekai Collective LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 12/15/2023. Office: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail copy to: 340 W 42nd St, Fl 2, New York, NY 10036. Purpose: Any lawful act.
Notice of Formation of WEITZMAN LITIGATION ADVISORY LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/19/24. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Formation of BARI RESTAURANT EQUIPMENT LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/18/24. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Mr. Anton Mayer, 240 Bowery, NY, NY 10012. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
1227 Holdings LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 9/19/2024. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 156A East 83rd Street,, New York, NY 10028. Purpose: Any lawful act.
CONCORE CABINETRY LLC
Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 02/21/2024. Office location: NEW YORK County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 570 GRAND ST, APT H901, NEW YORK, NY 10002. Purpose: Any lawful act.
NOTICE OF FORMATION OF HAFLETCHER CONSULTING
Notice of Qualification of WSC OPCO LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/22/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 08/13/24. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, c/o Winter Properties LLC, 9 W. 57th St., 47th Fl., NY, NY 10019. DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. 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.
Notice of Qualification of 945 MADISON AVENUE, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/10/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/04/24. 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 122072543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State of State of DE, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
676 Broadway LLC filed Arts. of Org. with the Sect'y of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/10/2020. Office: New York County. SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: c/o Boddoohi & Friedlander LLP, 29 W. 125th St, 3rd Fl, NY, NY 10027. Purpose: any lawful act.
Notice of Formation of MISCHIEF MERCANTILE LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/16/24. Office location: NY County. 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. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
SLAINTE ACUPUNCTURE
PLLC. Art of Org. filed with the SSNY on 08/01/2024. 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. THE LLC 114 W 73RD ST. APT 4A, NEW YORK, NY, 10023. Any lawful purpose.
Notice is hereby given that a license, serial #NA-0340-24137216 for beer, wine & liquor has been applied for by the undersigned to sell beer, wine & liquor at retail in a restaurant under the ABC Law at 791 Lexington Ave., NYC 10065 for on-premises consumption; Ayaz & Avdan Inc. Notice of Registration of Foreign Limited Liability Partnership Thompson, Coe, Cousins & Irons, LLP. Notice of Registration filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 06/27/2024. Office location: 575 Lexington Ave., Ste. 2310, New York, NY 10022, New York County. SSNY designated as agent of LLP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY should mail process to: 700 N. Pearl St., 25th Fl., Dallas, TX 75201. Registration as LLP originally filed on 8/27/2010 with Texas Secy. of State, P.O. Box 13697, Austin, TX 78711 Purpose: The practice of law.
Arrakis Ventures LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 06/06/2024. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 7014 13TH AVENUE, SUITE 202 , BROOKLYN, NY, 11228, USA. Purpose: Any lawful act.
Notice of Qualification of 888
BROADWAY MEZZ OWNER LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/23/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/16/24. Princ. office of LLC: One Market Plaza, Steuart Tower, Ste. 1050, San Francisco, CA 94105. 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 19801. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
BISOU BISOU RADIO LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 7/30/2024. Office location: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 228 Park Ave S #263339, New York, NY 10003. Purpose: Any lawful act.
DUKE OUT EAST REALTY
LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 09/26/24. 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, 201 East 86th Street, Apartment 13F, New York, NY 10028. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.
Notice of Formation of MALHOTRA FAMILY 2024, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/26/24. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Vikram Malhotra, 168 E. 74th St., Apt. 4C, NY, NY 10021. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 06/19/2024. Office location: NEW YORK County. SSNY has been designated as 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 the LLC served upon him/her is: 7014 13TH AVENUE SUITE 202 BROOKLYN NY 11228. The principal business address of the LLC is: 228 Park Ave S #423622 New York NY 10003. Purpose: any lawful act or activity
Multiverse Of Stuff LLC LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 06/14/2024. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 357 EDGECOMBE AVENUE APT 5D , NEW YORK, NY 10031. Purpose: Any lawful act.
This Is Neatly LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 05/22/2024 . Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 275 W 96th St, 10025. Purpose: Any lawful act.
Notice of Qualification of 888
BROADWAY OWNER LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/23/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/16/24. Princ. office of LLC: One Market Plaza, Steuart Tower, Ste. 1050, San Francisco, CA 94105. 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 19801. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Formation of FOX SHORE PRESERVATION, L.P. Cert. of LP filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/12/24. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LP: 6 Greene St., Ste. 500, NY, NY 10013. 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 Cannabis NYC Fund, LLC (the “LLC”) filed with the Secretary of State of the State of New York (“SSNY”) on 08/08/2024. Office location: New York County. The principal business address of the LLC is: One Liberty Plaza, New York, New York 10006. SSNY has been designated as the agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail service of process to c/o New York City Economic Development Corporation, One Liberty Plaza, New York, New York 10006, Attention: General Counsel. Purpose: any lawful purpose.
To display your Legal, LLC, and classifieds ads contact:
Shaquana Folks 212-932-7412
shaquana.folks @amsterdamnews.com
Or schedule your own Legal and LLC advertising by scanning the QR Code
Brooklyn Children’s Museum receives $100,000 grant to sponsor free field trips
By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff
New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and Councilmember Chi Ossé partnered to give a $100,000 grant to the Brooklyn Children’s Museum (BCM) to sponsor free field trips for children from low-income families at schools across Brooklyn.
The BCM was founded in 1899 as the world’s first children’s museum and has grown to be New York City’s largest and most beloved cultural institution designed especially for families. It serves an estimated 300,000 children and caregivers annually.
“We are deeply grateful to Council Speaker Adams and Councilmember Ossé for their unwavering commitment to supporting education and
community in Brooklyn,” said BCM President and CEO Atiba T. Edwards. “This grant allows us to expand our impact, ensuring that more students can benefit from the kind of experiential learning that strengthens academic foundations and builds critical social skills.
After a short museum tour, Adams and Ossé presented Edwards with a giant check on Oct. 3.
“The phenomenal Brooklyn Children’s Museum has supported our children’s education for over 125 years,” said Adams, a former educator herself. “Because of your work generations of New Yorkers have had access to enriching experiences and programs that have deepened their knowledge and understanding of the entire world. We can all remember what it was like to be a child. To marvel at the scale and majesty of the world and wonder how it came to be. That curiosity should be nourished and pro -
tected, because it is critical to shaping our minds and future.”
According to the BCM, Brooklyn is the borough with the most Title I, or low-income, schools in the city. Their sponsored field trips are designed to align with state learning standards and immersive experiences and include access to the museum’s exhibits, visual arts, hands-on STEM areas, world cultures markets, and civic engagement meant to foster curiosity and creativity among students. Multiple studies, said the BCM, have demonstrated the value of field trips in boosting cultural awareness, reinforcing personal development, and positively impacting academic outcomes.
“The Brooklyn Children’s Museum was a central element in my childhood, as it was for countless Brooklynites,” said Ossé. “Extending that gift to as many children as possible is a noble
goal. I am thrilled to support this program. From my perspective as both the political representative of the museum and as a son of Brooklyn, I recognize this program to be incredibly beneficial to education outcomes, social and emotional well-being, and cultural awareness. I hope this model is replicated across the city.”
Adams added that the city council has fought long and hard for funding in the city budget for libraries and cultural institutions against the Mayor’s budget cuts over the last year.
“The city council had to fight to make sure that funding for those institutions that empower and teach and enrich New Yorkers had to happen,” she said. “And not just had to happen once, but we made sure we baselined all of this activity so that we never — no council — will ever have to fight the way that we had to fight to get it back.”
(From left to right): Councilmember Chi Ossé, Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, and Brooklyn Museum President Atiba T. Edwards holding a grant check. (Ariama C. Long)
Team basketball earns the New York Liberty a repeat trip to the WNBA Finals
By LOIS ELFMAN
Special to the AmNews
The 2024 WNBA Finals begin tonight (8:00 p.m.) in Brooklyn at the Barclays Center as the New York Liberty take on the Minnesota Lynx. It is the first time since 1999 and 2000 that the Liberty have qualified for back-toback Finals appearances. This time, they have homecourt advantage and had time to rest after wrapping up their semifinal series with the Las Vegas Aces on Sunday afternoon with a 76–62 victory.
The Lynx defeated the Connecticut Sun 88-77 at home on Tuesday in Game 5 of the best-of-five series. Game 2 of the LibertyLynx best-of-five finals will be in Brooklyn on Sunday (3:00 p.m.) with Game 3 next Wednesday (8:00 p.m.) and Game 4 if necessary on Friday, October 18 (8:00 p.m.) in Minnesota. A decisive Game 5 would be held at the Barclays on October 20.
The Lynx, who won league titles in 2015 and 2017, are 3-1 versus the Liberty this season and finished second overall with a record of 30-10, behind New York’s 32-8 mark. This will be the Liberty’s sixth trip to the WNBA Finals and they enter 0-5 seeking their first WNBA championship. They lost in the league’s 1997 inaugural season, as well in 1999, 2000, 2002 and last season to the Aces.
The Liberty got a measure of revenge versus the Aces on Sunday, but the two-time and 2023 champion weren’t going to lie down on their home court, taking Game 3 of the best-of-five series. Yet, the Liberty were determined to avoid a Game 5. Game 3 — a 95-81 Aces win — was rough for Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu, who scored just four points, after topping the Liberty with 24 points and
nine rebounds in a 88-84 victory in Game 2. However, she adjusted quickly in Game 4 and was New York’s high scorer with 22. “Watch film, figure out ways that you can continue to improve and not really be complacent with the way they were defending me,” said Ionescu. “Thankfully, my teammates found me. … We wanted to be our best and get this done.”
After securing a spot in the WNBA Finals, Liberty forward Breanna Stewart said, “This was a tough series, an emotional series for a number of different reasons.” Stewart spoke of her wife, Marta Xargay, whose father passed away one year ago, noting that the win was for Xargay and her late father. As for the Finals, “We’re ready to go,” she said. “[We have] the feeling of not being satisfied.”
Postseason honors continue. Dearica Hamby of the Los Angeles Sparks won the 2024 Kim Perrot Sportsmanship Award. Named for the late guard who was part of the Houston Comets championship teams in 1997 and ’98, the award is presented to a player who exemplifies sportsmanship, ethical behavior, fair play and integrity. Aces guard Tiffany Hayes was named the 2024 Kia WNBA Sixth Player of the Year. Hayes announced her retirement from the WNBA in December 2023, but in May the Aces coaxed her back into action.
Caitlin Clark is the 2024 Kia WNBA Rookie of the Year. This gives the Indiana Fever its second consecutive Rookie of the Year with Aliyah Boston taking the honor in 2023. Clark headlines the 2024 WNBA All-Rookie Team, which also includes Rickea Jackson of the Sparks, Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso of the Chicago Sky, and Leonie Fiebich of the New York Liberty.
Saint Peter’s Athletics receives impactful NCAA academic grant
By LOIS ELFMAN Special to the AmNews
Last week, the NCAA announced that 17 schools would be receiving Division I Accelerating Academic Success Program (AASP) grants for the 2024–25 academic year. Among those is Saint Peter’s University in New Jersey, which will receive $100,000 to help boost student-athlete academic achievement.
“Saint Peter’s has been identified as a ‘limited resource institution,’” said Katie Arcuri, director of athletics. “We have to specify exactly how we’re going to spend every dollar because it needs to be academic-related.”
Established in 2012, AASP grants invest in the academic success of student-athletes. Colleges and universities have used the grant money for multiple ways, such as upgrading athletic academic tutoring centers, funding computers and other technology, and student-athlete career development.
“In past years, we’ve built an academic center for excellence, which is our study hall room,” said Arcuri of previous grants. “There are computers, a printer and a large screen where we have meetings and host things for the student-athletes. Then, we tried to think outside of the box in terms of what else we need to help our student-athletes achieve academically.”
Each grant should be spent within the academic year it is received. This is the second
consecutive year for Saint Peter’s to receive an AASP grant. Last year, the grant was based around hiring a graduate assistant for student-athlete support services, who works one-on-one with the student-athletes across all sports. Olivia Christiano is retained again this year to oversee study hall, have weekly meetings and help with general academic support.
“We’re trying to be intentional about retention and keeping student-athletes here,” said Arcuri. “We start grassroots, increasing our GPA (grade point average) every year, which we’ve done. … The NCAA will come here to do a site visit and meet with…Olivia, our student-athletes, myself, the president (Dr. Hubert Benitez), our alumni advancement and grants office to see how the grant has impacted us.”
The academic center has laptops that student-athletes can sign out to do work in their dorm rooms. Last year’s grant also covered student-athlete programming, including a speaker on mental health and a financial literacy program. This year’s grant includes Christiano’s salary and ARMS software, which everyone in the athletic department, including student-athletes, use to communicate and help with academics.
“We work really hard to make sure that they are good students and we provide them with the resources to be successful,” said Arcuri.
The Liberty celebrate a return trip to the WNBA Finals after a 76-62 road victory over the Las Vegas Aces on Sunday. (Brandon Todd/New York Liberty photo)
NCAA grants benefit student-athletes such as St. Peter’s senior guard Marcus Randolph and sprinter/hurdler Diamond McLaughlin. (Saint Peter’s Athletics photos)
If the fired Saleh was the Jets’ primary problem, what is their solution?
By DERREL JOHNSON Special to the AmNews
On Tuesday, Jets owner Robert Wood “Woody” Johnson and general manager Joe Douglas fired head coach Robert Saleh on after the team went 2-3 in its first five games this season. It was an unexpected and dramatic move, one done seemingly to put the team on a different course. They came into the season as Super Bowl contenders, but now look like a fringe playoff squad. Defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich has been elevated to interim head coach.
The 45-year-Saleh was hired as the Jets head coach and signed to a five-year deal on January 14, 2021, after being the San Francisco 49ers’ defensive coordinator for 2017-2020. He was 20-36 overall and finished 7-10 in both the 2022 and 2023 seasons after going 4-13 in his first year at the helm.
Despite the statements from the Jets front office on what led to Saleh’s dismissal, his expertise on the defensive side of the ball is the only reason the team has been respectable this season. They are ranked No. 2 in the 32team NFL allowing just 256.5 yards per game and have given up just five touchdowns. The obvious issues are on the offensive side led by quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
For the past two games — both losses — the polarizing signal caller, who the Jets acquired in a April 2023 trade with the Green Bay Packers, has looked like a quarterback
who’ll turn 41 in December and is coming off a torn left Achilles tendon suffered in Week 1 last season that sidelined him for the entirety of 2023. The result has been an offense that has been unproductive. The Jets scored just three field goals in a 10-9 home defeat to the Denver Broncos on September 29 and lost 23-17 to the Minnesota Vikings in London,
United Kingdom this past Sunday.
The three-time NFL MVP was only 29-54, sacked three times, and threw three interceptions, including one that Minnesota linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel returned for a 63-yard touchdown in the first quarter to put the Jets in a 10-0 deficit.
“I think there’s always positives to take,”
Rodgers said after the loss and ahead of the potentially far-reaching matchup versus the Buffalo Bills at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on Oct 14. The Bills lead the AFC at 3-2 and are coming off a 23-20 road loss this past Sunday to the Houston Texans on a game-ending field goal. Head-to-head outcomes and records in division games are among the tie-breakers used to determine the division title if teams have the same record at the end of the regular season.
“The most important positive to take with us is if we stick together because there will be a lot of people outside the building [who] won’t be sticking with the Jets, so we stick together,” Rodgers said. “I still have a lot of confidence in this team. I think it’s a team that is going to make a run. Now, whether that run starts next week, the following week, or whenever it might be, I’m confident in our guys. I’m confident in leadership and confident we’ll get this thing straightened out.”
Heading into Week 6 of the NFL schedule, the Jets’ offense ranks 27th in total yards with 1,433 –- an average of just 286.6 per game. Their ground attack has not been impactful, gaining 80.4 per outing, a key cause for them being 25th in points per game at 18.6
Running back Breece Hall, who was six yards shy of rushing for 1,000 yards a year ago, continues to struggle and has only gained 197 yards in five games. averaging just three yards per attempt.
The Giants’ resolve thrusts them over the Seahawks and shifts their outlook
By JAIME C. HARRIS Special to the AmNews
The first macro objective of every NFL team at the start of each season is to win their respective division. Doing so ensures a spot in the playoffs. The goal is achieved by approaching each of the 17-regular season games as singularly the most important. For the Giants, that mindset was amplified by going into Seattle on Sunday to face the imposing Seahawks at Lumen Field, arguably the loudest in the league. The Giants came into the game with a record of 1-3 and in a league where a win is hard to come by and critically important, there is wide chasm between being 2-3 and 1-4.
The Giants left the Pacific Northwest ecstatically claiming the former, earning their second win of the season without emerging star rookie wide receiver Malik Nabers (concussion protocol) and starting running back Devin Singletary (groin), taking down the Seahawks 29-20. In their absence, head coach Brian Daboll and quarterback Daniel Jones leaned on rookie running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. and six-year veteran Darius Slayton. Tracy Jr., a product of Purdue, selected by the Giants in the fifth round (No. 166 overall) in this past April’s NFL Draft, rushed for 129 yards on 18 carries. Slayton, also a fifth round pick (No. 177) by the Giants five years
after Tracy Jr. in 2019 out of Auburn, had eight catches for 122 yards, including a 30-yard touchdown pass from Jones at 10:41 of the third quarter to put the Giants ahead 17-10 after the extra-point kick. Jones was steady and effective, going 23-34 for 257 yards, two touchdowns and no turnovers.
“I would say the butterflies is something that is always going to happen on game day,” said Tracy Jr. via Giants.com of his first professional start at running back. “For me personally, when you get out there after that first snap, the butterflies need to go away. You have to stay focused, understand the gameplan, and rely on your fundamentals and technique.”
It wasn’t until linebacker Isaiah Simmons blocked a game-tying field goal attempt by the Seahawks, who were trailing 23-20, and the ball bounced into the hands of wide receiver Bryce Ford-Wheaton, who sprinted 60 yards for a touchdown with 55 seconds left that the victory was in hand for the Giants. It was an unlikely win that has lifted their hopes in the early part of the NFC East division race that is likely to remain close for most, if not all of this season.
The Washington Commanders lead at 4-1, with the Dallas Cowboys 3-2, the Philadelphia Eagles 2-2 and the Giants 2-3. The Giants will host the 1-4 but still dangerous Cincinnati Bengals Sunday night at home at MetLife Stadium. A loss would be a disappointing step back for the Giants.
Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and the team’s offense was stifled by the Minnesota Vikings in a 23-17 loss in London, United Kingdom and the subsequently fired head coach Robert Saleh on Tuesday. (jets.com photo)
New York Giants rookie running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. rushed for 129 yards in a 29-20 road win over the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
HBCU GO debuts on campus pre-game live kickoff show
By LOIS ELFMAN Special to the AmNews
As HBCU GO, a free-streaming digital platform from Allen Media Group, increases its coverage of sports at the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities, this football season brings the “2024 HBCU GO Sports Pre-Game Live Kick-Off Show,” which will lead into big homecoming games. On Oct. 12, it will precede the Bethune Cookman vs Alabama A&M game, which marks homecoming for Alabama A&M.
Among the hosts for the kick-off show is emerging broadcaster Jasmine McKoy, a graduate of NC State University, who is making her mark as a host, reporter, and journalist. She loved the electric atmosphere at last month’s Southern Heritage Classic.
“I flew in on Friday morning [for a Saturday game], and people were already tailgating,” said McKoy. “It was rainy during our show, but the fans really do come out for the Southern Heritage Classic. It was a wonderful time. Our production set was beautiful. For our first show it was great.”
Now in her second season with HBCU GO, McKoy has been pursuing broadcasting since her freshman year of college, building an impressive resume both on camera and
as a writer. She was not a college studentathlete, but having played basketball in high school she wanted to stay connected to sports. This turned into being a host, reporter, and video editor for Wolfpack Sports Television and working as a digital reporter for Pack Pride. Among her goals was to provide coverage for sports that didn’t typically get as much coverage as football and men’s basketball. Her desire and ability to be creative helped launch her career.
Her first job after college was a weekend sports anchor for WCBD News 2, an NBC affiliate in South Carolina.
“I went from that to the NBA 2K League (esports) as a sideline reporter,” said McKoy. “I realized that with hosting I’m more myself. When I’m a reporter and I’m sideline, it’s serious. When I’m hosting, my personality really comes out. I love this role that I’ve embraced. The guys I’m working alongside, Tre Boston and Tolly Carr, are fantastic.”
McKoy said she asks her co-hosts questions that the viewers at home would want to ask.
Part of the HBCU GO mission is to present the culture and traditions of HBCU institutions along with the fierce competitive sports. “We’re not only entertaining, but we’re trying to inform,” said McKoy. Upcoming shows are on Oct. 19, Oct. 26 and Nov. 9.
Beterbiev and Bivol battle for undisputed light heavyweight title
By DERREL JOHNSON Special to the AmNews
For the second time this year, boxing fans will get to see two undefeated champions battling in what on paper is as close to a 50-50 fight as possible.
Artur Beterbiev will put his WBC, WBO, and IBF light heavyweight titles on the line when he faces WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol this Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and on ESPN+. Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs) is the only boxing champion who has knocked out every opponent and appears to be the stronger fighter, but Bivol (23-0, 12 KOs) has exceptional boxing skills that he demonstrated in a unanimous decision against Mexican great Canelo Alvarez in May 2022. Like Fury vs. Usyk earlier this year, a fight we will see again in December, you can make a strong case for both fighters.
Also this Saturday, Newark native Michael Anderson (24-3-1, 18 knockouts) looks to extend his winning streak to eight fights when he battles Queens native Daniel Gonzalez (21-4-1, 7 KOs) at Prudential Center in Newark. The co-main event will also feature a New Yorker versus a New Jerseyan when Newark’s Emmanuel Rodriguez (15-2, 8 KOs) steps into the ring against Brooklyn’s Khalid Twaiti (13-0, 5 KOs).
If everything played out the same way as in UFC 307’s main event and the con-
test was only three rounds, perhaps Khalil Rountree Jr. would have become the new champion, but UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira came on strong in the third round and finished his opponent in the fourth to retain his title at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City.
Brazilian Robson Conceição (19-2-1, 9 KOs) became the new WBC junior lightweight champion over the summer in Newark when he was given a win in a fight in which he connected on fewer than 11% (10.8%) of his total punches. O’Shaquie Foster (23-3, 12 KOs), who clearly won the fight in the eyes of almost everyone else, will have a chance at redemption when he has a chance to regain his title on Saturday, Nov. 2, in Verona, N.Y.
“That bad decision woke something up in me, and now all I can think about is the ‘get back,’” Foster said of the upcoming fight. “I want to thank everybody who pushed for the right thing to be done. Now the focus is to become a two-time champion.”
The UFC will return to Madison Square Garden on Saturday, Nov. 16., for UFC 309 with Jon Jones (27-1-0, 1 NC) making the first defense of his UFC heavyweight title, against former two-time champion Stipe Miocic (20-4-0). Neither Jones nor Miocic has been in the octagon in quite some time — Jones last competed in March of 2023, while Miocic has not faced competition since March 2021.
Jasmine McKoy (center) with HBCU Go co-hosts Tre Boston (left) and Tolly Carr. (HBCU GO photo)
Undefeated light heavyweight champions Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol will clash this Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing photo)
Sports
The AL regular season best Yankees are pressed by the wildcard Royals
By RUDY ROBINSON Special to the AmNews
The American League Division Series has become a lot closer than the New York Yankees wanted. The Kansas City Royals have been a formidable foe, losing Game 1 on Saturday in the Bronx 6-5, but rebounding on Monday at Yankee Stadium for a 4-2 win in Game 2. While the Yankees haven’t played poorly, some of their star players haven’t shone brightly this series.
Their Game 1 starter Gerrit Cole lasted five innings, giving up seven hits and four runs. In Game 2, Carlos Rodon took the mound for the Yankees to open and lasted just 3 2/3 innings, posting the same numbers as Cole — seven hits and four runs given away. The Royals only scored three runs in two games while sweeping the Baltimore Orioles in the first round of the playoffs. Cole and Rodon, who both have a penchant
for giving up home runs (Cole averaged almost one per start during the regular season while Rodon allowed 31, second most in the league) gave up one apiece in their respective starts.
With the Yankee offense not producing as expected, better performances are needed from their two aces moving forward — that is, if the Yankees can go deep into the postseason. Clarke Schmidt was the scheduled Yankees starter last night facing Seth Lugo of the Royals. The starters for Game 4 tonight in Kansas City and Game 5 Saturday at Yankee Stadium, if necessary in the best-of-five series, had not been announced as of AmNews press time. Offensively, Yankees’ batters had walked 13 times going into Game 3 last night in Kansas City. Two of their runs in Game 1 came on walks. However, with multiple opportunities to push runs across, they left 19 men on base and stick-
ing with that number, struck out 19 times in the first two games. Probable American League MVP Aaron Judge had only one hit in Games 1 and 2 combined and had struck out four times. The Royals had not used the strategy employed by many teams during the regular season of walking Judge to get to the next hitter. While he led the league in walks during the season with 133, he had walked only once in the series going into Game 3.
The Royals had also played errorless ball in the two games in the Bronx, while the Yankees had committed two errors, on their home field, one by third baseman Jazz Chisholm. It could probably be excused because while he has played well at the position, he has only been at third for two months. Jon Berti was the Yankee first baseman for the first time in his career at the position in Game 2. He played well, but how can he
New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge has an expression of dissatisfaction in his team’s 4-2 loss to the Kansas City Royals at Yankees Stadium on Monday in Game 2 of their American League Division Series. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
be depended on in the playoffs where anything is possible?
The Yankees finished with the AL’s best record at 94-68 and the
best road record at 50-31. If they don’t manage to win two more this week, those records will be an afterthought.
The Mets’ will to win drives them to unexpected heights of October baseball
By JAIME C. HARRIS AmNew Sports Editor
Let’s be honest: Few, even the most optimistic diehard Mets fans, didn’t envision them still playing baseball into the second week of October. But here they are, World Series contenders, invoking the spirit of the 1969 champion Miracle Mets.
They went into Game 4 of the best-of-five National League Division Series yesterday on their home turf at Citi Field up 2-1, one win from closing out the Philadelphia Phillies following a 7-2 victory in Game 3 on Tuesday night at home. Starter Sean Manaea was sterling, handling the vaunted Phillies lineup for seven innings, allowing just three hits and one run with six strikeouts.
“That was for my Aunt Mabel. Just got a message that she had passed away early this morning,” Manaea said heartily. “So that game was for her.”
The Phillies were monstrous entering the playoffs, capturing the AL East Division by title with a
Mets’ third baseman Mark Vientos excitedly rounds the bases after hitting a two-run homer on Sunday against the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 3 of their National League Division Series. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
record of 95-67, six games ahead of the Mets and Braves, which were both 89-73. The Mets weren’t assured a wildcard playoff spot until the final day of the regular season on Sept. 30, one day after the originally scheduled ending to
the season, defeating the Braves 8-7 in Atlanta in the first game of a makeup doubleheader.
In what has come to define the Mets’ unwavering resolve, they overcame a 3-0 deficit with six runs in the top of 8th, fell
behind 7-6 entering the 9th, then snatched the lead again, going up 8-7 in the top of the inning on a dramatic two-run homer by star shortstop Francisco Lindor.
Their penchant for prevailing through adversity continued into the playoffs when they took down the Milwaukee Brewers two games to one in the best-of-three opening round series; the signature moment was a shocking three-run home run in the decisive Game 3 by first baseman Pete Alonso in the top of the 9th with the Mets down 2-1. Alonso, who will be a free agent this offseason, had been derided by the team’s fan base for his late season struggles at the plate. He was five for 38 with no extra base hits and 18 strikeouts in his previous 43 at-bats before authoring one of the most iconic blasts in the history of the franchise.
The story of the 2024 Mets is still being written. But it was an unhappy tale in late May when they were 10 games
under .500 at 23-33 on the 30th day of the month and it looked as if they would be near the bottom of the standings for the next four months until the end of the season. But first-year manager Carlos Mendoza, the Yankees former bench coach, and arguably the best manager in Major League Baseball this season kept them steady and thinking neutrally, focused on each subsequent at-bat, each pitch, and the challenging mental process of staying in the present.
From then, the Mets went 65-40, the best record in MLB from June 1 to the regular season’s last day and still going. Where the journey will finish is unknown — but that’s been the beauty and thrill of their unforeseen circumstances.
