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Bill stopping NYPD’s Strategic Response Group from policing protests gets reintroduced

By TANDY LAU

Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member

Last Thursday, Jan. 23, Councilmember Chi Ossé reintroduced the CURB Act, which would stop the NYPD from deploying the militarized Strategic Response Group (SRG) to protests and other First Amendmentprotected activity.

The unit gained scrutiny after overly aggressive responses to demonstrations like the George Floyd uprisings in 2020 and the pro-Palestinian campus sit-ins last year.

“The right to assembly and protest is enshrined clearly in the First Amendment of the Constitution,” said Ossé during last Thursday’s city council meeting. “The NYPD’s Strategic Response Group has proven consistently to violate that right. This bill would restrict their ability to do so…all New Yorkers deserve to exercise their right to protest and assemble, and they deserve to exercise this right with safety and dignity.”

New York Civil Liberties Union policy assistant director Michael Sisitzky and senior organizer Isabelle Leyva, who Ossé credited for partnership on the bill, told the Amsterdam News that the legislation is just one avenue police reformers are pursuing to dismantle the unit.

“This is a militarized unit that has access to tools and military-style crowd control tactics that we don’t see used by the general NYPD,” said Leyva. “So we launched this campaign to disband them, to actually remove their funds from the NYPD budget and to reinvest those funds into our communities. And that fight continues, we’ll continue pushing to disband the SRG.

“But… units get disbanded in name all the time and then they just pop up and are called something else. Part of what this legislation [hopes] to accomplish is to prevent that from happening by actually targeting the tactics of the SRG and the things that they’re known to do.”

The bill would also prohibit the NYPD’s use of tear gas, pepper spray, and sound cannons for crowd control purposes, as well as kettling, the tactic of surrounding and containing protesters often employed during the 2020 demonstrations. Crowd control use of bikes, which are a primary kettling tool for the SRG, would also be stopped.

“These are some of the most common abuses from the SRG,” said Sisitzky. “It’s great to make sure the SRG is not deployed at protests. We also need to make sure that there are prohibitions against the deployment of the SRG tactics at protests, regardless of which NYPD officer or unit is responding. And that’s what’s covered in

legislation — making sure that we are not letting those abuses carry forward.”

To be clear, the SRG is not limited to policing protests. Little is publicly known about the extent of the responsibilities of the unit, which started as a counterterrorism outfit around a decade ago. The NYPD website says mobilizations range from protests and the Pope’s visit to shootings and bank robberies. Notably, several SRG officers were involved in the 2018 killing of Black New Yorker Saheed Vassell.

“It is not clear what the SRG does outside of protests and the things that we know that they say to do, like counter terrorism efforts, those are things that are already done by several other dedicated units in the NYPD.” said Leyva. “There is nothing new that the SRG does that isn’t already taken care of by other units besides protests. So if we remove them from that space, then there really is no justification for spending $133 million on this unit per year.”

The NYPD did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

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

Members of the New York Police Department’s Strategic Response Group stage outside the main gate at Columbia University, in New York, early Friday, April 26, 2024, as demonstrators continue protesting the Israel-Hamas war. (AP Photo/Aaron Morrison)

SUNY Downstate gets additional funding pledges

By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff

After years of being on rocky financial footing, the State University of New York Downstate Hospital, Health Sciences Center, and University (SUNY Downstate) may be on the way to stability with Governor Kathy Hochul’s promised $450 million in funding in the state budget.

“Tonight, I’m speaking not only as an elected official but as a neighbor who has personally been treated at Downstate, my wife treated at Downstate, so I know the importance of the role it plays in the community,” said Senator Zellnor Myrie, who is also running for mayor this year.

Hochul’s executive budget for fiscal year (FY) 2026 allocated a total $15.3 billion for SUNY projects overall. Within that allocation, $100 million in operating support and an additional $450 million for modernization costs are set aside for SUNY Downstate Hospital.

Constructed in 1966, SUNY Downstate is in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. The teaching hospital has 342 beds and is the state’s larg-

SUNY Downstate Advisory Board held its first public meeting on campus on Wednesday, Jan. 22. (Ariama C. Long photo)

Hail Trump

By HERB BOYD Special to the AmNews

Trump, for once, is living up to his promises made on the campaign and what he would do on his first days in office. In fact, his executive orders, in several ways, have exceeded those pledges and the rule of law.

est academic medical center; housing several undergraduate nursing and medical institutions, a graduate school, and a multifaceted biotechnology initiative. SUNY Downstate is the 93rd percentile for total Black graduates and 50th percentile for

SUNY Downstate is also a Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH), meaning it serves a large number of those with Medicaid

New Yorkers are getting older. Can NYC Aging’s funding

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

Frigid temperatures did not stop 88-year-old Annie Stevenson-King from rallying outside City Hall last Thursday, Jan. 23, against cutting $108 million from the NYC Department for the Aging (DFTA) budget.

“I’m out here freezing in this cold weather at age 88 because the budgets are being cut and the seniors are not getting their due,” said Stevenson-King, who volunteers for AARP.

“We voted for them, we put them in office, [and] we support them, we’re always there for them, but yet, they keep cutting the budget and leaving us in the cold. Aging services are important because as we get older, we have many problems: We need healthcare [and] we need a place to live. The rents are outrageous.”

According to the State Comptroller, in a report released earlier this month, more seniors live in New York City now than ever before. In particular, an influx of nonwhite elders fueled this population growth from 2000 to 2023. Many were immigrants. Over that time, the number of Black New Yorkers aged 65 and older grew by 68%. They made up 22.2% of the city’s

senior population in 2023.

“That has implications for the city’s economy, and it also has implications for what the city should be spending on,” said State Deputy Comptroller Rahul Jain. “Given the fact that there’s been some substantial growth in this group, it was interesting to us that it was the only age group that had grown during the pandemic.”

The report was a springboard for Thursday’s rally, which drew more than 50 organizations led by nonprofit LiveOn in a campaign called Age Strong NYC. The advocates called for more investments in programs like Senior Affordable Rental Apartments and the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption, since the comptroller found that 61% of older tenants spent more than 30% of their income on rent — the threshold for being “costburdened.” Roughly half of the city’s 65 and older households rented in 2023, more than double the national rate of 21.5%.

Older homeowners faced similar challenges, with 39.5% spending more than 30% of their income on housing costs. Advocates say rental assistance and rent freezes would make it better for seniors to age-in-place.

total Hispanic or Latinx graduates. The hospital portion currently has more than 800 physicians representing 53 specialties, supported by about 3,000 healthcare professionals who work to address health disparities, chronic conditions, and systemic inequities in underrepresented communities.

See SUNY on page 33

keep up?

“We’re going to do things that people will be shocked at,” Trump declared, and the first wave of shock is resonating across the nation with only a modicum of outcry, of vengeance. Retaliation is evident after he pardoned all those who violently trespassed in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Equally ignominiously, with a stroke of his pen, he moved to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion, and ordered government workers to snitch on anyone suspected of not acceding to his wishes, threatening them with “adverse consequences.”

Several years ago, the Supreme Court eviscerated Section 5 of the Civil Rights Act of 1965, and Trump has gone one better, signing an executive order ending birthright citizenship, a menacing step to eradicate the power of the 14th Amendment.

The nation appears powerless to intercept the march against constitutional rights, of a reign of terror. Evidence of a rough ride ahead occurred during his inaugural address when he talked about acquiring Greenland, retaking the Panama Canal, and changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

Not since President William McKinley were such rash international moves attempted, and he was perhaps feeling extrapowerful by taking control of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam. In effect, what he proposed was another echo of the past and his claim of “manifest destiny.”

When he stated that he would pursue manifest destiny into outer space and plant the flag on Mars, that must have appealed to one of his main allies, Elon Musk, and it’s another promise, although quite improbable, that we should not dismiss.

Advocates for a bigger budget for senior services including councilmember Crystal Hudson (front) show up to City Hall. (Tandy Lau photo)

Ex-lawyer faces deed theft charges in Queens & Brooklyn

By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff

Sanford “Sandy” Solny, a disbarred attorney, is currently on trial in Downtown Brooklyn for allegations of deed theft. He is accused of unlawfully acquiring the titles to properties owned by several Black and Brown homeowners through a real estate fraud scheme that prosecutors say spanned more than a decade.

According to the charges, Solny allegedly posed as a trusted financial “fix-it man” to his clients but ultimately stole their properties.

The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office alleges that Solny conned homeowners who were in financial difficulties. According to the accusations, clients who visited Solny’s office at 3813 13th Avenue were struggling with mortgage payments and facing potential foreclosures. Solny reportedly assured them he could facilitate a short sale by negotiating with their mortgage lenders to allow the property to be sold for less than its market value, thereby preventing a foreclosure from appearing on their credit records.

A woman named Wabny Frazier testified that Solny took over a building she and her husband purchased and were planning to renovate and move into. They wanted to move to the house with their two little girls. The witness has a master’s degree in business, bachelor’s degree in accounting, and minor in economics; works for J.P. Morgan Chase as a data reporter; and has even taken occasional real estate courses. However, while on the witness stand, Frazier was unable to recall when she had signed important financial documents that had her name on them. At one point, she explained her confusion about documents she had signed by stating that she had put a lot of information about the loss of her property out of her mind. “I had to box it up and tuck it away to survive,” Frazier explained.

Frazier said she and her husband met with Solny in his office.

“What was your understanding of what was supposed to happen at this meeting?” an assistant district attorney asked her while she was on the witness stand. “My understanding is that, um, he would help to facilitate a short sale.”

“When you say ‘he,’ who are you referring to?” “Sandy.” “And when you say a ‘short sale,’ what is your

understanding of what a short sale is?” “A negotiation with a bank to accept partial payment on whatever is owed on the property.”

Frazier and her husband wound up signing numerous documents while at Solny’s office. The “game plan,” she testified, was that she and her husband were “to sign over the deed to Sandy so that he would be able to be in contact with the bank and we would not have to be in the middle, per se.”

The building had rental tenants who were delinquent in their rent payments, which contributed to the owners’ foreclosure situation. Solny had promised to help with the tenants as well — to collect the rents until the short sale was completed, which was supposed to be within a few months.

The short sale meeting took place in December 2012, but although she called and texted Solny for months and later years after, Frazier never heard back from him about the supposedly completed short sale.

Targeting victims who were in foreclosure

Solny’s current trial is expected to continue until the end of February. In the meantime, anyone sitting in the court can listen to the tales of everyday New Yorkers who worked hard to purchase homes in the city but ended up in financial difficulties. Each one was encouraged to reach out to Solny for assistance, the Brooklyn district attorney’s office claims, but Solny used businesses he owned in Borough Park to “steal deeds, possess those properties, and economically benefit from” them. The DA’s office claims that Solny targeted “victims who owned properties that were in foreclosure.”

There is a history to the current trial: Solny had been indicted in Queens back in 2017 for a broader series of deed fraud cases. The Queens district attorney’s office claimed in a press release that Solny and 10 other defendants were charged with “preying on New York City homeowners in financial distress and defrauding them into signing over their properties.” Solny pleaded guilty to a felony in the Queens cases. Five deeds he had stolen were voided and returned to their rightful homeowners, a Queens DA spokesperson said: “$100,000 in restitution [was returned] to the victims and an additional $100,000 in forfeiture funds. He

was placed on a monitor, but that has since expired. He also received five years’ probation, which has also expired.”

Solny’s law license was suspended in April 2012, and he was disbarred on Jan. 5, 2023. James Kousouros, the criminal defense attorney hired to defend Solny, told the AmNews that his client is maintaining there was no fraud committed.

“If you’ve heard the testimony, we are maintaining that there was no fraud here … let’s see how the trial pans out. I mean, honestly, it sounds to me, based on your questions, that it will likely be a one-sided report … but … I think that if you have listened to the victims’ testimony and understood just where they were coming from, I think you’d maybe take a different view … our position is there was no fraud. And our crossexamination of the victims is simply to elicit [that] certainly with some of them, people … took loans, defaulted a couple of months later, and acted the way they acted ...”

Been burned left and right

When Gaoussou Ouedraogo came to the U.S. from Burkina Faso at age 25, he could speak French, Mandingo, Fulani, Arabic, and German, but his English was a little rough. To strengthen it, he took adult learning classes, got a job washing cars, started making deliveries on bikes, and finally saved up enough money to take the test and get a New York taxi driver's license.

As a taxi driver, Ouedraogo was making more money, but he was living in a rental that his landlord refused to take care of. A real estate broker asked Ouedraogo why he kept renting instead of buying a property. “I told him, ‘No. I’m going back to Africa.’ He said: ‘Do not mix going back to Africa and buying property in America: It’s two different things. Buy and live in it. That’s better for you.’”

When a family friend, Patrice Sawadogo, also from Burkina Faso, came to the U.S., Ouedraogo partnered with him to purchase a property they could both live in.

Toward the end of 2002, Sawadogo and Ouedraogo purchased the two-family house at 729 Eldert Lane in Brooklyn. Since they both drove cabs, one in the daytime, the other at night, they shared a unit and rented out the other.

729 Eldert Lane (Photos courtesy Gaoussou Ouedraogo)

406 E. 21st Street

Brooklyn doctor appointed as sole Black board member of NYACP

THE URBAN AGENDA

By David R. Jones, Esq

New Yorker

By JASON PONTEROTTO

Special to the AmNews

After more than 30 years of practice and research in New York, Dr. Moro O. Salifu, professor and chair of the Department of Medicine at SUNY Downstate, will be appointed as Governor-elect Designee of the American College of Physicians (ACP) for the Brooklyn/Queens and Staten Island chapter of the ACP. Salifu replaces Todd Simon and will be the only Black governor on the New York board.

Born in Bolgatanga, Ghana, Salifu knew early that he wanted to be a doctor, thanks to seeing the issues of not having enough doctors for patients. “I got to see firsthand how people in my hometown were struggling with small, little ailments, and there was just barely [any] help. There was one big hospital, but it was mostly understaffed,” Salifu said.

After graduating from the Lawra Secondary School in Ghana and later spending six years studying medicine at the Dokuz Eylul University in Turkey, Salifu came to New York in 1994 and became an internal medicine and nephrology specialist through a fellowship with SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn. While working in the U.S, he observed that the issue of not enough doctors was still evident.

“It’s the same thing across the world. I came to America thinking that America has all the doctors, but we still don’t have enough,” Salifu said.

He later became chief of nephrology and director of the Transplant Program in 2008. Salifu has remained interested in health disparities in New York, and joined the ACP in 2000, eventually becoming a counselor for the organization in Brooklyn. He later

served as director of the Brooklyn Health Disparities Center for 14 years, working to mitigate the conditions Black patients face, including hypertension, diabetes, kidney disease, stroke, etc., before being named a Master of ACP in 2018. The center has been able to secure funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for development programs to train students from high school to graduate level. He also serves as chair of the chapter’s DEI taskforce.

Throughout his career, Salifu has remained close to the Brooklyn community, speaking about health inequities at churches and other community centers and providing resources.

A main area of focus Salifu will have on the ACP board will be increasing the number of primary care providers in lowerincome communities across the region and increasing racial concordance, meaning more Black physicians and primary care providers in particular for Black patients. In the U.S., the number of Black healthcare providers is a low of around 5% both nationally and at the New York state level.

According to Salifu, much of this effort will require lobbying the government to increase Medicare’s cap on new doctors from internal medicine residency programs at a given hospital. He said he will heavily promote the initiative once he is on the board.

Pushing for higher compensation for primary care providers is the other initiative Salifu will drive. He said many medical school graduates choose to go into a specialization instead of primary care because of pay differences.

In response to current attacks on DEI, Salifu said potential cuts to funding of those programs would be a “big mistake.”

See BNY on page 31

Mayor Adams: Stand Up for NYC’s Immigrants!

Mayor Eric Adams has proclaimed himself to be New York’s nightlife mayor, its vegan mayor, its anti-rat mayor and anti-crime crusader mayor. He was filled with swagger, bluster and high self-regard as he faced multiple crises in the past three years.

Most recently, Adams chose to publicly kowtow to President Donald Trump, making a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago and attending his inauguration. In doing so, the mayor has inexplicably backed himself and New York City into a corner – both politically and morally – on mass deportations.

Adams said he agreed to not publicly “criticize” Trump in exchange for a “direct line” to the president, who has pledged to halt the flow of refugees, end birthright citizenship and surge Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to round up immigrants in homes, workplaces, schools, churches and hospitals.

Mass deportation of an estimated 11 million U.S. undocumented people would be a catastrophe. The New York economy depends on immigrants. There are 4.5 million in New York state, including 1.8 million who are noncitizens, and among those, an estimated 670,000 who are undocumented, according to a new study by the Fiscal Policy Institute and the Immigration Research Initiative.

Governor Kathy Hochul must take up the megaphone on this issue. In 2022, undocumented people paid an estimated $3.1 billion in state and local taxes. Tens of thousands of undocumented people are critical to restaurants, child and personal care, hotels, construction and farm operations.

The mayor is currently awaiting trial on charges of bribery, wire fraud, conspiracy and soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals. He has said he has not discussed a presidential pardon with Trump. Even so, his behavior has raised eyebrows among critics, supporters and his opponents in this year’s Democratic primary for mayor. Let’s give the mayor the benefit of the doubt and take him at his word that he is not courting a Trump quid pro quo of his criminal case. Still, his posture toward Trump is a huge mistake. It runs counter to what you would expect from the mayor of the nation’s largest city, where immigrants are an essential part of our heritage, vibrancy and everyday life.

As fear and tensions run high, Adams is voluntarily gagged – consigned to silence –and has even pledged New York City police would coordinate with ICE. It is unclear how that will work with New York’s Sanctuary City limitations on cooperation with ICE.

To sum up, it means the mayor cannot answer Trump’s attacks on New York and speak up

for vulnerable immigrants essential to our city. We are, in fact, a city of hard-working immigrants, not evil foreign invaders responsible for every societal ill. The muzzled mayor’s office cannot declare the obvious: Trump is hapless, callous and simple-minded, and his rhetoric is over the top.

One would hope Adams would see himself and the mayor’s office as a national leader of the resistance to mass deportations. New York mayors traditionally use their platforms to speak out against injustices and protect the vulnerable. If ICE is allowed to run roughshod over New York City, no urban area in America is safe from the Trump assault.

The U.S. recorded a record-breaking, foreign-born population of 47.3 million in 2023, meaning immigrants account for 14.3 percent of the population, according to the Pew Research Center. As of 2022, 77 percent of the immigrants in this country were here legally, with 49 percent becoming naturalized citizens, Pew data says.

The migrant crisis was fomented over the past two years by busloads of migrants mostly from Texas, Florida and Arizona. Single-handily, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott bused an estimated 57,000 migrants to New York City, resulting in homeless shelters, schools and food kitchens bursting at the seams.

And make no mistake, Trump’s mass deportation campaign is driven by racism. It attacks birthright citizenship enshrined in the 14th Amendment, which was intended to correct the moral wrongs of slavery. His attempt to reinterpret it disproportionately targets Latinx, Haitian, African and other immigrants of color in U.S. society.

What will the mayor be allowed to say as the Trump administration prepares to make its next move: the biggest assault on America’s safety net in at least three decades? New York, which depends on federal programs for the poor to make ends meet, stands to be devastated.

To pay for huge tax cuts for the rich, Trump and Congress must cut spending. So, there are calls for wholesale reductions in food stamps, Medicaid and housing assistance, as well as rolling back subsidies that make purchase of Affordable Care Act coverage within reach of the working class.

Unfortunately, Mayor Adams appears to have agreed to stand by quietly, indulge Trump’s vanity, and thereby set the stage for immigrants in our city — including those without criminal histories — to come under the malicious grip of the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant assault. The chaos, fear and pain that ensues will be on his watch.

Dr. Moro O. Salifu was appointed by American College of Physicians. He is known for his 30-year career in Brooklyn and commitment to improving health outcomes and addressing health disparities. (SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University)

Mayor Adams’s long dance with the Republican Party

By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff

At the beginning of his mayoralty, New York City Mayor Eric Adams was no stranger to critics calling him a Republican, among other things.

Plot twist: They might have had a point.

There are, of course, a number of reasons for why people are denouncing the Democratic mayor as a “sellout Republican,” but most recently, it’s the assumption that Adams is seeking a presidential pardon from President Donald J. Trump for his federal indictment on campaign fraud and bribery charges, which could yield jail time if he’s convicted.

Trump has pardoned rap stars like Lil’ Wayne and Kodak Black in the past. In a statement after a meeting in Florida with Trump, Adams said that they have not discussed his legal case and he has repeated that he doesn’t want to go to “war” with Trump.

Adams attended the second inauguration of Trump on Jan. 20, where he was asked how he felt about being, as one reporter put it, “relegated to the overflow room with the likes of Jake Paul and Conor McGregor.” The next day, on Jan. 21, he sat for a lengthy interview at Gracie Mansion with former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson. The conversation covered immigration, Adams feeling like he was abandoned by the Democratic Party, the state of the city’s mentally ill and unhoused, and Adams’s indictment, none of which painted the Mayor as a loyal Democrat.

The Amsterdam News contacted electeds, analysts, and advocates to understand Adams and his relationship with the Republican Party better as he is set to go to trial in April. Raising the stakes this year are citywide elections, where the mayor’s job will be on the chopping block in the June primary.

Who Adams was

It’s well known that Adams was a New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer, supervisor, and advocate who cofounded 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care (100 Blacks) in 1995. Following in the footsteps of his mentors, he was outspoken about issues important to the Black community, including civil rights, social justice, and police brutality and killings. Adams’s organization was central to the 1999 protests over the shooting of Amadou Diallo, who was gunned down by four white members of the NYPD’s Street Crime Unit. Adams resigned as founding executive director of 100 Blacks in 2006 after being elected to the State Senate, representing Brooklyn’s 20th district.

Corey Pegues, president of Corey Pegues Enterprise, formerly incarcerated, a former NYPD officer, and a former member of 100 Blacks, recently interviewed Adams on his show, “Corey’s Corner.” He considers Adams a longtime friend, but thinks

it’s “pretty obvious” that Adams is trying to garner favor from Trump to get a pardon.

“Am I mad? I don’t know, I’m not facing 25 years in prison, so I guess it’s good for him, but self-serving,” said Pegues. “The bad thing about that is he got a lot of his administration that’s under federal investigation. I mean, Ingrid got locked up, other people are probably going to get locked up, and he’s going to get off scot-free, which is crazy to me.”

Pegues identifies as a staunch Democrat. Overall, he believes that Adams committed crimes while in office and his leadership should be called into question. “[Adams] has actually done a 180 from what I know him as. I know people evolve as they age and time goes by, but to do a total 180 is pretty surprising to people that’s very close to him, that’s been with him for so many years,” said Pegues.

Who is Adams now?

The early days of Adams’s term as mayor were marked with a sense of hope and celebration, but that quickly gave way to criticism and spectacle. Instead of being largely recognized for his accomplishments, his time in office has been overshadowed by a federal investigation and historic indictment, sexual assault allegation, and number of senior city officials who have also been indicted or resigned. (To be fair, many New York City mayors were embroiled in their own scandals while in office, but narrowly escaped legal consequences.)

“In public corruption cases and ethical misconduct cases for city officials, brib-

Republican versus Democrat

According to John Ketcham, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a conservative think tank focused on domestic policy, 2024 presidential election data showed that New York State and New York City voters swayed more heavily Republican than in previous years, and that former President Joe Biden’s “failure to address the effects of the migrant crisis” contributed to that.

ery is way up there in terms of corruption cases. There’s a question of what the officials knew and did they knowingly break the law,” said Ben Weinberg, director of public policy for Citizens Union (CU). “You have to set an example with the people you appoint and with your own actions.”

According to a recent analysis by CU, former Mayor Bill de Blasio “skirted” campaign finance and ethics laws all the time, acted on behalf of donors who sought favors, and misused city funds and a police detail during his brief presidential run. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg was a Democrat but ran as a Republican, later switching his party affiliation to Independent and then back to Democrat in 2019. Under Bloomberg, city payroll chief Joel Bondy resigned amid a huge fraud and corruption case against him. Former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik was convicted for tax fraud and former Housing Development President Russell Harding embezzled taxpayer money during former Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s time. The late David Dinkins, the city’s first Black mayor, made it out with little scandal involving himself, but was in office when the head of his Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Philip Michael was forced to resign amid a bribery scandal.

For Adams, Weinberg found that “twice as many” city leaders were indicted or resigned than under the past four mayors combined. He said this “troubling trend” underscored the urgent need for reforms to the city’s ethics laws, conflict-of-interest rules, and appointment procedures for senior officials.

Much of Trump’s gains relative to 2020 came from majority Hispanic and Asian neighborhoods, Ketcham said, areas that experienced the effects of the migrant crisis through “street prostitution, trafficking, unlawful street vending, and other forms of visible disorder.” He added that other factors, like skyrocketing housing costs and serious crime levels, also led to a Trump vote over former Vice President Kamala Harris. Ketcham also acknowledged that the city and state’s Democratic Party does not speak with one voice. “This split personality is partly a consequence of the state’s closed party primaries,” said Ketcham. “Political competition in the city effectively occurs between factions of the dominant Democratic Party, rather than as competition between parties.” There’s certainly a wide range of reactions to Adams and Trump from fellow Dems.

The City Council’s Progressive Caucus, headed by Councilmembers Shahana Hanif and Sandy Nurse, said in a joint statement to the mayor’s Carlson interview: “Good riddance.”

Reginald T. Brown, a socialist Democrat and board chairperson for VOCAL-NY, is adamant that many high-level Democrats in New York, including Governor Kathy Hochul, are “corporate” and not for the people. They denounced Democrats who work with Republicans, such as the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) that was disbanded in 2018.

Brown knew of Adams in his senator days when he lived in Brooklyn. To them, Adams and Trump are “twins” in terms of their attitudes and a strategic “cozying up to billionaires.” Brown said they didn’t support Adams then and they won’t now. “It was nice having a Black man [in office], but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Just like having a Democrat doesn’t necessarily mean anything,” they said.

Queens Councilmember Robert Holden, a common-sense Democrat, said that it’s “encouraging to see Mayor Adams adopting a more common-sense approach to immigration.” He hopes Adams stays focused on following through with these ideas and delivering real results for the people of New York.

Adams has run and won on the Democratic ticket for mayor, Brooklyn borough president, and four times as senator for Brooklyn. However, it is not as widely known that he has registered as a Republican at least once in the city, and because See ADAMS on page 31

New York City Mayor Eric Adams delivers his fourth State of the City address at Apollo Theater in Harlem on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office.)

Affordable Housing for Rent

LONG ISLAND CITY

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4 Minimum income listed may not apply to applicants with Section 8 or other qualifying rental subsidies Asset limits also apply. How Do You Apply?

Apply online or through mail. To apply online, please go to https://housingconnect.nyc.gov/PublicWeb/ To request an application by mail, send a self-addressed envelope to: 2-21 MALT DRIVE APARTMENTS, PO BOX 1543, NEW YORK, NY 10159 Only send one application per development. Do not submit duplicate applications. Do not apply online and also send in a paper application. Applicants w ho submit more than one application may be disqualified.

When is the Deadline?

Applications must be postmarked or submitted online no later than March 24, 2025 Late applications will not be considered. What Happens After You Submit an Application?

After the deadline, applications are selected for review through a lottery process. If yours is selected and you appear to qu alify, you will be invited to submit documents to continue the process of determining your eligibility. Applicants are usually contacted from 2 to 10 months after the application deadline. You will be asked to submit documents that verify your household size, identity of members of your household, and your household income.

Español Presente una solicitud en línea en https://housingconnect.nyc.gov/PublicWeb/ . Para recibir una traducción de español de este anuncio y la solicitud impresa, envíe un sobre con la dirección a: 2-21 MALT DRIVE APARTMENTS, PO BOX 1543, NEW YORK, NY 10159 En el reverso del sobre, escriba en inglés la palabra “SPANISH.” Las solicitudes se deben enviar en línea o con sello postal ant es de 24 de marzo 2025

简体中文 访问 https://housingconnect.nyc.gov/PublicWeb/ 在线申请。如要获取本广告及书面申请表的简体中文版，请将您的回邮信封寄送至：2-21

MALT DRIVE APARTMENTS, PO BOX 1543, NEW YORK, NY 10159 信封背面请用英语注明“CHINESE”。必须在以下日期之前在线 提交申请或邮寄书面申请 2025年3月24日

Русский Чтобы подать заявление через интернет, зайдите на сайт: https://housingconnect.nyc.gov/PublicWeb/ .

не поздн ее 24 март 2025 한국어 https://housingconnect.nyc.gov/PublicWeb/ 에서 온라인으로 신청하십시오 이 광고문과 신청서에 대한 한국어 번역본을 받아보시려면 반송용 봉투를2-21 MALT DRIVE APARTMENTS, PO BOX 1543, NEW YORK, NY 10159 으로 보내주십시오 봉투 뒷면에 “KOREAN” 이라고 영어로 적어주십시오 2025년3월24일 까지 온라인 신청서를 제출하거나 소인이 찍힌 신청서를 보내야 합니다

Kreyòl Ayisyien Aplike sou entènèt sou sitwèb https://housingconnect.nyc.gov/PublicWeb/ . Pou resevwa yon tradiksyon anons sa a nan lang Kreyòl Ayisyen ak aplikasyon an sou papye, voye anvlòp ki gen adrès pou retounen li nan: 2-21 MALT DRIVE APARTMENTS, PO BOX 1543, NEW YORK, NY 10159. Nan dèyè anvlòp la, ekri mo “HATIAN CREOLE” an Anglè. Ou dwe remèt aplikasyon yo sou entènèt oswa ou dwe tenbre yo anvan dat mas 24, 2025

https://housingconnect.nyc.gov/PublicWeb/

Polskie Aby złożyć wniosek online, przejdź na stronę https://housingconnect.nyc.gov/PublicWeb/ . Aby uzyskać polskie tłumaczenie tego powiadomienia oraz wniosek w wersji wydrukowanej, wyślij kopertę z własnym adresem: 2-21 MALT DRIVE APARTMENTS, PO BOX 1543, NEW YORK, NY 10159. Wpisz słowo POLISH” w j. angielskim na odwrocie koperty. Wnioski muszą posiadać stempel pocztowy lub zostać przesłane online nie później niż 24 marzec 2025

Français Pour déposer votre demande en ligne, rendez-vous sur le site https://housingconnect.nyc.gov/PublicWeb/ . Pour recevoir une traduction en français de cet avis ainsi qu’un dossier de demande papier, envoyez une enveloppe libellée à votre nom et votre adresse à l’a dresse suivante : 2-21 MALT DRIVE APARTMENTS, PO BOX 1543, NEW YORK, NY 10159. Inscrivez le mot « FRENCH » au dos de l’enveloppe. Les demandes doivent être envoyées par la poste ou soumises en ligne au plus tard le 24 mars 2025, le cachet de la poste faisant foi.

Guilty verdict for bus aide in death of 6-year-old Fajr Williams

By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff

A Somerset County, N.J., jury has found the school bus aide whose neglect of 6-year-old Fajr Atiya Williams played a part in the child’s death guilty of second-degree and endangering the welfare of a child. The bus aide, Amanda Davila, was not attending to the disabled, wheelchair-bound Williams when a safety harness choked the child to death during a school bus ride on July 17, 2023.

Williams was attending an extended school program at Franklin Township’s Claremont Elementary School. The child was nonverbal and had a chromosomal disorder known as Emanuel syndrome (Emanuel Syndrome Awareness; ESA), yet cameras in the bus captured Williams fighting for her life in the back of the bus while Davila was seated ahead of her, earbuds in, perusing apps on her cellphone.

Video footage from the bus demonstrated that Davila made

sure Williams was tied into her seat but “failed to properly anchor the victim’s wheelchair to the floor of the bus and failed to use the shoulder and lap belt,” the Somerset County Prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

Instead of sitting next to Williams for the 30-minute bus ride, as was protocol, Davila sat in a seat one row ahead of Williams and with her back to Williams as the bus proceeded along occasionally bumpy roads to Claremont Elementary School.

The aide’s attention was directed to her cellphone, to which she had attached earbuds. Records show that during the bus ride, Davila sent text messages, listened to Apple music, and visited the Instagram app.

In her six-plus years of safety training, Davila had been advised that use of a cellphone and earbuds was against the rules, the Somerset County Prosecutor’s office pointed out. She was supposed to supervise any children she was caring for.

Last year, Fajr’s now-divorced parents, Najmah Nash and Wali Williams, won a $5 million lawsuit against Montauk Transit, the transit company that Davila worked for.

Davila is scheduled to face sentencing for her guilty verdict this coming Mar. 7, but there is currently some question about whether the judgment against her will stand, since the Somerset County jury that ruled in her case had not been aware of the $5 million judgment against Montauk Transit.

Six-year-old Fajr Atiya Williams died on July 17, 2023, after being neglected by bus aide. (Photo courtesy Najmah Nash)

More subway cops bring more concerns for students

By ANDRE ALBERT and JOSHUA LEWIS Special to the AmNews

Earlier this month, Mayor Eric Adams announced that crime in train stations went down 3% last year, but he wants to add 200 more police throughout the system.

“ Watching that cop walk through the subway, seeing him present, having the conductor announce there’s a police officer on a train — [are] all of the things that will allow New Yorkers to feel the omnipresence and feel safe,” Adams said at a press conference.

For some people in the Pace University community, however, the presence of the police makes them feel the opposite.

“My experience with cops is a bad reputation with them because of me being a Black male in a white community, and growing up in a ’hood,” said Aaron, a Pace student who is being identified by first name only for privacy concerns. “It affected me mentally and physically because of being a six-foot Black male. They’ll look at me differently, like a criminal and a thug when I’m not. I’m actually a nice person.”

Last June, Aaron said he was

wrongfully accused and physically detained by the NYPD at the Grand Street stop after leaving school. He was getting onto the train with his friend when the conductor held the train in the station and accused Aaron of smoking marijuana in the train.

“The cops then pulled me out of the train and tried to put my hands behind my back to arrest me,” Aaron said. “The people on the train looked at me and said it wasn’t me.”

Jamel, a Pace student who is also being identified by first name only for privacy concerns, had an altercation with the NYPD last September. He was coming home from school on the B train when a police officer stopped him for seemingly no reason.

“They touched me in my private area without consent, and I’m a minor,” Jamel said. “I just felt harassed because I didn’t even have anything on me.”

In a separate incident, Jamel said he saw the NYPD assault a Black man in the Cathedral Parkway–110th Street station.

“They beat them, they put them in cuffs, they took them,” Jamel said. “I don’t know what happened after that.”

Despite these experiences, Jamel said he doesn’t think more police in train stations is necessarily a bad idea, due to the presence of crime in general. However, “I just feel like if they’re gonna put more

cops in there, they put cops that take their job seriously and not cops that are power hungry and do what they want,” Jamel said.

English co-teacher Mr. Pettersen said the NYPD has never

stopped him in a train station, but he has seen police harassing homeless people and found it “deeply disturbing.”

“Things get heightened because of police in the subway,” Pettersen said. “Things don’t get cooled off. They get hotter, especially for people who don’t have a roof over their head but deserve one.”

The best thing to do when stopped by a police officer is to stay calm and collected, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU). Do not become aggressive and combative, even if you feel you are being harassed. According to NYCLU, do the following:

Ask if you’re being arrested or if you’re free to leave.

Don’t use vulgar language or run away. This could lead to an arrest.

Ask for a name and badge number of the officers.

This story was reported with the instructional assistance of freelance journalist Arabella Saunders. Albert and Lewis are students at Pace High School. This article was originally published in their “Pacer NYC” student newspaper and appears here as part of a partnership with Press Pass NYC. It has been lightly edited for AmNews style.

Spectrum News NY1’s Cheryl Wills anchoring new three-hour evening lineup every weeknight

By LEAH MALLORY Special to the AmNews

Cheryl Wills, the Emmy-awardwinning journalist and author at Spectrum News NY1, is starting a new chapter at the cable news channel as the anchor of “New York Tonight” every weeknight at 8 p.m. and “NY1 at Ten” at 10 p.m., a new three-hour evening lineup.

“I have been here since the launch of NY1, so I’ve been through all the different phases and this is the most exciting one yet,” Wills said.

Wills leads coverage on breaking news and top stories of the day, as well as hosting the weekly public affairs show, “In Focus with Cheryl Wills.”

For the evening lineup, Wills plans to continue her goal of delivering quality news and sustaining a positive relationship with viewers.

“People watch us very carefully and feel a special kinship with NY1,” she said. “We’re your neighborhood news channel, and there are people who have watched us

from day one. We want to hold on to them, and we want to attract more people to Spectrum. We

that by upholding the highest standards of journalism.” As Wills approaches her 33rd an-

niversary at NY1, she said she has become a better journalist, refining her writing skills and tailoring her reporting to viewers’ needs.

“I’ve covered every major event in this city over the last three decades, and I’ve evolved in a very positive way during that time,” she said. “Writing is an everevolving skill, but I feel very comfortable now as a senior news writer here, overseeing a lot of the writing on my shows … [and] as a broadcaster, giving viewers what I know they want, how they want to hear it, and how they want it delivered.”

Wills started at NY1 when it first launched more than 30 years ago. She said what appealed to her about the channel was the opportunity to help build it from the ground up.

“What attracted me to New York One was that we were starting something new,” she recalled. “We

A majority of Pace High School students use B/D Grand Street subway station to get to and from school. (Photo by Irving Sekyere)

Cheryl Wills Spectrum News NY1 (Photo courtesy NY1)

Union Matters

Federal employees’ union files suit against Trump administration

By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff

The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) has filed a lawsuit against the new Trump presidential administration and its “Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce” executive order.

Signed by Trump on Jan. 20, the order essentially reinstates the Schedule F directive Trump had in place during his first presidential term. Now renamed as Schedule Policy/Career, the directive calls for agencies to send the White House lists of all their “policy-related” positions by Apr. 20.

The Trump administration is requiring supervisors to reclassify federal worker positions that are not normally subject to change with each new presidential administration. Under the reclassification, the jobs could be subject to easier termination.

“Accountability is essential for all federal employees, but it is especially important for those who are in policy-influencing positions,” the Trump order states.

“These personnel are entrusted to shape and implement actions that have a significant impact on all Americans. Any power they have is delegated by the president, and they must be accountable to the president, who is the only member of the executive branch, other than the vice president, elected and directly accountable to the American people.

“In recent years, however, there have been numerous and welldocumented cases of career federal employees resisting and undermining the policies and directives of their executive leadership. Principles of good administration, therefore, necessitate action to restore accountability to the career civil service, beginning with positions of a confidential, policy-determining, policymaking, or policyadvocating character.”

The NTEU, which represents more than 150,000 federal employees, filed a lawsuit against the new order late on Monday, Jan. 27, which it calls an attempt to strip civil service employees of their due process protections.

“The American people deserve to have day-to-day government

services in the hands of qualified professionals who are committed to public service and stay on the job regardless of which political party holds the White House,” NTEU National President Doreen Greenwald said in a statement.

“[The Jan. 20] Executive Order is a dangerous step backward to a political spoils system that Congress expressly rejected 142 years ago, which is why we are suing to have the order declared unlawful.”

ministration to hand out political jobs to friends and family.

The NTEU’s lawsuit notes that today’s merit-based, competitive civil service jobs are the result of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, which was established as federal law to counter a system that had allowed each ad-

According to Scott Michelman, legal director of D.C.’s American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU),

“The federal workforce executive order is a power-grab by Trump, expanding his authority to fire employees he perceives as insufficiently loyal. During Trump’s

last administration, he bumped up against federal workers who were following the law, rather than indiscriminately following his orders. Federal workers should not be fired because they are more loyal to the U.S. Constitution than they are to the president. That is a threat to both our constitutional values and the rule of law.”

NTEU National President Doreen Greenwald say Trump’s new federal workforce order “is a dangerous step backward to a political spoils system that Congress expressly rejected 142 years ago, which is why we are suing to have the order declared unlawful.” (Photo courtesy NTEU)

Trump executive order could push up prescription drug prices

By JENNIFER PORTER GORE

Word in Black

In a flurry of executive orders signed just hours after he took office, President Donald Trump rescinded a Biden administration order on prescription drugs — a move that could hike drug prices for millions of Medicare and Medicaid enrollees.

At the same time, Trump also reversed Biden’s efforts to make it easier for people to enroll in Medicaid or to get insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

Approximately 67 million adults have health coverage through Medicare, and 11% of them — just over 7 million — are Black. The vast majority of enrollees are aged 65 and older, but younger people with disabilities are also covered.

The Trump order rescinds an executive order former President Joseph Biden signed in 2022 that’s intended to lower the cost of most prescription drugs. It also comes as new polling finds that half of Americans say the federal government isn’t spending enough on Medicare and Medicaid.

MSNBC reported that the new administration said the “recission order” is aimed at “deeply unpopular” and “radical” Biden policies.

Drafted in conjunction with the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s order instructed the federal government to negotiate some prescription drug prices, with a goal of limiting out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for people on Medicare.

Signed into law during Biden’s first term, the IRA included a cap on annual out-of-pocket prescription costs of $2,000, a rule that was to become effective this year. That law also capped insulin costs for Medicare recipients at $35 per month.

“On average, Americans pay two to three times as much as people in other countries for prescription drugs, and one in four Americans who take prescription drugs struggle to afford their medications,” Biden said when introducing the measure in 2022. “Nearly three in 10 American adults who take prescription drugs say that they have skipped doses, cut pills in half or not filled prescriptions due to cost.”

Trump’s order won’t affect this benefit since it became law through congressional action. But Biden’s executive order also identified a list of prescription drugs that Medicare and Medicaid recipients would have been able to obtain for just a $2 monthly copay. Drugs considered for that list treat diabetes, high cholesterol, and thyroid issues.

Biden’s order also directed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to find ways to lower prescription drug costs for recipients. Trump’s Executive Order overturned that move and halted efforts to improve access to high-cost cell and gene therapies.

A recent KFF Health Tracking Poll shows that just over half of respondents (51%) believe the rate the federal government is spending is “not enough” on Medicare, and nearly half (46% ) say the same about the Medicaid program, according to the KFF Health Tracking Poll.

The poll finds that, while lawmakers are considering major changes to Medicaid and Medicare — including possible spending cuts — the majority of the public supports the programs. The poll also found that almost twothirds of adults (64%) still support the 2010 Affordable Care Act or ACA, frequently known as Obamacare.

Please take notice that, on or about January 15, 2025, CHPE, LLC and CHPE Properties, Inc. (collectively referred to as “CHPE” or “Certificate Holders”) intend to submit an Environmental Management & Construction Plan (“EM&CP”) for the Harlem River Cable Installation Segment (“Segment 20B”) of the proposed Champlain Hudson Power Express (“CHPE”) Project. The Harlem River Cable Installation Segment EM&CP includes installation of approximately 6.2 miles of submarine cable in the Harlem River, beginning at an industrial parcel in the Port Morris neighborhood of the Bronx, and extending to the Hudson River, near the mouth of the Harlem River, several hundred feet west of the Spuyten-Duyvil Railroad Bridge.

On April 18, 2013, the NYS Public Service Commission (Commission) issued to CHPE a certificate of environmental compatibility and public need (Certificate), pursuant to Article VII of the Public Service Law (PSL), to construct and operate the CHPE Project. The Certificate requires that, prior to construction of any portion of the Project, CHPE submit an EM&CP for review and comment.

Details of the planned work locations, including an overview map of the proposed route, are attached to this notice. Information is also available on the Project website at: https://chpexpress.com/overviewof-public-documents/environmentalmanagement-construction-plan/

In general, construction activities for this Segment are anticipated to commence in the spring of 2025. The EM&CP provides detailed information regarding how this Segment of the Project will be constructed, the specific locations of the proposed route, as well as descriptions of work to be performed, plan and profile drawings depicting the Project, plans and protocols to be used during construction to protect the community and the environment, and to comply with the CHPE Certificate. The EM&CP must be reviewed and approved by the PSC before construction on the Segment can begin.

The full Commission docket for the Project can be accessed via the Commission’s website at:

http://documents.dps.ny.gov/public/MatterManagement/CaseMaster. aspx?MatterCaseNo=10-T-0139

and electronic copies of EM&CP documents also will be available on the Project website at https://chpexpress.com/overview-of-public-documents/environmental-managementconstruction-plan/

Paper copies of the Segment EM&CP submissions will be available for viewing at the following local document repository: Mott Haven Public Library, 321 East 140th Street, Bronx, NY 10454.

Comments related to this proposed EM&CP should be submitted to the Commission Secretary by email at secretary@dps.ny.gov or by mail to Michelle Phillips, Secretary, NYS Public Service Commission, 3 Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY, 12223, within 30 days of the EM&CP segment’s filing with the Commission. All comments should reference Case Number 10-T-0139.

The ICEmen cometh

reminded us of the Confederates attempt to usurp the Union. Now Trump, with his promise to make America great (make that grate) has issued a tsunami of executive orders, including a stroke to end birthright citizenship. Cue the Dred Scott decision. If you’ve forgotten those civic lessons, in the landmark 1857 case Scott v. Sandford, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that African Americans, whether enslaved or free, were not U.S. citizens.

Chief Justice Roger Taney, delivered the opinion of the court and ruled that African Americans were not “constituent members of the sovereignty … and they are not included under the word ‘citizens’ in the Constitution, and therefore can claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States.” In short, Black Americans had no rights which the white man was bound to respect. It would take a Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the 13th and 14th Amendments to overturn the decision.

Trump’s order is reminiscent of one a generation ago that sought to deny citizenship to children born in the U.S. to parents who were not legal residents, but it didn’t suc-

ceed nor did others. What Trump is seeking to do is to amend the 14th Amendment, which states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state therein they reside.”

It is highly improbable that Trump’s executive order can revoke the 14th Amendment, though we’ve seen the demise of other improbabilities. And the old snake oil salesman may have another card up his sleeve, perhaps restricting short-term visas to pregnant travelers, thereby intercepting a possible birth in the U.S.

To date, Trump’s order, which was planned to take effect in February, has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge in Seattle, a measure joined by Democratic attorneys general from 22 states.

Knowing the chicanery of Trump and his allies, the birthright issue is just the tip of the iceberg — and the emphasis here on ice stands for U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, which has already arrested and detained thousands of immigrants, half of whom have no criminal record. But this, of course, means little to a tyrant with no respect for the law or human rights.

Elinor R. Tatum: Publisher and Editor in Chief

Reyes: Executive & Investigative Editor

New York has strong vape laws. It’s time to start enforcing them

By KERIS LOVÉ

In 2020, New York State took decisive action against the youth vaping epidemic by banning flavored e-cigarette products — the very products that attract young people and fuel addiction. New York City had previously taken a similar step. These policies are some of the strongest in the nation, reflecting a clear understanding of the dangers posed by flavored vapes. Yet, despite these bold laws, flavored e-cigarettes remain widely available, and our children remain at risk.

As Americans, we’re expected to participate and uphold democracy. We organize, campaign, and protest for laws to be changed that will serve the interest of our society. We vote for politicians to uphold and create legislation that fits the needs of our society. This structure loses validity when legislation is not implemented. When our government picks and chooses which laws to uphold, we as citizens question if our concerns matter.

Particularly when we continue to see a lack of care for our health being pushed aside to allow capitalism and business to make money. We cannot sacrifice our children’s wellbeing just so the vaping industry can make money.

The reality is simple: our laws are not being enforced.

The numbers tell a troubling story. In 2021, 11.1% of New York City public high school students reported currently using e-cigarettes. This generation of teenagers, introduced to flavored vapes in their early years, are now becoming young adults, and we are seeing rates of adult use rise alongside them.

According to the 2023 National Youth Tobacco Survey, e-cigarettes remain the most commonly used tobacco product among both middle and high school students for the tenth consecutive year. Flavored vapes remain especially popular, with fruit, cola, and dessert flavors enticing kids into nicotine addiction.

This problem has not gone unnoticed. A Siena College poll

conducted earlier this year found that 53% of New Yorkers believe authorities are doing a “fair” or “poor” job enforcing the state’s flavored vape ban. Only 27% of residents described enforcement efforts as “good” or “excellent.”

At the same time, an overwhelming 60% of New Yorkers support the ban on illegal flavored disposable vapes, compared to just 27% who oppose it. New Yorkers want action, and they are right to demand it.

A key issue, the influx of flavored vapes snaring children are not approved for sale anywhere in the country and are manufactured by foreign companies.

Nearly all e-cigarettes originate from factories in Shenzhen, China, where a lack of oversight allows for products with dangerously high levels of nicotine and other potentially dangerous materials to flood the market. These vapes are often designed to look like toys, feature cartoon packaging, or even include mini-games — all explicitly aimed at hooking children. Federal health authorities, including the U.S. Surgeon General and the Food and Drug Administration, have repeatedly warned that these products fuel

nicotine addiction among kids, leaving them vulnerable to lifelong health consequences. The problem is not a lack of laws. New York has already shown foresight and leadership by putting some of the nation’s strongest vape regulations on the books. The issue is a lack of collective will to enforce those laws. Policymakers, law enforcement, and community leaders must come together to stop the infusion of illegal flavored vapes into our state. We cannot afford to continue to look the other way while our children are targeted by foreign manufacturers and unscrupulous sellers. The policies we need are already in place. Now, we need leadership. New York has set the standard for what strong flavored vape laws look like. Let’s match that vision with the action required to enforce them.

Keris Lové is a policy analyst and advocate whose career began in New York City’s child welfare system. She is the co-founder of NNLB, a collective dedicated to Black Liberation, Direct Reparations, and the Decriminalization of Poverty.

Great Scott!! The insurrection of Jan. 6

Damaso

Kristin Fayne-Mulroy: Managing Editor

Cyril Josh Barker: Digital Editor

Siobhan "Sam" Bennett: Chief

Keris Lové

(www.ice.gov photo)

Trump’s actions on DEI are an attack on Black America

By KEITH BOYKIN WIB

Donald Trump has issued a new memorandum to carry out his Inauguration Day executive order eliminating federal DEIA programs, by placing DEI employees on federal leave

DEIA stands for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, and Trump’s action rescinds President Biden’s executive order from 2021, which sought to make the federal government “a model” for effective DEIA.

Trump’s order inaccurately describes DEIA as “radical,” “illegal,” and “immoral discrimination.” So let’s look at what the federal government’s DEI programs actually do.

Federal DEI programs set goals in 8 different areas:

1. Data collection, to give us a better understanding of who is and isn’t in the federal workforce

2. Paid Internships, which provide valuable opportunities and experience for people from underserved communities

3. Recruitment, so that the government doesn’t just hire the usual suspects but posts job announcements in places where other people can see them

4. Professional development, so that once people are hired they can continue to expand their skills and become better workers

5. Fair treatment of people with disabilities, so that they can get a job and find appropriate accommodations

6. LGBT fairness, so that spouses and families of LGBT employees get the same benefits as other families do

7. Pay equity, to review government policies, hiring, and salaries to make sure that women and people of color aren’t being paid less to do the same jobs

8. Opportunities for formerly incarcerated individuals, to review barriers so that qualified job applicants who have served their time get a fair shot to get a job.

These are not radical, illegal, or immoral ideas. These are calls to the highest principles of America, with the stated goal that “all employees are treated with dignity and respect.”

America’s Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 announced to the world that “all men are created equal,” but for

the next 200 years, millions of Americans remained second-class citizens.

Black people were legally segregated, denied jobs, housing, and the right to vote until the late 1960s. Women couldn’t get a credit card in their own name until 1974. People with disabilities were locked out of the workplace until 1990. And gay and lesbian couples couldn’t marry the people they loved until just 10 years ago. Most of those changes happened in my lifetime.

What DEI policies do is acknowledge our history to create a fairer and more inclusive workplace that benefits everyone. I’m not sure Trump knows any of that history, but I do know that his actions are designed to be an attack on Black America. That’s why he also revoked Executive Order 11246 on affirmative action, which has been in place since 1965 in the civil rights era.

There’s a reason for this.

Black people were the least supportive racial or ethnic group for Donald Trump. We make up about 13.7% percent of the U.S. population but account for nearly 19% of federal workers. Nearly 400,000 Black people now work for the federal government. Trump’s DEI attack fits with his larger plans to move federal jobs out of Washington, D.C., and slash the federal workforce, which would leave thousands of Black people unemployed. All of this would constitute the most significant attack on Black public workers since Woodrow Wilson segregated the federal workforce in 1913.

Black people are overrepresented in the federal government because historically that was the one place where we did not face employment discrimination. I would not be here without federal DEI programs.

My grandmother worked for HUD for 30 years in St. Louis, Missouri. My mom

worked for the Department of Defense at the Sharpe Army Depot in Stockton, California, and Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas. This is personal to me.

But the impact of Trump’s attack will be felt far beyond the federal workforce. The federal government influences the private workforce by dictating rules for federal contractors and serving as a model for best practices for private employers. And some corporations are already rolling back their DEI initiatives.

Because of Trump’s actions, not only will Black federal employees lose their jobs, but Black people in private companies will be laid off. After spending his 2024 campaign scaring Black people with racist lies that immigrants are taking “Black jobs,” Trump will end up being the one to take their jobs.

By closing DEI offices, ordering the government to delete all websites about diversity, pardoning the January 6 insurrectionists, and paying restitution to (presumably) white people he calls victims of DEI, Trump is launching a radical campaign to promote white victimhood and erase America’s true racial history.

I have no hope that “moderate Republicans” or misinformed celebrities performing for Trump will use their influence to help Black Americans, people of color, or other groups that are targeted by these mean-spirited policies. These clout chasers seem only to aspire to personal adjacency to power.

So we must educate our own people, fight in the courts, the boardrooms, and the media when we can, and in the streets when we must, and resist his efforts to erase us as powerfully and constructively as we can.

Deep breaths

CHRISTINA GREER, PH.D.

We’ve made it through the first month of 2025 and the first few days of the return of DJT — the red hats, the chaos, the vitriol, the spewing of lies and hatred toward marginalized groups, and the gaslighting. Many people had forgotten just how energy-sucking this man and his entire existence can be when dealing with him on a direct and daily basis. But here we are, and it is time to take deep breaths.

The threats he poses are real. To poor communities, to people of color, to immigrants, to the LGBTQ+ community, and to Black people explicitly. I have always said that in his first turn in office, he was merely casing the joint. He had some guardrails in a few relatively decent Republicans who refused to do his bidding (before they were fired and lambasted and denigrated). However, this time, the president has sidestepped those few rational voices in the room and surrounded himself with people who have a specific vision of the America they want to see.

It is a tall task to at once stay vigilant while also protecting our peace. Many people forgot just how emotionally draining it is to deal with the onslaught of chaos at the highest levels of government, fighting with allies and adversaries, wondering if he is blustering or actually insane enough to destroy decades-long partnerships and relationships. It is all so much, especially as a political scientist who studies and writes about American politics.

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, cofounded the National Black Justice Coalition, cohosted the BET talk show “My Two Cents,” and taught at the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University in New York. He’s a Lambda Literary Award-winning author and editor of seven books. He lives in Los Angeles.

We have already seen the white nationalism of his inner circle. We have seen performative acts that satisfy his small but powerful base, who want their leader to be as cruel as their deepest desires will allow.

It is incumbent on us to do two things simultaneously. We must pay attention to the rollbacks of civil rights and civil liberties under this administration, and we must not get sucked into his 24-hour need to be at the top of the news and consume our attention spans.

The glimmer of hope is that there is no mandate. Contrary to what is being repeated, the election was not a landslide. The vast majority of Americans do not support this isolationist agenda. It is my sincere hope that Democrats and goodhearted Republicans will have the courage and temerity to articulate a vision for this country in local, state, and federal races across the country over the next few years to right this ship. Now is not the time to exit the arena. We must not be consumed by the trivial. Rather, we must stay focused on what is real, what can and has to be done, and supporting those who can help us achieve these political goals.

Christina Greer, Ph.D., is an associate professor at Fordham University; author of the books “How to Build a Democracy: From Fannie Lou Hamer and Barbara Jordan to Stacey Abrams” and “Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream”; and co-host of the podcast FAQ-NYC.

Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House on January 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Caribbean Update

Antigua upset with Harvard over reparations payments

By BERT WILKINSON Special to the AmNews

Antigua’s government is very upset at Harvard University for its piecemeal approach and apparent reluctance to make reparations payments linked to its role in benefiting from the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

The cabinet in the Eastern Caribbean island thinks that the school has been skimping on the financial responsibilities to Antigua, from which it had its early start through the plantation system.

A less-than-impressed Prime Minister Gaston Browne took to public radio in the past week to lambaste Harvard for what he termed as a mere symbolic financial gesture toward the island rather than sitting down to formally discuss reparations with authorities.

The link between Antigua and the university has been making headlines in recent days because a team from Harvard’s “The Legacy of Slavery Initiative” was on the island to research the university’s links with

in any way to plantations. A planter named Isaac Royall Junior, who had invested in and had owned the Royall plantation, is listed as the financier of some very early programs at Harvard’s law school.

So far, researchers say they have found evidence of more than 250 people who worked without pay as slaves for people and institutions linked to Harvard, as well as dozens of living descendants.

Touching on the subject on the radio, Browne was strident in presenting his administration’s position on the issue, noting that the school is culpable and should begin making payments rather than symbolic offers of short-term academic courses while avoiding payments for historical injustices.

pay, and their labor fueled Harvard’s early development. It’s time for them to acknowledge this with meaningful action.”

Local and international media reports had indicated that Browne had written to the university’s administration demanding reparations as far back as 2019, but it is unclear what became of that effort.

As Browne steps up his campaign for meaningful reparations, the “Harvard Crimson” newspaper recently reported the school has ramped up links with Antigua in general and plans to continue doing so.

slavery. The island has a military national reparations commission working with the umbrella regional body. That body, through Caribbean governments, has already sent demand payment letters to European capitals, while also retaining a British law firm to determine the strength of the regional case. The preliminary verdict is that governments should move ahead because the evidence of European culpability is overwhelming.

Antigua and try to trace and identify the descendants of enslaved individuals who were attached or linked

“We are not asking for favors. We are seeking justice for the people whose suffering built Harvard into what it is today,” Browne said. “Harvard University, particularly its law school, was established with funding from slavery on Antigua’s plantations. Our ancestors worked for centuries without

So far, teams have visited at least five plantations on the island, complete with building structures dating back to the 1830s when sugar was the king crop in the West Indies, and plans other phases of research and investigations into what officials say is a horrible past.

Browne has been one of the more strident Caribbean leaders in demanding payments from former European slave-trading nations and institutions associated with

Antigua’s interaction with Harvard is coming at a time when other Caribbean nations are pressing for payments and doing away with remaining vestiges of colonialism.

Trinidad’s parliament, for example, recently approved eliminating images of the original sailing ships of Christopher Columbus from its coat of arms and replacing them with the steelpan, the national musical instrument, while preparing to remove statues of Columbus from prominence in the city. Barbados did likewise in the runup to its switch to a republic three years ago.

Trump’s Day One orders prove Project 2025 has manifested

FELICIA PERSAUD

For those voters of color who scoffed at warnings that Donald Trump would implement the extreme policies outlined in Project 2025, I say: Thank you. Sarcastically, of course. Because here we are. On Day One, as the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism pointed out, Trump wasted no time, issuing a flurry of executive orders that brought the Project 2025 blueprint to life, especially on immigration.

Immigration and Border Security: The Reality Hits

The Day One immigration-focused executive orders represent the most sweeping fulfillment of Project 2025’s border security vision. The plan, as laid out on page 135, calls for Homeland Security to return to the “right mission, the right size, and the right budget.” Sounds harmless enough

— until you realize that the focus is on mandatory detention and expedited deportations.

Trump’s orders reflect Project 2025’s push to remove any “discretionary language” from Title 8, ensuring immigrants “shall” be detained instead of “may.” In other words, say goodbye to due process and humanitarian discretion.

And if that wasn’t enough, the suspension of the U.S. Refugee Assistance Program takes the cruelty a step further. The executive order bluntly states: “It is the policy of the United States to ensure that public safety and national security are paramount considerations... and to admit only those refugees who can fully and appropriately assimilate into the United States.”

Translation? Refugees from certain regions — mainly Black and Brown ones — aren’t welcome unless they fit a narrow, exclusionary definition of “assimilation.”

This is precisely what Project 2025 advocated on page 145, where it demanded sweeping reforms to refugee intake, temporary work visas, and asylum rules.

The

“The implications of these policies are stark. Immigrant communities, especially Black and Brown ones, will bear the brunt of the crackdown, that has already begun.”

“Cartel”

Label: A Dangerous Precedent

Another clear Project 2025 plan was executive orders designating drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Now, no one is arguing that cartels aren’t dangerous, but the language used here is straight from Project 2025’s playbook — on page 183, to be exact — where it paints Mexico as a “national security disaster” overrun by criminal organizations. The order claims: “The Cartels’ activities threaten the safety of the American people, the security of the United States, and the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere.”

This rhetoric dangerously frames Mexico as a failed state and lays the groundwork for even harsher

border measures. But it doesn’t stop at drug trafficking — Trump’s team has borrowed the term “cartel” to target a range of institutions, from academia to agriculture. According to Project 2025, so-called “cartels” include everything from university accreditation bodies to international tax agreements — essentially labeling anything they disagree with as a threat to U.S. sovereignty.

What This Means For Immigrants And Communities Of Color

The implications of these policies are stark. Immigrant communities, especially Black and Brown ones, will bear the brunt of the crackdown, that has already begun. Refugee admissions will plummet, asylum seekers will face

insurmountable hurdles, and immigrants already in the U.S. will live under the constant threat of mandatory detention and deportation. Yet, somehow, too many voters dismissed these warnings. They believed the rhetoric about economic prosperity and national security without recognizing that such policies always come at a cost — especially for communities of color. The writing was on the wall, but now it’s official policy.

The Bottom Line Day One of Trump’s return has shown us exactly what to expect — Project 2025 in full effect. And for those who doubted it could happen, I hope the reality is sinking in now.

As my grandmother used to say in her infinite wisdom: “Too late, too late shall be the cry.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: 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.

The Right Honorable Gaston Browne, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda.

(Photo by Palácio do Planalto from Brasilia, Brazil; https:// commons.wikimedia.org)

International News

Ghana’s Du Bois Centre to celebrate scholar’s impact on 157th birthday

By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff

The W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation (WEBDBMF) is getting ready to celebrate the 157th birthday of W.E.B. Du Bois. On Feb. 23, 2025, they plan to host activities and events to honor Du Bois’s legacy at the W.E.B. Du Bois Centre for Pan African Culture in Accra, Ghana — Du Bois’s home there.

Japhet Aryiku, WEBDBMF’s executive director, said their event is one of many Du Bois celebrations scheduled for this year. The nonprofit organization will also commemorate the 40th anniversary of the creation of the Du Bois Centre on June 22 and the 62nd anniversary of the passing of Du Bois on Aug. 27, 2025.

“For these events, we invite the Du Bois scholars from the U.S. to come to Ghana for them to have a symposium,” said Aryiku. “And we invite the students from all the universities in Ghana, as many students as we can fit. They can all come for a symposium.”

Since Sept. 22, 2023, when WEBDBMF signed an agreement with Ghana’s government to take over management and development of the Du Bois Centre, WEBDBMF board members have been devising plans to raise funds for renovations. Although it has become a major tourist site, the Centre has been deteriorating. Academic gowns, textiles, artifacts, objects, books, and papers authored by Du Bois have been stored in areas lacking climate controls, subjecting them to environmental conditions that threaten their preservation.

The government of Ghana was mandated to maintain the Du Bois Centre, but funds to do so have been inconsistent. The Centre has had to rely on receiving whatever was available to be allocated. The opportunity for the Du Bois Centre to be managed by a nonprofit will allow it to have consistent care — and programming to broaden its audience.

Du Bois in Ghana

The Du Bois Centre receives an average of three to five busloads of tourists daily, said Aryiku, but those tourists tend to be U.S. Americans. Most Ghanaians do not know who Du Bois was. “One of the biggest challenges that we have on our hands right now is to educate the Ghanaian public about the presence of Du Bois in Ghana,” Aryiku said. “When you ask any Ghanaian, ‘Have you been to the Du Bois Centre?,’ they’ll say, ‘Oh, yeah, I was there.’ ‘What for?’ There are three things that happen at the Centre because it’s a very large campus: They rent the ground for weddings, or for funerals, or for birthday parties … so the Ghanaian that you see … says (they have) been to the Du Bois Centre, it is because they attended one of these events. We have to do a lot of community engagement to talk about the presence of Du Bois in Ghana.”

Du Bois was a prominent civil rights activist, writer, and historian who spent most of his life in the United States., but he also traveled extensively and both documented and advocated for an end to the racism faced by people of African descent globally. As he grew older, Du Bois lost faith in the prospects for racial progress in the United States, so when he was offered the opportunity to relocate to Africa, he accepted and became a citizen of Ghana. Ghana was the first sub-Saharan nation to

gain independence in Africa, and quickly won the admiration of activist African Americans. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president, encouraged Black Americans to play a role in the new sovereign nation, which could be one of the reasons figures like Du Bois are not well known by Ghanaians today, Aryiku surmised. After Du Bois’s death, Nkrumah wanted to memorialize him properly, but “unfortunately for Du Bois and Kwame Nkrumah, the CIA staged a coup in 1966 and overthrew Kwame Nkrumah. Anything and anybody that was connected with Kwame Nkrumah’s legacy was persona non grata in Ghana. They did a very good job in suppressing the legacy of Du Bois and Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana, that was the issue, so, Du Bois was forgotten; the legacy of Du Bois in Africa was suppressed as a result of the 1966 coup d’etat.”

Scholar and African patriot

So far, WEBDBMF has been awarded a four-year, $5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation that will be used to begin work on restoration of the bungalow where Du Bois and his wife, Shirley Graham, lived. Further funding will be designated for construction efforts in 2027, and by 2028, the renovated Du Bois Centre should be ready for public access. WEBDBMF is hoping to conduct a re-dedication of the Du

Bois Centre on Jan. 1 or 2, 2029.

For this year’s celebration, the nonprofit has invited Ghana’s President John Mahama to come and lay a wreath on behalf of the people of Ghana. Having the president available will echo DuBois’s initial invitation from Nkrumah to move to Ghana as the historian worked to complete his “Encyclopedia Africana.”

Du Bois died in 1963, on the same day as the Martin Luther King Jr.-led “March on Washington.” The Amsterdam News featured an article written by the playwright William Branch on what it was like to be in Ghana, with Du Bois’s wife Shirley Graham and other activists, when the activist died.

Branch went to Du Bois’s home — now the Du Bois Centre — to sit with Graham the day after Du Bois’ death. He was present as she listened to the Ghana radio program feature that paid tribute to Du Bois. “When the commentator spoke of Dr. Du Bois’s arrest and indictment in the U.S. in 1951 on alleged grounds of ‘failure to register as a foreign agent’ (a charge of which he was acquitted), a cloud passed over Mrs. Du Bois’s face, as if in remembrance of that bitter day when government agents had actually handcuffed the then 84-year-old scholar when he appeared to answer the indictment.

“She brightened, however, at the mention of Ghana’s President Kwame Nkrumah and his expression of deep regret and personal loss. Speaking of the late historian and sociologist as a ‘friend and father to me,’ President Nkrumah had said:

“‘I asked Dr. Du Bois to come to Ghana to pass the evening of his life with us and also to spend his remaining years in compiling an ‘Encyclopedia Africana,’ a project which is part of his whole intellectual life.

“‘We mourn his death. May he live in our memory not only as a distinguished scholar, but a great African patriot. Dr. Du Bois is a phenomenon. May he rest in peace.’”

1. Books deteriorating at Du Bois Museum in Ghana.

2. Old snapshot of W.E.B. Du Bois in his bungalow in Accra, Ghana.

3. Du Bois Museum in Accra, Ghana.

(WEBDBMF photos)

Warm up your winter with the NY Phil.

Facing climate crisis, ‘Dark Laboratory’ offers possibility and poetry

By ROXANNE L. SCOTT Special to the AmNews

David Geffen Hall

From the red bauxite mines on the island of Jamaica to low-flying airplanes on the edge of New York City, Tao Leigh Goffe says there are examples of how Black and Indigenous people bear the brunt of exploitation and environmental racism around the globe.

Those injustices are personal. Goffe traces her ancestry to Jamaica and China, and has called London and New York home, with a stint in southeast Queens. She’s a professor at Hunter College where she also runs Dark Laboratory, a research space of global scholars, artists, and technologists that centers storytelling around race, climate, and technology.

In her debut book, “Dark Laboratory: On Columbus, The Caribbean and the Origins of the Climate Crisis,” Goffe argued that the current crisis began the moment Christopher Columbus stepped foot in the Caribbean in 1492. Dark Laboratory weaves together science, history, family narratives, and archival research and offers an array of solutions, from “clams walls” to block storm surges to climate reparations.

The Amsterdam News talked to Goffe about why the moment for this book is now as the world shifts right, how she intertwined memories of Southeast Queens in a book about the Caribbean, and why climate stories need a bit of poetry.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

AmNews: Why this book and why now?

Tao Leigh Goffe (TLG): This book has been a long time coming. I would say the first kernel of it came together in 2017. I think that although it took a long time, it

was necessary for it to gestate over that period, because since then, we’ve seen quite a political shift. The book has answered the call to address (the issue) in terms of the legacy that undergirds the kind of fascism that President Trump is professing and promising in terms of “making America great again.” The book is an interrogation of what America is, by beginning with Christopher Columbus and 1492 as the origin of the climate crisis. If we do that, we have to begin in the Caribbean and with the fact that Columbus never even set foot on the mainland United States.

The book is a love letter told from the perspective of islands. but it’s also a love letter to islands. It looks at the cause of the climate crisis from islands and the fact that Columbus landed on Guanahani, which is the present-day Bahamas, in 1492. It also looks into the future and the ways in which islands can save the future. There’s a real exciting sense in which the cause of the problem, but also the solutions to the problem when it comes to environmental degradation, is in islands. There is no better time than 2025 to be addressing these questions, especially as the Trump administration will be rolling back so much that has been done in terms of climate policy and legislation to protect the environment.

AmNews: In 2021, you were featured in the Hulu series “Initiative 29” about your ancestry. It includes these words: “I am the sedimented sum of four islands — the Caribbean, Hong Kong, the British Isles, New York City — archipelagos. ” How did these words help you land on the ethos of this book?

TLG: It was at a moment when I was writing

Tao Leigh Goffe (Elena Seibert photo)

Arts & Entertainment

Dance Calendar February 2025

By CHARMAINE PATRICIA WARREN Special to the AmNews

Featured this month is “SCAT!...The Complex Lives of Al & Dot, Dot & Al Zollar,” conceived, directed and co choreographed by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. Urban Bush Women, the dance company begun by Zollar in 1984 to “…amplify underrepresented voices and unheard stories of Black Women+, continues their 40th anniversary season with the 2025 NYC premiere of SCAT!… Through song, dance, and storytelling, Urban Bush Women tell the powerful love story of two people making their way through the Great Migration, inspired by Zollar’s childhood in Kansas City’s Black neighborhoods,” according to the release. Rounding out the list of creators is composer Craig Harris, co-choreographer Vincent E. Thomas, dramaturgy by Talvin Wilks, assistant director & associate producer Cheri Stokes, as well as dancers from Urban Bush Women and the cast of singers and musicians. The “… dance-driven, jazz fueled experience about dreams colliding with the realities of American life in the ‘40s and ‘50s,” will run from Feb. 5-8 at the Perelman Performing Arts Center. For more information visit https:// pacnyc.org/whats-on/scat-the-complexlives-of-al-dot-dot-al-zollar/

ALSO THIS MONTH:

Feb. 1-2: Celebrating the coming of Spring 2025 and the Year of The Snake, at NJPAC, Nai-Ni Chen Dance continues their Newark tradition for over two decades, with

dance, acrobatics and music to invoke the spirit of the snake. For more information visit www.njpac.org.

Feb. 2: Maleek Washington will be at the 92nd Street Y as part of drummer/composer Allison Miller’s immersive multimedia work “Rivers in Our Veins.” Also on the program is Michelle Dorrance, Claudia Rahardjanoto, and Luke Hickey. For more information visit www.92ny.org.

Feb. 5-9: Camille A. Brown & Dancers returns to the Joyce Theater with “I AM.” expanding Brown’s trilogy: “Mr. TOL E. RAncE” (2012), “BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play” (2015), and “ink” (2017) that “…disrupt our understanding of the past, while

‘I AM’ shifts the scope of her bold queries into the future. Inspired by a narrative within the drama television series ‘Lovecraft Country,’ Brown imagines a creative space for cultural liberation,” notes the release. For more information visit www. joyce.org.

Feb. 6-8: As part of “Edges of Ailey” at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Okwui Okpokwasili, Peter Born with collaborators Bria Bacon, Katrina Reid, Kris Lee and Okpokwasili will be performing in “let slip, hold sway.” For more information and to rsvp, visit whitney.org.

Feb. 12-16: Also returning to the Joyce is Akram Khan with “Gigenis: the generation

of the Earth.” Through his own lineage of classical Indian Kathak and contemporary dance, Khan shares the stage with an ensemble of classical Indian dance artists. For more information visit www.joyce.org.

Feb. 13-14: For the annual SoloDuo Dance Festival under White Wave’s artistic director, Young Soon Kim, featured will be national and international companies, including Limon 2, Beijing Dance Academy, Take Root, Ellexis Hatch, Jin-Wen Yu Dance, ALA Dance, Company E, Inc., Moremeant dance theater Israel, TheCo and many more. The performances will happen at Dixon Place. For more information visit whitewavedance.networkforgood.com.

Feb. 14-15: Miro Magloire’s New Chamber Ballet will be at the Mark Morris Dance Center, with the world premieres of Magloire’s “Vox” and “The Distance Between Bones” to live piano and violin, by composers Ya-Lan Chan and Elizabeth Gartman. For more information visit https:// ncb-vox2025.eventbrite.com.

Feb. 24: New York City Center (Studio 5) continues their annual Black History Month | Street Dance Edition celebration with Ephrat Asherie and Adesola Osakalumi. For more information visit www.nycitycenter.org.

Feb. 25-Mar. 9: Led by Buenos Aires tango dancers Germán Cornejo and Gisela Galeassi, the Joyce will present “Tango After Dark, an event “…that fuses the rich traditions of tango with a contemporary flair,” by creator and choreographer Cornejo. For more information visit www.joyce.org.

Scenes from “SCAT!...” (Maria Baranova photos)

Remembering Barry Michael Cooper, a writer who always had Harlem on the mind

By ADE ADENIJI Special to the AmNews

Barry Michael Cooper, a pioneering journalist and screenwriter, died on Tuesday, Jan. 21, in Baltimore, Maryland, at 66. Cooper’s death was confirmed by a representative for Spike Lee, according to Variety Cooper is best known for penning a trifecta of Hollywood films in the early ’90s, collectively called the “Harlem Trilogy.” The first, the Mario Van Peebles crime-drama “New Jack City” (1991), starring Wesley Snipes, placed viewers smack-dab in the middle of Harlem at the height of the crack epidemic. “Sugar Hill” (1994) and “Above the Rim” (1994) soon followed.

When I connected with Cooper by phone last year for a story on the 30th anniversary of the “Above the Rim” soundtrack, I was humbled to find him more curious about me and my writing. He even told me he read some of it. “You found a lane for yourself, brother. I commend you, one journalist to another.” Then he told me to get to it because he had to get back to rewrites on a Spike Lee project.

Born in Harlem and raised in Little Washington Heights between 164th and 165th Streets on Amsterdam Avenue, Cooper was a lifelong writer. He spent his first year of college at his mother’s alma mater, the HBCU North Carolina Central University. There, he continued to hone his craft in an honors English program, enveloping himself in the works of Richard Wright and Flannery O’Connor.

A year later, he transferred to Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, where in the late 1970s he wrote an unpublished novel, “Out of the Mouth,” which he described as a quasi-science fiction book set in Harlem. Throughout Cooper’s life, the Black Mecca was always on his mind.

When the book failed to land a publisher, Cooper’s girlfriend at the time encouraged him to take up journalism, reminding him that Wright and Hemmingway started out as journalists.

Cooper said his first piece was for a local circular called Big Red in Brooklyn. He sent another one of his early pieces to the Amsterdam News, because he was always fond of Nelson George’s writing.

Soon, Cooper made inroads at the Village Voice, too, including with editor Robert Christgau, affectionately known as the “grand poobah.”

Cooper penned a spec review of Parliament’s “Gloryhallastoopid” (1979),

and combed through the White Pages to find Christgau’s number, calling him at “damn near at 12 midnight” to pitch. “‘I’ll tell you what. Bring it to me. Let me take a look at it,’” Cooper recalled Christgau saying. “‘If it’s good, I’ll run the piece. If not, don’t ever call me at 12 midnight because I’ll call the cops on you.’”

Cooper showed his chops and started writing regularly for the Voice, including its first piece explicitly about rap music, “Buckaroos of the Bugaloo,” about Funky 4 + 1, in January 1981.

Cooper also started writing for the Voice competitor, the SoHo Weekly News, where he did a piece on Prince’s 1980 “Dirty Mind” album and got to interview the legend himself. He told me he didn’t take it lightly that he and George were the only two Black journalists to talk to Prince during that time.

Soon, Cooper found a desire to move beyond just writing about music. By 1984, he was living in Baltimore with his wife and kids, and started hearing through sources about a new epidemic rocking the streets of Harlem. Hot on the trail and pitching the story around, he was initially met with skepticism. Some even thought he made the entire story up. But the groundbreaking feature, “CRACK,” found a home in the February 1986 edition of SPIN and became the first

national magazine story to examine the emerging crack-cocaine epidemic of the 1980s.

The hits kept coming for Cooper, including a 1988 cover story about Teddy Riley that had the journalist coining the term “new jack swing” to describe the piping-hot brand of funky R&B with a hip-hop twist that was all the rage in the late ’80s and early ’90s. A year prior, “New Jack City Eats Its Young” in the Village Voice got the attention of Quincy Jones, leading Cooper the journalist to Hollywood.

“New Jack City” became the highest-grossing independent film of 1991, paving the way for a host of other films to come. In 1994, Cooper somehow performed the sleight of hand of having two movies released within a month of each other — a first for a Black scribe, according to him. In “Above the Rim,” basketball is at once poetry and pugilism, with Tupac, Leon, Duane Martin, Bernie Mac, and many others delivering classic performances.

Cooper said the film was based on the life of Lloyd “Swee’Pea” Daniels, a Queens basketball high school standout, but Cooper flipped that to Harlem with specificity as the camera lingered on fixtures like Wilson’s Bakery and Movie Center 5.

Growing up in the area, Cooper and his friends regularly went to Rucker Park to watch Dr. J, Tiny Ar-

chibald, and other stars hit the court. After a quick stop at the corner store for juice, Cooper said he and his pals had to get a seat by 7:30 in the morning if they were going to see Dr. J play by 5 in the evening.

Cooper recalled almost meeting Tupac on set one day in October 1993, with the writer having to jet uptown from a Jeff Redd project in SoHo during rush hour traffic. He just missed the rapper.

Cooper’s films were part of a larger tapestry of a major Black filmmaking renaissance, and the soundtracks of these films, replete with classic ’90s hip-hop and R&B, was the cherry on top. Even during the Blaxploitation era, Cooper noted, most of the people behind the camera — those with real power — weren’t Black, but in the ’90s, Black stories were told with all of our images and all of our sounds.

“We’ll never see a time like the early ’90s,” Cooper told me. “That was to me, the belle epoch of Black film. It caught white people off guard. They weren’t ready for ‘New Jack City’; they weren’t ready for ‘Boyz n the Hood.’”

Cooper continued to work steadily between journalism and film, including serving as a supervising producer and writer on the Netflix series reboot of “She’s Gotta Have It.” Cooper was also deeply supportive of the next generation of Black storytellers. Donovan X Ramsey, author of “When

Crack Was King” (2023), shared Cooper’s influence.

“Barry Michael Cooper was a giant of Black storytelling — which is, in my opinion, the richest storytelling tradition. For kids like me growing up in the ’80s and ’90s, his tales of Black life in Harlem loomed larger than the works of Shakespeare, Dickens, or Twain. I learned more from Nino Brown than I ever did from Huck Finn.” Cooper talked about being drawn to stories told from the inside out and said that today, this is still the call for any serious Black storyteller: to focus on telling those real, interior stories about communities too often marginalized, minimized, or misunderstood. In the words of Flip (Bernie Mac) in “Above the Rim”: “They can’t erase what we were.” Neither can anyone erase Cooper’s enduring impact on the culture.

Cooper is survived by his younger son, Matthew, also a filmmaker. His older son died in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Other information about his survivors was not immediately available.

Ade Adeniji is a culture writer based in Los Angeles and his native New York City. He has been published in outlets such as WIRED, VICE, Rolling Stone, SPIN, CBS News, Newsweek, the Daily Beast, the Guardian, Okayplayer, and Time Out.

Snoop Dogg addresses critics, Designer Edwing D’Angelo presents 5th Anniversary Fundraiser, Baltimore Ravens’ Xavien “Zay” Flowers gets in the flower business for Valentine’s Day

Tongues are wagging that Snoop Dog has addressed “all the hate” thrown at him for performing at one of President Donald Trump’s inaugural balls. On January 26, the multi-award-winning rapper posted a video on Instagram addressing his critics. As he appeared to take a hit off what looked like a blunt as he sat in his car, Snoop said, “For all the hate, I’m going to answer with love. Get your life right, stop worrying about mine. I’m cool. I’m together. Still a Black man. Still 100 % Black. All out ‘til you ball out or ‘til you fall out.” Aside from Nelly performing, other Black celebrities who attended President Trump’s events included boxing legends Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield......... Harlem-based fashion designer Edwing D’Angelo presented his atelier’s 5th Anniversary Fundraising Soiree on January 26 at his luxurious atelier on Adam Clay-

MC.. The affair was a tribute to D’Angelo’s visionary legacy and commitment to uplifting underserved communities..........

Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Xavien “Zay” Kevonn Flowers has formed a collaboration with Urban Stems CEO Meenakshi Lala for Valentine’s Day. According to Jill Brooke’s flowerpowerdaily.com, Urban Stems is “anointing” Flowers as its “firstever chief floral receiver.” Flowers has endorsed and created a special bouquet for $72 that fans can purchase. The Zay Bouquet includes what the pro bowl player said are “not some grocery store flowers” but rather a vibrant mix of blues, purple, and white stems featuring Zay’s favorites: roses and fragrant delphiniums. Each flower was carefully selected to embody the NFL player’s dynamic energy and unmatched style on the field.......

Detroit native Reggie Braxton has released his debut album, “The Brax-Tone Experience.” Production credits include J. Poww and others. “I Pray it’s You” is currently charting on the Billboard Jazz Chart and Braxton’s single, “Love Guarantee” peaked at 39 on the Mediabase music charts.....

ton Powell Jr. Blvd. Invited guests included Sherri Shepherd, Ty Hunter, Johnny Nunez

and Constance C.R. White. Harlem Ambassador Musa Jackson was the afternoon’s

Apollo Levine talks MJ: ‘The Musical’

By LINDA ARMSTRONG Special to the AmNews

“MJ: The Musical” officially opened on Broadway on Feb. 1, 2022, almost three years ago to the day. Someone who knows this well — and is still going strong with the musical — is Apollo Levine, one of its principal actors who plays the dual roles of Joseph Jackson, the controlling, cheating, abusive patriarch of the Jackson 5 siblings. On the other side of the spectrum, he also plays Rob, Michael Jackson’s right-hand man when Jackson prepares for his 1992 Dangerous World Tour. Levine was glad to speak with AmNews about this production.

AmNews: What is the challenge of being both Rob and Joe?

AL: One of the biggest challenges in these roles is the duality of the characters. Switching back and forth throughout the show — literally at times in a snap of a light cue — is wild. Also making each character very distinct so the audience understands who they are and their particular importance in that moment is key to moving the show along through the 2.5 hours we are on stage. It’s a role that never gets boring because you can always dig deeper, even if you are doing the show twice in one day.

AmNews: How do you perceive Joseph as a character?

AL: Probably an unpopular opinion, but I see him as a protector and provider in ways. Now, I want to be very clear. I don’t condone abuse on any level, but also take in consideration [the] context. I will never know what it feels like going through Jim Crow, being one generation out of slavery, or going through the Civil Rights Movement era, but so many Black people do, including my own father. And though my dad handled things much differently, it was a different time back then, and Joseph to me wanted to make sure that his kids could survive and live in a world [in which] most people would love them for their talent but dismiss them because of the color of their skin. He did what he knew. Does it make it right, I will leave that to the ones who were there. For me, I just try to show a father who was human and flawed. Who loved the best way he knew how.

AmNews: How do you connect with the character of Joseph Jackson?

AL: Honestly, as a Black father who has a child, it’s hard raising kids, let alone a Black child, who, no matter how smart or talented they are, will always have to live by a different set of societal rules. I’m here to protect, provide, encourage, support, love, and correct if need be. My daughter is my world, and I would do anything for her.

AmNews: How do you completely embody the sympathetic, caring role of Rob, after being the cruel Joseph?

AL: I want to be clear, I don’t see Joseph like everyone else may, so ‘cruel’ isn’t the word I would use for him. Authoritative, yes. Protective, very much so. Some would and could say ‘abusive.’ But ‘cruel’ seems like the wrong language. Again, I believe there is context that we don’t delve into. However, when it comes to Rob, this is me being an amplified version of Apollo. I consider myself an empath and definitely take on a lot of weight from other people because I want to see people succeed. I root for my friends and folks that I don’t know alike. I want to see people win, and if I can do anything to help I will. It’s the 5 year old in me that just wants the world to be beautiful.

AmNews: You have been with the musical from the beginning. What has the journey been like thus far?

AL: It has been a rollercoaster, to say the least. There are so many highs but there are a lot of lows too. To be living a part of my dream by performing on a Broadway stage

is amazing. To originate a role, become a principal, take over the second lead of the show, to be on a cast album is surreal. Sometimes there are no words to describe it. However, there are moments that no one can prepare you for. Doing a show eight times a week can wear on your body, your mind, and spirit. There is no off season for us, so that’s a lot of time not being able to see loved ones, not being able to have other life experiences, to curate relationships outside of the theater space.

I remember the first week of our rehearsals after the pandemic, my mom passed. I literally was in rehearsal for this dream job while making funeral arrangements in a whole other state. My world felt in such disarray, but also, I had to put up this show. It felt like I couldn’t fall apart. I love my “MJ” family because they were there for me and this show has become imprinted on my life, good, bad, or indifferent.

AmNews: What is the message the au-

dience should come away with about Michael Jackson?

AL: Humans are flawed, but at the core of most people we are just trying to heal and navigate this world the best way we can. Also, let no one stop what God has put in you to do. People don’t always get your vision because it is not theirs to get. It’s for you. Figure out how to execute and do it. You don’t know how your one act of fearlessness can change a life or the world.

AmNews: Where are you from? What is your professional educational background?

AL: I’m originally from Abbeville, Louisiana by way of South Bend, Indiana. Interestingly enough, I was a Religion and Philosophy major in college. I didn’t go to school for any of what I’m doing now, though I knew as a kid it’s what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

AmNews: How do you feel when you perform on stage?

AL: I don’t know how to answer this question. I will say, and this might be the preacher’s kid in me, I feel like what I do is bigger than me. Yes, on one hand it’s acting, singing, and dancing. On the other hand, you allow people to escape for the 2.5 hours from whatever they might be going through. And hopefully, if you can allow someone that refuge for a moment, it will help inspire them to keep moving forward in their own life.

AmNews: You do a quick change from “Thriller” to talking to MJ as Rob. You have been in this musical from opening and throughout the run — how do you maintain your energy and your freshness with each performance?

AL: It’s honestly fun for me. Even when I’m tired, I never get tired of doing the show. The way Lynn Nottage has written this show, along with Chris Wheeldon’s direction, it allows you to breathe and be present in this MJ universe every time I step on stage. I enjoy getting able to expand my skill set and vocabulary with this show. I’ve always been told ‘find something you love, and you will never work a day in your life.’ Yes, I have a job but also, I love what I do and this space has allowed me to just BE, and I’m constantly relearning that concept daily. I never take what I do for granted. Not everybody gets to say they are living out their dream in real time.

AmNews: Why should people come to see “MJ?”

AL: It’s the best show on Broadway … lol. Yes, I’m biased but seriously it really is a great time!! It’s all the music you love and grew up with and this is an amazing story of this extraordinary and incredible human being. Once you see it, you will be changed in some way.

Apollo Levine stars in dual roles in “MJ: The Musical.” (Michael Hull photo)

AmNews FOOD

Talking SCHOP! Convalescing with community

KYSHA

HARRIS

FOOD EDITOR, @SCHOPNYC

I made it! And for so many reasons. In this, the last Talking SCHOP! for January, I can still wish you a happy New Year without etiquette experts giving me too much side eye.

What was the delay, you ask? Well, I also “made it” through meniscus repair and ACL replacement knee surgery at the end of 2024, and am currently in the beginning months of recovery. We’re talking being non-weight-bearing, using crutches and an ergonomic stool with rollerblade wheels to move about my home.

This time convalescing, having to take several seats, can be lonely and manic for a busy, independent single person like me. I feel lucky to have my two senior fur sons, Angus and Benzo, to receive unconditional love, to care for, and to galvanize our village of neighbors and friends to take over my dog-walking duties.

I keep myself busy with tasks around the house, purging, and organizing. However, the largest opportunity for me during this time has been re/connecting with people beyond text messages and social media. It would be phone calls, and invitations to visit, that continue to prove that the power of being in community with others feeds all of my senses and nourishes my soul.

After the first week post-surgery and the grace of food prepared for me, I decided to make my own breakfast of Asian aromatic scrambled eggs over sushi rice with avocado and cucumber salad. What was normally a 10-minute prep-to-mouth experience turned into 45 minutes and passing out from exhaustion. I promised myself that the next time I cooked would be in the slow cooker and would be in quantity so I could refreeze and reheat. Thanks to my friend Raquel’s help, I still have a quart of a delicious protein-rich (protein is great for healing) stew in the freezer.

Otherwise, there has been my favorite Chinese food delivery from Szechuan Garden (239 W. 105th Street) when food editor friends came to help purge my home; Dominican food brought by a Brooklyn friend for a good catch-up; a charcuterie spread while a two-hour bolognese bubbled on the stove, prepared by my friend Adam; and my friend Krista’s delicious dishes, like the latest caramelized onion, farro, and lentil stew topped with melted gruyere. Honorable mention to my new fave sando of roast beef, pepper jack cheese, red onion, cole slaw, and mayo on a hero. My knee is on the mend and so is my spirit.

Happy

eating and thanks for reading!

Kysha Harris is a chef, food writer and editor, culinary producer, consultant, and

owner of SCHOP!, a personalized food service in NYC for more than 22 years. Follow her on Instagram @SCHOPnyc and Facebook on @SCHOPnyc.

Questions, comments, requests, feedback, invitations! Email to AmNewsFOOD@ SCHOPnyc.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @NYAmNewsFOOD.

Adam’s 2-hour bolognese.

Krista’s caramelized onion farro lentil stew.

Roasted beef, pepper jack cheese, coleslaw hero.

Slow cooker turkey chickpea stew with pasta.

First meal of scrambled eggs prepared post-surgery. (Kysha Harris photos)

Powerful doc ‘No Other Land’ receives Oscar nod

By DWIGHT BROWN NNPA News Wire

The people of Masafer Yatta are brave in the face of genocide. Their mountainous region, home of 20 ancient Palestinian villages on the West Bank, is being encroached upon. Homes and businesses are being demolished. The injustices they endure are being chronicled and archived by filmmakers in “No Other Land,” which recently received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary (Feature). One of the documentarians is Basel Adra, an observer/activist/writer who is part of this community and is cataloguing everything as his people are being forced into a nomadic life.

Over the course of five years, during an onslaught of intimidation and violence, the filmmaker team chronicled what they could. Andra’s friend and co-writer/director Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist, is with him every step of the way, on camera and off. Rachel Szor, an Israeli cinematographer/editor/director, along with Hamdan Ballal, a Palestinian photographer/filmmaker, are the two other members of this Palestinian/Israeli collective. They show and tell all they see and hear regardless of threats, danger, and personal injury.

In just 92 minutes, their footage reveals enough drama, history, aggression, ingenuity, persistence, courage, struggle, and hostility to fill a year-long docuseries. So much of what is packed into this nonfiction film is relevant, current, and dire, in ways that make your eyes stay glued to the screen. It’s amazing that this story is getting out, the people of Masafer Yatta and their sense of community are still alive, and these steadfast citizens can control their own narrative.

If the job of an investigative documentary is to expose truth, especially when others won’t, the two filmmakers in front of the camera, Basel and Yuval, along with

Szor and Ballal, are extraordinary documentarians. Their smartphones and cameras don’t miss much; certainly not the grief Basel’s mother expresses after his brother has been gunned down and paralyzed by Israeli soldiers: “They shot my son in front of me. I lifted his head, and his blood poured on me.”

Her words are shocking and the visuals of what’s happening to the Abraham family and their village is even more alarming. There is no let up. Their houses are bulldozed. They move and build more homes, more schools. Then those buildings are leveled. And so on … The reason given for the demolition is that the Israeli army needs the territory to expand its military training ground, but the film shows that the aggressors are stealing the land.

So much of what’s on view is hard to watch, but you feel you must — that you need to be a witness. Someone who will join others in retelling this story, summoning pressure for a halt to the encroachment and encouraging

a planning process for a two-state solution. If these Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers can coalesce and work together, so can the leaders of the Palestinian people and Israel. Whoever they may be.

Similarities to other injustices are obvious. The genocide of Native Americans, America’s Jim Crow segregation laws and civil rights abuses, the troubles in Northern Ireland, South Africa’s Apartheid — and the Holocaust. The parallels are most obvious when Abraham’s people demonstrate, with signs, bullhorns, and cries like: “Palestinian lives matter” and “One, two, three, four, occupation no more.”

There’s a sameness, too, in that sobering, lifesaving talk that Black parents give their kids about how to interact with the police and the harsh reality checks Palestinian parents give their children. That parallel is on view when Basel’s mother says to him in an almost matter-of-fact manner: “Basel, I will wash your clothes so if you go to jail, you’ll have a bag ready.”

This exploration of the plight of the Palestinians and the people of Masafer Yatta is a microcosm of a bigger picture; a small story with gigantic implications. A very personal accounting in which the two lead filmmakers’ eyes and anecdotes become the lens and storyline that expose so much. Basel and Yuval are young, intelligent, articulate, and circumspect. They’re more than willing to reveal their inner thoughts, realities, and frustrations. That’s their demeanor as they continuously witness the largest forced transfer ever carried out in the occupied West Bank.

Basel, who has a law degree, is circumspect: “I am stressed because I have nothing to do … Our economy is ruined, and you can only find work in Israel.” His partner Yuval listens attentively, well aware of his privilege: He can go between Israel and the West Bank freely; Basel cannot. Even with that freedom, Yuval experiences his own peril as the right wing in his country harasses him and his family. Watching these two journalists is never less than inspiring; different from but similar in power to the Oscar®-nominated documentary “Last Men in Aleppo,” which covered war-torn Syria.

The cinematography and precision editing by the four filmmakers is as professional as it is purposeful. The people on view, from Basel’s mom and brother to his activist father, humanize a tragedy that doesn’t get the attention it should in the American media. Not the shrinking Palestinian lands, nor the soldiers, settlers, and government that are seemingly driving them to the sea. The footage catches them in the act, just like the videos of George Floyd or Eric Garner.

How many people would literally risk their lives to tell a story? That’s why “No Other Land” is the most powerful nonfiction film of the year. The most profound. Tell someone.

See the trailer at https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=-pI2IXKtlew.

Basel Adra in “No Other Land” (Still photos courtesy of Antipode films)

Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham in “No Other Land”

Scene from “No Other Land”

‘Eureka Day’ is a riot

By LINDA ARMSTONG

Special to the AmNews

If you like hollering with laughter, then you must make plans to see “Eureka Day,” playing at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (W. 47th Street). This clever, funny new work written by Jonathan Spector tells the story of Eureka Day, a private elementary school in California that deals with rethinking their vaccination policy when students start coming down with the mumps. Spector shows the issue from both sides of the table, and he does it in very engaging ways. The audience is introduced to the school’s board of directors, who have always strived for policies that make everyone comfortable. Now, faced with telling parents there is an outbreak of mumps and holding a virtual meeting to talk about it, and what that could entail for the students, temperatures rise high as anti-vaxxer parents and parents who believe in vaccinating their children go head-to-head via Zoom. As the board debates the issue (the five members have their own views about the issue and find themselves in conflict over vaccinations and other issues), the parents’ back-and-forth conversations escalate to arguments, then to insults, and are truly hilarious to behold. This cast is superb and their interactions will have you bent over laughing. Carina, poignantly played by Amber Gray, is the only Black parent on the board and is new to the board. While her character starts off very reserved, she develops into someone quite formidable. Suzanne, powerfully and passionately performed by Jessica Hecht, is an older white woman who has been on the board for many years, is set in her ways and ignorantly judges others, especially Carina. Don, the leader of the board, is hilariously played by Bill Irwin. Irwin always has such a way with a role and knows how to be funny, awkward, and rational. He is quite a versatile actor, no matter what role he plays. Don is the reasonable person in the group, who

tries to keep peace between the board members and the other parents.

Meiko, captivatingly portrayed by Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz. is a mother who has more on her mind than her young daughter — frank-

ly, she’s interested in Eli, amusingly portrayed by Thomas Middleditch, a married man with a son he brings over to Meiko for “play dates.”

The cast also includes Eboni Flowers as Winter.

‘English’ gets low marks at the Todd

By LINDA ARMSTRONG Special to the AmNews

“English” playing at the Todd Haimes Theatre on W 42nd Street is mediocre at best. Presented by Roundabout Theatre Company, the play by Sanaz Toossi focuses on an English language class being taught in Karaj, Iran in 2008. Marjan, a teacher, has four students, Elham, Omid, Goli and Roya, who each have their rea-

sons for wanting to learn the language. For one hour and 40 minutes, the audience watches as Marjan attempts to help her students master speaking in English and get more comfortable with expressing themselves with this new language. As each character’s reason for learning English is revealed, the audience is privy to the different conflicts that each character is dealing with in their lives. However, some storylines are simply left hanging,

Spector delivers a topnotch script and this production is performed by an excellent cast who deliver every facial expression, every emotion, every tone. They will get you so invested in the debate that you will find yourself wanting to chime in as you sit in the audience.

In addition to the precisely timed lines and interactions in this production, there is excellent direction by Anna Shapiro.

“Eureka Day” is irresistible. It’s funny, addresses a timely topic about which we all have an opinion, and presents its topic fairly and rationally.

“Eureka Day” demonstrates the quality of work that is produced by Manhattan Theatre Club.

The first thing about this production that will catch your eye is the detailed scenic design by Todd Rosenthal, but every technical aspect of this play is engaging, including costume design by Clint Ramos, lighting design by Jen Schriever, sound design by Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen, and projection design by David Bengali.

If you want to go to Broadway and laugh until you cry, “Eureka Day” is your play. For tickets, visit www.manhattantheatreclub.com.

Haimes Theatre

and there are questions raised in the play that are not satisfyingly answered.

The cast of five actors does a decent job and includes Tala Ashe as Elham; Hadi Tabbal as Omid; Ava Lalezarzadeh as Goli; Marjan Neshat as Marjan and Pooya Mohseni as Roya. The work is directed by Knud Adams. But, again, experiencing theater should make one feel enriched in some way. This production does not do that.

Scene from “English” at the Todd Haimes Theatre (l-r) Tala Ashe, Hadi Tabbal, Ava Lalezarzadeh, Marjan Neshat and Pooya Mohseni. (Joan Marcus photo)

Scene from “Eureka Day” playing at Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (l–r): Thomas Middleditch, Amber Gray, Bill Irwin, Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz, and Jessica Hecht. (Jeremy Daniel photo)

Sun Ra Spirit, Studio 17, So What

During these cold, blustery days, it takes more than a hot cup of anything to keep the fiery soul warm. On Feb. 1, the Jazz Foundation of America (JFA) will offer the perfect remedy to raise the temperature to a spiritual high with “Satellites in the Spirit of Sun Ra,” featuring Sun Ra alums: trombonist and composer Dick Griffin Quartet; trumpeter and composer Ahmed Abdullah & Monique Nri; Sons of Ra with guitarist Bruce Edwards, drummer Craig Haynes, and TC The 3rd (a unique vocalist in the tradition of Leon Thomas and Babs Gonzales rolling in from Philly will lend his unique sound); Children of the Sun with percussionist Elson Nascimento; guitarist Spaceman Patterson and the Celestials; drummer George Gray’s Arts Collective; and bassist Tyler Mitchell with saxophonist Nicoletta Manzini.

The nonconformists will convene at Recirculation (876 Riverside Drive at 160th Street) from 1 p.m.–6 p.m. RSVP at withfriends. co/wordup.

Black American musicians were recording soul music in the midst of segregation, and the Civil Rights Movement in a small recording studio in Muscle Shoals, Ala., while their brothers and sisters in Kingston, Jamaica, were busy recording in their own sanctuary — Studio 17. It was one of those magical environments where aspiring Jamaican artists were free to express their individual creativity through their music without interference, some of whom included Bob Marley & the Wailers, Peter Tosh (who also worked there as a studio musician), Crown Prince of Reggae Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs, Alton Ellis, Carl Malcolm, and American singer Johnny Nash. That storied studio became the engine for Jamaica’s golden age of music and was primarily responsible for introducing reggae, the sound that had an impact on music around the globe.

“Studio 17: The Lost Reggae Tapes,” the most important documentary (2019) about the Jamaican roots of reggae music from its humble infancy, birthed by the Chin Family (Vincent “Randy” Chin and his wife Patricia Chin), and produced by music journal-

ist Reshma B, will have its New York City premiere on Feb. 1 at the newly opened Bronx Music Hall (438 East 163rd Street).

The film has been hailed as “One of my favorite documentaries right now. Documentaries like this that bring us closer to the music” by Quincy Jones in “Forbes,” and “a magical piece of work” by veteran UK reggae radio DJ David Rodigan. The discovered treasure of tapes from Studio 17 features an unreleased track by Brown. Clive Chin produced the song “When You Get Right Down to It” in the mid1970s at Studio 17 that was left unfinished and unreleased until he rescued it. After 40 years, the internationally acclaimed musician, songwriter, and producer

Dave Stewart of Eurythmics fame collaborated with Chin to finish the love song, adding vocals by teenage singer Hollie Stephenson (who, at 16 years old, was the same age as Brown when he first started working on the song) to make a moving duet that can be heard for the first time in the documentary. Reshma B was in the room as they worked on finishing the song.

The Feb. 1 screening will begin with a 6 p.m. reception, followed by the film at 7 p.m. and discussion afterward with the producer Reshma B, Studio 17 recording artist Carl Malcolm, and Pat McKay of Sirius XM. February is significant for many reasons: It kicks off the worldwide celebration of Reggae Month,

Rogers with vibrant colorful illustrations by Francis Hsueh. Rogers employs her own lyrics for “So What,” which complement her vocal version that can be heard on YouTube through a scan mark in the book. “The words are fun and easy for children and they love to say so what,” noted Rogers. Her adopted word-sounds for instruments are tongue ticklers, for example the bass goes “Doom, doom, Bahdoom.” As bolting colored notes fly across the pages, along with highflying birds that introduce another legendary musician: “Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker, he’s the bird.”

“So What,” with its catchy lyrics, opens a variety of doors to inspire young minds for song-writing — the concept of practicing “all day and every night like Miles,” playing together with other children, sharing, and learning about this music called jazz with contributions by both Miles and Parker. The composition “So What” is the opening track from one of the greatest jazz albums ever recorded: “Kind of Blue” (Columbia Records 1959). “So What” can be found on Rogers’s recording “Bop Boo Day! Louise Rogers Celebrates Jazz for Young Children.”

Rogers loves teaching and introducing jazz to her students at the Medical Center Nursery School, in Washington Heights. “The school has allowed me to experiment and create and test out all of my work … it has truly been my lab,” said Rogers. She has published “Jazz Fairy Tales Teacher’s Manual” (Volumes 1 & 2), and “Jazz Mosaic,” cowritten with Susan Milligan (Alfred Publishing).

Brown’s birthday (Feb. 1) and Bob Marley’s birthday on Feb. 6, and of course, Black History Month. Tickets are $15 at bronxmusichall.org.

There will also be another screening of “Studio 17: The Lost Reggae Tapes” on Feb. 21 at the Cinema Arts Centre (423 Park Avenue) in Huntington, NY. For more information call 631-423-7610 or visit www.cinemaartscentre.org.

Thanks to a new book, jazz swingers ages 3–6 can say with a big smile that they are familiar with Miles Davis and his composition

“So What.” The youngsters’ fondness for Davis comes from reading “Miles Davis Was His Name — So What,” beautifully written by jazz singer and educator Louise S.

Rogers has recorded four albums under her own label, Rilo Records, including two CDs for the pre-school set, and her recent “Black Coffee” CD was released on Chesky Records. She gave poet Nikki Giovanni’s “Be My Baby” poem a jazzy swing on her CD “Come Ready and See Me.”

When not inspiring young minds, Rogers is busy with promoting and producing jazz events through her nonprofit organization Jazz WaHi, that she co-founded with her husband, pianist Mark Kross. The WaHi Weekly Jazz Jam, a staple in the community since 2015, jumps off every Tuesday at Kismat (603 Ft. Washington Avenue, W. 187th Street). Feb. 4 marks their 10th anniversary.

To purchase the book, visit www.amazon.com or art-francis.com. For info about Jazz Jams WaHi, visit jazzwahi.org.

A scene from “Studio 17: The Lost Reggae Tapes.”

Lee Scratch Perry and producer Reshma. (Images courtesy of Widestream Films)

NYC aging’s funds

Back in 2023, 21.5% of the city’s senior population lived in poverty, even as more New Yorkers remained in the workforce around retirement age. Many face low wages — the median household income for seniors was roughly $30,000 lower than the city’s general median household income in 2023 (for comparison, the nationwide gap was just around $11,000).

Among seniors living in poverty, just 31% said they were in good health back in 2019.

However, not all older New Yorkers work solely because of financial pressure. Jain said the pandemic paradoxically increased employment among seniors, despite fears of COVID-19 transmission, due to an increase in remote work.

Beyond housing, the advocates also called for further senior resources regarding nutrition and community centers.

“We need to have Meals on Wheels that are not just one meal a day, [but] five days a week, to older people,” said LiveOn executive director Allison Nickerson. “We need to have caregiving support, elder abuse support … and we need our community spaces to be available for people so that they can plug in and get them and thrive in their later life.”

Organizers estimated around $2.3 billion is needed to fund such services properly, an ambitious task given the figure rounds out to more than four times DFTA’s funding. Proponents are also often on the backfoot, recently fighting to restore cuts in the last fiscal budget that bankrolled food programs for homebound seniors.

Yet, they say the cost is a drop in the bucket compared to the percentage of New Yorkers who now or will soon need such services. During the rally, Councilmember Crystal Hudson, who chairs the Committee on Aging, slammed the Adams administration for not prioritizing senior services.

“Every budget season, we see cuts to NYC Aging funding — a department that represents less than one-half of 1% of the city’s $112 billion budget,” said Hudson. “This chronic underfunding sends a clear and unacceptable message that our older adults are not a priority, but we know that older adults are the future … passing legislation is only the first step, and everybody here knows we’ve launched our Age in Place 2.0 package [and] we’ve passed a majority of the bills in that package, but to see the programs our older adults definitely need come to life, we must truly fund citywide aging services.”

To be clear, the spiking older adult population is not catching the city off-guard, and such services are actually designed to save the city money. The Building Community Care for an Age-Inclusive City blueprint stemmed from Bill de Blasio’s final year as mayor. The five-year plan promoted an increase of senior resources to keep New Yorkers aging in place, because a combination of meals, in-home services, and transport would cost $122,000 less than a nursing home stay each year, per elder.

Jain said that while the State Comptroller’s Office has not analyzed LiveOn’s proposal

“Every budget season, we see cuts to NYC Aging funding —a department that represents less than one-half of 1% of the city’s $112 billion budget...”

-Councilmember

Crystal Hudson

and is not currently advocating for the exact $2.3 billion in DFTA funding, the demand for the agency’s services is needed and any decline “would be unfortunate.”

According to a spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams, the Mayor’s Office of Budget Management will monitor DFTA funding; the agency faces major budget cliffs due to expiring stimulus funds and tapering state grant money in Fiscal Year 2026.

“Over the past two years, this administration has been working with all city agencies, including NYC Aging, to fund programs that face cliffs related to expiring federal stimulus,” added NYC Aging Commissioner Lorraine CortésVázquez by email. “The administration just released the Preliminary Budget, so we have a long way to go until the budget is finalized. We will keep working through the ongoing budget process to provide older New Yorkers with the services and supports they need.”

With recent news of a federal aid pause under the new Trump administration, Jain said Aging programming still largely relies on city money, but the impact on state Medicaid programs will be felt.

“Other than the fact that the city used federal pandemic funding to fund some of this stuff, I don’t think the city ever necessarily was going to be able to rely on federal [or] state funding for some of the stuff that they’re doing,” said Jain. “It’s not a huge impact on them from that perspective. There are huge implications for Medicare changes and Medicaid changes. This is a group that’s seen Medicaid enrollment rise.

“Already, a lot of folks already have Medicare, but it’s not covering certain things. That’s why you apply for Medicaid, right? And that suggests that some of these households are having a more difficult time. Changes to that program in particular would have a real impact on that segment of older adults who do rely on Medicaid.”

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

Black-owned small businesses more optimistic about 2025 economic outlook

Sponsored content by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

As we enter 2025, small business owners are finding a silver lining amidst challenges. The latest JPMorgan Chase’s 2025 Business Leaders Outlook Survey reveals a wave of optimism sweeping through the sector. More than 70% of small business owners express confidence, feeling “optimistic” or “very optimistic” about both their industry’s and their company’s performance in the coming year. Notably, diverse business owners are showing greater optimism about the economic landscape at local, national, and global levels.

Black small business owners had the most positive perspective of all participants in each of the five categories: global economy, national economy, local economy, industry’s performance, and company’s performance. This year, they plan to rely more on all types of funding for their businesses compared to all business owners.

Here are five key findings from this year’s survey.

1) Economic optimism grows each year…

More than 60% of Black small business owners expressed optimism about the state of the local, national and global economy. Close to 80% had the same optimism about their industry’s performance or their own company’s performance.

2) …but some concerns exist

While small businesses seem to have left the economic uncertainty of the pandemic years behind, diverse-owned businesses remain more cautious about the future. Interestingly, they are still more likely to anticipate a recession in 2025 compared to the broader business community. However, less than a third of diverse-owned businesses expect an economic downturn – among Black-owned small businesses, 29% said “yes” to expectations of a recession in 2025. This cautious optimism reflects a nuanced perspective, balancing resilience with a watchful eye on potential economic shifts.

3) Inflation is top concern, but cybersecurity challenges are growing

As inflation remains the top challenge for business ownersgoinginto2025,Blackbusinessownersare particularly attuned to the threat of cybersecurity, identifying it as their second-biggest challenge. This concern surpasses the “uncertainty of economic conditions,” which ranks second among the broader community. Across all groups, rising taxes emerge as the third most pressing issue. This highlights a distinct focus among diverse business owners on the importance of protecting

The bottom line

their operations from any threats.

4) Finding funding

Diverse-owned businesses are strategically positioning themselves to tap into a variety of funding sources more than small business overall. Blackownedbusinesses,forinstance,arenotablyinclinedto utilizelinesofcredit(48%),onlineloansfromfintechor alternativeonlinelenders(39%),personalcreditcards (39%), angel investments/venture capital (25%) and crowdfunding (19%). A significant majority of Blackownedbusinesses(73%)arealsomorelikelythanthe overall business respondents (55%) to explore online lending this year.

5) Ambitioushiringplansamidtalentchallenges Diverse-ownedbusinessesaresettingambitioushiring goals for 2025. Black-owned businesses are planning for substantial increases, with 71% anticipating more full-time hires and 55% expecting part-time hires.This contrasts with 46% of all respondents expecting fulltime hiring increases and just 38% planning for parttime hires.

However,thesebusinessesfacesignificantchallenges infindingtherightcandidates.Avastmajority(90%)of Black-owned businesses express concerns around recruitment. Black businesses were most likely to cite employee turnover/retiring employees (34%) as the main issue they faced.

This response is echoed across the board, with 79% of all respondents worried about finding suitable candidates.

Economic optimism is on the rise among diverse-owned small business owners, with Black-owned small businesses having greater confidence in the local, national and global economic outlook than survey responses overall.

Despite some apprehensions about a potential recession and recruitment challenges, diverse-owned businesses are determined to expand their workforce and secure funding to fuel growth. This determination underscores their optimism for 2025 and their readiness to make strategic moves to scale their operations.

For informational/educational purposes only: Views and strategies described in this article or provided via links may not be appropriate for everyone and are not intended as specific advice/recommendation for any business. Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but JPMorgan Chase & Co. or its affiliates and/or subsidiaries do not warrant its completeness or accuracy. The material is not intended to provide legal, tax, or financial advice or to indicate the availability or suitability of any JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. product or service. You should carefully consider your needs and objectives before making any decisions and consult the appropriate professional(s). Outlooks and past performance are not guarantees of future results. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and its affiliates are not responsible for, and do not provide or endorse third party products, services, or other content.

Two pioneers of the Civil Rights Movement, Charles Person and Thomas Gaither CLASSROOM IN THE

By HERB BOYD Special to the AmNews

For Charles Person and Thomas Gaither, 1961 was an eventful year in their young lives. Person was 18 and became the youngest of the original Freedom Riders, and Gaither was 22 when he introduced the sit-in tactic at a dime store in Rock Hill, S.C. There’s a good chance over the succeeding years the two pioneers may have met since they both were key members of the fight to end segregation and racial discrimination. Though four years apart in age, they died within a year of each other, Gaither on December 23, 2024, at 86, and Person on January 8, 2025 at 82.

Gaither, born on Nov. 12, 1938 in Great Falls, S.C., was one of five children of Walter B. and Fannie (Little) Gaither. His parents met as students at Friendship Junior College and both became teachers, though his father was later fired when he confronted a white member of the school board who was stealing five dollars a week from his salary. His father then made a living as a brick mason.

After graduating as valedictorian from high school, Gaither won a scholarship to what is now Claflin University in Orangeburg, S.C. In school, he led a march of a thousand students, many of them arrested, and sang “God Bless America,” behind bars. After his graduation, he was hired as a field secretary by CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) and dispatched to several states. Within a year, he was back in Rock Hill where with eight others, later collectively called the “Friendship Nine,” Gaither launched his tactic of refusing to pay the $100 trespassing fine, choosing to serve 30-day sentences on the county chain gang. Soon their strategy, famously named “jail no bail,” was adopted by other civil rights activists, and eventually changed the Civil Rights Movement. “I felt that there should be more of a commitment on our part — being willing to suffer for something that we really wanted to have happen,” Mr. Gaither said in a 2011 oral history of the Civil Rights Movement. “The amazing thing about the Friendship Nine,” he added, “was that we took essentially a group of college students

who had no knowledge at all of tactical nonviolence and we pulled off one of the most important protest events of the movement.”

Gaither went on to participate in the Freedom Rides and in fact it may have been his idea to start them after being stuck on a bus with a fellow white activist, Gordon Carey, both having absorbed the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. James Farmer, the founder and leader of CORE, seized on the idea. “I don’t think we estimated how big it would become, because I think it ultimately was one of the signature protests of the entire Civil Rights Movement,” Gaither said in an oral history project.

If Gaither had been among the original Freedom Riders he might have met Charles Person, born on September 27, 1942 in Atlanta. Person’s father, Hugh. was an orderly at Emory Hospital, and his mother Ruby (Booker) Person, was a domestic worker. He was a gifted math and science student and was accepted to MIT, but

without a scholarship he couldn’t afford the tuition. Later, he applied to Georgia Tech, where his race was a barrier. When he was accepted at Morehouse College, he planned to become a nuclear engineer.

But the Civil Rights Movement intervened, and like Gaither, he participated in both sit-ins and Freedom Rides. “Once I got involved, it was infectious. Anything that had to do with protests, I was there.” Through the sit-ins, he was recruited by CORE which was looking for more Freedom Riders. Since he was a minor, he had to have permission from his parents; his mother refused to sign but he was able to convince his father. It was while on a bus to Anniston, Alabama where an earlier bus had been firebombed, that Person was attacked by Klansmen, dragged from the bus, and severely beaten. When the bus continued its route to Birmingham, Person along with James Peck, a white protester also

ACTIVITIES

FIND OUT MORE

Various oral history projects on the Civil Rights Movement are replete with information on both Person and Gaither. Add Raymond Arsenault’s “Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice.”

DISCUSSION

Granted, these two pioneers warrant separate profiles, and that is something that may find an occasion. For now, luxuriate in their twin accomplishments.

PLACE IN CONTEXT

Both fit comfortably and indispensably in the Civil Rights Movement with exemplary contributions and lasting legacies.

savagely attacked, once again challenged segregation laws and the mob seized and beat both of them. Person was able to get away and ran to the home of the legendary Fred Shuttlesworth, whose residence would become a veritable safe haven for the riders.

When the Freedom Rides subsided, Person returned home and his mother convinced him to find another way to protest. He joined the Marines, served two years in Vietnam, and spent the bulk of his service stationed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. An electronics expert, he later opened his own electronics store. He retired in 1981. In 2022, he wrote “Buses Are a Comin’: Memoirs of a Freedom Rider” with Richard Rooker. And given how instrumental Gaither was in the movement, CORE, the Freedom Rides, the sit-ins, and working with Bob Moses in COFO (Council of Federated Organizations), a book of his life and legacy would amplify the historic activism.

THIS WEEK IN BLACK HISTORY

Jan. 26, 1958: Singer Anita Baker, Grammywinning artist, was born in Toledo, OH.

Jan. 27, 1930: Blues legend Bobby “Blue” Bland was born in Rosemark, TN. He died in 2013.

Jan. 28, 1901: Famed sculptor Richmond Barthe was born in St. Louis, Mo. He died in 1989.

Thomas Gaither (Photo courtesy of Justiceforall.org)

Charles Person (Photo courtesy of MIT)

were going to be laser-focused on New York City — the city that I was born in, the city my father fought fires in — and we wanted to bring 24/7 news that wasn’t always sensational; to bring you the story about the little local grocer who is struggling to keep his store open … That’s not news to some outlets, but for us, he’s important.”

Wills said she considers it her responsibility to highlight people and experiences that may generally go unrecognized by news outlets; a responsibility that stems from her childhood. She grew up in lowincome housing and had minimal access to connections and other resources.

“No one gave me anything,” she said. “I didn’t have any connections to the news business at all. I lived on the seventh floor of a suffocating public housing development in Queen, and all I had was a dream.”

Earning a degree from Syracuse University allowed Wills to turn that dream into a reality. She chose the college for its rigorous journalism program. Just a few years after graduating, she brought her expertise to the experiment of NY1, never forgetting her “humble beginnings.”

“I feel that’s a responsibility I have as an anchor here at New York One — to show the best of our city, even though we also have a lot of challenging parts, too,” she said. “I love to go back to low-income developments and report on positive stories there

because, generally speaking, they usually get the negative end of the news. They get the perp walks, they get the fires, but there are a lot of positive things also happening in public housing, a lot of success stories, and I like to balance that out.”

Wills also draws on her father’s legacy as inspiration for her work, recollecting his fondness for reporters. As a NYC firefighter, he would frequently come into contact with journalists as they reported on incidents.

“He loved reporters because when he would fight fires, the reporters were always there. He was kind of fascinated by them,” Wills said. “I’m sorry that my father didn’t get a chance to see me become one of those reporters, but I truly do it in his honor.”

For Wills, her promotion to the primetime three-hour lineup and her 33-year legacy as a journalist is simply a testament to her hard work and grit. She makes an effort to mentor aspiring journalists and clear a path for future generations of journalists of color.

“I knew no one. I had no connections. I was raised in public housing. I had a dead father, and my professors told me I didn’t have the look to be an anchor, and here I am,” she said. She urged aspiring colleagues to “do what it is you want to do in this field. Do not give up. A door will open, and if the door isn’t open, you’ll have to climb through the window, and if the window is shut, then you’ll break a hole through the roof.”

(Photo courtesy NY1)

Health

How abortion rights groups are preparing for the next Trump administration

By SHEFALI LUTHRA The 19th*

President-elect Donald Trump’s victory has energized anti-abortion groups, even as abortion rights organizers notched victories on Election Day. Now, reproductive rights groups are preparing for legal and legislative battles in a new, less-friendly environment.

They are planning to embrace a multipronged approach: challenging anti-abortion policies in court, organizing political protests, and lobbying state and national lawmakers to oppose proposed bans. “We’re going to use every tool available to us, whether with the courts, legislatures or governors, or in the streets,” said Jessica Arons, a director of policy at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Until now, abortion rights groups have focused much of their energy on ballot initiatives to secure abortion rights in state constitutions. By putting it in the hands of voters, they have enshrined protections in 11 states and defeated anti-abortion measures in two more since Roe v. Wade fell.

That strategy, which absorbed millions of dollars, is hitting its endpoint. Only four states now allow the direct democracy approach — Arkansas, Idaho, North Dakota, and Oklahoma — where voters have not yet weighed in on state abortion rights. (An effort this year to put an Arkansas abortion rights measure on the ballot was blocked by the state courts.) All four of those states have elections in 2026. Abortion rights supporters could also try again to pass protections in Florida, Nebraska, and South Dakota, the three states where such measures failed in the 2024 elections.

Whether abortion rights organizations will seize those remaining ballot measure opportunities isn’t yet clear, said Jennifer Dalven, who directs the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project. “We’ll take every opportunity we can, but we have to do a little more of a close look at what happened and where we can go next,” she said.

Direct votes will no longer be the strategic centerpiece. Instead, abortion rights organizations, including large national organizations such as the ACLU and smaller volunteer-staffed local abortion funds, are now shifting their focus. They’re solidifying protections that have already been enacted and preparing to play defense against possible new state and national restrictions.

“We will likely be forced to defend current access points and fight against insidious attempts to force government agencies deeper into our private lives and decisions,” said Ashley All, a political strategist who worked on a 2022

abortion rights campaign in Kansas, as well as on a Montana campaign this past election cycle. “Americans must speak out loudly and forcefully every time politicians in Washington or state legislatures try to take away our rights or interfere in our medical decisions.”

Much of the next steps for abortion rights groups will hang on how much influence anti-abortion groups wield in the new Trump administration. In his first term, Trump was a staunch ally of abortion opponents — even campaigning on an anti-abortion platform in 2020 — but some anti-abortion groups fear that the unpopularity of abortion restrictions may change his decisions.

Still, abortion opponents are pressing ahead in their advocacy, focusing in particular on curtailing access to the medications used in most abortions. Anti-abortion organizations and some lawmakers have expressed concern about Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Kenney has been inconsistent on whether to support national abortion restrictions, but has been open to conversations about how to win anti-abortion organizations’ support, including potentially appointing strident abortion opponents such as Roger Severino, a former Trump official and diehard abortion opponent, to a senior position. Severino wrote the HHS chapter of the conservative policy paper Project 2025, which endorsed taking mifepristone, one of the pills used in most abortions, off the market. Politico reported that Trump’s transition team has rejected the push to install Severino.

Looking beyond the federal government, some abortion opponents are pushing for states to cut off access to the online resources people have used to circumvent their home state abortion bans.

One prominent anti-abortion group, Students for Life, has crafted model state bills that

would ban the distribution of abortion pills and give fetuses the same legal protections as people who have been born. In Texas, a state lawmaker has introduced legislation intended to stop groups like abortion funds — the small nonprofits that help cover costs associated with care — from helping people travel out of state to access the procedure. The legislation also aims to make it harder for people to learn about and order abortion pills online.

With a potentially hostile administration and conservative-led states potentially moving to enact more restrictions on abortion, abortion funds anticipate more requests for support.

The Chicago Abortion Fund, one of the nation’s largest, has brought on more Spanish-speaking staff — they expect more callers coming from Florida, where this year’s ballot initiative failure leaves a six-week abortion ban intact. They are also seeking more funding; this past October alone, the fund disbursed about $750,000, said Qudsiyyah Shariyf, the fund’s interim executive director.

“We’re in this for the long haul, but we’re going to need to have some really tough decisions and potentially shifts in our program to remain sustainable,” Shariyf said.

The Brigid Alliance, which financially supports people who have to travel for an abortion after the 15th week of pregnancy (a point some abortion opponents have touted as a compromise for national restrictions, even though medical complications can still arise well beyond that week), is working with legal advisers to ensure its work is protected in a potentially hostile political climate. The fund is planning to start supporting people earlier in pregnancy, anticipating a growing need for travel-related assistance.

It is also exploring what it would look like to send clients abroad for abortion, a contingency plan if the Trump administration does put forth national restrictions. But there are challenges.

Many people who travel for their abortions do not have passports; some don’t have identification paperwork at all.

“The abortion support organizations really need the advocacy political organizations fighting against this national ban,” said Serra Sippel, the fund’s executive director. “That is the biggest threat to care that is looming.”

Their biggest hope, many said, is making an abortion ban politically nonviable, leveraging mechanisms like direct protest to deter Trump from backing such a policy. “We’re certainly prepared to show out in force and mobilize our millions of members to resist any further erosion of abortion rights at the federal level,” Arons said.

Even without national restrictions, health policy analysts and reproductive rights organizations alike anticipate a federal environment less protective of abortion rights.

Under President Joe Biden, federal agencies such as the Department of Justice and HHS worked to secure abortion access after the fall of Roe. Those actions included defending the availability of mifepristone against an ongoing lawsuit and issuing guidance that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) requires hospitals to provide abortions when it is the required stabilizing treatment in a medical emergency. Project 2025 suggests dismantling those policies.

“I’m not confident of anything under the new administration,” said Molly Duane, a lawyer with the Center for Reproductive Rights, which has filed multiple lawsuits challenging state abortion bans.

The ACLU, which frequently challenged Trump policies in his first term, is preparing to potentially revise that role in defense of abortion rights, focusing in particular on potential threats to medication abortion and on EMTALA-protected abortions.

“We will be ready to go to court to block actions that unlawfully seek to prevent access to abortion care,” said Lorie Chaiten, a senior staff attorney at the organization’s Reproductive Freedom Project.

Still, she said, she thinks it’s possible that Trump, who retreated from more strident antiabortion language over the course of his campaign, will avoid imposing unpopular new restrictions. Polling largely shows that Americans oppose abortion restrictions, and in several states where Trump won, including Florida, Arizona, and Nevada, voters who backed the GOP ticket also supported abortion rights.

“I have to hope he will keep his promises that he will not wreak further havoc on abortion access, and I think the voters are watching,” she said.

Abortion rights protesters (Legoktm photo via Wikimedia)

Continued from page 16

a lot about geology, and I guess what is now being called Black geologies as a field of study. I wrote an article called “Guano in Their Destiny” in 2019 that led to “Dark Laboratory” as a book, by exploring the fact that guano, which is the dropping of seabirds and bats, became this powerful fertilizer in the 19th century. I began to think about my own history, being of African and Chinese descent, and the rebellious histories of laborers who were forced to mine guano in the 19th century. I began to think about how important island histories are because there are islands made of guano in the Pacific and the Caribbean in which we can understand how capitalism was working to divide people and to break down soil, but also to break down the body. It’s through these extractive economies that I began to think about personal history.

Being born in London and then migrating to New York as a child, it became clear to me that these places are islands, even if they’re not always thought about that way. New York is made up of more than 40 islands. We’re at the shorelines, especially in places like southeast Queens, where I grew up for a period. Looking deeper back into time, I realized that it wasn’t only New York and London that are these island spaces informed by water, but also that my grandfather grew up in Hong Kong, which is also an island, and that Ja -

maica, where my mother was born, is also an island. It felt like this kind of inheritance was a way to tell the story of climate through these four islands. The book becomes a layered telling of globalization through my personal history.

AmNews: You grew up in southeast Queens, and you say in the book that you saw environmental racism, even though you didn’t really have the name for it at that time. What were some of the things that you were seeing?

TLG: It was as much what I was seeing as what I was hearing, which was the sound of airplanes, always, and seeing them fly so low that you thought they were going to land on the house. As a 12-year-old, that was my kind of imagination — of what it was like living so close to JFK airport. It’s incredible that it is a portal to the United States for much of the world. I think when people look down from the plane, they see the outline of shining lights, but they also see the marshlands of Queens. It’s incredible, thinking back now, about what it meant to live at the edge. Literally, I feel like on the block where I lived, you could walk to the end of it and see the water. And not just the water; the marsh wetlands.

I didn’t have the language for what that meant, but again, it was not just seeing it, it was also smelling it and feeling the humidity. I try to think back to being a 12-year-old and the sensorial experience of what it meant to to live in Queens and

to be considered an “inner-city youth,” and what that meant to certain charities and nonprofits that were offering services such as tutoring, and to be aware of what it meant to be a Black child in a majority Black neighborhood, and to be aware that something had happened there in the sense of white flight, which I write about in the book.

It was as much memories of summertime and how hot it would get compared to London. Water would pool after rainstorms and would lead to more mosquitoes. A sense of the swamp came to me, because it’s been very popular in Black studies to think about the swamp as a sanctuary. Then I realized, “Oh, wait, this is where I grew up.” These are the ecologies that I didn’t notice. I began to think about the noise pollution, to think about the mosquitos, and to think about what it means when white flight happens, and the kinds of resources and public health questions that come about — and what’s ignored.

AmNews: You write in your book that poets and policy-makers are equally necessary to face the climate crisis. Why?

TLG: I say that because of Natalie Diaz. I ran a summer institute online in 2021 where we looked at the question of racial cartographies of justice, and Natalie was the keynote speaker. She had just won the Pulitzer Prize for her work “Postcolonial Love Poem.” In reading her words and the power of her phrases, her imag -

Reduce Your Cancer Risk by Eating Healthy

ery, which I quote in the book, it became clear that this is the kind of scale of imagination that is needed at the climate policy table.

I began to imagine, “What if we had Mojave poets like her at the climate policy table, at COP?” It made me realize that we need structures beyond the United Nations, beyond the Hague.

I’ve also been inspired by creative writers like Julian Aguon, who is from Guam and who I met recently in Hawaii. We talked about how policy-making and poetry need to be in the same breath, because he told me that there’s something about the concreteness of the problems that an island in the Pacific like Guam faces that attunes him to being able to write in a poetic sense. These questions are not theoretical — they’re ones that are being faced in a life-or-death sense, on an everyday basis. I think those are the questions that Natalie Diaz is contending with on her reservation, on her native lands.

I think policy-makers are often thinking in a very short-term sense. They’re not thinking in the way that the Haudenosaunee Confederacy was thinking in terms of seven generations. There’s a crisis of imagination that we can see politically, but I feel so much is possible in terms of climate solutions and strategies, and we need the prescience of poets to be able to attend to what those questions are before we begin to try to answer them. That gives me a profound sense of hope.

Education

Sprouting success with Queens AM Anderson

By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff

With food expenses rising and groceries costing more for families across the state, access to fresh food is even more of a necessity than ever. Queens State Assemblymember Khaleel Anderson is responding after being appointed as the new chair of the State Assembly’s food and farming task force, and his passion for healthy food is evident as he tours the state’s farms.

“We have a growing — pun intended — food ecosystem here on the peninsula,” said Anderson, about his district in Far Rockaway, Queens.

He is “beyond excited” to be named chair of the Task Force on Farm, Food, and Nutrition Policy for the New York State Assembly. His journey to this position began more than 12 years ago as a high school student, when Superstorm Sandy devastated his community in the Rockaways in 2012. He dedicated himself to addressing the systemic barriers that create food apartheid in low-income and underserved communities with limited access to healthy and affordable food.

His position fulfills a goal that dates to his election. “When I first got in office, I brought out the chair of this same task force to the farm that I helped build,” said Anderson. “I was thinking that maybe one day, I could lead some of that work for the state.”

During the onset of the pandemic in 2020, applications for food benefits like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) surged. The New York City Independent Budget Office (IBO), in a report published in October 2024, detailed how the city has struggled to deliver those SNAP benefits

over the last several years to those in need by its legally mandated deadlines. Making matters worse was the discovery that at least $47.7 million in SNAP and Cash Assistance (CA) benefits were stolen through electronic fraud over the last 16 months.

Food and urban farming initiatives are a more sustainable way to provide access to healthy food, promote the development of locally sourced grocery stores and farmers’ markets in federally designated food deserts, and fight against the harmful practice of “SNAP skimming,” said Anderson.

“After [Superstorm] Sandy, a lot of folks realized that our food system was terrible here. We had no electricity, no gas for many weeks after the storm had hit. People had to figure out ways to eat. Food was coming in, but there wasn’t autonomy (so) folks began to grow,” said Anderson. “I was able to help build a halfan-acre urban farm in Arverne after Sandy, because now people were able to understand building out that self-sufficiency.”

Teaching through farming

One example of that understanding is the Far Rockaway High School’s hydroponic farm, where Anderson did a walk-through on Friday, Jan. 24. The school’s farm and kitchen are operated by Teens for Food Justice (TFFJ).

The organization got its start in 2013, said TFFJ CEO/Founder Katherine Soll. Their goal is to build a food-secure environment through youth-led, school-based hydroponic farming — the technique of growing plants vertically using a water-based nutrient solution rather than soil. Hydroponic farming uses less water than traditional soil farming.

“As you can see, we provide an education

that’s rooted in a space that mirrors what would happen in a commercial indoor hydroponic farm,” said Soll. “I think we all know that our farming system is broken. We don’t have the natural resources to continue to grow food the way that we do. Our agricultural economy is focused on commodity foods, so we grow a lot of sugar, corn, wheat, and soy, and all of those things are going into foods that are not really healthy for us.”

TFFJ has nine hydroponic farms in New York City, operating in majority low-income schools in food deserts. The farm at Far Rockaway engages 6th- to 12th-grade students from four co-located schools: Queens High School for Information, Research, and Technology; the Academy of Medical Technology; Knowledge and Power Prep Academy; and Frederick Douglass VI High School. The facility is equipped with a germinator bay (plant nursery), Mars Hydro grow tent, water filtration and delivery system, and shallow rack culture (SRC) shelves. They can produce about 7,000 pounds of fresh produce a year, said Soll.

The Far Rockaway students are largely from Black, Latino, South Asian, or newly arrived immigrant backgrounds, said TFFJ Far Rockaway Regional Manager Jessenia Preciado, and often choose to grow plants and herbs that they’ve grown up with or cooked with at home. These include plants like microgreens, Thai basil, cilantro, rosemary, mint, thyme, marjoram, chives, swiss chard, and collard greens. TFFJ then builds a curriculum around those crops over the weeks that it takes for them to mature. Preciado said most of the students’ favorite part is cooking after their harvest and enjoying the food they make.

“It’s really nice because the kids love coming here,” said Preciado. “Teachers as well. They love trimming their herbs. Taking some herbs and putting (them) in their salad. They know they can walk and get mint if they want while they’re cooking.”

The farm and cooking curriculum also encourages students to explore careers in sustainability, technology, agriculture, and ecology, said Soll.

TFFJ was initially funded by a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant, capital funding from Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, and discretionary funding from Councilmember Selvena N. Brooks-Powers. Anderson’s plan is to expand urban farming initiatives, particularly at the Far Rockaway High School campus and Goldie Maple Academy in Queens, as well as throughout the state. He has provided $400,000 for the hydroponic farm at Far Rockaway High School, which supplies fresh produce to local food pantries throughout the peninsula; allocated $100,000 each year for expenses at Goldie Maple Academy for the next two years; and allocated $400,000 for a greenhouse in Rockaway to support the Campaign Against Hunger organization.

As the state finalizes its executive budget, Anderson is also advocating for more resources for traditional Black farmers with farmland upstate.

“You have Black farmers that are always at a disadvantage because of the costs of product, and cost of the tools and materials you need,” said Anderson. “... tractors and equipment are very expensive. You have to take out thousands of dollars in loans to get these tools. Irrigation systems. All of this is expensive.”

Far Rockaway High School hydroponic farm and kitchen facility on campus in Queens. (Ariama C. Long photos)

Fresh swiss chard growing at Far Rockaway High School hydroponic farm.

Far Rockaway High School students at their hydroponic farm and kitchen facility on campus. (Courtesy of Teens for Food Justice.)

Deed Theft

They made renovations to the basement before moving to the building and renting out the other apartment.

The two managed to purchase another house on Dumont Avenue and a third at 406 E. 21st Street, but they eventually started having issues with tenants and fell behind on their mortgages.

Sawadogo’s wife told him about Solny after

a neighbor mentioned his services to her.

“I don’t know what he told my partner,” Ouedraogo told the AmNews. “He said my partner had to sign the deed over to him for him to process the short sale.”

Sawadogo said he was shocked when Ouedraogo called to tell him 729 Eldert Lane was up for sale. “We were looking to have a short sale,” Sawadogo said in an interview. “When we arrived at [Solny’s] office, we were asked to sign the papers. We didn’t know anything about this issue. Later, we found out when Gaoussou asked

Black doctors in the United States? What does it mean for the United States economy?” Salifu said.

me if I had started selling the house. I said no, we were over there for a short sale.”

During the court trial, Kousouros stressed that despite the two jointly purchasing the property on Eldert Lane, only Sawadogo’s name appeared on both the deed and the mortgage. If Sawadogo transferred the deed to Solny, his lawyer seemed to imply, it had no financial effect on Ouedraogo.

Ouedraogo sees it differently and is awaiting justice in this case. Having Solny’s name on the deeds for their properties at 729 Eldert Lane and 406 E. 21st Street has

hurt their financial reputations and taken away their homes. They have also each lost thousands in rental income.

“For me to trust anybody on that kind of deal again, it’s going to be a while, because I have been burned left and right for it, and the justice system is not prevailing; the justice system is not working at all,” said Ouedraogo. “Let me put it this way: If it was me as a Black man who did that crime, right now I’m behind bars. There’s no excuse for why they’re not locking [Solny] up, no excuse that it’s taken them that long.”

However, he is hopeful that once the temperature cools down around the current anti-DEI rhetoric, he will be able to obtain funding from NIH for initiatives in closing the gap in health equity.

“The work that we are doing has to do with increasing the number of underrepresented minority folks into the health professions. That is healthy for the United States. Can you imagine not having enough

“If you never had someone from your family who was a doctor, how would you want to be a doctor? Our programs are exposing these young kids to these professions, and then we actually get more and more of those kids actually expressing interest, which is a good thing for America. It’s not a disputable thing.”

Earlier this week, the Trump administration implemented a freeze on the Presidents’ Emergency Plan for AIDS

Adams

Continued from page 6

of his background in law enforcement, has campaigned and legislated from a centristto-conservative view on crime reduction and bail reform.

In the past week since the Carlson interview, Adams has had a limited public schedule because he “hasn’t been feeling his best” and has a slew of doctor’s appointments. His press office said despite what’s going on, “he has been clear that he is running as a Democrat” in the upcoming election.

As mayor, Adams enjoys high name recognition and still has significant support among Black voters — a 40% favorability rating, according to a poll conducted earlier this month, said Ketcham. The mayor has gloated lately about his base of loyal Black and Brown/working class voters, even circulating “texts” from them as proof. “I don’t know if you need to hear this,” read one sent to the AmNews by the mayor’s press office, “but I think it’s important for you to know that despite these weak negroes foolish agenda, I am always in the streets with real New Yorkers who stop me and ask me to send you messages of encouragement.”

The downside is that assumed mayoral candidate former Governor Andrew Cuomo shares much of the same voting base as Adams. Cuomo also has widespread name

recognition and a reputation for effectiveness through ruthlessness. They are likely to split most of the city’s minority and moderate vote even with ranked choice voting, said Ketcham.

“Many of Adams’s supporters have discounted the indictment on the grounds that it was motivated by a retaliatory Biden Department of Justice or that it was for relatively minor offenses like hotel room and plane upgrades,” said Ketcham. “Given the mayor’s high unfavorability numbers, securing a presidential pardon may only have a small effect on his electoral chances.”

There’s still a chance that Adams could lose the Democratic primary and then run as the Republican candidate in November’s general election, based on the state’s obscure Wilson-Pakula law, which allows Adams to seek authorization from the Republican Party to run in its primary. Having the backing of Trump could pressure the state party to allow Adams to run, said Ketcham, and considering that no plausible Republican primary candidate has emerged yet, Adams might be Republicans’ best chance of winning.

Pegues said that Adams was a golden child of the Democratic Party at one point and everyone truly did want to see him succeed. Now, he doesn’t think that Adams will have a “chance in hell” of getting reelected. Even if he continues to be friendly with Trump and Republicans, Adams

Relief (PEPFAR) program, which provides anti-HIV and AIDS medicine and funding for African countries, which could lead to potential significant harm and virus spread.

“This money is peanuts from the context of America to help a poor country treat a particular disease and be healthy. I think, from a humanistic perspective, this is so important to do,” Salifu said. “I hope that this is temporary and that it will come back, but if it doesn’t come back, this is terrible, and it’s going to affect a lot of lives and people are going to, in the future, see that

they made a terrible mistake.”

In his career, Salifu has received various awards, including the 2022 Laureate Award for excellence in medical care, community service, education, and research through his work in the ACP chapter and at SUNY Downstate.

Salifu will begin his term as ACP governor-elect designee on April 5, 2025, before assuming his four-year term on April 16, 2026. He is proud that ACP recognized his work, and for now is looking forward to celebrating his new appointment with his wife of 39 years and three sons.

eventually will have to defend the city from Trump’s orders or face the wrath of voters. He pointed out that Black MAGA Republicans, like U.S. Senator Tim Scott, didn’t receive any high-level appointments in Trump’s administration.

“Donald Trump is who he is and he tells you who he is and he is what he is,” said Pegues.

“He is straight-up, ‘you either bow down to me and kiss the ring, or you’re finished.’”

New York Labor Law requires a "manual worker" be paid their wages weekly and not later than seven calendar days after the end of the week in which the wages are earned.

If you are a manual worker and are paid bi-weekly or semi-monthly, you may be entitled to significant compensation for every instance that you were paid late.

The Romero Law Group PLLC represents employees who are subject to discrimination, retaliation and/or harassment because of race, national origin, religion, disability, sex and pregnancy.

Peter Romero

Religion & Spirituality

Blessed are the merciful and love demands the truth

I am one of the throng of people so deeply impressed and moved by the sermon the Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde preached at the National Cathedral after the inauguration of Donald. J. Trump. At the end of her 15-minute sermon, she said, “…In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are sacred now…”

As a preacher, also called by God to interpret scripture and to offer words that draw people toward the love the gospel demands, I found her sermon to be so perfect in tone and a boldand-gentle reminder of what it means to be Christian. Some who are less familiar with the Christian scriptures may have been surprised at the teaching. Clearly, Trump, who created his own bible, should have at least a

passing familiarity with what she said from the pulpit, but he was offended at her words and at her tone. He wants an apology.

That’s not shocking. The good news of God’s amazing love as preached by Jesus, whom the church calls “Christ” and “Messiah,” has always been a challenge to empire and a disruption to the violence of patriarchy, racism, and discrimination. It is a call to care for widows and orphans and strangers. It is a call to sharing resources, being merciful, and making sure everyone has enough.

For those of us who say we are Christian, the command to love is central. We get those commands from the Jewish scriptures because Jesus is a Jew. He is quoting Deuteronomy and Leviticus when he commands his followers to love God, neighbor, and self. Just in case that was not clear, Matthew’s gospel gathers the teaching of Jesus into what is called the Sermon on the Mount or the Beatitudes.

The Beatitudes (Matthew 5: 1–11)

“When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he began to speak and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the Earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice

Van Deward Woods remembered in Harlem

and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Those who show mercy are blessed. Those who show mercy will receive mercy. Rev. Budde was reminding Trump, who claims to be a Christian, that being merciful is what it means to be Christian.

Any Christian who is offended by the call to mercy must ask: Am I a Christian? Am I living as though Jesus has a claim on my life?

And we — all of us — who watch Trump be Trump must ask ourselves: Are we ready to tell the truth about what we see? Jesus also said, “The truth will set you free.” (John 8.32)

Love demands the truth. The truth is POTUS does not have to be a Christian to be POTUS; it is not a job requirement. But damn, don’t we want a leader who is honest, trustworthy, working for “we the people” and merciful? I do!

The truth is: If our commander-in-chief is an unrepentant liar, rapist, insurrectionist, and traitor who is working for his billionaire cronies and not the rest of us; let’s just call it what it is. Let’s stop acting like he is a Christian; let’s stop pretending that the God who came all the way down to be with us in Jesus is somehow now ready to use Trump to save the world and make America great again. Come on, my people. Let’s be honest and brace ourselves for four years of the terror Trump promised.

I join the reverend in praying for a transformation of Trump’s heart, from callous and cold to merciful and kind.

Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis is senior minister and public theologian at Middle Church in New York. She champions racial equality, economic justice, and LGBTQIA+/gender rights. Featured on MSNBC, PBS, NBC, CBS, and NPR, she is the author of several books, including “Fierce Love” and the “Just Love Story Bible.” Her podcast is “Love Period.”

A memorial event recently celebrated the life of Van DeWard Woods, oldest son of Sylvia and Herbert Woods of Sylvia’s Restaurant in Harlem. Woods died in October 2024. To celebrate his life, his friends, family, elected officials, and members of the community all honored him at Sylvia’s Also Lounge in Harlem. The Rev. Al Sharpton attended the event.

REV. DR. JACQUI LEWIS FIERCE LOVE

(Bill Moore photos)

and without insurance — a huge factor in why it was in financial ruin after the COVID19 crisis in 2020.

In February 2024, the state announced it would be “transforming” the facilities. The transformation meant $300 million capital investment toward moving inpatient services across the street to Kings County Hospital, and $100 million last year to cover the hospital’s deficit.

Myrie and other electeds, advocates, clergy, unions, and hospital staff led a series of massive demonstrations against the plan, saying the changes would effectively close the hospital.

“Downstate is an anchor institution in Central Brooklyn, home to the only kidney transplant center in this borough, and one of two regional perinatal centers. Critically, it is the only state-run hospital in New York City,” continued Myrie. “Last year, when the governor’s budget proposed closing SUNY Downstate and sending its patients elsewhere to receive care, this community, which has some of the worst racial health disparities; the worst maternal health outcomes; the worst rates of heart disease, diabetes, asthma, and the least access to affordable quality healthcare — learned about the budget proposal and was rightfully outraged.”

This year’s executive budget announcement about additional funds for SUNY Downstate came at the first convening of the hospital’s new community advisory board meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 22. The eightmember board was established last April by Hochul and is tasked with making recommendations to develop a reasonable and fiscally responsible plan for SUNY Downstate’s future with community input.

SUNY Downstate falls in Councilmember Rita Joseph’s district. At the meeting, she called the hospital a lifeline for services and education. She urged the board to expand community engagement and public hearings from the scheduled three to accessible town halls and virtual forums. “SUNY Downstate must position itself as a leader in advanced care, not just for Brooklyn, but for patients across this city and beyond,” said Joseph.

Similarly, others testified to wanting more staffing to help with patient ratios; a reduction in the hospital’s bed capacity from 342 to 250 to improve efficiency; improvement in outpatient preventive care centers; renovation of the emergency room department; creation of private labor, delivery, and postpartum rooms in the maternity ward; and rebuilding heart surgery programs and maintaining cardiothoracic services, among other moves.

Khari Edwards, the first vice president of color of external affairs at Brookdale Hospital in Brownsville (another safety net hospital that serves Medicaid and Medicare patients or those without insurance), recalled a similar effort: fighting to keep Brookdale from closing in 2017.

“I am ecstatic that the governor committed to keeping Downstate’s doors open with an infusion of capital money. Fifteen years ago, I was part of a group created to address the second Berger Commission that wanted to close safety net hospitals. The fight for safety net hospitals will need to continue because capital money will not be enough,” said Edwards, who is running for Brooklyn Borough president against Antonio Reynoso. “With the new leadership in Washington, my hope is that the governor will change the reimbursement rates, giving hospitals a chance to truly survive this federal administration and pending Medicaid cuts for low-income communities.”

“She [Hochul] can’t just be giving money and we don’t know where it went,” testified one nurse, responding to the fact that the state’s executive budget proposal hasn’t been finalized yet.

Many attendees criticized the state and the advisory board for taking almost nine months to hold its first public hearing, when it promised to release a report by April 1, 2025. The state’s final adopted budget is usually approved by the beginning of April.

“SUNY Downstate has always stood as a vibrant part of the community. We must continue working toward solutions to ensure the healthcare of Black and Brown individuals and its protection,” said Anita Taylor, a representative for Congressmember Yvette Clarke, who demanded that the deadline for a final report be extended to hear more public testimony. “As we near an April deadline, we are concerned about the lack of transparency from the governor-appointed commission and their process and findings, as well as about the many delays in conducting public hearings.”

Reynoso thanked the groups that rallied to save SUNY Downstate. He hinted at even more funding coming from his office in his short speech, but didn’t make an official announcement about how much. “I want to hold back on information that I have because we want to make sure we announce it the right way, but I will be here with SUNY Downstate,” said Reynoso. “Brooklyn borough hall will be supporting SUNY Downstate, and it will not just be words — there will be funding attached to that.”

The advisory board is slated to have two more public hearings, on Feb. 27 and Mar. 13.

1. Public and SUNY Downstate’s hospital staff testified at meeting.

2. President Candidate Khari Edwards at SUNY Downstate Advisory Board meeting.

3. Brooklyn State Senator Zellnor Myrie (right) and Councilmember Rita Joseph (left) seated at SUNY Downstate Advisory Board meeting. (Ariama C. Long photos)

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

WELLS FARGO BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION AS TRUSTEE FOR OPTION ONE MORTGAGE LOAN TRUST 2007-5, ASSET-BACKED CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2007-5, -against-

DONNA FERRATO, ET AL.

NOTICE OF SALE

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN pursuant to a Final Judgment of Foreclosure entered in the Office of the Clerk of the County of New York on May 26, 2022, wherein WELLS FARGO BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION AS TRUSTEE FOR OPTION ONE MORTGAGE LOAN TRUST 2007-5, ASSET-BACKED CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2007-5 is the Plaintiff and DONNA FERRATO, ET AL. are the Defendant(s). I, the undersigned Referee, will sell at public auction at the NEW YORK COUNTY CIVIL SUPREME COURTHOUSE, ROOM 130, 60 CENTRE STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10007, on February 19, 2025 at 2:15PM, premises known as 25 LEONARD ST, APT 3, NEW YORK, NY 10013; and the following tax map identification: 179-1003.

THE CONDOMINIUM UNIT (HEREINAFTER REFERRED TO AS THE “UNIT”) KNOWN AS RESIDENTIAL UNIT NO. 3 IN THE BUILDING (HEREINAFTER REFERRED TO AS THE “BUILDING”) KNOWN AS THE SIMON & MILLS BUILDINGS CO DOMINIUM AND THE STREET NUMBER 25 LEONARD STREET, BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN, CITY, COUNTY AND STATE OF NEW YORK, TOGETHER WITH AN UNDIVIDED 13.50% INTEREST IN THE COMMON ELEMENTS

Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index No.: 850294/2017. Ronald Zezima, Esq. - Referee. Robertson, Anschutz, Schneid, Crane & Partners, PLLC, 900 Merchants Concourse, Suite 310, Westbury, New York 11590, Attorneys for Plaintiff. All foreclosure sales will be conducted in accordance with Covid-19 guidelines including, but not limited to, social distancing and mask wearing. *LOCATION OF SALE SUBJECT TO CHANGE DAY OF IN ACCORDANCE WITH COURT/CLERK DIRECTIVES.

NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK: COUNTY OF QUEENS. THE JY 4 L.P., Pltf v. 78-19 JAMAICA AVENUE LLC , et al., Defts. Index No. 711940/2016 . pursuant to the Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated December 12, 2024 and entered on December 18, 2024 , I will sell at public auction public auction at the Queens County Courthouse, 88-11 Sutphin Blvd, Jamaica, New York, Courtroom 25, on February 14, 2025 at 11:00 a.m., prem. k/a 78-19 Jamaica Avenue, Woodhaven, NY 11421 (Block 8842, Lot 147). Approx. amt of judgment is $ 853,984.28 together with interest, plus costs, attorneys’ fees and interest, less any payments received. Sold subject to terms and conditions of filed Judgment , Queens County Foreclosure Auction Rules and terms of sale , Martha Taylor, Esq ., Referee. Jacobowitz Newman Tversky LLP, Attys. for Plaintiff, 377 Pearsall Ave., Ste C, Cedarhurst, NY.

Notice is hereby given that Application ID Number NA-024025-100347 for a On-Premises Restaurant license has been applied for by the undersigned to permit the sale of beer and wine at retail in a restaurant under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law at Chuck E. Cheese’s located at 139 Flatbush Avenue, Floor 3 in Kings County for on-premises consumption. CEC Entertainment LLC, 139 Flatbush Avenue, Floor 3, Brooklyn, NY 11217.

ReZolve Skincare LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 1/1/2025. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 533 E83rd St, Apt 3A, New York, NY 10028. Purpose: Any lawful act.

New York's Finest Logistics LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 01/17/2025. 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 Ave Suite 202, Brooklyn NY 11228. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Homebody Enterprises LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 12/30/2024. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 230 E 30th St, NY, NY 10016 Purpose: Any lawful act.

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF NEW YORK, FLUSHING BANK, Plaintiff, vs. CABRERA REALTY CORP., ET AL., Defendant(s).

Savoir-Faire Projects LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 11/26/2024. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 166 East 61st Street,10F, New York, NY 10065. Purpose: Any lawful act.

LEGAL NOTICE

Notice of Non-Discriminatory Policy. Policy Statement of Upper East Side Rehabilitation and Nursing Center provides equal opportunities to all employees, applicants and admission, and does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, religion, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender indemnity or expression, handicap, disability, source of sponsorship, source of payment, marital status, age, amnesty or status as a covered veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws.

NOTICE OF FORMATION of limited liability company (LLC).

Name: JUSTIN STONE INVESTORS LLC f/k/a JONATHAN STONE INVESTORS LLC. Articles of Organization filed with Sec. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/20/2024. Office location: New York Co. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and address SSNY shall mail a copy of process is 435 East 65th Street, #12C, New York, NY 10065. Purpose: any lawful purpose.

Julie Christie LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 12/20/2024. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 29 Cooper Street Apt 3D, New York NY 10034. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Emma Havighorst LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 1/12/2025. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 264 Lexington Ave Apt 3B, New York, NY 10016. Purpose: Any lawful act.

NYC M&S TRANSIT LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 11/08/2024. Office location: NEW YORK County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 2133 MADISON AVENUE APT 3C, NEW YORK. Purpose: Any lawful act.

NOTICE OF SALE

Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Decision + Order on Motion duly entered on September 23, 2024, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the New York County Courthouse, room 116, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY 10007 on February 26, 2025 at 2:15 p.m., premises known as 2184 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10032. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County, City and State of New York, Block 2125 and Lot 47. Approximate amount of judgment is $944,009.39 together with interest at the note rate from May 22, 2024 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index #850134/2019.

Matthew D. Hunter, III Esq., Referee

Lynch & Associates, 464 New York Avenue, Suite 200, Huntington, New York 11743, Attorneys for Plaintiff

Notice of formation of RMG PRODUCTIONS, LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 01/15/2025. Office located in NEW YORK. SSNY is designated for service of process. SSNY shall mail a copy of any process served against the LLC to 10 TIMES SQUARE 3RD FLOOR, SUITE 3101, NEW YORK, NY, 10018, USA Purpose: any lawful purpose.

Quintessence Commerce LLC LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 12/14/2024. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 100 Riverside Blvd Apt 11P, New York, NY10069. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Dream Spirits LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 10/7/24 Office location: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 74 W 47th St #400, NY, NY 10036. Purpose: Any lawful act.

ROLLO DAIRY BAR LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 11/06/2024. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 190 E 7th St Apt 113, NY, NY 10009. Purpose: Any lawful act.

SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF NEW YORK, LOAN FUNDER LLC, SERIES 31312, Plaintiff, vs. 236 WEST ONE ENTERPRISES INC., ET AL., Defendant(s).

Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Decision + Order on Motion duly entered on September 17, 2024, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the New York County Courthouse, room 116, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY 10007 on March 5, 2025 at 2:15 p.m., premises known as 236 West 136th Street, New York, NY 10030. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County, City and State of New York, Block 1941 and Lot 49. Approximate amount of judgment is $1,541,954.90 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index #850683/2023.

Clark Whitsett, Esq., Referee

McCarter & English, LLP, 250 W 55th Street, 13th Floor, New York, New York 10019, Attorneys for Plaintiff

Notice of Formation of MACONDO 520 FIFTH, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/24/24. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 200 S. Biscayne Blvd., Ste. 1860, Miami, FL 33131. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the princ. office of the LLC. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Sensible Pet Care Services LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 12/18/2024. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 105 West 125th St Front 1 #1225, New York Purpose: Any lawful act.

PEPPAS AND PARTNERS, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 10/29/2024. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 90 Morton Street, Apt. D5, New York, NY, 10014. Purpose: Any lawful act.

OGT CHELSEA LLC filed Arts. of Org. with the Sect'y of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/27/2024. 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 David Dobesh, 36 Fairview Ave, Madison, NJ 07940. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of MAGOON, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/08/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Colorado (CO) on 07/14/22. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to New York Department of State, Division of Corporations, One Commerce Plaza, 99 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12231. CO addr. of LLC: 50 S Steele St., Ste 420, Denver, CO 80209. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State of CO, 1700 Broadway, Suite 550, Denver, CO 80290. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of VANTAGE EQUITY PARTNERS LLC. Authority filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 12/10/24. Office location: New York County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 1/5/24. SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 1907 Back St, Sullivans Isl., SC 29483. DE address of LLC: 1209 Orange St, Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Formation filed with DE Secy of State, 401 Federal St, Ste 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of NONIGHTER LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/24/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 08/21/24. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of CYRIL COURT IL PRESERVATION, L.P. Cert. of LP filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/10/25. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LP: 30 Hudson Yards, 72nd Fl., NY, NY 10001. Latest date on which the LP may dissolve is 12/31/2124. 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 Qualification of AP CREDIT SOLUTIONS FUND II AIV (DC), LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/08/25. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/26/24. Princ. office of LLC: Attn: General Counsel, 9 W. 57th St., 43rd Fl., NY, NY 10019. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the princ. office of the LLC. DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with The Secy. of State of the State of DE, Dept. of State, Div. of Corps., John Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of RKF RETAIL HOLDINGS LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/13/25. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 08/15/05. Princ. office of LLC: 125 Park Ave., NY, NY 10017. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 122072543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Wilmington, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF NEW YORK, EMIGRANT FUNDING CORPORATION, Plaintiff, vs. HERSHEY CHAN REALTY, INC., ET AL., Defendant(s).

Pursuant to an Amended Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Decision + Order on Motion duly entered on July 14, 2023, an Order Amending Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated September 22, 2023 and a Decision + Order on Motion duly entered on October 4, 2024, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the New York County Courthouse, room 116, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY 10007 on March 5, 2025 at 2:15 p.m., premises known as 44 Bowery, New York, NY 10002. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County, City and State of New York, Block 202 and Lot 28. Approximate amount of judgment is $4,103,570.52 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index #850215/2021.

Scott H. Siller, Esq., Referee

Borchert & LaSpina, P.C., 19-02 Whitestone Expressway, Suite 302, Whitestone, New York 11357, Attorneys for Plaintiff

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT - COUNTY OF NEW YORK

DEUTSCHE BANK NATIONAL TRUST COMPANY AS TRUSTEE FOR HARBORVIEW MORTGAGE LOAN TRUST 2007-2, Plaintiff, Against HARVEY LEVINE, CAROLE LEVINE, ET AL

Defendant(s)

Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale, duly entered 09/13/2024, I, the undersigned Referee, will sell at public auction, in Room 130 at 60 Centre Street, New York, NY 10007 on 2/26/2025 at 2:15PM, premises known as 455 Central Park West, Unit 17B, New York, New York 10025, And Described As Follows: ALL that certain plot piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Condominium Unit (Hereinafter Referred To As The "Unit") Known As Unit No. 17B In The Premises Known As 455 Central Park West Condominium, And By The Street Number 455 Central Park West, Borough Of Manhattan, County City And State Of New York. TOGERTHER with an undivided 0.625% percent interest in the Common Elements. Block 01841 Lot 1276

The approximate amount of the current Judgment lien is $3,088,341.91 plus interest and costs. The Premises will be sold subject to provisions of the aforesaid Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale; Index # 850318/2014

Roberta Ellen Ashkin, Esq., Referee.

MCCABE, WEISBERG & CONWAY, LLC, 10 Midland Avenue, Suite 205, Port Chester, NY 10573

Dated: 1/6/2025 File Number: 17-301350 CA

SUPPLEMENTAL SUMMONS

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

WILMINGTON TRUST, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, NOT IN ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY BUT SOLELY AS TRUSTEE FOR SEQUOIA MORTGAGE TRUST 2020-MC1, Plaintiff, -against- KATHERINE G. VOSTERS; BOARD OF MANAGERS OF 444 EAST 57TH STREETCONDOMINIUM; any and all persons unknown to plaintiff, claiming, or who may claim to have an interest in, or generally or specific lien upon the real property described in this action; such unknown persons being herein generally described and intended to be included in the following designation, namely: the creditors, trustees, committees, lienors, and assignees of defendant, any and all persons deriving interest in or lien upon, or title to said real property by, through or under them, or either of them, and their respective creditors, trustees, committees, lienors and assigns, all of whom and whose names, except as stated, are unknown to plaintiff and JOHN DOE AND JANE DOE #1 through #7, the last seven (7) names being fictitious and unknown to the Plaintiff, the persons or parties intended being the tenants, occupants, persons or parties, if any, having or claiming an interest in or lien upon the mortgaged premises described in the complaint, Defendants. INDEX # 850092/2024 Original filed with Clerk March 25, 2024. Plaintiff Designates New York County as the Place of Trial. The Basis of Venue is that the subject action is situated New York County. Premises: 444 E 57th St 4A New York, NY 10022. 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(s) within 20 days after the service of this Summons, exclusive of the day of service (or within 30 days after the service is complete if this Summons is not personally delivered to you within the State of New York); the United States of America may appear or answer within 60 day of service hereof; 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. The supplemental summons and amended complaint are being filed pursuant to Court order dated November 19, 2024. 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 WILMINGTON TRUST, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, NOT IN ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY BUT SOLELY AS TRUSTEE FOR SEQUOIA MORTGAGE TRUST 2020-MC1 AND FILING THE ANSWER WITH THE COURT. Dated: November 22, 2024 Uniondale, New York, Respectfully submitted, Pincus Law Group, PLLC. By: Margaret Burke Tarab, Esq., Attorneys for Plaintiff, 425 RXR Plaza Uniondale, NY 11556, 516-699-8902

NOTICE OF SALE Supreme Court, State of New York, New York County. PV EAST 106TH STREET LLC, Plaintiff, v. 308310 REALTY, LLC, et al., Defendants.

Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale, duly entered in the New York County Clerk’s Office on September 4, 2024 (the “Judgment”), under New York County Index No. 850087/2023, Roberta Ashkin, Esq., Referee, will sell at public auction in Room 116 of the New York County Supreme Courthouse located at 60 Centre Street, New York, New York, on Wednesday, February 19, 2025, at 2:15 p.m., the premises known as 308-310 East 106th Street, New York, New York 10029. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County, City and State of New York, Block 1677, Lots 45-46 (the “Property”). Approximate amount due per Judgment is $9,136,090.11, plus interest and costs. The Property will be sold subject to provisions of the Judgment and the Terms of Sale. Roberta Ashkin, Esq., Referee. Farrell Fritz, P.C., 400 RXR Plaza, Uniondale, New York 11556, attorneys for Plaintiff.

Capture Create LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 31/10/2024. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 1595 Lexington Avenue, #5C, New York, NY, 10029. Purpose: Any lawful act.

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF NEW YORK, MCLP ASSET COMPANY, INC., Plaintiff, vs. VANESSA D FIGEUROA A/K/A VANESSA DULALIA FIGEUROA, ET AL., Defendant(s).

Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Decision + Order on Motion duly entered on August 27, 2024, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the New York County Courthouse, room 116, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY 10007 on February 19, 2025 at 2:15 p.m., premises known as 76 Madison Avenue, Unit #7A, New York, NY 10016. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County, City and State of New York, Block 857 and Lot 1118 together with an undivided 3.41 percent interest in the Common Elements. Approximate amount of judgment is $2,094,393.23 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index #850247/2023. Cash will not be accepted.

Allison Furman, Esq., Referee Knuckles & Manfro, LLP, 120 White Plains Road, Suite 215, Tarrytown, New York 10591, Attorneys for Plaintiff

NOTICE OF SALE

NOTICE OF PUBLIC BID

Hunter Roberts Construction Group (HRCG) will be accepting Competitive Sealed Bids on behalf of The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) as part of the public procurement for Construction Services of East 34th Street NYC Ferry Transit Resilience Project (Contract No. 104540001), located at E. 34th Street in Manhattan, NY 10016. Scope of Work entails marine pile driving, extension of steel anchor piles & other misc. metal tasks.

Bidders are hereby notified that this subcontract is subject to Local Law 1, Disadvantage Business Enterprises (DBE) Requirements, Prevailing Wage Rates, and apprenticeship program requirements. To access the solicitation, visit the HRCG’s Building Connected Portal at https://tinyurl.com/ 34thFerryResilience Responses to the RFP are to be electronically submitted via Building Connected no later than Monday, February 10, 2025, by 4:00 PM. Anticipated award date is March 2025. Anticipated construction start date is September 2025. Please note that late bids will not be accepted if submitted after the due date. Project Contact: Jessica Levyns - jlevyns@hrcg.com

Microassets LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 12/21/2024. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 422 ST Nicholas Ave 4S, New York, NY, 10027 . Purpose: Any lawful act.

KEN & RITA REAL ESTATE HOLDINGS LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 12/10/24. Office: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, c/o Rita Warner, 15 West 81st Street, New York, NY 10024. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Formation of GALLERY FOLLY, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/14/25. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Lowenstein Sandler LLP, 1251 Ave. of the Americas, 17th Fl., NY, NY 10020. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of JOBIM ENTERPRISES LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/14/25. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 157 W. 106th St., #5D, NY, NY 10025. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Altman Greenfield & Selvaggi, 200 Park Ave. South, 8th Fl., NY, NY 10003. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF NEW YORK, HSBC BANK USA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS TRUSTEE FOR WELLS FARGO ASSET SECURITIES CORPORATION, MORTGAGE PASS-THROUGH CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2006-7, Plaintiff, vs. AYSE SULAN KOLATAN, ET AL., Defendant(s).

Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure duly entered on August 7, 2024 and the Decision + Order duly entered on December 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 10007 on February 19, 2025 at 2:15 p.m., premises known as 50 Pine Street, Unit 2, New York, NY 10005. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County, City and State of New York, Block 41 and Lot 1004 together with an undivided 7.16 percent interest in the Common Elements. Approximate amount of judgment is $1,338,016.35 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index #850179/2022. Cash will not be accepted.

Christy M. Demelfi, Esq., Referee

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

LaTeca Hub LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 11/3/2024. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 408 E 73 Street, Apt 3B, New York, NY 10021. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of AP CREDIT SOLUTIONS HOLDINGS (AIV) II, L.P. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/08/25. Office location: NY County. LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/26/24. Princ. office of LP: Attn: General Counsel, 9 W. 57th St., 43rd Fl., NY, NY 10019. Duration of LP is Perpetual. SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the Partnership at the princ. office of the LP. Name and addr. of each general partner are available from SSNY. DE addr. of LP: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of LP filed with The Secy. of State of the State of DE, Dept. of State, Div. of Corps., John Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

THE DONTZIN LAW FIRM LLP Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on December 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: 31 East 62nd Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10065. Purpose: Any lawful act. Name changed to DONTZIN KOLBE & FLEISSIG LLP on January 7, 2025

Notice of Formation of KATLIN MONTALI CONSULTING LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/13/25. 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.

Ashley Harmon aligns with women basketball players to focus on health equity

By LOIS ELFMAN

Special to the AmNews

Ashley Harmon knows what it’s like to face health issues, so creating a multivitamin specifically formulated for women of color was deeply personal. Forging a partnership with some dynamic women’s basketball players to promote that vitamin felt natural, and she recently teamed up with WNBA champions Azurá Stevens and Dana Evans, to bring awareness to Mela Vitamins.

“When I was in college, I started getting really sick and couldn’t figure out what it was,” said Harmon. “Went to countless doctors, like so many other women in our community have. No one tried to figure out what was wrong.”

After two years of tests and different medications, a Black doctor accurately diagnosed a Vitamin D deficiency. She learned about how many Black women experi-

ence Vitamin D deficiency, and Harmon began making her own vitamin supplements. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, she worked at a media company that was reporting on the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on communities of color.

“It really inspired me to launch Mela Vitamins,” said Harmon.

“Beyond the product, I really want to help our communities live healthier. … For me, these professional athletes are the epitome of health. They’re in the best shape of their lives; they’re focused on nutrition. Being able to partner with people that understand health and wellness can help educate our communities around why these things are so important.

“Both Dana and Azurá are very active in partnering with different community organizations that support health equity and wellness programs, so it’s a great fit for us,” she added.

“As an athlete, I’ve seen firsthand how access to the right resources can make all the difference in achieving your full potential,” said Stevens, who is currently taking part in Unrivaled, the new 3x3 league playing in Miami. “Black women deserve wellness solutions designed specifically for them. This partnership is about … advancing health equity.”

Harmon noted that female athletes are demanding a lot from their bodies. Especially when rehabbing an injury, it’s crucial to pay attention to all aspects of recovery.

“Also, immunity wise they’re traveling so much,” said Harmon, who envisions working with more Black female athletes, both professional and college, moving forward. “So many of us are busy all the time, so taking the time and effort to focus on your wellness and self-care is something they understand very well.”

The HBCU men’s basketball standings remain tight entering the stretch

By JAIME C. HARRIS

AmNews Sports Editor

No team has separated itself in their respective conference play in the men’s HBCU basketball standings. The MEAC, SWAC, and SIAC are all open as multiple teams are still contending for regular season titles with roughly six weeks before conference tournaments begin. Norfolk State’s 92-75 home win over Howard last Saturday, televised nationally on ESPN, put them on top of MEAC at 4-1. It was the Bison’s first loss in conference play and they are 3-1 heading into their next conference game against South Carolina State on Monday at home. Before that match up, Howard will play fellow HBCU Hampton in Washington, D.C., in a non-conference pairing. As an aside, Hampton left the MEAC in 2018 to join the Big South Conference, then departed the Big South and became a member of the Colonial Athletic Conference, where they are now near the bottom of the conference at 3-6 and 10-11 overall. The tale of North Carolina A&T is similar, which also left the MEAC in 2019 for the Big South, and then jumped to the

CAA. They haven’t found much success there and are last in the conference at 0-9 and 4-18 in 22 games played this season. Back to the current MEAC teams: North Carolina Central, Morgan State, and South Carolina State are bunched up at 3-2. Delaware State is 2-3, Coppin State 1-4, and Maryland Eastern-Shore 0-4. Norfolk State looks like they may

be the team to beat, led by Harlem, New York native Brian Moore Jr. Moore, a graduate student who matriculated to Kingston High School in Ulster County,

run

New York, as a sophomore and became a star for Kingston, leading them to the state Class AA final four as a senior in 2019 and being named the Section 9 player of the year. The 6-2 guard attended Northeastern Oklahoma A&M college, a junior college, then played two seasons at Division I Murray State before transferring to Norfolk State this season for his final collegiate campaign. He is leading the Spartans in scoring at 19 points per game under head coach Robert Jones, a native of South Jamaica, Queens, who is in his 12th season leading the program. Moore torched Howard for a game-high 30 points on 11-18 shooting.

In the SWAC, Southern University 7-0 (12-8 overall) is a game ahead of 6-1 Texas Southern (9-11 overall) with Jackson State third at 5-2. The 5-15 Tigers have yet to win a game out of conference. Albany State is pacing SIAC East division at 10-3 (13-7) with Edward Waters (14-6) and Clark (12-7) both posting 9-3 conference records. In the West, Miles is the dominant team at 12-1 and 15-3 overall. Tuskegee is their closest competitor at 7-5 (9-9).

Mela Vitamins founder and CEO Ashley Harmon (l) with WNBA and Unrivaled player Azurá Stevens. (Photo courtesy of Mela Vitamins)

Harlem native Brian Moore Jr. has the Norfolk State Spartans atop of the MEAC basketball standings. (Norfolk State University Athletics photo)

The Jets turn to Aaron Glenn to lead them out of a 14-year

playoff drought

By JAIME C. HARRIS AmNews Sports Editor

On Monday, former New York Jets defensive back Aaron Glenn met with the media at the Jets’ training facility in Florham Park, New Jersey. It was his introductory press conference after becoming the franchise’s 22nd head coach since their founding in 1959 as the New York Titans who joined the American Football League.

The AFL and NFL (National Football League) merged ahead of the 1970 NFL season. The Jets won Super Bowl III in 1969 before the leagues combined, defeating the heavily favored Baltimore Colts 16-7 led by iconic quarterback Joe Namath. It was their first and only Super Bowl appearance. Ending this year’s season at 5-12, the Jets have not made the playoffs since losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC Championship game in 2010 under then head coach Rex Ryan. They hold the dubious distinction of longest active playoff drought — 14 years — out of all the teams in the four major North American sport leagues (NFL,

NBA, MLB and NHL) and a combined 124 teams. Glenn endeavors to end that disconcerting mark.

“Listen, I wanted this job,” said Glenn, who was drafted by the Jets out of Texas A&M in 1994 with the 12th overall pick in the first round and played for the franchise through the 2001 season. He ended his playing career in 2008 having been named to three Pro Bowls.

The 52-year-old Glenn began his coaching career as an assistant defensive backs coach with the Cleveland Browns in 2014 and was the Detroit Lions’ defensive coordinator for the past four seasons before being hired by the Jets. He is currently one of only five Black NFL head coaches of the league’s 32 franchises with the New Orleans Saints still interviewing to fill their opening as of AmNews press time Glenn acknowledged and embraced the road ahead. “Listen, there are going to be challenges, but with challenges come opportunity,” he said with team owner Woody Johnson and new general manager Darren Mougey, among other team personnel present.

“Here’s what I do know,” Glenn added. “We’re the freaking New York Jets and we’re built for this … sustained success — that’s what we’re looking for because I’ve lived it …To me there’s no such thing as accountability without responsibility. So it’s my job to make sure what your responsibility is.

“Once the players understand

that, then they know they have to be accountable for that. It’s not like I’m the one to have to tell them, ‘You’re wrong.’ They’ll know it. So we set that standard up front, and the players want that.”

The prevailing issue for Glenn and the Jets’ leadership is resolving the quarterback dilemma.

Incumbent starter Aaron Rodg-

ers is 41 and has been a polarizing figure since the Jets acquired him in a trade with the Green Bay Packers in April 2023.

“This thing is not about Aaron Rodgers,” Glenn said. “This is about the roster. And we plan on building the best roster we can.”

The Rodgers saga is to be continued.

Athletes Unlimited women’s hoops league tips-off season four

Seven-year WNBA veteran Lexie Brown will suit up in the Athletes Unlimited league this season.

(Jade Hewitt/Athletes Unlimited photo)

By LOIS ELFMAN Special to the AmNews

Forty players, current and past WNBA players among them, are now in Nashville for the fourth season of Athletes Unlimited (AU) basketball. Launched in 2020, AU utilizes what it calls a professional player-centric model. In addition to basketball, which tipped off play in 2022, the organization currently has professional leagues in softball and volleyball.

“We are on the ground in Nashville,” said Megan Perry, AU director of basketball. Prior to the season’s first tip-off on Feb. 5 (National Girls and Women in Sports Day), there is training and player orientation. While the games are traditional 5x5 basketball and there are four teams, players amass individual points for various aspects of each game, and at the end of four weeks of play, the person with the most points

is crowned the league’s individual champion. Last year’s champion was Allisha Gray, who this winter is in Miami with Unrivaled.

“What I love about Athletes Unlimited overall is their commitment to women’s sports, being innovative and trendsetters in the space,” said Perry. “We are a player-led, player-driven organization. We are collaborating or partnering with our players … down to how our format of play is on the court.”

This year’s players include well known names like Lexie Brown, Alysha Clark, Sydney Colson, Shey Peddy, Maddy Siegrist and Elizabeth Williams, as well as former WNBA players and players still hoping to play in the WNBA. In addition to the opportunity to play and earn money, there is professional development and programming. Members of the AU staff help the athletes with content development for those interested in increasing their presence on social media.

“[Our model] allows our players to not only compete against elite level talent, but also to learn something new,” said Perry. “Captains are identified by the top four finishers on the leaderboard. Captains select their teams via a weekly draft, so players change teams from week to week. What exists within AU is that we don’t have traditional coaches; we have facilitators to support our captains in the decision making. Our captains are leading the practices and making substitution decisions. It promotes this freedom of play that exists … and they get to showcase a lot more of their talent.”

Before play gets underway, there is media day, a kickoff party with local personalities and influencers, and two exhibition games. During the season, games air on ESPN+ and the Fanduel SN & WNBA App.

Aaron Glenn, a former Jets defensive back, is now the franchise’s new head coach. He met with the media at his introductory press conference on Monday. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

Garden of Dreams Foundation honors MLK at the Dunlevy Milbank Center

By DERREL JOHNSON Special to the AmNews

Last week, two-time NBA champion, Basketball Hall of Famer, and New York Knicks legend Walt “Clyde” Frazier visited the Children’s Aid Dunlevy Milbank Community Center on 118th Street in Harlem to read his 2024 book, “Winning and Grinning: Walt Clyde Frazier Knicks Legend and New York City Icon,” to youth. The book was written by Frazier, Ryan Sirgiovanni and Bridget Sirgiovanni, and illustrated by Elliot Gerard.

The event, a collaboration between Children’s Aid, the Garden of Dreams Foundation, MSG Networks, the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers, was created to educate youth on the enduring impact of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the national holiday honoring his remarkable life.

Frazier, who has worked at MSG Networks as a color commentator since 1987, read to children in one room. Meanwhile, a Junior Rangers hockey clinic took place on

one side of the center’s gymnasium and a Junior Knicks basketball clinic was being held on the other side. Former Rangers player Tom Laidlaw and former Knicks standout John Wallace participated in the respective clinics. There was also classroom activities that celebrated King’s legacy. The over 100 youth that participated in the day’s activities were gifted with items

such as a copy of Frazier’s book, Knicks t-shirts, Rangers beanies, and Garden of Dreams backpacks. Elected officials in attendance included New York City Councilman Yusef Salaam, representing District 9; State Senator Cordell Cleare, representing District 30; and New York State Assemblyman Jordan Wright, representing District 70.

“Thrilled to have joined the Garden of Dreams MLK Day Community Event,” State Senator Cleare said via Instagram. “Seeing our Harlem youth, ages 5-16, engaged in activities like basketball, floor hockey, coloring, and writing about their dreams was truly inspiring.

Let’s keep investing in our children — they are the future of our great Harlem community. Together, we

can nurture their potential and pave the way for their success.”

For more information on community events at Dunlevy Milbank, visit https://www.childrensaidnyc.org/programs/location/dunlevy-milbank-community-center. For additional information about the Garden Of Dreams Foundation, visit https://www.gardenofdreamsfoundation.org.

Atoy Wilson inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame

By LOIS ELFMAN

Special to the AmNews

In 1965, Atoy Wilson shattered barriers by becoming the first African American figure skater to compete at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. The following year, he etched his name in the history books by winning the U.S. novice men’s title. On Jan. 25, his position in U.S. skating history was formally recognized when Wilson was inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame (HOF), the first African American man to receive this honor (three women were previously inducted).

“It was a really touching experience,” said Wilson, the inaugural recipient of the Trailblazers Award. “I made sure that the people [at the reception] hearing my acceptance speech knew about my mother. We had to have the help, and Thelma was definitely a part of that.”

For those HOF members who championed his induction, notably U.S. and World Champion Tai Babilonia and U.S., World and Olympic Champion Scott Hamilton, the moment was emotional. People attending the HOF reception were moved by Wilson’s story and how he has tried to inspire

and mentor the skaters who have come after him.

“There were really some hard knocks that Mabel (Wilson’s first coach Mabel Fairbanks) and I had to go through in those earlier stages,” said Wilson. “What has now happened is this bridge with Diversify Ice, Figure Skating in Harlem, [and] Unity Ice. There

are organizations that are really trying to keep this sport moving forward.”

There was considerable representation of skaters of color at these U.S. Championships, which Wilson greatly appreciated. He saw a connection from himself to the skaters of today. The love and support were abun-

dant. Wilson’s brother Reynaldo, niece Chelsea, son Atoy Jr. and some friends traveled to Wichita, Kansas for the celebration.

“It was a diverse field of skaters,” said Wilson, who acknowledged people at U.S. Figure Skating who are actively promoting diversity in the sport. This includes the director of diversity, equity and inclu-

sion Kadari Taylor-Watson. “Kadari invited me and Joel [Savary, founder of Diversify Ice] to speak with the Kansas African American Business Council in Wichita. We had a panel discussion, I was the keynote speaker, and it was fierce. It was great, and many of those people were then in the audience for the skating.”

Knicks legend Walt Frazier speaks with youth at the Dunlevy Milbank Center in Harlem last week at an event honoring Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. organized by the Garden of Dreams Foundation. (Garden of Dreams photos)

Figure skating pioneer Atoy Wilson being introduced last week to the crowd at the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas. (Danielle Earl/U.S. Figure Skating photo)

Atoy Wilson (second from right) with members of Diversify Ice and Skylar Lautowa-Peguero, silver medalist at the junior women’s U.S. Championships. (Photo courtesy of Joel Savary)

Sports

All Stars Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns fuel a surging Knicks offense

By JAIME C. HARRIS

AmNews Sports Editor

More evidence of the Knicks once again being one of the NBA’s signature franchises on the court was presented last week when guard Jalen Brunson and center Karl-Anthony Towns were named starters for the Eastern Conference squad for this season’s NBA All-Star Game, scheduled for Feb. 16 at the Chase Center in San Francisco, California.

They became the first pair of Knicks to earn starting spots in the same All-Star Game in 50 years, the last duo being Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famers Walt “Clyde” Frazier and Earl “The Pearl” Monroe in 1975. Going into last night’s game at Madison Square Garden versus the 2023 NBA champion Denver Nuggets, the Knicks were 31-16, No. 3 overall in the East behind Cleveland Cavaliers (37-9), and just one game behind the defending league champion Boston Celtics (32-15) in the standings.

Brunson and Towns have been instrumental parts of a collective that has yet to play its best basketball this season missing center Mitchell Robinson, who is still recovering from left ankle surgery performed last May, and a bench that essentially is a two man outfit — guard Deuce McBride and forward Precious Achiuwa. Brunson was 10th in the NBA in scoring at 25.8 points per game and 8th in assists at 7.4 prior to facing the Nuggets. Towns was 14th in scoring at 24.9 and has been a monster on the glass, averaging 13.8 rebounds, second in the league behind the Sacramento Kings Domantas Sabonis’s 14.6. Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said the 28-year-old Brunson’s second All-Star selection and the 29-year-old Towns’s fifth is a testament to the team’s output and results as a whole.

“I think it’s great, and they’ve had great seasons, but it’s also a byproduct of what their teammates are doing with them as well,” he

Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (left) and guard Jalen Brunson were named starters for the Eastern Conference squad for the February 16 NBA All-Star Game. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

said. Indeed, their fellow starters Josh Hart, OG Anunoby, and Mikal Bridges have all been standout twoway players who have made im-

prints on both ends of the court.

“Winning gets them recognized,” Thibodeau said of Brunson and Towns. “And there’s still a long way

for us to go, but it’s a great accomplishment for our organization.”

Ironically, it’s the Knicks’ offense that has been their strength this season under a head coach who built a reputation as one of the game’s best defensive minds. Since Thibodeau became the Knicks’ head coach in July 2020, defense has been the team’s identity and conversely he has received criticism from a segment of the Knicks fan base for an offense that was average to below average in league metrics.

Now, fueled by Brunson and Towns, and following consecutive 143-point outbursts at home versus the Kings on Saturday (143120) and the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday (143-106), the Knicks were fourth in scoring in the NBA at 117.8. They were a solid 8th in opponents points allowed at 110.8.

The Knicks will host the Los Angeles Lakers at MSG on Saturday and the Houston Rockets on Monday, and face the Toronto Raptors on the road on Tuesday.

Forward Noah Clowney displays increased versatility on a fluid Nets roster

By DERREL JOHNSON Special to the AmNews

Over the past six weeks, the Brooklyn Nets have made major changes to their roster, trading guard Dennis Schroder to the Golden State Warriors and forward Dorian Finney-Smith to the Los Angeles Lakers. More moves are likely before next Thursday’s (Feb. 6) NBA trade deadline. One player who is a near certainty to remain with the Nets for the rest of this season is 20-year-old Noah Clowney. In 2023, the 6-foot-9-inch tall forward was drafted by the Nets out of the University of Alabama in the first round, 21st overall. He has displayed versatility on both ends of the court and his offensive skills in particular are expanding. Clowney knocked down five three-pointers against the Detroit Pistons on Jan. 8 in scoring a career-high 29 points, albeit in a 113-98 loss. His ability to play as stretch four gives the Nets an added dimension. After starting four of the 23 games he played last season as a rookie, Clowney had ap-

Second-year Nets forward Noah Clowney has become a mainstay for the team as they continue to explore more trades.

(AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)

peared in 37 of the Nets’ 47 games this season, including 18 starts, going into last night’s road matchup with the Charlotte Hornets. He sprained his left ankle on

Monday night at the Barclays Center facing the Sacramento Kings with 3:13 left in the second quarter and did not return. The Nets would lose the game 110-96 to fall to 14-33, the

third-worst record in the 15-team Eastern Conference. Two candidates to be traded, forward Cam Johnson and guard Cam Thomas, are also ailing. Johnson has been out since last week’s home loss to the Knicks with a right ankle sprain and Thomas has been sidelined since Jan. 2 with a left hamstring strain.

When he returns to the court, Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez expects Clowney, who is averaging 9.4 points and 3.9 rebounds going into last night’s games, for which his status was uncertain as of AmNews press time.

“I like his versatility, I like his competitiveness, and he’s not second guessing, he’s being aggressive and I’m proud of him,” Fernandez said after Clowney’s career best game versus the Pistons earlier this month.

“He’s showing us what he’s able to do,” he said.

“He’s showing us coaches, he’s showing his teammates and when we have our group back (healthy) then I’m completely com-

fortable calling certain things for him. Because I’ve seen him do it and he’s showing me that he can do it so it is just making our group better.” Clowney said Fernandez instills confidence in him by encouraging him to shoot.

“(He keeps) telling me to keep shooting the ball even when I have bad stretches,” Clowney said. “I think anytime you have a good performance, it’s good for your confidence. Obviously, you know what you can do, but when you do it at the highest level in the real games where it matters, it translates.”

The Nets will play the Houston Rockets the next two games. Saturday they will be on the road and then come home to the Barclays for a rematch on Tuesday.