E-Edition New York Amsterdam News Issue: June 15-21, 2023

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International News

INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISTS FROM DEVELOPING COUNTRIES TO RECEIVE AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE

an association of 182 organizations in 77 countries.

Arts & Entertainment Page 17

» Astro Page 20

» Food Page 21

» Jazz Page 24

Caribbean Update Page 14

Classified Page 32

Editorial/Opinion Pages 12,13

Education Page 28

Go with the Flo Page 8

In the Classroom Page 26

Nightlife Page 9

Religion & Spirituality Page 30

Sports Page 40 Union Matters Page 10

(GIN) — A select group of investigative reporters from the global south will be recognized this year for outstanding work at the 11th Global Investigative Journalism Conference, to be held in Gothenburg, Sweden, from September 19–22. Their prize, the Shining Light Award, honors journalists whose work was done under threat or duress, or in the direst of conditions.

The finalists were selected by an international panel of judges from a record 291 projects. The Global Investigative Journalism Network is

Among the finalists are Viewfinder (South Africa) with “Above the Law,” a multi-year investigative series that revealed a brazen lack of accountability by South African police officers implicated in crimes such as rape, torture, assault, and even murder—as well as a system that enables rogue cops to re-offend. It also held individuals to account, despite the constant risk of reprisal. Viewfinder—a tiny nonprofit news organization—also created a unique, easily searchable public database of tens of thousands of registered complaints about police misconduct. Said one judge: “There was very intense reporting, and the storytelling is good, and, in every couple of sentences, you see a link to evidence the reporter provides— all kinds of documents.”

Africa Uncensored (South Sudan) shines with “The Profiteers,” a threepart documentary that sheds light on how certain members of South Sudan’s elite profited from the civil war and plundered their nation

while investing in Kenya and other East African countries. The investigation shows how these individuals move funds and obtain weapons with support from government and military officials, business people, and financial institutions in neighboring countries.

BBC Africa Eye (Nigeria) received the award for “The Bandit Warlords of Zamfara.” Every few years, a piece of journalism emerges that reveals an entire, largely hidden world—and one that should deeply concern the world outside. In a two-year-long investigation that involved stunning bravery, BBC Africa Eye exposed the pervasive conflict and banditry that has engulfed Nigeria’s northwestern state of Zamfara.

It also showed the motives and causes of a conflict that killed hundreds of people in 2022 and has displaced hundreds of thousands more. The reporting made use of unique access to warlords and victims gained by Yusuf Anka, a Nigerian reporter working solo who crossed dangerous roads by motorcycle to

get to equally dangerous interviews. Category winners will receive an honorary plaque, a $2,500 cash award, and a trip to the event in Sweden’s historic second city to accept the prize.

U.S. EVANGELICAL GROUP PROMOTES

ANTI-GAY AGENDA ACROSS ARICA (GIN) — An American evangelical lobby group has been coaching high-ranking African politicians and religious and civic leaders to oppose comprehensive sex education (CSE) across the continent. According to openDemocracy, an independent news website, African ambassadors to the U.N. have gone to the Arizona home of Sharon Slater and her husband, Greg Slater, to learn how best to block LGBT rights and sex ed, and negotiate at the U.N.

The Slaters are the heads of Family Watch International (FWI), a Christian conservative organization described by civil rights activists as a “hate group.”

Zambia’s ambassador to the

See INTERNATIONAL on page 29

U.N. forum will define international obligations to people of African descent

By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff

The weeklong convening of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent (PFPAD) brought 900 people to the United Nations’ New York headquarters. They ar-

rived eager to add proposals about what needs to be done to enhance the lives of Black people in various parts of the world.

The week did not start out easy though: many Black activists had traveled from across the continent—and some from locations

as far away as Australia, Ireland, and countries in Latin America––yet they say they were aggravated by the fact that they had to wait for hours to enter the U.N. There was a three-hour long line for U.N. entrance passes, which could have possibly have been arranged prior to the start of the conference.

Once inside, however, activists joined non-profit and governmental representatives to talk about the concept and possibility of reparations for African enslavement; the ideals of Pan-Africanism and its suggestions for how to deal with past injustices and what to push forward for in the future; the racism and other difficulties people of African descent are facing as they migrate from war torn or failing nations; the methods of collecting and distributing high-quality and timely employment, economic, age, geographic, and economic statistics on Black populations; and the practices communities can use to promote health and well-being, while dealing with intergenerational trauma.

Epsy Campbell Barr, the former vice president of Costa Rica, chairs

the PFPAD. She confessed to a press roundtable that “There’s a lot of expectation from civil society around the world, but mostly from here, from this hemisphere––from Latin America, North America, and Canada” regarding the Permanent Forum. Indices for Black human rights remain low, political participation is on the wane, and systemic racism remains an everyday reality throughout the hemisphere.

Campbell Barr said that the calls for the extension of the International Decade for People of African Descent, which was originally declared for the years 2015 through the end of 2024, are because the U.N. was not able to get full commitments about promoting wider recognition and the social and economic development of Black communities from most countries. The COVID-19 pandemic also put a damper on programs meant to aid Black people.

One of the decade’s main achievements, though, was the establishment of the Permanent Forum.

“We feel that in a second decade, because there is a larger demand

Colombia’s Vice President Francia Márquez addresses the U.N. forum virtually (Karen Juanita Carrillo photo)

Yusuf Anka (GIN photo)

Juneteenth is a demand for reparations

BY NAYABA ARINDE Amsterdam News Editor

As the country prepares to acknowledge the second national government-sanctioned Juneteenth19 federal holiday, advocates say Black recognition events like Juneeteenth, Kwanzaa, and Black History Month have been commercialized to the nth power, even by well-meaning, earnest proponents recognizing the fight of African descendants in America for real equality and real equity.

“Juneteenth without reparations lacks real substance and commitment by the national, state, and city to pay us back from the ill-gotten gains from slavery,” City Councilmember

Charles Barron told the Amsterdam News. “While no amount of money can repair and ease the effects of the death and destruction of our people, we at least need some compensation. They stole us. They sold us. They owe us.”

To that end, Barron said, as he entered a June 8 meeting at City Hall, he is the co-sponsor of the Disclosure of Information bill regarding past engagement in slavery, which was submitted to the Committee on Contracts as part of a Juneteenth package of bills.

“This Local Law calls for all the corporations that participated in the enslavement of our people to be registered with the city before receiving any contracts with the city.”

The Local Law is co-spon-

sored by more than a dozen City Council members in addition to Barron, including Barron, Kristin Richardson Jordan, Crystal Hudson, Chi A. Osse, Sandra Nurse, Mercedes Narcisse, and Tiffany Cabán.

It aims to “amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to the disclosure of information regarding past engagement in slavery by city contractors.”

The proposed bill said: “In recent years, companies in existence today have discovered and revealed that they had engaged in and/or profited from the commerce generated by the trade or use of the labor of enslaved Africans during the period of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, from

approximately 1441 to 1888. It has been reported that some large companies, for example, Aetna, a company that apparently insured slaveholder interests in enslaved people in the case of their death or damage, have been found to have directly profited from such commerce. J.P. Morgan Chase issued a letter of apology after it discovered that two of its predecessor companies actually participated in the slave trade and owned enslaved people it had taken as collateral for loans. J.P. Morgan Chase attributed the discoveries to the requirement of disclosure for contractors of the City of Chicago.”

The bill continued, “While it is

See

East Flatbush tops StreetEasy’s most affordable neighborhood list

East Flatbush in Brooklyn may become the city’s next gentrification hotspot.

The neighborhood, which according to the 2010 Census is 88.7% African American, was recently lauded by StreetEasy as the No. 1 most affordable neighborhood for 2023 College Grads.

Young college grads searching for their first New York city apartments should look to neighborhoods like East Flatbush; Ridgewood, Queens; and Manhattan’s Washington Heights as districts where they can find rents below $1,500 per person, the site stated.

on page 25

What Canadian wildfire smoke means for the most underserved New Yorkers

By TANDY LAU

Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member

The Empire State Building was lit up in Knicks orange during the NBA Finals last week. But there’s no championship parade for finishing first in the world’s worst air pollution rankings. On Wednesday, city officials reported the local air quality index (AQI) climbed over 480 on a 500 scale due to smoke traveling south from the ongoing Canadian wildfires, the worst since the 1960s.

“301 or higher is a hazardous condition,” said Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan on Wednesday. “In consultation with our

environmental health experts, our air quality experts, those at the state and at the CDC, they note that there isn’t a number after which we make specific recommendations. We have to take each situation clearly, but this is extremely dangerous air outside.

“What is the result of that? Lung conditions exacerbated, heart conditions exacerbated, mucosal membranes from the eyes, the nose, the ears, irritated, burning, throat burning.”

Dr. Micaela Martinez, Director of Environmental Health at Harlem’s WE ACT for Environmental Justice, says New Yorkers should avoid the toxic chemicals and particles contained in wild-

fire smoke. Particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5), or fine particles smaller than two and one half microns, is notably dangerous when inhaled, as it can get deep into the lungs and transfer into the blood via diffusion. One micron is around 1/25,000 of an inch.

While last week’s air pollution drifted evenly across the five boroughs, the health impact is not as democratized. Martinez mentions studies about cardiovascular issues that arise after smoke events, an added concern for Black and brown New Yorkers who experience higher rates of heart disease. Childhood asthma—for which the air pollution reportedly can trigger symp-

toms—is also more prevalent in neighborhoods of color, and babies face the most risk when breathing in particulate matter, potentially exacerbating the already higher rates of infant mortality for Black and brown New Yorkers.

“If you expose a community that has an underlying vulnerability to an acute event like the smoke, versus a community that doesn’t have those underlying vulnerabilities, you are going to see a larger effect in that more vulnerable community,” said Martinez. Inequity also surfaces in housing and employment.

Take’em to church, Dickens and Salaam debate at NAN

By ARIAMA C. LONG

Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member

The National Action Network (NAN) house of justice hosted a lively debate between City Council District 9 candidates last Friday, June 9. The seat is currently held by Councilmember Kristin Richardson Jordan, who has technically dropped out of the running.

Candidates Assemblymember Inez Dickens and Exonerated Five’s Yusef Salaam were present to answer questions and elaborate on policies. Assemblymember Al Taylor, who was in Albany advocating for the passage of the Clean Slate Act at the time, was

unable to attend.

Dickens and Salaam are on opposite sides of the age, gender, and experience spectrums, but they appear to have an amicable relationship when it comes to their visions for Harlem. Where Salaam was often poetic, Dickens was assertive. When Salaam spoke theoretically, Dickens was cut-straight-to-the-bone practical. But they both passionately advocated for the future of the community, and for changing the current conditions for residents and securing resources for Harlemites.

The contrast in speaking styles made for a debate that was more of an inspiring church sermon from competing pastors than a

political forum, complete with hearty crowd participation and outbursts of applause.

Dickens’ main talking point was already knowing the system and being experienced in negotiating for adequate funding. She repeatedly said that the community asked her to run because they voted in someone new before and it didn’t work out.

“I am born and bred Harlem. I’m a lifelong resident that’s remained in Harlem, never left,” said Dickens. “I was asked by many members of the community to come back from Albany and run for the city council.”

Salaam was appreciative of “old ways,” but also repeatedly pointed out that the leadership that’s

been operating in the community for years—meaning his opposition—has not been able to address the root issues of housing, homelessness, and public safety in Harlem.

On June 2, the New York City Campaign Finance Board (CFB) approved public matching funds payments for city council races. Dickens has raised a total of $49,933 and received $162,435 in public matching funds; according to the CFB, 48% of the funds are in-district and 78% are from small donors. Salaam has raised a total of $63,937 and received $116,607 in public matching funds, of which

Other areas to make the list included Brooklyn’s Bushwick, Crown Heights, Bed-Stuy, and Flatbush communities, along with Manhattan’s Hamilton Heights and East Harlem, and the Astoria district of Queens. Each of these neighborhoods––except for Astoria and East Harlem––boast a median asking rent below $1,800.

“As of May, about 1 in 5 market-rate NYC rentals were affordable to recent college grads earning the median income of $62,000 for those aged 22 to 27 with a bachelor’s degree in NYC,” StreetEasy said.

State commission on reparations could be established

“Just over a year ago, a monster drove hundreds of miles to kill New Yorkers, Black New Yorkers,” recalled NY State Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages, who chairs the Assembly’s Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic, & Asian Legislative Caucus. “On his weapon…on his gun was a phrase. And it said, ‘This is your reparations.’

“Some may argue that the past is the past and that we should move on. But how can we move on when the echoes of history still reverberate in the lives of millions? How can we build a future on a foundation stained with injustice?”

Members of the caucus announced on June 8 that the state is now steps closer to putting the New York State Community Commission on Reparations Remedies in place. Named under the recently passed state assembly’s A07691 bill, the Commission would formally examine African enslavement in New York City and state, document the ways Black people were treated after New York abolished slavery in 1827, and survey the racial and economic discriminatory laws Black people continue to face in the state.

East New York Assemblywoman Nikki Lucas pointed out that the Commission’s work, when it looks at reparations, specifically must strive for lineage-based reparations. “It is crucial to approach this matter with fairness and a focus on rectifying specific harms endured by the affected communities,” Lucas said in an impassioned speech before the final vote took place. “As discussions continue, it is essential to advocate for lineage-based reparations to ensure justice and equity for American freedmen who are direct descendants of enslaved individuals in the United States. Reparations should be

Trump indicted and back on the hustings

By HERB BOYD Special to the AmNews

For the first time in history, a former president has been indicted: Donald Trump was arraigned in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman Tuesday afternoon in the federal courthouse in Miami.

His lawyer entered a plea of not guilty to the 37 counts against him, including six federal criminal charges, conspiracy to obstruct, withholding a document or record, and scheme to conceal. Trump never said a word in court as Special Counsel Jack Smith sat not far behind him, observing the proceedings.

Trump has called him a “deranged lunatic.”

Trump was fingerprinted electronically but was not handcuffed, and left the courtroom in preparation for a fundraising event in New Jersey. For the most part, it was the resumption of his campaign before a large gathering

of supporters later that evening, where despite the indictment, he remained the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in the primary. He said his ordeal was “a criminal prosecution like something right out of a communist fascist nation...just another attempt to rig and steal an election.”

Once again he brought up a Clinton—this time Bill, who was never indicted. He repeatedly evoked his presidential authority to possess the classified documents, even though he was no longer president when he removed the boxes in question to his private club at Mar-a-Lago.

Trump harped on the Presidential Records Act, noting that when authorities raided his home in Florida, they found “nothing, there was nothing in the safe.”

Moreover, he claimed that President Joe Biden had lots of classified documents and nothing ever happened to him. “They were

spying on my campaign...to protect the radical left.” He claimed again that he was right about Biden taking bribes. He said when he is re-elected he will completely destroy the Deep State “and we will make America great again.”

The speech was little more than a half-hour of harangue and a litany of typical falsifications and disinformation, much of which will surface again whenever the trial takes place, perhaps sometime as the 2024 election campaign is gathering steam.

There is sure to be a lot of legal blather, demands to dismiss the trial, all sorts of tactics to delay it. Such measures will give Trump even more time to appeal to and arouse his base, which nowadays doesn’t take too much with the indictment in place.

Smith said Trump should be perceived as innocent until he’s proven guilty, but added that no man is above the law.

Clean Slate finally passes in State Legislature, but what was left out this session?

By ARIAMA C. LONG

Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member

After years of deliberation, the New York State Assembly and Senate finally agreed to pass the Clean Slate Act (S.7551/A.1029C), a law that will automatically clear a person’s conviction record so they can have better access to jobs and housing.

Criminal justice advocates were elated, even though quite a few of the housing measures that New York City leadership crusaded for were left out of the state budget and did not pass during the extra-long legislative session this June.

Criminal justice

Old conviction records disproportionately affect Black and brown residents. According to data from the Center for Community Alterna-

tives (CCA), 80% of individuals in the city with conviction records are Black or Latinx, which mirrors statewide trends. New York’s 2017 sealing law did work to conceal a person’s criminal record if they were crime-free for at least 10 years and had fewer than two offenses, but it’s not an automatic process.

CCA member Melinda Agnew said she was sentenced to three years’ probation in October 1999. She completed her sentence without incident, and since then, has become a mom, a grandmother, and a graduate with both bachelor’s and master’s degrees. “Yet, 25 years later, despite all that I have done to give back to my community, I am still turned away from jobs, denied promotions, and rejected from housing programs because of my two-decade-old conviction,” said Agnew. “The passage of the Clean Slate Act will be transformative for me and millions of New Yorkers who share my struggle.”

With Clean Slate, old conviction records would be sealed automatically, with exceptions for law enforcement and work with vulnerable populations. The new legislation seals misdemeanor convictions after three years and some felony convictions after eight years, as long as there are no new charges or convictions. Sex and non-drug Class A felonies offenses are not eligible for sealing with Clean Slate.

Many advocates and electeds have said Clean Slate will reduce recidivism, strengthen the state’s workforce and economic resources, and help right racial inequities in the criminal legal system. Similar legislation has been passed in several other states, including Utah, Connecticut, California, and Michigan.

“Clean Slate offers a genuine second chance to individuals who have fully paid their debt to society, enabling them to restart their lives and

‘YO SOY BORICUA!’ 66th Annual National Puerto Rican Day celebrations return en masse

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

Early this past Saturday morning, Congressmember Adriano Espaillat held his first-ever Puerto Rican Day Heritage Community Breakfast at El Museo del Barrio in East Harlem to kick off a riotous weekend of food, parades, festivals, music, dancing, and cultural appreciation.

New York City continues to be home to the largest Puerto Rican population of any city in the world outside of the island itself, research has shown.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered the city in 2020, parades and festivals have been slowly returning to their former glory over the last three years. Thousands showed up to celebrate the 66th Annual National Puerto Rican Day in neighborhoods across the five bor-

oughs—East Harlem, Sunset Park, Bushwick, the Lower East Side, East Tremont, Astoria— and plenty others.

Several elected officials, like District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, Congressmember Nydia Velázquez, City Council Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala, and New York Secretary of State Robert Rodriguez, were seen celebrating their heritage out among the people.

“This is a very important event where we get to celebrate the heritage and culture of the Puerto Rican community aquí en la cuna de las boricuas en el barrio,” said Rodriguez at the event. “But most importantly, it’s about making sure that we create a pathway, a generational legacy for Latinos in New York City.”

Other electeds were happy to lend their presence and support to the Latino and Hispanic communities.

“It’s an honor and a privilege to be with all of

you,” said New York State Attorney General Letitia James at the event. “It’s important that we celebrate Puerto Rican culture. It’s important that we understand that this is the largest community, not only in New York but across this nation outside of Puerto Rico. And it’s important that we keep our eye on what’s happening [there] and here in New York City.”

Espaillat, who’s of Dominican descent, chose to also honor baseball legend Roberto Clemente at the breakfast. Clemente was one of the first Latin American baseball stars in the U.S. He played for the Pittsburgh Pirates for his entire career, although he was briefly contracted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1954. Clemente was hailed for breaking culture and language barriers, fiercely representing for Latinos in sports, reaching 3,000 hits, and immense humanitarian efforts. He died in a plane crash in 1972 in

Newark’s New Hope Baptist to serve the sheltered/unsheltered

Newark’s New Hope Baptist Church has partnered with the nonprofit POWER LavaLove’s mission to serve the sheltered and unsheltered homeless by creating a safe and comfortable place where those who don’t have access to water can take a hot shower.

The ribbon-cutting and launch date for the mobile showers will be July 12. Volunteers are needed to run the initiative; if interested, sign up via http://tinyurl.com/ LavaLoveVolunteer.

Film series selection: ‘The Forgotten Story of New Jersey’s Enslaved People’

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) and PSEG’s True Diversity Film Series will present “The Forgotten Story of New Jersey’s Enslaved People” and a panel discussion about the film at NJPAC (1 Center Street, Newark, N.J.) at 6 p.m. on Monday, June 19.

This free event presents a film that preserves the legacy of slavery in New Jersey and examines how it prevented Black property ownership and access to other resources. It raises important questions, such as what types of government policies can repair generations of inequality and how slavery and its impact should be taught in schools. The accompanying Standing in Solidarity panel will be composed of Elaine Buck and Beverly Mills, authors of “If These Stones Could Talk: African American Presence in the Hopewell Valley, Sourland Mountain and Surrounding Regions of New Jersey”; Linda Caldwell Epps, president/CEO, 1804 Consultants; and Damon Jones, associate professor at Chicago University.

The event is curated by the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice and is part of NJPAC’s Juneteenth celebrations.

A Juneteenth celebration with a marketplace, drumming, dance, poetry, and jazz will take place in Harriet Tubman Square before the panel.

To register, visit https://njpac.tfaforms. net/145?id=a2F8X000009pLU1UAM or call 888-466-5722.

Juneteenth Black Business Expo

Discover and support Black-owned retail vendors at the first-ever African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey (AACCNJ) Juneteenth Black Business Expo. Vendors will offer a wide range of products, from hats and accessories to clothing and home décor—unique and high-quality items that are perfect for gifts or treating oneself. Shopping with these

27

Chair and CEO of Anchor Group Kevin Howell

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

Kevin Howell, 44, is the chairman and chief executive officer for the Anchor Group and GO Caribbean Network. His expertise includes international business, financial management, business strategy development, and analytics.

Howell’s consulting firm has overseen the development and growth of organizations that support post-acute care and home health aide workers, an industry that predominantly employs immigrant, Caribbean, and Black and brown women. His experiences working with sophisticated large corporations have been translated to helping these small and mid-sized corporations with infrastructure and workforce optimization.

Howell is also hosting the first CARESTAR AWARDS 2023 this August, an event to highlight the unsung heroes of the home care industry and push the brand of quality care. Organizations supporting the event include Platinum Partner CABS Health Network & House of D’Marsh, One Brooklyn Health Systems, JASACare, Aetna, Netruc PR, and AZ Billing.

“Everyone sees the nurses, everyone sees the doctors, but a lot of people don’t see the social worker, don’t see the patient navigator, the home care worker,” said Howell. “It’s about understanding that they’re important everyday to make people’s life better.”

Howell was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and moved to St. Andrew parish with his mom, aunt, and siblings. He spoke fondly of the community he grew up in and said he was fortunate enough to get an education. By 1993, he started studying accounting at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. He said accounting and economics came naturally as something he was good at.

He worked at the public accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) in Jamaica, as a senior audit associate from 2001–2003. After completing his MBA in 2005, he joined and eventually became a manager at Ernst & Young in New York. He also worked at Broadridge Financial Solutions as a senior director of business development.

“The Ernst & Young sign, the one in Times Square, 42nd Street—I still remember I was at PWC and I came here for vacation,” said Howell. “I think about that moment, seeing the sign from the bus coming from the Bronx.”

During his time working in New York City, Howell decided to branch off onto an entirely different career path and try his hand at modeling, which he did to some success.

“Coming to the U.S., I guess I found my beauty,” joked Howell about his modeling days. “It wasn’t for me. I wasn’t comfort-

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able with being treated a (certain) way or just being a rack.”

With his creative juices flowing, though, Howell dove into starting the Anchor Strategy Group in 2009 to generate business on his own. He wrote his business plan around his skill set, wrote a finance book, and drew inspiration from two of his students at a solutions center he taught at who were in the home care and occupational therapy fields. His group helps solve issues for agencies and frontline workers, connecting them with muchneeded services and doubling down on fair treatment.

Howell said that during the pandemic, he saw the struggles of some home care workers not feeling valued as vital members of the care team for patients and treated as contractors with lower wages. “For me, this was an opportunity,” said Howell. “We’d been seeing the gaps and plotted, in a good way, to get care connected in a way they have never been before.”

Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1

Kevin Howell (Kevin Howell photo) Black

The fight for liberation: Modern abolitionists seek to end police and prisons

By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member and by TANDY LAU Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member

Just as the fight for freedom for Black Americans did not end with the Emancipation Proclamation or passage of the Civil Rights Act, the fight for abolition continues to the present day—but in a different form.

According to Dominique Jean-Louis, chief historian at the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL), the original abolitionists were people who were against chattel slavery of African people and their descendants in the U.S. Inherent to abolition, she said, is a wish to the end of an oppressive system, coupled with steps toward freedom. Contemporary forms of abolition movements have an understanding and vision of how a social problem affects more systems, institutions, and people and then a plan to address it, since at its core, it’s understood that not everyone has a guaranteed baseline of freedom.

Today’s abolitionism pivots away from modern-day slavery—now an illegal and underground practice usually tied to human trafficking—to address new inequities in American power structures, namely the carceral system; in other words, policing and prisons.

Abolition’s New York roots

The state of New York abolished slavery in 1827, the Emancipation Proclamation wasn’t passed until 1865, and Brooklyn joined the

NAN

Continued from page 3

15.9% are in-district and 88.1% are from small donors, noted the CFB. Taylor, meanwhile, has raised a total of $37,729 and received $174,032 in public matching funds, of which 41.2% are in-district and 89.6% are from small donors, according to the finance board.

Dickens and Salaam shared similar views on the needs for housing and lowering the area median income (AMI) level to match the salaries of people in the district. They agreed that they would have negotiated the One45 For All housing development deal, a three-tower building with 915 units on 145th Street, differently than Jordan did. And that they would protect the historic NAN building in any new plans.

“A lot of the land grab was given to people like Donald Trump,” said Salaam. “When I think about what we need, I’m telling you we don’t need politics as usual.”

City of New York in 1898. Before that, Brooklyn was technically its own city with mostly slave owners and farmers of Dutch descent who had usurped land from the Lenape tribes that settled there.

In the years building up to the Civil War, free Blacks in New York were vulnerable to being kidnapped and sold into slavery elsewhere. Brooklyn had enclaves of free African liberationists in the neighborhood of Weeksville, now Crown Heights. In 1834, a giant anti-abolition riot broke out in Manhattan, forcing many more “affluent” white abolitionists to flee to Brooklyn and join the cause, according to JeanLouis. Abolitionists of either race in the 18th and 19th century were vilified and faced dire consequences for their beliefs.

Jean-Louis said “Pursuit of Freedom,” the BPL exhibit exploring Brooklyn’s abolitionist movement, defined an abolitionist as a “radical activist” who called for the immediate end to slavery, as well as political and legal equality for Black Americans victimized by colonization. A radi-

cal, she said, is someone who addresses a problem at the root and has a creative mind. Many of the famous abolitionists of the time were writers, poets, and artists, such as Frederick Douglass or William Lloyd Garrison.

The historical society at the library ultimately decided that an abolitionist was a “multi-pronged” person—someone who believed that slavery should end and envisioned the kinds of freedom a person can have after such a system ends.

“I think that in contemporary movements, we have the benefit of learning from history and many of the movements we now see as abolitionist throughout history have that commitment,” she continued.

Modern abolitionists come to the forefront Robert Saleem Holbrook, who directs Pittsburgh’s Abolitionist Law Center, said the modern practice of abolition is rooted in dismantling oppressive institutions like policing and prisons. But he’s quick to tie those issues with the same broader struggle of abolitionists throughout American history.

“It is not just about police or prison—that’s a misnomer, because that implies that police and prisons are the only problem within American society or an anomaly,” said Holbrook. “Abolition is about the abolishment of the social contract that has governed the United States since its founding, which is a contract based on

See ABOLITION on page 11

up to five candidates in order of preference), Taylor has alluded to teaming up with opponents on numerous occasions. Salaam and Taylor will rank one another No. 2 on their individual ballots, and encouraged supporters to do the same.

“The stakes in this election are very high,” they said in a joint statement, “which is why we are proud to cross-rank each other for City Council. Harlem is our home and we’d be proud to represent it in the City Council and to bring hope for a new and brighter future for all.”

They both agreed Harlem is facing many challenges and that it’s time for change.

The debate covered many other topics including infrastructure problems at Esplanade Gardens, their stance on Close Rikers, solving the gun violence crisis, autism in Black and brown communities, supporting the arts, bringing revenue and services into Harlem, gentrification, and housing solutions.

Despite a friendly rapport between Salaam and Dickens at the debate, on Tuesday, June 13, Taylor and Salaam solidified their alliance by officially announcing their cross endorsements days before early voting begins. Being that the city council races use a rank-choice voting system (meaning a voter can choose

Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit. ly/amnews1.

(left) Activist Yusef Salaam (right) Assemblymember Inez Dickens debated one another during a city council District 9 forum held at NAN headquarters on Friday, June 9. (Ariama C. Long photo)

Protesters call for changes and abolition of police forces at an encampment outside City Hall in Manhattan in June 2020 (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Protester holds up sign advocating for abolishing police outside police station in June 2020, in Florissant, Mo. (AP Photo/ Jeff Roberson)

Go With The Flo

Black Restaurant Week kicks off on Juneteenth

ANTHONY

On June 13, Netflix shared a poster and trailer for the sci-fi mystery film, “They Cloned Tyrone,” featuring John Boyega, Teyonah Parris, and Jamie Foxx as a hustler, pimp, and pro who uncovers a government conspiracy. The cast also includes David Alan Grier and J. Alphonso Nicholson, who plays Lil Murder on P. Valley. The movie will have its world premiere tonight at the American Black Film Festival in Miami Beach, Florida, and will start streaming July 21 on Netflix. Jamie continues to recover after being hospitalized in April for an undisclosed “medical complication,” according to multiple reports…

PatBo and the Couture Council Young Patrons (CCYP) at the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology, hosted a dinner to officially launch the CCYP initiative and to honor the opening of the Moda Hoy! exhibition at the Museum at FIT. The dinner took place at Cafe Habana on the Lower East Side. Notable attendees included “Sex and the City,” creator Candace Bushnell…

Producers Kristin Caskey, Mike Isaacson, Brian Anthony Moreland, and Ambassador Theatre Group announced the casting of award-winning recording artist Deborah Cox as Glinda and Melody A. Betts as Aunt Em and Evilene, in the all-new production of the groundbreaking, Tony award-winning hit musical “The Wiz,” in advance of its highly anticipated national tour this fall and Broadway return in the spring of 2024. “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” stars Kandi Burruss and her husband Todd Tucker are producers of the musical.......

Tongues are wagging that Drake went Instagram official to celebrate his new girlfriend’s birthday. According to multiple reports, the Toronto emcee posted, “More life to the girl that’s impossible to duplicate. My inspire my confidant my heart.” He then included her Instagram handle and wished her a happy birthday. According to sources, @champagnepapi is pouring out all of these accolades to a lovely young woman whose name is Lilah Pi, and rumored to be an artist.....

By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff

Black Restaurant Week (BRW) begins Monday—Juneteenth. In the New York City/New Jersey area, more than 100 African American, African, and Caribbean-owned restaurants have already signed up and are ready to take part in this period of recognition.

Under this year’s “More Than Just Enough” campaign, BRW is looking to strengthen Black-owned restaurants, many of which have had to deal with a drop in finances because of the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath.

“COVID-19 changed the landscape since 2020,” said Warren Luckett, who created Black Restaurant Week in Houston, Texas, with his friends Falayn Ferrell and Derek Robinson in 2016. The initial mission was to combine forces to provide marketing and education about the variety of African diasporan cuisines that are available.

“Now, the price of food is soaring,” Luckett said. “From being overlooked for revitalization funds to inflation, most Blackowned culinary businesses cannot afford advertisements/PR/marketing to build awareness and attract consumers. That’s why we proudly do this for free––it’s peer-to-peer support for 10 or 14 days in each market and for the past seven years.”

In a press release, BRW said that “according to the Independent Restaurant Coalition, 500,000 restaurants and bars are

faced with an uncertain future due to lost revenue and increased debt over the past two years. Additionally, 1.1 million minority-owned businesses often face heightened challenges and disparities when securing business funding. The shocking statistics championed Black Restaurant Week to revisit their ‘More Than

U.S. employer businesses are minority-owned, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Last year, independent restaurant owners faced dire situations when Congress failed to re-up the Restaurant Revitalization Fund and the U.S. Small Business Administration allegedly ran out of money.

“The mission: Feed and fuel

owner of CATEREDxCARTER NYC, said that even though she spent 14 years working in the culinary industry, as everything from an online cook to an executive chef to a managerial cook, it was difficult to get the word out about her company when she started it five years ago.

CATEREDxCARTER offers meal offerings for all cuisine types and can create custom dinner menus for private dinner parties and catered events. The company does not have a physical location—its main point of contact is its website: www.123grub.com

Carter told the Amsterdam News that, “through [the BRW] platform, I get a lot of traction––awareness of my business. It’s on me to land any job, but I do get a lot of traction and attention through their platform.”

There’s no cost for Blackowned restaurants to sign up and be part of the BRW platform. BRW does, though, offer extra marketing incentives if restaurants pay to be featured on the sites’ pages.

Just a Week’ campaign.

“The odds are continuously stacked against Black-owned culinary businesses and their survival is still in jeopardy as they face constant economic downturns due to recovering from the pandemic while currently coping with inflation. Less than 20% of

the cultural famine––especially with an emphasis on reviving and saving the Black restaurant industry during the COVID-19 pandemic––and educate consumers on the abundance of cultural cuisines and dispel ethnic untruths.”

Raichelle Carter, chef and

The BRW platform is helpful for pushing recognition of restaurants owned by marginalized and underrepresented groups, said Carter: “Things don’t necessarily fall in our laps or go in our favor just by default. We need that awareness; we need to be highlighted. The beautiful things that we’re doing, the talents that we possess, need just as much highlighting and traction.

“I think we’re doing some dope things within the Black community…we deserve the same representation.”

Celebrating Black Music Month in

Harlem

ARC (Action for the Retired Community) holds 50th Anniversary Gala

At a marvelous ARC (Action for the Retired) event, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine congratulated Dakota Washington and her grandmother Jackie Washington, a member of the A. Philip Randolph Senior Center. Dakota is a graduate of Saint Charles Borromeo School in Harlem.

Theresa Hassler accepted an honor from Dory Garcia, executive director of ARC, on behalf of NYS Senator Cordell Cleare. Hon. Adriano Espaillat was honored and also presented ARC with a Congressional proclamation, accepted by Richard Allman, Fern Hertzberg, and Garcia. ARC is a service provider for seniors.

Written by David Goodson

Long Island/Strong Island putting their Hip Hop history on the map

Of the many things that Hip Hop has influenced, one of the most overlooked is how the culture shaped New York City’s geography. By the early eighties each boro had their own set of crews via for the top spot in THEIR area, knowing that it was a race for third place with the Bronx and Harlem entrenched in the top spots. Here was the cheat code, neighboring hoods that crept up and contributed were swallowed up as honorary Bronxites, but that was contingent on how NICE they were. Who would have thought that these areas would have pride in where they were from and wanted identities as well. Now these places had names; Y.O (YONKERS), Money Earnin’ (Mount Vernon), and last but not least Strong Island (Long Island.) Of course, this is a fictionalized account - but for some, it may contain a few actual facts; that being if you lay outside of the boros you had to take your respect. Hip Hop historian and member of the Group JVC FORCE, AJ ROK can relate to those days. Composed of DJ Curt Cazal, AJ Rok and fellow emcee B-Luv, the JVC Force with the single “Strong Island,” put on for that city and since that release in 1987 there’s been no looking back. AJ reflects on the impact he and his crew had on giving light to Long Island by stating, “Before our regional anthem, ‘Strong Island,’ you almost had to be from the 5 boros to be respected and taken seriously. Yes Public Enemy said “Strong Island where I got em wildin’,” (which we sampled for the chorus), and Rakim told us he was “rough enough to break NY from Long Island” and “the only Island I was on was the strong one” but if you didn’t know, you didn’t know they were from Long Island, you did know Stetsasonics DJ (and one of the most innovative producers in music) Prince Paul was from Long Island. When we made ‘Strong Island’ artists started representing Long Island. The song gave a certain pride to the region.” A region he contends that is competitive with any REGION, not city, in the lore of Hip Hop. Adding credence to his thoughts, was the venue in which he was speaking. On June 11th, AJ was one of the luminaries participating at a special Hip Hop 50th Anniversary Concert and Panel Discussion featuring Son of Bazerk, DJ Jazzy Jay, Leaders Of The New School’s Miloindedance, & DINCO D, Johnny Juice, Video Music Box’s Ralph McDaniels, and Legendary Public Enemy Producer Keith Shocklee at the Long Island Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame.

Surveying the talent in the room both physically and through historic artifacts, a beaming AJ continued fondly, “It was a good look that the Long Island Music and

Entertainment Hall of Fame held a 50th Anniversary Celebration because of the talent that has come from Long Island. Long Island has a rich and varied history in Hip Hop. From the protest and Black pride of the rebellious Public Enemy, Rakim literally changing the vocal structure of Hip Hop, De La Soul changing the game proving Hip Hop could be more than big gold chain and ghetto themed lyrics filled with artist living out their gangsta fantasies, to EPMD who combined the funk sound of the West Coast with East Coast Rhymes. It’s only fitting to include and celebrate Hip-Hop.”

Those eclectic styles within the Rap music genre alone, were noteworthy to what the edict of the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame is about.

According to Norm Prusslin, music historian and a founding member of the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame, “We wanted to create a space that was much more inclusionary to the diversity of Entertainers hailing from Long Island.” Founded in 2004, the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall Of Fame, the organization is dedicated to the idea that Long Island’s musical and entertainment heritage is an important resource to be celebrated and preserved for future generations. The organization, which encompasses New York State’s Nassau, Suffolk, Queens, and Kings (Brooklyn) Counties, was created as a place of community that inspires and explores Long Island music and entertainment in all its forms. In 2022, the idea finally materialized as an actual brick and mortar facility when they opened its first Hall of Fame building location in Stony Brook Village. To date, they offer education programs and scholarships, and awards to Long Island students and educators and have inducted more than 120 musicians and music industry executives, the latest being the Fat Boys, who were enshrined at the ceremony.

More on the event in coming weeks, gotta bounce for now. Until then, enjoy the nightlife.

Jazz singer Annette Montague and Band perform at A. Philip Randolph Older Adult Center in Harlem celebrating Black Music Month. Sponsored by National Jazz Museum.

AJ Rok (Daniel Goodine photo)

(Bill Moore photos)

(Bill Moore photo)

Union Matters

Juneteenth and Preserving Our Black History

NYC delivery workers are set to get a raise

By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff

New York City is set to establish a minimum wage rate for restaurant delivery workers.

There are few if any holidays more significant than Juneteenth. This day, of course, commemorates the date on which the abolition of slavery was finally announced in Texas—the most geographically-isolated state covered by the Emancipation Proclamation. When Union troops finally arrived there on June 19, 1865, freedom, at long last, was realized in the farthest reaches of the country.

By the time of the Civil War, the United States was the biggest slave nation in the western hemisphere— two-thirds of our hemisphere’s slave population was concentrated in the American South. Juneteenth’s remembrance of the final abolition of chattel slavery in the U.S. is a time of celebration, pride for the resistance of our ancestors, and reflection on the incalculable suffering endured for centuries by millions of Black people.

This year, as we mark Juneteenth as a federally-recognized holiday for just the third time, the legacy and repercussions of slavery can be seen all around us. Pervasive white supremacy, economic disenfranchisement, health and educational disparities, and grave imbalances in political power are direct results of our nation’s original sins. To overcome these barriers, all Americans must be taught this history in its full and often gruesome complexity.

Yet what we are witnessing across the country is the very opposite—a concerted effort by those in power to rewrite the past and obfuscate how racism underpins social, economic, and environmental inequities. This is perhaps most visible in the appalling attempts, empowered by far-right governors in places like Florida, Texas, and my home state of Virginia, to censor or remove the discussion of race (and other topics such as gender and LGBTQ+ studies) in our school systems. The takeover of school boards by

In an announcement on June 11, Mayor Eric Adams and Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) Commissioner Vilda Vera Mayuga said that New York City—famed as a place where many residents don’t mind having tiny kitchens because they’re used to having prepared foods delivered straight to their front doors––will become the first in the U.S. to have app-based delivery workers who can do their job and earn, at least, the minimum wage.

“App-based restaurant delivery workers serve our city in rain, snow, and extreme heat, only to earn less than minimum wage with no benefits,” Mayuga said during the press announcement for the new mandate. “Throughout the pandemic, they provided warm meals directly to our doors, helping so many of us to stay safe and healthy inside our homes and providing a crucial lifeline that allowed so many of our beloved restaurants to stay open for business during a time of such uncertainty.

“Ensuring these workers earn a dignified pay is an issue of equity. Like all workers, delivery workers deserve fair pay for their labor and to be able to support themselves and their loved ones. This new minimum pay rate will ensure they earn a better day’s pay while still allowing for flexibility for both apps and workers. When the rate is in full effect in 2025, these workers will make at least $19.96 an hour, guaranteeing New York City’s more than 60,000 app-based restaurant delivery workers a dignified pay rate and establishing pay equity with other workers who are protected by the minimum wage.”

“The commissioner is right,” Mayor Adams added when he came to the mic. The higher minimum wage for delivery workers is “…to ensure that no one is in our city hiding in the shadows of not being paid the minimum wage. It’s good for the economy, because when the ‘deliveristas’ are paid the right salary, they’re going to recycle the dollars back into the communities, they’re going to become a benefit to the city and not an inhibitor to the city.

“This is an exciting moment. It is something that we wanted to get right because New York City is setting the tone for across America.”

The more than 60,000 delivery workers who sign on with app-based delivery companies like UberEats, GrubHub, and DoorDash will get a pay increase start-

ing July 12, from $7.00 an hour to $17.96 an hour. They are scheduled to get up to $19.96 an hour starting on April 1, 2025.

The wage increase is the end result of a three-year campaign led by the Los Deliveristas Unidos (LDU) collective, which joined with the Worker’s Justice Project to fight for the basic labor rights of delivery workers.

The city’s agreement that a pay increase was needed came as a result of a study, mandated by the City Council passage of Local Law 115, which required the DCWP to look at the average pay of app-based delivery workers and their working conditions.

“DCWP closely considered all comments submitted during the public comment period and established a final rate that will greatly increase workers’ incomes, while also being responsive to industry and worker feedback,” the city said in a statement. “The final rate also takes into account that, as independent contractors, delivery workers pay out of pocket for their expenses and do not have access to workers’ compensation insurance, or paid time off, and must pay more in Medicare and Social Security contributions.”

Food app companies are already vowing to fight the new minimum wage. DoorDash deemed the new mandate “misguided.” The company released a statement saying, “While well-intentioned, the extreme final minimum pay rate announced today will threaten earning opportunities for the thousands of New Yorkers who are looking for ways to make ends meet, while also raising costs for customers, reducing orders for local restaurants and other businesses, and limiting tax revenues for the city. The minimum pay rate far exceeds the standards that apply to nearly every other industry.”

Ligia Guallpa, executive director of the Worker’s Justice Project, said, “This rule will set the pay floor for all the essential deliveristas who work tirelessly––whether through a pandemic, a snowstorm, or wildfire smoke––and who have been denied a living wage for far too long. Now, these workers who keep millions of New Yorkers fed will know they can keep their own families fed, too. While there’s still work to do, a minimum pay rate for food delivery workers will transform the lives of thousands of families across the city and deliver long overdue justice for deliveristas.”

New York City’s more than 60,000 delivery workers are set to earn a higher minimum pay rate (Karen Juanita Carrillo photo)

GEORGE GRESHAM

exploitation, discrimination, [and the] failure to provide human rights to people of color [and] Indigenous populations.

“Abolition is not just about abolishing police and prisons as if those are two anomalies within American society. It’s about dismantling the entire white supremacist project.”

The contemporary movement comes in all shapes and sizes, according to Holbrook: There are “envisioning abolitionists,” who conceive how an alternative society would function postabolition, and “dismantling abolitionist projects,” which Holbrook said his work is part of.

“We seek to dismantle the vestiges of white supremacy, of injustice, [and] of abuses of the carceral state,” he said. “Abolishment is the long-term project, but in the immediate [moment], we seek to erode them and diminish their harmful impacts on our communities [by] freeing people from prison.”

The Abolitionist Law Center, a public interest legal firm, challenges wrongful convictions and battles solitary confinement as a way to weaken the American “punishment” system. Yet those decarceration strategies are not exclusive to abolition.

Reform is not enough for today’s abolitionists

To be clear, abolitionists are absolutists. Seemingly every interpretation of the practice opposes reform as a long-term goal. Prison ab

olitionists are ultimately not aiming to reduce the prison population or speed up the trial system—they want it completely gone. Police abolitionists aren’t advocating for better department training and replacing guns with tasers; they want the entire system to be dissolved. Yet the short-term steps taken to achieve abolition—like working through the legal system to overturn wrongful convictions—overlaps extensively with reform.

“What differentiates an abolitionist from a police reformer is that a police reformer typi cally thinks that we just need the police to en

force the law in a more professional and less biased manner,” said Brooklyn College Professor Alex Vitale.

“An abolitionist says no, the professional unbiased implementation of the law is still unjust because our legal system was designed to enable systems of inequality and exploitation. The abolitionist looks to reduce the power and scope of those institutions in every way we possibly can. One step at a time,” Vitale said.

“It’s an analysis that leads to a process—a process of attempting to whittle down that institution and at the same time, build up

justice, security, [and] safety in ways that don’t come with all those negative collateral consequences.”

Vitale, the author of The End of Policing, is, unsurprisingly, a police abolitionist. His book exploded in popularity thanks to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s criticism of the work at a confirmation hearing for Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Vitale sees policing as inherently detrimental, with significant downsides even when it’s working at an optimal level.

There’s debate among abolitionists about how the world looks without police, according to Vitale. Transformative justice—championed by abolitionists Mariame Kaba and Andrea Ritchie—emphasizes on autonomous community-building where public safety is addressed on a hyperlocal, interpersonal level. Think mutual aid programs and neighborhood call sheets.

Other police abolitionists want direct transformation of the state, wielding political power to replace cops with redistributive policies and social programs that uplift those in “high crime” communities rather than criminalize them.

But can the positions co-exist? Vitale supports transformative justice efforts, but is a direct proponent of a state-centered solution in what he calls a “dual-power strategy.” Still, he’s aware it can employ reformist strategies like vi olence prevention offices and replacing police with social workers in mental health responses.

“We have to be careful that in pursuing the model that I propose, we don’t replace armed police with repressive social work programs,”

(Anthony Beckford photo)

Not Guilty!— Trump’s biggest lie

As expected, we have heard the most egregious lie from Trump: not guilty!

Well, he didn’t actually say it, but allowed his lawyer to submit it and later gave voice to his real feelings about the indictment at a fundraiser in New Jersey.

That he called Special Counsel Jack Smith a “deranged lunatic” means we can resort to the old schoolyard retort that “it takes one to know one.”

It was stunning to see a former president arrested and arraigned by a government he once led, but, again, as we sometimes signified on the playground, “What goes round comes round!”

While we applaud Smith’s words that no man is above the law, it will take some doing to apply the 400 years and fines to a rapacious, unrepentant reprobate. He will go to no end in tactics to avoid conviction, and this leaves us concerned about the jurors selected as well as the judge he appointed.

This drama will be with us for a good spell, probably right into the heat of the Republican presidential primaries where he remains at the top of the heap—a creep at the top of the heap, huh?

Yes, he is, according to the law, presumed innocent until found guilty, but in our court of public opinion, he is guilty until proven innocent.

How delightful it would have been to see him in handcuffs, but it was pleasing enough to see him herded into a courtroom and silenced before the bench. Now we need to see him smirking behind bars!

Mayor Eric Adams: Take Canarsie upstream with ferry service

By JIBREEL JALLOH

We demand equity and access in Canarsie and urge Mayor Eric Adams to address the imbalance in NYC Ferry service. This fight is about fairness, ensuring equal opportunities for all neighborhoods in our city.

Mayor Eric Adams, as the former Brooklyn Borough president, your advocacy for ferry service in Canarsie ignited hope and excitement. However, progress on this commitment has been lacking since you entered City Hall. We invite you to help us navigate upstream together, cut through the waves of inequality, and establish ferry service for Canarsie.

The NYC ferry system currently tilts in favor of wealthier, predominantly white waterfront neighborhoods, creating an unjust divide. It’s time to rebalance the scales and extend ferry benefits to communities like

Canarsie. Our community deserves swift and reliable transportation to bridge the gaps and shorten travel times.

Introducing a ferry stop in Canarsie will not only stimulate economic activity and attract investments, but also create a rising tide of job opportunities. Let’s unlock Canarsie’s untapped potential and propel local businesses forward. Expanding the ferry service to Canarsie will chart a course toward cleaner and greener transportation, reducing emissions and steering us toward a more sustainable future.

As a cornerstone of your NYC Ferry Forward plan, outreach to NYCHA residents must be a steadfast commitment. Canarsie’s Bay View Houses, mere footsteps away from Canarsie Pier, beckon for improved accessibility and enhanced connectivity.

Mr. Mayor, the time for action is now.

Make NYC Ferry access a reality in Ca -

narsie and fulfill the promise you made to our community. Together, let’s construct a city where transportation flows with fairness, economic opportunities flourish, and our dedication to environmental sustainability is fully realized. Join us, Mr. Mayor, as we set sail toward a future where every neighborhood is connected, every voice is heard, and every opportunity is within reach. Together, we can navigate these uncharted waters and create a city that uplifts us all.

Jibreel Jalloh is a community organizer and activist who founded and leads a Canarsie-based advocacy organization that has fought for a range of investments. Jalloh graduated from Baruch College (CUNY) and is currently pursuing a master’s degree at New York University. Learn more at www.theflossy.org and follow on social media @TheFlossyOrg.

Recognition of Juneteenth is recognition of reparations!

By KERON ALLEYNE

Elinor R. Tatum: Publisher and Editor in Chief

Member

Kristin Fayne-Mulroy: Managing Editor

Nayaba Arinde: Editor

Cyril Josh Barker: Digital Editor

Damaso Reyes: Investigative Editor

Siobhan "Sam" Bennett: Chief Revenue Officer and Head of Advertising

Wilbert A. Tatum (1984-2009): Chairman of the Board, CEO and Publisher Emeritus

This is a special Juneteenth! It is a special Juneteenth because you survived a pandemic, you survived historic poor air quality, and you are still here. You have made it due to the systemic resistance that’s coursing through your veins by your ancestors that survived the Middle Passage and eventually fought for our freedom. Juneteenth is a celebration of our ancestors’ role in taking up arms to attain the freedoms that they were more than entitled to. Juneteenth is not a celebration of anyone letting us know we were free and it is very important to draw a distinction between the two. We all know the revisions that America would try to make to our very own stories of freedom. Remember Juneteenth wasn’t recognized by America until 2020-21 although it had been celebrated for over 150 years. And this only happened because America saw an opportunity to use its power of recognition to mollify the masses again. The masses in 2020 were calling for defunding the police, they called for dismantling police departments, they called for critical race theory to be taught in schools and they called for reparations! Of all the demands of the masses,

making Juneteenth a recognized city, state, and then federal holiday is only significant because it underscores the call for all of these demands but more importantly reparations. Juneteenth has been celebrated without recognition of many states and the federal government since the first celebrations took place. Its ultimate connection to reparations should renew our call for repair and restitution by our community. The holiday being recognized must incite and renew the call every year.

Reparations, very simply, is a debt owed. It’s owed to our ancestors and we must be the ones to bring it to fruition. The long line of reparations awareness and organizing extends from its roots to Juneteenth by Callie D. House, by Queen Mother Moore, James Foreman and countless other groups and individuals. They fought like the now nameless soldiers in the civil war to push the dial forward to attain what America owes to every last descendant that forcibly built this country. Today that continues in the countless programs held by organizations that have been on the front lines for the past 30+ years, that saw these now ancestors and learned from them. Organizations like N’COBRA, the Institute of the Black World, and the December 12th movement have held countless rallies, information sessions, and community actions to bring reparations closer to attainment.

This continuum of the fight has to be seen in every celebration of Juneteenth or else the symbolism of freedom will be empty. Fight-

ers like Council Member Charles Barron have taken up the baton in recent memory in the NYS Assembly to create a community commission to study reparations and provide remedies for New York State’s role in the slave trade. It is the journey of this work that led to the passage of the most recent bill that passed both the Senate and the Assembly although it doesn’t allow the community to lead the commission as was the original intent. Juneteenth is our annual reminder that we are owed and it must be paid by any means necessary.

“What to the slave is the 4th of July” is a historical rhetorical mic drop by formerly enslaved abolitionist, Frederick Douglass, as he referred to the lack of significance that the 4th of July has to him and millions of other African people in America. This and the full speech is one of the greatest rebukes of American historical sleight of hand with historical facts and forced patriotism on millions of Africans in America. When we celebrate Juneteenth we must reflect and rebuke all false symbols meant to soften the call for reparations. Reparations cannot be mistaken for stimulus checks, reparations cannot be mistaken for any “first Black,” and overall reparations is not any form of symbolic change that at its surface can be mistaken for progress. They stole us. They sold us. They owe us! Reparations now! Happy Juneteenth!

Keron Alleyne is co-chair of Operation P.O.W.E.R. and deputy chief of staff for Council Member Charles Barron.

FBI’s misuse of surveillance tool underscores need for conservative oversight

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not represent those of the New York Amsterdam News. We continue to publish a variety of viewpoints so that we may know the opinions of others that may differ from our own.

ARMSTRONG WILLIAMS

Recent disclosures have plunged the FBI back into a storm of controversy due to its abuse of the robust surveillance tool Section 702, with almost 300,000 incidents recorded in 2020 and early 2021. The unsettling instances of misuse encompass searches connected to the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol and the Black Lives Matter protests. It is incumbent on conservatives to critically examine these activities and push for the changes needed to safeguard the rights and privacy of Americans.

Section 702 was established in the aftermath of the heinous terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. This extensive communications database compiles massive quantities of information, encompassing emails, text messages, and telephone conversations, in a bid to thwart terrorism and collect intel on foreign administrations. Although its central goal is to focus on foreigners, it inadvertently seizes the communications of U.S. residents and organizations communicating with these foreign individuals. The extent of the information held in this database is unknown, given that it encompasses data from across the globe, stored on servers worldwide.

One unsettling element of Section 702 lies in its potential for overstepping bounds and infringing on the privacy of American citizens. Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney, drew attention to situations where gathering intel on a foreign target, such as Vladimir Putin, could unintentionally implicate American citizens in the data capture. This situation poses significant concerns regarding the safeguarding of Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights, which defend against unwarranted searches and seizures.

The recent disclosures bring to light the extensive and inappropriate use of Section 702 by the FBI.

The FBI carried out more than 278,000 searches contravening Department of Justice guidelines, targeting individuals with no con-

Music Month

CHRISTINA GREER, PH.D.

nection to issues of national security. These searches ranged from investigating crime victims to individuals detained during protests, and even contributors to a congressional candidate. This sweeping and unmerited use of the database corrodes the faith entrusted in law enforcement agencies and endangers the civil liberties of citizens abiding by the law.

We must recognize that this isn’t the first instance where the FBI has come under scrutiny in relation to Section 702. Previous inspections have uncovered abuses, including searches involving the name of a congressional member. Advocates for civil liberties contend that the FBI employs this tool as a loophole for searches without a warrant, sidestepping judicial supervision. Although the Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of Section 702, Congress must exercise control and ensure that the tool is used responsibly.

Conservatives have long been critical of the FBI, particularly due to its involvement in the investigation of the Trump campaign’s alleged connections to Russia. The wiretapping of Trump campaign adviser Carter Page further fueled concerns about the agency’s actions. The recent report by special counsel John Durham raised serious questions about the FBI’s conduct during the Trump-Russia investigation. Consequently, Republicans in Congress have established a subcommittee to investigate potential abuses within the FBI and other federal agencies.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) expressed the sentiment shared by many conservatives, insisting that reauthorization without significant reforms is unlikely. Conservatives must support his stance and rally behind comprehensive reforms that address the misuse of Section 702, strengthen privacy protections, and ensure that the FBI adheres to strict procedures in its use of the database.

Preserving the balance between national security and individual liberties is of paramount importance.

As conservatives, we must hold our government accountable, demand transparency, and safeguard the rights enshrined in our Constitution. The misuse of Section 702 by the FBI serves as a stark reminder that vigilant oversight and reforms are necessary to prevent further encroachments on Americans’ privacy and civil liberties.

Clear guidelines must be established to minimize the incidental collection of U.S. residents’ data and prevent abuse of the database for unrelated purposes. Congress should also implement robust reporting requirements, ensuring that the FBI provides regular updates on its use of Section 702 and any associated violations.

The FBI has a history of overstepping its boundaries in surveilling American citizens. The FBI monitored prominent figures such as Aretha Franklin and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and even attempted to blackmail Dr. King, showcasing a pattern of abuse. These cases serve as reminders of the dangers of unchecked power and the need for stringent oversight.

The recent misuse of Section 702 by the FBI highlights the urgent need for oversight and reforms. We must strike a balance between national security and individual liberties, demanding transparency, accountability, and respect for constitutional rights. The reauthorization of Section 702 should only occur with substantial reforms that address the systemic issues and prevent future encroachments on Americans’ privacy.

Conservatives must remain steadfast in our commitment to safeguarding the principles that make our nation exceptional.

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

Whenever summer rolls around, I always try to introduce myself to new music. It helps that Spotify’s algorithm sends me new artists it thinks I will enjoy and I can choose to explore further…or not. As summer approaches, now is a great time to step out of your comfort zone and start trading music with friends and family members. Ideally, you will discover something new that you’ll grow to love.

Now is a great time to start, since June is African American Music Appreciation Month. This appreciation was created in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter, a man who grew up in Georgia and was no doubt surrounded by soul-filled music. The purpose of this month is to “celebrate the African American musical influences that comprise an essential part of our nation’s treasured cultural heritage.”

African Americans have influenced every musical genre there is, and we’ve created many new genres as well. When I listen to hip-hop, I hear the R&B, soul, funk, and jazz samples. Everyone from A Tribe Called Quest to the Notorious BIG sampled some great and even obscure music. Puffy and Dr. Dre’s unique styles of finding loops and hooks in old school music create positively brand-new sounds for new generations to enjoy.

When I listen to some of the jazz masters, like Sarah Vaughn or Ella Fitzgerald, I hear operatic tones and sweeping symphonies. Famed trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard has created two full operas for future generations of musicians to deconstruct and study.

I was just having a conversation with a friend about whether there’s something in the water in places like Detroit and Hampton, VA—so many great musical talents come out of those areas that I’m starting to wonder what is in the water or the soil that creates so many talented musicians from one singular place. I began thinking of this as I watched Stevie Wonder perform at this year’s Fordham University graduation. His voice and musical talent are unparalleled, and he’s been making music for roughly six decades.

As we celebrate African American Music Appreciation Month, I hope you find new music or discover obscure songs from artists you already know. It is a blessing to have African Americans who have dedicated their lives to providing music for our lives. They toil to provide a soundtrack to everything from our celebrations and triumphs to our breakups and tribulations. They provide the score for our family events and moments when we’re cleaning the house.

African American music has traveled the globe and influenced almost every culture. I hope you spend this month thinking about some of your favorite musical influences…and I truly hope you pass that knowledge and love on to someone you know.

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

Caribbean Update Caricom-led Haiti talks begin in Jamaica

BY BERT WILKINSON

Special to the AmNews

Repeatedly pilloried for not having a clue about how to help its poorest and most populous member state, Caricom— the Caribbean governments and the international community—began three days of talks on Sunday aimed at coming up with solutions for the island’s decadesold crisis and are making sure that Haitian stakeholders are present.

Frustrated by Haiti’s ongoing security and food crises, regional governments say they are putting everything into their latest effort at brokering peace in the country, which has been wracked by a security crisis since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Neighboring Jamaica has agreed to lend itself as the base for the latest push for peace in Haiti. The talks will be led by a so-called eminent group of former prime ministers made up of Perry Christie of the Bahamas, Bruce Golding of Jamaica, and Kenneth Anthony of St. Lucia.

“Let us commit to try, and keep on trying, until we find a workable solution,” said Philip Davis, Bahamas prime minister and Caricom chair, at the opening ceremony.

“Failure equals more suffering and death, so failure cannot be an option. Let’s keep an open mind and recognize that at the end of the day, you will find a solution.”

Haiti is the last nation to join the bloc of 15, back in 2002, but continued bouts of unrest and stability have embarrassed Caricom because it lacks the material resources to actually help the nation of around 11 million to function normally.

Setting the tone for the talks, Davis argued that there is no perfect solution for the situation in Haiti but “the challenges and struggles taking place in the Republic of Haiti have been present for far too long. I think it is important that we recognize that what we are striving for may, in the end, not be perfect, but will likely be something that in the immediate time, is effective; something that

saves lives; something that brings an end to killings; something that brings an end to the rapes; something that brings an end to the kidnapping and violence; something that brings an end to the loathing and the robberies and the gang warfare.”

The meeting was supported by the presence of Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who was appointed in the months before Moïse was assassinated by hired, mostly Colombian, mercenaries. The country has no functioning parliament, no president, and a prime minister who was appointed without assembly approval.

Henry told the AP and other reporters that he was at the meeting to listen and contribute to a solution. “We did not come here to negotiate for another agreement,” he said. “We are here to listen and talk about the next

steps we have to take to rebuild our democracy. Everyone knows that no lasting solution for Haiti can come from abroad, nor be imposed by others, whether from Caricom or elsewhere. It is up to us Haitians to find among ourselves, by our own means, this common national project likely to unite us for a rebirth of this nation. Haiti requires a national effort. We have to start once again to become a normal country. It’s high time to start a process that would lead us to free and democratic elections.”

The impetus to help Haiti emerge from this crisis might have been sparked by the February meeting of regional leaders in the Bahamas, where things Haiti dominated the talks. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was among dignitaries who attended the meeting and pledged millions in support and security equipment to help police beat back some of the marauding gangs. Some Caricom countries want to whip up support for a multinational security force to stabilize the situation, but western nations and even fellow Caribbean member states appear to have been reluctant to buy in. Only Jamaica and the Bahamas have pledged to send personnel on the ground if such an agreement is reached.

Five fast facts about the immigrant vs. the LGBTQ+ community in the U.S.

FELICIA PERSAUD IMMIGRATION KORNER

Is the LGBTQ+ community bigger than the foreign-born immigrant community in the U.S.? Here are five fast facts you should know as we celebrate National Immigrant Heritage Month, PRIDE Month, and National Caribbean American Heritage Month.

1: By the numbers

The United States has more immigrants than any other country in the world. Today, some 45 million people living in the U.S. were born in another country, accounting for about one-fifth of the world’s migrants, according to the U.S. Census. The population of immigrants is also very diverse, with just about every country in the world represented among U.S. immigrants. For instance, the number of Caribbean immigrants is estimated at 4.8 million of the 45 million.

By contrast, only about 19 million people, or 4.1% of the U.S. adult population, identify as LGBTQ+, according to the latest estimates from Gallup. In 2011, UCLA’s Williams Institute found that bisexuals accounted for about 1.8% of the total U.S. adult population. Gay men and lesbians are more likely than bisexuals to be “out,” according to a 2013 Pew Research Center survey. Overall, only 28% of bisexuals say that all or most of the important people in their lives are aware that they are LGBTQ.

2: Where do they live?

Nearly half (45%) of the nation’s immigrants live in just three states: California (24%), Texas (11%), and Florida (10%).

In 2018, California had the largest immigrant population of any state, at 10.6 million. Texas, Florida, and New York had more than 4 million immigrants each.

In terms of regions, about two-thirds of immigrants lived in the West (34%) and South (34%). Roughly one-fifth lived in the Northeast (21%), and 11% were in the Midwest. More Caribbean immigrants call Florida home while the second-larg -

est group is in New York City.

The majority of LGBTQ+ people live in California and Texas as well, with an estimated 2.6 million and 1.7 million respectively. The third-largest group lives in New York.

3: How old are they?

The immigrant population’s median age in 2021 was 47 years, making it older than the U.S.-born population, which had a median age of 37 years. One reason for this difference is that immigrants arrive largely as adults, while immigrants’ children born in the United States contribute to the younger median age of the nativeborn population.

Caribbean immigrants are generally older than both the foreign- and U.S.-born populations. The median age of immigrants from the Caribbean was approximately 50 in 2019, compared to 46 for the overall foreign-born population and 37 for the U.S.-born.

By contrast, many LGBTQ+ people are young adults, ages 18 to 36. A much smaller percentage is 37 to 51, according to Gallup.

4: Income levels

Immigrant households in 2021 had a median income of $69,622, compared to $69,734 for native-born households. In terms of income and poverty, Caribbean immigrants had a median household income of $52,000.

In 2022, the majority of Americans identifying as LGBTQ+ made less than $50,000 a year in household income.

5: Home ownership

Immigrant homeownership rates in the United States remain below the rate of native-born households—46.5 percent vs. 62.9 percent)—but the gap has fallen from 22.2 percentage points to 16.4 percentage points. The homeownership rate among those in the LGBTQ+ community between ages 22 and 72 is 49%, compared to the overall U.S. general population homeownership rate of 65%.

“Let us commit to try, and keep on trying, until we find a workable solution,”

Abolition

Continued from page 11

he said. “We need to be careful about the reforms—the interim steps that we take—but there’s no way to not do this in an incremental manner. We have to have institution-building. We have to have political skills-building. We have to have political education.

“We have to create community power, and that means you have to organize around steps that you can take right now. The challenge is to try to take steps that aren’t…re-legitimating those institutions through superficial reforms,” Vitale added.

A world without prisons or police?

What does transformative justice look like in practice? Former Minnesota NAACP President and Hamline University Professor Jason Sole provides a glimpse. He was shot at age 20 and the bullets were intended to kill. Others were hurt in response. More than two decades later, the metal screws are still in Sole’s leg, but the beef is gone between him and his alleged shooters, all without law enforcement involvement. Yet he’s clear that the process is not blind forgiveness.

“There wasn’t [any] police that could help us,” said Sole. “We had to sit down [and] it took us nine to 10 years to do this. But when we did, we said, ‘Hey, man, we can’t do this forever. How do we co-exist?’ Over time, it came to the point where I don’t mind seeing [them], I don’t mind [them] around my kids. I’m not triggered by anything now from them, so I know transformative justice.”

Sole and his fellow abolitionists in St. Paul, Minn., have quietly cut into police approaches to “harm,” the term he uses as an alternative to crime. Each Friday and Saturday, they respond to calls from Minnesotans who want to report a crime but not involve law enforcement. Sole leverages connections of his wife— who he jokes is related to half of St. Paul—with the local community to build a network for transformative justice. He said police officers, who are often strangers, cannot resolve conflicts as effectively and compassionately.

Yusef Salaam, a staunch criminal justice activist currently running for City Council in his native home of Harlem in New York City, was 15 years old when he and his young friends were wrongfully tried and convicted in the Central Park Jogger rape case of a white woman in 1989. Salaam, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise became collectively known as the Central Park Five. They spent between seven and 13 years behind bars until their sentences were overturned in 2002, after which they were dubbed the Exonerated Five. A sixth young adult, Steven Lopez, was coerced to plead guilty to charges that night and considers himself a “forgotten” member of the Exonerated “Six.”

While collecting signatures to get his name on the ballot, Salaam considered the question of whether the city should abolish or reform prisons. Instead of discussing his own experience, he spoke about Kalief Browder, another young Black teen, who spent three years

on Rikers Island awaiting trial for a low-level crime and committed suicide after his release from jail. Other countries, Salaam said, have criminal and legal systems that humanize even the worst offenders, but the U.S. system is, at its base, punitive.

“They let him go. No more adjudication. You’re free. Jay Z and team made a film about him,” said Salaam. “But when the people go away, when the lights go off, you got to turn off the trauma and you can’t turn off the trauma.”

He does advocate for closing Rikers Island, but beyond that, he is firmly in the reform camp for prison and policing systems. He believes prisons and police are necessary but are not designed to aid the community as they exist today.

“We need to have systems that work. That’s what really matters,” said Salaam. “We know that crime exists.”

The politics of reality

This is where absolutists and reformers seem to hit a major fork in the road: the practical implementation versus the ideal. The AmNews asked several Black politicians in the city where they fall on the spectrum.

Former Assemblymember and New York County Democratic Committee Leader Keith L.T. Wright, 67, served District 70 in Harlem from 1993 to 2017, and advocated for criminal justice reforms during his time in office. He remains active in and politically connected to the community. He said most people don’t understand what the term abolition really means, especially when it came to the “Abolish the Police” chants that were more prevalent after George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police in 2020.

“Abolishing the police would create absolute mayhem and wreak havoc on every community, I don’t care what community. We’re a society that has laws and rules and regulations,” said Wright. “Now, certainly the police in the Black and brown communities have had a lot of problems. I’ve always maintained that police have to be trained differently.”

He definitely considers himself a reformist and proposed legislation to that end while in office, such as ending racial profiling and testing cops after they’ve fired their weapons. He still received immense pushback, he said. He doesn’t think it’s easy to reform or abolish a system because of entities with vested interests that benefit financially from things staying the same.

“I remember I got surrounded by a bunch of police officers in the hallways of the Capitol, and they…put their coats back and put their hands on their hips and lifted their guns, all of them showing me their guns,” said Wright. “Trying to intimidate me into not introducing this bill to test officers for drugs and alcohol.”

Wright had introduced a police reform bill after the shooting of Amadou Diallo in 1999. Diallo was shot by the NYPD in the Bronx 41 times after they mistook his motion to pull out his wallet for drawing a gun.

Wright believes that police now are much more “afraid” to arrest and police citizens, but that rhetoric doesn’t match up to the numbers. According to NYPD crime statistics from March 2023, crime arrests are at a 24-year high

throughout every borough. The biggest uptick in arrests began four years ago, according to the NYPD.

Senator Zellnor Y. Myrie, a fairly outspoken advocate and legislator, echoed Salaam’s sentiment about the need for reform instead of abolition. During the 2020 racial reckoning and the deluge of protesters who hit the streets, Myrie stood with people in his Brooklyn district. He witnessed people manhandled by police and himself was zip-tied and peppersprayed before he was recognized by officers as an elected official.

In his outrage, Myrie went on to sponsor 10 separate police reform bills that passed. He said that it is the job of elected officials to “honestly look at the systems” in place and determine what has to be strengthened, changed, and dismantled and replaced with something better.

“The injustices and disparities we see all around us—in housing, in healthcare, in the criminal legal system—didn’t just happen,” said Myrie. “They are the expected outcomes of systems that were built long ago and have been upheld for generations. Those systems aren’t broken—they are functioning as they were designed.”

The past inspires today’s abolitionists

Holbrook is aware of how idealistic, if not quixotic, abolitionists sound. “We understand this is not going to be an overnight process,” he said. “A lot of people look at abolitionists as some wide-eyed, naïve people who will just open all of the prison cells and let every-

one out. We believe in accountability. When I served 27 years in prison, I was guilty of my offense. I had to go back in front of my community [and] accept that accountability.”

Formerly incarcerated abolitionists like Holbrook and Sole see their work built on the shoulders of past movements like the Pursuit of Freedom and beyond.

“I don’t think the [movements are] separated—it’s just the chains started looking differently,” said Sole. “In the past, they had you on a farm—overseers telling you what to do. When I was in prison, I got 12 and a half cents an hour. I had to realize it was slavery. How could I go in and out of cages and I’ve never even been arrested for anything violent?”

“Abolition is always under the soil. You just had incidents that drench the soil: Ferguson, Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, [even] Donald Trump [and] Trumpism,” said Holbrook. “We go back to the Black Panthers. We go back to the Revolutionary Action Movement. We go back to the African Blood Brotherhood [for African Liberation and Redemption] in the 1920s.

“Abolition has always been in the soil of Black America.”

Ariama C. Long and Tandy Lau are Report for America corps members and write about politics and public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep them writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/ amnews1.

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Clean Slate

Continued from page 4

become positive contributors to their communities,” said Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins in a statement.

The legislative session was supposed to wrap on Thursday, June 8, in Albany. Instead, it ended up running a few days over as electeds, such as Assemblymembers Al Taylor, Eddie Gibbs, and bill sponsor Catalina Cruz, passionately argued for Clean Slate. It passed first in the Assembly, much to everyone’s tentative excitement.

According to the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), fewer bills passed in both houses in 2023 compared to last session, mostly because of a steep drop-off in approvals in the Assembly. Clean Slate has passed in one house and not the other in the past.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said in a statement, “The Assembly Majority is committed to building a criminal justice system focused on rehabilitation over punishment. This bill will not only help us on that mission, but it will provide a solution to the workforce issues many local businesses continue to face. The Clean Slate Act will give millions of New Yorkers a second chance to do the right thing and give back to their community once again.”

Clean Slate was championed in the Senate by sponsor Senator Zellnor Myrie. By Saturday, June 10, it had passed in the Senate, too.

“I’m deeply proud to serve in a legislative body that recognizes the economic, moral, and public safety imperatives for passing Clean Slate,” said Myrie in a statement. “This legislation makes it clear that New Yorkers who have served their sentences and returned to the community owe no other debts before they can rebuild their lives, obtain housing and education, and secure gainful employment.”

Clean Slate would also seal old criminal records from courts and prosecutors during a new criminal case and cops during an investigation; fingerprint-based background checks for jobs unless working with children, the elderly, or vulnerable adults; and a licensing officer processing a gun license application. The law also will not affect or invalidate any active order of protection, require the destruction of

Boricua

Continued from page 4

aiding Puerto Rico and Nicaragua after a massive earthquake hit.

“It’s [the] 50th anniversary since he passed away on that tragic day, and I feel that when he started his baseball career, it was revolutionary for Black and brown players,” said Espaillat. “I think Major League Baseball (MLB) should do more to honor his legacy.”

Espaillat reintroduced resolution H.Res.242 this year, which calls for the recognition of Clemente as the first Puerto Rican in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and urges the MLB to retire his jersey, number 21. The MLB retired legendary baseball player Jackie Robinson’s iconic number 42 in 1997 on the 50th anniver-

DNA submitted to the statewide, or require that DMV records be destroyed or sealed.

Now that the bill has passed, there is massive support for Governor Kathy Hochul to sign it into law quickly. Supporters include District Attorneys Eric Gonzalez (Brooklyn), Darrel Clark (Bronx), Alvin Bragg (Manhattan), and Melinda Katz (Queens), and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams.

“I applaud the State Legislature’s passage of the Clean Slate Act that can help improve communities, public safety, and our economy,” said Adams in a statement. “This bill can open pathways to success for the more than 2 million New Yorkers with an old conviction record who have been blocked from access to employment, housing, education, and other economic opportunities. With the increased participation in our workforce and society created by this legislation, New York is estimated to take in an additional $7 billion annually in state earnings, boosting our economy and recovery from the pandemic.”

Housing

While Clean Slate is being celebrated as a win, housing advocates are frustrated that the state failed to adequately address the city’s housing shortage, especially as the asylum seeker crisis continues.

A coalition, including president of the NAACP New York State Conference Hazel Dukes and Mayor Eric Adams, had formed to demand housing solutions weeks before the legislative session ended in Albany.

The Legislature said it was able to work toward an agreement on historic rent protections and housing programs, such as the Homeowner Protection Plan, Housing Access Voucher Program, Affordable Housing Rehabilitation Program, conversion of commercial buildings, extension of 421-A, strong labor standards, raising the individual apartment improvement cap, creation of a local affordable housing plan, and good-cause eviction laws.

They were hopeful that their efforts had paid off but, in a joint statement on Thursday, June 8, Stewart-Cousins and Heastie said the housing measures were not included.

“Unfortunately, it was clear that we could not come to an agreement with the governor on

this plan,” they said. “It takes all three parties— the Senate, the Assembly, and the governor— to enact legislation into law. There is no debate: New York is experiencing a housing crisis. All three chambers must immediately redouble our efforts and come up with a plan that the governor will sign into law. This plan must prioritize not only the construction of new units of affordable housing but also robust protections for tenants, including good-cause eviction.”

John Sanchez, executive director of the 5 Borough Housing Movement, said legislative leaders completely failed New Yorkers by not prioritizing a housing package as the rental stock dwindles.

“Manhattan lawmakers from wealthier neighborhoods relentlessly tried to slip poison pills into housing policies throughout this entire session,” said Sanchez in a statement. “You saw that in the budget and in the two months since. Rents are skyrocketing in Manhattan, where the outdated FAR cap has blocked the ability to create more affordable units. Black and brown New Yorkers are leaving in droves because it’s become harder and harder for them to live here. Something has to give.”

Sanchez said that the housing crisis does not run on Albany time and legislators should stay in Albany to find an actual solution.

Furthermore, Community Housing Improvement Program (CHIP) advocates called

the only one of the housing bills that passed (S2980c/A6216b) “destructive and unconstitutional.” It would hold current housing providers liable for actions that occurred dating back to 1986, driving away future investment in affordable housing.

“This is a bill written by lawyers to drum up more business for themselves at the expense of both renters and their housing providers,” said CHIP Executive Director Jay Martin. “We have a housing supply crisis and the respective housing chairs are advancing a bill that would drive up scarcity. If renters want to know who is most responsible for high rents in this city, it is the housing chairs in the Senate and Assembly.”

CHIP has even threatened to rigorously challenge the bill in the courts.

As for the other housing measures that didn’t pass, Martin said they are deeply disappointed that lawmakers would end this session without further legislative action to protect tenants, build more housing, and lower housing costs.

Next steps for the governor

Advocates and electeds alike are fiercely urging Hochul to sign Clean Slate into law soon. Most of the bills passed came in the “flurry of late May and early June” and few have been signed. Hochul technically has until the end of the calendar year to sign the bills into laws.

Hochul said in a press conference on Monday that she is satisfied that the version of Clean Slate that passed makes the necessary exceptions for major criminal offenses like murder and rape. She didn’t explicitly indicate whether she would sign the bill.

On the housing front, it is not wholly a surprise that the initiatives didn’t pass during this session, considering that Hochul conceded fighting for her $800,000 housing production and affordability plan in the state budget earlier this year after immense pushback from suburban and Republican lawmakers.

Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit. ly/amnews1.

sary of his breaking the color barrier in baseball.

Clemente’s son, Roberto Clemente Jr., accepted the honor on behalf of his late father at the event.

“Make sure that whatever you touch, you touch in a positive way.” said Clemente Jr.

Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit. ly/amnews1.

Speaker Adrienne Adams and Councilmembers at Clean Slate Act rally (Emil Cohen/NYC Council Media Unit)

he Puerto Rican Day parade and festival held in Sunset Park, Brooklyn on Sun, June 11. (Ariama C. Long photo)

Arts & Entertainment

Alvin Ailey returns to BAM with a bang

By ZITA ALLEN Special to the AmNews

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre (AAADT) swept onto the stage of the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) on June 6 for what has been described as the “longawaited return to the BAM stage after more than a decade” and was embraced by an audience that repeatedly greeted the dancers with heartwarming displays of affection and thunderous applause.

The six-day, two-program season opened with works by choreographers Kyle Abraham, Ronald K. Brown, and Twyla Tharp, and ended on June 11 with a program of Ailey classics. On the all-Ailey program, the iconic masterpiece “Revelations” shared the bill with “Cry,” Ailey’s tribute to his mother, Lula Elizabeth, and “all Black women everywhere—especially our mothers,” which was first performed in 1971 by the AAADT’s legendary star, Judith Jamison. That program also included Ailey’s “Night Creature,” an effervescent dance inspired by the elegantly evocative jazz of Duke Ellington.

Capping off the Ailey-program evening was “Survivors,” a piece he choreographed with Mary Barnett, that honors the courage of South African anti-apartheid freedom fighters late President Nelson Mandela and the charismatic Winnie Mandela, who was honored at BAM in 1990 when her then-husband called for an end to apartheid. As Ailey dancer Jeroboam Bozeman told a Brooklyn reporter, “‘Survivors’ pays homage not only to Nelson Mandela but to all of our ancestors who have paved the way so that we can create change.”

While the Ailey company’s New York seasons usually take place at New York City Center in midtown Manhattan, this brief change of venue paid homage to BAM’s equally special place in the history of both the man and the company. Ailey, the dancer, first appeared on BAM’s stage in 1956, two years before launching the AAADT at the height of the turbulent civil rights era. For a brief time in 1969, BAM became the AAADT’s home when its growing popularity catapulted it from NYC’s 300-seat Clark Center for the Performing Arts to the almost 3,000-seat Brooklyn theater, where it was embraced by the community and greeted nightly by a packed house.

Anyone who says history doesn’t repeat itself hasn’t been following the news lately, but at a time when the political climate bears some resemblance (with significant differences) to the days of the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power era, the internationally acclaimed AAADT

once again packed ’em in at BAM after being away for some 10 years. Opening night kicked off with choreographer Ron Brown’s “Dancing Spirit.” The dance begins with a gracefully subtle accumulation of simple movements as a line of dancers slowly crosses the stage on a diagonal that evolves into more complex movement patterns distinguished by an elegant diasporic blend of traditional West African dance’s full-bodied articula -

tions and modern dance’s spiraling turns, fluid arabesques, and gently defined lines. The combination gives “Dancing Spirit” an air of solemnity and reverence for the human spirit.

The audience was so moved that when the piece ended, they leapt to their feet, filling the theater with thunderous applause for the performances of Constance Stamatiou, Sarah Daley-Perdomo, Khalia Campbell, Ashley Kaylynn Green, Yannick

Lebrun, Vernard J. Gilmore, Chalvar Monteiro, Renaldo Maurice, and Xavier Mack. The outburst of appreciation only intensified when the choreographer and his company’s associate director, Acell Cabuag, stepped onstage for a bow.

The AAADT’s smooth transition from the mesmerizing flow of “Dancing Spirit” into Twyla Tharp’s rollicking “Roy’s Joys” (1997) with its up-tempo, jazzy mix of vernacular dance, ballet, and modern is a testament to the troupe’s technical dexterity. Without skipping a beat, they captured the fast-paced ebullience of 1950s Lindy-hoppers in a work that matched the “this joint is jumpin’” joy-filled energy of the music of jazz trumpeter Roy Eldridge. While few can match the speed of the legendary Savoy Ballroom Lindy-hoppers airborne steps, the Ailey dancers came mighty close with their deft handling of awe-inspiring flips, turns, and lifts that caused audible gasps from the audience. Ailey dancers James Gilmer, Sarah Daley-Perdomo, Jacquelin Harris, Miranda Quinn, Deidre Rogan, Patrick Coker, Chalvar Monteiro, Christopher R. Wilson, and Solomon Dumas breathed life into a noted choreographer’s work that hasn’t been seen for a while and, although it showed sparks of brilliance in spots, seemed to need a bit of tweaking and editing.

The program closed with a bang thanks to Kyle Abraham’s brilliantly imaginative tribute to Black love, “Are Your In Your Feelings?” with its playful use of gestures that speak volumes and dance moves that have “today” written all over them. The Ailey dancers’ facile execution of Abraham’s expressive choreography captured the multifaceted scope of romantic interactions in a socially fluid environment, where some wear their hearts on their sleeves and others hide behind the shield of flippantly subtle gestures, shoulder shrugs, and casually flicking wrists.

Tunes from a broad musical timeline set the tone and scene, and provided a narrative as the movements of dancers Caroline T. Dartey, Ghrai DeVore-Stokes, Solomon Dumas, Belén Indhira Pereyra, James Gilmer, Michael Jackson, Jr., Renaldo Maurice, Ashley Mayeux, Miranda Quinn, and Deidre Rogan spoke in no-holds-barred, get-down conversations, capturing a kaleidoscope of feelings. Tying it all up with a heart-warming, “Love Actually” kind of note, the dance ends with a charismatic on-again, off-again couple whose drama has been woven throughout, portrayed by Ashley Kaylynn Green and Chalvar Monteiro. When they kiss and make up, it brought a delightful evening to a close.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Kyle Abraham’s “Are You in Your Feelings” (Paul Kolnik photos)

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Ronald K. Brown’s “Dancing Spirit” (Paul Kolnik photos)

Alicia Keys produces, appears in ‘Uncharted” at Tribeca Festival

By NADINE MATTHEWS Special to the AmNews

“How then are you supposed to come in and be your most creative?” That’s the question Alicia Keys asks pointedly in “Uncharted,” the documentary she also co-produced, which premiered this week at the Tribeca Film Festival. The rhetorical question follows Keys’s recounting of the fear she often felt going into the music studio to create when the producers were almost always men.

Keys reveals she was often hit on, and endured the sense of entitlement to her body, by some of those men felt because of their relative power. One of the documentary’s subjects, singer DaVionne, discusses the difficulty of dealing with male egos and making herself “smaller” or “more digestible” to make men more comfortable.

Keys, along with a number of female music industry insiders, discusses the dire prospects of success for women in the music business. A few years ago, they decided to be the change they wanted to see, and founded the nonprofit She Is the Music to address these issues. According to the organization’s website, it was created to increase “the number of women working in music—songwriters, engineers, producers, artists, and industry professionals.”

A songwriting camp for women, where participants are expected to write a song per day to pitch to artists, TV shows, and filmmakers is a crucial component of She Is the Music, and a focal point of “Uncharted.” The camp

also provides opportunities for networking with established industry players such as Keys and powerhouse songwriter and producer Linda Perry, who also appears in “Uncharted.”

Sobering statistics compiled for the Annenberg Foundation, which studies diversity and inclusion in entertainment, back up their claims: Of 651 producers credited, only 2.6% were women; of 2,767 songwriters credited, just over 12.5% were women; 2.6% of engineers/mixers were women; and 21.7% of artists in the music industry are women.

“Uncharted” takes a close look at the process of writing and promoting popular music, and the variables that bode well for success in an industry that is often cold, brutish, and short.

Filmmaker Beth Aala trains her lens on three young Black women in particular, who all brim with potential to be the next breakout star: Ayoni, DaVionne, and Jean Deaux. Aala showcases the young women’s hopefulness, passion, and ambition. The film captures their awe and feeling of being overwhelmed at their first in-person meeting with Keys. Interestingly, it also encapsulates the fact that as young as the women are (all are in their 20s), they are seasoned professionals, able to relate as equals to Keys as an artist.

All of the women in “Uncharted” have been writing, training, and/or performing in music

since they were children, and recording since their teens. Deaux was chosen as one of NPR’s Artists to Watch in 2019. Pop vocalist Ayoni is a graduate of USC and has already released an album to critical acclaim. R&B singer DaVionne was featured on J. Coles #1 album “Revenge of the Dreamers III.”

They are also all renaissance women who sing, rap, play multiple instruments, produce, engineer, promote, etc. In a film about setting women up for success, this begs a question that, unfortunately, the experts in the film don’t answer: whether this type of broad focus makes success more or less likely. Technology allows artists today to do it all, but it doesn’t necessarily change the formula for success.

Journeying through Manhattan, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Brooklyn, “Uncharted” provides an intimate look at the women’s lives, exploring themes about continuing the creative process in the midst of grief, creating with scarce resources, the impact of the streaming service business model, and the dogged question of marketing certain esthetics in popular music.

Ayoni, a statuesque, dark-skinned Barbados native, has a sound that, although punctuated by jazz, folk, and R&B flavors, is very pop-oriented. Entry into the pop music scene remains difficult for Black women partly due to the music industry belief that they are hard to

market. Ayoni calls out one of the music industry norms that developed in response: the disturbing hypersexualization of Black women.

Inadvertently, Deaux also hints at this when she describes herself as “shy” in contrast to the rather raunchy lyrics she often writes and performs. “I’m saying stuff in songs I would never say out loud and feel comfortable,” she says. However, the market encourages her to write and sing them anyway.

The belief even seems to play out in “Uncharted” as Keys and the other industry insiders judge what the young women have written and recorded over the course of the four-day camp. Deaux’s catchy rap “Stank Ass Walk” seems to resonate immediately. Ayoni’s anthem “Purpose” is well-received, but they don’t have as clear a vision for it as they do for the other song. Their expert judgment seems borne out when they later get word that Issa Rae’s comedy “Rap Sh!t” has bought the song for one of the episodes of the show.

What “Uncharted” gets both right and wrong is the role of the fans and journalists who connect with and support artists as they are up and coming: the people responsible for the up and coming-ness of these artists. Aala shows how they turn out enthusiastically in small clubs, provide media platforms for the artists, follow the artists on social media, and give them enough plays on streaming to make the industry at least take notice. However, they remain in the background without nuance, which is unfortunate given their importance to the eventual rise of many artists.

HBO doc “The Stroll” reclaims history for NYC’s Black trans sex workers

By NADINE MATTHEWS Special to the AmNews

In one of the most notorious episodes of the popular HBO comedy “Sex and the City,” Samantha engages in a power struggle of sorts with the Black trans women she encounters after she moves to a $7,000 a month apartment in New York City’s then-gentrifying Meatpacking District. She finds them too loud. They are described by the character Carrie in voice-over as “Pre-op transsexuals. Half-man, half-woman, totally annoying.” Although they lived in the neighborhood before her, Samantha is cis, wealthy, and white and they are not. She eventually wins her battle with them after screaming at them, dousing them with water, and finally calling the cops. They then quickly disperse. The episode, which aired in 2000, is on pretty much every listing of problematic TV episodes. Actress Laverne Cox said in a 2019 interview, “It was disappointing to me, as a Black trans woman, to see Black trans women enter the world of ‘Sex and the City’ and be so thoroughly othered.”

In the episode, the Black trans women were a punchline, and Samantha and Carrie proxies for the many whites who were starting to move into the Meatpacking District in the late 1990s, many of them resentful at having to share the neighborhood with the trans sex workers who predated them there. The new HBO documentary “The Stroll,” premiering

on June 21, explores the lives of the real transgender sex workers who worked in Samantha’s neighborhood. Archival footage in “The Stroll” reveals that the war by new residents on the trans sex workers was very real and the police were, in fact, used to drive out the workers.

“The Stroll” features seven transgender women and one former trans woman now living as a nonbinary person, who all worked the Stroll for anywhere from five to 25 years. Their refrain that neither jobs nor family support were accessible to them illustrates the tragic inevitability of sex work as part of transgender women’s collective history and the undeniable role of class in their struggles.

The documentary takes about as intimate a look as one can get. Kristen Lovell, who directed along with Zackary Drucker, is a transgender Black woman who once worked the Stroll (a general term for an area frequented by sex workers to ply their trade) in New York’s Meatpacking District. She says in the film that she was motivated to do the documentary to find out “how long sex work had been part of our story.”

Lovell is often on camera: in archival footage herself, interviewing women in a domestic setting, and revisiting the neighborhood with them to highlight how it has changed. Many

point out their old “corners.” One completely breaks down under the burden of the memories: “A lot of people lost their lives, trying to survive on this corner…I can’t even believe it. The things we had to do to survive. I hate this place.”

Lovell refuses to further “other” the women. Using interviews and archival footage and photos, she places them definitively as part of a larger community of business owners, residents, clients who frequented the district, the police, the gay community, artists, New York City politicians—down to the very meatpackers for whom the neighborhood is named. It’s a reclamation of history.

The break with that history comes with dramatic finality around the infamous “Sex and the City” episode aired. A few years before, with the ascension of Rudolph Giuliani to the office of NYC mayor, pressure from police increased significantly, and the streets were often virtually emptied out, the women sent to protected gay-friendly units on Rikers Island. As more people like the fictional Samantha moved in and protested, and Michael Bloomberg assumed the mayorship, the trajectory toward gentrification increased exponentially. The sex workers moved off the streets and onto the in-

ternet. “The Stroll” shows that in 2000, the murder of trans woman Amanda Milan at the Port Authority, while hundreds looked on and did nothing, became a watershed moment. It was the catalyst for the modern-day trans rights movement.

“The Stroll” illustrates that if America had a caste of Untouchables, transgender women— especially Black transgender women—would be it. The film reveals a community of women under siege, shunned even by the healthcare system. One subject recalls running to the local hospital after being assaulted by three men, only to be brusquely told she was not welcome there.

They also fought for acceptance by the gay community. There is footage of trans activist and LGBTQ icon Sylvia Rivera’s heartrending 1973 Christopher Street Liberation Day Rally speech, imploring the gay community to end its indifference to transgender lives. Five years before, it was Rivera and Black trans woman Marsha P. Johnson who put their bodies on the line to start the historic Stonewall Rebellion, which launched the gay rights movement.

“The Stroll” presents the subjects as the complex individuals they are, something too long denied in popular media. They’re contextualized as battered and bruised but strong survivors, possessed of indomitable spirits. Vibrant colors as worn by the subjects, ready smiles, and quick wits indicate a core confidence and hopefulness. The viewer won’t make it to the end without laughing out loud or welling with tears.

Alicia Keys in documentary “Uncharted” at Tribeca Film Festival (Ayana Baraka photo)

Trans sex worker on the Stroll, 1980s (Jeffrey M. Levine/HBO photo)

Jazz: Hip-hop’s muse

By DAVID GOODSON Special to the AmNews

When technological advances are first introduced, so too comes an abundance of criticism, but if an honest assessment is rendered, the advent of “sampling” in the hip-hop music genre was a game-changer in an affirmative manner. In the right hands, it married the “two turntables and a mic” essence, with the endless creativity that sparks in the confines of the recording studio. During this process, hip-hop displayed its varied styles and sensibilities while indirectly getting to work with artists of multiple genres. Here are a few of the diamonds that blossomed through the usage of jazz music as a muse for hip-hop.

Breaking Bells—Crash Crew/“Take

Me to the Mardi Gras,” Bob James

In the infancy of rap music, musicians would recreate what was hot on the radio and allow for the rappers to get their point across. “Take Me to the Mardi Gras” deviated from the formula and took it back to the crates. The band’s rendition took a minute to recognize, but it was a precursor of what was to come. Bob James’s rendition of the song (a jazz remake of a Simon and Garfunkel tune) has been sampled at least 500 times, most noticeably in Gina Thompson’s remix “The Things You Do” (with that wicked Missy Elliot verse) and “Peter Piper” by Run DMC.

Follow the Leader—Eric B and Rakim Allah/“I Wouldn’t Change a Thing,”

Coke Escovedo; “Nautilus,” Bob James

The combination of stellar multi-genre percussionist Coke Escovedo’s track and Bob James’s oft-used “Nautilus” made for an explosive track that Rakim Allah, one of the top five emcees of all time, lyrically left Earth, while his voice seamlessly blended into the track. As a sidebar, the album “Follow the Leader,” was reimagined for a jazz project under the same moniker, helmed by platinum-credited producer Jonathan Hay in 2019. That album ascended to the top of the Billboard Jazz Chart. In an interview with Billboard magazine, Rakim said, “I always view my voice as an instrument. I choose the content of my words carefully to convey the message and story I want to get across, but I also pay attention to how the syllables, intonation, and emphasis are an accompanying rhythm with the music I’m flowing over. How the words fill the spaces on the melodies and how you can push the boundaries a little…that all comes from studying jazz.”

New York State of Mind—Nas/”Mind Rain,” Joe Chamber

For about 40 seconds into the song “Mind Rain,” it feels like a piano showcase is about to occur as soon as Joe Chamber finishes his warmup. At about the one-minute mark, however, it takes a menacing turn that is the perfect backdrop for the kingpin dweller from the dungeons of rap. Nas, the son of a jazz musician, matched that tone and feel when he provided a cinematic picture of the Darkside of Queensbride.

The Theme (It’s Party Time)—Tracey Lee/“Mt. Airy Groove,” Pieces of a Dream

Jazz, known for its abstract non-conforming nature, funk, soul, and dance elements, often will creep into the mix. That introductory break beat of “Mt. Airy Groove” was a DJ favorite at jams, but not a beat that emcees could use to effectively relay their thoughts. Producers D-Dot and Ron “Amen-Ra” Lawrence of The Hitmen collective found the sweet spot for rapper Tracy Lee to glide over while keeping thejazz- and funk-infused original intact.

Stakes Is High De La Soul/“Swahililand,” Ahmad Jamal; “Mind Power,” James Brown

A list of anything associated with hip-hop music isn’t complete

without

deft demeanor over a track that combined the sophisticated jazz funk of Jamal with that raw street funk of Brown.

CELEBRATE JUNETEENTH

June 17–19, Sat–Mon. Open 12–6 p.m.

Join MoMI for special programs anchored by matinees of The Wiz, starring Diana Ross, Nipsey Russell, and Michael Jackson. Sat & Sun at 12:45 and Mon at 1:00!

• Plus, hands-on media-making activities

• Performances by Edge School of the Arts, LIFE Camp and Asase Yaa Dance & Drum Foundation, and Jerome Jordan

• A gallery talk by Renée Brailsford, a dancer in The Wiz (June 19 only)

Tickets: movingimage.us/juneteenth

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Museum of the Moving Image

35 Ave, Astoria, NY 11106 | movingimage.us

Set illustration, The Wiz. Production designer: Tony Walton.

a contribution from the great producer J Dilla. De La conveyed a dire message with a cool,

(Image by Jorge Jimenez from Pixabay)

From the Dec. 20, 1986, issue of the AmNews

HOROSCOPES BY KNOWYOURNUMB3RS

By SUPREME GODDESS KYA

June 15, 2023—June 21, 2023

June is a wild card month along with the new moon in Gemini at 26 degrees shining light on all things new, fresh, different, innocent, and pure to begin a new journey. Utilize your creativity, words, art, and concentration to focus on building a new foundation doing things differently. Gemini loves change, travel, short trips, short term leases, short-term dealing, and things that last three to five months, weeks, days—something with flexibility with opportunities to assist and be the voice of reason for the people. Romance, business, and family obligations are topics, along with new legal laws with simultaneous system updates. Relax as much as possible to refresh your energy. As Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha says, “Nothing gets transformed in your life until your mind is transformed.”

Cappy, there is much in store for you this cycle week with Pluto retrograde back in Capricorn. A time to prepare, structure, get in position, build a foundation, and expound on your objectives which are keys until the end of the Pluto in Capricorn transit on January 19, 2024. Sudden insights, meetings, and separations are universal design for the process forward. Listen to the wise people who announce their presence; some call them angels, or are you the angel in folks’ lives as sometimes our roles are reversed? In the days leading up until June 23, look at your process and progress from when Pluto in Capricorn previewed on January 26, 2008 until now.

It’s all or nothing this year for you, your position, and the role you play. Your seeds are being nourished, watered, nurtured, and supported to bear fruit. Now this is just a glimpse of what you can produce. There is no amount nor limit of how far you can expand yourself. Continue to build the foundation as the light shines a favor on your agenda. From June 15 until 6 a.m. on June 18, it’s the value in the lessons that cause you to expand. Network is key.

When there is a calling on your life, the divine will send its people as messengers to usher you to the next phase like graduation. Now that you have graduated, what are you going to do? It’s time to act on it with all that you know and can carry. No need to think about doing it, just be about it. Your brain works when you are ready, willing, and hungry enough to walk through the door to get what you came for. From June 18 until 6 p.m. on June 20, follow your passion soulfully.

The truth shall set you free. There are many revelations occurring in your environmental circumstances; some are yours and some are from others. Semi-legal matters can show up, be it a contract, hidden information, messages, signs, facts, or figures that were kept from you. This week there is no running or hiding from it, only facing it, whether it’s through creative, business, personal, professional, legal, or romantic means, or even in the physical and spiritual realms. You felt this energy approaching. From June 20 until 6 a.m. June 23, what’s the 411 of the insights of that aha moment? Now you get it.

This cycle week feels like a spiral, vertical, diagonal, horizontal, curve, zigzag, and perpendicular on a square as the scene is playing out. Wait for it. There is more in store for you to gain after all that “shake up for the wake up” to come to a conclusion from the ether. Walk into the unknown as all your senses are activated, leading you where you need to be. In the days leading up to June 23, network with the bosses to get your plan across.

When the divine creator gives you an assignment, you ask what you need to do rather than handle your business. Rewards come when you render the service, or when the assignment is complete. Travel long distances internationally, or in your mind and on social media. Before you can begin a new journey, release yourself from what pulls on your heartstrings or keeps you from moving forward. From June 15 until 6 a.m. on June 18, change is progress to escort you to the next phase. Make a bold statement.

A magical moment is occurring in the celestial realm with your ancestors conveying a message to you about an inheritance, investments, real estate, insurance policy payout, or D.N.A.; upgrade is on the way. Allow your intuition to be your coast guard like a guardian angel. When you stand on your briefs, your ancestor stands with you, becoming a force to be reckoned with surrounded by protection. There is nothing you can do about the internal and external of the transformation occurring. From June 18 until 6 p.m. on June 20, maturity comes with experience and the need to evolve before it changes and challenges you on a physical level.

Focus on results and feedback to position yourself as your career and/or business takes off. When you began this mission, you learned how to fly with little direction. Now you are soaring, doing back flips and spins, coming up with new ideas. Your potential is unlimited; reach beyond the maximum and gather your strength and team to make power moves. From June 20 until 6 a.m. on June 23, changing your perspective is like laying down new train tracks and roads to adventure into valleys and mountains never traveled.

You have the essences of fire of the flaming spirit, blazing through your energy to convey messages to people. Folks who cross your path will catch a whiff of it and feel a spark to follow their heart, or change something in themselves. This is real fire flowing through your body like a generator, keeping the lights and heat on a cold night. Review any contracts, fact check, and do your homework to complete the element fire assignment. In the days leading up to June 23, when it gets too hot to remain grounded, embrace the energy for a kundalini to rise to reach its lotus.

It’s nice to meet you, and a pleasure to come across an individual God light-being on earth who causes metamorphosis, healing, and inspiration, and wakes up the people. Wait, what’s your name? Who are you? Why are you here? What is left on your mind? Sometimes in life, knowing too much changes the whole dynamic, so less is best. Know that you were chosen to cross paths with this individual. By the end of June, you have a better inner-standing of the meeting that took place. From June 15 until 6 a.m. June 18, listen to the tone and vibration of what is being conveyed. Mentally, are you prepared?

Have you looked into the resources and events within your community that fits your profession? Are you providing a service to your community? This is a phenomenal month to make improvements in the departments that need a personal tune up to build your character or confidence, and be competent in your craft. Ask for what you need and allow the universe to do the rest as you apply the necessary footwork. This is the time to reconstruct and rearrange your home or personal space. From June 18 until 6 p.m. on June 20, a heartto-heart conversation or meeting with a special person will inspire you to change the direction of a decision.

You are receiving top secret classified intel on an upcoming assignment or project and your expertise is needed. No need to volunteer—go straight to the CEO, manager, or chancellor in charge of your proven credentials and claim your seat at the table. There is something mystical and unusual happening in an invisible way, yet you can feel it. From June 20th until 6 a.m. on June 23, what’s private is private and what’s public is public. An “I heard it through the grapevine” vibe is in the air.

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Vinateria

Vegan Night takes over Tuesdays in Central Park

By BRENIKA BANKS Special to the AmNews

As veganism remains an attractive choice for those leaning toward healthier food options, the Vegan Night Market is one of the newest vegan weekly series. It debuted in Wollman Rink at Central Park on Tuesday, June 6. This plant-based market promises customers will “enjoy the best plant-based cuisine” every Tuesday night at 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. from now until early October.

The Masc Hospitality Group (MHG), which creates cuisine and culture experiences for the community, is the producer and promoter of the Bronx Night Market, Uptown Night Market, Brooklyn Night Market, and now Vegan Night Market.

Marco Shalma, founder and owner of MGH, said events like this make NYC communities feel connected and help them grow. The first Vegan Night Market welcomed 20 vendors who Shalma envisioned being in Central Park on an early weekday instead of the weekend. “I like a Tuesday because unlike my competition, I trust my marketing team to be able to do what they need to do [for a weekday market],” he said. Shalma said the location is ideal because “nothing says NYC more than views of Central Park in front of the high rises in Midtown.”

Shalma praised his MHG vegan markets for providing customers with a good time and good food. He said the atmosphere is always positive and no negative incident has happened at any of the group’s markets since they began seven years ago.

Shalma feels “blessed” for having the power to support predominantly womenand Black women-owned businesses and other people of color vendors.

For some, veganism has become less of a strict diet and more of an incorporated lifestyle that may take awhile to adopt 100 percent. That was the scenario for entrepreneur Dominique “Bunny” Moultrie, who was on and off with her veganism interest. Moultrie, a Black woman business owner, started Bunny’s Vegan Bakery in 2017. “Vegan baked goods were hard to find [that tasted] good,” she said.

As a native of Charleston, South Carolina, Moultrie uses southern flavors heavily in her cooking and baking. She promises her chocolate chip walnut cookies are the best. “My chocolate chip walnut cookie cannot be topped,” she said. Bunny’s Vegan Bakery menu also includes oatmeal raisin cookies and Oreo-stuffed brownies. Moultrie lives by the phrase “I’m my ancestors’ wildest dreams” when facing challenging moments, especially with the cartoon version of herself as a dark-skinned Black woman in the

business logo. She anticipates being at the market every Tuesday until its duration.

Another person who will be returning to Vegan Night Market is Harlem resident Tamara Clark. She started her veganism journey in 2012 for health and environmental reasons. Clark said she appreciates weekly vegan series like this one because it increases the accessibility and versatility of vegan meals. At the event, she enjoyed a seitan stew from Mina’s Kitchen, which she said was reminiscent of a “hearty beef stew” she would have eaten in the past. “The sauce, vegetable medley, and texture were all on point,” said Clark.

She was pleased with the Haitian flavors of Mina’s Kitchen offerings. “[The owner] told me to come back and let her know how [the food tastes],” said Clark. “When I went back to tell her how good it was, I wasn’t the only one.”

Lormina Rinaldi, owner of Mina’s Kitchen, made sure to create dishes that will have her customers coming back. Mina’s Kitchen began 12 years ago when she started making fresh baby food before advancing to meals for all. Her kids and other young family members were present during the opening.

“I want to teach them that in life, everything you want comes with hard work,” said Rinald.

She claims to be the first and only Haitian food vendor participating in these street fairs, which provides inspirational actions for her children to witness. “That’s why I have the flag here—so they know who’s making the food,” she said.

Rinaldi has been indulging her love and passion for cooking since she was eight years old. She honors her Haitian traditions by guaranteeing all her foods are made from scratch. “I like to give the people fresh food because fresh is always better,” said Rinaldi.

Caaribbean flavors were in full effect during Vegan Night Market, including St. Lucia-inspired meals from Bevo’s. Owner Gracia Clery-Léonce has been running her business for six years.

“I’m a scientist turned entrepreneur in an effort to help people understand that we are what we eat,” said Clery-Léonce. She learned that lab tests results indicated poor dietary choices led to illnesses that were preventable. “High cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease; a lot of illnesses that we deal with as Black people have to do with the way we eat,” she said.

There are no fried items on Bevo’s menu, and ingredients are steamed, baked, and cooked without excessive oil. Menu items include jerk tofu, kale quinoa, veggie chicken, and sweet potato mac and cheese.

1 – Dominique “Bunny” Moultrie with goodies and customers at Vegan Night Market.

2 – Customer ordering food at Bevo’s.

3– Jerk Tofu and Kale Quinoa from Bevo’s.

4 – Customers online for Mina’s Kitchen at Vegan Night Market.

5 – Sample food displayed on table from Mina’s Kitchen.

6 – Starz’s hit show “Power” star Donshea Hopkins posing with Mina’s Kitchen owner Lormina Rinaldi.

7 – Natural-flavored drinks and Pineapple Chow from Aquam Dei

Clery-Léonce wants people to understand that vegan food isn’t bland; it has great flavor. “Properly cooked vegan food is just as delicious as [flavors on] the meat out there, but healthier,” she said.

Caribbean vendors at Vegan Night Market seem to have a way of putting the right foods and flavors together to create enjoyable products. Andrea Cruz and Nick Joseph, from Puerto Rico and Guyana, respectively, are the owners of Aquam Dei and found winning recipes with their beverages. Customers love their beverages, especially their “Tropicae,” which consists of lemon-lime, sugar cane, and mint.

Joseph loves watching customers’ satisfied

reactions to products. “The best part is after they taste it—that wow factor when they say, ‘Oh, snap, this is good!’” he said. He understands people can buy a product anywhere, and appreciates genuine feedback.

Cruz and Joseph are inspired to make better products and provide additional drink flavors that are healthier than current main market options. They look forward to opening a physical shop in Ozone Park, Queens, in the next couple of months. All four vendors hope to be a part of the weekly Vegan Night Market until it wraps up for the year in October.

For more information, visit https://www. maschospitalitygroup.com/.

Customers at opening day of Vegan Night Market. (Brenika Banks photos)

Rewinding memories by preserving friendships

By BRENIKA BANKS Special to the AmNews

Transforming buttons and friendships into art is a unique specialty. Both are important attachments that artist Beau McCall, popularly known as “the Button Man,” aims to prevent from being taken for granted. The Harlem-based mixed media and contemporary artist is presenting a solo exhibition, “Rewind: History on Repeat,” which opened on June 2 for Pride Month at the Stonewall National Museum, Archives, & Library in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Running through September 8, it’s a celebration and honoring of Black LGBTQ+ history from the 1970s.

The Stonewall National Museum serves as an appropriate location—it’s one of the largest gay archives and libraries in the USA. McCall’s exhibit showcases old, fond memories turned into button-based art inspired by 10 of his closest friendships. His exhibition features the Black LGBTQ+ experience in America and includes personal collages captured in the 1970s through the mid1990s, from Philadelphia to New York, amid the LGBTQ+ rights movement, the peak of disco music, and the AIDS epidemic.

Despite some tragic endings, McCall assures the fun, creative energy of his friends lives on through collages and buttons. Buttons are very common and known globally, yet most might see their artistic potential beyond clothing. McCall enhances buttons beyond their everyday uses by strategically incorporating them into his compositions. “The button is very powerful, and I like to say (that) I like to connect to the world one button at a time,” he said.

McCall estimates there are millions of buttons on the planet and is excited about finding new styles in different places, including thrift

shops. They can be made of wood, metal, shell, etc. The rarer they are, the more he looks forward to creating an art piece with them. “By the time I get to get my hands on the button, it’s the final destination because it takes on the form of art,” said McCall. His works assemble buttons into unforgettable designs of manifestation. This sentiment of friendship is the leading force behind “Rewind: History on Repeat.” McCall and his close pals aspired to enjoy life and create spaces for expression. Many of McCall’s friends died from AIDS and other health problems years before. He describes the works about them as living art. “They would be overjoyed because they all were talented in their own ways, from dancers to musicians to singers,” said McCall. He trusts that his companions would be delighted with his efforts at reflecting and bringing

“Strange Beauties

VIII: Tracy Monroe, Beau McCall, and Antoine aka DeeDee Somemore” from exhibit “Rewind: History on Repeat” and other button pieces by Beau

their pasts to life. His intention is to show this “crop of young folks” life as a young, Black person in the 1980s and 1990s.

McCall’s favorite piece is called “Strange Beauties VIII: Tracy Monroe, Beau McCall, and Antoine aka DeeDee Somemore.”

As young gay Black men in the 1970s, McCall and his friends had limited role models to identify with. “We had nobody to really pattern ourselves and structure our character on how we wanted to present ourselves,” he said. Entertainers are viewed as role models to many, but very few were young, Black, and gay during that era.

“When you’re trying to find yourself as a young gay person, it could be really difficult,” McCall said. “The power of bonding—that’s one of the most precious things that you can have in life is to bond with

another human being.”

While getting ready for his show, McCall emphasized the rarity of maintaining lifelong friendships. He highlighted the importance of keeping the memories of his friends alive through his art. He hopes the current generation values the importance of strong friendships; he believes it will help them on their journeys.

McCall understands the convenience of social media, but prefers socializing in person. “When you meet people face to face, you can use your five senses in the relationship to make it stronger and it makes the relationship more powerful,” he said. His goal is to preserve forgotten buttons and cherish them like close friendships to keep from losing connections. For more information, visit https://stonewall-museum.org/exhibitions/.

Dance – Juneteenth 2023

This Juneteenth, see Urban Bush Women (UBW) in Harlem and Renegade Performance Group (RPG) in Brooklyn.

Conceived, directed, and choreographed by UBW co-artistic directors Chanon Judson and Mame Diarra Speis, the company will present Haint Blu at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, June 13-18. Haint Blu is an ensemble dance-theater work “seeped in memory and magic. Known as the color that Southern families paint their front porches to ward off bad spirits, Haint Blu uses performance as a center and source of healing, taking audiences from movement into stillness and rest. The production arose from the urgent concern for the wellness of Black Women+. With its focus on remembering, reclaiming, releasing, and restoring, the work explores

what has been lost across generations and what can be recovered,” according to the release. For more information, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ haint-blu-tickets-619904670557

For one afternoon only on June 18, RPG will present Webbed Fugues as part of the Brooklyn Museum’s Juneteenth Jubilee. Webbed Fugues uses the story of Anansi the Spider to explore how folktales, images, and symbols can be reimagined through our bodies and technology to transform how we think and see ourselves. Choreographed by artistic and creative director André M. Zachery, Webbed Fugues is inspired by Dr. Nadine George-Graves’s writing on “diasporic spidering” and includes projection by Zachery plus music by Charles Vincent Burwell and Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste. For more information, visit https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/calendar/event/ juneteenth_jubilee_june_2023

CHARMAINE PATRICIA WARREN Special to AmNews

Beau McCall (Photo courtesy of artist)

Beau McCall holding “In Loving Memory, 2020” piece from exhibit “Rewind: History on Repeat.” (Brenika Banks photos)

McCall

Urban Bush Women’s Haint Blu (Woosler Delisfort photos)

‘This Land Was Made’ is magnificent theater at the Vineyard

By LINDA ARMSTRONG Special to the AmNews

If you go to the theater to be inspired, moved, educated, and have some laughs, then you have to make plans to visit the Vineyard Theatre at 108 E. 15th Street, where the glorious production “This Land Was Made” is currently playing.

This brilliant work is the brainchild of African American female playwright Tori Sampson, with direction by African American female Taylor Reynolds, and features a mainly African American cast of actors who all bring their A-game to the stage.

The play tells the story of Huey P. Newton, leader of the Black Panther party in Oakland California, in 1967, where an incident occurred with police.

Sampson initiates the production with a narrator character named Sassy, who lives up to her name. She is in a bar that used to belong to her family and is now hers. She tells us that the bar has great meaning to her and that she will share a story and tell it the way it should be told. The story is about Huey P. Newton, but first we meet Sassy’s family and friends from the past as she takes us back to 1967 in Oakland.

We meet her mother, Miss Trish, who ran the family-owned business, where they lived upstairs. We meet Mr. Far, a long-time family friend and older gentleman. We meet Drew, a young Black man who wants his people to

be respected and loves what the Black Panther Party is doing. We also meet Troy, who is a student at UC and does not want any trouble; he feels that Black people need to learn how to speak to and work with whites. There’s Gail, Sassy’s best friend; Gene, a member of the Black Panther Party and nephew of Mr. Far; and ,of course, Huey P. Newton, a great leader and voice in the Black Panther Party. Sampson delves into the racism that was happening via the police. She tells the story of the positive things that the Black Panther Party stood for, and the principles they taught. You realize that Newton and the Black Panther Party were there for the betterment

of Black people overall, although they often were victimized by the police because of it. There were Black people who felt that we should just stay separated from racist whites, but that was the old school way of thinking— many Black folks were tired of the violence against our people for no reason. Blacks were protesting, doing sit-ins, and being in the streets letting their voices be heard.

“This Land Was Made” is a powerful, poignant, but also amusing look at who the American dream is for and who it is not for. It is an eye-opening production that will leave you inspired, engaged, and proud of what we as a people have faced and endured.

‘Shadow/land’ delivers important truths

By LINDA ARMSTRONG

Special to the AmNews

“Shadow/land,” which recently played at the Public Theatre, was a moving, poignant piece of theater that looked at the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the people of New Orleans. The playwright, Erika Dickerson-Despenza, gives us the story of a family who owned a club called the “Shadow/land,” built on the land that one of the ancestors in the family secured through her blood and sweat. The land and the business had been passed down generation after generation.

We meet Ruth and her mother Magalee. Ruth wants to sell the club, but her mother is completely against it, and she tells her the history of this land and this bar in their family. Magalee is passionate about wanting Ruth to keep the legacy going. This discussion happens on the eve of Hurricane Katrina.

There is a lot going on in this powerful play. Besides trying to get her daughter to hold onto the family’s property and business, Magalee also tries to get her to appreciate the husband and family she has

and not look for happiness with another man. Ruth tries to explain that her life has been unhappy because she lives for everyone else but herself. She tries to bare her soul to her mom and get her to understand what she needs to feel more fulfilled. But no matter what she shared, her mother kept trying to emphasize that the family and their history are what truly matter in life. While these two characters were having their heart to heart, a character called the Grand Marshal came onstage; she represented the element of the ancestors, and that candid element of truth— why people come to New Orleans. They come to be entertained, but they don’t care about the people who live there or the traumas that those residents have gone through.

As Katrina raged, Ruth and Magalee were trapped in the family club. They were there as the floodwaters came in and saw, firsthand, neighbors dying. They saw that society did not care about them when they desperately asked for assistance and those calls went unanswered—no assistance for a woman and her 80-year-old

mother suffering from dementia. While Magalee is a light-skinned woman, Ruth is brown-skinned. She has always been jealous of her sister Eva who, like their mother, had a lighter complexion, and has always felt mistreated by white people she has encountered for having darker skin. When Ruth shared this with her mother, Magalee responded that she not only knew this, but tried to compensate for the mistreatment Ruth received by giving her gifts to make up for this feeling of rejection she knew

The ensemble cast is absolutely perfect. Antoinette Crowe-Legacy is charming and mesmerizing as Sassy, the narrator. Libya V. Pugh is wonderful as Miss Trish, the bar owner who is from the old school way of thinking and is concerned for the wellbeing of those young people who want to fight racism. Yasha Jackson is delightful as Gail, Sassy’s best friend, who is man-hungry. Leland Fowler is funny as Drew, who wants Black power, but does not understand exactly what that means. Matthew Griffin is poignant as Troy, who learns a lesson the hard way. Ezra Knight is delightful as Mr. Far, as he tries to guide these younger men. Curtis Morlaye delivers an engaging performance as Gene. Julian Elijah Martinez is a stunning Newton. He delivers this character with great conviction and is quite inspiring to behold.

Other members of the cast include Oliver Palmer as Officer Frey and Sean Patrick Higgins as Officer Heanes.

Every aspect of this production is top-ofthe-line, including a detailed, captivating set by Wilson Chin; costumes by Dominique Fawn Hill and Deshon Elem; lighting by Adam Honore; sound design and original music by Fan Zhang; and period hair and wigs by Nikiya Mathis.

This play is a blast from the past. Make plans to go—and take a younger person with you to pass on some of our history.

For more info, visit www.vineyardtheatre.org.

direction by Candis C. Jones was tremendous. The actresses on that stage had you mesmerized.

Lizan Mitchell as Magalee brought a feistiness, an incredible energy, and a joy to this motherly role. She delivered her character with a great respect for the ancestors.

Joniece Abbott-Pratt was phenomenal as Ruth. You could feel the pain and frustration that her character felt on so many levels. You also appreciated the transformation that she undertook as their situation got worse and worse.

her daughter had suffered.

The issue of complexion in the African American community is quite real, and a play that includes that is quite on-point. I loved how the playwright made this production about the Black women in this family—their sacrifices, their strengths, and their struggles. She let it be known that legacy is imperative to uphold because so much has been sacrificed for us to have what we have.

This play was beautiful, touching, and stunning to witness. The

Christine Shepard was mesmerizing as the Grand Marshal. She gave the show a flavor of ancestry, strength, truth, joy, and beauty.

I love that the Public Theatre always strives to produce significant works that inspire the soul and make you reflect on what is important in life. New Orleans is not just a place to go and party; people live there. And Black women are the backbone of the Black family. They are always ready to make whatever sacrifices are necessary to assist their families in surviving and thriving.

(L-R): Libya V. Pugh, Leland Fowler Julian Elijah Martinez, and Ezra Knight in “This Land Was Made” (Carol Rosegg photo)

(L-R) Lizan Mitchell and Joniece Abbott-Pratt in scene from “Shadow/ land” (Joan Marcus photo)

Vijay Iyer, Village Vanguard, Flushing Town Hall, Quincy Jones

The pianist and composer Vijay Iyer brilliantly connects the socalled genres of avant-garde and traditional jazz into one engrossing movement that swings. He and his trio will take audiences on an enthralling music expedition during their engagement at Dizzy’s jazz club (60th Street and Broadway) from June 15–18.

Iyer will be joined by bassist Harish Raghavan and drummer Tyshawn Sorey (one of his regulars) on June 16–17, and cornet/ flugelhorn Graham Haynes will join in (he has collaborated with Iyer on a variety of projects). These musicians are independent trailblazers, looking to explore new territory regardless of the stage.

As a multimedia explorer, Iyer’s music has more shades than a kaleidoscope, which he consistently demonstrates through countless collaborations with such diverse musicians as George E. Lewis, Imani Winds, Mantana Roberts, DJ Spooky, Amiri Baraka, Henry Threadgill, Burnt Sugar, Reggie Workman, and the Brentano String Quartet.

Two sets each night at 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. For reservations, visit 2023.jazz.org or call 212258-9595.

The George Cables Trio will appear at the storied Village Vanguard (178 7th Avenue South) from June 20–25. Cables has the musical inventiveness to take traveled standards like Johnny Richards’s “Young at Heart” or Wayne Shorter’s “Speak No Evil” and reconstruct them into a swinging new sound. And Shorter’s tunes are so exceptional and hip, it’s not easy to rearrange any of them into something that listeners will respect and groove to.

Cables will be joined by longtime band member bassist Essiet Okon Essiet and the versatile drummer Jerome Jennings. In his earlier years, Cables was a firstcall pianist for musicians such as Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins, Art Pepper, and Art Blakey. He has since become one of the most influential pianists in jazz. As an established elder statesman, his recognition as a NEA Jazz Master is warranted.

For reservations, visit villagevanguard.com.

Some years earlier, not many moons ago, the borough of Queens was home to some of the most influential saxophonists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Some of those musicians included John Coltrane, Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, Ben Webster, Lester “PREZ” Young, Oliver Nelson, Illinois Jacquet, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Johnny Hodges, Frank Wess, Paul Gonsalves, and NEA Jazz Master Jimmy Heath.

On June 23, music by some of these Queens saxophonists will come to life as Flushing Town Hall (13735 Northern Blvd.) celebrates the 15th anniversary of its resident Queens Jazz Orchestra with “Land of the Giants.” Grammynominated jazz saxophonist and conductor Antonio Hart will lead the orchestra and select music from a few of the most renowned Queens saxophonists with the sound of big band soul.

In 2008, Heath and Jazz Producer in Residence Clyde Bullard collaborated to co-found Flushing

Town Hall’s Queens Jazz Orchestra (the QJO), a 17-piece orchestra dedicated to preserving the heritage of jazz in Queens and nurturing the next generations of jazz musicians. Heath was also QJO’s first music director, leading the orchestra until his passing in 2020. Heath selected Hart, director of jazz studies at the Queens College Aaron Copland School of Music, to be his successor.

“I am forever grateful to Master Heath for taking me under his wing and teaching me ‘Music is Life and Life is Music,’” said Hart, long-time member of the QJO and QJO conductor since 2020. “Coming back to Flushing Town Hall for the annual QJO concert, now for the second time as its conductor, is always a blessing and highlight of my year.”

The QJO will perform at 8 p.m. For more information and tickets, visit flushingtownhall.org or call 718-463-7700.

Quincy Delight Jones Jr.— his middle name says it all. For seven decades, he has been delighting audiences with an

eclectic array of hits as a record producer, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer. He has won 28 Grammys. On June 16, he will receive yet another honor: the naming of the Quincy Jones Conservatory—formerly the Conservatoire de la Communauté urbaine Grand Paris Seine & Oise —in Mantes-la-Jolie, France. The mayor of Mantes-la-Jolie will participate in the celebration of the only conservatory in the world to bear Jones’s name.

Jones has worked with an enormous list of outstanding artists, including Ray Charles, Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Michael Jackson, and Stevie Wonder, and has a close connection with the region and considers France as his second home.

Nadia Boulanger, one of the world’s most influential composition teachers (died in 1979 at age 92), will also be celebrated at the event when the Conservatory’s auditorium is named in her honor.

In a letter to Jazz Festival pro-

ducer Jean-Pierre Vignola, Jones wrote, “It makes my soul smile to know there is a school of music named ‘Quincy Jones’ in France, my second country! I was fortunate to be on the shoulders of the greats; it is an honor to be able to contribute in the legacy of music education. My memories of France are intimately tied to my beloved Nadia Boulanger, and I cannot express how flattered I am to be her neighbor with a school named after me!”

Jones’s outrageous music beats are among the most sampled by hip-hop artists. From bebop to bossa nova, soul to futuristic big bands to funk soundtracks, his musical genius has left a prolific mark on American music. He owes much of his success to his early teacher, Boulanger. She has been described as “the most influential teacher since Socrates,” and counted George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, and Leonard Bernstein among her pupils, in addition to Jones. Boulanger was the first woman to conduct the Boston and New York Philharmonic orchestras .

George Cables (Jonathan Chimene photo)

specifically not the intent of this legislation that the question of past links to slavery serve as a litmus test to determine who the city should do business with, such information is important for the city and the country as they reappraise the history of slavery as a result of these new findings. Accordingly, this local law would require companies doing business with the city to search their pasts and reveal whether they have engaged in or profited from slavery.”

It would take effect 120 days after it becomes law.

Barron cited Aetna as one such company that reportedly partook in the enslavement era of trafficked Africans for economic benefit. Barron asked, “Why should they be allowed to get a healthcare contract with New York when they destroyed our health care of enslaved Africans?”

The Amsterdam News reached out to the Aetna Corporation Contact Center and their media office, but was unable to get a response by press time.

Reparations from local, state, and national U.S. governments are not a new demand. In February 2005, reporter Frankie Edozien wrote about how city lawmakers were intensifying a push to force companies that do business with the city to disclose whether they profited from slavery.

“Hearings [were held then] on legislation that would require city contractors to delve into their histories.”

At that time, Harlem’s Councilmember Bill Perkins said, “We’re hoping that these hearings will bring to light the fact that there had been a history of slavery in this city, that there are some corporations that might have been a part of that history.”

Chicago established a similar law in 2002, Edozien reported said, “JPMorgan Chase found that two banks it once owned accepted 13,000 slaves as collateral for loans made to Louisiana plantation owners in the 1800s.”

Barron asked then-mayor Michael Bloomberg to establish a commission to study the issue of slavery reparations. It never happened.

Back in 2015, Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Chris Smith (R-NJ) sponsored their “Business Supply Chain Transparency on Trafficking and Slavery Act of 2015.” It determined that large corporations must disclose how they were at that time, employing efforts to ensure that their products or services were not the results of modern-day slavery, human trafficking, or child labor.

In the “freedom isn’t free” line of thinking, a whole segment of the city is fighting for reparations, as witnessed by last week’s rally at the African Ground. Last week at a rally at the African Burial Ground in lower Manhattan, the December 12th Movement, National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA), and Barron - who proposed community participation in the states’ reparations commission and; urge folk to challenge the proposed Albany state government-controlled commission on reparations.

“At the end of its legislative session, New York State finally passed a reparations bill. That is a victory. But for Black people, this is one of those victories [that] is dripping with defeat,” December 12th Movement member Attorney Roger Wareham told the Amsterdam News. “The New York State Community Commission on Reparations Remedies differs markedly from the version [that] was originally put forward by then-Assembly[member] Charles Barron, and passed by consecutive sessions of the Assembly.”

That version, he noted, was unique among all the reparations legislation passed so far in the United States. “It provided for 11 commission members, six of whom would be selected by three community organizations [that] had decades-long experience in the struggle for reparations,” wareham said. “The version [that] was passed, awaiting the signature of Gov. Hochul, places the selection of all commission members in the hands of the government: three by the Governor (Hochul), three by the speaker of the Assembly (Heastie), three by the Temporary President of the Senate (Stewart-Cousins).

However, the activist lawyer said, an “unprecedented opportunity to provide majority community input into the process of determining our reparations fell victim to Albany close-mindedness, short-sightedness, and political expediency.”

The NYC decades-long reparations struggle continues, with the call for reparations at last being part of the national mainstream dialogue.

“We applaud those Assembly and Senate members who fought on principle for community control. The December 12th Movement views this legislation as something our community will have to work with, which will require that we all actively monitor to ensure the accountability of our elected officials,” Wareham said.

New Jersey-based activist Divine Allah told the Amsterdam News, “We demand reparations. The ‘I was gonna fight for liberation, but I didn’t get a grant,’ is too prominent a position, running side by side with popularized patronizing platitudes and cliche-themed condescending events, which actually do nothing to stop our righteous demands.”

The Black Panther Youth Minister added, “The young people are ready. They are telling President Joseph Robinette Biden to ‘Cut the check.’ They have watched us fight for years, and now their demand is getting louder.”

“Juneteenth should be celebrated for one week for every month of the year,” said Dentis M. Shaw, a North Carolina-based activist and self-described farm sharecropper, and military veteran.”

When he thinks of Juneteenth, he told the Amsterdam News, it must be about the “honoring of African ancestry, African history, and the coming to America on slave ships to work in the cotton fields, tobacco fields, cucumber fields, etc. June 19th is the day every year that we recognize as a day to honor African history, and the hard work of many Africans—their lives in America, for this nation. I believe because of the history of our African people, we should recognize all 12 months of the year, 17

days every month, 84 days total.”

His solution to 100s of years of unacknowledged free labor, is to establish that; from the 13th to the 19th of every month, those seven days should be recognized for the lives given by Africans brought to America working hard for 6 days, resting on the 7th, “as God did when He made and created the Earth, there is a connection I do believe.”

As it stands right now, said Shaw, the federal holiday on the 19th of June should be “Celebrated with the honoring of ALL SLAVES, our Black ancestors, and the life price that they paid for ALL BLACK PEOPLE, verbally abused, beatings—and yes, many hung and killed.”

Shaw concluded that the people must “honor our Black brothers and our sisters [EnSlaved] from Africa—84 days of the year; 13–19 January to December. They deserve it all. We have our freedom and great lives today. Thank you all. “For those 84 days every year, we should recognize and honor that our ancestors [so-called slaves] gave their lives for how we as African Americans live now.”

Advocates repeat that the day or days of Juneteenth should not be about commercialization, but compensation and culture; not the ongoing collateral damage of Black people in the building of a nation.

Last year, the Amsterdam News reported on the ill-conceived “Juneteenth red velvet and cheesecake ice cream” and “It’s the Freedom for Me” napkins and plates, and panned corporate Juneteenth paraphernalia. “Companies like Walmart were dragged on social media.”

“Corporate America has found a way to

commercialize the emancipation of enslaved people,” wrote Jezebel.com’s Khalisa Rae.

“America loves to co-opt a revolution and sell it back to people like they’re doing us a favor.”

This coming Monday, June 19, is the 159th anniversary of the “official end” of slavery in Galveston, Texas, a date now known as Juneteenth.

While some people dispute the story that it was white Union Army General Gordon Granger who rode into Galveston on June 19, 1865, and told 250,000 enslaved men, women, and children that the Civil War had been over for two years, since President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation banned slavery on January 1, 1863; a version from the Juneteenth Legacy Project and Juneteenth National Observance Foundation, among other people, say it was Black union soldiers who informed Galveston’s Black folk of the end of the war.

“We know slavery did continue to take place after that,” said diversity coach Kim Crowder. “While many immediately packed up and headed north and to other parts of the nation, others stayed, working on the plantation, sharecropping, and providing for their families the best way they could.”

Barron said that keeping the relevance of Juneteenth is essential. “Kwanzaa, Black History Month, and now Juneteenth have been co-opted and commercialized by corporate America, but we have to strive to keep the authenticity of our movement,” he said. “We are resilient, and fighting for what is ours is what we have always done. It is us.”

BE THERE WHEN THE SHOP OPENS ON BROADWAY!

by Jocelyn Bioh

Charlie and Joe McCoy, true ‘blues brothers’ and versatile musicians

By HERB BOYD

Special to the AmNews

A recent visit to Jackson, Mississippi, to participate in the dedication of the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home as a National Monument was also an occasion to experience some other notable moments in the city’s history and culture. Outside the Hilton Garden Inn, formerly the King Edward Hotel, is a historic marker identifying the building as an important location on the “Mississippi Blues Trail.” Most striking is the marker’s image of Charlie McCoy embracing his mandolin. While the inscription is mainly about the hotel as a place where some legendary blues records were made, it was McCoy who caught my eye and interest.

Jason Ankeny has written a profile of McCoy, noting that Charlie and his brother Joe were versatile musicians often accompanying some of the leading performers of the era.

McCoy was born on May 26, 1909, in Jackson and was a self-taught guitarist and mandolinist who recorded regularly in the late 1920s, most notably with Ishmon Bracey, Tommony Johnson, Walter Vincson, the Mississippi Sheiks, Rubin Lacy, Son Spand, and many other bluesmen and women of the Delta.

By the mid-1930s, he backed his sister-in-law, Memphis Minnie, with his high tenor voice, although this was something he was less inclined to do, preferring to remain in the background. According to Ankeny, among McCoy’s “scattered first sessions is the first known recorded rendition of the song that eventually became ‘Sweet Home Chicago.’”

McCoy had several recording sessions between 1936 and 1939 with groups such as Papa Charlie’s Boys (a reference to his nickname) and, curiously, a group called the Harlem Hamfats, which also featured his brother Joe.

The advent of World War II curtailed McCoy’s recording career and he made no more records after 1942. He died eight years later on July 26, 1950, in Chicago. No details are available about the cause of death.

It would be remiss not to include Charlie’s older brother, who

CLASSROOM IN THE ACTIVITIES

FIND OUT MORE

Jason Ankeny gave me a start on this, and several other blues books and encyclopedias continue the McCoy brothers’ legacies.

DISCUSSION

No information was found about how they began their musical careers or how they learned to play the instruments.

PLACE IN CONTEXT

The McCoy brothers were born four years apart and died within a year of each other, but produced a compelling amount of music in the 1920s and 1930s.

became known as Kansas Joe, in this profile. He was born Wilbur “Joe” McCoy on May 11, 1905, in Raymond, Mississippi. Memphis Minnie was Joe’s wife, herself a fine guitarist and singer. The couple had a hit recording, “Bumble Bee,” in 1930. When they moved to Chicago, they were at the fulcrum of the blues scene in the city.

After their divorce, Joe teamed up with his brother and formed the Harlem Hamfats. In 1936, they released “The Weed Smoker’s Dream,” a song they later refined and retitled “Why Don’t You Do Right?” for vocalist Lil Green in 1941. Benny Good and Peggy Lee covered the song and it became Lee’s first hit single. For years, it has been an enduring standard for McCoy.

While Charlie entered the military, Joe’s heart condition kept him out of it. Meanwhile, he formed a band, Big Joe and his Rhythm, featuring Robert Nighthawk on harmonica and Charlie later on mandolin.

Joe died of heart disease in Chicago in 1950, at 44, only a few months before Charlie died. They are both buried in Restvale Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.

THIS WEEK IN BLACK

HISTORY

June 11, 1930: Former Rep. Charles Rangel was born in New York City.

June 12, 1963: Civil rights leader Medgar Wiley Evers was assassinated in his driveway. He was 37.

June 13, 1980: Scholar and revolutionary Walter Rodney was assassinated in Guyana. He was 38.

Joe and Charlie McCoy

Wildfires

Continued from page 3

Martinez says much like the COVID-19 pandemic, delivery app workers and street vendors—most of whom are low-income and nonwhite—could not isolate themselves indoors during the smoke. And older buildings, especially in Black and brown neighborhoods uptown and in the Bronx, frequently lack selfcontaining air conditioning systems, which means more air pollution coming inside.

But for New Yorkers, wildfire smoke seems like an aberration. Garima Raheja, a Columbia Climate School researcher and doctoral candidate, says she’s frequently fielding questions on whether recent events are a product of climate change.

“We cannot link any one specific event to climate change,” she said. “But it is definitely a symptom of worsening climate change [like] drought, increasing heat, and changing ecosystems.

We’re gonna see more of this. So we’re gonna have to buckle up and we’re not going to get through this just by protecting ourselves.”

She adds that even on a normal day, there are major air pollution disparities in Black and brown neighborhoods.

“Even if the entire city of New York is experiencing the same level of air pollution, the communities that have historically been hardest hit are going to be affected more by that same level of air pollution because they have higher rates of asthma [and] respiratory problems,” said Ra-

herja. “So they’re going to be suffering worse on the same day in the same air pollution conditions. Another big problem is that the amount of air pollution monitoring that we have is really disproportionate. Rich white communities have way more air pollution monitoring than lower income communities of color.

“Last Wednesday, we can see from models and satellites that the exposure is similar [for] everybody but [there’s] way less information in communities like Harlem [or in] Queens and the Bronx.”

Martinez says there’s a lack of public education linking climate change to wildfires.

“The main driver of these increased fires that we’ve seen over the last decade or so has mostly been because of decreased precipitation and then the secondary causes is warming weath-

er,” she said. “Because things are so dry, then you have the buildup of fuels—dried grasses, shrubs, trees, dead leaves, dry pine needles— then this fire weather. You can have warm conditions, the humidity is just right and the wind is blowing.

“All of these things are impacted by climate change. But then they all come together to kind of set up the ideal conditions for these big fires.”

While the jury is still out on whether last week is the new normal, both Martinez and Raherja recommend New Yorkers to take steps to protect themselves by wearing the same masks used during the COVID-19 pandemic—N95 and KN95, instead of surgical cloth masks, will help prevent ingesting particulate matter from wildfire smoke. They also recommend air filters and box fans for ventilation.

Continued from page 3

targeted toward those who directly experienced harm and their descendants due to slavery and its enduring effects.”

The bill, which awaits Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature to become law, would have Commission members gather evidence about how New York’s Black communities have fared in the state and, within one year, make recommendations about what kind of remedies or reparations would be appropriate. The Commission’s recommendations to the legislature are not legally binding and do not necessarily have to be followed.

––Compiled by Karen Juanita Carrillo

New Jersey

Continued from page 4

businesses will support the economic empowerment of the Black community. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to shop and support Black entrepreneurs. The event takes place from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 15, at Montclair State University (1 Normal Avenue, Montclair, N.J. 07043).

––Compiled by Karen Juanita Carrillo

Student loan forgiveness, Biden’s hunt for the Black vote

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

President Joe Biden vetoed a bill passed by Congress that blocked his student loan forgiveness plan last Wednesday, June 7. The Republican-led effort throws the debt relief plan back into the air as the pause on student loans for more than 40 million borrowers is set to end in August.

Of course, among the most vulnerable borrowers are Black and brown communities already struggling in an economy rife with inflation.

The student loan forgiveness plan could still be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court despite the veto. A decision is expected this summer, reported the Associated Press (AP). Student loan payments were initially paused at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic three years ago, but they will resume in August.

If enacted, Biden’s plan would forgive up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 per year, according to the AP.

Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU)’s Chief Policy Officer Nicholas Kent said that borrowers from low-income backgrounds and people of color are more likely to struggle when their federal student loan payments resume and will require additional support to ensure a smooth transition back into repayment.

“It will be critical for institutions, policymakers, and other interested parties to continue working together to ensure these borrowers and others have accurate and consistent information to help minimize any adverse impact,” said Kent in a statement.

Chivona Renée Newsome, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Greater New York, told the Amsterdam News that Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan was essentially a “failed campaign promise to Black people.”

Newsome said that entire generations of people of color were instilled with the idea that you can overcome oppression with education, but that goal line is hard to achieve in reality with egregious amounts of debt hanging over Black borrowers. She believes that is no longer the case.

“The path for us is financial freedom, but we borrow money and even if we get these jobs that we want, we’re not going to build any wealth not for the next generation because we’re busy paying back the government for education that no longer buys the American dream,” said Newsome.

Newsome said her older brother’s college education put a financial strain on her family. He is an environmental activist that attended law school. “It was rough. My family did not have good credit,” said Newsome. “I had to work three jobs to get through college.”

She said she’s currently down to her last $10,000 in repayments for her student loans

and is admittedly a little “bitter” about the cancellation program. Still, she thinks the forgiveness plan would be an “amazing step up” for future generations of people of color who could come out of school debt-free.

Many advocates fear that repayments will further burden younger borrowers that already don’t see a way to be financially responsible for children and homeownership as in previous generations,the AP reported.

Jermaine House is senior director of communications at HIT Strategies, which is a Black-run polling company that focuses on surveying Black voters. HIT data from national polling indicates that Black voters with a degree and without a degree support and prioritize student debt relief, said House.

HIT found that the plurality of Black voters polled think that the debt relief should be more than $10,000 and some think that the money offered is too much, said House. Of those, younger Black voters are more likely to say that $10,000 for student debt forgiveness is too low.

Based on their numbers from February, Biden has a 74% approval rating among Black voters, said House, but that is subject to change monthly. Also, a larger percentage of those supporters are over the age of 50 and that support tends to drop among younger Black voters.

“There’s some difference between Black men and Black women, but the bigger gap is between younger and older Black voters. And the younger ones, those are the people they

need to mobilize,” said House.

In a message to Congress, Biden explained why he struck down the bill. “It is a shame for working families across the country that lawmakers continue to pursue this unprecedented attempt to deny critical relief to millions of their own constituents, even as several of these same lawmakers have had tens of thousands of dollars of their own business loans forgiven by the Federal Government,” said Biden. “I remain committed to continuing to make college affordable and providing this critical relief to borrowers as they work to recover from a once-in-a-century pandemic.”

Biden maintains that making college cheaper, revising the student loan system, increasing Pell Grants, and providing debt relief for student borrowers and former students is critical to pandemic and continued economic recovery.

He said that during the period when the student debt relief application was available, 26 million people applied or were eligible, and at least 16 million of those borrowers could have received debt relief already “if it were not for meritless lawsuits waged by opponents of this program.”

Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1

President Joe Biden attends the Howard University Commencement ceremony at Capitol One Arena, Saturday, May 13, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Official White House Photo by Cameron Smith via Flickr photo)

International

Continued from page 2

African Union, Emmanuel Mwamba, confirmed to openDemocracy that he attended two training sessions for diplomats hosted by FWI in the U.S. and, earlier this year, he gave one of the program’s keynote speeches.

Zambia is among the African countries with the lowest levels of acceptance for LGBTQ people, alongside Uganda, the Gambia, and Senegal, according to one

U.N. forum

Continued from page 2

survey by Afrobarometer.

Now, however, after negative publicity worldwide, FWI has been trying to convince President Yoweri Museveni to soften the new law he signed that imposes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” and carries a 20-year sentence for “promoting homosexuality.”

“We are disappointed that the president signed the harsh bill into law,” said FWI director Lynn Allred. “We believe there are individuals who will not be able to obtain help to align their sexual behavior with their personal values.”

from different organizations, we are going to have the political power to push our governments to do something for our communities,” said Campbell Barr. She added that the fact that the new Decade for People of African Descent would start five years before the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda in 2030 will serve as an extra push to get governments to truly work for Black communities.

“The Permanent Forum of People of African descent has the mandate to work to establish the Declaration of Human Rights of people of African descent,” Campbell Barr said. The final product will be a document that shows the U.N.’s commitment to African descendants in the Americas and throughout the world. “It will be the main important document and commitment of the U.N.” to Black people.

That’s why it was important to feature the input of civil society groups during the forum, Desiree Cormier Smith, the State Department’s first ever Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice, told the AmNews: “The International Decade, we championed the creation of it. We have been commemorating it under this administration and we believe it is important,” Cormier Smith said.

The U.S. government has been widely criticized for not heralding the importance of the Durban Declaration and Program of Action (DDPA) which was adopted 21 years ago at the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance. The World Conference against Racism helped push the U.N. to create a decade for recognizing the global Black diaspora.

The problem the U.S. has with the DDPA, Cormier Smith said, is “it’s singling out of Israel and then some restrictions on free speech which are counter to our constitution.” She insisted that that doesn’t mean the U.S. doesn’t agree with the aims of the DDPA. “Let me be clear on that. The Durban Declaration and Program of Action is meant to be a blueprint on how member states can work towards the elimination of racial discrimination, intolerance, and xenophobia. We agree with those aims; we are commit-

Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, also took the Ugandan church to task for its support of the harsh law enacted last month. He said there was no justification for supporting the legislation, in a move that highlights deep divisions within the global Anglican church on LGBTQ+ issues.

In a statement, Welby said: “I am deeply aware of the history of colonial rule in Uganda, so heroically resisted by its people. But this is not about imposing western values on our Ugandan Anglican sisters and brothers. It is about reminding

them of the commitments we have made as Anglicans to treat every person with the care and respect they deserve as children of God.

“Within the Anglican community, we continue to disagree over matters of sexuality, but there is no justification for any province of the Anglican communion to support such laws…There is nothing un-African about being gay. Museveni’s bigotry will cost lives.”

ted to those aims. We just don’t agree with the DDPA as a policy.”

The United States did play a major role in the formatting of the Permanent Forum, Cormier Smith asserted. “We … championed the creation of the Permanent Forum as a part of that Decade. We were a strong supporter of the creation of that forum. And we also strongly supported the participation, the robust participation, of civil society in the forum as central to the forum.

“Not all member states were a fan [sic] of that. I want to make sure that that is on record, that we were one of the loudest voices to ensure that civil society could be robustly included because we felt that was important to the credibility of the forum: you have to have the people who are closest to the pain be a part of the solution because they have the best answers, they have the best solutions.”

Howard University Professor Justin Hansford, who also serves as an elected member of the Permanent Forum, explained that some of the recommendations and suggestions that activists and community organizations made will form part of the Permanent Forum’s final conclusions and recommendations to the U.N.

“One of the interesting things about the forum to me is that it’s not just about civil society’s engagement with the official mechanisms and organisms. It’s about talking to each other,” Prof. Hansford added. “I know that some of the things that people have talked about in the sessions, they’ve gone off on the side and had people approach them and projects get started and relationships get formed. So, there’s a lot that can happen simply by letting people know what you’re interested in doing and this is a platform where we had, I think we’re at 1,200 people, both online and in person at the forum. These are all human rights activists fighting for Black people all over the world. What’s exciting is that they’re going to be building connections and relationships and coming up with their own projects even outside of whatever happens at the official forum. And that’s going to be where a lot of the change happens.”

Justin Hansford, director of Howard University’s Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center and elected member of the Permanent Forum, sits with Desiree Cormier Smith, the U.S. State Department’s Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice

Dated: Tuesday, June 13th 2023

Photo of murdered LGBT activist Edwin alias Chiloba (GIN photo)

Patricia Da Silva of the United Nations Population Fund and Djibril Diallo, president of the African Renaissance and Diaspora Network on stage with United Nations Population Fund headquarters (Karen Juanita Carrillo photos)

Religion & Spirituality

Mae Duncan-Carson, beloved family matriarch and wife of icon Sonny Abubadika Carson, makes her transition

By NAYABA ARINDE Special to the AmNews

When the spouse of a famed icon passes, tears are shed among a wide panorama of people, organizations, and communities.

Born in 1937 in Orangeburg, South Carolina, Mae Catherine Haynes came up north at age 11, and eventually met and married Ralph Duncan in Brooklyn, New York. They had three children: Khaba Sahu Re, Randall Duncan, and Robynn Duncan. The marriage was dissolved and she found love again, marrying Robert “Sonny” Abubadika Carson and receiving the title Queen Tetisheri. They were married for more than 30 years, until he died in December 2002.

Carson was the grassroots activist who inspired a movie, “The Education of Sonny Carson,” and thousands of articles and radio and television news segments.

Mae Duncan Carson, his “quiet revolutionary” wife, made her transition on June 2, 2023. Many of the speakers at the wake and at the Mount Sion Baptist Church told of their interactions on their journey to Ghana, and how that spiritual trip to Africa gave them an even greater appreciation of this strong, fearless, beloved lady. Pastor Linwood Boyd smiled as he told the congregation that he so admired Sonny and Mae’s commitment to Afrocentric culture, be it through clothes, politics, or social emphasis. And there, dressed in white, in the open casket, was Mae, grasping her Ankh and wearing her turban. A devout member of the King Emmanuel Baptist church, the wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great-grandmother “was the esteemed matriarch of five generations.”

She worked at the Cullen & Dykman Law Firm for more than 35 years until she retired in 2016. She endured many health challenges.

Respected on so many levels by work colleagues, blood and church family, neighbors, and friends in the Movement, she was memorialized for two days over the weekend, both at the Grace Funeral Home and Mount Sion Baptist Church. Paying respects

were community activists and educators, including Professor James Small, Rahim Allah, Viola Plummer, and Colette Pean.

At her funeral service on Saturday, June 10, 2023, there were scripture readings, speeches, and poems by James Carney, Ashanti Rodney, Tracy Carson, Jomo Duncan, and Sati Rogerson, as well as musical selections sung by family members and the King Emmanuel Baptist Youth Choir, and Kweku Payton’s African drum tribute.

“I sat at the foot of many elders and I’ve heard many stories. I said ‘See you later’ to my buddy Mae Duncan Carson yesterday on this worldly side,” family friend Santina Brown-Payton told the Amsterdam News on Sunday. “She was a God-fearing woman

who has a connection with him. She will join her mate Sonny Abubadika Carson… And since this fight on this side is not over, there are many who will carry this torch. The Struggle continues, and although God has plucked some special flowers in our garden, he is building another army stronger than the last one. God will never leave us and neither will our ancestors!”

“Mae Carson … was the quiet resolve behind the scenes needed by such an enigmatic community leader. Their union lasted over 30 years until his transition in December 2002,” daughter Robynn Duncan told the Amsterdam News. “Mae was a beautiful, graceful, and selfless woman to all who encountered her. She was always willing

to give of herself and go the extra mile for those she loved, even strangers. She exemplified tremendous courage in her lengthy health battles and always personified strength, resilience, and optimism to face the unknown. She was the esteemed matriarch of five generations. We honor and celebrate her ability to fearlessly stand in the storm for others while navigating her own storms without complaint. It is this amazing and inspiring attribute we will forever revere and hold dear in our hearts.”

She concluded that “the Carson family extends our sincere gratitude and thanks to everyone for their acknowledgments, sacrifices, heartfelt condolences, offerings, and blessings during this time.”

Mae Duncan-Carson (Family photo)

(Nayaba Arinde photo)

Myrlie Evers-Williams, still on the ramparts for freedom and justice

By HERB BOYD Special to the AmNews

There were a number of memorable moments in the nearly weeklong commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the assassination of Medgar Wiley Evers, including the home of Medgar and Myrlie being enshrined as a national monument. During the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute of Courage and Justice Gala from June 7–12 in Jackson, Mississippi, the Rev. Al Sharpton put it all in perspective in his address to the crowded ballroom.

“Our struggle is about continuity,” he said. “It’s about celebration, commemoration, and continuity. For every step we take forward, there’s a step back, and that’s why we got to keep moving.”

Moving forward is something that Evers emphasized on each and every occasion during the festivities. At the very beginning of the celebration, she reflected on the past, recalling those harrowing moments after her husband’s assassination. “Standing next to me is one of my strongest supporters: our daughter Reena Evers-Everette,” she said at the podium. “It must have been a day after her father was killed and Reena came in, put her arms around me, and she said ‘Mom don’t cry, I will take care of you.’ I have never forgotten that. Thank you, Reena.”

Evers asked, “How much time do I have to speak?” to loud laughter from the crowd. “No, I’ll make it brief.”

She noted that “this is a very emotional time...because Medgar is still very much a part of me and he’s still here. Emotional because of the personal struggle our family has had over the years.”

She went on to recall that she thought her life was over when her husband was shot. “But now, I realize it was just beginning,” she continued. “There were three children looking up to me and others.”

Toward the close of her speech, she recounted the conversations she had with Medgar about how he could love Mississippi so deeply, and he would explain to her that he was born there just as she was born in Vicksburg. “I stand before you today and I know I am aging, and I don’t know if I’m aging with grace, but I know I am strong.”

On several occasions, she recalled her partnership with Medgar, his love for children, and how devoted he was to their family. She thanked all those who turned out for the event “because Medgar is still very much with us.”

To some extent, Medgar’s presence was felt in the music provided by the band from the New Orleans National Historical Park, particularly when they summoned the Staple Singers with their version of “I’ll Take You There.”

Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, among

a coterie of dignitaries at the event, said the city is planning to remove the statue of Andrew Jackson. “Condoleezza Rice was right: We can’t change history, but we can change who we choose to honor,” he said to loud applause.

Diane Regas, president and CEO of the Trust for Public Land, explained her organization’s key role in making the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument possible, and said similar moves are being made in many places across the country. Billy Thornton, vice president of the Mississippi Power Company; Haley Fisackerly, president and CEO of Entergy; Ruth Hernandez Prescott, National Park Foundation chief of staff; and Keena Graham, National Park Service superintendent, were other speakers whose organizations and institutions were vital to the success of the dedication.

Equally festive was a brunch at the Sheraton near Jackson’s Medgar Evers International Airport, where a choir from the Voices of Courage and Justice concert resonated gloriously, especially when their lead singer rocked the place with his rendition of “Stand.” It was a louder version of the “stand” that Myrlie expressed in her presentation.

Bishop William Barber, as he has done so eloquently in his Moral Mondays travels, gave the moment a special reverence by placing the Evers family in the powerful matrix of the struggle for human and civil rights.

To capture the full impact of the gala requires a separate article and the lineup alone would exhaust most accounts, most notably Sharpton, the Rev. Mark Thompson, Lumumba, and countless others who appeared in videos, including Smokey Robinson; former U.S Attorney Eric Holder, who said, “We must be warriors for justice like Medgar and Myrlie”; former President Bill Clinton; and Lonnie Bunch, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. It was wonderful to see Rep. Bennie Thompson and James Meredith dressed so splendidly for the occasion. The interludes from Bi Biz Band gave the evening a jazzy bounce as a few attendees eagerly awaited Kenny Lattimore.

A parade and march of silence were other scheduled events to mark what Sharpton cited as several days of celebration, commemoration, and the continuity of struggle. Some of the spirit of the event was captured during a panel at Millsaps College, where yours truly shared the stage with Jerry Mitchell, author Diane McWhorter, and WLBT anchor Howard Ballou on the role of the press in the struggle for freedom and justice. As usual, Myrlie was right down front. As she listened intently to the panelists, there was a quiet strength that also prevailed later at the gala when she recounted her determination to prove to the world that despite the color of her skin, she was going to excel.

Joining her in the audience were filmmakers Keith Beauchamp and Loki Mul -

holland, who with civil rights activist Joan Trumpauer Mulholland were ubiquitous, attending nearly every event. Accompanying Beauchamp, who is still on the theater circuit promoting the film “Till,” were Debrorah Watts and her daughter Terri of the Emmett Louis Till Legacy Foundation; and attorney Jaribu Hill. Dr. Brenda Greene, a professor at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, enjoyed the various events, along with Professor Richard Jones, executive director of the College.

There were numerous honorees in addition to Bunch, Holder, Meredith, and Thompson. Other distinguished recipients were Gloria Steinem, writer and activist; Mildred Bond Roxborough, a veteran stalwart at the NAACP; LaJune Montgomery-Tabron, president and CEO of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation; William Bynum, CEO, Hope Credit Union; Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president emerita, Children’s Defense Fund; Dr. Hazel Dukes, president and CEO, NAACP New York State Conference; Secretary Deb Haaland, U.S. Secretary of the Interior; Ray Mabus, former Secretary of the U.S. Navy; and Andrew Young, former U.S. Ambassador to the UN. At 90, Myrlie has lost none of the zeal and commitment, none of that dedication and determination to complete her mission and fulfill her promise to Medgar and her children to ensure the legacy of their name and love for the people.

Myrlie Evers holds aloft the ribbon after cutting it to launch their home as a national monument. At her left is her daughter Reena. Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba is at the back of the sign. (Herb Boyd photo)

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SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF NEW YORK, U.S. BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, NOT IN ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY BUT SOLELY AS TRUSTEE FOR THE RMAC TRUST SERIES 2016-CTT, Plaintiff, vs. JAMES S. COHEN A/K/A JAMES STERLING COHEN AS CO-EXECUTOR OF THE ESTATE OF CYNTHIA PRICE COHEN A/K/A CYNTHIA P. COHEN A/K/A CYNTHIA COHEN, DECEASED, ET AL., Defendant(s).

Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Decision + Order on Motion duly entered on May 11, 2022, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction on the portico of the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY on June 28, 2023 at 2:15 p.m., premises known as 35 West 83rd Street, New York, NY 10024. 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 1197 and Lot 18. Approximate amount of judgment is $2,460,113.41 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index #850141/2015. Cash will not be accepted. COVID-19 safety protocols will be followed at the foreclosure sale.

Paul R. Sklar, Esq., Referee Knuckles, Komosinski & Manfro, LLP, 565 Taxter Road, Suite 590, Elmsford, NY 10523, Attorneys for Plaintiff

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT - COUNTY OF NEW YORK

HILTON RESORTS CORPORATION, Plaintiff -against- STEPHEN LLOYD WHELAN, PATRICE ANN WHELAN, et al Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated January 3, 2023 and entered on January 6, 2023, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the New York County Courthouse located on the portico at 60 Centre Street, New York, NY on July 5th, 2023 at 2:15 p.m. premises being an undivided ownership interest as tenant-in-common with other owners in the Timeshare Unit in the building located at 102 West 57th Street, New York, NY. Together with an undivided 0.01583800000% interest in the common elements. This a foreclosure on ownership interest in a timeshare unit, a studio penthouse on a floating use basis every year, in accordance with and subject to declarations. Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions dated October 10, 2008 and October 31, 2008 as CFRN # 2008000426142 as recorded in the Office of the City Register, County, City and State of New York. The Timeshare Unit is also designated as Block 1009 and Lot 37.

The Foreclosure Sale will be conducted in accordance with 1st Judicial District’s COVID-19 Policies and Foreclosure Auction Rules.

All bidders must wear a face mask/shield at all times and social distancing must be observed by all bidders at all times. Bidders who do not comply with the face mask and/or the social distancing mandate will be removed from the auction.

Said premises known as 102 WEST 57TH STREET, NEW YORK, NY Approximate amount of lien $503,689.35 plus interest & costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale.

Index Number 850194/2018.

PAUL R. SKLAR, ESQ., Referee DRUCKMAN LAW GROUP PLLC Attorney(s) for Plaintiff 242 Drexel Avenue, Westbury, NY 11590 {* AMSTERDAM*}

SUPREME COURT-NEW YORK COUNTY- HILTON RESORTS CORP., Pltf. v. ABISOYE FAGADE, Defts. - Index # 850219/2019. Pursuant to Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated August 18, 2021, I will sell at public auction Outside the Portico of the NY County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, NY, NY on Thursday, June 22, 2023, at 2:15 pm, an interest of an undivided 0.01517100000% tenant in common interest in the timeshare known as 57TH STREET VACATION SUITES located at 102 West 57th Street New York, New York. Approximate amount of judgment is $53,825.28 plus costs and interest as of January 26, 2021. Sold subject to terms and conditions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale which includes annual maintenance fees and charges. Clark Whitsett, Esq., Referee. Cruser, Mitchell, Novitz, Sanchez, Gaston, & Zimet LLP, Attys. for Pltf., 341 Conklin Street, Farmingdale, NY.

SUPREME COURT-NEW YORK COUNTY- HILTON RESORTS CORP., Pltf. v. GINETTE JACKSON and DAVID G. GONZALEZ, Deft. - Index #850152/2020. Pursuant to Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated February 4, 2022, I will sell at public auction Outside on the Portico, NY County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, NY, NY on Thursday, July 13, 2023, at 2:15 pm, an undivided 0.00493200000% tenant in common interest in the timeshare known as 57TH STREET VACATION SUITES located at 102 West 57th Street, in the County of NY, State of NY. Approximate amount of judgment is $22,085.00 plus costs and interest as of October 6, 2021. Sold subject to terms and conditions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale which includes annual maintenance fees and charges. Thomas R. Kleinberger, Esq., Referee. Cruser, Mitchell & Novitz, LLP, Attys. for Pltf., 341 Conklin Street, Farmingdale, NY.

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

SUPPLEMENTAL SUMMONS

Index No. 850163/2022

Date Filed: 5/18/2023

AND NOTICE

JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, Plaintiff, -againstNader Ansary, if he be living or if he be dead, his spouses, heirs, devisees, distributees and successors in interest, all of whom and whose names and places of residence are unknown to Plaintiff; The Board of Managers of Graceline Court Condominium Homeowners Association; United States of America; New York State Department of Taxation and Finance; City of New York Environmental Control Board; City of New York Parking Violations Bureau; City of New York Transit Adjudication Bureau; State of New York, and “JOHN DOE”, said name being fictitious, it being the intention of Plaintiff to designate any and all occupants of premises being foreclosed herein, and any parties, corporations or entities, if any, having or claiming an interest or lien upon the mortgaged premises, Defendants.

PROPERTY ADDRESS: 106 West 116th Street Unit PH-1B a/k/a Unit 13B, New York, NY 10026

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 notice of appearance on the attorneys for the Plaintiff within thirty (30) days after the service of this summons, exclusive of the date of service. The United States of America, if designated as a defendant in this action, may appear within sixty (60) days of service hereof. In case of your failure to appear or answer, judgment will be taken against you by default for the relief demanded in the complaint.

TO THE ABOVE NAMED DEFENDANTS: The foregoing Summons is served upon you by publication pursuant to an Order of the Hon. Francis A. Kahn, III, a Justice of the Supreme Court, New York County, entered May 16, 2023 and filed with the complaint and other papers in the New York County Clerk’s Office.

NOTICE OF NATURE OF ACTION AND RELIEF SOUGHT THE OBJECT of the above captioned action is to foreclose a Mortgage to secure $700,000.00 and interest, recorded in the New York County Office of the City Register on March 11, 2009, in CRFN 2009000070432 covering premises known as 106 West 116th Street Unit PH-1B a/k/a Unit 13B, New York, NY 10026 a/k/a Block 1825, Lot 1031.

The relief sough in the within action is a final judgment directing the sale of the premises described above to satisfy the debt secured by the Mortgage described above.

Plaintiff designates New York County as the place of trial. Venue is based upon the County in which the mortgaged premises is situated.

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 T HE ATTORNEY FOR THE PLAINTIFF (MORTGAGE COMPANY) AND FILING THE ANSWER WITH THE COURT.

Dated: March 29, 2023

Frank M. Cassara, Esq. Senior Associate Attorney LOGS LEGAL GROUP LLP F/K/A SHAPIRO, DICARO & BARAK, LLC Attorneys for Plaintiff 175 Mile Crossing Boulevard

SUPREME COURT-NEW YORK COUNTY- HILTON RESORTS CORP., Pltf. v. BEVERLY DWIGGINS MAYHEW, Deft. - Index #850157/2022. Pursuant to Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated May 15, 2023, I will sell at public auction Outside on the Portico, NY County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, NY, NY on Monday, July 17, 2023, at 2:15 pm, an undivided 0.00493200000% tenant in common interest in the timeshare known as 57TH STREET VACATION SUITES located at 102 West 57th Street in the County of NY, State of NY. Approximate amount of judgment is $13,244.33 plus costs and interest as of January 4, 2023. Sold subject to terms and conditions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale which includes annual maintenance fees and charges. Doron Leiby, Esq., Referee. Cruser, Mitchell & Novitz, LLP, Attys. for Pltf., 341 Conklin Street, Farmingdale, NY.

PIVOT ADR LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 03/06/2023. Office: New York County. SSNY is designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of process to U.S. Corp. Agts., Inc., 7014 13TH Ave BK, NY 11228. Business Add: 228 Park Ave S #701467 NY, NY 10003, USA. Purpose: Any lawful activities or acts.

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT - COUNTY OF NEW YORK

HILTON RESORTS CORPORATION, Plaintiff -against- TERRY DILLARD, BARBARA DILLARD, et al Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated January 3, 2023 and entered on January 6, 2023, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the New York County Courthouse located on the portico at 60 Centre Street, New York, NY on July 12, 2023 at 2:15 p.m. premises being an undivided ownership interest as tenant-in-common with other owners in the Timeshare Unit in the building located at 102 West 57th Street, New York, NY. Together with an undivided 0.00986400000% interest in the common elements. This a foreclosure on ownership interest in a timeshare unit, a studio penthouse on a floating use basis every year, in accordance with and subject to declarations. Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions dated October 10, 2008 and October 31, 2008 as CFRN # 2008000426142 as recorded in the Office of the City Register, County, City and State of New York. The Timeshare Unit is also designated as Block 1009 and Lot 37.

The Foreclosure Sale will be conducted in accordance with 1st Judicial District’s COVID-19 Policies and Foreclosure Auction Rules.

All bidders must wear a face mask/shield at all times and social distancing must be observed by all bidders at all times. Bidders who do not comply with the face mask and/or the social distancing mandate will be removed from the auction.

Said premises known as 102 WEST 57TH STREET, NEW YORK, NY Approximate amount of lien $87,687.22 plus interest & costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale.

Index Number 850065/2022.

CHRISTY M. DEMELFI, ESQ., Referee

DRUCKMAN LAW GROUP PLLC

Attorney(s) for Plaintiff

242 Drexel Avenue, Westbury, NY 11590

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT - COUNTY OF NEW YORK

HILTON RESORTS CORPORATION, Plaintiff -against- CHARLES A. SCHAEFFER, KATHY L. SCHAEFFER, et al Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated January 3, 2023 and entered on January 6, 2023, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the New York County Courthouse located on the portico at 60 Centre Street, New York, NY on July 19, 2023 at 2:15 p.m. premises situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County of New York, City and State of New York, being an undivided ownership interest as tenantin-common with other owners in the Timeshare Unit in the building located at 1335 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY; known as The NYH Condominium. Together with an appurtenant undivided 3.1810% common interest percentage. This a foreclosure on ownership interest in a timeshare unit, a studio penthouse on a floating use basis every year, in accordance with and subject to declarations. Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions dated October 27, 2003 and November 3, 2003 as CFRN # 2003000442513 as recorded in the Office of the City Register, County, City and State of New York. The Timeshare Unit is also designated as Block 1006 and Lot 1302.

The Foreclosure Sale will be conducted in accordance with 1st Judicial District’s COVID-19 Policies and Foreclosure Auction Rules. All bidders must wear a face mask/shield at all times and social distancing must be observed by all bidders at all times. Bidders who do not comply with the face mask and/or the social distancing mandate will be removed from the auction.

Said premises known as 1335 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS, NEW YORK, NY

Approximate amount of lien $36,327.64 plus interest & costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale.

Index Number 850066/2022.

JOSEPH BUONO, ESQ., Referee DRUCKMAN LAW GROUP PLLC Attorney(s) for Plaintiff 242 Drexel Avenue, Westbury, NY 11590

SUPREME COURT-NEW YORK COUNTY- HILTON RESORTS CORP.,

Pltf. v. MICHAEL STEWART JONES, SHARON ANGEL JONES, and BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF 57TH STREET VACATION OWNERS ASSOCIATION, INC., Defts. - Index # 850079/2021. Pursuant to Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated July 6, 2022, I will sell at public auction Outside the Portico of the NY County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, NY, NY on Thursday, June 29, 2023, at 2:15 pm, an interest of an undivided .009864% tenant in common interest in the timeshare known as 57TH STREET VACATION SUITES located at 102 West 57th Street, New York, New York. Approximate amount of judgment is $44,442.64 plus costs and interest as of October 21, 2021. Sold subject to terms and conditions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale which includes annual maintenance fees and charges. Paul Sklar, Esq., Referee. Cruser, Mitchell, Novitz, Sanchez, Gaston, & Zimet LLP, Attys. for Pltf., 341 Conklin Street, Farmingdale, NY.

SUPREME COURT-NEW YORK COUNTY- HILTON RESORTS CORP., Pltf. v. SKUBY AND COMPANY, LLC, A NEW JERSEY LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY, Deft. - Index #850191/2020. Pursuant to Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated July 21, 2021, I will sell at public auction Outside on the Portico, NY County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, NY, NY on Thursday, July 13, 2023, at 2:15 pm, an undivided 0.00986400000% tenant in common interest in the timeshare known as 57TH STREET VACATION SUITES located at 102 West 57th Street, in the County of NY, State of NY. Approximate amount of judgment is $34,716.44 plus costs and interest as of April 6, 2021. Sold subject to terms and conditions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale which includes annual maintenance fees and charges. Mark McKew, Esq., Referee. Cruser, Mitchell & Novitz, LLP, Attys. for Pltf., 341 Conklin Street, Farmingdale, NY.

SUPREME COURT-NEW YORK COUNTY- HILTON RESORTS CORP., Pltf. v. CHARLES G. IVEY and FRANCES W. IVEY, Deft. - Index # 850183/2020. Pursuant to Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated August 13, 2021, I will sell at public auction Outside on the Portico, NY County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, NY, NY on Thursday, July 6, 2023, at 2:15 pm, an undivided 10,000/16,783,800 tenant in common interest in the timeshare known as HNY CLUB SUITES – Phase 2 located at 1335 Avenue of the Americas, in the County of NY, State of NY. Approximate amount of judgment is $31,168.78 plus costs and interest as of March 18, 2021. Sold subject to terms and conditions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale which includes annual maintenance fees and charges. Roberta Ashkin, Esq., Referee. Cruser, Mitchell & Novitz, LLP, Attys. for Pltf., 341 Conklin Street, Farmingdale, NY.

SUPREME COURT-NEW YORK COUNTY- HILTON RESORTS CORP., Pltf. v. MERCEDES MATTIE CATHERINE DEXTER, Deft.Index #850160/2022. Pursuant to Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated May 15, 2023, I will sell at public auction Outside on the Portico, NY County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, NY, NY on Thursday, July 13, 2023, at 2:15 pm, an undivided 5,000/28,402,100 tenant in common interest in the timeshare known as HNY CLUB SUITES – PHASE I located at 1335 Avenue of Americas, in the County of NY, State of NY. Approximate amount of judgment is $31,266.68 plus costs and interest as of January 4, 2023. Sold subject to terms and conditions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale which includes annual maintenance fees and charges. Mark McKew, Esq., Referee. Cruser, Mitchell & Novitz, LLP, Attys. for Pltf., 341 Conklin Street, Farmingdale, NY.

SUPREME COURT-NEW YORK COUNTY- HILTON RESORTS CORP., Pltf. v. MARK E. ELSENHEIMER and JILL R. HUGUET, Deft. - Index # 850034/2020. Pursuant to Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated April 19, 2022, I will sell at public auction Outside on the Portico, NY County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, NY, NY on Thursday, July 6, 2023, at 2:15 pm, an undivided 0.00493200000% tenant in common interest in the timeshare known as 57TH STREET VACATION SUITES located at 102 West 57th Street, in the County of NY, State of NY. Approximate amount of judgment is $19,080.61 plus costs and interest as of March 27, 2020. Sold subject to terms and conditions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale which includes annual maintenance fees and charges. Georgia Papazis, Esq., Referee. Cruser, Mitchell & Novitz, LLP, Attys. for Pltf., 341 Conklin Street, Farmingdale, NY.

SUPREME COURT-NEW YORK COUNTY- HILTON RESORTS CORP., Pltf. v. AGNES STOLZER ALBRECHT and BRUCE EDWARD ALBRECHT, Deft. - Index # 850146/2021. Pursuant to Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated April 19, 2022, I will sell at public auction Outside on the Portico, NY County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, NY, NY on Thursday, July 6, 2023, at 2:15 pm, an undivided 0.00986400000% along with a second undivided 0.01286500000% tenant in common interest in the timeshare known as 57TH STREET VACATION SUITES located at 102 West 57th Street, in the County of NY, State of NY. Approximate amount of judgment is $57,016.71 plus costs and interest as of January 26, 2022. Sold subject to terms and conditions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale which includes annual maintenance fees and charges. Joseph F. Buono, Esq., Referee. Cruser, Mitchell & Novitz, LLP, Attys. for Pltf., 341 Conklin Street, Farmingdale, NY.

SUPREME COURT-NEW YORK COUNTY- HILTON RESORTS CORP., Pltf. v. VERNDELL H. GILDHOUSE and NIHAT A. SURGUT, Deft. - Index #850093/2021. Pursuant to Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated March 22, 2022, I will sell at public auction Outside on the Portico, NY County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, NY, NY on Thursday, July 13, 2023, at 2:15 pm, an undivided 0.0519144314871446% tenant in common interest in the timeshare known as HNY CLUB SUITES – PHASE I located at 1335 Avenue of Americas, in the County of NY, State of NY. Approximate amount of judgment is $120,199.18 plus costs and interest as of October 21, 2021. Sold subject to terms and conditions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale which includes annual maintenance fees and charges. Paul Sklar, Esq., Referee. Cruser, Mitchell & Novitz, LLP, Attys. for Pltf., 341 Conklin Street, Farmingdale, NY.

Notice of Formation of ECC 33 PR LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/16/23. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 575 Lexington Ave., Ste. 3120, NY, NY 10022. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of formation of Kumar and Kumar LLC. Articles of Organization filed with Secy. of State of N.Y. (SSNY) on 5/1/2023. Office Location: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Thittamaranahalli Kumar, 564 1st Ave, Apt 22F, New York, NY 10016. Name/address of each member: available from SSNY. Term: Continuous. Purpose: Any lawful activity

REFEREE'S NOTICE OF SALE IN FORECLOSURE

SUPREME COURT - COUNTY OF NEW YORK

HSBC BANK USA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS TRUSTEE FOR DEUTSCHE ALT-A SECURITIES MORTGAGE LOAN TRUST, SERIES 2007-1, Plaintiff - against - ELIZABETH LOWE, et al Defendant(s).

Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered on December 19, 2022. I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction on the portico at the New York County Courthouse located at 60 Centre Street, New York, New York 10007 on the 19th day of July, 2023 at 2:15 PM. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County, City and State of New York.

Premises known as 231 East 62nd Street, New York, NY 10021 a/k/a 231 East 62nd Street, New York, (City of New York) NY 10065. (SBL#: 1417-14)

Approximate amount of lien $5,713,762.85 plus interest and costs.

Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed judgment and terms of sale.

Index No. 850029/2019. Joseph F. Buono, Esq., Referee.

Davidson Fink LLP

Attorney(s) for Plaintiff

400 Meridian Centre Blvd, Ste 200 Rochester, NY 14618 Tel. 585/760-8218

Dated: January 4, 2023

NOTICE OF

SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF NEW YORK

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

Llewellyn C. Werner a/k/a

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

Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly entered December 7, 2022 I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the Portico of the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre St, New York, NY 10007 on July 12, 2023 at 2:15PM, premises known as 160 West 66th Street Unit 46-G a/k/a 160 West 66th Street, Apartment 46G, New York, NY 10023. All that certain plot piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County, City and State of New York, Block 1137 Lot 1272. Approximate amount of judgment $2,290,728.13 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index# 810045/2010. The auction will be conducted pursuant to the COVID-19 Policies Concerning Public Auctions of Foreclosed Property established by the First Judicial District.

Edward H. Lehner, Esq., Referee

LOGS Legal Group LLP f/k/a Shapiro, DiCaro & Barak, LLC Attorney(s) for the Plaintiff 175 Mile Crossing Boulevard Rochester, New York 14624 (877) 430-4792

RIVERSIDE PAINTERS LLC

Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 04/14/2023. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail copy to: P.O. BOX 230474, NY, NY, 10023.

Purpose: Painting of interiors and any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Qualification of RECHARGE CAPITAL ADVISORS, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/24/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/22/22. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., #4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

During the COVID-19 health emergency, bidders are required to comply with all governmental health requirements in effect at the time of sale including but not limited to, wearing face coverings and maintaining social distancing (at least 6-feet apart) during the auction, while tendering deposit and at any subsequent closing. Bidders are also required to comply with the Foreclosure Auction Rules and COVID-19 Health Emergency Rules issued by the Supreme Court of this County in addition to the conditions set forth in the Terms of Sale

T&S COLLECTIVE LIVING LLC

Art of Org. filed with the SSNY on 04/07/2023. Office: NEW YORK County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC. SHANNON CHANG 404 E 66TH STREET, 4N, NEW YORK, NY, 10065.

Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Formation of DARTMOOR LLC

Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/22/23. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543, regd. agent upon whom and at which process may be served. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Dated: January 4, 2023

NOTICE OF FORMATION of Cauthorn & Shapiro LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 2/11/2023. Office: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, 301 W 57th st Apt 21B, New York, NY 10019. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Royale Administrative Touch LLC Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY on 01/19/23. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 12117 194th Street, Springfield Gardens, NY 11413. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of RECHARGE CAPITAL ADVISORS, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/24/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/22/22. Princ. office of LLC: 10 E. 53rd St., Ste. 140, NY, NY 10022. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., #4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

The Cleanest Crew LLC filed Arts. of Org. with the SSNY on 2/07/2023. Office Loc.: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 65 East 112th Street, Apt 14K, NY, NY, 10029. Purpose: any lawful activity.

4929NY LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 05/15/23. Office: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, c/o Young Ok Park, 100 Old Palisade Road, Fort Lee, NJ 07024. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Vette GPS LLC Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY on 01/21/23. Office location: NY County.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail process to: 20 River Road, Apt 22H, NY, NY 10044. Purpose: Human Resources Consulting or any lawful activity.

WEARBARE L.L.C. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 04/17/2023. Office: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail copy to: 2816 SCHLEY AVENUE, APT 4D, BRONX, NY, 10465. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of JMBS23 LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/01/23. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 520 Madison Ave., Ste. 3501, NY, NY 10022. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543, regd. agent upon whom and at which process may be served. Purpose: Real estate investment.

Notice of Qualification of NIMos, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/12/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 04/20/21. Princ. office of LLC: One Financial Center, Boston, MA 02111. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: US-based limited liability company offering a variety of integrated tools.

Notice of Qualification of SOUND BODY LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/24/23.

Notice of Formation of MILLEL LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/02/23. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

VASILIKI LIV RE LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 02/05/2023. Office location: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail copy to: 50 West Street, No. 27B, New York, NY, 10006. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of Limited Liability Company (LLC).

Name: Blue Storage, LLC. Articles of Organization filed by the Department of State of New York on: 02/13/2023. Office location: County of New York.

Amendment filed 02/16/2023 changed county to Westchester. Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of process to: The LLC 50 West 17th Street. New York, NY 10011.

Purpose: Any and all lawful activities

Notice of Qualification of SyBridge Digital Solutions LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 06/01/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 11/30/22. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of Form. filed with Jeffrey W. Bullock, Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., #4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION of Presser Compliance LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 1/24/2023.

SSNY designated as agent for service of process on LLC.

SSNY shall mail a copy of process to: Steven Michael Presser, 140 Wadsworth Ave, Apt. 43, New York, NY, 10033. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Qualification of MONASHEE INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT LLC. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/01/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/19/11. Princ. office of LLC: 520 Madison Ave., 19th Fl., NY, NY 10022. 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: The Corporation Trust Co., Corp. Trust Center, 1209 Orange St., Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St. - Ste.4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of IV5 NEWBURGH SOUTH LOGISTICS CENTER LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/05/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 03/29/23. Princ. office of LLC: 1180 Peachtree St., Ste. 1575, Atlanta, GA 30309. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with State of DESecy. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of GINDI GRAMERCY MEMBER LLC

Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/02/23. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 19 W. 34th St., 11 Fl., NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 122072543. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

ALPHA PRISTINE CLEANERS LLC Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY on 03/23/23. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail process to: United States Corporation Agents Inc., 7014 13th Ave., Suite 202, Brooklyn, NY, 11228. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION of SKYROCKET SYSTEMS GROUP LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 4/2/23. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to 228 PARK AVE S, #805685, NY, NY 10003. R/A: US Corp Agents, Inc. 7014 13th Ave, #202, BK, NY 11228. Purpose: any lawful act.

FUTURA EGG DONATION, LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 02/03/23. Office: New York County. The Secretary of State is designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to 177 West Putnam Avenue, Suite 101, Greenwich, CT 06831. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Qualification of NATIONAL BLOCKING ASSOCIATION LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/13/22. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/08/22. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 3, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of RAPP FAMILY LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/15/23. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Alvin H. Rapp, 210 W. 90th St., #10B, NY, NY 10024.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

LUDAS REALTY LLC Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY on 03/21/23. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail process to: 228 Park Ave S #676342, NY, NY 10003.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Annitta Juice Bar LLC Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY on 01/24/23. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 1 Audubon Ave Store #6, NY, NY 10032. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Aesthetics Babe LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY on 03/01/23. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail process to: 322 W 52nd Street #1944, NY, NY 10019. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Panchal LLC. Filed: 5/19/22. Office: NY Co. Org. in IL: 5/3/22. SSNY design. as agent for process & shall mail to: 555 10th Ave Apt 47E, NY, NY 10018. Foreign add: 27 Olympic Dr, South Barrington, IL 60010. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy of State, 501 S. Second St. Room 350, Springfield, IL 62756. Purpose: General.

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Administrative Opening Monticello Central School

Assistant Elementary Principal

The successful candidate should possess: Knowledge of research-based instructional programs & practices; exp. w/ teacher supervision & evaluation; a record of successfully improving learning experiences and enhancing school to home communication; and can provide a supportive environment with knowledge of social-emotional competencies, restorative practices, and promote a culturally responsive educational climate.

Salary Range: $95,000 to $105,000

NYS SDA/SDL/SBL Certification Required plus 3 yrs. exp as a classroom teacher preferred.

Please apply online by June 15th at https://monticelloschools.tedk12.com/hire or OLAS EOE

Administrative Opening Monticello Central School High School Principal

The Monticello CSD is seeking forward thinking and dynamic School Building Principal who can lead MCSD’s highly engaged faculty, staff, parents, students, and community. The successful candidate will have a vision of educational excellence, be highly motivated, and demonstrates an ability to impact student learning.

Starting Salary: $150,000

NYS SDA/SAS/SBL Certification Required plus 2 yrs. of previous administrative leadership and 3 yrs. exp as a classroom teacher preferred. Please apply online by June 15th at https://monticelloschools.tedk12.com/hire or OLAS EOE 113456

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Black History

Continued from page 10

right-wing zealots masquerading as “parental rights advocates” has led to the resurgence of book banning (and, in some cases, book burnings) in districts across the country—depriving students of the right to information and diverse viewpoints. This includes many of the most celebrated Black authors such as Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, and others whose books are being taken off school libraries’ shelves.

The attacks against “wokeness” in our schools have clearly been manufactured as the newest culture war distraction ahead of upcoming elections, to give the Republican Party the relevance it needs at a time when it completely lacks a coherent governing agenda. But an even more sinister motive is to dismantle public education, privatize learning, and prevent an entire generation of Americans from understanding history through the eyes of the oppressed: racial minorities, women, the LGBTQ+ community, immigrants, and the working class at large.

It is necessary to teach our children how to think critically, challenge power, and understand the full complexity of society to give them the tools

to be leaders and change-makers.

In 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, a 15-year-old Black girl named Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat on a bus after being ordered to do so by the driver. In a recent re-telling of the incident, she said, “It felt as if Harriet Tubman’s hand was pushing me down on the one shoulder, and Sojourner Truth’s hand was pushing me down on the other. Learning about those two women gave me the courage to remain seated that day.” Ms. Colvin was arrested for her act of defiance, which preceded Rosa Parks’ by two years. Only in recent years has her story begun to receive the national recognition it deserves.

It was her knowledge of history which gave Ms. Colvin, by her own account, the power to take a stand against segregation. This Juneteenth, we must redouble our commitment to preserving our history and fighting all attempts to enforce ignorance through book bans or any other right-wing machinations. Our Black history is American history, and the teaching of how we and other marginalized groups have persevered over the centuries is crucial to building a more perfect union.

George Gresham is President of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, the largest union of healthcare workers in the nation.

Copping Out: NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell resigns

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ and MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press

Additional

reporting by

TANDY LAU Amsterdam News

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Police

Commissioner Keechant Sewell, the first woman to hold the position, is stepping down after 18 months on the job.

Sewell, who was appointed by Mayor Eric Adams, announced her resignation in an email to department staff Monday afternoon.

“While my time here will come to a close, I will never step away from advocacy and support for the NYPD, and I will always be a champion for the people of New York City,” she wrote.

Adams, a Democrat, confirmed the move in a statement, thanking Sewell for her “steadfast leadership.”

Sewell took over as commissioner when Adams, a former NYPD captain, became mayor in January 2022, having pledged beforehand to name a woman to the post.

During her brief tenure, she oversaw a decrease in some categories of crime—including murders—while contending with several high-profile crises, including the fatal shooting of two officers during her first month on the job. In a statement, Patrick Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association, said her leadership would be “sorely missed.”

Veterans, when you’re struggling, soon becomes later becomes someday becomes ...when?

“In her short time with the NYPD, Commissioner Sewell made a real impact,” said Lynch. “She took over a police department in crisis and faced tremendous challenges from day one. She cared about the cops on the street and was always open to working with us to improve their lives and working conditions. There are still enormous challenges facing the NYPD.”

“To me, Commissioner Sewell will be remembered for her attention and respect for our community,” added Harlem Assembly Member Inez Dickens. “As the first female to head the NYPD, Commissioner Sewell shattered the glass ceiling and showed us that women, regardless of race, can lead in male dominated spaces. We have more work [to] do, but I am grateful for Commissioner Sewell’s service and wish her the best of luck in her next endeavor.”

Sewell shied from New York’s spotlight, rarely making herself available to the press, even as Adams made crime-fighting a centerpiece of his administration.

She also faced speculation that she was not truly in control of the department, fueled in part by Adams’ decision to appoint a former NYPD chief and key ally, Philip Banks, as a deputy mayor of public safety. Banks has been holding weekly public briefings on crime, often without Sewell in attendance.

The parents of Kawaski Trawick—a

32-year-old Black gay man killed in his home by NYPD officers in 2019—feared Sewell’s resignation would serve as another roadblock for justice.

“By the time she leaves, three commissioners will have come and gone since Kawaski was killed by NYPD Officers Thompson and Davis in 112 seconds after they broke into his home while he was cooking four years ago,” said Ellen and Rickie Trawick. “Each commissioner has aided in well-documented delays, coverups, and roadblocks, denying our family any semblance of accountability and endangering New Yorkers by keeping these cops on payroll.”

NYPD commissioners often serve abbreviated tenures in one of the most high-pressure, politically challenging jobs in policing. Sewell’s predecessor, Dermot Shea, held the post for two years. James O’Neill, before Shea, lasted three. Before that, William Bratton spent just over two years as commissioner under Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

The notable exception is former commissioner Raymond Kelly, who served for 16 months under former Mayor David Dinkins, then returned and was commissioner for all 12 years that Michael Bloomberg was mayor.

Sewell started with the Nassau County Police Department as a patrol officer in 1997, then became a precinct commander, head of major cases, a top hostage negotiator and finally chief of detectives, where she oversaw a staff of about 350 people—about 1% the size of the NYPD’s unformed ranks.

In his statement, Adams said Sewell deserved credit for combating crime in New York City.

“The commissioner worked nearly 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for a year and a half, and we are all grateful for her service. New Yorkers owe her a debt of gratitude.”

The Adams’ administration has seen a series of high-profile departures in recent weeks, including his top housing official, Jessica Katz, and the city’s efficiency officer, Melanie La Rocca.

you’re going through, you don’t have to do it alone.

Mayor Eric Adams (left) makes a public safety announcement with NYPD Commissioner Sewell and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phillip Banks at City Hall on Monday, April 3, 2023. (Caroline Willis/ Mayoral Photo Office photo)

Mets and Yankees stagger into Subway Series

By RASHID McDONALD Special to the AmNews

The Yankees and Mets met for the first time this season on Tuesday night at Citi Field as both teams staggered into a 2023 Subway Series. The Yankees lost two out of three to the Boston Red Sox in the Bronx this past weekend and were 3–3 in their previous six games before facing the Mets. They were 39–29 after a 7–6 win over the Mets on Tuesday, eight games out of first place in the American League East behind the 48–22 Tampa Bay Rays and 42–24 Baltimore Orioles.

The Mets were in free-fall, having dropped nine of 10 after starter Max Scherzer gave up seven hits and six earned runs in 3.1 innings on Tuesday. They went into last night’s (Wednesday) game 31–36, fourth in the National League East. Both teams came into the two-game set without their most prominent players.

The Yankees are navigating games without 2022 AL MVP Aaron Judge, who was

put on the injury list June 6 with a contusion and ligament sprain in his right big toe. “The biggest thing now is trying to get the swelling out of there,” said manager Aaron Boone regarding his ailing star outfielder. Judge still led the Yankees in batting average (.291), home runs (18), RBI (40), and on-base percentage (.404).

The Mets’ All-Star first baseman Pete Alonso is also on the injury list after being hit on the wrist by Atlanta Braves starter Charlie Morton on June 7. He could be out until the All-Star Game break, which begins for the Mets on July 10. Alonso’s loss of production in the Mets’ lineup is a huge blow, considering that he led all of MLB with 22 homers and had 49 RBI when last night’s schedule began.

The Mets problems run much deeper than Alonso, though. Their pitching has been the major issue. In being swept three games by the Braves from June 6 through June 8 in Atlanta, followed by a 14–7 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on June 11, the Mets gave up a total of 40

runs. The Braves series marked the first time in franchise history that the Mets lost three games in a row when they led by three or more runs.

After dropping two out of three to the Pirates last weekend, the Mets have lost 11 series already this season, contrasted with losing only 11 all of last season. They will host the St. Louis Cardinals in Queens this weekend for three games, then face the Astros in Houston for three games next Monday through Wednesday.

The Yankees will be in Boston for three games tomorrow through Sunday and then travel to Seattle to take on the Mariners next Tuesday through Thursday.

Teofimo Lopez outduels Josh Taylor for junior welterweight belts

By DERREL JOHNSON Special to the AmNews

The Takeover has resumed!

Brooklyn native Teofimo “The Takeover” Lopez Jr. (19–1, 13 KOs) handed Josh Taylor (19–1, 13 KOs) his first loss as a professional, taking the WBO and Ring magazine junior welterweight championships from the former titleholder with a 115–113, 117–111, 115–113 unanimous win on Saturday evening at the Theater at Madison Square Garden.

The 25-year-old Lopez, whose only blemish as a pro was a loss to George Kambosos on November 27, 2021, also at the Theater, entered the fight as an underdog but took control in the early rounds and never let Taylor mount a sustained attack. The 32-yearold Taylor, who is from Scotland, hadn’t faced an opponent since defeating Jack Catterall in his homeland 16 months before meeting up with Lopez.

“Josh Taylor is a tough dude,” said Lopez after entertaining the crowd with hard shots to Taylor and fluid movement. “I can see why he beat so many fighters. But you’ve got to counter the counter-puncher. You’ve got to outsmart the man and get in there. And I did that. I think I did enough.This is what it is all about.”

Lopez, who is of Honduran descent and trained by his father, Teofimo Lopez Sr., said the pre-fight doubts about his chances to beat Taylor by members of the media

and boxing fans also had him wondering about the possibility.

“I questioned myself for a good reason,” he said. “You guys don’t understand. I’ve always been my worst critic, and you guys got a little glimpse of it. But I’ve just got to ask you one thing, and one thing only: Do I still got it?”

He then paid homage to Lopez Sr., who designed a solid game plan he smartly exe-

cuted versus Taylor.

“This was about fixing what we needed to,” he said. “That’s why I don’t leave my coach. I trust in him a lot.”

Taylor was complimentary of Lopez after suffering his first loss. “No excuses,” he said. “[This performance] wasn’t my best. The better man won tonight. I’ve got no excuses. I fought to the best of my ability. He was better than me tonight. It is what it is. Con-

gratulations to Teofimo.”

Although there was no rematch clause, Taylor alluded to a potential rematch. “I thought it was a close fight,” he said. Two of the judges’ scorecards reflected his opinion. “I’d love to do it again. I definitely know I’m better than that, and I know I can beat him still. I’d love to do it again. But he’s the champ, so the ball is in his court.”

In other boxing news, last Friday in Miami, former four-division champion Adrien Broner dominated William Hutchinson with a 99–91, 100–90, 99–91 win in his first fight under the promotion of the legendary Don King. Broner is hoping for a chance to claim a title in his next contest.

“I see what’s-his-name—Romello? Rolly?” Broner said of the newly crowned WBA superlightweight champion Rolando Romero. Broner also had eyes on who would come out of the LopezTaylor match victorious.

“I like the winner of Teofimo and Josh Taylor, and whoever has a belt. I want all the belts,” he said. King also hopes for a title shot for Broner in the near future. “We are not fooling around,” he said. “We are going to take care of business. And we got the WBC here [that] is going to get us a title fight. We are going to win that title, then defend that title, then unify the world, because he can do it. He was a four-time world champion before and now the best is yet to come. It’s return to glory.”

Brooklyn native Teofimo Lopez (right) defeated Josh Taylor on Saturday night at the Theater at Madison Square Garden to become WBO and Ring magazine junior welterweight champion (Mikey Williams/Top Rank photo)

Mets All-Star first baseman is currently on injured list with left wrist bone bruise suffered on June 7 (MLB.com photo)

Remade Liberty continue on a winning path

By LOIS ELFMAN Special the AmNews

Over the course of 27 seasons, the New York Liberty has scored over 100 points in only a handful of games. Then came last week, when they had two. Coming back from a disappointing loss to the Chicago Sky, the Liberty’s game versus the Minnesota Lynx on June 7 at the Barclays Center was postponed due to the dangerous air quality in New York City as a result of wildfires in Canada. Their next

game was two days later in Atlanta versus the Dream.

It was a successful trip: The Liberty came away with a 106–83 victory. Sabrina Ionescu scored a career-high 37 points, including eight three-pointers, a franchise record. With the arrival of WNBA MVPs Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones, Ionescu had somewhat faded to the background, but she let it be known she is a force in the league.

On Sunday, the Liberty returned home to celebrate its annual Pride game. New York

defeated the Dallas Wings 102–93 on double-figure scoring from Stewart (32 points without a single free throw), Ionescu (22), Courtney Vandersloot (15), Marine Johannes (12), and Betnijah Laney (10). The win marked the first professional encounter between sisters Nyara Sabally of the Liberty and Satou Sabally of the Wings. In defeat, Satou won sisterly bragging rights with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Nyara went scoreless in 9 minutes of playing time.

“We have a veteran team and

it certainly helps,” said Liberty coach Sandy Brondello after the win over the Wings. “Sometimes, it’s just a little bit of focus, a little bit of togetherness, a little bit of toughness. That’s great to have.”

Stewart said, “Obviously, as this group has come together, we’re having an awareness of where one another is, the spots and how the defense is going to play us, and in particular me.”

“People are helping me get into the right positions. Today, the shots went in…There are

Senbere and Scaroni set new marks at Mastercard Mini 10K

By JAIME C. HARRIS AmNews Sports Editor

Senbere Teferi, a two-time Olympian from Ethiopia, set a new record of 30:12 at Saturday’s Mastercard New York Mini 10K, held in Central Park by the New York Road Runners (NYRR), by holding off Kenya’s Helen Obiri, this year’s women’s Boston Marathon winner.

Teferi had the fastest time since the event’s inception in 1972.

Obiri crossed the finish line in 30:19 in her first Mini 10K.

Mexico’s Laura Galvan was third at 31:14. Emily Sisson was fourth at 31:16, the third best time ever in the race by an American.

The Mastercard NY Mini began in 1972 as the first women-only road race in the world. Back then, it was called the Crazylegs Mini Marathon and only 72 women finished the event. This year, 8,369 women completed the arduous trek.

going to be nights where it’s going to be open. There are nights where it’s going to be super-collapsed, and we continue to find the open person.”

The Liberty face the Phoenix Mercury at Barclays Center on Sunday, marking Brittney Griner’s first game in New York since 2021. Last weekend, Griner and her teammates were subjected to verbal harassment at the Dallas airport. The incident may lead to enhanced security for Griner for the remainder of the season.

This was the third year that Mastercard served as the title sponsor.

In the wheelchair division, Susannah Scaroni of the United States, the 2022 TCS New York City Marathon champion and two-time Paralympic medalist, led from start to finish and set a new mark of 21:06, breaking the previous record that she also held. Scaroni has owned the race, winning all five since the wheelchair division became part of the event in 2018. Jenna Fesemyer placed second at 25:16 and Michelle Wheeler was third (26:05).

The Mini 10K also featured participants from NYRR Run for the Future, a free seven-week program for high school girls in New York City with little to no running experience. The seven-week program introduced participants to running and wellness through practices and panels focused on mental health, nutrition, and body image.

Mastercard New York Mini 10K winners Senbere Teferi and Susannah Scaroni ( New York Road Runners photo)

Nyara Sabally of the New York Liberty faced off with sister Satou Sabally (r) of the Dallas Wings ( Brandon Todd/New York Liberty photo)

Sisters (l and r) Satou and Nyara

Riverside Hawks program helps propel Rebecca Osei-Owusu to Fairleigh Dickinson

By LOIS ELFMAN Special to the AmNews

When basketball forward Rebecca Osei-Owusu graduated from high school last week, she did so with a sense of pride and positive outlook, knowing that her future includes joining the Division I basketball program at Fairleigh Dickinson University. A member of the Riverside Hawks since seventh grade, Osei-Owusu credits that program not only with building her skills and confidence, but also helping her be well-prepared to be a college student.

Founded in 1961, the Riverside Hawks program is based at Riverside Church and works with about 350 students annually, ages 5 to 18. It provides a mix of athletic instruction, academic support, and opportunity for community service.

“Having trainers to help me every day… brought me to the next level,” said OseiOwusu. “They would tell me what time to be in the gym to work on my shot or handles or anything else to add to my game. Being there really prepared me. That’s literally my second home.”

Osei-Owusu looks forward to playing for FDU’s new head coach, Stephanie Gaitley. She said the Riverside Hawks didn’t only hone her basketball skills, but helped her embrace teamwork, communication, and a family mindset. “I’d put everything on the floor and my coaches would encourage my dreams and aspirations,” Osei-Owusu said.

“Every year they do what they call an NCAA seminar,” she continued. “They’re talking about NCAA rules and eligibility. Even before coming into high school, I’d learn about eligibility and keeping my grades up.”

Dr. Emily Anderson, a former professor in the CUNY system, is secretary of the board of directors of the Riverside Hawks and chair of the education and scholarship committee. “It’s been interesting how

the program has evolved,” said Anderson. “When it started in the ’60s, it was basically a basketball program for kids in Harlem. The people involved wanted them to be elite basketball players.

“As we began to look at the needs of the community over time…we wanted to expand the program, so we’re focusing on academics, basketball, and community,” she added. “Rebecca is a wonderful young

woman…She graduated from Monsignor Scanlan High School (in the Bronx). Colleges were able to see what she could do. She attended those workshops about what it takes to get into college.”

An aspiring journalist, Osei-Owusu attended this year’s WNBA Draft. “It was a dream come true. I was looking at everybody and thinking how tall they are, especially Aliyah Boston,” she said.

U.S. skaters bring diversity to ISU adult competition

BY LOIS ELFMAN Special to the AmNews

When Karissa Williams arrived at the International Skating Union (ISU) International Adult Figure Skating Competition in Oberstdorf, Germany, she checked off another item on her list of life-long goals as a skater. As soon as she registered, she also sought out other Black skaters, but found only one: fellow American Linda Frances.

“The event has been unofficially dubbed ‘Adult Worlds,’” said Williams, meaning that adult skaters (over age 25) view it as their world championships. “I see why they call it that. You literally have so many adult skaters representing so many countries that come to this event.”

Adult skating competitions include people who skated as kids and teenagers, like Williams, who is a skating coach, and people who never skated before they were adults, like Frances, an attorney. Williams skated in gold ladies free skate I and masters ladies artistic I, finishing third in both. Frances competed in silver ladies free skate V, finishing sixth.

Frances became intrigued by skating while watching Debi Thomas and Katarina Witt on television during the 1988 Olympic Winter Games. In the summer of 1989,

a friend directed her to take some learnto-skate lessons at SkyRink (then at 33rd Street and 10th Avenue; now at Chelsea Piers). After her lessons, she kept returning to the rink for private lessons. When U.S. Figure Skating launched its first Adult Championships in 1995, Frances was there, and she’s kept on competing. She even took part in the very first international adult competition in 1999.

“The first thing I enjoy is the training,” she said. “My first coach, Wade Corbett, imbued in me a love of skating. I came to love the challenge of skating and I stayed with it.”

Frances also enjoys the organizational side of skating and is a silver-level judge with U.S. Figure Skating. “I’m happy to contribute so that others will have an opportunity,” she said. “I’m also happy to skate so that when I go places, other people of color will see a presentation…It makes me proud to have the opportunity for some other person to look and say, ‘I can do that too.’”

Williams was disappointed that her sightseeing was curtailed by rain her first few days in Oberstdorf, a mountain town in Bavaria. “It was amazing for me to fulfill this goal, but it left me wanting more,” she said.

“Now that I’ve been to Oberstdorf once, I’m determined to go back again.”

Rebecca Osei-Owusu (#23) with her Riverside Hawks teammates

Education chair Dr. Emily Anderson (Riverside Hawks photos)

Linda Frances and Karissa Williams in Oberstdorf, Germany. (Photo courtesy of Karissa Williams)

Nuggets’ dominant playoff run ends with their first NBA title

By JAIME C. HARRIS AmNews Sports Editor

Nikola Jokic has long been considered one of the league’s best players. After leading the Denver Nuggets to the franchise’s first-ever National Basketball Association championship with a 4–1 series victory over the Miami Heat and earning the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP award, he is now in the company of the game’s historically great players.

The 28-year-old, 7-foot center from Serbia, who was drafted in the second round (41st overall) by the Nuggets in 2014, became just the 11th player to win at least two regular season MVPs and be named the Finals MVP. Jokic is also the fifth international player since the NBA’s inaugural 1946–47 season to be named the Finals MVP, joining Hakeem Olajuwon, Tony Parker, Dirk Nowitzki, and Giannis Antetokounmpo. (Tim Duncan, who has three Finals MVP awards on his resume, was born in the Virgin Islands, a United States territory, so is not considered an international player.)

A reflection of the collective selflessness displayed by the Nuggets all season in their journey to a title, Jokic deflected personal praise following the Nuggets’ 94–89 Game 5 victory over the Heat in Denver on Monday night to close out the best-of-seven series.

“We are not in it for ourselves, we are in it for the guy next to us,” Jokic said. “And that’s why this [means] even more.

The Nuggets were a low-maintenance, drama-free outfit led by their head coach, Mike Malone, that seemingly flew under the radar this season despite being the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed with the league’s third best record (53–29), sitting behind only the Eastern Conference’s Milwaukee Bucks (58–24) and Boston Celtics (57–25).

But Denver validated their lofty place in the NBA hierarchy by tearing through the postseason, losing only four of 20 games, defeating the Minnesota Timberwolves 4–1, the Phoenix Suns 4–2, and blanking the Los Angeles Lakers 4–0 before dismissing the Heat. In the Finals, Jokic averaged 30.2 points, 14 rebounds, and 7.2 assists, culminating with 28 points, 16 rebounds, and four assists in Game 5. He made triple-doubles routine early in the playoffs, opening the Finals with 27 points, 10 rebounds, and 14 assists in a 104–93 Game 1 Nugget win.

Yet he eschewed references to his lofty

number when broached by reporters. “It’s just a stat,” Jokic said with a tone of indifference. “I don’t care.”

In the postgame presser on Monday, Malone noted Jokic’s other attributes before acknowledging his on-court brilliance. “He’s a great husband, father, and son and brother,” Malone said. “And on the basketball court, he has proven time and time again that he’s the best player in the NBA. He’s our MVP, we love him, and we’re thankful that he’s wearing a Nuggets uniform.”

While much of the shine was deservedly on Jokic, Nuggets point guard Jamal Murray was sensational this postseason. Fully recovered from a torn ACL sustained on April 12, 2021 that kept him out until October 19 of last year, an 18-month absence, Murray proved to be a star in his own right, posting 26.1 points, 7.1 assists, and 5.7 rebounds in 20 games.

Jokic and Murray received requisite support from power forward Aaron Gordon, who showed he is a budding All-

NBA Defensive Team candidate; starting shooting guard Kentavious CaldwellPope; and reserve guard/forward Bruce Brown, among others.

“I’ll speak for everybody in our locker room and organization. Congratulations to the Denver Nuggets organization,” said Miami Heat coach Eric Spolestra, who led what was only the second No. 8 seed in NBA history—the 1999 New York Knicks were the first—to the finals.

“They’re a class act,” he added. “And they’re one hell of a basketball team. We couldn’t really find [obvious] enough solutions to get us over the top.”

The Heat defied the odds by first taking down the No. 1 seed Bucks, No. 5 seed Knicks, and No. 2 seed Celtics before being unable to overcome the Nuggets superior talent. The run left the resilient Heat’s dogged five-time All-NBA selection Jimmy Butler disappointed by falling short of the team’s championship goal, but appreciative of the moment.

“You never know what the team’s gonna look like next year or the year after that,” said the 33-year-old Butler shortly after Game 5.

“I’m just grateful. I learned so much. They taught me so much. And I wish I could of got it done for these guys because they definitely deserve it. But the one thing that Imma take from it is how grateful I am to be able to compete with them.”

Spoelstra articulated a similar sentiment.

“There’s no regrets on our end. There’s just some times where you get beat, you know, and Denver was the better basketball team in this series,” he said.

They were. And the best in the NBA.

The Denver Nuggets celebrate the franchise’s first-ever NBA title