New York Amsterdam News Issue March 28, 2024

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EXCITEMENT BUILDS AS SENEGAL VOTES FOR CHANGE (GIN)—On Sunday during Ramadan, most people rest at home and fast during the day. But in the West African nation of Senegal, people were out in force this time, choosing a new president to usher in newfound economic growth, jobs, and peace.

Once seen as one of the fastest-growing economies on the continent, Senegal’s finan-

International News

cial boom, many believe, has not been equally shared as a result of what has been called “wealth hoarding by the political class.”

With about a third of the population living below the poverty line, a growing number of Senegalese people have tried to leave the country on leaky wooden boats. Nearly 1,000 died in the first six months of 2023, according to the non-governmental organization Walking Borders.

More than 60% of Senegalese believe the economic situation in the country is bad, nearly double compared with the previous year.

This time around, voters chose among 19 candidates, starting with opposition leader Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who replaced Ousmane Sonko, a popular leader disqualified from running because of a questionable conviction for defamation by the nation’s amnesty court.

Both men are tax administrators who promise to tackle corruption, push for accountability, and promote a fairer distribution of the country’s resources, including the renegotiation of mining and energy contracts.

The reputation of a tax inspector can be beneficial but also harmful, according to Guillaume Soto-Mayor, a nonresident scholar at the Middle East Institute. The job is seen as “the quickest way to become a millionaire,” and some see it as a corrupt position.

Pathe Thiam, a 22-year-old Senegalese student, told Al Jazeera that for him, tax inspectors represent a “certain elitism that is rife in the country because these inspectors were trained in the most prestigious schools and are often colleagues, friends, and relatives.”

Moreover, tax inspectors often refuse to

Puerto Rico’s Ponce holds 151st Abolition Day commemoration

By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff

A crowd of enthusiastic residents in Ponce, Puerto Rico, celebrated Abolition Day— the public holiday that commemorates the date in 1873 when African slavery ended in Puerto Rico—on March 22. They gathered at the city’s Parque de la Abolición (Abolition Park) for the commemoration and to honor the Black Puerto Ricans whose forced labor enriched the island’s second largest city.

Built in 1874, Abolition Park is the only park in the Caribbean that celebrates Puerto Rico’s abolition of African slavery.

Guillermo Vilaró shows off a replica he made of Ponce’s Abolition Park, as well as his model of the Ponce Massacre Memorial Museum. (Karen Juanita Carrillo photos)

At the celebration, Guillermo Vilaró, who lives in Ponce, showed off a replica he made of the park’s famous statue, which depicts a formerly enslaved Black man kneeling in a posture of gratitude in front of an obelisk with broken chains lying all around him. Vilaró used wood and metal to create a miniature model of the sculpture.

Vilaró also presented his model of the Ponce Massacre Memorial Museum, which is down the street from Abolition Park and is where 17 members of the Pedro Albizu Campos-led Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico were shot and killed by police on March 21, 1937.

The Nationalist Party promoted the political independence of Puerto Rico.

Ponce, the city where plena originated A performance by members of the Escuela de Bomba y Plena Isabel Albizú Dávila was

the main feature of the day. The school’s director, José Luis Archeval Rodríguez, gave the audience a short lesson about the basics of plena music and explained why he is working to promote it in Ponce, the city where it originated.

Plena is a style of Afro Puerto Rican folk music that features tambourines and drums. It grew in popularity throughout the island and then spread to the rest of the world thanks to the 1970s salsa boom and the recordings of artists like Ismael Rivera and Rafael Cortijo.

In their book, “Puerto Rico and its Plena: New Sources for Study,” Néstor Murray Irizarry and Emanuel J. Dufrasne González noted that many people view Ponce’s La Joya del Castillo neighborhood as the birthplace of the plena. It was where some 80 people lived in small houses made of wood and zinc. They each rented a plot of land for $1.00 or $2.00 per month and placed their

Ponce, Puerto Rico’s Parque de la Abolición (Abolition Park), is known as the first park in the Caribbean to have residents raise funds to commemorate the abolition of African slavery.

houses in a circular form, with a space or batey in the center for dances, meetings, and daily chores like cooking. Black people in southern Puerto Rico may have created the plena, but many of the music’s traditions have been unfortunately lost, Archeval said. There are some nice customs that he believes can be restored, like the part of the dance where not only the woman danced in front of the central drummer, but everyone did. Specifically, the woman did a basic step,

(GIN photo)

Underfed watchdog: CCRB asks for $15 million more to keep up with rising police misconduct complaints

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

Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) interim chair Arva Rice requested a $15 million proposed budget increase at a city council hearing last Wednesday, March 20. The NYPD independent oversight agency needs the funding to keep pace with an uptick in police misconduct allegations.

“A priority for the agency was to reduce investigation timelines, which last year, we were able to bring down by 22%,” said Rice in her testimony. “Yet, in 2023, civilians filed 50% more complaints than in 2022, a 10-year high. So far in 2024, we have received even more complaints, 14% more than the already increased rate of last year. We are on pace to receive 6,300 complaints in 2024 which will inevitably cause timelines to increase again, which is worse for officers and civilians alike.”

The CCRB is asking for a total of $37.7 million. That’s $13 million more than last year’s budget to police the police. Specifically, the agency needs to hire 73 investigators to fulfill the growing workload. Meanwhile, the NYPD’s proposed budget sits at $5.4 billion— with a ‘B.’

According to Rice, the CCRB could not investigate every complaint within its jurisdiction for the first time in agency history in December due to cuts. This year, the agency ceased investigating some allegation types like “refusal to provide name or shield number” and “forcible removal to a hospital” unless they were

attached to other allegation types within the CCRB’s jurisdiction. That led to 459 police misconduct complaints getting closed and another 73 referred back to the NYPD due to budget.

To be clear, it is currently unknown whether the increased complaints stem from a significant rise in police misconduct or the CCRB’s recently expanded jurisdiction; over the past few years, investigations over body-worn cameras and racial profiling were added to the docket. But civil lawsuit payments over misconduct are generally going up according to Jennvine Wong, staff attorney of the Cop Accountability Project at the Legal Aid.

“In this particular cycle, Mayor [Eric] Adams [has taken] so many different agency budgets to the chopping block except for NYPD,” added Wong. “For an agency whose budget has grown year over year, it [doesn’t make] a lot of sense that the one independent oversight agency for the NYPD continues to have [its] budget cut and resources limited.”

“The reality also is that while the CCRB is an independent agency, they also have a limited jurisdiction. Most NYPD misconduct is actually investigated by the NYPD themselves either by [Internal Affairs Bureau] or other investigative agencies. And so the vast majority of disciplinary proceedings and investigations and misconduct investigations are actually still secret because the NYPD is not not transparent in the way that CCRB is.”

Beyond hiring investigators, the $15 million could go towards finding a policy director whose research would provide a better understanding on why police misconduct com-

plaints are at a decade high, according to a CCRB spokesperson.

Staffing the CCRB is no easy task. New talent needs to be recruited and trained. Retaining existing investigators is more challenging with the lack of funding for promotions and raises. Stretching the roster means more overtime hours. And burnout is imminent for a role that already requires watching hours of body-worn camera footage featuring graphic, violent incidents. Grants currently fund a single therapist for just seven hours a week, according to the agency. And speaking of body-worn cameras, the CCRB continues to advocate for direct access to all recorded footage, which is common practice across police oversight agencies, according to Wong. A bill introduced by Council Speaker Adrienne Adams would make it local law. But the NYPD fears evidence could be unsealed illegally if the legislation passed. At the moment, 75% of CCRB investigations are closed with access to body-worn camera footage. Just 26% are closed without that access.

Of course, the CCRB still faces the challenge of enforcing disciplinary actions—even if misconduct is fully investigated and proven, the ball is in the court of the NYPD Commissioner to impose punishment. Wong says it’s certainly demoralizing for police misconduct victims when a recommendation is not backed up by discipline, but she believes the requested budget is critical.

“It doesn’t matter how much you expand their jurisdiction or authorize them with more power, you’re cutting them off at the knees, and

you’re undermining their ability and authority to hold the police accountable by not committing necessary resources to an agency like the CCRB,” said Wong.

More than three decades ago, divorcing the CCRB entirely from the NYPD into a fully independent oversight agency led rioting cops and racist attacks to the doorstep of former Mayor David Dinkins, the city’s first Black mayor.

In her testimony, Rice reminded local lawmakers of such a history: “Thirty years ago, New York City was at an inflection point,” she said. “The City Council was faced with the decision to reimagine what safety and accountability should look like in this city and determined that the people of New York deserved more. Together that City Council and Mayor Dinkins created the CCRB. Today, this city is facing another inflection point. There is a fork in the road.

“One path leads us down the same trajectory we have followed for 30 years, incremental changes that still leave us with a chronic issue of misconduct and lack of accountability. The other path would allow this city to realize the vision that this council and Mayor Dinkins had 30 years ago when they went out on a limb to create this agency.”

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

Racial disparities endure despite steep decline in city’s minor arrests, finds Brennan Center for Justice

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

What are broken windows in a house divided? There were 101,881 minor offense charges against Black New Yorkers in 2016. In 2022, there were just 48,300. Yet Black New Yorkers’ likelihood of facing a low-level offense case compared to white New Yorkers actually increased during that span: from roughly a fivefold in 2016 to around a sixfold in 2022.

The disparity was identified by NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice through data obtained from the New York State Office of Court Administration in findings on misdemeanor enforcement released last Thursday, March 21. The gap was the widest in Manhattan, with Black New Yorkers 15 times as likely to face a minor offense compared to white New Yorkers.

But because Black New Yorkers face the most low-level charges, they also see the largest dropoff in raw number cases due to the NYPD’s declining enforcement for misdemeanor crimes, which made up around three-quarters of all citywide criminal cases filed between 2016 and 2022. Minor offense cases cratered by 54% during the span, even with small increase during the post-pandemic years.

“They’re most likely due to the substantial criminal justice reforms in New York City like growing numbers of diversion and court alternative programs,” said the report’s coauthor Josephine Wonsun Hahn. “Which have continued across these administrations’ decriminalization efforts like marijuana, which was decriminalized in 2019 [and] legalized in 2021. We also saw large drops in fare evasion which was moved over to civil summonses in 2018.”

Court alternatives offer defendants charged with low-level offenses a “decline to prosecute” from collaborating district attorneys in exchange for graduating diversion programs like the Midtown Community Justice Center’s Project Reset.

“So they show up to court and instead of going before a judge, and even potentially getting a dismissal, they do a one session program,” said Danielle Mindess, Midtown Community Justice Center’s project director. “[They] can get connected to services or support if they need something and they get a ‘declined to prosecute’...we’re really trying to come up with innovative ways to close the gap and get a preponderance of folks who are eligible for that program the opportunity to to complete it and never have to go before a judge.”

But Mindess says referrals often come from the same judges and defense attorneys. And reaching qualifying individuals can be challenging. The programming expedites a cumbersome process that costs the city between $2,190 to $5,896 in policing and court expenses for each misdemeanor offense. Additionally, alternatives to incarceration cut down on the roughly three months needed to resolve each case, which the report refers to as a “process of punishment” where defendants lose earnings, jobs and housing due to court appearances.

And the “mark of a criminal record” fuels recidivism, even if individuals are not convicted of a felony. The Brennan Center cited another study on Suffolk County—the one in Massachusetts, not Long Island—examining how those who weren’t prosecuted for a nonviolent misdemeanor were 53 percent less likely to be rearrested than those who were prosecuted. In the studied area, which includes Boston, charges are bookkept upon arraignment and accessible to employer background checks even if there is no conviction or guilty plea, says NYU Professor of Politics Anna Harvey, who co-authored the 2021 report.

“One of the things that our work is showing is that even not having a conviction and particularly even for non violent misdemeanors,

it still matters both for employer behavior, but also for the way that individuals think employers are going to react—it changes their own behaviors,” said Harvey.

There was also a drastic change in the percentage of low-level offense cases ending in convictions or guilty pleas, from 51% in 2016 to just 25% in 2022. Dismissals skyrocketed from 18% in 2016 to 50% in 2022. Low-level cases resolved by trial, either through a conviction or acquittal, were nominal. Why exactly remains to be seen, says Hahn.

Minor offense enforcement remains consistently prevalent in Black and brown areas like the South Bronx and Upper Manhattan—zip codes in East Tremont/Morrisania and East Harlem rank first and second in minor arrests. Of the white majority neighborhoods with high low-level enforcement like Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen, Black and brown people remain the majority of those charged.

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

Security Council calls for ceasefire in Gaza for first time

By HERB BOYD

Special to the AmNews

Rather than veto the U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, the U.S. abstained. The resolution, written by 10 elected members and passed by 14 members of the council, was proposed in the chamber by Mozambique’s representative. Previous proposals had been rejected by the U.S., Russia, and China.

According to a story in the Guardian , Russia attempted to amend the text by restoring a previous draft that included the word “permanent,” but that bid failed.

John Kirby, a White House spokesperson, told reporters after the vote on Gaza that U.S. abstention does not represent a shift in policy. A story in the Jerusalem Post quoted Kirby as saying: “We have been clear, and we’ve been consistent in our support for a ceasefire as part of a hostage deal. That’s how the hostage deal is structured. We wanted to get to a place where we could support that resolution, but because the final text does not have key language that we think is essential, like a condemnation of Hamas, we could not support it.”

Shortly after the vote on Gaza, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lived up to his promise to cancel a planned trip to Washington to discuss the crisis if the U.S. failed to veto the proposal. His office announced that “[i]n light of the change in the American position, Prime Minister Netanyahu has decided that the delegation will not travel to the U.S.”

It remains to be seen how the Security Council’s resolution will affect the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the hostages held by Hamas.

Biden skipped visiting Black church on recent Michigan trip, angering some community leaders

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI and WILL WEISSERT Associated Press

SAGINAW, Mich. (AP)—President Joe Biden headed to Michigan last week to boost his support with Black voters and hedge against the growing opposition that the White House’s staunch support for Israel has sparked with Muslims in the critical swing state.

But some African American leaders now say they feel alienated after Biden failed to meet with more leading Black community members when visiting Saginaw, the city northwest of Detroit that has become Michigan’s premier political bellwether and where 46% of the residents are Black.

Organizers familiar with the trip plans said one of several original proposed sites for the president to visit was a Black church. The idea was to find a venue where union workers, Black community leaders, college students, and supporters from other key constituencies could head out after the event and knock on doors for Biden.

The president ultimately went to the front porch of two local leaders, who are both white, then met with a Black family at a public golf course. He spoke to supporters on the porch of the home of Councilman Bill Ostash and school board leader Kevin Rooker, before meeting with Saginaw resident Hurley Coleman III and his 13-year-old son, Hurley Coleman IV, at the golf course.

Hurley Coleman Jr., a prominent Saginaw pastor and staunch Biden supporter whose son and grandson met Biden at the golf course, called the trip a “missed opportunity” for the president’s campaign to engage with the community in a way that was “real as opposed to what we saw.”

“I can’t escape the reality [that] what was initially anticipated didn’t happen,” said Coleman Jr. “And what was initially anticipated really needs to happen. And sooner rather than later.”

Any slights could loom large in what is a precarious political moment for Biden, with some allies already concerned about anger in Michigan’s sizable Arab American community over the war in Gaza. Biden’s support among Black adults has sharply

fallen since the start of his presidency and former President Donald Trump’s campaign believes it can flip parts of the core Democratic constituency in November’s election.

Biden was backed by 91% of Black voters in the 2020 presidential election, according to AP VoteCast, a substantial survey of the electorate, but his approval rating among Black adults was 58% in a recent Associated PressNORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.

State Board of Education President Pamela Pugh, who lives in Saginaw, said Black and faithbased leaders “felt like there was an opportunity that was missed for there to be back-and-forth conversation, but also room for it being more inclusive and inviting of the larger base.”

Pugh, also a Democrat and running for a U.S. House seat in Saginaw’s district, added it was “a slight on the Black American community” especially given that Biden “ was coming to Saginaw and it seemed like it was to meet with the communities of color.”

Biden’s reelection campaign referred questions about the visit to community leaders and attendees of the president’s events, as well as to the Michigan Democratic Party.

State party chair Lavora Barnes said in a statement, “You can’t get a more fired up or authentic Joe Biden than the one we saw on a porch in Saginaw.”

Dr. Craig Tatum, senior pastor at Saginaw’s New Life Baptist Church Ministries, said his church was initially selected as a potential place for the president to visit, which he called “a great honor.”

“I wasn’t necessarily given any reason why things changed,” said Tatum, who added that he was fine with the change since “to say the president considered our site was quite an honor itself.”

The city of Saginaw has large numbers of Black and union-affiliated voters and is a Democratic stronghold, but it is encircled by predominantly Republican areas within the larger county and has swung back and forth to support the winning presidential candidate in four straight elections.

Brandell Adams, a trustee of a township outside Saginaw, attended the porch event, spoke briefly to—and posed for a picture with—Biden, and called it a “once in a lifetime experience.” But he also said he’d heard from some in the community who were irked that the president didn’t see more Black leaders.

“Folks seem like they did indeed

get their hopes up. It was a smaller crowd—40, 50 people at most— but I think it was a pretty good blend, age and gender and race, labor leadership, party leadership, activists,” Adams said. “There’s more than 50 people [who] are influential in Saginaw, so, if I didn’t get the opportunity to be on that porch that day, I may have felt some sort of way as well.”

Coleman III and his son had planned to play golf with Biden, but heavy rain the day of the visit forced them to instead meet in the course’s clubhouse. Biden’s campaign noted that a TikTok of their meeting indoors has been viewed more than 1 million times.

The executive director of a local nonprofit, Coleman III said that he spoke to Biden about “the needs of a Black man trying to raise his family in this community and I paralleled that with the needs of other Black people and what they need in this community.”

Coleman III said Biden was “very alert and acute to the issues that we’re facing.”

“I think they made efforts, but I do believe that it could have been better,” Coleman III said. “I think if they can come back, it would do well to really add the voices that were missed.”

President Joe Biden talks with supporters during a campaign event in Saginaw, Mich., Thursday, Mar. 14, 2024 (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Fostering Meditation’s Demetrius

Napolitano aims for calm in schools

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

The soothing sounds of a waterfall and sweet smells of lavender aren’t exactly commonplace in New York City’s public schools, but the nonprofit Fostering Meditation (FM), founded by Demetrius Tercheron Napolitano, 30, is aiming to change that by outfitting schools with calming meditation sessions and yoga rooms to practice in.

Napolitano began FM in June 2020 to help students nurture their mental and physical health and develop mindfulness. He refers to his method as “The Five Steps 2 Wellness: Meditation, Yoga, Expressive Writing, Community, & Nutrition.” His first classes were held at P.S. 108 School of Authors in East Harlem, the elementary school he attended as a youth.

“When I was here at PS 108, I was also in foster care, so as a child, I had a lot of anger issues and things that I struggled with because there was abuse (and) neglect,” said Napolitano. “Coming to school, those behaviors manifested and showed up in my everyday behaviors. This space that we’re in—our meditation room—was our detention room when I was here.”

A Harlem native, Napolitano was born Tercheron Taylor. He entered the city’s foster care system as an infant. When he was adopted at five years old, he experienced physical, verbal, and sexual abuse over the next several years at the hands of foster parents. In response, Napolitano ran away at the age of 13, landing in a juvenile detention center and briefly in a psychiatric hospital. He struggled with complex trauma, depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He ended up going through a total of 30 foster homes before finally being adopted at the age of 21 as he aged out of the foster system.

His mentor, Katie Napolitano, and her husband, John Napolitano, adopted him as a young adult when he was in college, providing much-needed love, community, and financial support to finish schooling. He earned an associate’s degree in business management from St. John’s University and graduated from New York University (NYU) with a bachelor’s degree in political science. While he was at NYU, a friend introduced him to the art of meditation. Napolitano was so committed to learning more that he started a GoFundme campaign in 2019 to support a $17,000 trip to India. He hoped mastering mindfulness could help him manage his lifetime of trauma and anxiety.

“It became the first time I was aware of how I could use my breath to recenter myself,” said Napolitano. “And from a childhood where they tried medication, needles in my buttocks at a psychiatric ward—all these white therapists, and no one ever said, ‘Take a breath.’”

Black New Yorker

The meditation room at PS 108 officially opened in 2022. It features a converted locker room with padded floors, pillows, a waterfall, murals, music, and low lighting as a safe haven from daily classes. Napolitano teaches yoga and guided meditation sessions that are open to preK through eighthgrade students, other teachers, and parents. He also collaborates with the school’s social workers to safely address students who may have behavioral problems.

“Meditation is important for everyone, but especially I’ll say for Black men and Black people, because of all the trauma, anxiety, and stress that we [experience]—to be Black in itself is a job,” said Napolitano. “Meditation helps us regulate our nervous system, helps us center ourselves and calm down, and creates more space so we can be responsive rather than reactive.”

In 2023, FM partnered with five schools, several nonprofits, the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), the Robin Hood Foundation, and Deloitte. Napolitano plans to convert another meditation room at PS 138 in Manhattan in the near future.

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

THE URBAN AGENDA

By David R. Jones, Esq

A Familiar American Practice: Suppressing The Black and Brown Vote

Tuesday, April 2nd, is New York’s presidential primary election. Regardless of what anyone may think of the options, or lack thereof, put before voters next week, any opportunity to cast a vote in a free and fair election is a precious commodity – one that countless Americans have fought and died to protect throughout our history. However, this privilege and fundamental constitutional right is routinely denied to incarcerated voters.

The right to full civic participation for all New Yorkers is a core value for my organization, Community Service Society of New York (CSS). CSS began the drive to register and empower voters in the 1980s when the late Richie Perez, a community activist and former member of the Young Lords, started our Voter Participation Project (VPP) in the Bushwick-Cypress Hill sections of Brooklyn. Perez would later become CSS’s political director and take the program citywide. In the decades since, our efforts have registered hundreds of thousands of voters in low-income communities, reversed discriminatory voter purges, and helped people with conviction histories get back their rights to vote and serve on a jury.

The struggle continues as we fight back against the systematic disenfranchisement of incarcerated people. In New York, anyone who is incarcerated for a misdemeanor conviction or because of pretrial detention is eligible to vote. On Rikers Island, there are currently 6,237 individuals detained and nearly every single one of them is eligible to register to vote. Many recent races have been decided by fewer votes than the number of eligible voters in jails. Nonetheless, these incarcerated voters will be deprived of their fundamental right next week simply due to underfunded programs and ineffective policies.

There are no voting sites in city jails and, therefore, incarcerated New Yorkers struggle to participate in elections. The current voting process relies on Department of Correction (DOC) staff to ferry registration forms and absentee ballots between the jails and the local Board of Election (BOE) offices. Incarcerated voters have no choice but to put their faith in the goodwill of the DOC staff, as this process is not governed by any official policy or procedure. As a result, requests for absentee ballots often go unfulfilled. When absentee ballots are actually delivered to the BOE, they are frequently rejected, and voters are not provided an explanation or opportunity to cure.

CSS proudly supports the work being done by the Vote in NYC Jails coalition, which goes into Rikers, speaks with hundreds of

potential voters, provides vital education, and helps to complete paperwork for voter registration and absentee ballot requests. Last month, the Coalition penned a signon letter demanding that the DOC and BOE invest and commit to making sure all people in New York city jails have their ballots cast and counted. The coalition correctly identified common sense policy changes that would go a long way towards restoring the right to vote in jail. But the coalition is doing work that is the responsibility of government.

The BOE must provide detailed reasons why voting ballots from Rikers are rejected, and make meaningful efforts to reduce the number of rejected ballots in future elections. We also call on the DOC to devote more resources to facilitate people registering to vote and requesting, receiving, and returning absentee ballots. This includes working with the BOE to provide incarcerated voters with the opportunity to cure rejected ballots. The BOE and the DOC must also work together to offer a voter education program and provide non-partisan resources on voting.

Finally and most significantly, the BOE should provide voters at Rikers with the opportunity to vote in-person, as they do for other similarly situated groups that are physically unable to vote at their neighborhood polling place. Current election law provides special accommodations for nursing homes, residential health care facilities, and facilities operated or licensed, or under the jurisdiction of the Veterans Administration. In short, the BOE will go to seniors, veterans, and medically vulnerable voters where they are to ensure that they can vote in-person but will not do the same for people incarcerated at Rikers. This needs to change. BOE must appoint election inspectors to preside over portable voting machines on-site at Rikers Island so that registered voters can cast their ballot directly, as they already do in nursing homes and at VA hospitals.

Let us speak clearly about who these policies impact. Nearly 90 percent of individuals currently detained in New York City jails are non-white. The votes of Black and brown New Yorkers are being suppressed by current DOC and BOE policies and procedures. These policies must be viewed as what they truly are – part of an effort that dates back to the founding of this country that seeks to exclude Black people from full participation in American life. If we truly care about fair and free elections and full participation in the democratic process, we must ensure the right to vote for incarcerated citizens.

David R. Jones, Esq., is President and CEO of the Community Service Society of New York (CSS), the leading voice on behalf of low-income New Yorkers for more than 175 years. The views expressed in this column are solely those of the writer. The Urban Agenda is available on CSS’s website: www.cssny.org.

Demetrius Napolitano, founder of Fostering Meditation in P.S. 108 (Ariama C. Long photo)

Sen. Myrie pushes for universal afterschool

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

As the state counts down to finalizing its budget this year, electeds scramble to advocate for programs they want to see funded. Senator Zellnor Mryie is currently pushing for free, universal after-school programming to help working families.

“With New York facing an affordability crisis, working families need all the relief they can get. After-school programs keep students engaged and out of trouble, and help struggling parents get through the workday,” said Myrie.

Myrie and a coalition of parents and teachers gathered in Albany at a rally calling for universal afterschool last week. As a Brooklyn youth, he thanked after-school organizations like Crown Heights Youth Collective for keeping him out of trouble while being raised by a single

mother. He spoke about current dangers, such as subway surfing and gun violence, that students are exposed to during the vulnerable hours between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. These hours in particular are considered “peak hours for juvenile crime and experimentation with drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and sex,” according to an Afterschool Alliance study.

“Every child who wants a seat in a high-quality after-school program should be able to have one,” said Myrie. “That’s why I’m hopeful we can create a pathway toward universal after-school programming, starting with this year’s budget.”

The preliminary state budget is $233 billion for fiscal year (FY) 2025 with $35.3 billion in total going towards public education. New York State Network for Youth Success estimates that at $4,300 per student, it’d cost the state $6.9 billion to give a seat to every school-age child in New York who is currently waiting for one. That’s

about 1.6 million school age children, according to their analysis.

“We know that access is a huge issue, typically more so for low income communities and marginalized families. So universal after-school care is really a path to help working families, support economic development, and support students,” said Kelly McMahon, chief executive officer of New York State Network for Youth Success.

McMahon added that access to high-quality after-school care provides stability for students experiencing homelessness who rely on before-school, after-school, summer, and other expanded-learning programs to survive.

Meanwhile on the city level, Councilmember Crystal Hudson introduced an universal afterschool bill last year. This bill would require the Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) and the Department of Education (DOE)

to establish an universal afterschool plan in New York City by September 1, 2024.

A few of New York City’s child advocate groups are fully behind universal after-school programs because of their proven benefits. The worry is that the $170 million in cuts to the city’s budget, which resulted in about 15,000 lost childcare and over 3,500 afterschool seats, means that universal afterschool may not be feasible this year, said Caitlyn Passaretti, policy and advocate associate at Citizens’ Committee for Children (CCC) of New York.

“It’s tricky because the need is so great,” said Passaretti. “So why are we cutting them is the question in all our minds.”

Passaretti said that the infrastructure of the city’s childcare and after-school system needs reform, especially since many providers need extended contracts and on time wages to provide these services for students.

Nicholas Ferreira, the senior

vice president of youth development at The Child Center of NY, Inc., said their programs guarantee some sort of academic enrichment, STEM, math, arts, and physical recreation for idle and elementary school students. All of which requires proper staffing through contracts and pay parity to run, he added.

“If the question is should we invest in universal afterschool, if we’re really thinking about it as an investment we can’t afford not to,” said Ferreira “We’re spending all this other money now to fill the gaps that happen because kids are not developing appropriately and are unsupervised.”

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.

Senator Zellnor Y. Myrie and advocates spoke about creating a universal afterschool program for New York students at a press conference in Albany on Wednesday, March 20. (Sen. Myrie’s office photo)

Girl Scout troop resolved to support migrants despite backlash

By SARA HERSCHANDER Chronicle of Philanthropy

NEW YORK (AP)—Once a week in a midtown Manhattan hotel, dozens of Girl Scouts gather in a sparsely furnished room made homey by string lights and children’s drawings. They earn badges, go on field trips to the Statue of Liberty, and learn how to navigate the subway in a city most have just begun to call home.

They are the newest members of New York City’s largest Girl Scout troop. And they live in an emergency shelter where 170,000 asylum seekers and migrants, including tens of thousands of children, have arrived from the southern border of the U.S. since the spring of 2022.

As government officials debate how to handle the influx of new arrivals, the Girl Scouts—whose Troop 6000 has served kids who live in the shelter system since 2017—are quietly welcoming hundreds of the city’s youngest new residents with the support of donations. Most of the girls have fled dire conditions in South and Central America, and endured arduous journeys to the U.S.

Not everybody is happy about the evolution of Troop 6000. With anti-immigrant rhetoric on the rise and a contentious election ahead, some donors see the Girl Scouts as wading too readily into politically controversial waters. That hasn’t fazed the group—or their small army of philanthropic supporters. Amid city budget cuts and a growing need for services, they are among dozens of charities that say their support for all New Yorkers, including newcomers, is more important than ever.

“If it has to do with young girls in New York City, then it’s not political,” said Meridith Maskara, CEO of the Girl Scouts of Greater New York. “It’s our job.”

While Troop 6000 has found plenty of sympathetic supporters, “there are some donors who would prefer their dollars go elsewhere,” said Maskara. “I am constantly being asked: Don’t you find this a little too political?”

Last year, Troop 6000 opened its newest branch at a hotel-turned-shelter in Midtown Manhattan, one of several city-funded relief centers for migrants. Although hundreds of families sleep at the shelter every night, the Girl Scouts is the only children’s program offered.

Perhaps that’s what’s made the troop so popular.

Last January, the group began recruiting at the shelter and rolled out a bilingual curriculum to help scouts learn more about New York City through its monuments, subway system, and political borders.

One year later, with nearly 200 members and five parents as troop leaders, the shelter is the largest of Troop 6000’s

roughly two dozen sites across the city and the only one exclusively for asylumseekers.

With few other after-school opportunities available, the girls are “so hungry for more” ways to get involved, said Giselle Burgess, senior director of Troop 6000.

Seven years ago, Burgess, a single mother of six, built Troop 6000 from the ground up after losing her rental home to developers. While living in a hotelturned-shelter, she got the idea of creating a troop for girls like her daughters. It was the height of “NIMBYism,” she said, the not-in-my-backyard movement opposed to local homeless shelters.

At the time, she asked: “Who’s gonna give us a chance?”

As it turns out, “the donations started pouring in,” she said. A New York Times profile led to a groundswell of philanthropy—plus tens of thousands of dollars in cookie sales—that helped the group grow from seven girls at a shelter in Queens to more than 2,500 scouts and troop leaders at more than 20 temporary housing sites across the city.

As a result, when the mayor’s office floated the idea of starting a troop at the Midtown shelter, the Girl Scouts were ready.

“We already had a model that has really proven to work,” said Maskara, who raised about $400,000 in an emergency campaign from Trinity Church Wall Street Philanthropies, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, and the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation.

Troop 6000 employs bilingual social workers and a transition specialist versed in supporting children who have experienced trauma. Otherwise, it operates much like any other Girl Scout troop.

Most importantly, said Maskara, the troop offers a glimmer of consistency to children who often must pack up, move homes, and switch schools in the middle of the academic year. Scouts are encouraged to continue participating even when their families move.

That hasn’t been easy at the Midtown shelter. The average length of stay for a family in the city’s homeless shelter system is a year and a half; in an emergency shelter, it’s often mere months. At least 40 families have been evicted from the Midtown shelter since January. Around 50 scouts who have left the shelter participate in a virtual troop.

“Keeping the girls connected is what matters the most for us right now,” said Burgess. “There’s a lot of emotion, frustration, and hurt.”

“We want to be able to encourage the girls and let them know it’s not over,” she said. “We’re still here.”

For this Women’s History Month, we sat down Tamara Suvil, a New Jersey-based Community Manager at JPMorgan Chase

Sponsored content by JPMorgan

Chase

Women’s History Month is a time to come together to celebrate and recognize the achievements and contributions of women throughout the years. For this Women’s History Month, we sat down Tamara Suvil, a New Jersey-based Community Manager at JPMorgan Chase who connects diverse individuals to financial health resources. She discusses her career journey, shares tips on taking charge of your finances and other recommendations to achieving success.

What has been key to your success throughout your career?

My parents immigrated from Haiti and their strong work ethic has profoundly influenced my career success. Inspired by their sacrifice and dedication to supporting our family in a new country, I’ve embraced their perseverance and adaptability as a guiding principle. Alongside leadership, integrity, and continuous learning, their example motivates me to be a positive influence for my peers and to constantly improve my skills for the betterment of my team and community.

Looking back, what is one thing you wish you knew when you were first starting out in your career?

Reflecting on my early days in banking 11 years ago, I wish I had realized the significance of time management and maintaining a healthy work-life balance. At that time, I often found myself overwhelmed with work related tasks, neglecting personal time and relationships. As I climbed the proverbial corporate latter, I dedicated all of my thoughts and time to progressing in my career. In the process, I neglected important relationships and indulging in my favorite activities.

Recognizing the importance of self-care, taking time off, and prioritizing relationships has significantly improved my productivity and mental well-being, enhancing my overall

career trajectory. I encourage women in the workforce to embrace moments of self-care, whether it’s indulging in that dream vacation or simply taking a walk to unwind.

What are some tips for women to take charge of their career and finances?

I recommend networking with other women in the workplace and seeking mentorship to enhance interpersonal and communication skills. This not only elevates visibility with leaders and peers, but also fosters effective networking and provides clear direction for career advancement.

Taking charge of your finances is equally as significant as establishing yourself in your career. As a community manager with JPMorgan Chase, I lead financial health workshops that emphasize the importance of organization and being intentional with your budgeting and spending. I always advocate adopting the SMART system—ensuring financial goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timebound.

A strong financial foundation doesn’t just bolster your economic security – it elevates every aspect of your life, including your career. It empowers choices, reduces stress, and sets the stage for long-term success.

How has your local community shaped you and what are your recommendations to others for achieving success?

In 2013, I joined Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., which has not only bolstered my resume but has also been a source of invaluable mentorship and support from a network of Black women in my community, molding my career aspirations.

Through my sorority and professional experiences over the years, I’ve gained insightful tips for achieving success and recommend engaging in ongoing training and development. It is never too late to hone in on your skills and perfect your trade. As you grow in your career, remain confident and always carry yourself as your own brand in every room you enter, knowing you belong and deserve to be there.

How can people get involved to celebrate and support women at work?

To celebrate and support women at work, I suggest joining women empowerment groups and organizations. Here, you can learn from women across various industries, ethnic backgrounds, and cultures, fostering a diverse and inclusive environment.

Within the workspace, it’s crucial to embrace diversity openly and to actively recognize and promote women for their achievements. While women have overcome numerous challenges, having advocates and allies is essential to our continued progress forward.

Tamara Suvil

Go With The Flo

FLO ANTHONY

On March 25, the Los Angeles home of Sean Diddy Combs was raided by Homeland Security in connection with a federal sex trafficking investigation, officials said. Fox 11 Los Angeles reported the federal raid occurred in Puffy’s lavish Holmby Hills neighborhood. According to investigators, the rap impresario’s home in Miami was also raided that day. Fox 11’s ground crew which was on the scene in Los Angeles, reported the home is registered to Bad Boys Films, which is a division of Bad Boy Entertainment, along with one of Puffy’s daughters. SkyFox also captured images of a few people coming out of the mansion who were subsequently detained. His sons Justin Combs and Christian Combs were both handcuffed. This is just the latest incident in lawsuits and sexual accusations against Combs. The federal department said in a released statement, “Earlier today, Homeland Security Investigations New York executed law enforcement actions as part of an ongoing investigation with assistance from HSI Los Angeles, HSI Miami and our local law enforcement partners. We will provide further information as it becomes available.” .......

Congratulations to actress Bresha Webb and her husband Nick Jones Jr. Webb and Jones welcomed baby girl Brave on March 21. Bresha posted on Instagram, “When the pregnancy got hard and veered into complicated territory, you courageously grabbed us by our hearts and led us to your birth. When we were scared, you were brave, living up to your name Brave. Welcome home Brave.” Bresha and Nick have been married for one year......

As the curtains closed on another dazzling New York Fashion Week (NYFW), songstress Karin Ann, following her front row appearances at esteemed shows like “The Blonds,” “Zang Toi” and various other high-profile events, took center stage at the Amari Jazz Club and Cucina 8 1/2 in New York City, where she captivated a packed audience with her magnificent performance. The latest discovery of former “American Idol” judge Randy Jackson, Karin Ann’s debut at the jazz venue and Italian restaurant not only solidified her status as a rising star, but also left a mark on the NYFW scene that will never be forgotten. In a city known for the vibrant arts and culture scene, Karin Ann’s performance was a standout moment making her a force to be reckoned with....... Grammy nominee Freda Payne is on the move. The phenomenal songstress will perform “Freda Payne! Tribute to Ella Fitzgerald One Night Only!” on April 7 at 7 p.m. at New York’s 54 Below. Payne will also be in concert prior to reprising her awardwinning role as Ella in the Broadway-bound musical “Ella, First Lady of Song” at Meadow Brook Theatre May 29- June 23 in her home state of Michigan in the city of Rochester. Payne is a Detroit native. Her song “Band of Gold” reached number 3 in the United States and was certified Gold. It reached the peak position on the UK singles chart and remained #1 for six weeks in 1970....

More than 40 minority businesses from throughout NYC and N.J. recently graduated from the JPMorgan Chase “Coaching for Impact” program, which provides technical

assistance, networking opportunities, and access to capital resources. Hosts included consultant Joy Butts and Sean Ramsaywak, North East Area Manager. Grads were

mother and daughter Dokola Moss and Britney Moss, Johnell Derrick, Sandra Garcia, Regina Fleming, Julia Carias, and Miling MaciasToro, to name a few.

Joy Butts, Senior Business Consultant, JPMorgan Chase. (Bill Moore photos)

Sean Ramsaywak, Area Manager for Chase Northeast region

(Bill Moore photos)

Meiling Macias Toro

Sean Ramasaywak, Joy Butts, Dakola Moss, and Britney Moss of Cupcake Me!

Johnell Derrick, Sandra Garcia (Encounter Your Potential), and Regina Fleming (Regina Fleming Photography)

Union Matters

REI store workers still clamoring for a union contract

By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff

Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI), the store that specializes in outdoor recreation products, has been staving off a union push.

In January 2022, employees at REI’s flagship store in Manhattan’s SoHo district were the first to file for union membership. The SoHo store’s 115 employees said the progressive, nature-oriented culture of the store had changed significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that persistent low wages and understaffed working hours were not enough to cover

costs of living for workers. Workers filed to be represented by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU).

In response, REI management put out a statement that said, “We respect the rights of our employees to speak and act for what they believe—and that includes the rights of employees to choose or refuse union representation. However, we do not believe placing a union between the co-op and its employees is needed or beneficial.”

Since then, nine more REI stores across the country have joined the unionizing effort. At last count, the stores in New York’s SoHo; Berke-

ley, California; Cleveland, Ohio; Chicago, Illinois; Durham, North Carolina; Boston, Massachusetts; Bellingham, Washington; Maple Grove, Minnesota; and Castleton, Indiana all have employees who say they want the opportunity to form a union.

RWDSU said it has had to file more than 80 unfair labor practice charges against REI with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), because it refuses to bargain in good faith with its employees. REI is a memberowned retail co-operative company; it’s being represented by the Morgan Lewis law firm, which is known to be a tough negotiator against unions.

Dept. of Labor’s ‘Bearing the Cost’ research shows gender, racial wage gap costs billions annually

New research released by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has revealed that Black women lost $42.7 billion in wages compared to white men in 2023, and Hispanic women lost $53.3 billion. These losses are driven entirely by the fact that Black and Hispanic women are concentrated disproportionately in jobs that, on average, pay lower wages than those held by white men.

“As we mark Equal Pay Day today, the Department of Labor’s ‘Bearing the Cost’ report is further evidence that women have long been undervalued in jobs and industries where they are overrepre-

sented,” said Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su. “The Biden-Harris administration is centering racial and gender equity in our economic growth plan, working to close the racial and gender pay gaps by expanding both opportunity and job quality for women.”

Job segregation is a longstanding driver of the persistent pay inequities experienced by women in the U.S. In 2022, the gender wage gap––the difference between the median wages of men and women working full-time year-round––was 16 percent, which means women working full-time year-round re-

Since taking on representation by Morgan Lewis in mid-May of 2023, REI representatives have not been showing up for scheduled negotiations, RWDSU claims. “In recent months, only REI’s attorneys have been appearing at bargaining sessions,” a RWDSU statement said, “further delaying the process of getting to a contract. Company management and decision makers have continually failed to attend sessions and negotiate with workers directly.”

Earlier this month, REI workers joined with RWDSU, an affiliate of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), to announce a new effort to have management listen to its union demands.

Following the March 6 media briefing, REI employees from across the country got together on March 7 and hiked up to the company’s sprawling 68,000-square-foot office space in Issaquah, Washington. Knocking on the doors to the building and crowding around out in front, workers began to picket the location and called on management to pay attention to the needs of its workers. Members of the REI Bargaining Committee set up tables outside of the office building and invited REI management to sit down and start having unionizing talks right outside.

ceived 84 cents for every dollar paid to men. Compared to white, non-Hispanic men, the wage gaps were 20 percent for white, non-Hispanic women; 31 percent for Black women; and 43 percent for Hispanic women.

“Job segregation results in lower wages for women, especially women of color and their families, and hurts the whole economy,” said Women’s Bureau Director Wendy Chun-Hoon. “The BidenHarris administration is implementing proven strategies to address economic disparities and working to eliminate the wage gap for all workers.”

During a virtual media briefing on March 6, Zoe Dunmire, who works in REI’s SoHo store, talked about how the flagship store has been petitioning for a union contract by pressuring REI to bargain based on the progressive store’s ideological concept of comfort and the need for shelter. “Our store is focused on the essential[s] of shelter,” Dunmire said, “which for us means a living wage and guaranteed minimum hours. ... You need some sort of shelter protecting you from the elements and without a living wage and the money that we need to pay for our rent in a very expensive city and guaranteed minimum hours to ensure that we are working enough to afford that,” she said, adding that it is difficult to function.

REI employees from across the country got together on March 7 and hiked up to the company’s sprawling 68,000-square-foot office space in Issaquah, Washington. Members of the REI Bargaining Committee set up tables outside of the office building and invited REI management to sit down and start having unionizing talks right outside. (RWDSU Communications photos)

Educator and community leader Dr. Marcella Maxwell dies at 96

By CYRIL JOSH BARKER

AmNews Digital Editor

Dr. Marcella Maxwell, best known for her work over the years as a teacher, college professor, administrator, and community leader, has died. Her family said she passed away on Thursday, March 21 at 11 a.m. at Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan. Maxwell was 96.

A native of Cleveland, North Carolina, Maxwell came from a long line of educators. Notably, her grandfather donated a land grant in her hometown for the first African American elementary school.

Maxwell moved to the New York area at a young age and became a secretary for the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). Feeling that her job was boring, Maxwell went to college and earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in elemen-

tary education from Long Island University.

Furthering her education, Maxwell later earned her doctorate in educational administration from Fordham University, writing her dissertation on a comparison of Black, white, and Puerto Rican elementary school principals in urban schools.

During her years in the classroom, she was selected by then-Assistant Superintendent John B. King Sr., father of current state Education Commissioner John B. King Jr., to go to Puerto Rico to teach English as a second language. Upon her return, Maxwell started training teachers at Bank Street College of Education.

During her career, Maxwell worked at Medgar Evers College, where she stayed for 13 years, serving as dean of external affairs and dean of adult and continuing education. She remained af-

filiated with the college for

several years serving on the foundation board.

Outside of the classroom, Maxwell touched the lives of people in the community through her North Manhattan Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority membership. She was longtime friends with Hazel N. Dukes, NAACP New York State Conference President, for several decades.

“For over four decades, this has been one of my dearest friends,” Dukes told the AmNews. “I’m saddened to join in this announcement.”

In a statement, former Harlem Congressman Charlie Rangel said Maxwell impacted many lives and will be missed.

“The loss of Marcella Maxwell is just starting to be felt. I will remember her as a champion for all people, young and old,” he said.

“She was an outstanding

human being.”

Maxwell was also a member of the prestigious Greater New York Chapter of the Links, Inc., where she worked with health and human services to provide education for seniors on issues such as Social Security, prescription drugs, and Medicare. She also chaired the organization’s Eastern Area’s women’s issues committee.

Maxwell even took on citywide positions. Under former Mayor Edward Koch, she served as commissioner of human rights and chair of the Commission on Women. Funeral services for Maxwell will be held April 5 at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. Members of Delta Sigma Theta and The Links will hold ceremonies at 9:30 a.m. followed by a viewing at 11 a.m. The funeral service will begin at 12 p.m.

Marcella Maxwell (Elinor Tatum photo)

A rare instance of justice in Mississippi

It isn’t often that Black victims receive some form of justice in Mississippi, but a federal judge in the Magnolia State delivered lengthy prison sentences to six white former law enforcement officers last week. In our coverage of the story in January of last year, two Black men were tortured by the officers, who referred to themselves as the “Goon Squad.”

Well, the goon squad is good and gone behind bars for at least 10 years for some of them, although not long enough for some Black residents. Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker, the two men who were tortured, are suing Rankin County and Sheriff Bryan Bailey for $400 million. They are also demanding that the sheriff resign.

“None of this would have existed if Bryan Bailey [the sheriff] did his job and was not complicit,” said Malik Shabazz, one of the attorneys representing Jenkins and Parker.

When we learned that the sheriff had filed for “qualified immunity,” it brought to mind the series we conducted on the subject, which is a legal doctrine that law enforcement officers use to avoid liability for abuses unless they violated “clearly established” laws.

“Sheriff Bryan Bailey directly participates in acts of excessive force with the deputies he supervises,” the lawsuit states, adding that he “has been denied qualified immunity by this court” previously.

In their suit, Jenkins and Parker cite another case in 2019, when Rankin County deputies fatally shot Pierre Woods, a Black man who suffered from mental illness, during a standoff. According to a judge, Bailey was present at the scene and failed to command his officers to stop shooting during the incident.

These encounters remind the nation, and certainly Black Mississipians, of the horrific deaths of too many Black people in the state’s history.

Shabazz, who acquired activist and legal credentials here in Harlem, said he considered the sentencing of the six officers a historic moment in the state’s history, but that deeper reforms are needed.

“I find that there is police corruption everywhere, but I find an absence of accountability especially in Mississippi,” he said.

In her song “Mississippi Goddam,” pianist and vocalist Nina Simone had something to say about the state in far more graphic terms.

Real estate industry-backed proposals would worsen housing crisis

By SUE SUSMAN, HUI CHENG YONG and ILLAPA SAIRITUPAC

Three rent-stabilized apartments on one floor of 50 West 97th Street are sitting empty. While the multi-millionaire landlord who lived in a Hamptons mansion of epic proportions warehouses them—possibly to pressure Albany to raise rents—many working people, some with family in the building, have applied to rent those units. One neighbor could use an apartment for her aging sister to have her living nearby for daily care. Another tenant has been sharing an apartment with a sibling who now has a growing child and needs more space. But Stellar Management is not renting them out, and there just aren’t many affordable apartments available

At 788 Columbus Avenue, 28 apartments sit empty. Many are rent stabilized and have been vacant for over five years. Frankensteining activity began in some of the contiguous apartments, but renovation activity suddenly stopped.

Is the landlord hoping Albany is about to roll back some of the hard-won gains of the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019? Is he planning to keep these apartments empty for now, losing revenue with the hope of a huge payday down the road?

For the past few decades, real estate industry-backed state and city policy has created a massive housing crisis in New York. Other cities and states have addressed homelessness with some serious successes, while New York upholds landlords’ aims of ever-increasing profits.

That’s a cold policy, but it’s not bloodless. The effects of housing instability and rising inequality touch each of our lives in many ways. But most of the housing policy costs are externalized onto the public while those who cause housing instability are insulated from its effects

Elinor

Aaron

Cyril

Wilbert

Having generated billions of dollars for its elites and millions for lobbyists, big real estate perversely claims its members are on the verge of financial ruin. Despite the fact that rental profits are steady, great, or astronomical—depending on whom you ask, owners cry they’re on

For the past few decades, real estate industry-backed state and city policy has created a massive housing crisis in New York. Other cities and states have addressed homelessness with some serious successes, while New York upholds landlords’ aim of ever-increasing profits.

the threshold of poverty. They’re lobbying like crazy for a bill, S6352C/A6772A, that would encourage the displacement of long-term tenants by hiking the rents of vacant stabilized apartments that had been occupied for 10 years or more. Are they really too broke to fix their neglected property?

The landlord group Community Housing Improvement Program (CHIP) says the 26,000 rent-stabilized apartments that its members are holding off the market are too dilapidated to rent out, and demands more money for their repair.

• Never mind that landlords have neglected their duty to keep these apartments habitable for decades, and are now blaming tens of thousands of tenants for poor conditions.

• Never mind that the NYC Rent Guidelines Board reports owners of rent-stabilized apartments have netted from $500 to over $800 dollars above operating expenses (depending on the borough) for each apartment each month for decades. (Those nets don’t include lead abatement, for which there are grants available, taxes, and debt service.)

• Never mind that the state guarantees a 5% return on rent-stabilized housing, so a landlord who is not making that from the rents can ask the state to raise them. (Few ask since it means opening their books.)

• Never mind that CHIP itself said it was holding these apartments off the market to pressure Albany to give them more money!

• Never mind that only a single landlord has applied for the NYC “Unlocking Doors” program offering

money to bring dilapidated homes up to code.

The same real estate industry that can’t afford $50,000 to bring an apartment to habitability is spending millions on lobbying. So smooth, so slick, so pervasive is their public relations machine that policymakers—in nearconstant contact with industry lobbyists, and almost no routine contact with regular constituents—can fall sway to this spin machine.

But passing S6352C/A6772A would paint a target on the backs of long-term rent-stabilized tenants. As a recent New York Times headline said, “New York City’s Housing Crunch is the Worst It Has Been in Over 50 Years.”

“What can we do?” we ask. The roots of the crisis are too complex for regular people to understand, we’re told. Policymakers shake their heads grimly in public while accepting millions of dollars from real estate

Solving this is not impossible: We can start by not handing out gobs of taxpayer money to landlords! We need the city and state to keep accurate numbers of warehoused apartments and how they’re maintained so landlord spin doesn’t dominate housing policy. This should be a city for all of us, and housing is a right.

Sue Susman is head of the Central Park Gardens Tenants’ Association and runs an email list on affordable housing. Illapa Sairitupac is a tenant organizer, social worker and climate organizer on the Lower East Side. Hui Cheng Yong is an active member of the STS/End Apartment Warehousing Coalition.

Crossroads of destiny: Weighing Trump and Biden’s prospects in the upcoming general election

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

The upcoming general election is going to be one for the ages. Political elections are divisive by their nature with both sides attempting to do everything they can to defeat the other. However, the United States is gearing up for the rematch no one wants with Joe Biden and Donald Trump embodying distinctly different visions for the future of the nation. Both candidates bring a unique set of strengths and weaknesses to the campaign, reflecting broader ideological, cultural and economic tensions that have come to define American politics.

Donald Trump: Strengths and Weaknesses

Donald Trump’s presidency has been marked by a commitment to an “America First” ideology, and his now famous slogan “Make America Great Again,” characterized by an aggressive stance on immigration, skepticism towards multilateral trade agreements and international alliances, and the eschewing of government bureaucracy—endearing him to many conservative voters. His ability to communicate directly and effectively with his base through social media and rallies is unparalleled, bypassing traditional media channels to rally support and mobilize voters. This direct line to supporters not only consolidates his base but also allows him to set and dominate the political agenda in

real-time.

However, Trump’s tenure has also been fraught with controversy and polarization. His four pending criminal trials are a serious risk to his reelection bid. Additionally, his approach to governance, often seen as divisive and confrontational, has alienated moderate and independent voters. The relentless pace of controversies, from impeachment proceedings to his handling of race relations and protests, has further cemented the perception of an administration mired in turmoil and conflict, eroding the sense of national unity.

Joe Biden: Strengths and Weaknesses

Joe Biden, on the other hand, presents himself as a unifying figure, promising to restore dignity and integrity to the Oval Office and to bridge the deep divides that have emerged in American society. Yet, the country is perhaps even more divided than before. With decades of experience in public service, including eight years as Vice President, Biden offers a return to a more traditional, diplomatic approach to governance, emphasizing consensus-building and bipartisanship. His policy platform, while progressive, seeks to appeal to both the Democratic base and moderate Republicans disillusioned with Trump’s presidency, advocate for a more equitable healthcare system and measured cli-

mate action, and to restore America’s alliances abroad.

Nevertheless, Biden’s campaign is not without its vulnerabilities. Critics argue that his lengthy career in Washington epitomizes the very establishment politics that voters rejected in 2016. A majority of Americans are concerned about his age. At 81, Biden is the oldest person ever to seek reelection and will be the oldest president if he wins. His age and occasional verbal gaffes have raised concerns about his capacity to endure the rigors of the presidency. Voters are concerned with immigration, the state of the economy. and the rising costs of everyday goods—a result of persisting inflation. Despite his efforts to energize younger voters and progressives within the Democratic Party some are now rejecting Biden outright because of the Israel and Hamas conflict, coupled with the lowest approval rating of any president at this point in their presidency; the path to reelection doesn’t look good for Biden at all.

Navigating the Road to the General Election

As the general election approaches, Biden and Trump face the challenge of broadening their appeal beyond their core supporters while navigating a profoundly changed national landscape, shaped by rampant illegal immigration, expensive foreign conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine,

Reflecting on Women’s History Month

economic uncertainty, and social unrest. Trump’s strength lies in his ability to mobilize his base with a clear, if contentious, message and vision for America. Yet, this same approach may limit his ability to attract undecided and moderate voters critical to securing a second term. Biden’s promise of stability and unity resonates with many Americans yearning for a return to normalcy, but he must overcome perceptions of being a “status quo” candidate and articulate a compelling vision that speaks to the urgent needs and aspirations of a diverse and divided nation.

As Trump and Biden head into the general election, their campaigns reflect a crossroads in American politics. The outcome will not only decide the immediate future of the nation but also signal the direction of its political, economic, and social evolution in the decades to come. Voters are tasked with a choice that goes beyond the two men themselves, grappling with fundamental questions about the values, identity, and aspirations of America in the 21st century.

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

I have been reflecting on the past month and all of the women who have been acknowledged and celebrated throughout the month. I am thinking about the wonderful conversations I had during International Women’s Day about the various women who are making a difference across the globe. I have also been thinking about the women I would like to research further as I continue to highlight the accomplishments of women who are working diligently to make this country more equitable and welcoming for all.

I have been thinking a lot about women who run for office, especially Black women—the sacrifices they make and the vision they bring forth to make their cities, states, and this country a better place. I think often about Stacey Abrams, two-time Georgia gubernatorial candidate, and Val Demmings and Cherie Beasley, who ran for the Senate in Florida and North Carolina, respectively. I think about the challenges they faced as Black female candidates running statewide, the lack of support from institutions and individuals where support should have been a guarantee, and the attacks on everything from their physical appearance to their families to their personal safety.

Running for office is a difficult endeavor; there is a reason they call it public service. In so many ways, candidates give themselves over to the public and their lives, their daily movements, and their private decisions become fodder for the public. It is a lot to ask of anyone, but

the interplay of racism and sexism make running for office for Black women an endeavor that is multifaceted and often much more complex when compared to other racial and ethnic groups running for office, and definitely when compared to men running for office. When was the last time there were articles about a male candidate’s hair—or lack of it?

A record number of Black women are running for the House and the Senate this election year. Even though Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) was not successful in her Democratic primary bid for Senate, the campaigns of Executive Angela Alsobrooks (Prince George’s County, Md.) and Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (DDel.) could still yield positive outcomes. As I always write in this column, we must invest financially in the democracy we want to see—even if candidates are not in our home states.

It is my sincere hope that during the month of March, you were able to highlight some of the women in your life and even learn about women you didn’t know much about, past and present. I hope that we will one day move toward a society where we are beyond firsts and have a greater sense of equity. Until then, we keep learning and we keep voting.

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

CHRISTINA GREER, PH.D.

Caribbean Update

Caricom continues to push Haiti to form an interim government

By BERT WILKINSON Special to the AmNews

Caribbean Community (Caricom) leaders this week continued with top secret efforts to coax politically warring political parties and civil society groups in Haiti to form an interim government to help stabilize the strife-torn country even as some nominees say they are worried about their personal safety.

For the past two weeks, regional leaders have been meeting or attempting to hold virtual meetings with the recently established nine-member interim council of seven political parties and two nonvoting civil society members representing the private sector and religious organizations. Several such sessions were scheduled for this past weekend, but some were postponed at the request of the council as members struggled with internal issues.

Efforts to appoint an interim government to fill the void left by long-delayed general elections and the expiration of constitutional office tenures have been going on in earnest for most of the past year, with the 15-nation Caricom bloc playing the lead role in helping to form a government.

Haiti was the last country to join Caricom back in 2002. It is the grouping’s most populous but troubled member state. Haiti has been in the throes of civil unrest linked

“The Haitian people have been waiting for results for far too long. Despite stepping down from the presidential council, I pledge to continue representing Haiti admirably at UNESCO and vow my ongoing commitment to defend the Haitian people," said Dupuy.

to violence at the hands of heavily armed gangs controlling and roaming areas in the capital, Port Au Prince, especially since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

In recent weeks, Caricom has been able to work with local stakeholders to form the nine-member interim government or presidential council. Caricom has insisted that it is only playing the role of facilitator and that Haitian stakeholders will have to do the “dirty work” once an interim government is in place.

The council encountered a major setback at the weekend when one of the major political party nominees withdrew her name as a potential cabinet member amid death and other threats, officials said. The withdrawal of Dominique Dupuy, representing the Compromis Historique/RED/EDE coalition, came as representatives from western nations—including the U.S., Canada,

and France—were meeting on Sunday with council members to discuss security and related matters for them once they were sworn in. Officials said that the coalition was quickly able to replace Dupuy and is now back to full strength.

Dupuy is Haiti’s ambassador to UNESCO. She has said that she will remain at the UN and continue serving Haiti.

The council is now scheduled to meet with leaders later on Monday to discuss the latest events and continue the push to form an interim government that would stabilize the worsening security situation, prepare for fresh elections by mid-next year, and give comfort to the deployment of a multinational security force. The government will also form a security council once in office.

Monday’s scheduled meeting between the two sides would be the third effort in as many days to meet virtually. The council

had twice asked for a postponement over the weekend as it struggled with its own internal issues, including the withdrawal of Dupuy. Dupuy announced her resignation from the council late Sunday via video message.

“The Haitian people have been waiting for results for far too long. Despite stepping down from the presidential council, I pledge to continue representing Haiti admirably at UNESCO and vow my ongoing commitment to defend the Haitian people,” said Dupuy.

Even as Caricom leaders nervously wait for the council to settle down so it can be formally unveiled to the world and be sworn in, there have been rumblings from at least one of the two civil society members, who is demanding the right to vote, according to the Haitian Times.

René Jean-Jumeau is beginning to hint that he will walk away from the council because of his inability to cast a vote, leaving it with additional problems. “I cannot, in good conscience, accept a role as an observer without the ability to act,” he said on local radio and the X social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Any delays in ensuring that the council is up and running means that the long-promised multinational security force headed to Haiti will be further put on hold because there is no actual government to host it.

Immigration is benefiting the U.S. and the data undeniably shows it

FELICIA PERSAUD IMMIGRATION KORNER

Immigration is “not poisoning the blood” of America, but is actually helping its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) greatly—and the numbers prove it.

That’s according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which calculated in a report released last month that immigration will generate a $7 trillion boost to the GDP over the next decade. The agency came to that conclusion after incorporating the recent surge in immigrants across the country.

Shocking, right? Donald Trumpeto, Greg “SB 4” Abbott, and the right-wing xenophobes will probably scream “fake news,” but as the saying goes, numbers don’t lie. Unless, of course, you are Trumpeto and you are lying about the billions you allegedly own—or not, as New York Attorney General Letitia James has uncovered.

But I digress. There is no “supposedly” or “allegedly” in the CBO’s numbers, which have economists from Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase & Co., HSBC Holdings Plc., and BNP Paribas SA singing the same happy tune.

The buzz on Wall Street is from both more legal immigrants, as the U.S. goes through unprecedented visa backlogs, and the surge in illegal border crossings. The nation’s 32.5 million immigrant workers now account for roughly one in five U.S. workers, a record high in government data going back almost two decades.

The positive outlook came as the unemployment rate rose to a two-year high in February and businesses are ramping up calls for changes to bring in more workers through legal channels. Almost 9 million positions are open across the economy, equal to 1.4 jobs for every jobseeker. Foreign-born workers made up a record 18.6% of the civilian workforce in 2023 and the U.S. approved a record number of work authorizations in the fiscal year through last September.

“Immigration is not just a highly charged

social and political issue; it is also a big macro-economic one,” wrote Janet Henry, global chief economist at HSBC Holdings Plc., in a note to clients last week, according to Bloomberg News. “No advanced economy is benefiting from immigration quite like the U.S., and the impact of migration has been an important part of the U.S. growth story over the past two years.”

Morgan Stanley economists Sam Coffin and Ellen Zentner also noted this month that faster population growth, fueled by immigration, lends itself to stronger employment and population estimates than initially thought, although they added that the full effect might not be captured by official data.

Goldman Sachs estimated that immigration was around 2.5 million in 2023, a figure that is far above the 1.6 million implied by the change in the foreignborn population in the official household survey from the Census Bureau.

To be sure, the connection between the higher influx of foreign workers and the rapid post-pandemic recovery has been noted by economists and policymakers

alike for some time now. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has repeatedly cited immigration as one of the reasons behind strong U.S. economic growth. In a reference to the role being played by higher labor supply, Powell pointed last week to “a strong pace” of immigration as helping on that front.

“The overall picture is a strong labor market—the extreme imbalances we saw in the early parts of the pandemic recovery have mostly been resolved, you’re seeing high job growth, you’re seeing big increases in supply,” Powell said at a press conference, as federal policymakers lifted their growth forecast for this year to 2.1% from 1.4%, their median estimate showed.

The CBO report has the last word: It insists there is a need for an immigrant workforce to help the nation’s economy grow—otherwise, without immigration, the U.S. population is expected to shrink into 2040. And that’s a fact you can take to the bank!

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

GOSPEL CARAVAN

Health

Blood test for colon cancer performed well in a study, expanding options for screening

By CARLA K. JOHNSON AP Medical Writer

A blood test for colon cancer performed well in a study published Wednesday, offering a new kind of screening for a leading cause of cancer deaths. The study was sponsored by Guardant Health and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The test looks for DNA fragments shed by tumor cells and precancerous growths. It’s already for sale in the U.S. for $895, but has not yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and most insurers do not cover it. The maker of the test, Guardant Health, anticipates an FDA decision this year.

In the study, the test caught 83% of the cancers but very few of the precancerous growths found by colonoscopy, the gold standard for colon cancer screening. In addition to spotting tumors, colonoscopies can prevent the disease by removing precancerous growths called polyps.

Some people avoid the exam be-

According to a study published Wednesday, Mar. 13, 2024, in the New England Journal of Medicine and sponsored by Guardant Health, the test performed well, further expanding screening options for a leading cause of cancer deaths. The test missed some cancers and won’t replace colonoscopy, the gold standard test (Guardant Health via AP)

cause of the hassle of getting time off work or the day-ahead preparation that involves drinking a strong laxative to empty the bowels.

A convenient alternative is an annual stool test, where people send a stool sample to a lab for analysis.

“The best test is the one someone will actually complete,” said Dr. Douglas Corley, chief research officer for Kaiser Permanente, Northern California, who was not involved in the study. “Giving people a choice increases the number of people who will get screened.”

In the U.S., screening is recom-

mended for healthy adults ages 45 to 75 at average risk for colon cancer. Frequency depends on the test: The routine colonoscopy timing is every 10 years. Screening is inching up, but falls well short of the 80% of age-eligible adults goal set by the American Cancer Society and other groups.

Guardant recommends testing with its blood test, called Shield, every three years. Like a stool test, this blood test requires a followup colonoscopy if there’s an abnormal result, which could lead to more out-of-pocket costs.

Reduce Your Cancer Risk by Eating Healthy

The study involved 7,861 people in the U.S. who had both a colonoscopy and a blood test.

While the blood test caught 83% of the cancers found by colonoscopy, it missed 17%. That’s on par with stool-based tests.

There were also false alarms: For 10% of the people where the colonoscopy found nothing, the blood test falsely indicated they might have colon cancer. That means a sizable number of people would face the anxiety of follow-up colonoscopies.

The blood test is tuned to pick up the signature of colon cancer, but more research is needed to determine whether it might pick up other cancers as well and give misleading results, Corley said.

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States and the third worldwide. In the U.S., more than 153,000 new cases and 53,000 deaths from the disease are expected this year.

More screening should result in fewer cancer deaths, said study co-author Dr. William Grady of the

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, a paid member of Guardant’s scientific advisory board.

In a separate study published Wednesday in the same journal, an updated version of the Cologuard stool test, which also looks for DNA fragments, seemed to improve its performance on false alarms, possibly leading to fewer follow-up colonoscopies. That study, involving more than 20,000 people, was sponsored by Exact Sciences, maker of the test.

“The more options we have for our patients, the better,” said Dr. Nabil Mansour of the Baylor College of Medicine, who was not involved in either study. He will continue to recommend a colonoscopy for his patients but added, “I’m excited there will be a pretty good blood test option available.”

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Learn to make healthy, low-cost meals through our free online cooking series led by Karla Giboyeaux, a registered dietitian at the MSK Ralph Lauren Center in Harlem.

For Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month (March), learn how to make a red meat-free version of Pastelón.

Arts & Entertainment

A celebration of poet Phillis Wheatley

By NADINE MATTHEWS Special to the AmNews

On March 22, luminaries in experimental and jazz music, historians, and spoken word artists came together in one of the most hallowed music venues in the country to celebrate poet Phillis Wheatley. Most known as the first Black American woman to have a book of poetry published, Wheatley rose above her circumstances as an enslaved woman in colonial-era Boston and advocated for herself, other Black people, and America itself through her poetry.

The event, called “Echoes of Freedom: A Tribute to Phillis Wheatley Peters,” was held in association with AFROPUNK and presented as part of Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series of concerts.

The event took place in Jazz Lincoln Center’s amphitheater style Appel Room with its 50 by 80-foot wall of glass overlooking Columbus Circle. Kevin Young, director of the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture (which houses Wheatley’s papers), musician aden, spoken word artist and first Lincoln Center Poet in Residence Mahogany Browne, and trumpeter Theo Drucker with his band Dream Manifest came together to share words and music inspired by Wheatley’s life and work.

With Central Park, reflections of city lights zipping back and forth across the glass, and a view of the gold tip of Gaetano Russo’s 1892 sculpture of Christopher Columbus as the backdrop, the evening began with an introduction by Young, himself a poet. Young discussed Wheatley’s life and emphasized that the social context in which she created included being a part of a thriving community of other Black creatives.

“Though she was first,” he said, “she was not alone. She had important connections to Jupiter Hammon, who was the first Black person to publish poems in magazines in the United States, and artist Scipio More -

head, who drew the frontispiece of her for her first book.”

Young also discussed Wheatley’s political awareness. “She lived in Boston during the Revolutionary War and was politically savvy,” he said. “She wrote and published poems about politics. She was surely thinking about her own liberation as she wrote and witnessed the colonists demand for the same.”

Young recited a poem of his own, “Emancipation,” dedicated to Wheatley.

aden performed on piano, keyboards, and computer while accompanied by bass guitarist Emmanuel and drummer Eliza. They created what was essentially a musical score while Brown performed a poem titled “A Sickle for Phillis Wheatley.” She described it as “a response to [Wheatley’s] poem ‘Farewell to America.’ It’s the contemporary voice responding to the classic.”

The accompanying music rose ever so slowly as Browne spoke, reaching a crescendo as she concluded.

aden went from playing audio effects on her computer, including poetry by Lucille Clifton and Gwendolyn Brooks, to keyboard, piano, and singing. The overall effect went back and forth from subtly experimental to smooth plaintive soul, her voice alternating between slick, haunting soprano and warm, velvety alto, resulting in a satisfying, cerebral performance.

A brief Q and A between aden and Brown followed as they inquired about each other’s creative processes and artistic connections to Wheatley, and discussed how they researched Wheatley and her poetry.

“I felt like it was really important, as much as I was reading into what was left of her writings, to also try to leave space for the imagination of what has been left unsaid and what can we never know, but still hold space for its complexity,” aden said.

Browne connected some of her own challenges with those of Wheatley. “I’m used to people

Band members Eric Wheeler, double bass, Miguel Russell, drums

(L-R) Multi-instrumental composer aden with Lincoln Center's first poet-in-residence Mahogany L. Browne. (Lawrence Sumulong photos)

Wheatley

Continued from page 17

trying to erase my stuff and Phillis Wheatley went through that.”

Referring to an infamous 1772 tribunal assembled to verify authorship of Wheatley’s work, Browne added, “She had to have 12 white men saying ‘Yes, she really wrote this,’ instead of just people believing the word of

the poet.”

The evening concluded with the cool jazz stylings of Afrofuturist artist and Grammynominated jazz trumpeter and composer Theo Croker and his band, consisting of Eric Wheeler on bass, Patrice Frederick on piano, and Miguel Russell on drums.

Croker, like aden, incorporated recorded spoken word into the presentation, from singer Jill Scott and activist Malcolm X.

Croker said of Wheatley, “It’s good to

be able to look at history and find actual proof of the ability to overcome all circumstances.”`He chose the elements of his recorded audio, he said, as “an extension of that ability to show everybody our collective humanity through their art and work.”

Croker and his band created a multifaceted soundscape for the audience; at times mournful, hopeful, smoldering, romantic—all touched by an appealing

otherworldliness.

The performances all came together to provide a rousing and sincere tribute to the legacy of Black American creativity first (reluctantly) recognized in Wheatley more than 200 years ago.

Visit https://www.lincolncenter.org/ home for more information about the American Songbook series and other upcoming events at Lincoln Center and Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Band members included Theodore Croker, trumpet; Idris Frederick, keys; Eric Wheeler, double bass, Miguel Russell, drums (Lawrence Sumulong photos)

A conversation with ESPN’s Elle Duncan about her new book

By JORDANNAH ELIZABETH Special to the AmNews

The ESPN journalist Elle Duncan, known for her encounter with NBA force-of-nature Kobe Bryant, who declared himself a “Girldad,” has honored the basketball star’s pride in his three daughters with a children’s book entitled “For You I Will.” We connected with Duncan via email to delve deeper into her inspiration, experience as a “Girlmom,” and reflections of her own childhood.

AmNews: What was it specifically about your contribution to “A Love Letter to Black Women” that inspired your debut children’s book?

Elle Duncan: I wrote my letter to my daughter when she was two and a half at the time. I loved my letter, but I wrote it with the understanding it would be some years before she could understand it. “For You I Will” was a way to connect with her at her current level. She can read it herself and enjoy the illustrations, and my hope was it would hit on themes that mothers and fathers could share beyond my own personal experience of mothering Eva.

AmNews: As a Black woman working in sports and media, you witness the bias toward young women in an aggressively maledominated field. What do young women face today that concerns you the most? How does your book disrupt some of the challenges Black girls face?

Duncan: My biggest concern for young Black women is not just the bias they face; it’s the idea that we prepare our girls for life by planting that seed before they even have the lived experience to see it for themselves. I’m afraid we “other” them and cloak it as wisdom. I know Black parents are caught between a rock and a hard place—we have to prepare our children for the harsh realities our people face in society—but my hope with the book and in general is that we also celebrate the joy and uniqueness in being Black.

I hope I can teach my daughter to approach life with earnestness and zeal, and teach her to find her voice so that when she has to, she’s prepared to use it and advocate for herself and her community. I don’t want her to be naive; I also don’t want her to approach life with her defenses up at all times.

AmNews: When writing children’s books, I find it’s important to be in touch with your inner child. Did you have to do inner work on yourself before sitting down to write “For You I Will”?

Duncan: I’m luckily fully entrenched in all things kids because I have two under five (years old), so fortunately I’ve been in touch with my inner child for half a decade now! I have the goldfish crumbs in my car to prove it.

AmNews: When encouraging your daughter and girls to be themselves, how did you find your voice and the language to weave the story?

Duncan: I wanted to be honest and try my best to convey the complexities of growing into Black womanhood, having experienced it and simultaneously speaking on the other side as now a Black mother trying to assist my daughter in the same way my mom did through my journey. I

think the difficulty was making it digestible for kids while still remaining poignant and clear. I hope I’ve struck that balance.

AmNews: You also created the #Girldad trend in homage to Kobe Bryant and loving fathers of daughters. Has seeing Kobe’s example healed any wounds within you as a daughter?

Duncan: I had no wounds. I have the ultimate girldad. In fact, that was why that conversation resonated with me so strongly, because I also had a father who wouldn’t trade having daughters for anything in the world. He believed we could do anything and so we believed we could. I will say, though, when people found out I was pregnant with a girl, they giggled or hit me with a “karma” comment as if having a daughter was a punishment. Kobe was the first person who truly made me feel as though having a daughter in and of itself

was the gift. It was truly special.

AmNews: What is the most rewarding aspect of being a mother, and being able to translate your wisdom into words and beautiful illustrations?

Duncan: My children have brought me a level of perspective that I thought I had already mastered. I prioritize things differently now and truly care solely about their health and wellness over all the other things that used to bog me down. They also give me immeasurable joy. Yes, there are times they drive me crazy, but I’ve never laughed or played harder in my life. I love reliving my childhood through them, and their wonder for the world is contagious. To be able to give my daughter a legacy of a book with her image and words from my heart is such an honor and incredibly humbling

AmNews: What was it like

working with award-winning author Laura Freeman? Was the process collaborative as she brought color and vibrancy to your words?

Duncan: Laura is so incredible. When I saw her work as a potential illustrator for the book, I was absolutely blown away. There were some ideas I had for illustrations as I was writing, but to be honest, as a creative, I never like cramping the process with too much oversight. The beautiful part, and why I know she was destined to work on this book, is that so much of what I envisioned and never shared was there on the pages when she sent her first look. It was also her idea to use my daughter as actual inspiration, so I sent her a ton of pics and she absolutely nailed it! I can’t stop looking at her illustrations—they’re so beautiful, and this book wouldn’t be what it is without her talent and vision.

HOROSCOPES BY KNOWYOURNUMB3RS

The simplest things are the easiest things you can do and inner-stand when you put your mind to it. You can begin with your plan or regime to build a foundation with what you have in your home, including your body. Ask for guidance or for what you want with applied footwork and see the outcome. The most important part about asking is what you do in the meantime before the results begin to show up. From April 1 around 12:05 a.m. until April 3 around 4:48 a.m., be an astute student and take notes of the changes within your environment. Allow the universe to show you what you need to see, places you need to go, and interactions you need to have with people.

Vision plus a mastermind plan at its finest. It’s a cycle week to make your plan concrete, whether it’s something new or an idea. Outline it like a rough draft and ask for whatever you need, as the universe will show you in different ways. Pay close attention to the words you utter, and to your environment. That person you ask for help may assist you in a spiritual nature; it’s up to you to figure it out. In the days leading up to April 3 and onward, when you feel inclined to do something, do it or see it through on all levels presented to you. If you missed the message or help, at least you know and will do better next time.

April is a month where opportunity is knocking at your door, ready to sell you a service, product, gig—whatever you like. Choose wisely the one that’s beneficial for you. Who says what they are offering you is what you need? Be wise and negotiate. If it’s a no-deal, proceed to the next offer in your best interest. The day of March 28 and in the days leading up to April 5, the old folks used to say “shop around” before committing to something. It’s okay to have an interest. Draw out the least of what you need and what you can have without an offer, deal, or just anything you pursue.

Did you catch the drift thrown at you? What’s in the details of the information being presented to you? You have all the facts and details needed to submit with the paperwork to support and complete your claim. What foundation are you standing on, or do you have a foundation to stand on? From March 29 around 3:52 p.m. until April 1 until 11:35 a.m., go back to the drawing board to capture where things are playing out before you point at or blame someone else. It’s always great to review and revise, like retrograde effects, to see what you missed and to gather the remaining facts.

Abracadabra: Lay the foundation when you walk through, whether it’s at the board meeting or conference—whatever it is, fill in the piece of the foundation for completion. This week, have a new perspective and the drive to see it through, gathering all the resources and tools necessary. From April 1 around 12:05 a.m. until April 3 around 4:48 a.m., apply the footwork and check on everything you invested; begin anew, even the new concepts you give birth to. Leave no shoestring untied—this is the next level on a humanitarian level.

Ready or not, this is the preparation cycle for a culmination to begin a new chapter. What that new beginning is, only you know within the depth of your soul. Start planning the agenda and follow through. Remove all distractions to aim at the goal and higher. Partnership is required even if you think you can do it all by yourself. The team will come to assist, just keep the folks who you have on your roster. In the days leading up to April 3, gather all the ingredients to specialize in this grand-slam plan you are cooking up. I’m sure folks can smell it.

Rebirth of A New Nation: Let’s recap: on October 14, 2023, there was a Solar eclipse in Libra at 21 degrees. Fast forward to March 24 with a Lunar Eclipse in Libra at 5 degrees: What began in your life during that time, and what did you discover within the last 10 days before and after the recent eclipse? As Kanye West said in his song “All Falls Down,” “‘Cause they made us hate ourself and love they wealth.” Just sit with that, and think about your life and the things you have done throughout your life. Who do you live and work for? Although wealth is a part of our DNA, it is time to go within to find our wealth and make something out of that. Every word you utter comes from within; look how you operate your body like a machine, and the minerals you need to consume from the earth to stay in tune and in touch with yourself. When we the people figure it out, it will change the agenda and operations of the U.S. “You are already that which you want to be, and your refusal to believe it is the only reason you do not see it.” —Neville Goddard

Do you love change and what change offers you? Bear with me for a minute. Your zodiac sign is Cancer the nurturer. Get engulfed in the changes that are occurring within your environment by feeling, sensing, smelling, touching, and using the spiritual realm to take those feelings and senses beyond the physical. On March 28 and in the days leading up to April 5, close your eyes and be one with yourself to receive the messages. Once you enter and exit the transit, write down what you have seen, heard, felt, etc. to build your foundation.

During the month of April, what, when, why, who, and where are your essential keys to know what you need to know? The detours, those odd and uncomfortable excursions you witness and go through, are the tools you need to rise higher. March 29 around 3:52 p.m. until April 1 until 11:35 a.m. is a cycle to elevate, pass “Go” like in Monopoly, and grab your “get out of jail free” card. You are on a greater mission for spiritual collective energy. Stay focused, because the little picture is the bigger picture.

Miracles occur because you are magical, and that creates miracles. The vision, mission, and purpose are all included in the passion to gain profit. Money is a luxury that has been abused out of its original form of business. Just know your gift will make a way to where you need to be. From April 1 around 12:05 a.m. until April 3 around 4:48 a.m., the doors will open and the people will come if you continue the path of your journey. The investment, time, effort, sweat, sleepless nights, and restless days are all for a higher mission apart from why you are here. Keep moving forward through the green light.

Libra’s element is air and is combining with this fiery Aries season to blow a spark here, there, over there, and down there so everyone can hear the messages and feel something in their heart within the Libra full moon influence that occurred early in the morning on March 24. What was sparked, triggered, gained, or lost, during the solar eclipse on October 14, 2023, that is bridging the gap on the recent Lunar eclipse on March 24? In the days leading up to April 3, go ahead and jog your memory—there you will find out where you are heading and what’s ending.

You know it all as some will think you do by the way you act and what you say. You’ve witnessed, experienced, and done a lot of things that folks can relate to and you can pass down information for future insight to others on how it’s going to go. It all boils down to what you are going to do about it. Yes, that means doing the footwork, making the application, talking to folks, and being the center of attention when you are not trying. You just are. On March 28 and in the days leading up to April 5, only tell people what they need to know. Sometimes people need to go through their own trials and tribulations.

Who knew the opportunities would come knocking at your doorsteps, sweeping you off your feet to take the offer or deal? Review the fine print of the offers, like selecting the best candidate to date, or to take home to your mother after dating a while for your mother’s approval. Get it together mentally, physically, and spiritually and make decisions as the universe will guide you. From March 29 around 3:52 p.m. until April 1 until 11:35 a.m., the universe will not only guide you but push you to follow your purpose and passion. As you travel through the changes, be excited for the new chapter of your life.

Ron K. Brown’s Evidence, Rennie Harris’s Puremovement, Ayodele celebrate ‘Max Roach

By ZITA ALLEN

Special to the AmNews

“Max Roach 100,” part of a nationwide centennial celebrating the iconic drummer, composer, and activist, takes the stage at the Joyce Theatre from April 2–7, paying tribute to the legendary jazz pioneer with a program of commissioned works by a collection of dance legends in their own right.

Max Roach (1924–2007) was one of the two leading drummers of the bebop era and one of the leading musicians, composers, and bandleaders in jazz since the 1940s. His powerhouse career got off the ground when he was 18 years old and played with the Duke Ellington Orchestra. He went on to work with a who’s who in bebop and jazz, including Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Coleman Hawkins, Bud Powell, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Abbey Lincoln, Dinah Washington, Benny Carter, Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz, Archie Shepp, Abdullah Ibrahim, Cecil Taylor, and more. He also collaborated with his daughter Maxine Roach, a Grammy-nominated violinist.

At the upcoming Joyce Theatre tribute, Ronald K. Brown’s EVI-

100’

DENCE: A Dance Company

will be joined by the Havana-based Malpaso Dance Company as the two dance groups jam to Roach’s percussive Afro Cuban rhythms in the latest work by Brown and Arcell Cabuag called “Tender Warriors.” Brown said the soundscape for this new dance is Roach’s 1961 album “Per cussion Bitter Sweet,” which Roach premiered after an inspiring trip to Cuba. “When you get great music, you can’t get away from it and it dictates the movement,” Brown said as he recalled what it was like to encounter Roach. “The instrumentation—there is so much fire in it. So much fire. The trumpets, the horns—there is so much energy.”

takes on an explosively theatrical solo set to a series of duets between Roach and fellow jazz pioneer, pianist Cecil Taylor. The program opens with a new film by video artist Kit Fitzgerald featuring archival footage of Roach.

In another piece on the program, “The Dream/It’s Time,” Roach’s band joins a recording of Martin Luther King Jr. in an aspirational and urgent conversation, now amplified by the street dance storytelling of Rennie Harris Puremovement.

Tap artist Ayodele Casel, whose rhythmic feet become another percussive instrument in the musical ensemble as she completes the celebratory evening,

In an interview with the Amsterdam News, Brown’s excitement about the upcoming program is palpable. “I’m very excited. The two companies look so amazing together. Watching them work together is so mind-blowing,” he said. “This is so special.”

The virtuosity of the choreographer who can blend all dance styles into one form must have been new to them. “You know, most of the dancers in Cuba study all of the

dance techniques—ballet, folklore, and modern—and at some point, they have to choose one,” Brown said. “When I first worked with them, they were surprised that I used so much Afro-Cuban folk dance in my modern dances.”

With a humble explanation that underscored his own unique African Diasporic style, Brown told them gently that as a Black man from the U.S., this is what he does. “It’s been amazing to see the dancers light up. The music connects to the traditions in both countries.”

The program includes a song called “Garvey’s Ghost,” Brown said, explaining how he wanted to honor Roach’s interest in the Jamaican-born political activist. The title of the music refers to the leader of the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), one of this country’s largest Pan-African movements in the early part of the 20th century. “I think Max was impacted by all the work that Garvey was doing, so I had to pull that element into it too. Understanding the Pan-African Movement is so prevalent in the piece. I’m really excited for audiences to see the work. It’s so

powerful and so amazing. We’re so proud of it,” Brown said.

The collaboration between Brown’s company and Malpaso not only honors Roach’s music but also pays tribute to the master musician’s history of working with such dance companies as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dianne McIntyre Dance Company, and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. In 1980, Max Roach and singer Abbey Lincoln performed with McIntyre at the Symphony Space Theater on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

In an interview with me for the Amsterdam News back then, Roach spoke softly but with an unvarnished frankness about the art he had devoted his life to, the space where his art lives, and a space where art and politics overlap: “The artist’s responsibility is to chronicle the times. We are the secretary of our times, some do it with words, others, abstract artists, do it another way…while culture is for entertainment, its main purpose is enlightenment.”

At the upcoming “Max Roach 100” program, audiences are bound to get a bit of both. For more info, visit www.joyce.org.

Photos of Max Roach (Photos courtesy of the Family of Max Roach)

‘Fences’: August Wilson classic has powerful revival in BK

By LINDA ARMSTRONG

Special to the AmNews

The Gallery Players, located at 199 14th Street in Brooklyn, recently hit a homerun with a revival of August Wilson’s “Fences.” The dramatic production powerfully tells the story of Troy Maxson, an ex-professional baseball player, who is now a garbage man struggling to make a life for himself alongside his wife Rose and son Cory. He’s a man who has fallen on hard times in the past, who has been to jail and has a very jaded approach to life. Troy had a very dysfunctional childhood, which had a direct impact on how he fathers his son Cory. Troy is very bitter and frustrated with where he has not gotten to in life.

The way he interacts with his wife Rose shows a man who has a troubled mind and someone who can’t truly appreciate a loving woman who is right in front of him and who has stood by his side for 18 years. Rose is a strong Black woman who loves her husband and son. She is the type of woman who will stand by your side, no matter what, but she is also not someone to be used.

Troy’s world revolves around his family, his job with the department of sanitation, his wounded war veteran brother Gabe, his older son from a previous relationship, Lyons; his best friend Bono and eventually a daughter, Raynell.

Wilson’s work is a masterpiece, of this there is no question. But what was also obvious sitting in the audience is that this cast brought their A game to this production. Actor Reggie Wilson was stunning and poignant as Troy. He delivered this character in a way that made him seem hard, but was also someone who had been abused and had a vulnerable side. He was a man battling life and ready to swing a bat on whatever foul balls life threw in his direction. He also delivered the character with a sense of arrogance, as Troy had no problem with cheating on his wife and felt he was justified in his actions. Reggie Wilson had the audience loving and angry with his character, the exact reactions people should have to this emotionally mixed up and wounded person. Gina-Simone Pemberton delivered a memorable, endearing and strong performance as Rose. She showed a woman’s love and devotion, but also a woman’s right to outrage and ability to punish a man who was not faithful to her, while also not taking her hurt out on the world. Jamar Arthur was quite impressive as Cory. He displayed various levels of emotion that showed every moment of fear, and then frustration and defiance that his character went

through. You could feel his disappointment and his pain as he tried to win a losing battle to get a father’s love and approval that was never going to come.

Adrian Phillips was phenomenal as Gabriel, Troy’s brother who was a wounded war veteran, not in his right mind. He made the audience feel compassion for this fallen soldier, who came back from the war with no parade or appreciation. He was a caring, harmless person, and someone who still deserved respect

and regard. Phillips grabbed that character by the hand and went with it. He was touching as he showed the mental anguish and joy of this poor soul. Brandon Agnew was marvelous as Bono. He let the audience see the levels of friendship that he had with Troy, but also witness their separation. Isaiah Joseph was charming as Lyons. The father he knew was hard on him too, but not to the extent that Troy was hard on Cory. Anaia Barton is quite sweet as Raynell, Troy’s

love child and the little girl that Rose unselfishly raises.

This production was simply riveting! The set design by Jerry Mittelhauser was detailed and captivating. The production also had the work of costume designer Khari Walser, lighting designer Allison Ramnarine, sound designer and composer Michael Roll, and fight coordinator Meron Langsner. The production was flawlessly directed by DeMone Seraphin.

A scene from “Fences” (l-r) Reggie Wilson, Gina-Simone Pemberton and Brandon Agnew. (Kat duPont Vecchio photo)

Sista’s Place, VTY, Cobi Narita Memorial

When the spoken-word performance of recording artist Gha’il Rhodes Benjamin and her group grace the stage of Sista’s Place on March 30, expect an evening of fiery inspiration (two shows at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.).

The Grammy-nominated actress and self-empowerment speaker most recently appeared in the Appel Room of Jazz at Lincoln Center in collaboration with Senakwami’s Studio, with pianist Julius Rodriguez

The Detroit native’s nomination was a result of her collaboration with percussionist Jeff Haynes, who produced her CD titled “Storm King featuring the life, stories and music of the folk-singer Pete Seeger.” One could easily wonder what would draw Benjamin to Seeger. It was probably his strong support of civil rights, international disarmament, and environmental justice, and his dedication as a singer of protest music. Haynes is also featured on Benjamin’s debut CD titled “Spiritual Eclipse/ Sacred Moments on a String of Words.” In 2019 and 2020, she was the recipient of two Audelco Awards.

Benjamin’s words blossom with encouragement, riffing on spirited poetic rhythms that leaves audiences hanging on her every word. She is a source of reassurance in a world that seems to be going every way but right.

For more information and reservations, call 718-398-1766.

The VTY Jazz Arts Sunday Serenade returns on April 7 with a special birthday tribute to pianist NEA Jazz Master Randy Weston, at Manhattan’s Zinc Bar (82 West 3rd Street). The celebration will feature Weston’s longtime band African Rhythms Alumni Quintet, with saxophonist, flautist, and kalimba player T.K. Blue; trombonist Frank Lacy; bassist Alex Blake; pianist Sharp Radway; and percussionist Neil Clarke (3 p.m.–5:45 p.m). In honor of their former bandleader and friend, they will play some of Weston’s standards, which might include any composition from his fan-pleasing album “African Cookbook” (1972); the fine album “Earth Birth” (1997) that included the title track, “Little Niles”; “Berkshire Blues”; or “Babe’s Blues.” Maybe music will come from his groundbreaking album “Uhura Afrika,” translated “Freedom Africa” (Roulette, 1960) that celebrates several new African countries obtaining their independence.

The album, featuring a 24-piece all-star big band, was arranged by Weston’s regular collaborator Melba Liston with liner notes and lyrics by the late poet and social activist Langston Hughes. The recording was one of the first to introduce African rhythms with jazz, a reflection of Weston’s

strong belief in Pan Africanism, introduced to him by his father during his earlier years. In 1964, the album was banned in South Africa and copies were seized in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Weston was one of the first musicians to incorporate African indigenous instruments into his band and regularly invited Gnawa musicians of Morocco to perform with African Rhythms. Some weeks ago, CBS-TV “60 Minutes” did a segment on the Gnawa Music Festival in Morocco. Weston was shown at his piano for a brief minute. That clip was probably pulled from his appearance at the festival in 2016. If there is a discussion of the prominence of the Gnawa festival and how it relates to jazz, then Weston’s contribution is a key component in any such conversation. It is also relevant to mention the pianist owned his African Rhythms Club in Tangier from 1967–72.

The Brooklyn native, who graduated from Boys High School (the alma mater of Max Roach and Cecil Payne) was our African historian, our storyteller, our musician,

who always connected the dots between the motherland of Africa and the roots of jazz. “The music comes from the roots of Africa. It is the sound of the ancestors—listen,” Weston would often say. He would have been 98 years old on his birthday, April 6, this year. For tickets, visit vtyjazz.com.

When Cobi Narita died last year at the age of 97, she left behind an incredible legacy as a jazz impresario, mentor, promoter of jazz spaces for aspiring artists, and her annual female artists festival. She was a doer—a person who made things happen. She was small in stature but in her years on this planet, she was a giant, a person in the jazz community who was sought out by legends like Dizzy Gillespie and aspiring artists who needed her support. She gave her time and money selflessly to support musicians and many projects that played an integral role in the progression of jazz, some of which included her nonprofit Universal Jazz Coalition, an umbrella organization that for about 10 years, helped musicians manage their careers, promoted and produced con-

certs, and distributed a newsletter about local jazz events. Her Jazz Center of New York in lower Manhattan became another beehive for noted musicians and aspiring artists to perform. In 2002, her venue Cobi’s Place ( West 48th Street) was a welcome home for everyone from tap dancers to singers and instrumentalists. It became as popular as any New York City jazz club.

I met Narita during the 1980s. This softspoken woman with such perseverance and love for jazz intrigued me. She agreed to an interview and we met at her Jazz Coalition. She had a small desk, with posters hanging on the walls, flyers, and papers scattered about. She was working on a newsletter and upcoming shows throughout the city. Some may remember that she also published a yearly calendar with musicians’ birthdays and a portrait representing each month— that was so great. Surprisingly, no one has attempted to publish such a calendar since.

That interview led us to a great friendship, many conversations, covering many of her wonderful affairs and shows, and she became one of my mentors.

Her recent memorial at St. Peter’s Church in the month of March (Women’s History Month) was fitting for such an outstanding woman. St. Peter’s (also known as the jazz church) was her second home, where she coordinated events and jazz musicians were memorialized. It was also where she celebrated her 90th birthday.

The ceremony, coordinated by her son Ron Narita and daughter Susan NaritaLaw, was a celebration of Narita’s life and the wonderful legacy she leaves behind for all of us to be better people and carry on the tradition of jazz in a grand, sincere fashion as she had done so brilliantly. For me, Narita was a version of the Jazz Foundation of America: She was always there for the musicians.

For her final farewell, Narita’s friends, former students, collaborators, and all those under her tutelage, which basically included all of us in the jazz community, were in attendance. The roster of musicians who turned out to express their good-byes in music included an allstar cast of friends such as Mickey Davidson, Eli Yamin, Roxane Butterfly and daughter Zuly (flew in from France), Bertha Hope, Houston Person, and Lafayette Harris, Kenny Barron (solo), Kim Clarke, all star cast with Billy Harper, Jimy Owens, Sharp Radway, Reggie Workman and Aaron Scott, and tap dancers Toes Tiranoff and Megan Haugs. Some of the speakers included Rev. Dale Lind (former pastor of St. Peter’s), Susan Siegal (piano in Bryant Park), Ron Narita, Wendy Oxenhorn (former director JFA), and Robin Bell-Stevens (Jazzmobile).

Narita will surely be missed, but her legacy will be carried out with an abundance of love and devotion to this music called jazz that she loved so much.

Jazz pianist Randy Weston (Photo by Ron Scott Associates)

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

Political sexism and racism keeps the glass ceiling unbroken

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

Although recent presidential elections have seen more diverse women on both sides of the political aisle jockeying for party nominations, the fact remains that in more than 240 years, the U.S. has never elected a female president. The prevailing sexist joke is that if you were married to the president as First Lady, like Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama, then you’ve already “been in control of the White House.”

Vice President Kamala Harris is the first, and only, woman, Black American, or South Asian American to be elected to her position, as was the case when she served as district attorney of San Francisco and U.S. Senator for California. When she was elected alongside President Joe Biden in 2020, women of all backgrounds got one step closer to running the White House rather than just residing in it.

America’s history of overt political sexism and racism is still holding women back from the presidency, so the question is simple: If a candidate like Harris were a white male and not a Black woman, would they be president? The polls say: Most likely.

“Women have always faced systemic barriers of sexism and misogyny that hinder our opportunities, and women of color face the additional obstacle of racism,” said New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, the first Black person to hold her position. She currently leads a historic women-majority City Council from 2022. She’s seen firsthand the disparate treatment women leaders receive, the challenges women face, and how their decisions and leadership are portrayed, she said.

“Time and time again, our city and country have witnessed the way women seeking higher office have been portrayed, questioned, and dismissed compared to their male counterparts,” said Adams. “We continue to see and experience these obstacles today, and it is not coincidental that there has never been a woman elected to serve as mayor of New York City or president of the United States.”

TRYING TO BREAK THE HARDEST GLASS CEILING

a long history of running for president in the U.S. The first woman to run for president was a stockbroker and publisher named Victoria Woodhull, who ran on the Equal Rights Party ticket in 1872. Belva Lockwood, the first woman admitted to practice law, also ran for president on the same ticket in 1888. Journalist Charlotta Spears Bass was the first Black woman nominee for vice president, in 1952 on the Progressive Party ticket.

“It was so out of the box. There were so few role models of women who even considered it,” said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP).

“It’s important to remember that this was the period where if a woman went in and tried to vote, she would get arrested.”

In Miami in 1972, Brooklyn native and Congressmember Shirley Chisholm changed the game when she ran for president in the Democratic primaries and garnered 151.25 delegate votes before Senator George McGovern clinched the nomination.

Longtime Harlemite and former national president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Dr. Hazel N. Dukes, who is the current president of the organization’s New York State chapter, recalled the night Chisholm announced her nomination.

At the time, Dukes was a member of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and a delegate. She went to dinner that night with the Helen M. Marshall, the first Black borough president of Queens (now deceased); former Council member Mary Pinkett, the first Black New York City Council member; and former Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton. On the way back, they passed by a distraught Chisholm in the green room behind the stage at the convention. When they inquired about what had happened, Chisholm told them that U.S. Rep Ron Dellums of California, the first Black person elected to Congress in north California, was supposed to nominate her for a presidential bid. He was directly told by higher-ups that if he did, he risked career suicide, said Dukes, so he backed down.

“Mr. Sutton said, ‘What?! Well, would you like for me to do that?’” said Dukes, chuckling at the memory. “So he looked at me and Mary and Helen, and he said, ‘I’m going to nominate her, would you all

second?’And you know me, I’ve always been brave. So we said yes.”

Chisholm was on the ballot in 12 primaries, and although she didn't win, she used her platform as a candidate to talk about women’s rights, civil rights, education issues, and the Vietnam War. Her activism, outspoken voice, legacy, and ambitions continue to inspire countless others.

“My mentor, Shirley Chisholm, broke glass ceilings so Black women like myself, Vice President Harris, and countless others can be leaders in our democracy. The impact of Shirley Chisholm’s legacy is still felt today,” said U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee of California in a statement. “With GOP extremists out to take away our freedoms and turn back the clock, we are pressing forward, and fighting for our voices to be heard and respected on all fronts. From grassroots activists to Supreme Court justices, women are forging the path for the next generation to strengthen our democracy and protect our freedoms."

Over the next several decades, women in both the Democratic and Republican parties tried for the presidency and vice presidency.

In 2003, former U.S. Senator and Ambassador to New Zealand Carol Moseley Braun announced her intentions to bid for the 2004 election, but she withdrew her name the following year. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin became the first woman on a national Republican line for vice president, alongside Senator John McCain, in 2008. Former First Lady and then-Sen. Hillary Clinton came pretty close to holding the oval office. She was the first woman to win a major party’s Democratic presidential primary, at the same time as Palin, in 2008. By 2016, she was a formidable political figure. Clinton then threw her hat in the presidential ring again, becoming the Democratic nominee for president and earning the popular vote in the general election by almost 3 million votes. Clinton had only 227 votes in the electoral college, though. She ended up conceding to Donald J. Trump, who had clinched the electoral college with 304 votes.

In 2019, in preparation for the 2020 presidential election, six women formally announced their candidacy for president: U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand from New York, Sen. Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota, Sen. Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts, author

Marianne Williamson, and Harris. This was the first time in history that more than two women competed in the same major party's presidential primary process. Walsh considers the fact that other countries have elected women to be heads of state more than once is an indication that the U.S. as a nation is “behind.”

CHALLENGES FOR WOMEN REMAIN

One of the biggest challenges women candidates face in general is raising enough money. A report by CAWP highlighted how underrepresented women’s voices are in American politics because they are underrepresented as donors, even though they are often “formidable fundraisers.”

“In American politics, money, unfortu-

nately, is an important factor; one that has been a challenge for women candidates— one they do overcome, but it’s harder for them to raise money,” said Walsh. “They come from less-money networks, they make less money than men, and so running for office [is hard]. They are able to raise the money—we know that they do it, but it’s a

lot more work to get it done.”

According to the report, “Men give a disproportionate amount of all money contributed, with women giving one-third or less of all money contributed to gubernatorial, statewide executive, and state legislative races from 2019 to 2022.” In places that were considered abortion battlegrounds, men’s campaign contributions far exceeded women’s contributions to state races.

There are also partisan differences among women donors. Women are more likely to give to Democrats and are “poorly represented” as donors to Republican state candidates. The total amount contributed by men to Democratic state candidates also exceeds the total amount contributed by women, according to the CAWP report.

Despite these financial challenges, a record number of Black women have been running for and winning political offices—although no Black woman has ever served as governor.

“Over the past decade, Black women have seen representational gains across all levels of office, including in the federal executive, and achieved milestones as candidates and officeholders within states and nationwide,” said Glynda C. Carr, president & CEO of Higher Heights for America. “However, while we have made gains, the underrepresentation of Black women in American politics persists. The 2022 election illuminated these realities. Record numbers of Black women ran for congressional and statewide elective executive offices and, as a result of the election, a record number of Black women now serve in Congress, in the statewide elective executive office, and [in] state legislatures.”

Statistically, the Black woman voting bloc is also a loyal and consistent voting base that has been a deciding factor in elections for years.

More than two-thirds of Black women turned out to vote in the 2020 presidential election, which was the third-highest rate of any race-gender group, said CAWP. They overwhelmingly voted for Biden, and about 90% or more of Black women voters cast their ballots for the Democratic ticket.

Walsh considers Black women the backbone of the Democratic party.

“We know that Black women can serve in these roles. When Black women are at decision-making tables, better decisions are made,” said Carr. “More work needs to be done to understand and address the hurdles these Black women candidates confront en route to political office.”

Carr added that biases, racism, and sexism in American politics create systemic barriers that make it harder for women candidates to succeed, and

U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., speaks at the "Families Belong Together: Freedom for Immigrants" March in Los Angeles. As Democrats begin to think about the 2020 presidential race, they face a choice between pragmatists who may be able to flip states that President Trump won in 2016 and those such as Harris, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, or Beto O'Rourke of Texas, whose inspirational personal stories may connect with voters on a more emotional level. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)

Glass Ceiling

Continued from page 25

can lead to a lack of support and resources for Black women candidates, making it more difficult for them to run competitive campaigns. In 2022’s mixed-gender nonincumbent gubernatorial primaries, white women fared better in terms of how much money their campaigns were able to raise compared to women from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. Women from historically underrepresented groups were less likely to enter competitive races than white women, the CAWP report found.

“Black women in American politics have come far, but not further enough to build the type of presidential profile, war chest, and more to be competitive in a national election,” said political strategist and veteran campaign manager Donna Brazile. “For now, the goal is to get more Black women elected to Congress [House and Senate] and statewide. The bigger the pipeline, the larger the crop of viable candidates who one day may build the type of profile and candidacy to compete for the Presidency of the United States. Barack Obama did it.”

Another major challenge women in politics face is perception.

Pew Research Center analysis indicates that women candidates in the U.S. are punished more than men for showing emotions and having young children at home, as well as their perceived levels of physical attractiveness, assertiveness, and experience.

“The words that I am most allergic to and that I hate that we use as metrics are words like ‘likable’ or ‘authentic’ or ‘electable’ because what you're talking about if you say someone is not one of those things is fundamentally that they are not what I am used to,” said EMILYs List Senior Vice President of Communications and Content Christina Reynolds.

Reynolds noted that for years, women who ran for office tried to “fit in a male shaped box” by wearing pantsuits, cutting their hair short, and being more inflexible on political issues. They often strove to appear more subjectively “likable” and “experienced” in order to be thought of as credible to voters.

“The reality is in this country we have never elected a woman president. We’ve had one—and only one—woman win her party’s nomination. We’ve had one—and only one—woman serve as vice president,” said Reynolds. “And so when we think of those positions, we think of a guy in a suit because that’s what we’re used to. So the truth is, what I like to remind people of is that most men who have run for president have lost, and yet we don’t consider them unelectable.”

Reynolds loved that the 2020 elections had so many different kinds of women with different ideologies running. She hopes that the more women are seen running for president, the more voters will confront their own internal biases from the media

Vice President Kamala Harris exits Air Force 2 at New Jersey airport in 2021.

Vice President Kamala Harris visits Restoration Plaza in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn in August 2022. (Ariama C. Long photos)

March 26, 1969, file photo, Rep. Shirley Chisholm, D-N.Y., poses on the steps of the Capitol in Washington with material she plans to use in a speech before the House of Representatives. Fifty years have passed since the Brooklyn, N.Y. native made history on Nov. 5, 1968, as the first African American woman elected to Congress.

(AP Photo/Charles Gorry, File and illustration by Amanda Ulloa) New York Amsterdam News (1962-); Nov 9, 1968; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: New York Amsterdam News

and polling.

Women candidates are also seen as too “risky” to vote for, meaning that in really competitive races people assume that women will lose and therefore voters would rather save their vote for a candidate they think might win—which is usually a man, said Walsh.

“2020 was a particularly strong example where Democrats felt desperate, like we cannot elect Donald Trump again, and so they wanted the safest possible candidate. And there was this fear that if you went outside of the most, in many ways the traditional, old school Democrat, that it would be too risky,” said Walsh. “And I think women and candidates of color were risky. And she [VP Harris] was both.”

What does the VP say?

In an televised interview with "60 Minutes" last November, Harris did address the unique and added pressure her position as the first Black woman vice president has. She also acknowledged the rumblings that donors would not “naturally” fall in

line to support her should she inadvertently become president if Biden dies, per the Constitution’s rules of succession by default.

“I hear from a lot of different people a lot of different things, but I am focused on the job. I truly am. Our democracy is on the line. I, frankly, in my head, do not have time for parlor games,” she continued, sidestepping the question. The AmNews reached out to Harris’ office for further comment. Her press office declined.

“Women, particularly Black women, confront bias at nearly every turn our lives take,” said U.S. Rep Yvette D. Clarke in a statement.

“And so, when a strong Black woman makes the bold, brave choice to seek higher office, these sorts of accusations come as no surprise to her—nor should be of any concern to her. We do not burden ourselves with the opinions of the intolerant, for even the flawless record of an undeniably competent woman would not deter the most prejudiced individuals. Out of thin air, they conjure detractions and complaints and aim to smear our stories for no reasons beyond that we are

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further

born with.”

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further

In terms of the future beyond the 2024 presidential elections, there’s a sense that a woman head of state is closer than ever in the U.S. Dukes hypothesized that a woman as president of the U.S. is not inconceivable. “There will be a breakthrough,” said Dukes. “A woman will win the presidency, sooner or later.”

“To any woman facing the same discriminatory slanders that have persisted since long before Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm’s historic run for the presidency, I urge her to follow the lead of our distin-

guished Vice President Kamala Harris—and that is to ignore them,” continued Clarke. “Day by day, success by success, these outdated ideas are fading into the past. All we can do is stay resilient and brilliant and expedite their end."

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.

Legacy of leadership: Elinor R. Tatum and the NewYorkAmsterdam News

By LEAH MALLORY Special to the AmNews

Running a successful newspaper requires superb leadership. With a century-long legacy of serving the Black community of New York City, the New York Amsterdam News credits its longevity to the diligence and recent innovations of its staff, guided by the vision of Publisher and Editor-inChief Elinor R. Tatum.

“The Black press knows how to be nimble. They know how to do a lot with a little. As we have seen very recently, they know how to transform themselves, and they know how to move with the times, as is evident with the work and transformation that the New York Amsterdam News has done most recently with our digital transformation,” Tatum said.

Since assuming the role of publisher and editor-in-chief in 1997, Tatum has spearheaded several initiatives that have transformed the current AmNews newsroom today. Transitioning from typewriters to computers and exploring social media platforms, the AmNews stepped into a new era that embraced digitization. Multiple groundbreaking collaborations and units emerged under Tatum’s leadership, including the news collaborative “Word in Black”; “Blacklight,” the first Investigative unit within a legacy Black publisher; and the gun violence prevention initiative, "Beyond the Barrel of the Gun”—all showcasing her influential legacy.

Word in Black is a collaborative effort between 10 of the nation’s legendary Black newspapers. Tatum said she came up with the idea of Word in Black in 2021 after the murder of George Floyd.

“It’s something that we worked very hard on, to not only bolster the journalism in our own newspaper—because it has helped in that regard and has funded positions in our own newsrooms—but also for the collective benefit of our communities,” she said.

Word in Black now functions as its own organization, separate from the leading newspapers, creating its own newsletter and producing original content and journalism.

Blacklight, the AmNews investigative unit, is another successful project that blossomed under Tatum’s guidance. The unit focuses on exposing wrongdoing and tackling issues that affect communities of color. Its visionary program, “Beyond the Barrel of the Gun,” aims to address and reduce gun violence within Black and brown communities.

Observing and contributing to the growth and development of the newsroom for nearly 30 years, Tatum said she is most proud of its endurance—a quality she

likens to the Black community.

“The newspaper being here—surviving the pandemic when several newspapers close every week in this country, the fact that we’re still standing,” she said. “The legacy Black newspapers are tried and true, and are still around over 100 years later. They’re steadfast. They are able to survive in very trying circumstances, just like our community.”

She attributes the newspaper’s longevity to its authenticity and unwavering loyalty to serving the Black community.

“We believe that our community is important and that it deserves fighting for,” said Tatum.

Leading at the top, however, isn’t always smooth sailing. Tatum noted the challenges she faces as a Black woman in leadership, navigating a predominantly white industry. Throughout her career, she frequently found herself as the only Black person and woman in a room, getting her decisions and business practices questioned.

Despite the hardships, Tatum remained resilient and committed to her role.

“Being the publisher of a Black newspaper, if you’re not resilient, you’re dead,”

she said.

Tatum’s journey into the world of journalism is heavily influenced by a family legacy of newspaper ownership. Her grandfather owned a newspaper in the 1930s or ’40s, later engaging Tatum’s father in the business that would lay the foundation for his own journey. In high school and college, he was actively involved in the newspaper, developing a passion that would later culminate in acquiring the New York Amsterdam News with a team of investors.

Growing up in New York City, Tatum grew up surrounded by newspapers. Inspired by her father’s decisions, like choosing journalism over public office, and witnessing his dedication during significant moments such as the Central Park Jogger case, she became driven by a desire to make a difference in the world, specifically in communities of color.

After being passed the mantle by her father nearly 30 years ago, her passion now manifests as she continues to uphold the family tradition, carrying forward the legacy of journalist integrity and community-driven news in New York.

“Even in a city like New York, there are

still news deserts where people just don’t know what’s going on in their community, and we need to be a place where you can find out what is happening for and about you,” she said.

Tatum shared a touching memory from around 10 years ago that reinforced her passion for journalism. During a visit to a middle school classroom, where students were required to read the AmNews newspaper every week, Tatum was deeply moved by a comment from one young girl.

“She said, ‘Before I read the Amsterdam News, I just thought I would end up on drugs or pregnant and welfare because that’s all I saw in the newspapers. But after I read the Amsterdam News, I saw that I could be an accountant, lawyer, doctor, or astronaut, so I just wanted to say thank you’”

The work continues to ensure that the New York Amsterdam News remains a beacon of truth and representation in an ever-changing media landscape. Through her innovative leadership, Tatum preserves a century-long legacy while paving the way for future generations to embrace their potential and find their voices.

Elinor Tatum (Bill Moore photo)

Smithsonian names Dalila Scruggs as Augusta Savage Curator of African American Art

By JORDANNAH ELIZABETH Special to the AmNews

The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) has appointed Dalila Scruggs as the inaugural Augusta Savage Curator of African American Art. Her appointment signals a strategic move by SAAM to deepen its engagement with African American art, a vital and integral aspect of its collection.

Scruggs’s career trajectory reflects a dedication to both scholarship and museum practice. With previous roles at institutions such as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the Brooklyn Museum, Scruggs brings a wealth of experience to her new role. Her publication record includes scholarly contributions that delve into the complexities of African American art history, further cementing her standing as a leading voice in the field.

“I am delighted to welcome Dalila Scruggs to SAAM as the inaugural Augusta Savage Curator of African American Art,” said Stephanie Stebich, the Margaret and Terry Stent Director of SAAM. “SAAM is home to one of the most significant collections of African American art in the world, and I am so pleased that Dr. Scruggs will bring fresh, thoughtful analysis to these works that evoke themes both universal and specific to the African American and the American experience.”

The Augusta Savage Curatorship, named in honor of Augusta Savage, an iconic figure in African American art history known for her sculptural works and advocacy for artists of color. Savage’s own contributions to the art world are monumental. As a sculptor and educator, Savage not only produced remarkable works of art but also tirelessly advocated for the inclusion and recognition of Black artists. Her establishment of the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts and involvement in initiatives such as the Harlem Community Art Center left an indelible mark on the cultural landscape, inspiring generations of artists to come.

The benefactors endowing this newly filled position at the Smithsonian aim to honor Savage’s legacy while fostering innovative scholarship and exhibition programming under Scruggs’s guidance.

As Scruggs assumes her role as the Augusta Savage Curator of African American Art, she steps into a legacy of excellence and innovation. Her appointment signals a bold step forward in SAAM’s mission to foster inclusivity and celebrate the tapestry of American artistry. With her vision and expertise, Scruggs is poised to shape narratives, challenge conventions, and amplify the voices of African American artists in the hallowed halls of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Dalila Scruggs (Jeffrey Mercado photo)

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Short film ‘Harlem Grace’ chronicles extraordinary lawyer, activist Joe Holland

By NADINE MATTHEWS

Special to the AmNews

Initially, the 32-minute short film “Harlem Grace” felt like an extended public service announcement. Then it felt like a video a church might put together for a special holiday service program, or initiative. It turns out that “Harlem Grace,” which chronicles the community work of lawyer, politician, ordained minister, and activist Joe Holland, was actually a senior thesis of NYU film student turned fullfledged filmmaker Allen Wolf.

Despite the normal financial position of college students, Wolf attempted to tell the extraordinary story of Holland, a Harlem resident, who committed himself to facilitating the redemption of fallen men.

Holland entered the world under pretty remarkable circumstances. His father, Jerome Holland, broke a number of significant barriers. If Black excellence was a person, Jerome Holland would be that individual. A graduate of both Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania, he achieved many African American firsts: the first to play on Cornell University’s football team, sit on board of the Stock Exchange, head Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s governing body, and chair the American Red Cross board of governors. He was later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. He was also ambassador to Sweden and president of both Hampton University and Delaware State College. In 1985, he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Jim Holland, who like his father earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Cornell University, had very large shoes to fill, and chose to do so by serving the community. As “Harlem Grace” dramatizes, after graduating from Harvard Law School, he returned to New York City and settled in Harlem, where he opened a law office and founded a nonprofit focused on using a holistic approach to rehabilitate men who were unhoused, most of whom had substance abuse issues.

Although the editing in “Harlem Grace” is skillful if lacking in style

or elegance, the dialogue is plodding and graceless. The visual tapestry is serviceable. However, given that this is a student film, those issues might be expected.

What is good about “Harlem Grace” is the strong and authentic sense of place. Apparently filmed on location in Harlem in the early- to mid-’90s, it ably depicts the gritty atmosphere of many parts of pre-gentrified 1980s Harlem. The main character is played with wide-eyed alacrity and earnestness by Michael Anthony Walker, with whom the camera has a love affair. Walker nimbly embodies the singleminded drive and intensity toward community uplift often fueled by youthful naivete.

“Harlem Grace” focuses on the relationship between Holland, who was also an outspoken Christian, and Harvey, an unhoused man with a crack addiction. To say their relationship is fraught is an understatement. The audience experiences all of Holland’s hopes and shattering disappointments as he works with Harvey and the other men he ultimately recruits into his shelter.

Holland provides not only a bed, but life skills and a roadmap to a new and better life.

“Harlem Grace” was originally released in 1994. Morning Star Pictures is celebrating the film’s 30th anniversary with a re-release in April. The film, according to a press release, “has been restored, updated, and remastered with a high-definition scan of the original film, additional footage, and a remastered soundtrack with new music.”

In 1994, it was a finalist for the Student Academy Awards and Producers Guild of America Awards. The updated version has won awards from the New York International Film Awards, Berlin Shorts Award, and the Hollywood Just4Shorts Film Competition.

Even though it lacks charm or very much technical dexterity, “Harlem Grace” is real-life evidence that one person can make a difference and that anyone, no matter how far they have fallen, can turn their life around.

The film “Harlem Grace” will be available on VOD starting April 2, and on Amazon Prime Video April 27.

Scenes from “Harlem Grace” (Images courtesy of Morning Star Pictures)

As threats to Black cemeteries persist, a movement to preserve their sacred heritage gains strength

By GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO and DARREN SANDS Associated Press

MIAMI (AP)—Neglect, abandonment, and destruction have been the fate of thousands of segregated cemeteries across the country where African Americans—from former slaves to prominent politicians and business owners— have been buried over many decades.

In the past few years, growing awareness and the discovery of graves underneath parking lots, schools, and even an Air Force base have spurred preservation efforts among state and local governments, as well as community members who want to rebuild ancestral links that are spiritually crucial.

In Washington, D.C., members of a historically Black sorority recruited an expert who helped find the 1919 burial site of one of the sorority’s founders, hidden from view in an overgrown, badly neglected section of Woodlawn Cemetery.

In Miami, Jessie Wooden bought a historically segregated Black cemetery also suffering from neglect. He and his brother, Frank—who works as caretaker at the cemetery—have a powerful motive for trying to restore the cemetery: It houses the gravesite of their mother, Vivian, who died when Jessie was an infant.

“When we got here, it looked like a jungle,” Frank Wooden said. “Some people had to jump the fence to get in to see their loved one.”

When sites of sacred cultural memory are desecrated, it adds additional trauma to the indignity of being segregated even in death, said Brent Leggs, executive director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund and senior vice president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Those groups have played major roles in bringing awareness to the threats to cemetery preservation, such as vandalism, abandonment, ownership disputes, and development. The groups provide technical expertise, as well as legal and preservation advocacy.

“There’s growing awareness among the public that cemeteries are not these haunted, scary places, but they are parks to be experienced as sites of reflection and commemoration,” Leggs said.

At Lincoln Memorial Park Cemetery in Miami’s Brownsville neighborhood, community members now stop by to say thanks and bring cold water to workers who are weeding, cleaning, and repainting crypts, some of which date to the late 19th century.

JessieWooden learned about his mother’s resting place serendipitously in his late 40s when he met an aunt who told him about it. He tried to

visit, but found the vast graveyard overgrown, snake-infested, and surrounded by debris.

Now, when he comes to work, he walks past the crypts and spreading banyan trees to pray at his mother’s grave.

“All my life I didn’t know her. All I knew that mom was gone,” Wooden said. “For me to be able to come where she’s resting at and be able

to just say a little prayer and talk to her—oh, that means so much to me.”

Marvin Dunn, emeritus professor at Florida International University and an historian of race relations in Florida, remembers childhood visits to his great-grandmother’s grave for yearly spring clean-ups, when he helped

Frank Wooden sweeps the graves of a local family at Lincoln Memorial Park Cemetery, Monday, Feb. 26, 2024, in the Brownsville neighborhood of Miami. Wooden became the caretaker after his brother, Jessie, purchased the historically segregated Black cemetery where their mother is buried. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

CLASSROOM IN THE

Theresa Harris, credited and uncredited in nearly 100 films

By HERB BOYD Special to the AmNews

We recently had a chance to see Theresa Harris in “Baby Face,” one of the nearly 100 films she appears in, credited or uncredited. As in most of her films, she is a maid, part of a scene, a spectator, or amid a gaggle of women looking for a break in filmdom. Her role in “Baby Face,” starring Barbara Stanwyck, had a promising beginning but soon vanished as the star she attended to rose in power and acclaim.

Harris was born on December 31, 1906 in Houston, Texas to Isaiah, or Anthony, and Mable Harris, or Ina, both of whom were former sharecroppers from Louisiana. When she was 11 years old, her family moved to Southern California. She graduated from Jefferson High School and then began studying at the UCLA Conservatory of Music and the Zoellner Conservatory of Music. As a member of the acclaimed Lafayette Players, she starred in the musical comedy production of “Irene.”

film debut came in 1929 in “Thunderbolt,” where she sang “Daddy Won’t You Please Come Home.” A year later she began the long series of maid roles to such matinee idols as Bette Davis, Ginger Rogers, Francis Dee, Jean Harlow, Kay Francis, et al. She had bit part and cameo appearances in countless films and in 1933 had perhaps her most substantial role in “Professional Sweetheart,” starring Rogers. Though she is featured in the film, where she substituted for Rogers, she was uncredited.

In 1937, she appeared opposite Ralph Cooper in “Bargain with Bullets,” produced by the Cooper coowned Million Dollar Productions.

It was during her work with Cooper that she expressed her exasperation in Hollywood and the limited opportunities Black actors and actresses endured. “I never had the chance to rise above the role of maid in Hollywood movies,” she told journalist Fay Jackson in 1937.

“My color was against me anyway you looked at it. The fact that I was not ‘hot’ stamped me either as

uppity or relegated me to the eternal role of stooge or servant… My ambition is to be an actress. Hollywood had no parts for me.” But, according to Jackson, she also praised Cooper for starting a production company that produced films starring African American actors. “We have nothing to lose in the development of an all-colored motion picture company. The competition will make Hollywood perk up and produce better films with our people in a variety of roles.”

Even as she campaigned for more significant roles, she continued to take whatever decent part was offered, including “Tell No Tales,” where she is credited as Ruby, the widow of a murdered man. She also had a sizable role as Eunice Leonard in Jacques Tourneur’s “Out of the Past.”

Hollywood wasn’t her only outlet, though Hollywood Hotel was where she often performed in radio programs, including frequently teaming up with Eddie “Rochester” Anderson. She accompanied him in a sizzling song

and dance routine in “Buck Benny Rides Again.” In the 1940s, she had various roles in spooky or horror films, including “Phantom Lady” and “I Walked with a Zombie.”

Television opportunities arrived in the fifties, though she continued to appear in films, most notably playing a role with her name as Nurse Theresa in “Angel Face,” in 1953. She was often seen on “Lux Video Theatre,” “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” and “The Loretta Young Show.” In 1958, in “The Gift of Love,” she made her last film appearance.

Harris’s personal life included her marriage in 1933 to George Robinson, a doctor. During her film career she supported Democratic candidates for office, working tirelessly for Adlai Stevenson’s bid in 1952.

A Methodist, she died on October 8, 1985 of undisclosed causes in Inglewood, Calif. and was buried in Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles. The title character in Lynn Nottage’s 2011 play “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark,” is based on Teresa Harris.

ACTIVITIES

FIND OUT MORE

There are several articles and books that provide brief mentions of Harris’s contributions. Fay Jackson’s account, “Dainty Theresa in Gang Film,” in The Afro American was considerably resourceful.

DISCUSSION

Researching the history of the Lafayette Players may be rewarding for those seeking more about Harris’s early years on stage.

PLACE IN CONTEXT

Harris came of age during Hollywood’s glory years when sound productions arrived and, if anything, she was a witness to its treatment, or lack thereof, of Black performers.

THIS WEEK IN BLACK HISTORY

March 25, 1942: Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin born in Memphis. She died in 2018.

March 26, 1944: Soul and Grammy Award-winning singer Diana Ross, was born in Detroit.

March 27, 1924: Famed jazz songstress Sarah Vaughan was born in Newark, New Jersey. She died in 1990.

Her

(L-R) Barbara Stanwyck and Theresa Harris in “Baby Face.” (Image courtesy of the Film Forum)

International

Continued from page 2

declare their assets and explain the origins of their campaign funds.

Others running for the top office included Prime Minister Amadou Ba, appointed by the outgoing President Macky Sall as the ruling party’s presidential choice; former Prime Minister Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne, who has called himself the “president of reconciliation”; and Idrissa Seck, a former prime minister from the early 2000s. Khalifa Sall, a two-time mayor of Dakar, ran for the fourth time.

Businesswoman Anta Babacar Ngom—the sole female candidate—is a political newcomer who runs Senegal’s largest poultry company.

Supporters of Ba called him a “safe pair of hands” who would continue on the same trajectory as outgoing President Macky Sall, whom many perceive as having overseen orderly progress.

According to Alioune Tine, a political analyst and founder of the think tank the AfrikaJom Center, the country’s institutions need reform. “Power is too concentrated in the hands of the president and this can cause institutional crises,” he said.

Meanwhile, Cheick Diara, a young Senegalese man interviewed by Al Jazeera, said, “Sonko represents hope for the entire nation. Look what is happening around the youth— they want change—we want Sonko in power.”

When the polls closed on Sunday evening, opposition candidate Faye was set to be declared the country’s next president. According to Reuters, Ba initially declared the determination premature and said a runoff vote would be needed to determine the winner, but on Monday, he called Faye to offer his congratulations.

RESCUE OF KIDNAPPED NIGERIAN CHILDREN REPORTED

(GIN)—The nightmare is over for some of the 287 Nigerian schoolchildren seized from their school and marched into the forests by an armed group earlier this month.

The children were abducted on March 7 from their school in Kuriga, a small town in the state of Kaduna, by motorcycle-riding gunmen. Terrified families watched help-

Puerto Rico

Continued from page 2

making figurines along the floor, while the man was the one to address the drum.

The barril drums used in plena also used to be much larger, and were made in Ponce by drum craftsmen. As instruments, the drum was laid across the floor and the performer sat on top of it while playing it.

“Basically, these are Southern rhythms,” Archeval told those attending the Abolition Day event. “The specificity of this style is being lost because there is no one to sing it, there is no one singing it. [In our school], we are work -

lessly as the children, aged 12 or younger, were driven away.

Nigeria’s military said in a statement that 76 girls and 61 boys had been freed in the northern state of Zamfara and were being taken back to Kaduna. The military did not confirm the total number of children abducted, or provide further details about the operation. It was the latest in a long series of kidnappings that have plagued Africa’s most populous nation.

President Bola Tinubu had vowed to rescue the children “without paying a dime” in ransom. Ransoms are commonly paid for kidnappings, often arranged by families, and it is rare for officials in Nigeria to admit to the payments. According to Sahara Reporters, the kidnappers were seeking 1 billion naira for the students’ release.

Since the 2014 abduction of 276 schoolgirls in the town of Chibok, in Borno state, by armed members of the group Boko Haram, many of the girls were released, reportedly in exchange for ransoms, but 98 of them are still missing, according to Amnesty International.

The armed men on motorbikes, referred to locally as bandits, had been menacing the community for some time, with the security forces said to be unable to deal with the threat. Kuriga had been persistently attacked by gangs seeking to kidnap people and make money from ransom payments.

The scale of this latest abduction and the fact that it involved children as young as seven has been overwhelming for many.

“We watched them carrying our children away just right here and there’s nothing we could do. We don’t have military, we don’t have police in the community,” a mother was quoted to say through tears.

The latest abduction came days after some 200 people were kidnapped in Nigeria’s Borno state, which is at the center of the Boko Haram

ing to promote these things now.

“It is difficult to have songs in belén or in cunyá [two plena styles] when each song has its own patterns on the cuá [the wooden sticks used to play the smaller barril drum] and the maraca. That’s another job…those cuá patterns, maraca patterns, are also going to be lost…there are five rhythms here that are played throughout Puerto Rico: the sica, cuembe, yuba, holande, and seis corrido. Basically, these rhythms—like the belén—are being lost because they’re not being performed. Specifically, the cuá patterns and of the maraca—we are losing them precisely because of this: because they are not being performed anymore.”

insurgency. Those victims, who had ventured into the countryside to collect firewood, have not been rescued yet.

Kidnap gangs have seized thousands of people in recent years, especially in the northwest.

Chris Ewokor of BBC News in Kuriga managed to get more of the story from a 17-yearold who said he had to slither on the ground to avoid being detected by the kidnappers.

“We saw motorbikes on the road. We thought they were soldiers before we realized they had occupied the school premises and started shooting,” “Musa” (not his real name) told the BBC reporter. “We tried to run away, but they chased us and caught us.”

Musa kept looking for ways to escape and tried to encourage others to join him, but they were too afraid.

“After all was quiet, I started dragging myself like a snake on the ground,” he said. Once it was totally dark, he got up and walked until he got to a village where he got help.

In the last decade and a half, people in northern Nigeria have come under intense attack by armed militant groups. A second force, linked to the Islamic State group, has also emerged.

PINEAPPLE FARM IN KENYA LINKED TO VIOLENCE AGAINST WORKERS

(GIN)—Del Monte Kenya, a vast pineapple farm in Thika, Kenya, is facing serious claims of human rights abuses in the wake of killings and violence against workers allegedly by its security guards.

The Guardian newspaper of London first broke the story in June 2023, with its exposé of multiple deaths by the private security apparatus employed by Del Monte to safeguard its crop from thieves. Locals accused the guards of killing nine men aged 22 to 52, as well as committing five rapes. They also have made allegations of head wounds, broken bones, and cuts from blades requiring stitches.

The British law firm Leigh Day is representing 134 people who say they were abused by Del Monte’s guards.

The company has denied the charges. A Del Monte Kenya spokesperson said the case, filed in the Kenyan high court, was “an opportunity for all parties to present evidence—rather than unsubstantiated allegations—in a public forum and we trust

that those proceedings will reveal the truth and vindicate our good name.”

A report by the Kenya-based Partner Africa called on the company to immediately provide remediation to those whose rights were violated. It also recommended that the company set out a human rights action plan. Partner Africa’s nonprofit mission is to improve the working conditions and livelihoods of vulnerable workers and producers in Africa.

Peter McAllister, executive director of the Ethical Trading Initiative, which represents shops, charities, and unions in efforts to improve human rights in supply chains, said: “We believe any company of the size and scope of Del Monte should have human rights expertise in their team to advise management, help the company stay abreast of best practice, work with wider stakeholders, and deliver on a company’s commitments to customers.”

The company, which has its headquarters in Walnut Creek, Calif., employs 6,000 people in Kenya; also operates in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia; and sells products in more than 80 countries.

Five of the company’s former guards alleged in interviews with the Guardian that a lack of training and Del Monte’s poor relationship with local people had fueled violent clashes with trespassers on the farm. Since the Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) initial investigation was published in June, another five deaths have allegedly been linked to guards at the farm. According to Wikipedia, the TBIJ is “nonprofit news organization based in London that was founded in 2010 to pursue ‘public interest’ investigations. The Bureau works with publishers and broadcasters to maximisze the impact of its investigations.”

Four of those men went to steal pineapples from the plantation near Thika. Their bodies were recovered from a river on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day last year after they were allegedly chased by guards. Del Monte Kenya said the men had gone into the river themselves and that there had been “no foul play.”

Following The Guardian’s reports, major UK supermarkets Tesco and Waitrose have removed Del Monte’s Kenyan pineapples from their shelves.

RBGNYC1 Tours and Travels Back To The Roots of Africa

(GIN photo)

What to know about the SAVE plan, the income-driven program to repay student loans

By ADRIANA MORGA and COLLIN BINKLEY Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP)—More than 75 million student loan borrowers have enrolled in the SAVE plan, the U.S. government’s newest repayment plan since it launched in August.

President Joe Biden recently announced that he was canceling federal student loans for nearly 153,000 borrowers enrolled in the plan. Forgiveness was granted to borrowers who had made payments for at least 10 years and originally borrowed $12,000 or less.

The SAVE plan was created last year to replace other existing income-based repayment plans offered by the federal government. More borrowers are now eligible to have their monthly payments reduced to $0, and many will qualify for lower payments compared to other repayment plans.

For Lauran Michael and her husband, the SAVE plan has reduced student loan payments by half.

Since getting married, they’ve both been paying off her husband’s student loans, which would have amounted to about $1,000 a month when payments resumed after a pause during the pandemic. Under the SAVE plan, their payments are now $530 a month.

“We don’t want our loans dictating our life choices, and us not being able to do other things because we’re paying so much money. The SAVE plan is definitely a game changer for us,” said Michael, a 34-year-old interior designer in Raleigh, N.C.

Michael’s family is paying for daycare for their two children using the money they saved from not making payments during the pandemic and their reduced payments under the SAVE plan.

To apply for the SAVE plan, here’s what to know.

What is an income-driven repayment plan?

The U.S. Department of Education offers several plans for repaying federal student loans. Under the standard plan, borrowers are charged a fixed monthly amount that ensures all their debt will be

repaid after 10 years. Borrowers who have difficulty paying that amount can enroll in one of several plans that offer lower monthly payments based on income and family size. Those are known as income-driven repayment plans.

Income-driven options have been offered for years and generally cap monthly payments at 10% of a borrower’s discretionary income. If a borrower’s earnings are low enough, their bill is reduced to $0. After 20 or 25 years, any remaining debt gets erased.

How is the SAVE plan different?

More borrowers in the SAVE plan are eligible for $0 payments. This plan won’t require borrowers to make payments if they earn less than 225% of the federal poverty line—currently, $32,800 a year for a single person. The cutoff for other plans, by contrast, is 150% of the poverty line, or $22,000 a year for a single person.

The SAVE plan also prevents interest from piling up. As long as a borrower makes their monthly payments, their overall balance won’t increase. Once they cover their adjusted monthly payment, even if it’s $0, any remaining interest is waived.

Other major changes will take effect in July 2024. Payments on undergraduate loans will be capped at 5% of discretionary income, down from 10% now. Those with graduate and undergraduate loans will pay between 5% and 10%, depending on their original loan balance.

The maximum repayment period is capped at 20 years for those with only undergraduate loans and 25 years for those with any graduate school loans.

Who qualifies for the SAVE plan?

The SAVE plan is available to all student loan borrowers in the Direct Loan Program who are in good standing on their loans.

Read more about the SAVE plan here: www.studentaid.gov/announcements-events/save-plan.

How do I apply for the SAVE plan?

Borrowers can apply to the SAVE

plan using the Income-Driven Repayment Plan request through the Education Department’s website.

How will I know that my debt has been canceled?

If you are one of the borrowers who is benefiting from forgiveness under the SAVE plan, you will receive an email from the Education Department.

What are other programs that can help with student loans?

If you’ve worked for a government agency or a nonprofit, the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program offers cancellation after 10 years of regular payments. Some income-driven repayment plans cancel the remainder of a borrower’s debt after 20 to 25 years.

Borrowers should make sure they have signed up for the best possible income-driven repayment plan to qualify for these programs.

Borrowers who have been defrauded by for-profit colleges may also apply for relief through a program known as Borrower Defense.

To repay federal student loans under an income-driven plan, the first step is to fill out an application through the Federal Student Aid website.

Will there be future forgiveness?

Several categories of borrowers would be eligible for relief under Biden’s second try at widespread cancellation after the Supreme Court rejected his first plan last year.

The proposed plan includes relief for borrowers who have been paying their loans for at least 20 or 25 years, automatic forgiveness for borrowers who are eligible for income-driven repayment plans but are not enrolled, and loan cancellation for borrowers who attended a for-profit college that left them unable to pay their

student loans, among others.

Whether any of the relief will materialize is a looming question because conservatives have vowed to challenge any attempt at mass student loan cancellation. The new proposal is narrower, focusing on several categories of borrowers who could get some or all of their loans canceled, but legal challenge is almost certain.

Currently, borrowers who are eligible for forgiveness under the SAVE program will get their loans discharged on a rolling basis, according to the Department of Education.

The Associated Press receives support from the Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.

More than 75 million student loan borrowers have enrolled in the U.S. government’s newest repayment plan since it launched in August (Mark Stockwell/The Sun Chronicle via AP photo)

Girl Scout

Continued from page 7

Philanthropy steps in New York City has spent billions on the asylum seekers while buckling under the pressure of an existing housing and affordability crisis. That’s left little time to court and coordinate the city’s major philanthropies.

“It’s very hard to take a step back when you’re drinking out of a fire hose,” said Beatriz de la Torre, chief philanthropy officer at Trinity Church Wall Street, which gave the Girl Scouts a $100,000 emergency grant—plus $150,000 in annual support—to help expand Troop 6000.

With or without government directives, she said, charities are feeling the crunch: Food banks need more food.

Legal clinics need more lawyers.

Since asylum seekers began arriving tino the city, around 30 local grantmakers, including Trinity Church and Brooklyn Org, have met at least biweekly to discuss the increased demands on their grantees.

Together, they’ve provided more than $25 million for charities serving asylum seekers, from free legal assistance to resources for navigating the public school system.

“It’s hard for the government to be that nimble—that’s a great place for nonprofits and philanthropy,” said Eve Stotland, senior program officer at New York Community Trust, which convenes the Working Group for New York’s Newcomers, and has distributed more than $2.7 million in grants for recent immigrants.

“These are our neighbors,” said Stotland. “If a funder’s goal is to make New

York City a better place for everyone, that includes newcomers.”

Political backlash

In a typical year, funding for immigrants makes up a “very, very small” percentage of overall grantmaking, said Marissa Tirona, president of Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees, and funding for immigrants actually shrunk 11% from 2012 to 2020.

During an election year, services for immigrants might be even more at risk.

“Migrant families are often used as political pawns,” and some donors may succumb to anti-immigrant fear-mongering, said Tirona.

The Girl Scouts have not been immune to the backlash, nor is it the first time they’ve shouldered criticism from conservative donors.

While Troop 6000 has not been deterred, Maskara said that many of her peers in the nonprofit world have been fearful to publicly support newcomers.

“What holds them back is the appearance of being too progressive or too political,” she said. “My response to them is: You have no idea how many doors it will open.”

Sara Herschander is a reporter at the Chronicle of Philanthropy, where you can read the full article. This article was provided to the Associated Press by the Chronicle of Philanthropy as part of a partnership to cover philanthropy and nonprofits supported by the Lilly Endowment. The Chronicle is solely responsible for the content. For all of APs philanthropy coverage, visit https:// apnews.com/hub/philanthropy

Girl Scout Troop 6000 pay a visit to the Statue of Liberty in New York in 2023. Troop 6000 has served kids who live in New York’s shelter system since 2017, quietly welcoming hundreds of the city’s youngest new residents with the support of donations (Kelly Marsh/Girl Scouts of Greater New York via AP photo)

Religion & Spirituality

Joan Gibbs, activist attorney, dies at 70

Joan Gibbs, an attorney known for her great commitment to the ideals of social and economic justice, died on March 14 at her home in Brooklyn. Gibbs was 71. The cause of death is unknown; however, Gibbs underwent a series of surgeries related to cardiovascular disease last year. She was born in Harlem on January 17, 1953, and raised in Swan Quarter, North Carolina, returning to New York City at the age of 14. Gibbs graduated from Rutgers Law School in 1985, where she studied constitutional and civil rights law. She was admitted to practice in New York, New Jersey, the New York State Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court.

She was a Marvin Karptakin Fellow in the National Office of the ACLU, and, as staff attorney for its Women’s Rights Project, she litigated sex discrimination cases under the 14th Amendment and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Before attending law school, Gibbs was a core member of Liberation News Service, the activist news agency. She went on to work at the National Lawyers Guild’s Grand Jury Project during times of intense grand jury abuse. According to attorney Robert Boyle, a Guild executive committee member, of the Guild, “as a legal worker at the Project, she pioneered the defense of activists targeted by politically motivated grand juries.”

Gibbs was also a long-term member of the National Conference of Black Lawyers’ International Affairs Section and a board member of the Brecht Forum.

Gibbs’s law career was an extension of her near life-long activism, which began during the 1960s, when she was a student at the Bronx High School of Science. She was influenced by the movements of the day, including the Civil Rights, antiwar, and women's movements. She was a member of the Young Socialists Alliance and later was an active participant in the fledgling LGBTQIA+ movement. As staff attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights, not only did she litigate cases involving gender and racial justice, she represented organizations and political activists such as ACT-UP and Herman Ferguson, respectively. As an independent attorney, she also represented members of

the Black Panther Party.

Gibbs served as general counsel for the Center for Law and Social Justice (CLSJ) of Medgar Evers College, a position she held for approximately 28 years. She also served as project director of the CLSJ Immigration Law Program. Founder and executive director emeritus Esmeralda Simmons, Esq., said, “Joan P. Gibbs, Esq. was an outstanding attorney and general counsel, and a kind human being. She was intellectually ubersharp—a lawyers’ lawyer—who was regularly consulted on civil rights matters. She was an expert in constitutional law and parried her legal acumen for the benefit of Black people, women, political prisoners, and LGBTQIA+ communities. Her entire career was a serial act of service for humanity.”

Gibbs was appointed to the New York City Campaign Finance Board’s Voter Assistance Advisory Committee by the mayor, the comptroller, the New York City Council, and all five of the New York City borough presidents.

Gibbs played a pivotal role in numerous international campaigns, including the U.S.

anti-apartheid movement. In addition to her support of Palestine, she also played a key role in the campaign that eventually led to passage of New York City Council Resolution 0285, which calls on the U.S. Congress and President Joe Biden to end the U.S. embargo against Cuba and the restrictive travel ban on U.S. citizens. The resolution also called for removing Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list due to the unjust harm it causes the Cuban people.

Gibbs also has an impressive literary legacy as the founding editor of “Azalea: A Magazine by Third World Lesbians,” which presented fiction, poetry, and other forms by writers who included Audre Lorde, Sapphire, and Jewelle Gomez. It was published between 1977 and 1983, and is an early example of lesbians of color claiming their space in literature in a public way.

In 1980, Gibbs co-edited the anthology “Top Ranking: A Collection of Articles on Racism and Classism in the Lesbian Community.” Ada Gay Griffin, filmmaker of “A Litany of Survival: The Life and Work of

Audre Lorde," said, “While immersed in many movements for freedom and justice, Joan bravely championed LGBTQIA+ liberation as a Black lesbian leader, committed to organizing and raising the voices of Black women.”

Gibbs’s sustained ethos of freedom, democracy, and equity was always clearly evident whether she was working on behalf of People United for Children, a group advocating for children in foster care, headed by Sharonne Salaam, mother of Councilmember Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five; immigrants seeking to become citizens; or Black voters in New York City challenging discriminatory voting practices.

She was predeceased by her mother, Ruth Juanita Gibbs; her father, Prentiss Gibbs; and her sister, Ruth Janice Gibbs. She is survived by many friends and colleagues. The private interment of her ashes will occur in the family hometown of Swan Quarter. A memorial and community celebration of Joan Gibbs’s life will be held on a date in May to be determined.

Joan Gibbs’s 40-year career includes work with the ACLU, Center for Constitutional Rights, and Center for Law and Social Justice (Contributed photo)

Gylan Kain, one of the Original Last Poets, dead at 81

By HERB BOYD Special to the AmNews

“God was an only child and jealousy was a whore Mama lifted her bosoms

And the stars sang songs of Hosanna I am not the fool

you bargained for…”

This is an excerpt from Gylan Kain’s poem “Song of Ditta,” published in Black Spirits, edited by Woodie King Jr., although a lesser work compared it to his prominence as a member of the Last Poets.

Best known for his collaboration with Abiodun Oyewole, David Nelson, and later Felipe Luciano, Kain and his cohort gained fame and recognition with their “Niggers Are Scared of Revolution,” which influenced Gil Scott-Heron and the hip-hop and rap generations. Kain died at a care home in Lelystad, the Netherlands, on February 7, 2024, at 81.

Born Frank Gallen Oates at Harlem Hospital on May 26, 1942, Kain was raised by his mother, Hilda Oates. He had a brief stint at Hunter College before embarking on an acting career, having by then changed his name in tribute to the poet Dylan Thomas, and the biblical figure Cain.

The Original Last Poets formed in 1968

with Kain leading the way with his vibrant staccato intonation, backed and rhythmically echoed by his colleagues.

Kain’s “The Shalimar,” which was released on their album “Right On,” was later sampled by Dr. Dre, without the author’s consent, which led to several rounds of legal action. The album was also the

soundtrack for a video that is rarely shown. Such productions were just the beginning of Kain’s venture into multimedia collaborations, including performances and recordings with other musicians during his stay in Europe. Most notable was his appearance with the Dutch jazz/hip-hop/ fusion group Electric Barbarian in 2004.

He was also the subject of several documentary films. His daughter, Amber Kain, is an actress and playwright. Khalil Kain, his adopted son, starred as Raheem in the 1992 film “Juice” with 2Pac.

“Kain: The Blue Guerrilla” and “Baby Kain: Feel This” are part of his discography.

Gylan Kain in Amsterdam, 2016 (Sher47 photo (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gylan_Kain_-_Kain_the_Poet.png),

100

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101 LEGAL NOTICES

NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT: NEW YORK COUNTY. NYCTL 19982 TRUST SUCCESSOR IN INTEREST TO NYCTL 2018A TRUST AND THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON AS COLLATERAL AGENT AND CUSTODIAN, NYCTL 2021A TRUST AND THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON AS COLLATERAL AGENT AND CUSTODIAN, Pltf. vs. ANNA LEAH L. BRAUDES et al, Defts. Index #158532/2022. Pursuant to judgment of foreclosure and sale entered November 24, 2023, I will sell at public auction in Room 130 of the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY on May 1, 2024 at 2:15 p.m. prem. k/a 612 East 9 th Street, New York, NY 10009 a/k/a Block 00319 Lot 0013. Approx. amt. of judgment is $4,051.23 and $4,622.60 plus costs and interest. Sold subject to terms and conditions of filed judgment and terms of sale.

ROBERTA ASHKIN, Referee.

THE DELLO-IACONO LAW GROUP, P.C., Attys. for Pltf., 312 Larkfield Road, Lower Level, East Northport, NY. File No. 22-000142- #101088

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF NEW YORK, 75 STREET SERVICING LLC, Plaintiff, vs. CLST ENTERPRISES LLC, ET AL., Defendant(s).

Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Decision + Order on Motion duly entered on December 8, 2022 and a Decision + Order on Motion duly entered on December 7, 2023, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the New York County Courthouse, Room 130, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY on April 10, 2024 at 2:15 p.m., premises known as 19 East 75th Street, New York, NY 10021. 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 1390 and Lot 14. Approximate amount of judgment is $7,346,196.91 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index #850001/2021. COVID-19 safety protocols will be followed at the foreclosure sale.

Jeffrey R. Miller, Esq., Referee

Glenn Rodney, PC, 368 Birch Road, Wallkill, New York 12589, Attorneys for Plaintiff

Notice is hereby given that a license for OP 252 Wine, Beer, Cider and Liquor License, has been applied for by 130 Saint Marks, LLC dba Crispiano, to sell wine, beer, cider and liquor under the Alcoholic Beverage Control law at the premises located at 130 St. Marks Place, New York, New York 10009.

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF New York, NYCTL 1998-2

Trust and the Bank of New York Mellon as Collateral Agent and Custodian, Plaintiff, vs. Katherine Mosley, ET AL., Defendant(s).

Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Decision + Order on Motion dated October 18, 2023 and entered on November 28, 2023, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the New York County Courthouse, Room 130, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY on April 24, 2024 at 2:15 p.m., all that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County of New York, City and State of New York, Block 2011 and Lot 23.

Said premises may also be known as 125 West 142 Street, New York, NY. Approximate amount of judgment is $100,111.55 plus interest and costs.

Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale.

Index # 154723/2022. COVID-19 safety protocols will be followed at the foreclosure sale.

Doron A. Leiby, Esq., Referee

The Law Office of Thomas P. Malone, PLLC, 60 East 42nd Street, Suite 553, New York, New York 10165, Attorneys for Plaintiff

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

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

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

INDEX # 103164/2008 FILED 01/17/2024 SECOND SUPPLEMENTAL SUMMONS

Mortgaged Premises: 158 West 130th Street, New York, NY 10027 Tax Map ID: 1914-55 U.S. BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS TRUSTEE FOR THE CERTIFICATEHOLDERS OF BANC OF AMERICA FUNDING CORPORATION, MORTGAGE PASS-THROUGH CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2007-6, Plaintiff, GREGORY STEPHENSON AS HEIR AT LAW AND NEXT OF KIN OF DEBORAH A. STEPHENSON; VINCENT STEPHENSON AS HEIR AT LAW AND NEXT OF KIN OF DEBORAH A. STEPHENSON; DWIGHT STEPHENSON, INDIVIDUALLY AND AS HEIR AT LAW AND NEXT OF KIN OF DEBORAH A. STEPHENSON, if living, and if dead, the respective heirs at law, next of kin, distributees, executors, administrators, trustees, devisees, legatees, assignors, lienors, creditors and successors in interest and generally all persons having or claiming under, by or through said defendant who may be deceased, by purchase, inheritance, lien or otherwise of any right, title or interest in and to the premises described in the complaint herein, and their respective husbands, wives or widow, if any, and each and every person not specifically named who may be entitled to or claim to have any right, title or interest in the property described in the verified complaint; all of whom and whose names and places of residence unknown, and cannot after diligent inquiry be ascertained by the Plaintiff; "JOHN DOE" AND "JANE DOE" 1 THROUGH 50, INTENDING TO BE THE UNKNOWN HEIRS, DISTRIBUTEES, DEVISEES, GRANTEES, TRUSTEES, LIENORS, CREDITORS, AND ASSIGNEES OF THE ESTATE OF DEBORAH A. STEPHENSON, WHO WAS BORN IN 1964 AND DIED ON MARCH 25, 2011, A RESIDENT OF NEW YORK COUNTY, WHOSE LAST KNOWN ADDRESS WAS 605 WEST 147 STREET NY, NY 10031, THEIR SUCCESSORS IN INTEREST IF ANY OF THE AFORESAID DEFENDANTS BE DECEASED, THEIR RESPECTIVE HEIRS AT LAW, NEXT OF KIN, AND SUCCESSORS IN INTEREST OF THE AFORESAID CLASSES OF PERSON, IF THEY OR ANY OF THEM BE DEAD, AND THEIR RESPECTIVE HUSBANDS, WIVES OR WIDOWS, IF ANY, ALL OF WHOM AND WHOSE NAMES AND PLACES ARE UNKNOWN TO THE PLAINTIFF; MORTGAGE ELECTRONIC REGISTRATION SYSTEMS, INC; GREENPOINT MORTGAGE FUNDING, INC; NYC PARKING VIOLATIONS BUREAU; AMERICAN EXPRESS CENTURION BANK; NEW YORK CITY ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL BOARD; NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF TAXATION AND FINANCE; UNITED STATES OF AMERICA O/B/O INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, Defendants. TO THE ABOVE NAMED DEFENDANTS: YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to answer the Complaint in the above entitled action and to serve a copy of your Answer on the Plaintiff's attorney within twenty (20) days after the service of this Summons, exclusive of the day of service, or within thirty (30) days after completion of service where service is made in any other manner than by personal delivery within the State. The United States of America, if designated as a Defendant in this action, may answer or appear within sixty (60) days of service hereof. Jn case of your failure to appear or answer, judgment will be taken against you by default for the relief demanded in the Complaint. NEW YORK County is designated as the place of trial. The basis of venue is the location of the premised encumbered by the mortgage to be foreclosed herein. 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 home. Speak to an attorney or go to the court where your case is pending for further information on how to answer the summons and protect your property. Sending a payment to your mortgage company will not stop this foreclosure action. YOU MUST RESPOND BY SERVING A COPY OF THE ANSWER ON THE ATTORNEY FOR THE PLAINTIFF (MORTGAGE COMPANY) AND FILING THE ANSWER WITH THE COURT. This action was commenced to foreclose a mortgage against property located at 158 W 130th St., New York, NY 10027. McCabe, Weisberg & Conway, LLC, Attorneys for Plaintiff, 1 Huntington Quadrangle Suite 4N25 Melville, NY 11747. (631) 812-4084. (855) 845-2584 facsimile. File# 19-300697 HELP FOR HOMEOWNERS IN FORECLOSURE. NEW YORK STATE LAW REQUIRES THAT WE SEND YOU THIS NOTICE ABOUT THE FORECLOSURE PROCESS. PLEASE READ IT CAREFULLY. SUMMONS AND COMPLAINT YOU ARE IN DANGER OF LOSING YOUR HOME. IF YOU FAIL TO RESPOND TO THE SUMMONS AND COMPLAINT IN THIS FORECLOSURE ACTION, YOU MAY LOSE YOUR HOME. PLEASE READ THE SUMMONS AND COMPLAINT CAREFULLY. YOU SHOULD IMMEDIATELY CONTACT AN ATTORNEY OR YOUR LOCAL LEGAL AID OFFICE TO OBTAIN ADVICE ON HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF. SOURCES OF INFORMATION AND ASSISTANCE The State encourages you to become informed about your options in foreclosure. In addition to seeking assistance from an attorney or legal aid office, there are government agencies and non- profit organizations that you may contact for information about possible options, including trying to work with your lender during this process. To locate an entity near you, you may call the toll-free helpline maintained by the New York State Department of Financial Services at 1-800-342-3736 or visit the Department`s website at www.dfs.ny.gov RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS YOU ARE NOT REQUIRED TO LEAVE YOUR HOME AT THIS TIME. You have the right to stay in your home during the foreclosure process. You are not required to leave your home unless and until your property is sold at auction pursuant to a judgment of foreclosure and sale. Regardless of whether you choose to remain in your home, YOU ARE REQUIRED TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR PROPERTY and pay property taxes in accordance with state and local law. FORECLOSURE RESCUE SCAMS Be careful of people who approach you with offers to "save" your home. There are individuals who watch for notices of foreclosure actions in order to unfairly profit from a homeowner`s distress. You should be extremely careful about any such promises and any suggestions that you pay them a fee or sign over your deed. State law requires anyone offering such services for profit to enter into a contract which fully describes the services they will perform and fees they will charge, and which prohibits them from taking any money from you until they have completed all such promised services. § 1303 NOTICE

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

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

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

NY 122072543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808-1674. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NEW YORK - INDEX

NO.:850222/2023 SUMMONS.

Plaintiff designates NEW YORK COUNTY as the place of trial based upon the location of the premises herein described having tax map Block 1397, Lot 1524, NEW YORK, NY, County of NEW YORK – CITIMORTGAGE, INC., PLAINTIFF, -against- CARMEL REAL ESTATE LLC, BOARD OF MANAGERS OF THE BARBIZON/63 CONDOMINIUM, “JOHN DOE #1” through “JOHN DOE #12,” the last twelve names being fictitious and unknown to plaintiff, the persons or parties intended being the tenants, occupants, persons or corporations, if any, having or claiming an interest in or lien upon the premises, described in the complaint, DEFENDANTS. YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to answer the complaint in this action and to serve a copy of your answer, or, if the complaint is not served with this summons, to serve a notice of appearance on the Plaintiff's Attorney within 20 days after the service of this summons, exclusive of the day of service (or within 30 days after the service is complete if this summons is not personally delivered to you within the State of New York); and in case of your failure to appear or answer, judgment will be taken against you by default for the relief demanded in the complaint. NOTICE YOU ARE IN DANGER OF LOSING YOUR HOME If you do not respond to this Summons and Complaint by serving a copy of the answer on the attorney for the mortgage company who filed this foreclosure proceeding against you and filing the answer with the court, a default judgment may be entered against you and you can lose your home. Speak to an attorney or go to the court where your case is pending for further information on how to answer the summons and protect your property. Sending a payment to your mortgage company will not stop this foreclosure action. YOU MUST RESPOND BY SERVING A COPY OF THE ANSWER ON THE ATTORNEY FOR THE PLAINTIFF (MORTGAGE COMPANY) AND FILING THE ANSWER WITH THE COURT. Dated: Syosset, New York, February 28, 2024. Roach & Lin, P.C., attorney for Plaintiff, 6851 Jericho Turnpike, Suite 185, Syosset, NY 11791. Tel: 516-938-3100. 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, State of New York, dated February 14, 2024 and filed with the NEW YORK County Clerk together with the supporting papers thereon. This is an action to foreclose a mortgage held by Plaintiff on the premises known as Block 1397, Lot 1524, NEW YORK, NY, County of NEW YORK as described in the complaint on file and commonly known as 140 EAST 63RD ST, UNIT 6C, A/K/A 140 E 63RD ST 6C, NEW YORK, NY. 79893

Notice

TRUE HOUSE LLC Arts. of Org. filed

Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/19/24. Office lo-

Supreme Court-New York County - Hilton Resorts Corp., Pltf. v. Any unknown heirs to the Estate of ALAN S. RAFTERMAN, next of kin, devisees, legatees, distributees, grantees, assignees, creditors, lienors, trustees, executors, administrators or successors in interest, as well as the respective heirs at law, next of kin, devisees, legatees, distributees, grantees, assignees, lienors, trustees, executors, administrators or successors in interest of the aforesaid classes of persons, if they or any of them be dead, all of whom and whose names and places of residence are unknown to the plaintiff, et al., Deft. - Index # 850207/2019. The foregoing supplemental summons is served upon you by publication pursuant to an Order of the Honorable FRANCIS KAHN, III, Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York, dated the 13th day of February 2024 and duly entered the 15th day of February 2024 in the office of the Clerk of the County of New York, State of New York. TO THE ABOVE-NAMED DEFENDANTS:

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

NOTICE OF NATURE OF ACTION AND RELIEF SOUGHT

THE OBJECT of the above captioned action is for the foreclosure of a fractional interest of 0.00986400000% in the premises at Block 1009, Tax Lot 37 located at 102 West 57th Street NY, NY. Mortgage bearing the date of August 6, 2015, executed by Alan S. Rafterman to Hilton Resorts Corporation, a Delaware Corporation, to secure the sum of $40,920.23, and interest and recorded in the Office of the Clerk of New York County on January 4, 2016, in CRFN 2016000000603. The relief sought in the within action is a final judgment directing the sale of the Mortgaged Premises as described above to satisfy the debt secured by the Mortgage described above.

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

Supreme Court-New York County Hilton Resorts Corp., Pltf. v. IKENNA ODIKE AND OMOMENE ODIKE, if living, and if they be dead, any and all persons unknown to Plaintiff, claiming, or who may claim to have an interest in, or generally or specific lien upon the real property described in this action; such unknown persons being herein generally described and intended to be included in the following designation, namely: the wife, widow, husband, widower, heirs-at-law, next of kin, descendants, executors, administrators, devisees, legatees, creditors, trustees, committees, lienors and assignees of such deceased, any and all persons deriving interest in or lien upon, or title to said real property by, through or under them, or either of them, and their respective wives, widows, husbands, widowers, heirs-at-law, next of kin, descendants, executors, administrators, devisees, legatees, creditors, trustees, committees, lienors and assigns, all of whom and whose names, except as stated, are unknown to Plaintiff, et al., Deft. - Index # 850300/2017. The foregoing supplemental summons is served upon you by publication pursuant to an Order of the Honorable FRANCIS KAHN, III, Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York, dated the 5th day of February 2024 and duly entered the 28th day of February 2024 in the office of the Clerk of the County of New York, State of New York. TO THE

ABOVE- NAMED DEFENDANTS:

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

NOTICE OF NATURE OF ACTION AND RELIEF SOUGHT

THE OBJECT of the above captioned action is for the foreclosure of a fractional interest of 5,000/28,402,100 in the premises at Block 1006, Tax Lot 1302 located at 1335 Avenue of the Americas NY, NY. Mortgage bearing the date of December 24, 2015, executed by Ikenna Odike and Omomene Odike to Hilton Resorts Corporation, a Delaware Corporation, to secure the sum of $33,750.00, and interest and recorded in the Office of the Clerk of New York County on May 19, 2016, in CRFN 2016000171807. The relief sought in the within action is a final judgment directing the sale of the Mortgaged Premises as described above to satisfy the debt secured by the Mortgage described above.

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

Notice of Qualification of 30 HY WM UNIT DEVELOPER LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/01/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/29/24. Princ. office of LLC: 30 Hudson Yards, 72nd Fl., NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o 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 of DE, Corp. Div., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Supreme Court-New York County - Hilton Resorts Corp., Pltf. v. UKOHA OLUGU IGWE AND GOSPEL OLUGU IGWE, if living, and if they be dead, any and all persons unknown to Plaintiff, claiming, or who may claim to have an interest in, or generally or specific lien upon the real property described in this action; such unknown persons being herein generally described and intended to be included in the following designation, namely: the wife, widow, husband, widower, heirs-at-law, next of kin, descendants, executors, administrators, devisees, legatees, creditors, trustees, committees, lienors and assignees of such deceased, any and all persons deriving interest in or lien upon, or title to said real property by, through or under them, or either of them, and their respective wives, widows, husbands, widowers, heirs-at-law, next of kin, descendants, executors, administrators, devisees, legatees, creditors, trustees, committees, lienors and assigns, all of whom and whose names, except as stated, are unknown to Plaintiff, et al., Deft. - Index # 850036/2018. The foregoing supplemental summons is served upon you by publication pursuant to an Order of the Honorable FRANCIS KAHN, III, Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York, dated the 2nd day of February 2024 and duly entered the 6th day of February 2024 in the office of the Clerk of the County of New York, State of New York. TO THE ABOVE- NAMED DEFENDANTS: YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to answer the complaint in this action and to serve a copy of your answer, or, if the Complaint is not served with this Summons, to serve a notice of appearance, on the Plaintiff's attorney, within twenty (20) days after the service of this Summons, exclusive of the day of service (or within thirty (30) days after completion of service where service is made in any other manner than by personal delivery within the State) In case of your failure to appear or answer, judgment will be taken against you by default for the relief demanded in the Complaint.

NOTICE OF NATURE OF ACTION AND RELIEF SOUGHT

THE OBJECT of the above captioned action is for the foreclosure of a fractional interest of 16,000/28,402,100 in the premises at Block 1006, Tax Lot 1302 located at 1335 Avenue of the Americas NY, NY. Mortgage bearing the date of July 31, 2015, executed by Ukoha Olugu Igwe and Gospel Olugu Igwe to Hilton Resorts Corporation, a Delaware Corporation, to secure the sum of $96,150.00, and interest and recorded in the Office of the Clerk of New York County on January 5, 2016, in CRFN 2016000002039. The relief sought in the within action is a final judgment directing the sale of the Mortgaged Premises as described above to satisfy the debt secured by the Mortgage described above.

YOU MUST RESPOND BY SERVING A COPY OF THE ANSWER ON

THE ATTORNEY FOR THE PLAINTIFF AND FILING THE ANSWER WITH THE COURT.

Supreme Court-New York County – Hilton Resorts Corp., Pltf. V. Any unknown heirs to the Estate of ROY STEPHEN POWERS, next of kin, devisees, legatees, distributees, grantees, assignees, creditors, lienors, trustees, executors, administrators or successors in interest, as well as the respective heirs at law, next of kin, devisees, legatees, distributees, grantees, assignees, lienors, trustees, executors, administrators or successors in interest of the aforesaid classes of persons, if they or any of them be dead, all of whom and whose names and places of residence are unknown to the plaintiff, et al., Deft. – Index # 850208/2018. The foregoing supplemental summons is served upon you by publication pursuant to an Order of the Honorable FRANCIS KAHN, III, Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York, dated the 27th day of October 2023 and duly entered the 2nd day of November 2023 in the office of the Clerk of the County of New York, State of New York. TO THE ABOVE-NAMED DEFENDANTS:

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

NOTICE OF NATURE OF ACTION AND RELIEF SOUGHT

THE OBJECT of the above captioned action is for the foreclosure of a fractional interest of 10,000/16,783,800 in the premises at Block 1006, Tax Lot 1303 located at 1335 Avenue of the Americas NY, NY. Mortgage bearing the date of April 7, 2015, executed by Roy Stephen Powers to Hilton Resorts Corporation, a Delaware Corporation, to secure the sum of $61,457.62, and interest and recorded in the Office of the Clerk of New York County on November 13, 2015, in CRFN 2015000404903. The relief sought in the within action is a final judgment directing the sale of the Mortgaged Premises as described above to satisfy the debt secured by the Mortgage described above.

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

NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME

COURT COUNTY OF NEW YORK HSBC Bank USA, N.A., Plaintiff AGAINST Pedro D. A. Alvarez Arenas, if living and if dead, the respective heirs at law, next of kin, distributees, executors administrators, trustees, devisees, legatees, assignors, lienors, creditors and successors in interest and generally all persons having or claiming under, by or through said defendant who may be deceased, purchase, inheritance lien, or otherwise or any right, title or interest in and to the premises…; et al., Defendant(s) Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly entered March 28, 2022 I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the New York County Courthouse in Room 130, located at 60 Centre Street, New York, NY 10007 on April 24, 2024 at 2:15PM, premises known as 15 William Street, New York, NY 10005. 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: 25 Lot: 1503. Approximate amount of judgment $792,245.73 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index# 810049/2012. The auction will be conducted pursuant to the COVID-19 Policies Concerning Public Auctions of Foreclosed Property established by the First Judicial District. Mark McKew, Esq., Referee LOGS Legal Group LLP f/k/a Shapiro, DiCaro & Barak, LLC Attorney(s) for the Plaintiff 175 Mile Crossing Boulevard Rochester, New York 14624 (877) 430-4792 Dated: December 15, 2023 78955

Application for Authority of PRIVATE LENDER PARTNERS LLC filed with the Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) 2/12/2024. Formed in FL 1/29/2024. Office loc.: NY County. SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. The principal business loc. and address SSNY shall mail copy of process is Sergey Smirnov, 17475 Collins Ave., Unit 603, Sunny Isles Beach, FL 33160. Arts. of Organization filed with the Secy. of State, Div. of Corporations, 2415 N. Monroe St., Ste. 810, Tallahassee, FL 32303. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION OF Nation Land Company, LLC Application for Authority filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/23/2024. Office location: NEW YORK County. LLC formed in Ohio on 10/31/2001. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. The Post Office address to which the SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC served upon him/her is: 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207. The principal business address of the LLC is 4300 Sterilite St. S.E., Massillon, Ohio 44646. Certificate of LLC filed with Secretary of State of Ohio located at: 180 S. Civic Center Drive, Columbus, Ohio 43215. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Qualification of STRETCHD WORLDWIDE, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/07/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 01/17/24. Princ. office of LLC: 12636 High Bluff Dr., Ste.

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

Notice of Formation of MIDTOWN ESTATES PRESERVATION GP, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/05/24. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 30 Hudson Yards, 72nd Fl., NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

COUNTY OF NEW YORK

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

NOTICE OF SALE

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN pursuant to a Final Judgment of Foreclosure entered in the Office of the Clerk of the County of New York on June 12, 2023, wherein HSBC BANK USA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS TRUSTEE FOR DEUTSCHE ALT-A SECURITIES INC. MORTGAGE LOAN TRUST, MORTGAGE PASS-THROUGH CERTIFICATES SERIES 2005-3 is the Plaintiff and ROBERT A. DEL VENTO, ET AL. are the Defendant(s). I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the NEW YORK COUNTY CIVIL SUPREME COURTHOUSE, ROOM

130, 60 CENTRE STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10007, on May 1, 2024 at 2:15PM, premises known as 335 EAST 51ST STREET, APARTMENT 9D, NEW YORK, NY 10022; and the following tax map identification: 1344-1074.

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

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

Notice of Qualification of GREYSTONE MONTICELLO

FUNDING SH-73 LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/15/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/13/24. Princ. office of LLC: 600 Third Ave., 21st Fl., NY, NY 10016. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Engaging in and exercising all powers permitted to a limited liability company formed under the Delaware Limited Liability Company Act.

Notice of Qualification of FORTHILL MOXY HOLDER, LLC

Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/16/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/15/24. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Jeffrey W. Bullock, Secy. of State, 820 N. French St., 10th Fl., Wilmington, DE 19801. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

BERTRIS ENTERPRISES,

LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 01/08/24. Office: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, 299 Broadway, Suite 1405, New York, NY 10007. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Secret Society Dance Company

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

Notice of Formation of BENNY BRONCO LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/15/24. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Mama Naya LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 1/29/2024. Office loc.: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: 182 Bennett Ave., #1H, NY, NY 10040. Purpose: Any lawful act.

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

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

Mobile Medicine, PLLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 2/16/2023. Office: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: 228 Park Ave S, Ste 20769, NY, NY, 10003. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of SPECIAL PRODUCTION AGENCY LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/07/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 05/19/21. Princ. office of LLC: 545 W. 25th St., 11th Fl., NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Green Ductors LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 12/26/2023. Office location: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: 57 West 57th St, NY, NY, 10019. Purpose: Any lawful act.

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

Notice of Qualification of GREYSTONE MONTICELLO

FUNDING SH-69-A LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/01/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 01/04/24. Princ. office of LLC: 600 Third Ave., 21st Fl., NY, NY 10016. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Engaging in and exercising all powers permitted to a limited liability company formed under the Delaware Limited Liability Company Act.

Notice of Qualification of RGNNEW YORK C, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/16/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/16/24. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of FSFHP OWNER LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/04/24. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 116 E. 27th St., 11th Fl., NY, NY 10016. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207. Purpose: Products and services real estate development.

This Is Your Moment Productions LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 8/10/23. Office location: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: 234-18 118th Street, Cambria Heights, NY, 11411. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of 22 MONTAIGNE ENTERTAINMENT LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/26/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/20/24. Princ. office of LLC: 19 E. 57th St., 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: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Entertainment production.

Notice of Formation of MIDTOWN ESTATES DEVELOPER, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/05/24. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 30 Hudson Yards, 72nd Fl., NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

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

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

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

Notice of Formation of DD 82ND STREET PARTICIPANTS

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

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

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

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

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

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

Notice of Qualification of PORTA MANAGEMENT, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/08/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/28/18. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 122072543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State of the State of DE, Div. of Corps., PO Box 898, Dover, DE 19903. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

ABOTOS LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 02/12/2024. Office location: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: ROCKET CORPORATE SERVICES INC., 2804 Gateway Oaks Dr. #100, Sacramento, CA, 95833. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Formation of PC NYC PROPERTY LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/01/24. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Evey Gallery New York LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 02/01/2024. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: 240 S County Rd, Palm Beach, FL, 33480. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Qualification of 200 INVESTORS GP LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/18/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 03/11/24. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Jeffrey W. Bullock, Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of URBAN DECAY COSMETICS LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/18/24. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 10 Hudson Yards, NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of LONG YEARS AGO LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/19/24. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, 1 Columbus Pl., N29B, NY, NY 10019. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Milky Way Group LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 02/03/2024. Office location: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: 250 West 50th St, New York, NY 10019. Purpose: Any lawful act.

15 Barton Road LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 11/15/23. Office location: Westchester County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: 54 N Broadway, Yonkers, NY 10701. Purpose: Any lawful act.

We

QUE RICO RESTAURANT LLC

Please call 212-675-2800 or email electricalcon-

Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 01/25/24. Office location: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to: 221 E 23 St, NY, NY 10010.

Purpose: Any lawful act.

an application or submit your resume. Applications and Resumes will be reviewed until March 11, 2024.

Digital Quill Publishing LLC

Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 9/24/2023. Office location:

NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail a copy to:

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Since then, the Colemans’ story has lived on. A marriage between members of the two organizations is dubbed a “Coleman Love” story. But the whereabouts of Edna’s burial site remained a mystery.

To find it, the sorority tapped Marjorie Kinard, resident historian of the Washington, D.C., alumni chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, who first pledged as a student at historically Black Livingstone College in the 1960s.

“When I hung up the phone, I got right on it,” she said.

Kinard quickly confirmed that Brown Coleman was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, a 22.5-acre cemetery in Washington.

Opened in 1895, Woodlawn contains about 36,000 burial sites, many of them prominent Black Americans, such as Blanche K. Bruce, a U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1875 to 1881, and playwright and educator Mary Powell Burrill.

Once volunteers opened the gates for a small contingent of sorority members to find their forebear, Kinard’s awe turned to dread. The grass was overgrown, with shrubbery and weeds that hadn’t been cut in months, or even years. Some tombstones were strewn about haphazardly.

Hidden beneath the shrubbery grown over Brown Coleman’s tombstone was the revelation that her full name was Mary Edna Brown Coleman.

Soon it was discovered that two founders of the

Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority—Sarah Meriwether Nutter and Marjorie Arizona Hill— were also interred at Woodlawn. Kinard reached out to another sorority leader, and together, they began Woodlawn Collaborative Project, an initiative designed to ensure that the grounds are never again neglected.

“We were just happy that the cemetery was alive and well,” Kinard said.

Desecration is an unfortunate reality, such as in the case of Moses Macedonia African Cemetery in Bethesda, M. Advocates of the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition are mired in a legal battle to keep a developer from selling the land where the cemetery once stood. The case is being weighed in the Maryland Supreme Court.

In the Long Island town of Roslyn, N.Y., librarian Carol Clarke recently found the site where members of the Salem African Methodist Episcopal Church had been reinterred after a wealthy family purchased a plot of land—their original burial site—to build a chicken coop in 1899.

Sands reported from Washington. AP reporter Curt Anderson contributed from Tampa, Fla.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with the Conversation US, with funding from the Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

The Mets and Yankees begin their 2024 campaign with similar challenges

By JAIME C. HARRIS AmNews Sports Editor

Pitching. Specifically, starting pitching. It is the most glaring challenge facing the Mets and Yankees as Opening Day has arrived.

The Mets will be at Citi Field this afternoon (1:10 p.m.) to host the Milwaukee Brewers to begin a three-game series and the Yankees will take on the Houston Astros on the road later today (4:10 p.m.) in Game 1 of a four-game set. Jose Quintana is scheduled to be on the mound for the Mets to throw their first pitch of the 2024 campaign while Nestor Cortes gets the nod for the Yankees as he’s moved up one spot in their starting rotation for now with ace Gerrit Cole projected to be out until late May or early June with right elbow nerve inflammation and edema— swelling caused by too much fluid trapped in the body’s tissues.

Cole was the American League Cy Young Award winner last season. On Sunday, Yankees manager Aaron Boone announced that righty Luis Gil will begin the season as the team’s No. 5 starter to complete their rotation. Carlos Rodon, Marcus Stroman and Clarke Schmidt are slotted as the Yankees Nos. 2, 3, and 4 starters respectively. Via MLB.com, the 25-year-old Gil expressed his eagerness to maximize the moment.

“Coming into camp, I mentioned how

hard I worked in the offseason to put myself in a really good situation,” said the native of the Dominican Republic who initially was signed as a free-agent by the Minnesota Twins as a teenager in 2015. To me, it’s important to have a good start. It’s exciting. I’m very fortunate and happy to have this opportunity.”

In addition to the lefty Quintana, former Yankee Luis Severino, Tylor Megill, southpaw Sean Manaea and Adrian Houser are slated as the Mets’ first five. Over the course of the long seven-month, 162-game Major League Baseball season, unknown variables will alter both teams’ rotations and plans. Neither is set and stone and will be fluid. And there are rightful concerns among the fan bases that their quality and depth is lagging behind some of their division rivals, such as the potent arms of the Atlanta Braves for the Mets in the National League East and the formidable Toronto Blue Jays staff the Yankees will have to contend with in the AL East.

Boone and Yankees GM Brian Cashman, along with, Mets first-year manager Carlos Mendoza, and president David Stearns, also in his first year with the franchise in his current role (Stearns previously worked in the Mets’ baseball operations department early in his career) will be charged with navigating the unforeseen and inevitable that will reveal itself in the form of injuries and ineffectiveness.

The UConn Huskies continue their hunt for back-to-back titles

By DERREL JOHNSON Special to the AmNews

The University of Connecticut’s men’s basketball team continues to steamroll the competition in winning their first two games of this year’s NCAA Tournament.

The Huskies will battle San Diego State tonight at TD Garden in Boston for a chance to advance to the Elite Eight on Saturday and if victorious would face the winner of the other evening matchup between Iowa State and Illinois for a chance to move on to the Final Four.

The Huskies, the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed, extended their NCAA Tournament winning streak to eight games by defeating No. 16 seed Stetson 91-52 last Friday and No. 9 Northwestern 75-58 on Sunday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn in the East Region.

“Just obviously impressed with the performance,” Connecticut head coach Dan Hurley said after a dominating win over Northwestern. “You know, just really attacked them in the paint. Obviously the injuries that they have sustained during the year changed the total complexion of that team. That team, you know, with

those two guys that they lost, we’re not playing them today; they are probably a 5 seed or a 6 seed.

“We were obviously thrilled with the performance,” Hurley continued, “and to get that separation, you know, while going 3 for 22 from three. And a handful of those were contested but obviously we didn’t shoot it great, and to still win by that margin, obviously it spoke to our defense and obviously the 20 assists on 29 field goals.”

Senior guard Tristen Newton, who leads the team in scoring (15.3) and assists (6.2) emphasized that his Huskies, last year’s champion, are locked in on their sole objective of repeating.

“We have a big picture that we want to get to and we have to take it one step at a time,” he said. “Getting to the Sweet 16 is another step to our main goal, and it feels good.”

The Florida Gators, led by former head coach Billy Donovan, were the last program to win back-to-back NCAA tournaments in 2006 and 2007.

UConn’s foundation is built on Hurley and his staff, and is fortified with as many as five projected picks in this year’s NBA Draft according to website NBADraft.net,

including two certain first rounders: 7-2 sophomore center Donovan Clingan and 6-6 freshman guard Stephon Castle, who is one of five Huskies averaging double figures in points.

Clingan imposes his size and skill on both ends of the court, including last Sunday, when he scored 14 points, pulled down 14 rebounds and blocked eight shots.

Sharpshooting 6-4 senior guard Cam Spencer is the team’s second-leading scorer at 14.4 points and just under 44% from three-point range. Alex Karaban, a 6-8 sophomore forward and Connecticut’s third-leading scorer, and Newton are the other three potential draft picks.

Hurley has proven that he is adaptable and connects with the rhythm of his team from game to game, allowing the versatility of the group to dictate how he mixes and matches his lineups. Six different players have led UConn in scoring in 35 games.

Anything is possible in a one-game, single elimination setup that is the NCAA Tournament. UConn is not unbeatable. But outclassing Hurley and the Huskies will require their opponent to play their best basketball.

UConn men’s head basketball coach Danny Hurley has the 2023 national champions back in the Sweet 16 as they face San Diego State tonight. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

(L) Jose Quintana (pictured standing on the pitcher’s mound) is scheduled to be the Mets’ Opening Day starter this afternoon at Citi Field while (R) Kodai Senga is a key member of the team’s starting rotation. (Wikipedia photos)

DiVincenzo and the Knicks surge toward the playoffs

By JAIME C. HARRIS AmNews Sports Editor

On HBCU night at Madison Square Garden on Monday, Knicks guard Donte DiVincenzo brought heat and flavor to the building that was symbolic of the festive atmosphere that traditionally permeates historically Black college and universities sporting events.

DiVincenzo hit 11 3-pointers, establishing a new Knicks singlegame franchise record and scored a career-high 40 points to boost his team to a 124-99 blowout of the Detroit Pistons. As entertaining and stimulating DiVincenzo’s performance was for the home crowd, more importantly, it was the Knicks’ sixth win in their previous seven games heading into last night’s meeting with the Toronto Raptors on the road.

The Knicks were 43-28, 24-13 at the Garden and 19-15 away from home, and the No. 4 seed in the East, only one half game behind the No. 3 seed Cleveland Cavaliers. However, they were just one game ahead of the No. 5 seed Or-

lando Magic in a tight race in the stretch run for playoff position.

The Knicks have 10 more games remaining before their regular season schedule ends on April 14. They’ll face the San Antonio Spurs on the road tomorrow, host the Oklahoma City Thunder at MSG on Sunday, then travel to Miami to take on the Heat next Tuesday.

The Knicks have been consistently relentless in their effort in the four years Tom Thibodeau has been the team’s head coach. But this level of effort has been even more essential in the last few months as the Knicks have fought to maintain their place in the upper fourth of the East standings with Julius Randle (right shoulder dislocation) OG Anunoby (surgically repaired right elbow) and Mitchell Robinson (left ankle surgery) still all out and working their way back into the lineup from injuries. Robinson was listed as questionable against the Raptors as of AmNews press time with the possibility of playing.

But in their absence, there has been a collective mindset to keep surging ahead. DiVincenzo has

represented it in his leadership and production. He has proven to be one of last summer’s best NBA free-agent signings as Jalen Brunson was in the summer of 2022. The Knicks inked him to a four-year, $50 million contract after he spent last season with the Golden State Warriors. Going into last night, the 27 year old, 6-4 guard from Villanova had played in 70 games this season, starting 52, and was averaging 14.9 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.6 assists.

Monday highlighted his ability to be a secondary scorer for the Knicks when needed. He also registered a team-leading 31 points in a 105-93 Knicks win against the Brooklyn Nets at the Garden last Saturday. His 3-point record was urged on by the fans in attendance that amped up DiVincenzo as he approached the mark.

“Yes, it’s an amazing feeling having the crowd behind you,” DiVincenzo said, “but also like every time you touch the ball, they’re like, ‘Shoot! Shoot!’”

The energy generated by those that wanted to witness Knicks history had DiVincenzo wrapped up

in the moment.

“Yeah, honestly, Jalen was telling me, ‘bro slow down.’ I was like ‘the crowd’s speeding me up,’” DiVincenzo admitted. “That emotion where you get a sliver of space, knock down nine and then 10 of them, and as soon as you catch the ball, you can hear the crowd. I’ve said it, it’s the best fans in the league.”

The Nets can’t avert time running out on their play-in chances

By DERREL JOHNSON

Special to the AmNews

The Brooklyn Nets ended a season-high six-game losing streak on Monday with a 96-88 road victory over Toronto Raptors, but any chance of postseason action, barring a major miracle, seemed to have ended with that losing streak.

Before last night’s (Wednesday) game against the Wizards in Washington, the Nets were 27-45, five and a half games behind the Atlanta Hawks, who were 32-39 before facing the Portland Trailblazers last night. Brooklyn has nine regular season games remaining, and in the highly unlikely event that the team were to win all of them, Atlanta would merely need to finish 5-5 in their last 10 to secure the 10th and final NBA PlayIn Tournament berth.

Guard Cam Thomas, the Nets’ leading scorer, did not play on Monday because of lower back tightness he experienced warming up. Starting forward Cam Johnson also missed Monday’s game with a left big toe sprain. Additionally,

backup point guard Dennis Smith Jr was absent from Monday’s game with a right hip synovitis. All three played in Saturday’s loss to the Knicks at Madison Square Garden and their status for the Nets’ game last night at AmNews press time was uncertain.

The injuries provided reserve forward Trendon Watford the opportunity to receive increased minutes and score a season-high 19 points while grabbing seven rebounds in the win over the Raptors. After the victory, Brooklyn’s interim head coach Kevin Ollie called his team’s defense phenomenal and applauded the effort of players normally out of the rotation.

“That’s what it’s all about as a team,” Ollie said. “I’m so passionate when I talk to these guys sometimes because I know what they have inside and I know what we have in that locker room and I just want [those] masterpieces to come out all the time.”

Ollie also discussed the preparation of Watford and rookie forward Jalen Wilson, who scored 12 points in his second career start.

“That goes back to the work [and] shootarounds,” he said. “Just putting the time in the gyms with their individual coaches just to be ready. And that’s what the league is about. You never know when you’re going to get your opportunity. You never know when the opportunity is going to knock and you got to always be ready and stay ready.

“And I think,” added Ollie, they did a great job with that. It just shows

their want or their will and staying in the game. And I told [Watford] a lot of times I hear him on the bench even when he is not playing, I hear him and that’s always a great thing for a coach. I hear [Wilson]. I hear those guys. They’re involved even when they’re not involved in the rotation, they’re still involved. And that’s what being a pro is about.”

The team is 6-12 under Ollie’s tenure since former head coach

hasn’t improved the Nets in the standings.

They return to Barclays Center on Friday to host the Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday. The Nets then play a home-and-home series against the Indiana Pacers on the road on Monday and return to Barclays Center next Wednesday.

Knicks guard Donte DiVincenzo scored a career-high 40 points and hit a franchise record 11 3-pointers on Monday night in a 124-99 win over the Detroit Pistons at Madison Square Garden. (Bill Moore photo)

Jacque Vaughn was fired at the AllStar break last month. The change

Nets head coach (L) Kevin Ollie and forward (R) Cam Johnson see time is running out for the team to make the NBA Play-In Tournament. (Bill Moore photos)

Marie Ferdinand-Harris returns to the court and pens inspiring memoir

By LOIS ELFMAN Special to the AmNews

As a student-athlete at Louisiana State University (LSU), first-round WNBA draft pick, and professional basketball player, all Marie Ferdinand-Harris thought about was winning. She was several years into her WNBA career before she took time to appreciate her teammates, enjoy her surroundings, and think about different aspects of life.

“During my pro career, it was never playing for fun; it was always chasing a championship and not knowing how to do both,” Ferdinand-Harris said. “Now, whenever opportunities come about and I can get back on [the] court and play, it gives me that opportunity to compete, win, relax and enjoy the game, connect, and make friends.” With her mindset focused on enjoying life’s moments, Ferdinand-Harris went into the recent Athletes Unlimited (AU) Celebrity Hoops Classic intent on having fun. AU is a new hub for women’s sports, and this winter, AU Basketball served as a competitive outlet for current and aspiring WNBA players. She was invited to compete on one of the celebrity teams.

Heading into the game, she envisioned playing four possessions and then checking out. Instead, she played four quarters, went five-for-six on 3-pointers, made several steals, and was named MVP.

“I had to do it for the team. CJ was willing me and giving me the endurance to do all the things I was able to do,” said

Ferdinand-Harris, referring to her oldest son, CJ Harris, who died in 2021. On receiving the MVP trophy, she shared CJ’s story of being that kid who cared about others and always wanted to make everyone feel welcome. One of her passions is her Be Like CJ Foundation.

Ferdinand-Harris recently released her memoir, ”Transformed: The Winning Side

of Losing,” in which she describes her journey from the Haitian slum in Miami where she grew up to LSU and the path to a brighter future that few people around her could even hope to achieve. She played 11 years in the WNBA and several overseas seasons before moving into life as a wife and mother. In the book, she describes her losses, including CJ’s death, and how she

used them as life lessons to understand and achieve greater purpose.

“My life goal is to assist individuals in mastering the ‘failure quotient,’ guiding them to cultivate resilience and achieve transformative success,” she said. “This upcoming fall, I want to visit colleges and universities, and speak to student-athletes about the subject.”

Women’s basketball student-athletes show stellar academic results

By LOIS ELFMAN

Special to the AmNews

The nation is currently avidly watching the NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments. While most people are busy checking that their brackets are still intact, seeing how many points Caitlin Clark of Iowa amasses before heading to the WNBA, and eagerly awaiting the Final Fours, The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida is checking to see which team’s academic achievements match their court prowess.

Last week, TIDES published one of its report cards, titled “Keeping Score When It Counts: Academic Progress/Graduation Success Rate Study of the NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament Teams.” The study examines the Graduation Success Rate (GSR) and Academic Progress Rate (APR) of the 68 teams in

each tournament. The most notable find is that the women clearly outscore the men.

Using data from the NCAA, women’s teams showed an overall GSR of 95.9% and men’s teams had an overall GSR of 84%. In 2024, 67 of the 68 women’s teams graduated at least 80% of their basketball student-athletes.

Among the 42 women’s teams that had a 100% graduation rate was Columbia University women’s basketball, which made its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament this year. While the team lost to Vanderbilt University in the First Four round, people will forever remember their excitement showing at ESPN’s Tournament announcement.

TIDES likes to create a Sweet 16, Elite Eight, and Final Four based on GSR and APR but couldn’t get past the Sweet 16 for the women because so many schools scored well. Creighton, Kent State, NC State, Rice, South

Dakota State, UConn, Louisville, and Michigan deserve a shoutout for being perfect.

Admiration and appreciation are due for the “national champion” for the men: the University of Alabama, which had a 1,000 APR and 100% GSR. Brittany F. Price, assistant athletics director, academic programs, at Alabama said there is total buy-in to the importance of earning a degree, even in the ever-changing landscape of college sports. The holistic approach includes individual academic plans and thorough learning support, according to Price.

“There is a culture at Alabama that promotes success both in the classroom and in competition,” said Price. “It is the expectation that students do well in the classroom. We do not separate the athlete from the student. They go hand-in-hand. Student-athletes are here to compete at the highest level in both.”

Marie Ferdinand-Harris (l) with fellow WNBA veterans Sheryl Swoopes (c) and Cheryl Ford. (Marie Ferdinand-Harris photo)

Marie Ferdinand-Harris

Sports

The NCAA men’s basketball Final Four will be decided this weekend

By JAIME C. HARRIS AmNews Sports Editor

Dwight Keith Burns Jr., also known as DJ, just well may be ascending to icon status from the perspective of North Carolina State basketball fans. He has certainly captured the attention and adoration of a large segment of casual and ardent followers of college basketball.

The 6-9 power forward, whose weight lingers around 280 pounds, bears the physical features of an offensive lineman for the Wolfpack’s perennially winning football team, but has been a compelling force on the hardwood in literally and figuratively clearing NC State’s path to the Sweet Sixteen of the men’s NCAA Division I basketball tournament. They will meet Marquette tomorrow night (7:10 p.m., CBS) in a South Region matchup.

The winner will face the victor of tomorrow’s Houston-Duke pairing in the Elite Eight on Sunday and the last team standing in the South will move on to the Final

North Carolina State power forward/center DJ Burns Jr. (No. 30) has emerged as one of the most impactful players in this year’s NCAA men’s DI basketball postseason. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Four next weekend in Phoenix, Arizona. The No. 11 seed Wolfpack are an unlikely participant. Contrasting No. 1 seed Houston,

No. 2 seed Marquette and No. 4 Duke, which were all expected to be Final Four contenders entering the postseason tournament, NC

State ended their regular season schedule losing four in a row. Their only hope to make it into the field of 68 was winning the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) tournament.

They were a solid bet to get eliminated but instead inconceivably won five games in five consecutive days, taking down Louisville, Syracuse, Duke, Virginia and North Carolina, the ACC regular season champions—and the No. 1 seed in the West Region—in the conference title chip. And it was Burns who led the way, being named the ACC Tournament MVP after averaging 15.2 points on 62.7% shooting, four rebounds and 3.4 assists. Thus far in the NCAA tournament, NC State has defeated No. 6 Texas Tech and No. 14 Oakland University. Resembling a nimble dancing bear, his superb footwork, soft hands, adept shooting touch from the foul line down and crafty passing skills has been impressively gripping. But the Rock Hill, South Carolina native is not an unknown quantity. Beginning his collegiate career at Tennessee in 2018, the

23-year-old senior transferred to mid-major Winthrop, located in his hometown and was named the 2020 Big South Freshman of the Year before earning the 2022 Big South Player of the Year accolade. He subsequently sought to once again play for a major conference program and joined NC State in 2022.

Before this season began, Burns divulged his basketball inspiration and unintended anatomical structure. “I would say I watched a lot of Hakeem Olajuwon growing up,” he said. “I just happened to end up with a Zach Randolph build.”

Modeling either would be wise. Olajuwon had one of the great careers in basketball history and Randolph was a 2001 first-round NBA draft pick, two-time NBA All-Star and 2011 All-NBA Third Team selection whose No. 50 jersey was retired by the Memphis Grizzlies in 2021.

But Burns being Burns has served him and the Wolfpack well as they look to continue their extraordinary run.

Dynamic play marks early rounds of NCAA women’s hoops tournaments

By LOIS ELFMAN

Special to the AmNews

The first two rounds of the 2024 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament saw some outstanding fierce battles, but few upsets. Top-seeded University of South Carolina had decisive victories over their first two opponents and will next face Indiana in the Sweet 16. The number two seed in the Albany 1 regional, the University of Notre Dame, is also through to the Sweet 16 and will play Oregon State.

Top seed in the Albany 2 regional, Iowa, which of course features leading scorer in all of NCAA history, Caitlin Clark, is also headed to the Sweet 16 and will play Colorado. Ivy League Champion Princeton also played in this region, losing to West Virginia in the first round.

The Portland 3 regional saw the top seed, USC, which includes former Columbia standout Kaitlyn Davis, advance to the Sweet 16; they will next face Baylor. The HBCU in this regional, Jackson State, put up quite a battle against UConn before losing 86–64 in the first round. UConn will play Duke in the Sweet 16.

In the Portland 4 regional, the number one seed, Texas, and two seed, Stanford, are also Sweet 16bound. In the first round, Stanford played the other HBCU school in the Tournament, Norfolk State, which put up a battle before succumbing 79–50.

The inaugural WBIT Tournament is underway. Seton Hall lost to Saint Joseph’s in the first round. Stony Brook advanced to the second round, where they lost to Illinois. It was a historic season for the Stony Brook Seawolves, whose 28 wins tied a program

Judea “JuJu” Watkins, USC’s sensational firstteam All-American freshman guard, posted 28 points, 11 rebounds, and five assists on Monday night in a 73-55 victory over Kansas to lead the Trojans into the Sweet 16 (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

record and earned them the CAA regular season title.

St. John’s also advanced to the second round before a heartbreaking 72–71 loss to Toledo. Mississippi State, which includes former Seton Hall scoring sensation Lauren Park-Lane, is on to the third round. The lone local

team

There is intense pressure on all the Division I players in postseason action amid the excitement about the NCAA Women’s Tournament outselling the Men’s. This will also be the college finale for

in the WNIT, Monmouth, was defeated by Duquesne in the second round.

Clark, UConn’s Aaliyah Edwards, and Stanford’s Cameron Brink, who have all declared for the upcoming WNBA Draft. UConn’s Paige Bueckers wants to win an NCAA title this year, but even if she does, she has said she will return to Storrs and play one more season.