By Nayaba Arinde Editor-at-Large All MTA worker Tanya Ridley wanted to do was exercise quietly at PureGym, her local Bed Stuy gym. It was part of her fitness and self-care regime. But then came a senior white member, who she said propositioned her. She told Our Time...

By Nayaba ArindeEditor-at-Large“Tax the Rich,” some elected officials and NYC activists are calling for racial and economic justice. Too many New Yorkers say they face the dilemma of paying for food, rent, childcare, or medicine, or being forced to relocate from the city.With New...

By Nayaba ArindeEditor-at-LargeAs the media has the nation hyper-focused on the war with Iran over 6,000 miles away from the five boroughs, healthcare, housing, and groceries, are the concerns of most New Yorkers. This, alongside crime on the streets, food insecurity, unemployment, the increasing...

By Nayaba ArindeEditor-at-LargeWill Bed Stuy’s beloved Smurf Village become a cut-and-paste condo complex?The Brooklyn neighborhood has been gentrified at an alarmingly shocking pace; multi-decades-old Black businesses and Black-owned or traditionally Black folk-rented homes are being replaced by a new population–some call them transplants. So,...

By Nayaba ArindeEditor-a-Large“Isolation magnifies mortality. Community reduces it. In a storm, we have to make sure that we check on our elders and the most vulnerable in our community,” Aton Edwards, Disaster Manager, told Our Time Press. The creator of Life Protection Directives for...

By Nayaba ArindeEditor-at-Large “Black History is Everyday,” posted poet Lisa A. Muhammad on social media.Sean M. Brennan-Byrd doubled down, “I am Black every month, but this month I’m Blackity Black Black.”In fact, Delvin Lawson of The Pan African Movement stated, “Always remember that’ Black History...

BY Nayaba ArindeLast week, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced that 2025 was the “safest year ever for gun violence with the fewest shooting incidents and shooting victims in recorded history.” Mamdani stated, “We need to see genuine public safety across the...

By Nayaba ArindeEditor-at-Large Keep your head up, and on a swivel, could be hardy advice as New Yorkers enter 2026 with all the local, national, and international concerns. As Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani took office on January 1, 2026, he is facing a panorama of citywide...

Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn-raised Thomas Henry Watkins, founder, owner, and publisher of the New York Daily Challenge, passed away on Friday, 19th, December, 2025.“I am sad to hear of the passing of a legitimately acclaimed Black giant in the person of Tom Watkins,” Rev Al. Sharpton...

Photo: Nayaba Arinde

By Nayaba ArindeEditor-at-Large From armchair activists who just refused to click and drag to shopping carts on major shopping sites during last week’s Mass Blackout, proving the power of the Black community’s dollar, to those who shopped from Black and small local businesses on Small...

By Nayaba ArindeEditor at LargeSomebody shoot off an email to HR. Black money is scheduling a vacation next week. Taking time off from being spent on frivolous or unnecessary products or actions. The “Mass Black Out, people’s money week off,” is slated to have...

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 30: A store displays a sign accepting Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) purchases for groceries on October 30, 2025 in New York City. Approximately 42 million Americans rely on food stamps that are deposited monthly onto their EBT cards. Benefits have ended or become uncertain amid the ongoing U.S. government shutdown, leaving households desperate to find ways to put food on the table. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

By Nayaba ArindeEditor-at-Large “Thank you,” an incredibly energized new NYC Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani told his joyous crowd on election night. “Hope is alive…Hope over tyranny.”  He spoke with eloquence and fiery conviction “We have toppled a political dynasty.” The NYC General Election was a landslide win for...

New York City in Global Spotlight By Mary Alice MillerVoters could be forgiven if the 2025 NYC mayoral race resembled their favorite telenovela. But it is serious business to elect the chief executive officer of one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world.NYC voters...

By Nayaba ArindeEditor at Large“With early voting underway, it’s important for all of us to vote for my friend Zohran Mamdani for Mayor. He wants to make New York a more affordable city for all of us, and keep our communities safe and growing,”...

NYC EARLY VOTING BEGINS SATURDAY, OCT 25. By Nayaba ArindeFor those who vote, Saturday, March 25th, 2025, begins early voting for the November 4th, NYC General Election.“Black people are in some of the most dangerous times we have faced in many years,” Omowale Clay, Chairman...

By Nayaba ArindeEditor-at-Large “My name is Zohran Kwame Mamdani, my father named me after Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana.”Central Brooklynites came out on Tuesday to hear from the Democratic-line Democratic Socialist of America candidate at the Crown Heights' Major Owens Health and Wellness...

A revealing book, Adams Albania flight, and an upcoming Zohmentum Bed Stuy town hall By Nayaba ArindeEditor-at-LargeIncumbent Eric Adams withdrew from the mayoral race two weeks ago, but he is still making headlines. After speaking glowingly about his former Senate colleague at the street renaming...

By Nayaba ArindeEditor-at-Large"There is no joy in announcement, even if there is some relief,” Public Advocate Jumaane Williams told Our Time Press after the announcement that Mayor Eric Adams would not be seeking re-election. “My hope is that the city can now begin...