NEW YORK UPDATES
NYC: The 11/2 election day winners are Democrats, Eric Adams, NYC Mayor; Jumaane Williams, Public Advocate; Brad Lander, Comptroller; Cordell Cleare, NYS Senate, Harlem; Alvin Bragg, Manhattan District Attorney; Eric Gonzalez, Brooklyn DA re-elected; Antonio Reynoso, Brooklyn Boro President.
Eric Adams, 61, vegan, former NYPD officer, former NYS Senator will be sworn in on January 1, 2022 as the 100th NYC Mayor and the second African American elected to the office after David Dinkins in 1989. New York was the last big American metropolis to elect a Black mayor. New York boasts a cornucopia problems. Mayor-elect Adams should take a vacation before starting his new 24/7 job, alleged to be the second hardest job in America. In Adams’ post-election victory speech at the Brooklyn Marriott, he talked about hope and new directions, sounding Dinkins-esque, with repeated references to the city’s diversity.
NYS: Attorney General Tish James announced her bid for the 2022 NYS Governor’s race. NYC Mayor de Blasio should be announcing his bid for NYS Governor imminently. Guess he will not sign the City Council bill that would allow green card holders and immigrants to vote in local elections. Former disgraced Governor Andrew Cuomo was accused of sexual misconduct, a criminal offense, which could muddy the waters for a 2022 gubernatorial run.
BUFFALO: The Buffalo mayoral race was bitter and produced an unexpected outcome. Despite widespread media coverage of newcomer African American Democrat Socialist India Walton, 38, who defeated four-term, African American Mayor Byron Brown in the June Primary, he walked away with a successful write-in victory on 11/2. Buffalo, NY’s second largest city was not ready for a socialist mayor.
AUTUMN IN AMERICA
November 2 was not a good election day for Democrats. The Black acting Boston Mayor Kim Janey lost to Michelle Wu, the first Asian American and first woman elected mayor of Boston…….The outcome of the NJ Gubernatorial race with Democratic Governor Phil Murphy was too close to call on 11/3……. The Virginia gubernatorial race between former Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin, President of the Carlyle Group, who flirted with Trumpism and support, elicited a more definitive outcome. Youngkin won, running on wedge issues like race and education, marrying education and books, invoking critical race theory CRT, which is a new, convenient non-existent GOP political messaging tool.
Youngkin would ban alleged CRT books like Toni Morrison’s BELOVED, a Pulitzer Award winning novel, about the American Black experience. Jamaica-born and former US Marine Republican Winsome Sears, is Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor elect. Democrat National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison did not seem confident during an 11/1 “Morning Joe” appearance. The DNC has to work overtime to save the House and the US Senate next year.
Stacey Abrams, 2018 Georgia candidate for Governor, founded Fair Fight Action group which is committed primarily to voting rights.
Her Fair Fight Political Action Committee, a separate entity, is focusing now on health care and wiped out $212 million in medical debt for 108,000 people in Georgia, Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. She is shy about her 2022 political plans.
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
The following was published by Business Insider Africa, a List of Africa’s Top 10 Nations with highest GDP 2021. Numbers reflect billions of dollars: Nigeria $514.05; Egypt $394.28; South Africa $329.53; Algeria $151.56; Morocco $124; Kenya $106.04; Ethiopia $93.97; Ghana $74.26; Ivory Coast $70.99; Angola $66.49.
Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous nation, is descending into hell, as it is a year into its civil war with the Tigrayans, which held power there for almost 30 years until 2018. The Tigray region has been decimated by the war with more than 5 million who need humanitarian aid. This week Tigrayans are marching south to the capital, Addis Ababa, where Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has declared a state of emergency.
ARTS AND CULTURE
FILM: Stanley Nelson’s Firelight Films latest documentary ATTICA chronicles the 1971 NY prison revolt, the biggest and the bloodiest in US history, which grew out of the tension between the Black and Brown inmates and the all-white correction staff. The inmates held 30 correction officers hostage and invited the media to cover unfolding events. Thirty-nine inmates and officers were killed when outside officers stormed the prison. The Attica revolt occurred during the watch of Governor Rockefeller and President Nixon. ATTICA airs on Showtime on November 6 before its theatrical release. Documentarian Stanley Nelson uses archival footage and interviews former Attica inmates for this discomforting and riveting chapter in New York’s criminal justice system
PHOTOGRAPHY: Award-winning fine arts photog Donn Thompson’s presents a collection of 16 b&w nude photos, MADONNA AND THE VAGINA, a celebration of Black woman/goddess aesthetics, at the Dominici Collective at 2090 Adam Clayton Boulevard (Hotel Theresa building) Harlem on November 12, from 7-10 pm. Registration necessary dracincc@icloud.com
THEATER: Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s one man, biographical show, “Lackawanna Blues” playing on Broadway, at the Samuel Friedman Theatre, will be held over until November 12.
The world premiere of GET UP, STAND UP, The Bob Marley Musical, opened last week in London, England last week. Story follows the life of iconic reggae star Marley who evolved into global superstar.
WANTED: The Schomburg Center’s Scholars in Residence Program Fellowships 2022-2033 is accepting applications for its Long Term Fellows which includes a $35,000 stipend for 6-9 months; and its Short Term Fellows which includes a $3,000 stipend, for 1-3 months. This Schomburg Program supports and encourages research and writing on the history, politics, and cultures of peoples of Africa and the African Diaspora. The Program is open to post-doctoral students, scholars, independent researchers and creative writers. Visit schomburgcenter.myreviewroom.com. Application deadline is December 1.
NEWSMAKER
Rev. Jesse Jackson was hospitalized and discharged after a fall at the Howard University campus, this week. Since his COVID recovery, he visited NY for an 80th birthday fete at Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. This week, he visited Washington, DC to broker an agreement between Howard University students and the Howard University Administration over horrendous dormitory condition when he fell.
A Harlem-based management consultant, Victoria can be reached at victoria.horsford@gmail.com