By Lyndon Taylor In a dominant performance, Uncommon Charter High School secured a 31-17 victory against Prospect Heights High School in Division 2A of the Public Schools Athletic League (PSAL) Girls Varsity Basketball competition, last Saturday in Brooklyn.
Uncommon High controlled the game from the start, surging to an 18-3 lead by the end of the first half. They intensified their pressure in the third quarter, extending their advantage to 16 points before cruising to victory in the final period.
Coach Kenisha Lee issues instructions to her team
Despite a number of turnovers, Uncommon High’s strong guard play made the difference. Twin guards Alana Moye, wearing #16, contributed 7 points, while her sister Alyssa Moye, wearing #7, added 4 points. The Moye sisters’ composure and playmaking proved critical in the team’s success in an overall scrappy performance. Speaking with Our Time Press, Alyssa Moye expressed mixed feelings about the performance.
“I felt we could have played better, but I’m happy we won. Now we’re focused on making a deep playoff run. We have a good chance but we will have to be more agressive,” she said.
Veteran Coach Steeve Nathan of Prospect Heights High
First-year head coach Kenisha Lee echoed those sentiments, acknowledging her team’s mistakes but commending their effort. “I am pleased with the outcome, but there were too many mistakes today, especially with ball handling.
This is a team we’ve beaten before, so we should have executed better,” Lee remarked. Despite the critique, she called it an “ugly win” and praised the team’s resilience.
With the victory, Uncommon High improved to an impressive 11-2 record and will next face Boerum High School at home on February 5.
Coach Lee, who has been at Uncommon High for two years, but is in her first year as Head Coach is confident and believes their playoff aspirations remain strong as they set their sights on making a deep run in the PSAL tournament.
For the Prospect Heights Cardinals, it was another challenging outing in what their 15-year veteran coach, Steeve Nathan, described as a “rebuilding year.” Despite the loss, Coach Nathan remained optimistic about the team’s future. “Many of our players are new, so this is a building season. As long as they stay committed to the grind and keep working hard, we’ll be a better team next year,” he told Our Time Press. Photos by Lyndon Taylor
By Eddie Castro This past Monday, the New York Jets introduced Aaron Glenn alongside Darren Mougey as the team’s next Head Coach and General Manager at the practice facility in Florham Park, New Jersey. Glenn was drafted by the Jets in the 1994 draft and played for the team until 2001.
He has had many stops as far as coaching experience goes, but his recent time as the Detroit Lions’ defensive coordinator is where he found success and became a hot name on the coaching market.
It ultimately helped him land his first head coaching job. Glenn hopes to bring a winning culture and end the Jets’ 14-year playoff drought which currently stands as the longest drought in all the four major sports.
Glenn had interviewed for a few other head coaching vacancies but informed the media during his introduction press conference that he wanted the Jets job.
“I didn’t want to leave the building without shaking Woody Johnson (Jets owner) hand and make sure we had a contract.” Glenn gave a fiery speech in front of the media and current Jets’ players indicating that he intends to change the culture. “We’re the New York freaking Jets. We’re built for this (expletive).”
As for GM Darren Mougey, the Jets have shown interest in him for some time. For the past few years, he has had a number of teams show interest in his services, but elected to stay with the Denver Broncos front office.
New York Jets general manager Darren Mougey is introduced to the media along with Aaron Glenn. (Photo by Ed Mulholland/Getty Images)
Mougey had been with the Broncos since 2012 and quickly climbed up the ranks during his tenure there. He was with the team when they won Super Bowl 50. He also has quite the Super Bowl connection as three of the head coaches he has worked with appeared in the Super Bowl: Sean Payton, John Fox and Gary Kubiak.
Mougey along with Glenn will try to stop Jets fans from pulling out their hair every year and put together a winning season. Woody Johnson went on to say this about Mougey “He is a proven talent evaluator who impressed us with his vision for this team. His partnership with coach (Aaron) Glenn will revitalize this organization.” With a new Head Coach/General Manager now in place in New York, there are many big decisions the duo will have to face in what will now be considered a crucial off-season.
The future of quarterback Aaron Rodgers will probably be the biggest decision of all. Rodgers is under contract with the Jets for the 2025 season, but has mulled the decision whether he intends to even play in 2025. If so, it is not a sure thing that it will be with the Jets. Rodgers is 41-years old and will be coming off an un-Rodgers-like season.
The decision on whether he comes back in a jets’ uniform will most likely be determined on who Glenn appoints as his offensive coordinator. Another storyline that could grab headlines will revolve around wide receiver Garrett Wilson. Wilson will be eligible for a contract extension heading into the final year of his rookie contract. His first three seasons, Wilson has gone over 1,000 receiving yards each year.
The team currently has over $30 million dollars in cap space and it’s more than likely that number will increase with a few roster moves. They also hold the No.7 pick in this Year’s draft. It will be interesting to see what will be the first move Mougey and Glenn decide to collective make as they begin the process of turning this organization around.
This off-season could by far be the most important for the team in the franchises history. As Glenn said in his introduction for Jets fans, “Put your seat belt on and get ready for the ride.” For the Jets, he did well as a player and a scout, now we get to see if Aaron Glenn can get it done as a Head coach.
Sports Notes: (Basketball) The Brooklyn Nets will head to Houston to battle Jalen Green and the Rockets. Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks welcome LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.
Reflecting on this year’s symbolic Martin Luther King Day, Our Time Press reached out legendary Tony and Obie winning theatre producer and director Woodie King Jr. As the founder of Woodie King Jr.’s New Federal Theatre (NFT) and the National Black Touring Circuit, King had brought plays about historic Black figures to audiences in New York City and around the country. Although he recently retired from NFT, King still directs shows and the former college professor remains the sage of Black theatre.
In 1981, King became friends with actress Yolanda King, Martin Luther King’s daughter. The drama “Death of a Prophet,” a television film, written and directed by Woodie King Jr., starred Morgan Freeman as Malcolm X and Yolanda King as Betty Shabazz. “Yolanda was a good actress. I thought it would be interesting. That’s why I cast her and Morgan Freeman. They worked very well together,” he recalled. The film also features Amiri Baraka and Ossie Davis and is available on Amazon Prime.
“I talked with Yolanda about things that I had read about her father. We were also trying to figure out our ancestry. Could it any way fit into my ancestry, because I’m a King too,” he mused. “But, we couldn’t figure out.”
“Making the film was very traumatic,” said King. “Because in the end of the film, I had Malcolm X assassinated. Her father had been assassinated. So, it was very hard for her to take that.”
“Yolanda remembered in the last days, her father was very tired. In the beginning he was energetic,” he said. “I’m from Detroit, and by the time Dr. King came to Detroit at Cobo Hall for all those people, I could see he was tired. I was about 16 years old at that time and Dr. King had been around a while. He was so well respected at that time.”
By 1985, Woodie King produced the touring company of ”I Have a Dream” a musical about Martin Luther King. It still is being performed in theatres and schools across the U.S. The musical weaves Dr. King’s speeches, sermons and other writings along with musical numbers into a music-drama on his life from the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycotts to his assassination. “It started at the Mark Taper Theater in Los Angeles and toured for two years straight,” said King. “It was in Bermuda and went to about 10 places. Schools wanted to do it. It was so good.”
New Federal Theatre has a history of producing very serious plays about African American heroes. “We did plays on African Americans who are not heroes to white people but were heroes to Black people. We did some plays where they were heroes to both. Martin Luther King was a hero to both,” King told Our Time Press.
In 1987, Woodie King produced “The Meeting,” at NFT. It was playwright Jeff Stetson’s story of an imagined meeting of Dr. King and Malcolm X in a Harlem hotel on Valentine’s Day 1965. It takes place a week before Malcolm X was assassinated. They discuss Dr. King’s peaceful nonviolence, as opposed to the separatism advocated by Malcolm X. “My reaction immediately was that I wanted to do the play. I respected the author and the research that he had put into it. It was well written,” said King. “It’s been performed all over the country. I remember Dick Anthony Williams as Malcolm X and Taurean Blacque was Malcolm X’s bodyguard and Felton Perry was Dr. King.”
Creating plays on Black historical figures for King was developed when he came to New York City in the 1960s. “I came to New York when the poverty art programs began. These programs at Harlem, the Lower Eastside and Brooklyn were just getting started. They needed material. They needed something that people knew about,” said King. “Plays about African American heroes were very, very popular.”
Recently, King returned to directing Black historical dramas at NFT. In 2023, he directed Wesley Brown’s “Telling Tales Out of School” about four leading women of the Harlem Renaissance: Jessie Fauset, Nancy Cunard, Nella Larsen and Zora Neale Hurston reconnecting after a memorial service for Alain Locke, architect of the Harlem Renaissance.
Black historical figures are being celebrated this February at Woodie King Jr.’s New Federal Theater’s “Ancestral Voices Solo Festival” at the WP Theater from February 6 – March 2. It features a different solo performance of works honoring the life and legacy of Paul Robeson, Augusta Savage, Martin Luther King Jr., and Shirley Chisholm.
Actor-playwright Michael Green will perform “39 Steps Toward Freedom,” inspired by the final days of Dr. King’s life where he reflects on his 39 years of social justice and family. “My motivation for writing this play so that people can take him off the pedestal where he never wanted to be and allow him to be a man,” said Green. “A man with much more to offer America than just a dream.”
“Black people, who through their actions, paved the way to make progress. It is our legacy,” said Elizabeth Van Dyke, Artistic Director, New Federal Theatre. “Our ancestral voices are still resounding today.”
Contact NFT for more information at newfederaltheatre.com
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Sunday posthumously pardoned Black nationalist Marcus Garvey, who influenced Malcolm X and other civil rights leaders and was convicted of mail fraud in the 1920s. Also receiving pardons were a top Virginia lawmaker and advocates for immigrant rights, criminal justice reform and gun violence prevention.
Congressional leaders had pushed for Biden to pardon Garvey, with supporters arguing that Garvey’s conviction was politically motivated and an effort to silence the increasingly popular leader who spoke of racial pride. After Garvey was convicted, he was deported to Jamaica, where he was born. He died in 1940.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said of Garvey: “He was the first man, on a mass scale and level” to give millions of Black people “a sense of dignity and destiny.”
From Mountaintops to Valleys Low, King’s Presence & Words Prevailed Nationwide Monday, January 20
By Nayaba Arinde Editor at Large @NayabaArinde1 It was a unique historical moment on Monday, January 20th. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s 96th birthday was honored as a federal holiday on the same day as Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration.
Folk on social media resurrected Dr. King’s quote to Harry Belafonte, “I’ve come to believe we’re integrating into a burning house. I’m afraid America may be losing what moral vision she had.”
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 20: Mayor of New York City Eric Adams arrives prior to the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump at the United States Capitol on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Donald Trump takes office for his second term as the 47th President of the United States. (Photo by Al Drago-Pool/Getty Images)
Surprising some, Mayor Eric Adams, who had just visited Trump in Florida on Friday, attended the inauguration. In doing so, as he reportedly sat in the inauguration overflow room, he missed two scheduled Dr. MLK Jr. events: delivering remarks at BAM’s 39th Annual Brooklyn Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast and at Harlem’s Baptist Ministers’ Conference of Greater New York & Vicinity’s 57th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration. The criticism was swift.
“Staying in New York would have been a good opportunity to talk to his base about charting a path forward in Trump 2.0 and use MLK’s legacy as a way to root our collective investment in securing human rights for all,” said political operative and observer Professor Basil Smikle.
“Mayor Eric Adams is finally out of the closet as a Republican deciding to go to Trump’s inauguration on Dr. Martin Luther King’s Day for personal gain,” charged former City Councilman and Assemblyman Charles Barron. “It was disgraceful, but shows where his priorities lie, and they’re not with the city or the community, or the culture.”
This, as Trump immediately put into action his campaign promise to identify and round up the nation’s millions of undocumented immigrants, citing that ICE agents can go into schools, hospitals, and churches in their search. He also banned Birthright Citizenship. There was immediately actionable condemnation.
New York Attorney General Letitia James joined a coalition of 22 states challenging President Donald Trump’s Executive Order ending birthright citizenship, in violation of the constitutional right given to all children born in the United States.
A.G. James and the coalition filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts “seeking to stop the President’s unlawful action, which violates the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and will harm American children.”
“The great promise of our nation is that everyone born here is a citizen of the United States, able to achieve the American dream,” said A. G. James. “This fundamental right to birthright citizenship, rooted in the 14th Amendment and born from the ashes of slavery, is a cornerstone of our nation’s commitment to justice.
Our constitution is not open to reinterpretation by executive order or presidential decree. President Trump’s attempt to undermine the fundamental right to birthright citizenship is not just unconstitutional, it is profoundly dangerous.”
“Today is a dark day in American history, with cruel and dangerous consequences for our immigrant communities and everyone who calls America home,” said Brooklyn’s Murad Awawdeh, President and CEO of New York Immigration Coalition.
“The incoming Trump administration is weaponizing the federal government against all immigrant communities – both people seeking safety in the future and those who are the backbone of our economy now—while at the same time undermining the very values and rights that were once considered intrinsic to the nation…By standing united, we can resist the Trump administration’s fear-mongering and attempts to marginalize and eliminate the rights of our neighbors—we can demand that our leaders protect all our freedoms, our families, and our futures.”
Adams told the press, “I’ve communicated with other immigrant groups over and over again. We want to bring down the anxiety. We want our immigrants to know that this is a city of immigrants. This is a country of immigrants. It’s imperative that you go to school, use the hospital service, use the police services.”
Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said, “It’s scary to have an arm of government be such a threat, but it is, and there are a lot of good people and families, many of which have people of mixed-status that are very worried right now.” With his DEI-suspending, birthright citizenship-challenging, and questionable cabinet nominees touting a MAGA mandate, Biden called the Trump administration a billionaire oligarch.
Accused of leaning more and more into the Republican fold, Adams told Tucker Carlson that he didn’t desert the Democrats, “No, the party left me, and it left working-class people.” Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said, “Yes, NYC voted more red than usual but is emphatically not Trumpland. [The] NYC Mayor is going to the inauguration after a meeting with no government officials present.
On top of adopting MAGA rhetoric and policy, it provides a clear picture of personal interests NOT helping protect NYC residents.” Adams compared himself to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and said he was in DC to promote and protect the needs of NYC.
“Dr. King talked about—when he lost his life in Memphis, he was talking about the union workers. Dr. King talked about housing and fought [for] housing. He talked about the delivery of services and unemployment. My life is the life that Dr. King was talking about when he [said] he had a dream. I’m living that dream. And my desire to be in Washington to make sure I continue to move forward on that dream.”
