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Theatre Icon Woodie King, Jr. Passes

Fern Gillespie
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Theatre Icon Woodie King, Jr. Passes

By Fern Gillespie
Legendary griot theatre producer-director Woodie King, Jr, The King of Black Theatre, has died at age 88. King’s New Federal Theatre has been at the forefront of producing critically acclaimed plays with social justice themes, for over 50 years. He has mentored actors who are now global stars.

Woodie produced Glynn Turman in his first adult starring role on Broadway in 1974’s “What the Wine Sellers Buy,” produced Ntozake Shange’s “For Colored Girls…” in 1976, and Denzel Washington in his star turn as Malcolm X in the 1981 play “When the Chickens Come Home to Roost.” It was a show that inspired a young Spike Lee, and the rest is cinema history.


Woodie started mentoring Chadwick Boseman when he was a Howard student and produced Boseman’s first starring role in a New York play. Issa Rae worked at New Federal Theatre’s office from 2007 to 2009 as his assistant, where she became inspired her to create “Awkward Black Girl” which became “HBO’s Insecure.” Woodie King’s story is about a legacy that dates back to working with Langston Hughes, producing “Simple” plays, to being a founder of the Black Arts Movement with his friend and colleague Amiri Baraka to creating vital productions that launched the careers of superstars.


“To understand that the 60s and 70s ushered in the Black Arts Movement. Then the Black Arts Movement ushered in the Black Theatre Movement,” King said. “At that time, there was the exception of three or four actors who Hollywood did like, for example Sydney Poitier and Harry Belafonte.

Then the Black Arts Movement started introducing plays that Black people stood in line to see. White people saw that. They said wow we better hire him. That’s what I think happened. The actors we got into television and film had to be brilliant so the more would get in.”


When New Federal Theatre celebrated its 50th Anniversary Gala, the stars were actors with careers spanning span from the 1970s to 2020. Phylicia Rashaad, Glynn Turman and Ted Lange were a few of the stars, The co-hosts were DeWanda Wise, who starred as Brooklyn artist Nola Darling in Spike Lee’s 2019 Netflix series “She’s Gotta Have It,” and her husband, Alano Miller, who starred as Cato in the 2016 WGN award-winning thriller series on slavery “Underground.” “DeWanda was working with New federal theater before “She’s Gotta Have It.”

I directed her in Leslie Lee’s play “Sundown Names and Night-Gone Things” in 2009 and I directed Alonso in a play for the Negro Ensemble Company,” King said. “When you give people their shot and they remember, they come to help. They came out of Black Theatre they give back to Black Theatre.”


Ted Lange first met Woodie King in the early 1970s. An actor, director and screenwriter, Lange kicked off his TV career with 1970s hits “That’s My Mama” and his iconic Isaac in “The Love Boat.” However, he had a long history working in New York and California Black theatre. In 2018, he starred as Elijah Muhammad in the NFT 2018 revival of “When the Chickens Come Home to Roost.” “ Woodie provided the opportunity for Black artists to be Black artists.

He provided the venue and all the things we needed as artists to express our art,” Lange recalled. “When 9-11 happened, Woodie was there with the rest of the theaters producing art for the healing process of New York City. He did maybe 20 play readings. I happened to take part in those readings. At that time, artists responded to the attacks with a healing process.”


Woodie King, Jr.’s New Federal Theatre has produced over 450 mainstage plays, an astonishing and influential record of achievement, sending multiple plays to Broadway and launching numerous minority and women playwrights and actors into prominent careers. Its alumni are an honor roll of artists of color from the 1970s through today. Several early successes brought NFT to national prominence: “Black Girl” by J.e. Franklin, won a Drama Desk Award, “The Taking of Miss Janie” by Ed Bullins moved from NFT to Lincoln Center and won the Drama Critics Circle Award; “For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf” by Ntozake Shange performed on Broadway for ten months (co-produced with the late Joseph Papp) and was nominated for the Tony Award before embarking on a three-year national tour. Woodie King’s impact has earned him accolades: Tony Honor for Excellence in Theatre, Obie Award for Sustained Achievement, induction into American Theatre Hall of Fame, NAACP Image Award and many Audelco Awards.


The theater and its workshop have helped bring to national attention such playwrights as Ed Bullins, Amiri Baraka, J.e Franklin, Ntozake Shange, David Henry Hwang, Ron Milner, Joseph Lazardi, Damien Leake, Genny Lim, Laurence Holder, Alexis DeVeaux, and others. Actor veterans include Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, Debbie Allen, Samuel L. Jackson, Laurence Fishburne, Chadwick Boseman, Robert Downey, Jr., Ruby Dee, Leslie Uggams, Jackée Harry, Phylicia Rashad, Dick Anthony Williams, Glynn Turman, Taurean Blacque, Garrett Morris, Debbie Morgan, Lynn Whitfield, Reginald Vel-Johnson, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Ella Joyce, Starletta DuPois, Issa Rae, S. Epatha Merkerson, Oz Scott, Trazana Beverley, Pauletta Washington, Morgan Freeman, Anna Maria Horsford, Lloyd Richards, Charles Nelson Reilly, Melba Moore, Vinie Burrows, Art McFarland, Kathleen Chalfant, Earle Hyman, Ellen Holly, Giancarlo Esposito, Max Roach, Shauneille Perry and many more.


“New Federal Theatre’s mission is still to provide opportunities for people of color and works by African-Americans and others to be presented and then be produced. New Federal Theater is essential. There aren’t that many avenues for them to develop their work as playwrights and actors,” said Beth Turner, who has covered Black theater in her magazine Black Masks since 1984. “Woodie King has the historical memory of Black theater for the 20th century and on to today. He’s able to call upon those archives in this day and age when it’s hard to be producing new work. This archived work really speaks to Black Americans contribution in theater.”


In addition to New Federal Theatre, Woodie King’s influence in Black theatre spans serving as Chairman of Coalition of Theatres of Color, founder and producer of Black History Month Play Festival, and founder and producer of National Black Touring Circuit. Friends continue to support the work of New Federal Theatre.

Both Denzel Washington and Glynn Turman are New Federal Theatre board members and Turman is a producer of the award-winning documentary “King of Stage: The Woodie King Jr., Story.” Woodie was also an admirer of Our Time Press. Bernice Green, co-founder of the paper, was an active member of the theatre’s board of directors and hosted major events. Staff writer, Fern Gillespie, was a long-time public relations consultant on special theatre projects for Woodie King.


Our Time Press sends condolences to the King family and to Woodie’s widow, actress/director/producer Elizabeth Van Dyke, Artistic Director of New Federal Theatre, who is carrying on his legacy in Black theatre.

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NYers say Black History Month should be 24/7/365

Nayaba Arinde
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NYers say Black History Month should be 24/7/365

By Nayaba Arinde
Editor-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 Month’ is actually Indigenous history.”


Morgan State University Research Professor Ray Winbush posted in red, black, and green writing, “Friendly reminder: Black History month starts on January 1st and ends December 31st.”
Black history–past as in yesterday and before, present, as in today, and creation as in right now. It is fluid.
Writing about, preserving, and representing said past and recent history is one of the main functions of Black journalists.


“With the press under censorship, subject to harassment and arrest, it shows that the Black press is indeed soldiers without swords,” poet and author Marc W. Polite told Our Time Press.
These are crucial times. The government is expanding regulations while reducing social safeguards.
Daily, there are protests against militarized police and federal law enforcement agents in several states.
This, as essential worker nurses spend a third of a week on picket lines in below-freezing temperatures, demanding better pay, a tighter ratio, and security for staff and patients.


“At a time when Black history and Black people are under attack, [we are] returning to some of the lessons we have in our recorded experience in the United States,” Polite continued. “This particular February, Black History Month, turns 100. Initially conceptualized by early 20th-century scholar Carter G. Woodson as Black History Week in February 1926, Black History Month is a time of reflection. The achievements of Black History go far beyond the one month that was created to acknowledge our history. The focus of one month is really for the purpose of correcting the record and fighting the erasure of our collective accomplishments.”


Michael Ferguson, son of famed activist Herman Ferguson, told Our Time Press Black History has particular proactive significance, “It started off as a week, and then the shortest month, and I remember as a school, we only heard about people like Marian Anderson and Ralph Bunche, and half a dozen people.

But you didn’t really get a feel for our contributions and what we have been through to get to this point. It should definitely be celebrated every day of the year. Black nationalists celebrate times like African Liberation Day and Black August, some of the slave rebellions, and every other month, there is something.

We should tell our children, and make them aware of the contributions we have made throughout the year, and just what our history is, and take control of it, rather than the larger society telling us when they are going to allow us to celebrate and commemorate our people.”


A former assistant principal, Herman Ferguson was the Chairman of Education in Malcolm X’s Organization of Afro-American Unity. He was also the Minister of Education, and a lieutenant colonel in the Guyana Defense Force, after his 19 years residing in Guyana, after his conviction for his grassroots activism in the U.S. Yet, he was encouraged to rejoin the community-building in New York by fellow activists Abubadika Sonny Carson and Elombe Brath.


Following his father as a member of the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee, Ferguson added, “My Dad–like the name of his book, ‘The Unlikely Warrior,’ was a revolutionary Black nationalist who was in the liberation struggle, and a devotee of Malcolm X. He was co-chair of the Jericho Movement. He furthered Malcolm’s teachings that we have to control the politics, the economics, and the culture in our communities.”

Black History Month happenings.
With culture-as-a-weapon sentiment, on Eastern Parkway, Saturday, February 7th, 2026, the Brooklyn Museum is launching its First Saturday: Imitate No One exhibition, paying “homage to the innovators—those fearless artists who re-envision tradition while building community along the way.”
Entitled after the late poet Jayne Cortez’s rallying cry to “imitate no one,” on display will be legendary Malian photographer Seydou Keita’s ‘A Tactile Lens’ exhibition.


On Friday, February 20, the Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn-based Asase Yaa Cultural Arts Foundation will kick off its third annual Rhythms & Movements Festival at the BRIC Ballroom, a 9-day celebration of its 25th Anniversary.
With its “Educate, Enrich, and Entertain” mission, ‘An Artivist Experience’ will feature artists like Kweku Sumbry, Immanuel Wilkins, and Joel Ross. Asase Yaa said the concert will be immediately followed by a moderated in-depth conversation with the artists hosted by Chief Ayanda Clarke, to “discuss the intersection of African music, activism, and revolution in today’s world.”


On Wednesday, 4th February, the office of State Assemblymember Stefani Zinerman hosted an Albany to Brooklyn ‘Evening of Black Truth Telling – The Freedom Reading Circle’ district-wide read-aloud session, honoring A Century of Black History Commemorations and defending the right to read, stating, “We read for freedom. We act with purpose.”


In commemoration of Black History Month and the 27th anniversary of the tragic shooting of Amadou Diallo, The People’s Film Festival has announced the screening of “365 Days of Marching: The Amadou Diallo Story,” directed by filmmaker Veronica Keitt.


This screening will take place on Friday, February 13, 2026, at Manhattan Neighborhood Network studios. Keitt said, “The film recounts the heartbreaking story of Amadou Diallo, a 23-year-old immigrant from Guinea who was tragically gunned down in a hail of 41 bullets by four New York City police officers on February 4, 1999. His death became a rallying cry for justice, sparking a year-long movement of marches and protests against racial profiling and police misconduct.”


“At a time of organized reaction and backlash coming from the highest office in the land against Black Americans, this is important to understand,” determined Marc Polite. “When you have armed bodies of men acting at the behest of the current president of the United States, we realize that they are channeling the spirits of slave catchers in their approach to terrorizing people.”


Polite declared, “As many scholars have stated, Black History is American history. Woodson, in his book ‘The Mis-Education of the Negro,’ cautions us against making the observation of our history focused solely on the gaze of others outside our community.


Woodson once wrote: ‘History shows that it does not matter who is in power or what revolutionary forces take over the government, those who have not learned to do for themselves, and have to depend solely on others never obtain any more rights or privileges in the end than they had in the beginning.’”


When Brooklyn manages to dig itself out of these frigid and grimy ice block streets, grassroot activists told Our Time Press that there’s a whole spring and summer of building, protesting, politicking, celebratory cultural and economic reinforcement–from organized rallies, to Dance Africa, African Liberation Day/Month, the International African Arts Festival, the West Indian American Day Carnival, Juneteenth, African American Day Parade, African Day Parade, Black Solidarity, day and then there is the fall and winter traditional observations too.

Donna Hill: Prolific Author of 100 Novels, Heads National Black Writers Conference

Fern Gillespie
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Donna Hill: Prolific Author of 100 Novels, Heads National Black Writers Conference

by Fern Gillespie

When author Donna Hill, Executive Director for the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College, first joined the college in 2012 as a professor, the Brooklyn native already had a reputation as a prolific pioneer in publishing. Her page-turner novels on African American romance were acclaimed for spotlighting Black women as the sheroes of their stories. Since 1990, she has published almost 100 novels telling “her stories” about Black women in romance, mystery, historic and suspense fiction.


“In January 2025, I became the Executive Director for the Center for Black Literature, which hosts the National Black Writers Conference,” Hill told Our Time Press. “I was asked by Dr. Brenda Greene, the founder, who was retiring. She had been my mentor for quite some time. I want to make sure that the Center for Black Literature as well as the National Black Writers Conference continues.”


Renowned Black authors from the African Diaspora will be at Medgar Evers College for the 18th National Black Writers Conference, from March 25 to March 28. The conference theme is “Expanding Conversations on Environmental Justice, Popular Culture, Resilience and Peace.”


This year’s conference kicks off with a panel moderated by Dr. Greene with speakers Nikole Hannah-Jones (“The 1619 Project”) and Michael Harriot (“Black AF History: The UnWhitewashed Story of America”). Some of the other speakers during the conference include: Lee Hawkins (“I am Nobody’s Slave: How Uncovering My Family’s History Set Me Free”) Honoree Fanonne Jeffers, poet and novelist (“The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois”), Dr Uche Blackstock (“Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine”), Natalie Baszile (“Queen Sugar”), Dolen Perkins-Valdez (“Wench: A Novel”), Abby West (Amistad Books), and Trymaine Lee (“A Thousand Ways to Die: The True Cost of Violence on Black Life in America”).

The conference also will host a special tribute honoring Camille Dungy (“Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden”), Kassahun Checole (publisher Africa World Press and The Red Sea Press) and Imani Perry (“South to America”).
“When we look at the theme of the conference, we look at writers and scholars who speak to that topic through their work, speaking engagements, literature, the articles that the write,” said Hill.

The conference also includes Dr. Edith Rock Writing Workshop for Elders, student roundtables and the poetry café.


At the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College, Hill directs year-round literary programs and workshops for children to elders. “The goal is to inform, increase and expand on the work of Black writers across the Diaspora. We choose an absolute variety of programs beyond the National Black Writers Conference.

We have an online book club. We are responsible for the Re-Envisioning Our Lives through Literature (ROLL) program for our young people from primary grades through high school,” said Hill.


“In addition to that, we also have the Wild Seeds Writers Retreat for writers of color. We do that in the winter, and we do that in the summer to bring in aspiring writers to work with seasoned writers over a period of time, one-on-one. While the program in the winter is virtual, the one in the summer is in person and we go to CUNY Polytech for our writer’s retreat.

We partner with local bookstores and host authors at Medgar Evers College. We also have annual Black History Month and Women’s History Month programs.”


During her 36 years in publishing, Hill has observed a growth of Black authors getting their voices and stories to the public through being published by major publishing houses and independent self-publishing. “When I first started writing, it was sort of a new thing and there weren’t many Black writers being published.

Now there are so many Black writers who are writing in a variety of genres from contemporary fiction. There are a lot of historical writers now who are looking at our history from a variety of lenses and rewriting those stories. We have science fiction writers. We have writers who are writing for children,” she said.


“Once the publishing industry realized that this was a market they had ignored, a lot of Black imprints wound up coming up in these major publishing houses. Also, a lot of Black writers publish independently. There’s a lot more opportunities to be to get published and to be seen. There’s a lot more acceptance. Black authors are no longer an anomaly.”


Hill, who holds a creative writing MFA from Goddard College, not only balances three careers as a college executive, adjunct professor of English and creative writing and a moonlighting novelist, she also has her work published by various publishing houses. She’s a longtime author at Harlequin Romance with several different genres of stories. Her two recent novels were historical fiction published by Entangled Publishing.

In November, her novel “Nola and Baldwin” will be published by Amistad Press, the African American imprint at HarperCollins. “Nola and Baldwin,” set in 1930s during the Great Depression, is about a young Black couple fleeing racism in the Mississippi Delta for the North looking for a better life.

The novel is a sweeping saga that also explores Baldwin’s life as a Pullman Porter traveling on the railroad. The novel has been referred to “Their Eyes are Watching God” for a new generation. Nola is inspired by the independence of Zora Neale Hurston’s protagonist Janie.


Hill’s visionary creative fiction focusing on Black women protagonists has resulted in three of her novels being adapted as television films for BET. In the film “Intimate Betrayal” starring Monica Calhoun, Khalil Kain and Erica Gimpel, a reporter investigates the murder of her brother. Vanessa Bell Calloway stars in “A Private Affair” with co-stars Clifton Powell and Lou Myers, about a famous novelist whose life is unraveling.

“Masquerade” is a romantic comedy about online dating co-stars Simbi Kali, Cress Williams, and Kelita Smith. In 2023, her novel “Confessions in B-Flat,” a romance during the Civil Rights Movement era in Harlem, was opted by Oscar winner Octavia Spencer to be adapted for the screen by Amblin Partners.


“I think, romance in general for Black readers and writers, is one of the main forms of literature that showcase the positivity of Black life. It’s not about the struggles and misogyny and tough life of living on the street and drugs, and all that. It’s really about what a great majority of Black folks are, which is essentially middle-class American.

Who are educated, who have jobs, who have struggles like everybody else and are looking for that relationship,” said Hill. “You see these positive Black men and Black women, (and) how we can and do love each other. Of course, we have our struggles and communication issues but, ultimately, it’s about seeing ourselves in a positive light.”

For more information on the National Black Writers Conference, visit www.centerforblackliterature.org.

The Nation Needs MLK Jr.

Editor, Our Time Press
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The Nation Needs MLK Jr.

Last week, Dr. Bernice A. King, CEO of The King Center in Atlanta, Ga., announced a schedule of programs and events in celebration of this year’s King Holiday Observance, commemorating what would have been Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 97th birthday.


The 2026 theme is Mission Possible 2: Building Community, Uniting A Nation — the Nonviolent Way.
Programs and events around the country began Monday, January 12, 2026, and continue through Monday, January 19, 2026.

This year’s schedule includes events being replicated throughout the nation, among them the Beloved Community Global Summit and Youth Summit, Community Children’s Book Reading, Community Teach-In, King Day Community Service Projects, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Beloved Community Commemorative Service. The observance commemorates what would have been Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 97th birthday.


“This year’s King Holiday Observance theme and corresponding experiences and events reflect a call up and in, to the collective, critical work of building community, uniting a nation…,” said Dr. Bernice A. King, CEO, The King Center.


“There is not a more urgent bell we must answer than the one signaling that it is indeed beyond time for us to realize our interconnectedness in what my father called the “World House,” and to learn to live together well.


On Monday, Jan. 19, The Rev. A.R Bernard Sr., founder, senior pastor and CEO of the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., will be the keynote speaker at the 57th Annual Commemorative Service, the hallmark of the King Holiday Observance, from Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. The event will be livestreamed on Facebook, YouTube, and broadcast live on Fox 5 Atlanta (Monday, Jan. 19th) from 10:00am to 1:00pm at the King Center’s Atlanta campus.


The service will feature special musical performances by Pastor Shirley Caesar, Lady Tramaine Hawkins, American Idol winner Jamal Roberts, Bishop William Murphy, and Mark Gutierrez. Reverend Natosha Reid Rice and Pastor Reginald W. Sharpe, Jr. will preside.


“KHO 2026 is purposed to galvanize us for answering that bell and prepare us for the love-centered strategic work ahead,” Dr. Bernice King said.

AACEO Welcomes New NYC Schools Chancellor Kamar H. Samuels

Mary Alice Miller
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AACEO Welcomes New NYC Schools Chancellor Kamar H. Samuels

By Mary Alice Miller
The African American Clergy and Elected Officials organization began the new year and new mayoral era with greetings from the new Schools Chancellor Kamar H. Samuels and the First Deputy Police Commissioner Tania Kinsella, the first woman of color to hold the second-in-command position in the NYPD.


Chancellor Samuels told AACEO attendees of how he was arrested during his senior year at Baruch College at age 20 when he unwittingly accepted a package delivered to his apartment. Samuels thought is was a CD (back in the day when CDs were popular), but it actually contained two pounds of marijuana.


“They put me in front of the judge the next morning. My mom hired a lawyer. I was the only person out of about thirty with a private lawyer,” said Samuels. “The first thing my lawyer said is ‘His mom is in court.’ The second thing my lawyer said is ‘He is a senior in college.’”
Samuels said, “That is the first time the judge looked up from her papers and looked in my eyes. The entire room changed.”


The Chancellor said that was the beginning of his path into education.
“When we talk about what education means when everything is stacked against you, especially as a black boy or girl, you need your army,” said Samuels. “Every single black girl or boy needs to get that second look. My goal is to do every single thing I can to make sure they get that second look.”


Samuels continued, “Of course, I want schools to be safe, I want schools to be rigorous, I want schools to be truly integrated so that people understand the wonderful, beautiful nature of our city. It does take a village.”
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams acknowledged that New York City is the safest it has been with a decrease in shootings and murders.


Williams then talked about the need to stick together.
“Y’all see what is happening out there with Trump, Kristi Noem, and Pam Bondi. Too many of us drank some of that orange kool aid and our communities picked it up because we thought it was going to happen to other people,” said Williams.


“That is a lesson we have to learn,” Williams said. “If you draw a line of bias, it gives people permission to draw a line of bias against you. You see they killed a United States citizen. A white woman was shot in the face by ICE. ICE is coming and they are not caring about who is a citizen and who is not, they are coming for everybody.”


Williams said he wanted to see more people of color on the streets.
“Please, when we are making a call for folks to come out, do whatever you are comfortable doing: pray, sing, bring a sandwich, bring some water, you can just be present to witness,” said Williams.
Williams concluded, “The only thing that can help us is the Most High and us.”


Brooklyn District Attorney Eric amplified the historic safety levels in Brooklyn and New York City.
“Things are improving in terms of our safety. Our kids are able to get to school and home safely. People are able to walk on the streets and not worry about violent crime as often. It is citywide,” said Gonzalez. “Brooklyn has the best news of any borough.”


Gonzalez reminded the audience that he lost a brother to gun violence. “I was committed as district attorney to reducing gun violence for our families. We’ve worked with our police department, our violence interrupters, our community, our clergy, our community activists. We have all figured out different strategies to get young men in particular to leave those guns behind and not shoot. We’re benefitting from a peace dividend,” said Gonzalez.


“When one young person decides not to shoot their rival, then that rival and their friends don’t have to retaliate and shoot back,” he said. “We are all safer because we are not caught in the crossfire. I am grateful to the police department and all of you who have done this work together. Brooklyn is the safest it has ever been.”


Gonzalez spoke about his focus on violence prevention.
“District Attorney’s have historically used their office for one purpose: to prosecute and put people in jail. We have to hold people who harm our community accountable, we have to make sure people face consequences when they violate the law,” said Gonzalez. “But I believe since the time I worked with Ken Thompson – I was his Chief Assistant – that we have to focus our efforts on prevention.”


Gonzalez launched Project Restore in the 79th and 81st precincts focusing on young men most likely to either be a victim of gun violence or a perpetrator of gun violence.
“We took the men most likely to be involved in shootings and we showed them love, gave them programming, and people thought I was crazy that I would put $2.3 million towards these young men.

These are the young men nobody really cared about. These are young men that didn’t have jobs, drivers licences, bank accounts, not in school, not working,” said Gonzalez.


“These young men have done so well. They are in school, they are working, they are having families. Since the program started almost three years ago, only one of them has gotten in trouble again,” Gonzalez said. “Because it has worked so well in Brooklyn, that the City of New York has said they want to use Project Restore in the Bronx.”


Gonzalez said he is planning to bring back Begin Again to address the 1.000,000 New Yorkers who have low level summons warrants. “Last time we did it we were able to clear about 600,000 warrants in New York City,” Gonzalez said.


Chief of Brooklyn North Mark Vazquez spoke about Brooklyn’s phenomenal ComStat numbers.
“We have a lot of work to do with our youth. We rolled out our school zones where our kids are going to and coming from school to make sure we have the right police presence and interactions with our youth,” said Vazquez. “Some of our kids get in trouble. It doesn’t mean the end for them. We want them to succeed. We don’t want to see our children going into the system.”


Assemblywoman Stefani Zinerman spoke about everybody having their assignments in 2026.
“We have someone who has proven he does not see you or care about you. Everything we fought for in this country has gone away by executive order, by executive order, by executive order,” said Zinerman. “We don’t have four years. It’s now.”


Zinerman continued, “June and November are the most important benchmarks this year. We have to make sure people win their primaries and win the general election. We cannot afford to have Donald Trump with unfettered power beyond next November.”

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