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Temporary Testing Sites Announced

David Mark Greaves
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Temporary Testing Sites Announced

24 Brooklyn Churches to Test for COVID-19

U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries announced this week that 24 churches in predominantly Black and Brown communities will become temporary COVID-19 testing sites.
“We know that this is an extraordinary pandemic and it requires an extraordinary governmental response at all levels of government, it’s all hands on deck at the city, the state and the federal level. And the New York delegation is committed to continuing to work with you to make sure that we can drive the federal resources into New York State to match the level of infection, pain, suffering and death that we’ve all had to endure. It’s an all of government moment and, of course, an all of America moment, as you’ve encouraged all of us to dig deeper here in New York and throughout.


“In that spirit, we know that the houses of worship, the spiritual community, has always been there to help the community get through a storm. These churches have been there through the crack cocaine epidemic to welcome people in while others were rejecting them. Our churches have been there, for instance, to address the high rates of gun violence in our community through gun buyback programs, taking thousands of guns off the streets in their congregation buildings. We also know that these houses of worships, our churches, our spiritual leaders, have been there to partner with the state and with law enforcement organizations like the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office through Begin Again initiatives to address old warrants and summons and citations that can impact the ability of people from communities of color to be able to get all of the opportunities to benefit from our full economy.


“So, now at this moment, thanks to their continued engagement and your leadership and willingness to partner, we can address this COVID-19 pandemic with these houses of worship and religious leaders who have the credibility, the authenticity and the capacity to reach those in the community who need to be tested. Because, at the end of the day, this is not over for any of us until it’s over for all of us. As you’ve indicated, we know that communities of color have been hit particularly hard. We are disproportionately overrepresented amongst our essential frontline workers, live in dense environments and have historically been under-resourced throughout the nation.


“This testing initiative will be incredibly essential to ensure we can turn the corner in communities of color such as those that I represent as well as those represented, of course, by great members of the delegation like Nydia Velázquez, Yvette Clarke, Greg Meeks, Adriano Espaillat and so many others,” said Jeffries.

Brooklyn Actor and Businessman Dies of Coronavirus at 49

Editor, Our Time Press
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Brooklyn Actor and Businessman Dies of Coronavirus at 49

Lloyd Cornelius Porter, the owner of the beloved Bread Stuy coffee shop, was considered the ‘Mr. Hooper’ of his Bedstuy neighborhood

By Biba Adams.
www.thegrio.com

Lloyd Cornelius Porter, a beloved entrepreneur, and actor from Bedford-Stuyvesant passed away last week at the age of 49 from complications of coronavirus. He was also the brother of singer, Gregory Porter.


Porter and his wife, Hillary, owned a bakery called Bread Stuy and later an eatery called Bread Love in the picturesque Stuyvesant Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. Neighbors processed down the street where Porter lived with his wife and young daughter last Wednesday following the man’s passing. He was often called “Mr. Hooper,” a tribute to the grocer from Sesame Street.


“You don’t get that kind of processional he got if you haven’t impacted the lives around you,” close friend Keith Arthur Bolden told BuzzFeed News. “He would hold court. People just look to him to lead, to be the pulse.”
Porter grew up in Bakersfield, California. He studied theater at Fresno State University where he also joined Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. He continued to find work as a commercial actor, starring in multiple Super Bowl ads over the years. He and his wife were considering a move back to California to be close to family.
A GoFundMe set up to benefit the Porter’s young daughter, MacLemore, has raised over $75,000.


“We are sad but Lloyd’s was a life lived with love and generosity that is deserving of celebration,” the description reads, “In (Bread Stuy), love was poured into each cup served, smiles given with each pastry, hugs, laughs, jokes and fellowship lived every corner of the shop spilling onto the sidewalks. It was on those sidewalks that we ate, drank, danced, and celebrated life and community daily.”


It ends with a description that says, “(The) Porters painted rainbows over our Bed-Stuy skies, and around the world with each person they touched… and for this reason, we will return his love and treasure his memory by supporting his family.”

Life After Lockdown

Editor, Our Time Press
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Life After Lockdown

New Priority: Correcting our Underlying Conditions

New Yorkers are trying to resume their normal lives, even as top public health officials warn of dangers. Easing restrictions on public life too soon during a pandemic could result in a surge of new cases that might spiral out of control, public health officials said. But a New York Times analysis of data found millions of Americans already were leaving their homes. With some states starting to open their economies, 25 million more people went outside their homes on an average day last week than during the preceding six weeks. Testifying before Congress, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease expert, predicted dire consequences if the country opened too quickly, saying that the nation still lacked critical testing capacity and the ability to find the contacts of those infected with COVID-19. There is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you may not be able to control, he said..May 12, 2020 (Credit Image: © John Marshall Mantel/ZUMA Wire)

Stay Focused

From shopping carts and bodega doors to the White House, the virus is everywhere. And it will remain a lethal threat until a vaccine is developed and most of the population is vaccinated in one to two years. Until then, your life is in your own hands. And how you live it will determine how long it will be.
Setting aside for a moment, the pulsating knot in the stomach around issues of money, food and shelter, there is the need to survive to stand on the vaccination line, when this real-life horror film is brought to an end.

We are at war with COVID-19 and the first rule in war is, “Know your enemy.” This is a new virus, but thousands of researchers and laboratories around the world are accepting the challenge to learn something unknown before, and add it to the growing database about this threat that will remain a constant across all the continents.
What we do know is how it spreads—through microdroplets in the air and transference on surfaces. And we know how to deal with that: masks for the droplets and handwashing and sanitizer for the surface transfer.

We also know that the virus is deadliest on the elderly, and we know to keep them as isolated as possible and by everyone in the household limiting outside contacts, wearing masks and washing and sanitizing their hands.
What is also known is that it is hitting the African American and Latinx communities the hardest, and that is why those who resist wearing masks, should look at the company they keep with the confederate flags, MAGA hats and automatic weapons at the Michigan State Capital last month. They don’t want Black folks to wear masks either, they just want Black folks to die. When they scream “liberation,” they mean they want to be liberated from having to treat Black and Brown people as equals.

In the early reports, it was noticeable that many of those dying were heavyset Black people and now we know that was not just by chance. It was an accurate reflection of who, outside of nursing homes, were being hit hardest and why. All of the many factors that negatively affect the human body are prevalent in Black and Latinx communities. These comorbidities as they are called, are a constant theme in the Black community and now, more than ever, they have to be brought under control.
A year from now, when perhaps the firewall of cleanliness is breached and the viral attack is blunted by good health, your future self will thank you for the lifestyle changes made now.
Over 82,000 deaths and a new projection, based on the premature reopening of most states, is a death toll of 147,000 by August 4. Dr. Christopher Murray, Director institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation a researcher on the new model, says that even that projection depends on people maintaining masks and social distancing even as the states reopen.
And this is until just the first half of the summer and two months before the “Second Wave” of attacks that Dr. Anthony Fauci is certain will come in the fall. And even if these new projections hold steady, we’ll be headed into the deadliest flu season ever, reeling from at least 200,000 dead and at the height of the most consequential presidential election since the Founding of the Republic.

And we will have a Biden/Demings or Biden/Warren ticket going into November against a delusional sociopath in the White House who is obsessed with winning, regardless of norms, laws, and lives lost.
We can foresee refrigerated trailers as morgues scattered around the country, and foreign and domestic attacks on the presidential election on trump’s behalf grow in sophistication and volume. As we look at the possible future before us, we realize that as bad as things are now, the worst is yet to come. Get ready, get healthy. Stay focused.

Tributes

Bernice Elizabeth Green
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to My Beloved Sister: Barbara Allimadi
by Milton Allimadi, Publisher, Black Star News 

Barbara Allimadi

Many people who know my sister Barbara Allimadi who passed away on Monday night in Uganda, will remember her as a tireless and fearless fighter for justice, human rights, and democracy. She’s being referred to on social media postings as a “lioness” by many of her colleagues in the struggle.
Many will recall the numerous marches and protests she led in Kampala against militarism and police brutality and how, at her own expense, she often purchased food and delivered it to those who’d been wrongfully incarcerated by the regime. My sister gained wide notice when she led a protest against police brutality after Ingrid Turinawe, a prominent leader in the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) opposition party, was violently assaulted in broad daylight. Policemen arresting her grabbed her by her breast while she was seated in her car behind the wheels, and tried to pull her out.
Barbara and a group of young women held a protest outside police headquarters. They opened their shirts, exposing their bras, symbolically denouncing the desecration of womanhood. They demanded action by Gen. Kale Kayihura, the notorious former police commander. Barbara later became an activist with the FDC party.
When Mugisha Muntu, formerly of the FDC, launched the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT), Barbara joined. She became the party’s spokesperson for International and Diaspora affairs. Barbara was completely committed to the total liberation of Uganda and Africa from authoritarianism, neocolonialism, and all their attendant crimes. She envisioned a Uganda whose resources would be used to create products, jobs, wealth and prosperity, for Ugandans, not foreign powers.
Barbara studied engineering in the U.K., and operated businesses for a few years. Recently, she’d become more interested in history and economics, earning a Masters degree in human rights at Makerere University. I had encouraged her to pursue a doctoral degree. We often bounced ideas off each other. She insisted that I share with her materials I assigned to my students at John Jay College here in New York City. As a result, she’d started reading more deeply the works of Kwame Nkrumah, Anta Diop, John Henrik Clarke, Thomas Sankara, Steve Biko, Walter Rodney, and Samir Amin.
Last week, Barbara told me that she’d just read, once again, the introduction to Nkrumah’s “Neocolonialism, The Last Stage of Imperialism,” where Nkrumah lays out his thesis that, so long as Africa remains divided, the outside powers will continue to exploit the continent’s resources. “Our people need to know more of our history,” she said.
Many people know Barbara, the public figure. I, of course, being 10 years her senior, had the advantage of placing her on my lap and teaching her how to read. She was brilliant! Here’s one story that offers some insight:
It was during the 1970s when Barbara was around three years old, and my family was living in exile in Tanzania from Gen. Idi Amin’s regime. We were reading one of her favorite books when something puzzling happened. When I opened a certain page, the words she uttered didn’t match the words on the page. Then I noticed that two pages had stuck together; we’d skipped the page Barbara was meant to be reading. Could it be that she’d memorized that page? When I flipped randomly to another page without following the sequence, she struggled. I realized that the child had memorized the material contained in the entire book—and all the other books—based on the sequence of the pages. So we went back to the basics and studied our alphabets. Soon, she could read any book.
Due to Uganda’s turbulent politics, our family was scattered around the world. The last time I actually saw my sister in the flesh was in October, 2007, in London, when our beloved mother, Alice Lamunu Allimadi lost her battle with cancer. Our father, Erifasi Otema Allimadi, former prime minister, had joined the ancestors earlier, in 2001.
After our parents were deceased Barbara returned to Uganda. She was in business for a few years. But beyond just making profit, she wanted a higher calling and so she followed in our father’s footsteps and entered politics. Like him, Barbara was a Pan-African and a nationalist. She loved Ugandans, regardless of what part of the country they came from, what God they prayed to, or the political party they followed. She had magnetic charisma, beauty, intelligence, and a great sense of humor. She could engage with all.
The struggle against authoritarianism can be lonely. It can take its toll on everyone, physically and emotionally. Barbara remained hopeful because she could not bear living in a Uganda that she knew could be a much better country. She inspired the youth, and was inspired by them.
She also knew that there were very many more comrades in the struggle. She once told me that when she was arrested multiple times for leading protests against the regime, sometimes the officers bundling her into police vehicles would say “Sister, we are with you, we are just doing our job.” She had frank conversations with some ministers, one of whom told her, he supported the struggle. Then he asked, “But who will take care of my family if something happened to me?”
This is not the correct question. Such individuals must ask: “What will become of Uganda if we do nothing?” These silent Ugandans must make their voices heard. Barbara was dedicated to creating a Uganda where political disagreements did not mean that the party in power had to drive opponents into exile, jail them, or eliminate them. In recent months, as a member of the ANT, she’d been reaching out to Ugandans of all political affiliations in diaspora. Political differences pale in comparison to the common desire to create a Uganda where the constitution is supreme.
My sister was a unique and beautiful asset to Uganda. She had contributed much to making ours a better country. She still had much to offer. You can imagine the shock and pain our family felt when we were informed that Barbara was found lying on the living room floor of her house outside Kampala, dead on Monday night. I had just communicated with her at 10:40 AM on Sunday. Her last earthly message to me read, “I hope you’re having a blessed Sunday. Mine is fine…” How can it be that a few hours later she was gone?
To all of Barbara’s friends, people who loved her, people who were inspired by her, people who worked with her in the trenches to create a better Uganda—the best tribute would be to ensure that all her sacrifice for the struggle was not in vain. We must march those extra miles and create a new Uganda. Barbara did not live to see that day. We owe it to her to make sure that day arrives.
We might close by paraphrasing Dr. King, who famously said: “…I’ve seen the promised land…I may not get there with you…we as a people will get to the promised land.”
Barbara, Rest In Peace with our beloved parents and other ancestors. Until we meet again, dear sister, we love you. Aluta continua!

What’s Going On

Victoria Horsford
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COVID-19

The worldwide total of COVID-19 infections through May 4th is 3, 483, 055, with 251,537 deaths. For the same period in the United States, there were 1.2 million cases of COVID-19 with 68,843 deaths. New York State COVID-19 infections totaled 324, 357 cases, with 24,788 deaths, including NYC stats of 181,034 cases, with 18,580 deaths. Why does the United States total 1/3 of the COVID-19 cases?

The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic is the new academic discipline, a required course for all planet Earth residents. The pandemic has touched down on almost all continents, delivering a power-punch of fear, sorrow and socio-economic turmoil. COVID-19 also underscores the fault lines in global society: racial and class inequities and disparities in income, education, and health care. The public health crisis has impacted international economies, and brought the world to a discomforting standstill. Closer to home, look at the republic of the United States, unable to summon the national leadership necessary to manage a bona fide crisis, having claimed the lives of almost 69,000 Americans. The only defense Americans have against the dreaded public health menace and a flagging economy is our hope, resiliency, and a cadre of proactive governors like NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo, ready to do battle with the limited resources at their disposal. Since March, many states have run huge deficits totaling billions of dollars battling COVID-19. The federal government has approved stimulus packages to Corporate America and to Americans, but no financial aid to the states. A new model for the social order is a necessity concomitant with the demise of COVID-19.

On May 4, President Donald Trump officially politicizes his administration’s mismanaged COVID-19 crisis when he tell the NY Post, “Blue state coronavirus bailouts are unfair to Republicans. A bailout is different than reimbursement for the plague.” He predicts an economic rebound from coronavirus by the end of the year. Is he saying that Governors Andrew Cuomo, NY; Phil Murphy, New Jersey; Gavin Newsom, California; JB Pritzker, Illinois and their constituents, are not legitimate stakeholders in the USA, nor are they to be applauded for their leadership during the COVID-19 crisis, a responsibility which Trump abandoned? Are these the final days of the Trump plague? Will Trump also bring an end to the GOP US Senate majority?

A note on the Trump blue-state bias, many southern red states are the next COVID-19 hotspots. Will he bail them out? States like Texas, Georgia and Florida, which adopted the Trump call for “reopening the economy,” are experiencing surges in COVID-19 cases and deaths. It would have been prudent to adopt a gradual reopening policy with face masks and social-distancing protocols intact. Trump does not understand that COVID-19 and the economy are interrelated. His CVID-19 Task Force will be dismantled by the end of May, at a time when the virus infection surges nationally in the early “reopen” states. In Utah, officials closed tattoo parlors and salons after 500 complaints were filed. In Wisconsin a cardiologist was suspended from work after attending a rally without his mask.

US/COVID-19 RAPID
RECOVERY

While Americans are obsessed with COVID-19 recovery, my obsession is about survival. A recent Essence digital news brief written by an MD lists the disadvantages of social isolation, which increases sedentary behavior, spending lots of time sitting while working at home. The lack of physical movement can lead to decreased blood flow and allows gravity to cause blood to pool in the legs, putting one at risk for two conditions 1) deep vein thrombosis, DVI, which is a blood clot in the legs with symptoms like pain, redness or swelling of the calves, and 2) pulmonary embolism, PE, a blood clot in the lungs that may have traveled from the legs, with symptoms like sharp chest pain, trouble breathing or sudden death without warning. To avoid, work the legs by walking, bicycling, and drinking lots of water. Don’t remain sedentary for long periods.

US ELECTIONS/2020

FOR YOUR INFO: New York City registered voters can request a written ballot for the New York June 23 Primary, go to https://nycabsentee.com. Primary for US Congressmembers, NYS Assembly and NYS Senate. A NYS judge invalidated the NY Board of Elections decision to remove the Democratic contenders Biden and Sanders from the 6/23 Primary.

Presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden did not keep his promise to name his VEEP choice by May 1 and a woman to boot! He named a four-member committee to help him. Choice will be announced at the live Democratic Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, August 17 – 20. Current polls show him leading Trump in blue, red and battleground states. His campaign is marred by his former Senate aide Tara Reade, who alleged that he sexually assaulted her 27 years ago. Hello, Tom Perez DNC Chair, promise no more surprises before August 17.

ARTS/CULTURE

Congrats to the African Americans who won 2020 Pulitzer Awards on May 4. Colson Whitehead won Fiction Award for THE NICKEL BOYS based on the real horrors extant at the “Dozier School for Boys, in Florida for 111 years, which warped the lives of thousands of boys.” Whitehead won 2017 Pulitzer award for fiction for THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. Nikole Hannah-Jones, NY Times journalist won award for Best Commentary for her report in the NY Times Magazine’s “The 1619 Project,” a single-subject issue about “the contributions of African Americans, including enslaved Africans, to American history.” Jericko Brown won for Poetry with “The Tradition,” a collection which runs the gamut from “the Trojan War to James Baldwin to the unpunished violence that police commit against African Americans.” Anthony Davis won for Music for “The Central Park Five’ a jazz-infused opera with libretto by Richard Wesley about “The Latino and African American teenagers wrongfully convicted of a 1989 group rape of a white woman.” A special citation was awarded posthumously to Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) for her role as investigative journalist/founder of the Memphis Free Speech, which dealt with racist violence and lynchings in America.” Michael R. Jackson, wins for his Drama “A Strange Loop by Michael R. Jackson,” about a gay, Black musical theater writer, which played at NY Off Broadway house Playwright Horizons. Founded in 1917, the Pulitzers are US Awards for achievement in newspapers, online journalism, literature, and musical composition.

Iconic model and business woman Naomi Campbell dons the Essence May/June cover for its 50th Anniversary issue. This golden anniversary issue included stories relevant to its audience of African American women and the effects of COVID-19 on their lives. This is first Essence issue curated by its cover personality. Campbell did her own makeup and executed the cover photo shoot, with her iphone, owing to COVID-19 travel restrictions. Founded and financed in 1970 by African American entrepreneurs, Essence Communications and Travel Fest were sold to media giant Time Warner Warner between 2000 to 2005. Billionaire Liberia-born investor Richelieu Dennis, acquired Essence package in 2018.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!

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