Home Blog Page 665

What’s Going On

Victoria Horsford
-
0

2018/THE VOTE

Lucy McBath

African-American Lucy McBath is a Democrat from Georgia’s 6th Congressional District who failed to get a majority of votes during the Primary. She had three contenders and got a plurality of the votes. She faces a runoff this month. McBath is running on a “gun safety” platform. Her 17-year-old son was shot and killed by a white man at a Jacksonville, FL. gas station. His murder became a catalyst for the Black Lives Matter movement.

Aaron Ford

Nevada Senate member Aaron Ford, Democratic candidate for Attorney General in Nevada, was stomping in NY for a fundraiser on Wednesday, July 18, 6:30 pm-8:30 pm. Attorney Ford is current Senate Majority Leader in Nevada.    He joins the fellow Democrat Congressman, himself a candidate for Attorney General, in Minnesota. [Visit Fordfornevada.com]

NEW YORK

True or False: Everyone’s talking about Kevin Baker’s Harper’s magazine cover story, THE DEATH OF A ONCE GREAT CITY. An interesting read with laser- like analysis of what’s gone amiss in the 5 boroughs re: government, education, transportation, politics, business, real estate.

The Village of Harlem is mourning the loss of one of its most beloved citizens, Beverly Alston. A mother and educator, Beverly wore many hats.   She was a politically engaged community leader, a devout Democrat who had a “fire in the belly” for all of the causes she espoused, which were manifold, particularly those related to her native Harlem, its culture and sustainability.   A president of the Jackie Robinson Park Conservatory, a life member of Rev. Sharpton’s National Action Network, she was also a Superintendent of the NYS Office of General Service in Brooklyn.  Her funeral service was held at Harlem’s historic Abyssinian Baptist Church on July 17.  

BUSINESS MATTERS

Essence Ventures CEO Richelieu Dennis launched the $100 million New Voice Fund for Women of Color which was announced at the recent Essence Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Liberian-born Dennis has entrepreneurship in his DNA. He is the Shea Moisture and Sundial Brand founder, which was sold last year to Unilever before he acquired Essence Communications from Time, Inc., restoring the Essence franchise – magazine and annual New Orleans Festival – to Black ownership. Dennis enthused: “The fund is to support Black women-owned businesses.   It will provide access and capital to women, and will target start-ups, existing businesses and community-based enterprises owned and led by Black women.”

The Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce (GHCC) and the NY Christian Times will co-host BISNOW’S HARLEM INVESTMENT & DEVELOPMENT BOOM Speakers Forum on July 19 at the Alhambra Ballroom, 2118 Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd., Grand Ballroom. [Call 212.293.0370] Speakers include business leaders and real estate barons, politicos who inform on today’s Harlem Business Investment and Development.  The following is a partial list of participants: Lloyd Williams, GHCC; Barbara Askins, 125th Street BID; David Blumenthal, Blumenthal Development Group; James Thompson, HIP-HOP Hall of Fame; Curtis Archer, Harlem Community Development Corp.; Clayton Banks, Silicon Harlem; Faith Hope Consolo, Douglass Elliman; Scott Auster, Grid Properties; and Karim Hudson, Genesis.

SOCIETY/ARTS/CULTURE

Stephen Byrd’s Front Row Productions returns to Broadway with a drama, AMERICAN SON, starring Kerry Washington and Steven Pasquqe on November 4. Kenny Leon directs this piece by playwright Christopher Demos-Brown. Story is a “gripping tale of two parents in our national divide with their worst fears hanging in the balance.”

The Essie Green Galleries’ new summer exhibition, CASTING THE NET, WATERCOLOR AND COLLAGE ON PAPER, by fine art masters Norman Lewis, Romare Bearden, Charles Ethan Porter and John Wesley Hardrick, opens on July 21 with a reception at 419A Convent Avenue, 148th Street, Harlem. [Call 212.368.9635 or visit essiegreengalleries.com]

NEWSMAKERS

Keith Taylor, former NYC Department of Correction Assistant Commissioner, joined the New York Guard State Defense Force, an organization of volunteers which works in tandem with the NY National Guard. A force of 500 uniformed volunteers organized as a military unit, the NY Guard works with the NY National Guard during NYS emergencies. Taylor came aboard as an instructor dispensing info about professional development, education and will train officers and noncommissioned officers. A Harlem homeowner and a member of Community Board 10, Taylor holds a Doctorate in Education from Columbia University.

Summertime and the living is easy, and it is time to travel. New Yorker Henrietta Lyle visits South Carolina……..Dr. Sandra Epps traveled to France………Ambassador Shirley Barnes was on holiday in France and Spain….. Cove Lounge owner Alyah Sidberry traveled to LA with her sons Maxwell and Kai who were pleasantly surprised when their dad Kendall arrived at the end of the week. Globe-trotter Pierre Thiam visited Hawaii, Abu Dhabi and Zimbabwe.

Dee-Ann Kentish Rogers, 25, was crowned Miss Universe Great Britain, a first for a Black woman, on Saturday, July 14. Dee-Ann’s next stop is the 2018 Miss Universe Pageant, which will be held in the fall. An Afro-Caribbean born in Anguilla, a British territory, she has earned a law degree at the University of Birmingham and wants to be a barrister.

SUMMER PLEASURES

Last week’s item about the UNCF, “A Mind Is” Hamptons Benefit on August 18-19, was not specific about the roles that Ed Lewis, co-founder of ESSENCE, and Dr. Johnnetta Cole, former President of Spelman and Bennett Colleges, would play. They are event honorees. Founded in 1944, the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) is the nation’s largest and most effective minority education organization. It is the place to go for college scholarship assistance. [Visit UNCF.org/NYHamptons]

The NYC Restaurant Week summer session runs from July 23 to August 17. More than 380 restaurants participate at prix fixe restaurant promotions, including   2-course lunch at $29 and 3-course dinner at $42, except Saturdays and Sundays.     [Visit nycgo.com/nycrestaurantweek]

The Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce (GHCC) celebrates the 44th Anniversary of HARLEM WEEK, the monthlong celebration of Harlem arts, culture, business and politics which runs from July 29 to August 25. Mayor Bill de Blasio hosted the Harlem Week kickoff celebration on July 18 at Gracie Mansion, where local notables – Nona Hendryx, George Faison and the Women of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority – were honored.   [Visit harlemweek.com]

Voza Rivers New Heritage Theatre, Harlem Arts Alliance and the Salvation Army presents the Three Amigos Gospel Concert of Joyful Noises featuring Tembalami, Wellington Kwenda and Harlem’s own Chaka and the African Praisers on July 28 at 6 pm at the Salvation Army Center, located at 540 Lenox Avenue.

A Harlem-based management consultant, Victoria can be reached at Victoria.horsford@gmail.com.

Only Massive Voting Can Save Us

David Mark Greaves
-
0
Only Massive Voting Can Save Us

Nothing left to say about President Trump. Even though I loathe the man, his surrender to Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his best “Yassa Massa” way, still hurts.

We have an emotionally unstable, frightened and traitorous man as President of the United States, and he will be kept in power by the 87% approval rating he has among Republican voters. These voters have no problem with Putin, a brutal white guy who orders assassinations, invades countries and is the kind of strong man they admire.

These faithful Republican voters have been gerrymandered into and around districts, “surgically drawn” in their favor, and will vote out any representatives who stand against Trump. And despite their expressed outrage and threats about “it better not happen in 2018”, there is a lingering suspicion that the legislators secretly have little motivation to actually act. With Russia’s help, they will keep the Senate, cut their midterm losses, and if the Russians really do their job, shock the country again by picking up a few seats in the House.   This will allow them to keep their jobs, complete their repurposing of the judiciary to maintain “white rule” by making more lifetime appointments, while at the same time encouraging White nationalists around the world to rally to the newest strongman on their behalf. More tax dollars will be funneled to the top, leaving the masses of people more serf-like and obedient. Just as the oligarchs in Russia and the U.S., like them.

As Republicans contemplate the possibilities of another rigged election and giving Trump another 4 years and another Supreme Court appointment, then the white supremacists, with the help of Russian oligarchs, will have completed the takeover of the U.S.; and like a thing from the dead, the South that fought the Civil War, has risen.

We need to stop insisting that the United States is the strongest nation on earth. Lumbering around with billion-dollar nuclear subs and carriers, their ordinance is a laughable match against a dedicated cyberattack that is far more devastating to national security than the never-to-end conflict in the Middle East.  This is the warfare of 2018 and we’d better start inflicting some pain. But there will be no pain coming in the cyber world because we have a traitor as president.

This is real, this is happening, this is now! Everyone has to vote as though the country depends on it.

It’s Time to Say Her Name

Akosua Albritton
-
0
It’s Time to Say Her Name

The incidents of African-American women being brutalized or slain is increasing to a point that the rallying cry of “Say Her Name!” can be heard from coast to coast in the United States. The causes of the deaths are questionable. Friday, July 13, 2018, Equality for Flatbush and People’s Power Assembly NYC sponsored the Justice for Sandra Bland and All Black Women Rally and March outside of the Church Avenue Q/B subway station.

The protestors covered the sidewalk and as more people joined the throng, the people spilled onto E. 18th Street and Church Avenue. New York Police Officers were in full force working crowd control, however, they used restraint. Kerbie Joseph from The Party for Socialism and Liberation led the chant, “Our Streets, Our Block! We don’t need these killer cops!” Kerbie Joseph said, “It’s been three years since Sandra Bland was killed in her prison cell. We need to stand in unity with her. This is an epidemic. It’s not an isolated occurrence. Every 28 hours someone is violated by the police.” Joseph continued by saying, “It is your right to come out every night and chant against police brutality.” She left the place designated for speechmaking after getting the crowd to chant several times, “All around the world, defend Black women and girls!”

This rally was in honor of Sandra Bland who died in July 2015 and other women. Who was Sandra Bland and how did she die? Sandra Bland was a 28-year-old Chicagoan who received a job offer from her alma mater Prairie View A & M University located in Waller County, TX. A Texas State Trooper stopped her for not signaling before switching lanes. The result of this stop was one of Bland’s arms got injured and she was arrested for assaulting a police officer. On July 13, 2015, Bland was found dead in her prison cell, the cause being “suicide by asphyxiation.”

The Bland family has not accepted that Sandra had committed suicide because she looked upon her college position as a dream job. Add to this, Waller County has a history of racism and brutality. These facts had her family and other concerned African-Americans dig deeper into the situation. What they found was the arresting officer’s car had no footage of the police stop of her car. The Bureau of Justice Statistics started counting jail deaths in 2000 but did not start distributing the statistics until 2011. The 2015 data will not be available for distribution until the fourth quarter of 2018. The data reveals there were 1,069 jail deaths, of which 364 were suicides. Another controversy in the imprisonment and death of Sandra Bland is that there is a belief in certain quarters that her prison photograph could be a picture of her corpse. This belief is based on the fact that the background is the same color as the prison floor. She is clothed in an orange prison jumpsuit, whereas new inmates are typically dressed in street clothing.

While waiting for the march to start, Workers World Party member Kayla H. commented, “Black women are the fastest-growing population in prisons. No one is free until Black women are free. She followed this by calling out the names of women who were killed by police officers and added, ‘I’m definitely anti-capitalistic. It is the root of colonialism and capitalism.’”

Another slain woman recognized during this rally and march was Kyam Livingston. Kyam Livingston is a case of being vilified and experiencing medical neglect. Livingston was a 37-year-old woman who, through an order of protection, was permitted to reside within her grandmother’s (Theresa Johnson) home but disallowed Livingston from drinking alcohol or arguing with her grandmother there. Due to her unsteady walking, Ms. Johnson believed Kyam was inebriated and therefore called the police to remove her from the home on Friday, July 19, 2013. Livingston was put in a cell with 15 other women. Livingston complained of stomach pains and diarrhea. The other inmates were sympathetic to her situation and began to bang on the jail bars and calling to the officers to aid her. The inmates cleared a bench to give Livingston a place to lie down. Livingston began convulsing. A female jail staffer, upon seeing the convulsions said, “Just let it play out.” The female jail staffer explained she had a grandson who experienced convulsions. Sometime in the late hours of Saturday, July 20, 2013, jail staff called Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to take Livingston to a hospital. Early Sunday morning, July 21, 2013, Kyam Livingston died twenty minutes before EMS arrived and at approximately 10:00 AM, EMS came to Anita Livingston’s (her mother) home to inform her of her daughter’s passing.

The autopsy was performed on Tuesday, July 23, 2013 at Kings County Hospital wherein the Chief Medical Examiner documented the death due to seizure complicating chronic alcoholism. This does not mean Kyam Livingston died from being drunk. In fact, Livingston’s toxicology report proves she was sober.

The Justice for Sandra Bland and All Black Women event transformed from a rally to a march smoothly. The body marched east on Church Avenue and turned north onto Flatbush Avenue. At the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Parkside Avenue, the body marched west on Parkside and turned north into Ocean Avenue with NYPD in tow. Chants included, “When Black girls are under attack, what do you do? Stand up! Fight Back!” and “We want justice for Kyam Livingston, killed in a Brooklyn cell!” There were more than ten NYPD cars following the marchers. The event went beyond the official 9 PM end time.

The Tale of the Sleeper Agent

Marlon Rice
-
0
The Tale of the Sleeper Agent

Donald Trump is the first Russian President of the United States of America. It may not be revealed tomorrow, or next week, but save this newspaper, put it in plastic, seal it and place it at the bottom of a dresser drawer. And when it is finally revealed that Donald J. Trump was indeed a sleeper agent, you can pull this issue out of storage and remember that you read it here in Our Time Press first.

The moves that Trump has made over the past two years, if looked at as individual decisions, might make you think he was a political imbecile, but taking in each issue on its own wouldn’t give you the true breadth of his cumulative work, and you might miss how clever of a Russian agent he is. Let’s start with the Russian collusion. The Mueller investigation has most recently led to the arrests of 12 Russian Nationals, believed to have been involved in the “hacking” of the election of 2016. One notable claim is that these nationals are to blame for e-mails being released in 2016 that were meant to damage the campaign of Hillary Clinton. While we still wait for Mueller to pin the tail on the jackass, we have already seen the proof of subtle affronts that were responsible for creating an environment conducive to Trump winning the election. One such affront was the creation of more than 30,000 Facebook pages by Russian agencies aimed at creating racial tension in America by purchasing ads and providing misinformation to specific target groups. This tactic, while briefly discussed in the media but then swept away, is a major strategy because it preys on America’s biggest weakness – its race relations. So, when Trump was campaigning and his rallies were teeming with racial tension, a big catalyst of that tension came from the fact that when those white rural constituents were logged onto Facebook in the days leading up to his rallies, they were being inundated with Black Lives Matter ads and other misinformation regarding minorities on their pages. We know that this happened, we know that Russian agencies were responsible, and that the candidate that most benefited from this was Donald Trump.

If I were to write a novel titled The Russian Agent that became President, I would make the title character do things while in office that put into question the long arching relationship between the United States and its allies. He’d do things like insult Great Britain and organizations like NATO, and he’d begin building bonds with the very dictators that the free world despises. If I would’ve written this novel ten years ago, it probably would’ve been a best-seller. If I write it now, I’d be plagiarizing our current sitting president. Trump has, time and again, made decisions that spit in the face of long-standing, carefully cultivated relationships with allies and with the free world. He abandoned the Paris Climate Agreement, an agreement that every other nation in the world has signed. He exited the Iran Nuclear Deal, a stance that the other nations involved in the agreement are against. It is reported that global oil prices rose by almost $10 simply because of Trump’s stance on Iran. He recently called the European Union “foes,” and he’s hellbent on destroying NAFTA. And while he’s been arrogant and dismissive to our friends, he’s saved his best behavior for his meetings with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, two of the most treacherous dictators in the world. Yup, sounds just like what a Russian agent would do as president.

This enigma of a man is either the dumbest guy to ever hold the Office of President, or he is the most egotistical and maniacal human since Hitler. Or, he is a sleeper agent from Russia, his family planted long ago in the 40’s and early 50’s during the era highlighted by McCarthyism and the Red Scare. I always thought the name Trump was kinda peculiar. It sounds like someone made it up. Did I mention that he has married two women who are from Eastern-bloc countries? Ivana is from the Czech Republic and Melania is from Slovenia. In my opinion, he’s made it too far to be dumb, and he’s played his cards to deliberately be maniacal. I’m going with sleeper agent.

Remember what I said. Wrap this newspaper in plastic and save it. When it does come out that Trump is a Russian agent, you’re going to want to show your friends that you knew all along.

 

Trade Deadline 2018

Eddie Castro
-
0
Trade Deadline 2018

The first half of the Major League Baseball season is in the books for our beloved Yankees and Mets and it appears both teams (at the moment) are going in different directions. With baseball’s trade deadline looming, it is expected that both teams will be active in improving their ball clubs in hopes for a playoff or lengthy playoff run in October.

The New York Mets came out the gates in the 2018 campaign with a winning swagger that had the team atop of the National League East Division. The team’s early first-place performance had many Met fans thinking quite high about the team making the playoffs in what is expected to be several teams including the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals who are in the same division as the Mets jockeying for playoff position. Since then, the Mets, as a team, has endured some rough times due to key injuries to a few of their top players. Top players such as Yoenis Cespedes, Noah Syndergaard and Todd Frazier have served some time on the team’s disabled list. The injuries have caught up to the Mets where they have fallen down to fourth place in the NL East. It is unknown whether Mets management will be buyers or sellers at the deadline. There are many needs they need to address to compete with the top-tier teams in the NL. They can also be sellers and acquire some top prospects and continue to build for the future.

For the Yankees, the team currently holds the second-best record in all of baseball despite being four games back of the Boston Red Sox in the American League East Division. We all know too well about the Yankees dominant offensive lineup, which currently leads the league in most home runs. The Achilles’ heel for the Bronx Bombers has been their starting pitching. With the exception of their young ace pitcher Luis Severino, the team’s starting pitching has been just about average and inconsistent at the same time. There have been rumors of the Yankees showing interest in Mets ace pitchers Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard, both of whom would be a huge upgrade for the Yankees pitching staff. The question is, “What will be the Mets asking price if they were to agree to trade deGrom or Syndergaard?” The Yankees are in a good predicament to offer a trade to the Mets for a deGrom considering the Yankees minor league farm system is absolutely loaded with talent.

The trade deadline is July 31. How will the Yankees and Mets roster look as both teams attempt to make a strong 2nd –half push towards playoff ball in October. Stay tuned!

Sports Notes: For up-to-date rumors and acquisitions on baseball trades leading to the July 31 trade deadline, E-mail me at Castroeddie714@gmail.com. See which big players go where or tell me what moves would you like your team to make.

 

 

1...664665666...1,292Page 665 of 1,292