Home Blog Page 758

Brooklynites Aaron Dean and Dr. Deborah Dean honored with the Brooklyn Community Services Philanthropic Leadership Award

Editor, Our Time Press
-
0
Brooklynites Aaron Dean and Dr. Deborah Dean honored with the Brooklyn Community Services Philanthropic Leadership Award

Brooklyn power couple Dr. Deborah Dean, Medical Director of the Emergency Department at Mount Sinai Brooklyn, and Aaron Dean, former chairman of Board for Brooklyn Community Services (BCS) and President of Cydean LLC, were honored with the Philanthropic Leadership Award at the BCS 150th Anniversary Finale Gala at 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge on June 5. The Fort Greene residents have made volunteering with BCS a family affair.

The couple’s award presenter at the gala was their 15 year-old daughter Cydney, who has been joining her parents in BCS activities since childhood. “Some of my earliest memories are of BCS,” recalled Cydney. Aaron and Deborah have been Brooklynites for over twenty years and will celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary on July 18. Aaron grew up in Harlem, the Bronx, and North Carolina, and Deborah is from West Hempstead, Long Island.

She earned her undergraduate degree in psychology from Brown University and her medical degree from Howard University.

Aaron, who had a long career on Wall Street in advisory and investment capacities, heads a Brooklyn investment and management company focusing on residential real estate. He holds an economics degree and an MBA from Harvard University. “Deborah and I have worked too hard to get where we are in life, but there were a lot of helping hands along the way,” said Aaron. “It is only right that we reach back and help the next generation.”

As BCS Chairman of the Board, Aaron was involved with BCS programs on 25 sites throughout Brooklyn, which serve 13,000 people each year. “We see a lot of potential future leaders in BCS programs, and we want to increase their chances of living the dream we have achieved,” said Aaron. “I, specifically, am living proof it can be done.”

Obama Jumped Into GA Special Election Race To Slam ‘Shameful’ GOP Voter Suppression Tactics

Editor, Our Time Press
-
0
Obama Jumped Into GA Special Election Race To Slam ‘Shameful’ GOP Voter Suppression Tactics

Democrat Ossoff lost the most expensive congressional race ever

Based on reporting By Sean Colarossi

Just a day before voters in Georgia’s sixth congressional district voted to choose between underdog Democrat Jon Ossoff and Trump-supported Republican Karen Handel, former President Barack Obama jumped into the race to slam GOP efforts to suppress the vote.

Responding to an ad being run in Georgia by pro-Trump group Great America Alliance, which “fraudulently” uses Obama’s voice from the audio version of his book “Dreams From My Father,” a spokesman for the 44th president said the radio spot “is a shameful, indefensible tactic that should never be heard on the public airwaves.”

The response from Obama’s spokesman comes a day after it was reported that the former president’s voice was being used out of context to keep Democrats from voting.

Despite the misleading commercial, the audio of Obama was actually the former president quoting somebody else – they weren’t his own words, despite the ad presenting them as such.

Voter suppression from Republicans is nothing new, of course. Without such tactics, whether it’s discouraging Democrats from turning out or simply forbidding them from doing so via state laws, Donald Trump probably wouldn’t be in the White House today.

The latest example in Georgia, in a district that Trump carried and that Republicans have controlled for decades, shows that the GOP were deeply concerned about losing what should be a guaranteed win for them.

Prodigy, 42, rapper of Mobb Deep fame, dies related to complications tied to Sickle Cell

Editor, Our Time Press
-
0
Prodigy, 42, rapper of Mobb Deep fame, dies related to complications tied to Sickle Cell

The rapper Prodigy, one half of the American hip-hop duo Mobb Deep, died on Tuesday at the age of 42.

The Queens-born MC died after a performance in Las Vegas, having been hospitalized recently for complications tied to sickle-cell anemia.

The MC was found unconscious in Las Vegas, and while the cause of death remains unclear, the group’s publicist sent the following statement to the music website XXL:

“It is with extreme sadness and disbelief that we confirm the death of our dear friend Albert Johnson, better known to millions of fans as Prodigy of legendary NY rap duo Mobb Deep. Prodigy was hospitalized a few days ago in Vegas after a Mobb Deep performance for complications caused by a sickle-cell anemia crisis. As most of his fans know, Prodigy battled the disease since birth. The exact cause of death has yet to be determined. We would like to thank everyone for respecting the family’s privacy at this time.”

Mobb Deep, comprised of Prodigy and Havoc, has sold more than 3 million records, their albums “The Infamous” and “Hell on Earth” having been critically acclaimed successes in the 1990s. The group took an indefinite hiatus in 2012 but reunited shortly after, releasing their eighth album, “The Infamous Mobb Deep”, in 2014.

The duo performed in Las Vegas on the weekend of The Art of Rap tour, alongside Ice-T, Ghostface Killah and Onyx.

Prodigy published an autobiography in 2011 called “My Infamous Life: The Autobiography of Mobb Deep’s Prodigy”. He also collaborated last year with Kathy Iandoli on a cookbook, “Commissary Kitchen”, a collection of recipes he conceived while serving a three-year sentence for gun possession charges. In a candid 2011 interview with Jesse Thorn, Prodigy discussed his sickle-cell anemia:

“Sickle-cell anemia is a hereditary disease that’s passed down from your mother and father, and is basically a rare blood disorder where your blood cells change from a round shape, a normal, round blood cell shape to a sickle shape,” he explained. “They start interlocking with each other and causing clotting, and it causes pain where that happens. It’s like a domino effect, it spreads throughout your body, and the pain increases and it gets progressively worse if you don’t take care of it right away; as soon as you feel the pain, you’re supposed to go to the hospital or take pain medication for it.”

Both Havoc, born Kejuan Muchita, and Prodigy attended the Manhattan High School of Art and Design. The latter came from a family of musicians, his grandfather having played in a jazz band at Harlem’s Cotton Club alongside Quincy Jones. Prodigy’s mother and father, too, were artists, the former having performed in The Crystals, who opened for Diana Ross and The Supremes, and the latter in the doo-wop group The Chanters.

 

WHAT’S GOING ON

Victoria Horsford
-
0

By Victoria Horsford

TALK OF THE TOWN

As we watch the Trump Presidency unfold, we learn that government of the American republic is both a complicated art and a science, ill-suited to those with boorish B-School sensibilities. Domestically, America is in a state of government paralysis. Neither Trump nor his GOP Congress can get much done. Today’s headlines indicate that drug overdoses in America has pandemic status. The President and the Republicans are working to dismantle Obamacare(the Affordable Care Act), our national health plan while the country needs one more than ever. Beneficiaries of Obamacare are most of the people who make up the Trump base. What about public education. It seems to be on “life support” during Education Secretary Devos’ watch. What about infrastructure and bringing jobs back to America. There is little mention of those jobs emanating from Congress and the White House. What about climate change. Well, that means nothing since Trump walked away from the Paris Agreement.

US foreign affairs is in disaster mode under POTUS 45, who has managed to alienate the United States’ closest allies and partners in Western Europe. Trump complicates matters with Great Britain, once our closest ally, with his tweets about its recent terrorist assaults.   US diplomats the world over are tendering their resignations in response to President Trump’s recent words and deeds.

Adriano Espaillat

HARLEM, NY: Congressman Adriano Espaillat convened a Town Hall in Central Harlem at the Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. State Office Building on West 125th Street on June 5. The turnout was full and diverse. For two hours, the Congressman fielded questions which ran the gamut from US Government actions re: undocumented populations, victims of domestic abuse, the NYS Independent Democratic Committee and how he wants the group to return to the Democratic Caucus, to the proliferation of liquor licenses in his Senate District and how he put a moratorium on those licenses. He spoke knowingly about NYCHA, the Paris Agreement and affordable housing. He seems like a politically astute, savvy individual who understands the enormity of the work that has to be done with this GOP Congress and White House. We need more Espaillat Town Halls at the Harlem State Office Building.

 

Bill Maher

Political incorrectness. Yes, I too was shocked while listening to the Bill Maher “Real Time Show” last Friday when he said that he was a “House Ni—r.” Until last week, that was one of my favorite TV shows. Maher’s comment was egregious. I recommend that Maher cut back on his weed consumption before the show airs.   He opened the 2017 season without introducing his guests. You seemed loaded that night also. Yes, I’ve read your apologies; I see that Senator Al Franken has cancelled his appearance on your 6/9 show. Rev. Al is irate. Please, Maher, no more “n – – – – -” jokes ever!

BLACK ENTERPRISE

Sheila Johnson

Forbes magazine has added a new list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women, which includes 60 entrepreneurs, innovators and artists whose combined worth is $61.5 billion. African-American women who made the cut are entertainment mogul Oprah Winfrey, #3 with a net worth of $2.9 billion; Sheila Johnson, co-founder of Black Entertainment Television, which was sold for $2.4 billion. She has invested in hotels and golf courses and has stakes in the WNBA Mystics, NBA Wizards and NFL Capital. Her net worth is $750 million. BEYONCE, #38, Queen of American pop culture, is on hiatus from show business during her pregnancy. Philanthropically, she supports Black Lives Matter. Her net worth is $350 million.

ARTS/MEDIA

Uber scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson penned a new book, ASTROPHYSICS FOR PEOPLE IN A HURRY, which has topped the NY Times best-seller nonfiction list for three weeks.   NYT describes the book as an “easy to understand introduction to the laws governing the universe”.

Richard Rothstein, author of the nonfiction book, THE COLOR OF LA: A FORGOTTEN HISTORY OF HOW OUR GOVERNMENT SEGREGATED AMERICA, is interviewed by Katie Nodjimbadem for Smithsonian.com in a piece titled, “The Racial Segregation of American Cities Was Anything But Accidental”. It is a good read for students of American culture.

CARIBBEAN-AMERICANS

In celebration of Caribbean-American Heritage Month, more updates about the culture and its denizens.

Debra Lee

The following is a truncated list of Caribbean-Americans in the worlds of ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT: Joe Bethune, Pearl Duncan, Melanie Edwards, Joy Elliott, Eric Girault; Vy Higginsen, Anna Maria Horsford; Marlon James, “A Brief History of Seven Killings”; Jamaica Kincaid; Debra Lee, BET; Yolene LeGrand, Nia Long, Sylvia Wong Lewis, Iyaba Mandingo, Hakim Mutlaq, Lynn Nottage, Ademola Olugebefola, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Queen Latifah, Voza Rivers, Cecily Tyson, Sundra Williams; MEDIA: David Greaves, Our Time Press; Errol Louis, NY1; Lester Holt, NBC-TV; Faye Rodney, Karl Rodney, Karlissa Rodney, NY Carib; Joy Reid, MSNBC; Al Roker, TODAY; Eric Tait, Jean Wells, Positive Community; GOVERNMENT: Tom Perez, DNC Chair; NYS Assemblyman Michael Blake, DNC Vice Chair; Colin Powell, Congresswoman Yvette Clarke.

EDUCATION/WORK OPS

The Harlem Business Association and AARP co-host a workshop, “HAVE YOU DREAMED OF BEING YOUR OWN BOSS”?, for people age 50+. Workshop will be held on June 9, 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm at the Harlem Community Development Corporation, located at 163 West 125th Street, 17th Floor, Harlem. “Work For Yourself 50+” can help you get started. Call 888-339-5617 to register for the 6/9 workshop or a workshop near you.

Columbia University, in collaboration with Congressman Adriano Espaillat, hosts 2017 Career Expo on Monday, June 19, 9 am to 3 pm at the Riverbank State Park Gymnasium, Athletics Building, 679 Riverside Drive at 145th Street. Attendees should pre-register at goo.gl/lgqCaY. Some participating organizations are listed below. MTMA, STRIVE, NY Fire Department, NYC Hospitality Alliance, CUNY Medical Technician Training, Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce, East Harlem Talent Network.

#############

 

 

 

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

View From Here: Trump’s Reign About to Fall

David Mark Greaves
-
0
View From Here: Trump’s Reign About to Fall

By David Mark Greaves

The written testimony of former FBI director James Comey, released a day early before his appearance at the Senate Intelligence Committee, reveals a president acting like a white collar hood. Oblivious to the idea that those skills sets are not only inappropriate, they can get you in jail, or in this case, impeached. And that’s while the investigation of the Russian connection by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller is still ongoing. It is obvious that Mueller has given Comey a green light to tell all about his conversations with Trump and more, no doubt so that the people can begin to see how deeply the criminality of this presidency goes.

Given all that is declassified or has been leaked, we know the intelligence community has compiled, and continues to compile, information that fills in the spaces between the dots forming the straight line to the Oval Office. It is reported that the NSA is still going through its collected data, and based on what they find, which may take some time given the volume, the country may be glad they’ve kept copies of every e-mail and phone call made in the last ten years.

And now, based upon what the intelligence community knows so far, with former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said, “Watergate pales in comparison” to the Trump-Russia connection, and understanding that while, were it anyone else, federal officers would be stepping into the office and putting the cuffs on the occupant.

Comey’s testimony has filled in some more of the missing pixels in the line connecting the obstruction of justice to the need to hide the relationship with Russia and give us an idea of the awesomeness that’s coming so that we may brace ourselves. At some point, there will come a conclusion that the Constitution has to be placed above all other interests and that Donald J. Trump has to be removed from the Office of the President as soon as possible. He’s like an animal, becoming evermore trapped, and that is not a good look for a Commander-in-Chief.

1...757758759...1,289Page 758 of 1,289