Home Blog Page 843

People: The Big and Smalls of a Landmark: Something to Rap About

Editor, Our Time Press
-
47
People: The Big and Smalls of a Landmark: Something to Rap About
“Biggie” by Tanda Francis.

Olmec Caption: La Venta Monument #1 with man for scale.  Olmec heads vary in height from 4.8 to 11.2 ft. and weigh between 6 and 50 tons.

 

Could it be that a six-foot bronze image of the late rapper Biggie Smalls – intended by a local artist as a memorial to Christopher Wallace aka Biggie Smalls — will be the nexus for bringing awareness of a Big Moment in world history notoriously omitted from textbooks: that Africans were indeed in the Americas centuries before Columbus on the Nina the Pinta and the Santa Maria?

 

Please note the resemblance between artist Tanda Francis’ sculpture of the acclaimed rapper and the image on the cover of distinguished scholar Ivan Van Sertima’s groundbreaking classic, They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America.

Tanda Francis at work preparing her work.

 

According to DNAinfo.com: “A larger-than-life Biggie Smalls memorial could be coming to Clinton Hill.

 

“The Hip Hop Hall of Fame Museum is looking to install a 6-foot bronze sculpture depicting the legendary rapper’s face at Putnam Triangle, according to museum founder and chairman James “JT” Thompson.

 

“The museum, in partnership with Dennis Mathis, CEO of Down Lo Music, has set up a GoFundMe page in order to raise the $35,000 necessary to complete the proposed Biggie Memorial Project, designed by Brooklyn-based artist Tanda Francis.”

 

“The money would go toward finishing and mounting the project for an outdoor display, supporting the artist and sending a $10,000 donation to the nonprofit Christopher Wallace Memorial Foundation.”

What may not be known is that this work that hopefully will stand at the gateway to Biggie’s neighborhood may also be a portal to a lost history that predates his life by thousands of years.

 

Ms. Francis, Washington, D.C.-born and Maryland-raised, lived on St. James Place in Clinton Hill, just steps away from the house where Notorious BIG aka Christopher Wallace, grew up.

 

Her inspiration for creating the huge statue — with the help of her husband painter and artist, Diego Anaya — actually came from passersby commenting on the resemblance of her then work-in-progress to Biggie.

 

Eventually, the artwork evolved into a full depiction of Biggie’s face. She noticed that tour buses stopped at the corner of Fulton St. and St James Pl. to allow tourists to see the house where the recording artist once lived; however, there was no visible landmarks or memorials to him.

 

Ms. Francis eventually connected with Mathis and Thompson and the rest of her Biggie story is now history. The trio is working to make her sculpture a permanent installation at the Putnam Triangle.

 

Upcoming events by artist Tanda Francis include the unveiling of 10′ x 8′ heads in an exhibit entitled “Everyone Break,” at Riverside Park in Manhattan, Thursday, June 16th at 4:00pm.

 

For more information and to donate to the BiggieSmalls Project, visit: https://www.gofundme.com/biggiememorial.

(Joanna Goodwin-Williams with Bernice Elizabeth Green)

What’s Going On

Victoria Horsford
-
42

By Victoria Horsford

 ROOTS REVISITED

 

A remake of the 1977 television miniseries ROOTS will air on May 30, simulcast on the History Channel, Lifetime and the A&E networks. Many wonder why. Why not? The miniseries was adapted from Alex Haley’s Pulitzer Prizewinning book, “ROOTS: The Saga of An American Family”, published in 1976. “ROOTS” 2016 is not a full remake. Historians knowledgeable about the Middle Passage were hired as advisers and the narrative focuses more on the enslaved Africans and “the social violence of separation from their entire genealogy in Africa”. A NY Times essay referenced the African Slave Trade as “the most complex migration in modern history”. ROOTS is a disturbing chapter in American history. Slavery and its attendant racism have left indelible marks on American consciousness.

Malachi Kirby and LeVar Burton, Kunta Kinte, now and then.

The original ROOTS aired 8 nights with more than 13 million viewers every night. Its finale was watched by more than 100 million people. ROOTS 2, a 4-night miniseries, stars Malachi Kirby, a Brit of Jamaican ancestry who plays an enslaved African, Kunta Kinte, a young man who is from an elite Gambian family who is polyglot. Forest Whitaker, Laurence Fishburne, Anika Noni Rose, Mekhi Phifer, rapper TI are among the motley cast of characters. LeVar Burton, the original Kunta Kinte, is R2 co-producer. Mario Van Peebles directs one of the four segments. Questlove is the music director. ROOTS 2 characters are supposed to be edgier.

 

BLACK LIVES MATTER

 

Edward M. Nero, a white Baltimore police officer, was acquitted on all charges in the arrest of Freddie Gray, who died in police custody in 2015.   It was a bench trial, which will probably be the new pattern now that policemen are indicted.

 

The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office recently dismissed charges of disorderly conduct leveled at Glen Grays, an African-American US postal worker who was aggressively manhandled by members of the NYPD. Prosecutors arrived at that conclusion after talking with Grays. But it was cell phone photography which documented the Grays/NYPD confrontation.   What is next for the cops who manhandled Grays, Commissioner Bratton?

 

            USA 2016 ELECTION NOTES

 If you are cynical about voting in the November 2016 elections, read Atlantic Magazine’s cover story, “The Mind of Donald Trump: A Psychologist’s Guide To An Extraordinary Personality” by Dan McAdams. It is an insightful clinical profile. McAdams employs 5 measurement groups: extroversion, neuroticism, consciousness, agreeableness and openness. He compares and contrasts Trump’s behavior with both living and dead US presidents. The Trump profile compares with that of President Andrew Jackson’s “Remember what he did to the Native Americans?”

What is up with the Democratic Party’s presidential contenders? Senator Bernie Sanders is fighting the good fight to the presidential nomination despite the delegates’ math. He refers to Hillary as “the lesser of two evils” in a race with Trump. Why can’t he be tempered? The ouster of DNC Chair Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz? A larger platform at the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia? The Vice Presidency? Last week on CNN, Madame Secretary Clinton emphatically dismissed him, saying that her nomination was assured. Days later, she enthused that first hubby Bill would be her economy czar!

 

HARLEM UPDATE

The Harlem Baptist Temple, a church located at 20 West 116 Street, which is sandwiched between 1400 Fifth Avenue and the Kalahari condominiums, was sold to Carthage Real Estate Advisors. The church will be razed and replaced by an 11- story residential building.   New owners are undecided if the new structure will house rentals or condo units. The Harlem Baptist Temple will use the cellar and ground floors in the new structure.

 

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Administration was able to circumvent a restrictive deed feature for a Dance Theater of Harlem land lot, located on St. Nicholas Avenue at 152 Street, and sold it to a developer for $3 million. The DTH deed restriction stated that the lot could only be sold to a nonprofit arts organization. The deal is similar to a restrictive deed feature for a lower Manhattan nursing home, which was sold to a developer for $14 million, who flipped it two months later for $114 million.

.

The world-renowned Apollo Theater hosts its Annual Spring Benefit Gala on Monday, June 13 with an awards presentation honoring VIACOM, a concert hosted by LL Cool J with special performances by Leon Bridges, Andra Day, Les Twins and the O’Jays; culminating with a Dinner Party and Dancing. Event proceeds benefit the Apollo Theater’s year-round education, community and performing arts program.

 

NOTABLE PEOPLE

 

Debra Lee

BET Networks Chairwoman/CEO Debra Lee joins the Board of Directors of social media behemoth, TWITTER. The Brown University undergraduate, the Harvard Law School graduate, attorney Debra Lee made the Hollywood Reporter’s List of the 100 Most Powerful Women in Entertainment.

 

Howard University President Dr. Wayne A.I. Frederick has been named by President Obama to the Board of Advisors to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The board advises both the US President and Secretary of Education on strategies which will strengthen HBCU culture.

 

Dr. Georgina Falu, an Afro-Latina born in Puerto Rico who relocated to New York where she cut her teeth on African civilization and culture under the tutelage of Dr. Yosef ben-Jochannan in 1984. Today, boasting frequent trips all over Africa and equipped with a Ph.D. from Columbia University, she is a household name in education, entrepreneurial and scholar circles in the US, where she is based in the Caribbean, Latin America and Africa.   A member of the World African Diaspora Union (WADU) and an ambassador of Pan-African unity, her Falu Foundation co-hosts the Annual May Tribute to WADU, an invitational, on Friday, May 27 at the African Union Permanent Observer Mission To The Union. E-mail her at drfalu@falufoundationny.org.  

.

Actor/director/musician Rome Neal’s Banana Puddin’ Jazz 13th Anniversary Celebration/Benefit will be held on June 4 at the Nuyorican Poets Café, located at 236 East 3 Street, Manhattan. Benefit headliners are vocalists like Alyson Williams, Martha Redbone, Rhoda Ross, Rain Pryor and musicians Eric Frazier, Phil Young and Patience Higgins.  Awards will be presented to writer Playthell Benjamin, NYC Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo, WBGO’s Brian Delp and Jazz Foundation’s William Glass. (Visit romeneal.com.)

 

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

Young Chess Expert Plays 13 at Once

Editor, Our Time Press
-
81
Young Chess Expert Plays 13 at Once

By Robert Ali, Tournament Director

13 Chessboards were played simultaneously by Omar Cunningham at the Putnam Triangle in Brooklyn, located at Fulton St. & Grand Ave. Omar is a 14-year-old high school student, chess prodigy and chess expert. He began playing chess 3 years ago and became an Expert (one level below Master) in April 2015. He had his humble beginnings at a local library and was immediately (within a week) identified by a chess master as someone with promise. He then transferred to the Brooklyn Chess School (I.S. 318) where he went on to assist his school with winning the Grade National and City Championships for 2 straight years. He plays chess around the city and now plays with an online team. We expect to see great things from this young man in the chess world.

 

 

For the Chess Players

 

Forty-year chess professional and expert-rated player Warren E. Williams II was one of 13 adults and one very talented young person who played 14-year-old chess sensation Omar Cunningham at the Putnam Triangle on Fulton Street. 

 This is the ending excerpt of the analysis of, and his comments on, his game with young Mr. Cunningham.  [White “Omar Cunningham”], [Black “Warren Williams”]

 

By Warren E. Williams II

Omar Cunningham at the board of Warren Williams, II

At this point, I saw I had an unstoppable 3- or 2-move Mate on his opened d5 to h1 diagonal white squares as stated. With the help of my three-time Tempo pushed H pawn, in Mate position on h3, I had already saw his two-move unstoppable Mate, but he didn’t think I did or wasn’t sure. Knowing this, I didn’t want him to gain Tempo by not taking my Rook on d8 while changing his move to #27. Nf4 now staring down the H3 pawn for a wishful #28.Nxh3 Nxh3 OR #27. Nc5 #28. Qd5+ then Re4 to hold his Knight out post-position while blocking my diagonal with his Rook. Before he approached my table, I decided to quietly think out loud to myself for him just enough to hear my  (Verbal Gambit) to ensure the continuation of my diagonal line to a Mate. Once he approached and saw my move Qd6, he had a second to decide while I had only a split-second to help him with that decision, then I considered taking his poisoned/ Gambit Knight.

  1. Nxd8
    {Nxd8???} (STOCKFISH) SUGGESTS HE MOVED (Editor’s note: Stockfish)
    (#27.Qxc4 then Ba6!!! Freezes any more of Whites Attacks.)

If I took Nxd8, it would have been an excellent move, provided I didn’t have a Mate option against him.

(3.01 -> Mate in -4.)

(3.01 -> Mate in -4.)
{More effective is Qxc4 }
(27. Qxc4 ) 27… Qd5+}
{Upon moving Qd5+, I showed Omar the following moves to Mate:}

If
#28. Re4 Qxe4+
#29. f3 Qxf3+
#30. Kh2 or g1 …Qg2#
If
#29 Kh2 or g1 ….Qg2#
Both Unstoppable.

He then resigned with a handshake.

 

 

“They don’t call me Dr. Gambit for nothing! Also use your GAMBIT to gain a TEMPO attack. I am the only one that beat OMAR because, on all the other 12 boards, every chess player played either Defensive Fienchetto Games, double Fienchetto Games, no Castling with space to Castle on either King or Queen side. They Castled with a Fort Knox Fortress around their King and either still lost, had a draw or didn’t finish their game. Me, on the other hand, opened up with THE FRENCH DEFENSE, then attacked him in the corner as he attacked me in the corner also.

 

Young expert Omar Cunningham achieved that level (USCF) officially within only 3 years at the age of 15 now. He played an excellent and extremely tricky game. I have much respect for him and his game. An African-American teen, soon to be a Master, then Grandmaster in no time. He played 12 adults and 1 youth totaling 13 chess players in a Simul (Simultaneously), in the rain at one point, he played us all for over 4 hours. I was the only one that had a Mate position on him, we shook hands and I was honored to have played a young expert of 3 years. Opposed to my correspondence and Internet Expert Rating that took me ten years, I received an Achievement Trophy for winning in the Simul. Others received trophies for Best Player. A young girl at age 11, I believe, did an excellent job and also for her age. Omar actually reminded me of my son, I’m sure his parents, family and true friends are proud of him, as I am. Thanks to Bob Ali for inviting me to your well-organized event. Also, great thanks to my lovely sister and niece that were there to support me. “

Home Sharing Program for Seniors

Editor, Our Time Press
-
22
Home Sharing Program for Seniors
Home Sharing meeting at the Akwaaba Mansion in Bedford-Stuyvesant

By Kings County News Service

About 30 seniors gathered last week at the Akwaaba Mansion on MacDonough Street in Stuyvesant Heights to hear about a new program that will help senior homeowners better manage their bills, allow for more senior housing and allow for many longtime residents to stay in the neighborhood that they love and live in.

The state and city-funded program is called Home Sharing, which matches senior citizens with comparable persons of any age in shared-living arrangements in homes throughout the city. The program is a unique and affordable housing option that is working in other Brooklyn neighborhoods such as Sheepshead Bay, which like Bed-Stuy, has a large and growing Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC).

“Housing is an issue in the neighborhood, especially for seniors. A lot of seniors lost their homes to foreclosures, and a lot of them don’t rent out rooms because of fear,” explained Stefani Zinerman, Chief of Staff for City Councilman Robert Cornegy, Jr., whose office sponsored the forum on the Home Sharing Program. “Older people shouldn’t be in shelters or homeless.”

Zinerman explained that there are a growing number of seniors that are long-term residents that want to stay in the neighborhood that they’ve called home for many years, and at the same time, there are a number of homeowners that are also seniors and whose children moved away but are more comfortable living in Bed-Stuy where they have planted down roots.

“This is the type of housing to explore if we want to keep our seniors in the neighborhood,” she said, adding that Home Sharing provides companionship, which leads to a longer life, helps with financial burdens and relieves feelings of loneliness.

The way the program works is the nonprofit New York State Foundation for Senior Citizens (NYSFSC) links prospective adult “hosts” who have a private bedroom available within their homes with appropriate adult “guest” to share their space.

One of the “match mates” must be age 60 or over. The program also serves adult hosts age 55 and over who are interested in sharing their homes with developmentally disabled adult “guest” capable of independent living.

The NYSFSC provides professional social work staff that does comprehensive, confidential screening and matching services that includes among other things employment history, medical and mental health history. Once the match is made the staff assists with the negotiated shared-living arrangements, in which the host can’t ask for more than half of what they pay for monthly living expenses, but other than that, everything is negotiable.

If things don’t work out the host must give the guest a 30-day notice. There is no charge for the Home Sharing Program’s matching service.

Following the presentation, all the participants went around the room and introduced themselves. Several were senior homeowners with rooms to share that wanted to stay in the neighborhood and mentioned the need to share expenses and have a little companionship.

Others were elderly and still active that need a place to live and were willing to take out the garbage and do other chores plus pay some rent. Several people on hand actually started the beginnings of what looked like a good match.

For further information on the Home Sharing Program visit www.nyfsc.org or call (212) 962-7559.

WHAT’S GOING ON?

Victoria Horsford
-
68

 By Victoria Horsford

 2016: USA-NY-BRAZIL

 

In metaphysics, it is speculated that you get what you deserve.  What then is America’s karma that in 2016 our presidential hopeful choices are Madame Secretary Hillary Clinton and xenophobic, racist, reality show host Donald, an alleged billionaire!   How and when did Americans lose our way as decent people who are critical thinkers?  You look at the list of people who Trump has enlisted as advisers, Governor Chris Christie, former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who will provide counsel on Muslims, and Dr. Ben Carson, who specializes in maligning Blacks publicly.  No, we must avoid the dystopian Trump world that he foresees when America can be great again.   Every day, one reads and hears political pundits who are honest

NEW YORK, NY – JUNE 10: Former US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton promotes “Hard Choices” at Barnes & Noble Union Square on June 10, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by John Lamparski/WireImage)

to say that they do not understand Trump’s America and what is going on in the heads of the Trump support network.  The pundits disappoint.  Trump should be the greatest motivation for nonwhite Americans to turn out in record numbers, exceeding the Obama 2008 and 2012 number in November to ensure that Hillary Clinton is the next White House occupant.

 

Bryce Covert’s  5/16 NY Times opinion piece, WHEN WAS AMERICA GREAT, AGAIN?  is required reading.   Covert allows that the Trump message about returning to America’s former glory is coded to white males.  Covert identifies the good ole days of  the federal programs from the  New Deal, Social Security, 1935;  Unemployment Insurance to the Fair Labor Standards Act, 1938, to Unionization and the GI Bill, whose chief beneficiaries were white men.  Original programs were modified to ensure that Jim Crow structures would remain intact. They excluded groups like “agricultural and domestic workers”, the sources of  most Black employment.  Southern congressmen worked for those exclusions.   The GI Bill, conceived as equal opportunity legislation, failed Black GIs when its execution became the jurisdiction of state and local governments. Women did not fare well under those programs. Covert cites the book, “When Affirmative Action Was White”, which deals with  Black exclusion from major American benefit programs. Another nudge to get out the vote!

 

The 2016 Summer Olympic Games begin on August 5 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a nation  besieged by political and economic woes.   Brazil’s legislature voted to suspend President   Dilma  Rousseff  on corruption charges. She faces an impeachment trial. Attorney Michel Temer, Rousseff’s VP, is the  new  Brazilian president.  Convicted of violation of campaign finance limits, Temer is a far Right politico, as is his cabinet which is all male and all white….huh?  Brazilians favored a new general election.  Politics aside, Brazil has some Olympian problems like the Zika virus  and the  polluted Rio waters.

 

Congressman Hakeem Jeffries

NYC/NYS:  NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio is the target of NYS and federal prosecutor investigations into  his 2014 campaign funds violation, germane to achieving a Democratic majority in the NYS Senate.  Embittered campaign donors have gone public about de Blasio’s 2013/2014  solicitations and subsequent misuse of funds. These probes interfere with de Blasio’s mayoral reelection efforts.  Already, Bronx Boro Prexy Ruben Diaz, Jr., Congressman Hakim Jeffries, NYC  Comptroller Scott Stringer, John Catsimatidis, Brooklyn Boro Prexy Eric Adams and real estate developer Don Peebles will be contenders for  the 2017 NYC Mayoral race.   Federal Prosecutor Preet Bharara  has Albany’s executive branch nervous about expanding his  corruption investigation about former Cuomo aides.   Bharara’s  office  has convicted two NYS Legislature grandees, Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos, who got stiff sentences.  

 

EDUCATION NEWS/OPS

 

Congratulations to the Wadleigh Scholars Program’s (WSP) Class of 2016.  Launched in the ‘60s, the WSP focuses on middle school students attending Wadleigh and other public schools, and prepares them for admission with scholarships to America’s best college prep schools.  The prep sessions are rigorous Saturday cultural enrichment classes.  The 2016 WSP scholars are Di’Avian Cook, en route to Fontbonne Hall Academy in Brooklyn; Tafari Friday, to  Phillips Academy, MA; Yasmine Jaffier-Williams, to  Wellesley, CSP, MA; Jade McCormock, to Stoneleigh Burnham, MA; Lina Philizaire, to Masters School, NY; and Kailani Small, to  Miss Halls School, MA.

 

Any NYC residents interested in a free, comprehensive, 14-week, hands-on IT (Information  Technology) training course and in paid internships.     Qualifications: ages 18-24; NYCHA resident, NYCHA Section 8 voucher holder.  Applicants should report to the Info Session on May 24 at 1 pm for complete particulars at the REES Central Office, located at 787 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11238. This program is a NYCHA/REES initiative. The NYC Small Business Department oversaw similar programs in 2013 and 2014.

 

Rihanna

Rihanna announced a Global Scholarship Program via her Clara Lionel Foundation.  Scholarships applicable to tuition at U.S. colleges for citizens/natives of Brazil, Barbados, Cuba, Haiti, Grenada and Jamaica. Annual scholarship awards range from $5000 to $50,000 and renewable for three years.  Visit   Scholarsapply.org/claralionelfdn.

 

PEOPLE OF NOTE

 

Actresses Viola Davis, Oscar winner and star of “How To Get Away with Murder”, and Kerry Washington, “Scandal” topliner, are proud owners of  independent film companies who will partner with ABC-TV.  The Davis film company is named Juvee. Washington’s company, Simpson Street, has already produced the HBO film “Confirmation”, about Anita Hill and the 1991 Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings for the U.S. Supreme Court.

 

Ambassador Shirley Barnes

Her Excellency Shirley Barnes, retired U.S.  Ambassador, recently visited France to  attend  celebrations commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the presence of the U.S. Consulate in Strasbourg.   A U.S. State Department career diplomat, she served as US Consul to Strasbourg during the Clinton Presidency before being named Ambassador to  Madagascar.

 

Four Manhattan Community Board 10 members were among the honorees at Harlem’s Annual  Men of Distinction Awards,  hosted by NYS Assemblyman Keith Wright and NYC Councilwoman Inez Dickens on May 17. The CB10 members who made the cut include real estate developer Brian Benjamin, attorney John  Lynch,  real estate executive Manny Rivera and Assistant Corrections Commissioner Keith Taylor.

 

Remember the NY-based, multitasking wife/mother and entrepreneur Barbara Miles, the mastermind behind the Chocolate Singles franchise, Chocolate Singles Magazine, CS Special Networking events, CS Caribbean Travel Destinations and more.  After 15 years, she abandoned CS for a quieter life in Atlanta where she started teaching, her original calling, again.   Her new page-turner memoir, MS. THANG GOES BACK TO SCHOOL, recounts her glorious plot-twisted life from her early teaching days, to marriage, to businesswoman, to teacher in a 21st Century American classroom.  Visit barbaramilesbook.com

 

Happy Birthday wishes to Gemini natives:  Harlem/Brooklyn doyenne  Beverly Alston,  Naomi Campbell, Ice Cube,  Dr. Sandra Epps,  Morgan Freeman, Gladys Knight, Naomi Horsford, Patti LaBelle, thought leader/scholar Edgar Ridley, Kendrick Lamar,  Wadleigh Scholars Program’s  Edouard Plummer,  Bob Tate, culinarian/author Pierre Thiam, Donald Trump, former Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade,  Kanye West and North West.

 

ARTS AND CULTURE

 

Congratulations to Kamilah Forbes, 39,  co-founder of the nonprofit HI-ARTS, was named new Artistic Director at the Apollo Theater, succeeding uber arts executive Mikki Shepard,  who steps down in June after a 10-year run.   Ms. Forbes’ credentials include the Broadway  revival of A RAISIN IN THE SUN;  associate director of the Broadway musical  HOLLER IF YA HEAR ME, inspired by Tupac Shakur’s life; and the WHAT’S GOING ON  project at the Kennedy Center, 40 years after its release.

 

NYC Councilman Mathieu Eugene and the NY Haitian community invites you to attend the Haitian Flag Day celebrations at Erasmus Hall H.S., located at 911 Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, NY.  For more info, call 718.287.8762.

 

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

 

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

 

 

 

 

1...842843844...1,292Page 843 of 1,292