What’s Going On

RIP: David N. Dinkins
1927 to 2020
Elder statesman David Dinkins 93, passed away at his home on the Upper East Side, on November 23, David Dinkins was the 106th Mayor of the City of New York, its first and only African American mayor. New York was the last of the nation’s top 10 cities to elect a Black mayor. Sworn in on January 1990, New York City was in decline, quality of life issues, rampant crime, homelessness, a crack epidemic, economic woes and racial divides. He was elected in 1989, the year when a white Central Park jogger was raped presumably by Black teens and when a Black teen male was killed by white thugs in Brooklyn. What NYC needed then was a second coming, not a new mayor. Mayor Dinkins had to deal with a recession with shrinking budgets as the social order was in decline. He slashed programs but kept cultural life afloat,and managed to rehab housing in Harlem, the Bronx and Brooklyn and expand health care access while appealing to the city’s myriad constituencies, Blacks, whites, Latinos, the aged, gays and lesbian community. He brought back dignity, decency to City Hall and a sense of our shared humanity, a major part of his legacy.

Mayor Dinkins embodied so much of the city’s history with enough back stories for a sequel to his engrossing memoir “A MAYOR’S LIFE: Governing New York’s Gorgeous Mosaic.” Trailblazer, Peacemaker are among obit descriptions about History Maker, David Dinkins, the man from Trenton, NJ, who attended Howard University, married Joyce Dinkins, who transitioned 6 weeks ago; and was a member in good standing of Harlem’s Gang Of Four power elitists, Sutton, Paterson, and Rangel.

POST NOV. 3 AMERICA
The Dow is trading above 30,000, on 11/24, a first in US history. Trading is attributable to COVID Vaccine News and the Biden Transition of Power!!!!!!!!!
On 11/23, the General Services Administration acknowledged the US presidential election outcome. Team Biden officially has access to government resources. That day media was inundated with news of some of President-elect Biden’s cabinet nominees. They are Antony Blinken, State: African American Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Ambassador to the UN, as a cabinet post; Alexandro Mayrokas, Homeland Security, a first for a Latino, and immigrant; Janet Yellen Treasury. Some still in the speculative stage include Federal Appeals Judge Merrick Garland, Obama US Supreme Court nominee eschewed by US Senate, Attorney General; Michele Flournoy and African American Jeh Johnson, Obama’s Secretary of Homeland Security, for Defense Secretary. Thought that Susan Rice would have gotten Secretary of State nod. Cannot find Stacey Abrams’ name in any of the predictions.

Read that a Native American should be considered for Interior Secretary. It looks like DNC Chair Tom Perez will join the Biden cabinet. It is rumored that Jaime Harrison, SC contender for US Senate could succeed Perez at DNC.

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NEW YORK, NY
New Yorker City 2021 will be a year of important elections. The mayoral race includes Boro President Eric Adams, NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer; Ray McGuire, former Citibank Vice Chair; Attorney Maya Wiley, former de Blasio counsel, former MSNBC legal analyst; Loree Sutton, former Dept of Veteran Services Commissioners, Kathryn Garcia; former Sanitation Commissioner, Dianne Morales, Afro Latina non profit executive; Shaun Donovan. NYC HPD Chief and HUD Secretary; Christine Quinn, former NYC Council Speaker, maybe. Rank choice voting begin in NY next year, which will eliminate vote recounts. McGuire, an African American has friends like power broker Vernon Jordan and Dr. Henry Louis Gates. His donor base includes Robert Rudin, and philanthropist Laurie Tisch. Who is most attractive? Someone who can pull the city back together again or the person offering the most exaggerated progressive agenda.

NYC Comptroller is another hot 2021 race. NYS Brooklyn Senator Kevin Parker announced his candidacy. NYS Harlem Senator Brian Benjamin is a Comptroller candidate. NYS Senator Charles Barron wants to return to the NYC Council.

NYC Mayor de Blasio could lose a revenue source, the sale of real estate tax and water liens, a practice approved by the NYC Council, which ends 12/31/2020. Will Council members extend a measure which disproportionately impacts small home owners, a few months before 35 of them, will be term-limited in 2021 and must start job searches? NYC First Lady Chirlane McCray told NY1 TV host Cheryl Wills that she will not run for Brooklyn Boro Presidency next year. Wonder why? NYC Councilmen Robert Cornegy and Antonio Reynoso and NYS Assemblymember JoAnn Simon will compete for the Brooklyn Boro Presidency.

ARTS CULTURE
BOOK TALK: The Dead Are Rising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne and Tamara Payne wins the 2020 National Book Award for nonfiction. Tamara Payne says the award is bittersweet moment. A labor of love, the biography was written by her dad with research assist by Tamara, who completed the manuscript after Les died in 2018.

DANCE: The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Free Virtual Winter season runs from December 2-31. Visit alvinailey.org.

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FILM: The 27th Annual NY African Film Festival goes virtual, under the banner of “STREAMING RIVERS – The Past Into The Present,” it puts the spotlight on films from Nigeria and the Sudan, including six features and eight shorts, runs from December 2-6. Visit filmlinc.org/AFF2020.

FINE ARTS: The June Kelly Gallery’s exhibit of new paintings, CARMEN CICERO, The Human Condition, runs from 11/20 to 12/30, at the JKG, located at 166 Mercer Street, Soho, NY. Visit junekellygallery.com or call 212.226.1660
Fine Artist Danny Simmons and Rush Arts host a live stream celebration of the Rush Arts 25th Anniversary, on November 21, honoring artists Derrick Adams, Dawould Bey, Reginald M. Browne, Dr. Deborah Willis and Patricia Wilson Aden. #ArtforLife25.
The Skoto Gallery’s current exhibit is a group show featuring the works of 13 fine artists, which includes, paintings, drawings, sculpture, and mixed media and which runs through 12/31. Some of the participating artists are Osa Audu, Nanette Carter, Wadsworth Jarrell, Aime Mpane, Troko Nagbe, David Rich and Pefura. Gallery is located at 529 West 20 Street, NY. Visit skotogallery.com or call 212.352.8058

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