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What’s Going On – 9/15

WGO/NYC
HARLEM: Harlem hosts the 53rd Annual African American Day Parade, AADP, which is back in real time with myriad marquee events, on Sunday, September 18, 1- 6 pm along its traditional route on Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard (aka Seventh Avenue) from 111th to 137th Streets. “Good Health Is Essential” is the AADP theme. Health trailblazers like Sandra Lindsay of Northwell, the Jamaica-born RN who got the first COVID vaccine; Dr. Michelle Henry, MD, Weill Cornell; Pamela Abner, Mt Sinai; Bernard Robinson, MHA, Northwell; and Dr. Gary Butts, MD, Mt. Sinai will be honored as Parade Grand Marshals. David Banks, NYC Schools Chancellor, Nicola Buchanan, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; Dr. Behfar Ehdaie, MD and Dr. Louis Voig, MD Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center are Parade Marshals.
The AADP invitational breakfast will be held at Harlem Tavern, where distinguished local professionals will be honored: Mayor Eric Adams; Larry Scott Blackmon, Fresh Direct; Alyah Horsford Sidberry, Founder/CEO Cove Lounge; Melba Wilson, founder of Melba’s Restaurant; and Mr. Ejhadji Cisse, founder of Ponty Bistro Restaurant.

Ben Slayton

MONEY MATTERS
BLACK ENTERPRISE’s story “A Mortgage Loan, Just For Black Borrowers: Offered by Nation’s Largest Black-led Mortgage Banking Company” about the Las Vegas-based company Legacy Home Loans. Ben Slayton of Legacy Home Loans says it’s a special purpose credit program, which will be piloted in 6 cities–Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, and Philadelphia. Applicants must live in one of those cities. There is no restriction regarding the city where the house will be purchased. Visit MyHomeLegacy.com or call 844.466.3669
Check out Essence Magazine’s travel tip piece “The Safest Places to Travel as A Black Woman.” The places that are listed in the essay are Ghana, Mexico and Puerto Rico; Bali, for its beauty and national landscape; Colombia, the only South American country with borderlines on both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean; and Iceland, Europe’s least populated country.

EDUCATION
In New York City, all public school students will be tested for dyslexia. Mayor Eric Adams is dyslexic and said that he learned about the affliction while he attended college. NYC Department of Education Chancellor David Banks is talking about his vision for the system and the students. He wants all students to be able to read by the third grade. He wants students to read at their grade level. He speaks about losing about 150,000 students during the COVID crisis. That loss seems to be a part of a national trend. Student shortage and teacher shortage.
The system requires a major overhaul on the NY state and city levels. NY Times reported how yeshivas are in receipt of more than $1 billion in municipal funds and there is no accountability to anyone. Neither Mayor Adams nor Governor Hochul wants to discuss the oversights. They seem timid when it comes to monitoring the yeshivas.
The relaxed COVID protocols in schools and public transportation are concerning. COVID has not disappeared. Monkeypox is a new menacing virus.
Gov. Hochul declares NY under an official polio state of emergency.

Carmen De Lavallade

ARTS/CULTURE
DANCE: SUGAR HILL: THE ELLINGTON/STRAYHORN NUTCRACKER. In the 60s, musicians extraordinaire Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn re-arranged Tchaikowsky’s 1892 work Nutcracker Suite, embellishing it with jazz and swing undertones, which was recorded by Columbia. Welcome to the 2022 iteration, “SUGAR HILL: THE ELLINGTON/STRAYHORN NUTCRACKER,” which relocates the story to Harlem’s Sugar Hill with a choreography overlay. Joshua Bergasse directs and choreographs the dance team: Jade Hale-Christofi, Caleb Teicher, Jon Boogz, Graciela Daniele and the ageless Carmen de Lavallade. It will be performed at NY City Center on November 15-27.
Philharmonic returns home to Lincoln Center with the opening of the David Geffen Center next month, two years ahead of schedule, 500 seats smaller and all of the state-of-the-art sound accouterments with a $500 million price tag.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield

MEDIA: Foreign Policy Magazine interviews veteran diplomat, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield. Appropriate issue since it coincides with the new UN General Assembly session. She will be busy meeting with delegates in NYC from UN member nations.

NEWSMAKERS
RIP: Veteran journalist Bernard Shaw, 82, died on September 7. A native Chicagoan, Shaw was a US Marine, and a multiple award-winning journalist who cut his teeth and excelled in broadcast media. His CV includes stints at ABC and CBS. A CNN fixture since its launch in 1980, he was the network’s chief anchor for two decades.

Bernard Shaw

In one interview he revealed, “I want to be the best broadcast journalist I could be, who could control my emotions in the midst of hell breaking out.” Who could forget his calm while reporting the onset of the Gulf War in Iraq in 1991 as missiles flew around him in Bagdad, which many media watchers say put CNN on par with the television networks.

SEPTEMBER CALENDAR
The HBCU Football Classic will be held on Saturday, September 17, at 3 pm at the MetLife Stadium, in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where Howard University vs Morehouse College will face off. HBCU Football Classic will be broadcast on CNBC and streamed on Peacock. Visit HBCUNYFC.COM
UN General Assembly convened its 77th Session in NY on September 13. The General Debates begin on September 20.
Hispanic Heritage Month: 9/15 to 10/15.
The Autumn/Fall Equinox, beginning of fall: 9/22
A Harlem-based consultant, Victoria can be reached at victoria.horsford@gmail.com

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