New York Amsterdam April 23, - 29, 2026

USPS 382-600/ISSN#00287121

2340 Frederick Douglass Boulevard

New York, New York 10027

(212) 932-7400 / FAX (212) 222-3842

DIRECTORY

EDITORIAL

Executive Editor – Madison J. Gray Madison.Gray@AmsterdamNews.com

Managing Editor – Kristin Fayne-Mulroy KFM@AmsterdamNews.com

Digital Editor - Josh Barker

Josh.Barker@AmsterdamNews.com

Editor at Large – Damaso Reyes Damaso.Reyes@AmsterdamNews.com

STAFF WRITERS

Karen Juanita Carrillo

Karen.Carrillo@AmsterdamNews.com

Shannon Chaffers

Shannon.Chaffers@AmsterdamNews.com

Ariama C. Long Ariama.Long@AmsterdamNews.com

Tandy Lau Tandy.Lau@AmsterdamNews.com

DIGITAL, BRANDED CONTENT & HYBRID ADVERTISING MANAGER

Ali Milliner (347) 350-4316 Ali.Milliner@AmsterdamNews.com

DISPLAY & DIGITAL ADVERTISING CONSULTANT

William “Bill” Atkins (212) 932-7429 William.Atkins@AmsterdamNews.com

LEGAL, LLC & CLASSIFED ADVERTISING

Brian Lawrence (617) 704-3735

Brian.Lawrence@AmsterdamNews.com

CIRCULATION / SUBSCRIPTION

Benita Darby (212) 932-7453

Benita.Darby@AmsterdamNews.com

The AmsterdamNewsassumes no responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. Photographs and manuscripts become the property of The Amsterdam News. Published weekly. Periodicals Class postage paid at New York, N.Y. POSTMASTER: Send address corrections to NYAmsterdamNews,2340 Frederick Douglass Blvd., New York, NY 10027.

MAIL SUBSCRIPTIONS INFORMATION

State budget stalls over Gov. Hochul’s climate law reversal, impacting Black and Brown New Yorkers

By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff

The New York state budget was due April 1 but there is little indication that the negotiations are close to a breakthrough. A key policy obstacle is Gov. Kathy Hochul’s planned rollbacks of the state’s climate law, which advocates say could potentially harm Black and Brown communities.

“Coming out of an atrocious winter that saw home heating and natural gas prices skyrocket,” said Theodore A. Moore, executive director for Alliance for a Greater New York (ALIGN), “it’s hard to imagine she’s pulling back now.”

Moore believes many legislators are “holding firm” as the budget negotiations continue. The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) was passed in 2019 and requires the state to cut 25% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

“Rolling back our climate laws while utility bills skyrocket is a direct hit to workingclass New Yorkers,” said Assemblymember Claire Valdez, who is running for the 7th Congressional District seat. “Cutting clean energy to double down on gas raises our power bills, eliminates thousands of jobs, and makes our kids sick as smokestacks keep poisoning our neighborhoods. The only viable path to more affordable, healthier communities is a massive build-out of

public renewable energy at the scale this crisis demands.”

The climate law was meant to pour at least 35% of a projected $3 to $5 billion (estimate from intended first year in 2020) revenue back into “disadvantaged” and “underserved” communities in places like the Bronx and Brooklyn, deliver on up to $8,500 in energy rebates for homeowners making

under $200,000 a year, lower utility bills, and create green union jobs, said Moore. Assemblymember Jordan Wright said that his main fight for the CLCPA and climate justice in the budget is because it could have a big impact in Harlem, especially as summer and winter weather continues to be extreme. “I remember how Superstorm

Brooklyn homeowner freed from Rikers, but fight for her Bed-Stuy brownstone isn’t over

By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff

Police activity surrounding the release after six days of a homeowner from Rikers Island came to a block in Bedford-Stuyvesant on Wednesday.

Carmella Charrington left custody late Tuesday and was released just as an emergency meeting was being held by her supporters, who were determined to help her keep her family’s property.

The emergency meeting was called to update supporters on ongoing efforts to seize the home at 212 Jefferson Ave., which they have held for generations, from the Charringtons. It was also called to urge supporters to stay on watch in case marshals or sheriff’s deputies show up and try to put the family out of their home.

But marshals or sheriff’s deputies showed up to attempt an eviction shortly after 8 a.m. April 22. As community members had feared, police arrived early, seemingly to catch residents off

guard. But several people had gathered at Charrington’s 212 Jefferson Ave., property even earlier and tried to put their bodies in the way of any attempted trespass.

Councilman Chi Ossé and four other community members were grabbed by police, taken to the ground, and brought to the 79th Precinct for attempting to stop the police. Once they were out of the way, police removed the front door lock and smashed their way through a wooden door. The authorities said they were executing a search warrant for Allman, the elderly father of Carmella Charrington, who was not on the premises at the time.

Carmella’s son explained that because Judge Rachel Freier did not process the paperwork showing there is currently a stay on any eviction at the house, “We couldn’t produce it to the marshals today to show that there was a stay.”

The violent arrest of Councilman Ossé drew a bevy of news crews and fellow council members to the 79th Precinct, and several of Charrington’s supporters marched with Hank Newsome of Black Lives Matter to the precinct to demand that everyone arrested be released.

Charrington’s supporters say the eviction

See STOP DEED THEFT page 36

After deadly season, Harlem plans to get ahead of Legionnaires’ disease

By TANDY LAU Amsterdam News Staff

The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) will tighten cooling tower regulations with more frequent legionella inspections and stiffer fines beginning on May 8. The new rules stem from last summer’s Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in Harlem which killed at least seven people. The spread was attributed to contaminated cooling towers, which can spread bacteria outdoors. On April 7, a notice of adoption was published on the City Record database.

“The NYC Health Department and our partners across local government continue to learn from the deadly Legionnaires’ cluster in Harlem last summer, and have implemented many new policies, procedures, and rules to improve all aspects of how we monitor and respond to Legionnaires clusters in cooling towers,” said a DOHMH spokesperson. “This includes a new rule requiring building owners citywide to test their cooling towers for legionella bacteria every 31 days, set to take effect on May 8.”

These amendments largely update a section in the Rules of the City of New York to reflect Local Law 159 of 2025, which the City Council passed in October in response to the outbreak. Legionella bacteria cause Legionnaires’ disease, a severe pneumonia, and cultivates in warm water. Unchecked cooling towers can proliferate infected droplets

during the hotter months when they are in use. Breathing in those vapors can lead to contracting Legionnaires’ disease.

Previously, the city mandated sampling every 90 days when cooling towers were operational. Local Law 159 of 2025 also requires a “qualified” state-licensed professional to perform the testing. Building owners will also face four-digit fines for ignoring or violating cooling tower regulations.

To be clear, Legionnaires’ disease does not infect everyone exposed to Legionella and is most dangerous to the elderly and/or people with weakened immune systems. It is also not contagious and only spreads from inhaling or aspirating the infected mist. Given there are no vaccines for Legionnaires’, prevention usually falls onto building owners.

Legionella can grow rapidly and more frequent testing helps identify bacterial traces.

“Every Harlem resident has the right to know that the buildings around them are safe,” said councilmember Yusef Salaam, a Local Law 159 co-sponsor. “These new rules give our community real tools to hold building owners accountable. Public health is not a privilege. It is a guarantee.”

Last month, a DOHMH public hearing opened the floor to feedback on the rule changes. Roughly 170 of the 200 written comments came from Harlemites in support of the amendments and several proponents took the floor during a virtual

See LEGIONNAIRES on page 25

Q&A with 7th District Congressional candidate and Brooklyn BP Antonio Reynoso

By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff

Brooklyn Borough President (BP) Antonio Reynoso is marching on the campaign trail in this year’s crucial congressional primaries, but in a new direction. He’s running for New York 7th congressional district since Rep. Nydia Velázquez is not seeking re-election.

Reynoso, 45, a Brooklyn native, is the son of Dominican immigrants, and the first Dominican to be elected as a borough president in the city. In his current role, he is primarily responsible for land use, budget recommendations, and community board appointments. But he has also worked to make his office more active when it comes to issues like Black maternal health and immigration services over his years. Before being elected BP in 2021, he spent eight years as a councilmember and co-founded the New Kings Democrats.

The 7th Congressional District includes parts of Brooklyn and Queens, which was redistricted in 2022 to group largely Black and Brown communities with

white, wealthier neighborhoods. This includes Long Island City, Astoria, Sunnyside, Maspeth, Ridgewood, and Woodhaven as well as Bushwick, Clinton Hill, Downtown Brooklyn, East New York, East Williamsburg, Fort Greene, Greenpoint, and Williamsburg. Reynoso was the first to announce his bid for Velázquez’s seat back in 2025, and he’s raised about $630,067 in total contributions, according to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) latest filings. The Amsterdam News caught up with Reynoso over the phone. Here’s what he had to say about his campaign so far. Questions and answers have been shortened or edited for space and clarity.

AmNews: First question out the box, pretty obvious: Why run for Congress, especially in a year like this?

Reynoso : I was born and raised in the south side of Williamsburg on public assistance. So, you know, we were on welfare. We had food stamps. We had Section 8. And, I remember a time when the government used to work for people, and I’m deeply grateful for what the federal

See REYNOSO on page 25

Stories of Black and Indigenous patriots come into focus as U.S. remembers the American Revolution

By MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press

LEXINGTON, Mass. (AP) — Charlie Price says he didn’t learn much about the American Revolution in school. He knew about George Washington, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and that the patriots won, but it wasn’t until he joined the Lexington Minutemen — a group of Revolutionary War reenactors — that he realized there’s so much more to the story.

The Lexington Minutemen are marking the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington in Massachusetts on Saturday, as they do every year. Thousands of people, some in colonial costumes, gathered on the Lexington Green to witness the historic clash, many booing the British “troops” and cheering on the patriots. The battle, which marked the start of the American Revolution 251 years ago, ended with eight Americans killed and 10 wounded, and the dead left scattered on the grounds as the British marched off.

Among the soldiers represented was Prince Estabrook, an enslaved man who joined his white neighbors on Lexington Green on April 19, 1775, as British troops approached. He was wounded that day, but went on to serve in multiple deployments throughout the war.

“I wasn’t surprised that we didn’t know about it,” said Price, a 95-year-old Black Korean War veteran who played the role of Estabrook for 50 years. “I was surprised that there was one Black soldier out here.”

As America prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary, Estabrook and other patriots of color are being celebrated through programs nationwide that aim to tell a more complete story of the birth of the nation.

Telling the whole story

Museum exhibits, documentary films, and lectures have traditionally focused on the white leaders of the American Revolution, such as Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Paul Revere. Christopher Brown, a British Empire historian at Columbia University, said the Revolution has long been portrayed as a “simple story and a moral story that celebrates American origins and that looks to the American past in a kind of idealized version of what the present is.”

In recent decades, though, “a more accurate view of the past” has emerged that showcases the diverse collection of men and women who played critical roles in the fight for freedom.

“There were Black men in the ranks who were fighting in Concord and Lexington, and fought on Bunker Hill,” he said. “They knew all of the work that women were doing to support the revolutionary effort. The fact that we didn’t know that is more of a sign of our lack of curiosity and the need for greater research.”

The National Park Service estimates that by the end of the Revolution, more than 5,500 patriots of color — including Black and Indigenous people — served on the colonial side, while many runaway slaves fought for the British.

“Finding this out, I was very proud,” said Jason Roomes, a descendant of three formerly enslaved men from Rhode Island: Cato, Pero, and Caesar Rome. Roomes learned in his 40s that all three Black men fought for the colonial side in the American Revolution.

“Proud that my family has been here and fought for the creation of this United States,” he said.

The stories of Black patriots cannot be told without mentioning slavery, which was legal at the time in all 13 colonies.

Some Blacks who fought were enslaved and others fought in the hopes of gaining freedom. Indigenous soldiers made similar calculations, even as tribes fought for their very survival.

Despite the documented military diversity of that time, efforts to promote such stories are under pressure now. The Trump administration has ordered the removal or censorship of some exhibits highlighting the history of slavery and enslaved people, the Civil Rights Movement, and the mistreatment of Indigenous people.

Roger Davidson Jr. an associate professor of history at Bowie State University, said failure to recognize that important part of history can affect communities of color today. “If you’re not seen as having contributed to society, to the military, to any of it, then people can sort of overlook you,” Davidson said. “It plays into — and I hate to

put it this way — … some people’s biases. Why should we pay any attention to you in the present day, politically, socially, economically, if you have not contributed?”

Remembering patriots of color MA250 has handed out millions of dollars in grants to commemorate the battles across Massachusetts that helped lead to America’s independence. Among the beneficiaries is the Black Heritage Trail in Concord that highlights the lives of Black residents in the town during the Revolution. Museum exhibitions celebrating Black patriots have also received grants. Among those highlighted is Crispus Attucks, a sailor of African and Indigenous ancestry who died on March 5, 1770, when British troops fired on a crowd in what is known as the Boston Massacre. Another, Salem Poor, was born enslaved but purchased his freedom before fighting at Bunker Hill.

American Ancestors, a nonprofit history and heritage center in Boston that also received MA250 funding, opens its “Patriots of Color” exhibit next week, throwing a spotlight on the lives of 26 Black and Indigenous men and women who played a role in the American Revolution. They include Prince Ames, a Black and Narragansett man from Andover, who was forced to join the Continental Army in place of his enslaver; and Paul Cuffe, a Black and Wampanoag businessperson, who petitioned the Massachusetts government to reject taxation without representation.

Some of their descendants will attend the opening of the exhibition.

“By telling these lesser-known stories, we want to highlight that ordinary people

made a tremendous difference in the arc of the country’s history,” said Ryan Woods, president and CEO of American Ancestors.

The details of Estabrook’s life

Records about Prince Estabrook’s life are scant, but according to the National Park Service, he was probably born in the Lexington area around 1740. His father was enslaved by landowner Benjamin Estabrook, so Prince was born into slavery.

It is unclear what his life was like before he trained as a soldier in the Lexington militia. The Park Service says he was serving under the command of Colonel John Parker on April 19, 1775, when his left shoulder was struck by a musket ball. He recovered from that injury and went on to serve eight years with the militia and the Continental Army. After the Revolution, he was granted freedom and returned to Lexington, where tax records from 1790 indicate he joined Benjamin Estabrook’s payroll as “a non-white freeman.” It is unclear whether he ever married, had children, or owned property. According to family records, he died in 1830, around the age of 90, and was buried in the same cemetery as Benjamin’s son, Nathan, in Ashby, Massachusetts. Price, who has handed reenactment duties to a younger colleague but still attends the early-morning reenactment every year, says it is important to know about the life of the soldier he portrayed.

“Keep the story alive to make sure that everybody knows — everybody that we can get in touch with — everybody knows that Prince Estabrook was here,” Price said. “He was a viable person. He did his role; he did his part in fighting for the country.”

Larry Scott Blackmon: A civic leader (with a famous name) providing spaces for NYC’s Black men

By JASON PONTEROTTO Special to the AmNews

Larry Scott Blackmon considers himself a connector. He has spent several decades in government affairs and civic leadership, and his resume shows it.

He is the CEO for the Blackmon Organization, a government affairs firm he founded in 2023. In February, he took office as State Committeeman of the 70th Assembly District, representing Harlem. But he also has some musical history in his background as well: Blackmon is the son of artist Larry Blackmon, lead vocalist of the legendary R&B Funk band Cameo.

On the final day of Black History Month this year, Blackmon was able to convene more than 60 Black men for a brunch at Harlem’s PB Brasserie Steak House. The Saturday morning event was aimed at networking for Black men and engaging in a conversation about how to support one another professionally, personally, and communally. He says it will continue as a series and part of a larger initiative going forward.

“Bonds were forged, a commonality was found, and a vulnerability was exposed that touched everybody in the room,” Blackmon said, coming out of the brunch. It was open to Black men across the city and state and featured professionals from ministry, healthcare, business, real estate, government, education, and more, ranging from college students to seniors.

Blackmon conceived of the idea from a feeling that there was a lack of communal resources for Black men to gather. After a conversation where he learned of a Black women’s brunch taking place, he was inspired to create one for Black men.

A musical background leads to more Born and raised in Harlem, Blackmon grew up in the Drew Hamilton Projects with his grandparents, who owned Tiger Clean-

ers in the Bronx. But he also split time in Atlanta with his father, who would travel often, even befriending superproducer Jermaine Dupri, who lived in the same complex on the city’s South Side. He notes that his father’s band was one of the first acts responsible for Atlanta’s later music boom. From his family and other supportive figures, he was instilled with values of community and giving back.

Blackmon played basketball at Rice High School and A. Philip Randolph Campus High School, both of which, he says, allowed him to focus on creating a positive trajectory for himself despite potential distractions for a young man in Harlem at the time.

After graduating with degrees from SUNY New Paltz and Metropolitan College of New York, Blackmon became involved in music production and marketing, first working as a PA at the Apollo and later with EMI Records. He later established his own promotion company and was tapped to help with C. Virginia Fields’ campaign because of his unique advertising ideas, which began his foray into politics. He has worked for several other winning campaigns since. Earlier this year, he was named by City & State New York as one of the 2026 Who’s Who in Political Consulting and Communications.

Continuing in civics, Blackmon was later vice president of Fresh Direct for nine years, and was able to deliver healthy food to community members at the height of the pandemic. Currently, he is the board chair for the Better Business Bureau for New York and president of the New York Association of Chapters of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. He says providing space and opportunity for Black men is a core mission of his and is what led him to create the Black Men Brunch initiative.

Keeping Black men focused

At the brunch, attendees were engaged

Black New Yorker

in discussions on issues including keeping Black men engaged and informed politically, the need for unity and support resources for Black businesses, spiritual growth, economic development, and physical and mental health and wellness.

Prominent names in attendance included Harlem Democratic District Leader William Allen, CEO of The Brooklyn Bank Jude Bernard, political commentator and Columbia Professor Basil Smikle Jr., Rev. Jacques DeGraff, NY-15 candidate Michael Blake, real estate entrepreneur Welby Accely, and Sankofa Haus owner DJ Spynfo.

“This wasn’t done to make a profit. It wasn’t done to make a political statement.

It was done to bring Black men in a room… who often feel at times alone and who often feel that they don’t have someone that they can be with, aside from a fraternal organization,” Blackmon said.

Going forward, it was decided to follow up on the event as a quarterly meetup, with the next one taking place in Brooklyn in June.

“It’s inspirational to the rest of the community to see that Black men can get together in that form and fashion,” Blackmon said. “For Black men to come together and meet each other, shake hands, laugh, talk about the struggle that we face as businessmen in a safe space is completely rewarding in and of itself.”

To gentrify or not? The quest to ‘Manhattanize’ the Bronx continues in Van Cortlandt Village

By JASON GONZALEZ Special to the AmNews

Van Cortlandt Village has boasted a quiet dignity over the course of its history. Sitting in the northwest corner of the Bronx, it is known for its steep stair streets, Englishstyle cottages, and a low-key ambiance. The diverse enclave has long been a sanctuary for those seeking a reprieve from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan.

Now, though, the sounds of birds chirping, constant neighborhood chatter, and even coyotes howling are being drowned out by the roar of excavators and the rhythmic thudding of jackhammers.

It’s the wave of new development — specifically at 3870 and 3874 Sedgwick Avenue — and although developers may be transforming the skyline and neighborhood landscape, the process is also testing the patience of many locals like Brian Klarl.

Disruption is an exhausting reality for Klarl. As a result of the encroachment of the construction projects, he and others in the community have taken a stance for their fellow neighbors.

“As far as anxiety and anger go, that would be me,” Klarl said. “I’m not living in the property, but I have family members who do. … The house was shaking! We have pictures of a glass of water (trembling due to the vibrations coming from outside). Remember the movie ‘Jurassic Park?’ When the dinosaurs come in, you’d see more of the water (splashing) than the actual dinosaurs.”

It is an example of what residents are experiencing as the community changes. Even with the dire need for more affordable housing units in New York City, this new development is being viewed by residents as an assault on their quality of life and the historic character of their neighborhood.

A view from the streets

For Gary Axelbank, veteran journalist and host of BronxTalk and the Bronx Buzz on public affairs channel BronxNet, this situation is more than just a news story; it’s a reflection of a borough-wide struggle. Axelbank, a staple of Bronx media for decades, has watched the neighborhood’s evolution with a critical eye.

“We don’t know what the ultimate result of these buildings will be — you don’t know that for five years — but this is an attempt at that (gentrification),” Axelbank told the AmNews. “I don’t believe that the developers involved think of anything other than the amount of money they’re going to make. I have hope — if I didn’t have hope, I could not wake up in the morning … there has to be multi-level solutions. I think that we could figure out all we want. All I want the developers to do is care. They don’t seem to care. They’re going to put up these

square buildings and make their money and more, and do whatever they want, and right now there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason, when we have our community needs that need to be addressed.”

Axelbank’s perspective reverberates through the winding streets of Van Cortlandt Village. The displacement of working- and middle-class individuals, as well as the physical strain of the neighborhood’s infrastructure, are topics of concern for many locals.

first thing you see is a construction worker standing on a scaffold right at your bedroom window,” Klarl said.

Since then, Klarl has retained the services of an attorney whose practice focuses on housing rules, development, and building, which he said has cost him between $7,000 and $8,000.

Laura Chenven shares the same frustration, pointing to unnecessary congestion and excessive littering due to construction. She called for sustainable development

The toll on daily life

When asked if he would be interested in selling his property to the developers before the construction began, Klarl declined. The property has been owned by his family for about 84 years. As a result, Klarl was subsequently forced to sign an access agreement by the developer, Innovative Development Construction, which bought nearby homes in the surrounding area in close proximity to Klarl’s property. An access agreement is a legally binding contract that allows a developer or property owner to temporarily access a neighbor’s property to carry out construction, maintenance, or security tasks.

According to Klarl, Innovative Development Construction obstructed views, limited natural light, and broke safety rules.

“Just imagine waking up at 7 a.m., and the

that would maintain the neighborhood’s diversity and affordability. She encouraged local politicians to prioritize community needs over real estate interests.

“Providing affordable, livable quality housing in a city in which many of us work and have family is very important, but there’s a couple of things that are happening in our neighborhood,” Chenven said. “I live on Sedgwick Ave., and previously, I also was a resident of the Amalgamated Houses, which I do think is a very good example of affordable housing. It certainly was affordable for us when we lived there … it was a wonderful place to live. It provided good housing for multi-class [individuals] in a multi-racial community.”

However, times have changed, said Chenven, and so have priorities. She noted that the new housing has not gotten the kind of

public support that it needs to be self-sustaining. “Instead, what we’re finding is that as some of the private houses go up for sale, we have developers buying them up and building what sometimes is called ‘affordable housing.’”

Klarl and Chenven are part of a growing contingent of residents armed with photos and videos of cracked sidewalks and maps of shrinking street space. They are demanding that the city do more to mitigate the impact of private development on public life. Although Bronx Community Board 8 has heard the cry for help, it’s unclear whether a solution can be achieved in the foreseeable future.

Preservation vs. progress

The historical sites and landmarks that make up the architectural soul of Van Cortlandt Village are of primary concern for Frampton Tolbert, executive director of the Historic Districts Council (HDC). As a citywide advocate for historic neighborhoods, Tolbert views Van Cortlandt Village as a unique asset that is being neglected, and believes that these historical sites mean a great deal to the fabric of New York City.

“We’re looking to preserve some of the significant sites that still remain in the neighborhood,” Tolbert said. “The Denishawn House, which is a very little-known site in the neighborhood that’s associated with the early creation of modern dance in America … is a site that we’re very concerned about because it was such a crucial piece of dance history in America.” Among other rare historical finds in the neighborhood, Tolbert said that “the Sholem Aleichem Houses and Amalgamated Houses are two early developments, associated with labor history, associated with workers’ history, and places where members of unions could live. Both of these are coming up on their 100th anniversary this year and next, so it’s the perfect time to talk about how important both of these developments are and how we preserve them for the future.”

Within the HDC, a group of people from various areas around the Bronx make up the Bronx Landmarks Committee (BLC) and are just as concerned about what construction is doing to the historical sites. They provide the HDC with advice about what should be prioritized in terms of preservation. The BLC has been working hard to ensure that the significance of Van Cortlandt Village and some of its locations is conveyed.

“It depends from site to site,” Tolbert said. “For the Denishawn house, we submitted a request for evaluation to the Landmarks Commission, which is an official document, … asking them to consider whether the site could be designated as a New See story on next page

York City landmark. Their initial response was that they didn’t feel that it [could], but it would be considered. Since then, there has been more information sent to them from a lot of very important people in the dance community in New York City, as well as around the country, asking them to reconsider their decision because this is such an important place.”

Advocacy in the

council

Caught in the middle of competing interests is District 11 Bronx City Councilmember Eric Dinowitz. who has attended several Community Board 8 meetings and conducted multiple informal site inspections.

“I am deeply concerned about development that fails to meet the needs of the local community,” Dinowitz said. “Whether it’s the lack of family-sized apartments or buildings that feel completely out of place, New Yorkers deserve better. My office closely monitors every development in the district; however, the council’s ability to regulate out-of-context projects was significantly limited after City of Yes — which I voted against — passed and again last November, when voters approved ceding more local oversight to mayoral boards. These measures prioritize unit count over neighborhood needs and weaken the council’s oversight authority.”

Dinowitz has also focused on the broader legislative picture, pushing for responsible development that includes affordable housing units and infrastructure upgrades that can handle a lot of people.

“Regarding Innovative Development, Department of Buildings records currently show no active violations,” Dinowitz said. “However, both DOB and HPD (Housing Preserva-

tion Development) continue to regulate these sites. Residents should report issues such as noise or dust to 311 and share service request numbers with my office so we can help hold developers accountable. All development must respect the community and mitigate the adverse impacts of construction.”

Dinowitz also explained that in an attempt to protect residents, the city council passed his bill, which required more family-sized units in city-subsidized projects.

“Former Mayor (Eric) Adams vetoed it, but we are continuing to rework that legislation to ensure we build for families, not just develop er profit,” he said.

The Amsterdam News novative Development Construction multiple times but received no response by press time.

A village divided?

As the cranes continue to pivot over Van Cortlandt Village, the debate remains as steep as the hills seen throughout the neigh borhood. For the residents, it is a fight for the soul of their community. For the developers, it is a business necessity in a booming hous ing market. For leaders like Axelbank and Di nowitz, it is a delicate balancing act of holding onto the past while trying to navigate an un certain future.

The residents of Van Cortlandt Village con tinue to watch, wait, and organize — hoping that when the construction is over, the neigh borhood that they’ve always loved will still be recognizable.

“This is a huge community. We should be part of the dialogue,” Axelbank said. “If the de veloper doesn’t want to be nice to the people in the community, then we need developers who want to be a part of this community.”

Obama and Mamdani know how to get votes, but how’d they do with toddlers?

By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff

What might Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani and former President Barack Obama do when they get together? We don’t know how they would tackle the complex nuances of current U.S. politics, but this past weekend, they totally nailed storytime at an early childhood education center in the South Bronx.

The 44th president and 112th NYC mayor read “Alone & Together” by Émilie Chazerand, a picture book that emphasizes community cooperation and unity, to a class at the Learning Through Play Pre-K Center on Saturday afternoon.

“Alone we dream, together we imagine,” read Mamdani, as he turned the pages of the book.

In between fielding a barrage of questions from the 3- and 4-year-old toddlers, Mam-

dani and Obama sang songs and posed for photos. The kids even serenaded the two politicians and their teachers with a rendition of K-Pop Demon Hunters’ “Soda Pop.”

Mamdani has been pushing his universal childcare rollout for months, which includes expanded 2-K and 3-K seats across the city. The city also recently announced that seven new early childhood education centers will open this fall. The sites, previously vacant, are part of the first phase of the 3-K expansion announced last month for the 2026–27 school year.

The Obama Foundation also announced a recent partnership with After School Matters to provide youth programming at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago when it opens in June.

“Thank you to everybody [who]’s doing this terrific program. This is what we need: an investment in these amazing kids,” said Obama as he left the school.

Community Week NYC looks to fight social isolation, one gathering at a time

By LLOYD B. DAVIS

Special to the AmNews

Over the last few years, social isolation has become a growing health concern. According to a 2025 report from the World Health Organization, 1 in 6 people worldwide are affected by loneliness. So the planners of one upcoming event intend to change that.

New Yorkers can come together in fellowship at the inaugural Community Week NYC Celebration. The new citywide initiative running from May 9-17 is aimed at combating social isolation by bringing folks from across the five boroughs to connect socially and professionally.

Jesse B. Rauch, co-founder of Community Week, hopes these events can uplift underrepresented organizations in the city. Rauch also believes that these events can help support the city’s social infrastructure.

“Behind every gathering that makes this city feel more human, there are people building connections with far too little support,” said Rauch. “Community Week NYC is about elevating those builders and making visible work that has long been under-recognized, under-supported, and increasingly essential. If we want a more resilient New York, this is the kind of social infrastructure cities can no longer afford to overlook.”

During the nine-day period, there will be in-person events, gatherings, and activities, all with the intent of helping New Yorkers find connection and find their people. Organizers can also reach new audiences, increase visibility, be featured as part of a citywide cultural moment, and join a broader network of communities that are shaping the community.

Community Week NYC is presented by Sugary NYC and week nights, two local groups dedicated to connecting people in meaningful ways. The events are one step

in fighting social isolation and organizers say it can introduce people to the importance of the “third space” and ”community economy”

Community economy is the belief that when people gather in real life, neighborhoods and small businesses grow stronger.

A healthy community economy also means civic life can become more resilient. Most importantly, a strong community economy also combats social isolation.

“One of New York City’s greatest strengths is the sheer range of communities and experiences it holds,” said Gary

Su, cultural curator behind Sugary. “Community Week NYC creates a way to rediscover the city through people’s natural interests and the communities that are already actively shaping its culture, energy, and sense of possibility.”

The first day of Community Week NYC includes the Healthwork and Somatic Healing Session, hosted by the Women Abroad Club. There is also a “Find Your People” night, an evening of DJ sets, comedy, and an opportunity to meet some of the organizations that are participating in other community week events.

Other days include events where people can bond over board games, yoga, coffee, listening sessions, book discussions, and various activities, all with the intention of bringing people together.

Many of the community gatherings and networking events will be free, however larger events, workshops, and special experiences may have a ticketed price. For those who are not able to attend in-person events, some panels and discussions will be livestreamed.

A full event calendar can be found at www.communityweek.nyc.

Brooklyn State Senate candidate Marlon ‘Stoop Set’ Rice says he can address the needs of District 25

By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff

Over the years, Marlon Rice has worn many community hats. He became an education department vendor teaching creative writing and urban hydroponics in the early 2000s; he founded the Good People NYC organization in 2012, an event production company that runs the Stoop Set block party summer series; and he has been the director of event services for the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation since 2021, where he brings his passion for community engagement to life through impactful programming. But with the June primary rapidly approaching, Rice, a lifelong resident of Bedford-Stuyvesant, is now a senatorial candidate who is running for the District 25 State Senate seat. He’s taking on three-time incumbent State Senator Jabari Brisport. Rice, 50, ventured into the world of politics last year when he announced his campaign. Brisport, 38, was the first openly gay person of color to be elected to the state legislature in 2020 and had strong backing from the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). But things have evolved since then. So far, Brisport has received about $205,088 in public matching funds for his re-election bid, while Rice has received $195,585, according to the New York State Board of Elections.

“In my district, we have a tale of two cities,” said Rice during a recent appearance at the Vanguard Independent Democratic Association (VIDA) headquarters in Bed-Stuy. “I have 8,000 brownstones, but I also have 24 NYCHA developments in my district. So there are affordability needs, but there [is a] need to end the cycle of pov-

erty. And so, we’re building a platform that speaks to both those needs.”

His platform mainly includes boosting pathways to homeownership, repairs and renovations for New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) residents, preserving the heritage of the district, combatting unemployment, protecting small businesses against rent gouging and skyrocketing energy costs, and fighting against deed theft for aging homeowners. But above all, he wants to connect with and advocate for the seemingly forgotten parts of the senate district that are fundamentally Black, such as Brownsville and Ocean Hill, he said.

Rice’s family, going back to his grandfather, has been significantly active in the community. Rice was raised by his mother, a former paralegal on disability, and his stepfather, Kim Reaves-Bey, who was a 25-year veteran police officer and well-known in the community as a trusted member of law enforcement.

“This was the 80s, where this was crackera Brooklyn. People lived in brownstones, but a lot of these brownstones were still squatter-oriented. There was drug use happening in them. There were robberies and break-ins,” said Rice. “And so my father was

like the neighborhood cop. He was somebody who people would come to. When they needed some assistance, they started calling him the ‘Mayor of the Block.’”

Rice also idolized political titans of the time, like the late Albert Vann, who founded VIDA, and Pan-Africanist Jitu Weusi.

“These two men were lions in this community, in terms of community activism, empowerment, and politics,” said Rice. “I was raised by Black male leadership, if that makes sense. That’s the thing that drives me in terms of not just this role of politics, but it really drives me in how I interface with the community. Like as a Black man that lives in this community, I feel a debt of responsibility to this space.”

Brooklyn’s historically Black and Brown neighborhoods have undeniably transformed in recent decades, a metamorphosis driven by citywide issues such as gentrification, deed theft, the affordability crisis, and displacement. Senate District 25, which encompasses several central and eastern Brooklyn neighborhoods, like Bed-Stuy, Clinton Hill, Fort Greene, Ocean Hill, Brownsville, and parts of downtown, is no different.

Once characterized by severe hardship and riddled with crime going back to the 1970s, the district now boasts a diverse array of residents. On one end, there are high earners making over $200,000 salaries, and on the other, there are at least 25% of children and seniors living below the poverty line, based on census survey data. In terms of the racial makeup, Black residents still make up the bulk of the district at 43%, followed by 26% white residents, and 20% Hispanic residents.

“You can’t really reverse displacement,” said Rice. “The 200,000 [Black] people that

left over the last 10 years, they’re not returning. But what you can do is solidify the ability for Blacks to still maintain space here.” In addition to protecting Black and Brown homeowners, Rice’s main gripe is that the senate seat should adhere more closely to local issues rather than platform “national ticket items,” like political pushback against AIPAC funding in city, state, and federal elections. Not one for infighting, he said the long-standing grudge match between centrist ‘old school’ Black Democrats and younger, more progressive Brooklynites isn’t his priority.

He admits that the innate sense of “Black political, cultural, and religious identity” was far more aligned in decades prior, engendering legendary Black leaders and adamant voters in the district, but that has since shifted into “echoes of the past.” Even so, he believes that a unity that appeals to a diverse swath of voters from different identities can be reached.

“Transplants come to New York, or come into Brooklyn, or come to Bed-Stuy with a dream, with the idea of how they’re going to live here,” he said. “Then it becomes a sobering reality that they can’t afford the life that they thought they could live. So they are in the same boat as a resident that lived in a rent-stabilized apartment for years.”

In terms of the state budget, Rice said he’d prioritize funding for Medicare, education, infrastructure, and NYCHA. He is hesitant to throw his full support behind some budget proposals, like Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s call to “tax the rich” without a “comprehensive” follow-through plan. “The socialists are supporting tax the rich for a different reason than our brothers and sisters in Brownsville would support tax the rich,” said Rice.

Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez spotlights Brooklyn’s faith-based model for crisis resolution

By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff

During community healthcare group StartCare’s annual “Alliance Breakfast” on April 16, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez joined faith leaders and health care providers to talk about how his borough has changed its approach to mental health and substance abuse cases in the courts. Since its founding in 2002, Brooklyn Mental Health Court (BMHC) has used a holistic approach, working with community groups to provide spiritual counseling, housing, employment assistance, and basic clinical care services. BMHC judges focus on diversion and put eligible participants in supervised community treatment rather than jail. Gonzalez, the keynote speaker, talked about how the traditional justice system cannot handle the deeper issues of poverty and trauma. But Brooklyn’s faith groups, by serving as allies to the courts, have been able to tackle the mental health and substance

abuse crisis the borough faces by helping shift the justice model from punishment to restoration. It’s a reform model being followed across the country, he assured.

“Too often, the criminal justice system has been asked to step into the breach of things that are … structural,” Gonzalez said. “Untreated mental illness, addiction, trauma, and poverty — sometimes all at once — create a problem the justice system historically did not know how to handle. What I’ve tried to do is something different.” Gonzalez thanked faith leaders for taking on the difficult tasks that a prosecutor’s office cannot.

“This work saves lives. It makes my job as a district attorney much easier when we address the behaviors that land people in court before they become crimes.”

The breakfast brought together government, health care, and faith leaders. During his keynote speech before clergy, clinicians, and policymakers, DA Gonzalez openly acknowledged the limitations of his office.

Gonzalez emphasized the unique role of

pants enjoyed a ball game they previously mentioned they might attend. He noted that while this may seem incidental, making individuals feel that their lives matter is actually an important intervention.

Statistics, Gonzalez said, show that BMHC’s success stands out from what takes place in traditional prosecutions. Participants in this model are 50% less likely to be re-arrested than comparable offenders in conventional courts. Since it was introduced, more than 1,200 people have gone through the BMHC system, and nearly 70% to 90% successfully avoided incarceration. Offenders who go through BMHC also have significantly lower re-conviction rates. Gonzalez called for permanent health care financing and deeper integration between the medical and spiritual sectors.

“Brooklyn has operated the most effective mental health support in the country,” Gonzalez concluded. “Our numbers are there. We are creating pathways to treatment instead of just pathways to conviction.”

Union Matters

32BJ SEIU and building owners reach tentative agreement

By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff

After thousands of 32BJ members protested along Park Avenue near East 79th Street on April 15, with Mayor Zohran Mamdani and other officials showing up to give them support, 32BJ SEIU members have come to a tentative four-year contract agreement with the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations (RAB). The agreement came just days before they had planned a walkout that could have affected thousands of the city’s residential buildings.

“This is one of the largest agreements in New York City and it’s an honor, I know, for our side to be part of this and to set the standard for so many people who take care of the residents of this city,” said union President Manny Pastreich. “This contract has meaning for the residents and I know it has meaning to the building owners, the co-ops, the condos, and … the 1.5 million residents in 32BJ buildings.”

The tentative agreement reportedly settles New York’s building-service workers’ concerns about wages that don’t keep pace with the city’s rising living costs, owners’ efforts to control healthcare costs, and a debate over whether new hires should be placed in a lower-cost “two-tier” system. Union leaders said the protest and a strike authorization vote were clear signals to show workers’ readiness to strike.

Negotiations at the New York Hilton Midtown led to tradeoffs: Workers kept core benefits intact while acknowledging owners’ concerns about rising costs. Both sides came together to announce the tentative deal before the current contract’s expiration at midnight on April 20. If ratified, the agreement would run through April 20, 2030.

“As I’ve often said, our relationship is the gold standard of labor relations in this country,” RAB President Howard Rothschild said at the press conference. “Our collective bargaining over the last 90 years is based on mutual respect and has led to uninterrupted labor peace over the last 35 months. I’m prouder than ever that we’re able to keep that strength.”

The union and RAB said the preliminary four-year deal includes a total wage increase of

$4.50 per hour by the end of the agreement, a 15% boost to the guaranteed pension, and ongoing healthcare benefits without requiring workers to pay premiums. The agreement maintains employer-funded legal and training benefits, and introduces a new

training pathway to help new hires achieve full wages more quickly. It keeps employer-paid family health insurance in place with no premium-sharing and does away with the idea of a two-tier structure that would have created a separate, lower standard for

future hires, the union said. Immigration-related provisions include training for employers and “Know Your Rights and Benefits” posters in workplaces, along with continued employer-paid legal benefits. The agreement also includes a 15% improvement to the guaran-

teed pension. Union leaders said the increase is set to begin in July. Union leaders said the tentative agreement will be applied after a mail-in ratification process. If it gains approval, it will secure pay, benefits, and workplace rules through 2030.

Monday, May 4, 2026.

APRIL 24.

Putting SCOTUS on notice

Sometime next week, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments challenging the Trump administration’s procedurally flawed attempts to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti and Syria. The House passed H.R. 1689 last week, requiring Markwayne Mullin, the new Homeland Security secretary, to designate Haiti with temporary protected status until April 2029, according to the ACLU of Northern California.

The last time we weighed in on this issue was several years ago, with our information coming from Rep. Yvette Clarke, so the case history of TPS is not new to us, nor has it changed much. We had a feeling that things were revving up when our New York Attorney General Letitia James co-led a coterie of attorneys general in filing an amicus brief with the Supreme Court, urging the court to uphold the legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants, many of whom have been living in the U.S. for years.

Predicting how the court will rule, especially lately, is never easy. As the ACLU reminds us, now at stake is a moral and legal question for the court and the nation.

During his second presidential campaign, Trump promised to eliminate TPS, which his administration has systematically done for every country that came up for review, no matter the circumstances. Like the birthright citizenship case before the court, the racial and racist implications are consistent with most of Trump’s policies.

We unequivocally join the attorneys general and hope this demand resonates with the number of other challenged immigrants.

NYC high school students start group dedicated to Black intellectualism, spreading message across the country

By SOLOMON

GARDNER, AMARI JOSEPH, TOMEL LUCAS, CHRISTIAN PIERRE-LOUIS, TYLER MCCULLOUGH, and OLIVER SUTTON IV

Black intellectualism has always been a cornerstone of U.S. society. From Africans skilled in rice cultivation captured into U.S. slavery, to the Black Americans enslaved on President James Madison’s Montpelier plantation who built and ran his lucrative blacksmith trade, to countless inventors, mathematicians, and scientists, our intellect and expertise have long fueled U.S. progress and

R. Tatum: Publisher and Editor in Chief

economic success.

Yet, when telling the Black American story, our intellect and academic prowess are often overlooked, if not outright denied. As high school students at the nation’s oldest private school, the Collegiate School in Manhattan, we wanted to change this reality for ourselves and other Black students coming after us.

In March 2025, we founded the Carter G. Woodson Society at Collegiate School, a Black affinity group that is singularly focused on the legacy of intelligence and high academic achievement that has always existed in our community and still does. With our country’s nearly 400-year history, we felt our group would greatly add to the historical narrative and significance of our school. We wanted to name our group after a Black person who demonstrated academic rigor and high intellectual prowess. Carter G. Woodson, the second Black man to obtain a Ph.D. at Harvard, founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), and the father of Black History Month, was the perfect person.

We wanted to give proper attention to Black accomplishment and excellence outside of the usual fields of entertainment and sports. Therefore, our group invites Black scholars to speak at our school about a variety of subjects. We’ve also started an academic journal where students can get their ideas published, and we’ve begun a mentoring program where the older boys are assigned to younger ones. Since our founding, we have been active in fulfilling our mission. Last September, for instance, we were invited to present at the 110th annual ASALH conference. We were the only high school panel accepted for the conference. In our first community service project, we spent MLK Day 2026 volunteering at God’s Love We Deliver. We also organized our school’s 2026 Black History Month program, where we were in conversation with acclaimed artist Derek Fordjour. Most recently, we were invited by the Detroit Historical Society to present in their annual program “On the Shoulders of Giants.” While there, our group was featured on “Good Day Detroit,” the

local morning news show on FOX 2 Detroit.

The impact of our group has been transformative. It does not simply serve Black students; it has transformed the environment for all students. We have created a space where Black students can exist without compromise, and where identity is a source of pride rather than alienation. Through our work, we are saying Black intellectualism belongs at the center of education, not at the margins.

This is just a start for us. Through our organization, we hope to inspire other Black high school students across the country to lean into our heritage and legacy of Black intellectualism. We are currently working to create Carter G. Woodson Society chapters in other schools across the country.

We believe we are well on our way to honoring our mission and making a real impact.

Solomon Gardner, Amari Joseph,

and

are students at the Collegiate School in New York City.

Why Earth Day is connected to Black life

By TAMARA TOLES O’LAUGHLIN

When you think of Earth Day, what comes to mind?

Some think that Earth Day is just for beekeepers, tree-huggers, and seed-savers. The truth is that the planet in crisis is our business, because it’s shaping our politics, our economy, and our everyday life. The planet will have the last word about our legacy. Earth Day is the alarm clock that reminds us that now is the time to wake up and play our part in addressing the climate crisis.

America has celebrated Earth Day since April 22, 1970, as a purposeful and political act to raise awareness about the natural, cultural, and resource consequences of the climate crisis and the urgency for better care of the planet we all share. The crisis and collapse have expanded Earth Day to Earth Month. Everything on Earth is connected to Black life, livelihoods, and history. Earth Day was first observed as a teach-in that pulled its energy from the 1960s civil rights struggle to establish a global movement. That campaign paved the way for laws to protect our air and water, and regulate the impact of booming business on human health and the environment.

Black people are invested in, stewarding, and leading on the environment. You don’t have to be an expert to make the connections. Why? Because everything on Earth is giving or taking life. In America, almost everything has been made, built, bettered, and harvested through the genius and labor of Black people. We are owed a 400-year debt even as America redefines itself at 250 years. The wins of environmental movements are too often portrayed through a lens of colonialism, takings, and white identity. Behind that image, Black people are living and dying in vulnerability and burdens from the climate crisis. Often, we feel it before we even leave our homes. Indoor air data tells us that gas stoves create the conditions for asthma in the lungs of six out of 10 of our children and that heart disease threatens stroke, heart attack, or hypertension in adults, in our homes, at the same rate. The call to get the gas out and make New York homes affordable came from our research, and supported demands to stop unnecessary deaths.

It gets worse: 20% of Black New Yorkers live in parts of the boroughs that are at risk of flooding from storms or from clogged stormwater drains. When it rains, the water rises faster than our

streets, pipes, and evacuation plans can handle. The poorest of us can’t afford to relocate, so the harm lasts long after the storm. Residing in a city, even the greatest on Earth, often means there are more of us in every square block living in environmental threat.

Whether we are upstate, uptown, or downtown, the risks of environmental harm are close and compounding. The stakes can be seen in our energy bills, grocery and medical bills, and quality of life.

Where there is an economic threat, the politics are tense. Earth Day is our opportunity to raise the issue of the political costs to our people and show our power in the fight for our planet.

NY waterways give us beaches, parks, and access — but they also mean that we are a state at risk in a nation in free fall. Our next elections will determine whether progress advances what we fought for or go backward in our lifetimes.

Look to the City Council, mayor, and governor for their commitments to the New York Climate and Community Protection Act. Their commitment to implementation will either secure energy for New York that positions us for wins or fumble the opportunity with delays resulting in needless suffering and preventable losses.

It’s time for us to connect the dots and save our own lives. In case you missed it, over 50% of workers purged from the federal workforce are Black women, with estimates of at least 300,000plus in related jobs. Every home where a woman is pushed out of the workforce undermines life and care plans for the future, whether it’s rent or retirement, a household or a neighborhood, a community depends on her resources. These federal-level attacks aim to reverse access, efficiencies, jobs, and resources that prove that equity and inclusion make all work, work better, by increasing innovation, retention, and dollars in neighborhoods that make up our nation. Earth requires our action and attention. It’s time for New Yorkers across the diaspora to see and seize our moment by making demands that help us now and prepare for what’s next. Reach out to us at Climate Critical and we can help you figure out how to take action.

Tamara Toles O’Laughlin, an expert environmentalist and climate strategist, is the founder of Climate Critical, a network intervention for the climate workforce, and CEO and president of the Environmental Grantmakers Association based in Harlem.

April is Stress Awareness Month — Time to take care of ourselves

CHRISTINA GREER, PH.D.

I don’t know about you, but the month of April always makes me feel like I’m treading water. I don’t know if it’s just the time of the semester when I’m grading exams, helping students register for the fall, making sure seniors are all set for graduation, and assisting with summer internships … and that’s just my professor hat.

I haven’t even begun to think about all of the other meetings and organizations and obligations in the various facets of my life … and I know I am not alone in sometimes feeling totally overwhelmed with the amount of work on my plate and news in my ears. The world seems like it is being pushed and pulled to limits many of us have not seen in our lifetimes and it can be, well, rather stress-inducing. It seems like everyone I speak to echoes my feelings of being so busy and emotionally drained by national and international politics that we feel like we’re on a Ferris wheel (fun fact: The Ferris wheel was actually designed by George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair).

trying to be proactive about how to take care of myself and reduce stress in this moment. First things first: I have been getting an adequate amount of sleep. Sleep is fuel for our minds, bodies, and spirits, and I am keenly aware that a good night’s rest will carry me a long way. I definitely do not exercise as much as I should, but I know getting endorphins moving helps not only produce better sleep and decrease anxiety, but the sheer activity of sweating away the day does wonders for emotional regulation. More exercise, beyond just walking, is something I will work on in the upcoming weeks to help decrease the overall stressors of life these days. For some, stress can have severe and long-standing health effects. It is imperative for us to be in community with others so we can name the issue and find solutions for it before it becomes something unmanageable and irreversible. Sometimes just saying what the stressor is can be an important step in alleviating it.

By HERB BOYD

The number of political resignations seems to increase each day. Within hours after California Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell and a Texas Republican, Tony Gonzales, resigned, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer left the Trump cabinet with another position to fill. On the heels of her depar-

ture, embattled Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick resigned on Tuesday, moments before the House Ethics Committee was set to consider whether to recommend she be expelled from Congress. Will these sudden vacancies catch up with the recent spate of mass shootings or, on a less tragic note, the New York Mets’ losing streak?

On the one hand, I am talking about presumed malfeasance and moral turpitude among elected officials; on the other, a team’s inability to outscore its opponent. In both situations, the results are as baffling as the why and wherefore of the war in the Middle East. Are the times we live in today any more troubling than similar circumstances

in the past? Probably not, but that they are occurring with such rapid repetition does give you pause.

Of course, the Mets, we hope, will soon break out of the doldrums of defeat, and I wish I could say the same for the mass shootings and the elected officials who may or may not be guilty of the charges that force them from office.

I’m seeing a certain level of burnout in my students, family members, friends, and just everyday New Yorkers I interact with on a daily basis. Many folks have expressed feelings of sheer emotional and mental exhaustion caused by the leaders in Washington, D.C. and levels of incompetence and corruption and policies that make our lives more difficult and less safe.

I definitely know this draining feeling and am

For the remainder of the month, let’s be mindful about taking care of ourselves. Let’s get out in nature, get good rest, and make our mental and physical health a priority.

Christina Greer, Ph.D., is an associate professor at Fordham University; author of the books “How to Build a Democracy: From Fannie Lou Hamer and Barbara Jordan to Stacey Abrams” and “Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream”; and co-host of the podcast FAQ-NYC.

Caribbean Update CARICOM to meet again as row over incumbent escalates

By BERT WILKINSON Special to the AmNews

In late August, the term of the current secretary general of the 15nation Caribbean Community, Dr. Carla Natalie Barnett, 68, would have come to an end and although leaders recently reappointed her to a second and final five-year term, it does not appear that she will survive a full second employment period.

Speculation about whether she might even work a day after August 26 is rife and growing because of a relentless campaign by Trinidad’s government to see the back of her due to a row, dating back nearly four years, between Barnett and Kamla Persad-Bissessar, prime minister of the Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) federation.

The escalating public row about her tenure and the process used to reappoint has become so divisive that at the weekend, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness called for an emergency meeting of leaders to look at the issue all over again.

The T&T PM is gunning for the Belizean economist turned regional chief executive largely because of what she has basically said was a hurtful diplomatic snub that Barnett had allegedly inflicted on her while she was the country’s opposition

The PM complained that she had written to Barnett because a Trinidadian national had allegedly been abducted from his hotel by local police while he was in neighboring Barbados during a joint operation with Barbadian officers. She said Barnett never had the decency to reply, but now that she is PM after winning general elections a year ago this month, the time to get rid of Barnett is now.

The vitriol emanating from Port of Spain against Barnett has been so loud and has become so embarrassing that it appears that the issue of

her reappointment might well trigger a second emergency meeting of heads of governments as early as this week, after one held earlier in April. “I think the solution really lies in assembling another heads meeting to have the matter addressed,” Holness told the local Guardian Media during a visit to New York over the weekend. “That’s something that I have been pushing for quietly behind the scenes. I think it is distressing for a lot of people within the region regarding what is being said in the public domain, but I know that all the heads are working behind the scenes to have this matter resolved.”

Trinidad is contending that the process to reappoint Barnett at the late February meeting of leaders was highly flawed and suspicious because the local delegation and at least two countries were excluded from attending a closed-door caucus in sister isle Nevis.

Leaders including Terrance Drew, prime minister of St. Kitts and the current regional chair have accused Foreign Minister Sean Sobers of not attending the session because of his fear of seasickness on the short boat ride to Nevis.

Sobers had been the acting Trinidad delegation head to the meet-

ing and would have been the one to attend after his PM had left the summit. He denies ever suggesting his fear of the sea but later admitted that he was simply joking.

As preparations proceed for the second emergency meeting in weeks, a leading regional diplomat is suggesting that it is better for Barnett to walk away rather than stick around and stoke division in the bloc. Sir Ronald Sanders, Antigua’s ambassador to the U.S., has argued that this will be the best solution to a contentious and divisive issue.

“If I were the secretary general of CARICOM, and I’m being quite serious here, and this had occurred, I would have resigned, and I would have resigned because I would have said I must not stand in the way of Caribbean integration and the movement forward,” he said on the state-owned ABS Television, apparently signaling the position of the government. “Why am I still there? Because it is clear that I will never enjoy her support and why, therefore, would I put myself in a situation in which I am now the cause of the rift? If I were Carla Barnett, I would resign now on principle because … Kamla Persad will not attend the meeting if Carla Barnett is at that meeting; neither will her foreign minister,” he noted.

The data tells a different story about Black immigrants

FELICIA PERSAUD

IMMIGRATION KORNER

At a time when immigration rhetoric in the United States has reached a fever pitch, a new report from the Pew Research Center offers a powerful reminder: The story being told about immigrants — particularly Black immigrants — is often not the truth.

The data tells a very different story. According to Pew’s latest analysis, there are now 5.6 million Black immigrants living in the United States, making up roughly one in 10 Black people in the country.

That alone should shift the conversation, because Black immigrants are not a small or marginal group. They are a significant and growing part of the American story. And yet,

they are rarely at the center of the national immigration debate. Even more telling is their legal status.

Despite narratives that often conflate immigration with illegality, the Pew data shows that 79% of Black immigrants are in the United States legally, while a majority — 61% — are naturalized U.S. citizens. That means most Black immigrants are not only here lawfully, but they are also Americans who can vote. Fully. Legally. Permanently. However, they are still often treated as outsiders, with xenophobic talk about “eating cats and dogs,” committing crimes, or — worse of all — being from “S-Hole” countries.

The data also challenges assumptions about education and contribution.

Today, 35% of Black immigrants hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, a rate that exceeds that of U.S.-born Black Americans. Among African-

born immigrants, that number is even higher, with some of the most highly educated immigrant populations in the country coming from nations like Nigeria.

These are not communities on the margins or people on the margins. They are doctors, nurses, entrepreneurs, educators, and caregivers. They are part of the infrastructure of American life.

And their numbers are growing. African-born immigrants, according to the data, are now the fastest-growing segment of the Black immigrant population, increasing fourfold since 2000. Caribbean immigrants remain a dominant force, making up a similarly large share of the Black immigrant population. Together, African and Caribbean immigrants account for the overwhelming majority of Black immigrants in the United States. That is not incidental. It reflects a deep and

ongoing relationship between the United States and the Black diaspora

— one that has shaped culture, labor, politics, and identity for generations.

Yet, despite these contributions, the policy environment is moving in the opposite direction.

Immigration crackdowns are intensifying. Temporary protection is being challenged. Legal pathways are becoming more uncertain. Huge bonds are being tacked on to simple visitors and business visas.

Black immigrants — like other immigrant groups — are increasingly caught in that shift.

This disconnect between reality and rhetoric is where the real story lies, because the data makes one thing clear: Black immigrants are not a burden on the United States.

They are part of its growth. Part of its workforce. Part of its future.

Yet, the question of belonging continues to linger. Who gets to be

seen as American? Who gets to be protected? Who gets to stay?

These are not new questions, but they take on new urgency in a moment where facts are often overshadowed by fear. When a group that is largely legal, highly educated, and deeply embedded in the fabric of the country is still viewed through the lens of suspicion, it suggests that the issue is no longer just immigration.

It is perception. And perhaps something deeper. Because the data tells a story.

The question is whether America is willing to listen.

Felicia J. Persaud is the founder and publisher of NewsAmericasNow.com, the only daily syndicated newswire and digital platform dedicated exclusively to Caribbean Diaspora and Black immigrant news across the Americas.

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press

MUXIMA, Angola (AP) — Pope Leo XIV on Sunday recalled the “sorrow and great suffering” Angolans endured for centuries, as he prayed at a Catholic shrine located at the site of an important hub of the African slave trade during Portugal’s colonial rule.

The American pope traveled to the Sanctuary of Mama Muxima, nestled in the Angolan savannas of baobab trees at the edge of the Kwanza River. It became a major pilgrimage destination after believers reported an appearance by the Virgin Mary around 1833.

The Church of Our Lady of Muxima was originally built by Portuguese colonizers at the end of the 16th century as part of a fortress complex and it became a hub in the slave trade. It was where enslaved Africans were gathered to be baptized by Portuguese priests before being forced to walk to the port of Luanda, more than 110 kilometers (70 miles) to the north, to be put on ships to the Americas.

Leo, whose own ancestors include both enslaved people and slave owners, prayed the rosary at the sanctuary, a simple whitewashed church with blue trim and a statue of the Madonna inside. Speaking in Portuguese, he recalled that it was here “where, for centuries, many men and women have prayed in times of joy and also in moments of sorrow and great suffering in the history of this country.”

He didn’t refer specifically to slavery. After viewing plans to build a basilica at the site, Leo urged the estimated 30,000 people gathered outside to also build “a better, more welcoming world, where there are no more wars, no injustices, no poverty, no dishonesty.”

Muxima’s history is emblematic of the Catholic Church’s role in the slave trade, the forced baptisms of enslaved people, and what some scholars say is the Holy See’s continued refusal to fully acknowledge it and atone for it.

“For Black Catholics, Pope Leo’s

International News

Pope prays at Catholic shrine in Angola that was a center of African slave trade

visit to the Muxima shrine is an important moment of healing,” said Anthea Butler, senior fellow at the Koch Center, Oxford University. She noted that many Black Catholics are Catholic because of slavery and the “Code Noir,” which she said required slaves purchased by Catholic owners to be baptized in the church.

“Others were already Catholic when they were trafficked from Angola to slave-holding colonies,” said Butler, a Black Catholic scholar whose maternal family hails from Louisiana, where the pope’s ancestors also had their roots.

The role of papal bulls in the slave trade

Angola’s Portuguese colonizers were emboldened by 15th-century directives from the Vatican that authorized them to enslave nonChristians. In 1452, for example, Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, which gave the Portuguese king and his successors the right “to invade, conquer, fight, and subjugate” and take all possessions — including land — of “Saracens, and pagans, and other infidels, and enemies of the name of Christ” anywhere, said the Rev. Christopher J. Kellerman, a Jesuit priest and author of “All Oppression Shall Cease: A History of Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Catholic Church.”

The bull also gave the Portuguese permission “to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery.”

That bull and another issued three years later, Romanus Pontifex, formed the basis of the Doctrine of Discovery, the theory that legitimized the colonial-era seizure of land in Africa and the Americas. The Vatican formally repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery in 2023, but never formally rescinded, abrogated, or rejected the bulls themselves. The Vatican insists that a later bull, Sublimis Deus in 1537, reaffirmed that Indigenous peoples shouldn’t be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property, and were not to be enslaved.

Ultimately, more than 5 million people left from Angola on the

trans-Atlantic slave route, more than any other country and nearly half of the roughly 12.5 million African slaves sent across the ocean. Kellerman recalled that most of these direct victims were sold into slavery by other Africans and not captured by Europeans.

“That being said, at the time of the building of Muxima, the Portuguese were doing both — buying enslaved people and colonizing/slave raiding — so they were fully using their papal permissions during this time,” Kellerman said in emailed comments to the Associated Press.

He said the first pope to condemn slavery itself was Pope Leo XIII, the current pope’s namesake, in two encyclicals in 1888 and 1890, after most countries had already abolished slavery. However, Kellerman said that pope and others since have continued to perpetuate the “false narrative” that the Holy See always opposed slavery, when the historical record says otherwise.

While Leo’s visit to Muxima was to commemorate its role as a shrine, Kellerman said he hoped Leo had also learned about its role in the slave trade.

“The popes repeatedly authorized Portugal’s colonization efforts in Africa and Portuguese participation in the slave trade, but the Vatican has never fully admitted this,” he said. “It would be so powerful if at some point, Pope Leo were to apologize for the popes’ role in the trade.”

During a 1985 visit to Cameroon, St. John Paul II asked forgiveness of Africans for the slave trade on behalf of Christians who participated in it, but not for the popes’ own role in it. In a 1992 visit to Goree Island, Senegal, the largest slave-trading center in West Africa, he denounced the injustice of slavery and called it a “tragedy of a civilization that called itself Christian.”

Leo’s personal history: a point of reflection

According to genealogical research published by Henry Louis Gates Jr., 17 of Leo’s American

ancestors were Black, listed in census records as mulatto, Black, Creole, or a free person of color. His family tree includes slaveholders and enslaved people, Gates wrote in the New York Times. Gates, a Harvard University professor who hosts the PBS documentary series “Finding Your

alma mater, and author of “Faithful and Devoted: Racism and Identity in the African American Catholic Experience.” “We haven’t heard anything from him about what he thinks about it, and so to impose anything on him, I think, would be completely inappropriate.”

Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the re-

Roots,” presented his research to Leo during a July 5 audience at the Vatican. According to a report of their meeting in the Harvard Gazette, “The pope asked about ancestors, both Black and white, who were enslavers.”

Leo has not spoken publicly about his family heritage or the genealogical research, and some Black Catholic scholars were hesitant to impose a narrative about his identity on him that he has not yet addressed.

“It’s important that we tell our own stories,” said Tia Noelle Pratt, a sociologist of religion and professor at Villanova University, the pope’s

tired archbishop of Washington and first African American cardinal, said he had facilitated the Gates-Leo encounter and was “delighted” to have done so.

“It’s one of the things that I think, for many African Americans and people of color, they identify with great pride that the pope has roots in our own heritage,” Gregory told the AP, “and I think he’s happy about that, too, because it’s another link to the people that he tries to serve and is called to serve.”

Gerald Imray contributed from Cape Town, South Africa.

“My overall experience was great. I love the window, and from sales to scheduling, the experience was very good. The installers are highly skilled professionals and I would recommend Renewal by Andersen to all my contacts.” – LYNN F. | RENEWAL BY ANDERSEN CUSTOMER

KEEP THE HEAT IN AND THE COLD

Arts & Entertainment

Ignatius Sancho: The most brilliant composer you’ve never heard of, now on view at the Frick

By MICHAEL HENRY ADAMS Special to the AmNews

On view at the Frick Collection until May 25, “Gainsborough: The Fashion of Portraiture” features paintings by one of the two leading British artists of the 18th Century. Contemporaries and rivals, Sir Joshua Reynolds and Sir Thomas Gainsborough were each founders of the Royal Academy.

Almost exclusively, they divided between them the task of skillfully portraying all the members of England’s aristocracy eager to be seen as epitomizing elegance.

In her fascinating 2022 online article “The Visible Invisibility of Black People in Aristocratic Portraiture,” playwright, director, producer and journalist Marjorie H. Morgan explained how showing enslaved African servants alongside the subjects of such works, was a trope frequently employed to elevate their whiteness “beauty” and status.

Unlike Reynolds, Gainsborough never did this. His sole Black sitter was Ignatius Sancho, whose likeness is included in the exhibition. Born in bondage and orphaned on a British slave ship, Sancho eventually progressively gained employment, useful introductions, an education, and his freedom through the intervention of John, second Duke of Montagu, and his wife Mary, a daughter of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough.

When immortalized by Gainsborough in 1768, Sancho was

engaged as a valet by his late patron’s son-in-law, George, first Duke of Montagu. Still in service, he was not pictured in the elaborate Montagu livery (uniform) he would have worn when working. Rather, he was shown with dignity in the sedate attire of a gentleman. And so he was.

Bequeathed an annuity of £30 and a year’s salary on the death of the second duchess in 1751, Sancho later became the owner of a grocery store he operated with his wife and their seven children. He gained celebrity as an abolitionist, musician, and writer.

Referred to as “The extraordinary Negro,” Sancho was only the second known Afro-Briton to vote in parliamentary elections. At his death in 1780, he became the first to receive an obituary in the British press.

With American millionaires like steel magnate Henry Clay Frick, who created the Frick Collection, eager to emulate the pomp and taste of British nobility, few works of art were more valuable than portraits by Gainsborough. Frick owned five, displayed in the library and dining room of his palatial house-turned-museum.

In 1921, when railroad tycoon Henry E. Huntington purchased “The Blue Boy,” a 1770 painting of an anonymous apprentice dressed like a 17th-century prince in the manner of Sir Anthony Van Dyke, for £182,000 (around $728,000 today), it was the highest price ever paid for a painting at that time. Equivalent in purchasing power

to approximately more than $13 million, it cost double what your average Gainsborough would be likely to realize nowadays. Indicative of societal evolution, the artist’s one-of-a-kind depiction of Sancho almost certainly would go for far more than the adjacent picture of his patron, the second Duke of Montague’s daughter, Mary, first Duchess of Montague of the second creation.

This seems to be attested to by the record price achieved in 2023 for a painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds. His bravura portrait of Polynesian Omai of the Friendly Isles realized £50,000,000 (approximately $67,511,750 today), which was justified, said broadcaster and art dealer Philip Mould, “in a declining market in 18th-century art thanks to the unusual diversity of the painting’s subject … it is hard to put a price on such a rare full-length portrait of a man of color.”

What makes this all emblematic of an aspect of racial inequality is knowing how in 1981, when entertainer Bill Cosby acquired Henry Ossawa Tanner’s “The Thankful Poor” for $287,000, it established a precedent as the record for the price paid for a work by an African American artist. During his lifetime, Tanner never sold a work for more than $3,000.

Since then, the international art market has evolved further. The stock of centuries- old white lords and ladies has greatly diminished, particularly versus slave narratives by Karen Walker, enigmatic portraits by Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, history paintings by Basquiat and Kerry James Marshall, or sculpture by Richard Hunt.

Highlighting Sancho’s largely forgotten acclaim as a composer, the Frick hosted “Exploring the Music of Ignatius Sancho,” a scholarly midday lecture, on Sunday. Presented by members of the early music ensemble Ruckus, with counter tenor Reginald Mobley, it outlined the harsh reality of racist hostility Sancho encountered despite his renown, and the fugitive and elusive his-

torical record that so often is the legacy of the marginalized, no matter how illustrious their reputation might have been in life.

“The incremental piecing together of fragmentary clues about Sancho’s life is like completing a puzzle. One never knows in what archive, diary, or newspaper, new revelations will emerge!” This informative talk was followed by an early evening concert featuring examples of the scant known survivors of the Black man’s oeuvre.

The virtuosity of the performance was fantastic. We were warned there would be 12 country dances for harpsichord, but they were transcribed to include seven on strings, a flute, and bassoon. Most delightful of all was the sparkling song of cherubic counter tenor Mobley. The frothy delicacy of his sparkling arpeggios was in vivid contrast with his formidable stature.

Another dramatic juxtaposition was the energetic and exuberant playing of music from so long ago. The Ruckus collaborative has deservedly been billed as “the world’s only period-instrument rock band” (San Francisco Classical Voice). Certainly, there was always a relatively rustic vitality associated with such music, bringing to mind Jan Bruegel the Elder’s “Wedding Feast.” Appealing across generational and class boundaries alike, we are not talking about the minuet’s refinement. Were Sancho’s frolics, the steps so carefully noted on his scores, really so filled with the abandon of a hootenanny such as this? Whether it was an authentically correct interpretation is beyond my meager knowledge, but judging by a standing ovation, with long and enthusiastic applause, Sancho’s modern-day audience adored it.

Photog’s decades-long career is love letter to urban spaces and community

By ROBERT E. GERHARDT, JR. Special to the AmNews

The Bronx Documentary Center is presenting a comprehensive survey of Martha Cooper’s nearly six-decade career of documenting urban spaces, community life, and creative expression.

“What can you say about Marty? Marty is fearless. You can be like, Marty, let’s go to the most dangerous neighborhood in the world. She’d be like, ‘What time?’” Wilfredo “Bio” Felician of Tats Cru, one of the top stylists in the New York City subway graffiti movement, said of photographer Martha Cooper in his introductory remarks at the opening of her exhibition “Streetwise” at the Bronx Documentary Center (BDC). “How she’s not in prison, I have no idea, because some of the stuff I’ve seen Marty do, Marty’s wild. But she’s dedicated.”

Cooper was born in Baltimore in 1942 and grew up surrounded by cameras because her father and uncle owned a camera store. She took her first photo at the age of 3, and early on began accompanying her father on trips with the Baltimore Camera Club. In 1977, she became the first female photographer for the New York Post and has spent almost 50 years specializing in documenting urban culture. Her work has been included in exhibitions around the world and published in monographs, including Hip Hop Files (2004), We b* Girls (2005), and Tag Town (2007). Her first book, “Subway Art” (1984), has been reprinted many times and is called the “bible” by many graffiti artists, as told by the Steven Kasher Gallery, which represents her.

The exhibition at the Bronx Documentary Center shows both Cooper’s photographs of graffiti writers and breakers in

New York City which are central to the history of hip hop, and that she is most well known for. It also reflects the broader scope of her photography, including a large body of work made in the Bronx.

Other series featured in the exhibition include Cooper’s photographs documenting casitas (informal community-built structures in Puerto Rican neighborhoods), BMX riding, and street racing. It also includes her work documenting the Sowebo neighborhood in Southwest Baltimore and Japan’s underground tattoo culture in the 1970s, from a time when it was rarely seen by Western media.

“It’s really a wonderful thing for me to be

able to bring some Bronx pictures back to the Bronx,” Cooper said in brief remarks at the exhibition’s opening. “This is really the first time I’ve done this, and people already have come up to me and said how much it reminded them of their youth and reminded them of the old neighborhoods. That makes me feel wonderful.”

Each of the subjects has its own section of the gallery, many of which are on three movable walls that bisect the BDC’s large Annex space. The sections are beautifully labeled with graffiti tags to denote each body of work. Also in the gallery are vitrines with copies of Cooper’s many books, as well as some of her cameras and other items

from her time working.

The photographs themselves are also beautifully printed. Roughly half were done in-house by the BDC.

“This is really a retrospective of her work. It’s not just the trains that everybody knows, but it’s a lot of the deeper work and the older work as well,” said Michael Kamber, founder and creative director of the BDC.

“I think there’s a whole part of our history here in the Bronx that just wouldn’t even exist and we wouldn’t even know about it if it wasn’t for Marty. A lot of these pictures you think are snapshots, but she spent days and days getting up on rooftops, going into abandoned buildings, getting to know people in the community, going into the trainyards in the middle of the night and photographing. The level of commitment when you’re seeing a photo — there’s so much work behind that photo.”

This commitment is easily seen in the depth of the work and the scenes that Cooper captured. You can’t make photographs like hers without knowing your subjects well, to the point that they are comfortable with having you and your camera around. You can’t take intimate photographs without spending that time, so people become not just subjects but friends.

When I asked Cooper what she hopes for visitors to the exhibition, she replied, “I hope maybe they look at their own neighborhood with a fresh eye, because nothing about this stuff is newsworthy. It’s all kinds of things I saw day to day.” It is that day to day that makes her photographs special.

“Martha Cooper’s Streetwise” is on view at the Bronx Documentary Center’s Annex (364 East 151 Street in the Bronx) through June 14, 2026. More information can be found at bronxdoc.org.

AmNews FOOD

Talking SCHOP! Something new, something old, something great

I am a born and raised New Yorker with vast memories of how the city used to be — all of the magical places for food, culture, socializing, and general galavanting that I’ve cherished, that over time have either disappeared or just been forgotten. That is, until you find yourself in a clandestine moment on the corner of “hungry” and “not wanting to try something new” where you are reminded of restaurants that are NYC institutions that stand the test of time.

On a recent Saturday, I was invited downtown to visit Cloudy Donuts’ Nolita location to try out their spring box of donuts. It would be my first time trying NYC’s first 100% vegan donut store and first Black-owned food and beverage business in Brooklyn Heights (original location) and Nolita. I have seen them come across my social feed and was grateful to have the opportunity to finally try them.

I invited my friend Raquel to join me in the experience and potential sugar high. We queued in the simple modern space while noting the flavors and coveting some donuts that left with a guest ahead of us who purchased more than a dozen. Yes, we were donut hawks!

For our spring box, we got to

choose four mini donuts — a blessing for our slow metabolisms.

We chose coconut cream, brown butter chocolate chip, lemon pistachio, and berry sage. Emerging grateful and victorious, we sat right outside on their bench and judiciously split them all.

The verdict: dah-voon! These light, airy, yeasted, fried, not greasy morsels are deftly balanced with exquisite and unexpected flavors. These are donuts we know and love that are consciously vegan. Of the lot, our fave was the lemon pistachio for the tart, sweet, nutty crunch of it all. I will most certainly return for more, especially the bananas Foster when

they are in season.

Next on our agenda was some lunch, but where? The bustling streets on a gorgeous sunny and warm day had me feverishly searching my phone for a new place to try. Then, like a moth to a flame, our OG New Yorkers’ superpowers tapped in and we found ourselves in a pole position corner banquet seat at the iconic Balthazar on Spring Street.

Restaurants like Balthazar are what my ‘90s NYC SoHo memories are made of — all are welcoming, provide great experienced service, and offer a consistent quality of French bistro food. Raquel and I shared the Baltha-

zar salad, warm goat cheese tart, and cheeseburger with frites.

No notes. We thanked our spirited server in as many languages as possible throughout our meal to see how many she knew, and taught her some for all of the international guests she serves, and she was game to do it. Our OG superpower did not steer us wrong because we were supposed to be there — to meet and have a voracious keekee with the iconic Brooke Shields and her friend about women of a certain age business. And no, we did not take a picture ’cause that is what OG New Yorkers do!

Raquel and I walked uptown

by the river and marked another great day in the annals of our lives.

Thanks for reading, and happy eating!

Kysha Harris is a chef, food writer and editor, culinary producer, consultant, and owner of SCHOP!, a personalized food service in NYC for more than 23 years. Follow her on Instagram, @SCHOPnyc, and Facebook, @SCHOPnyc.

Questions, comments, requests, feedback, invitations! Email at AmNewsFOOD@SCHOPnyc.com. Follow on Instagram and Facebook @NYAmNewsFOOD.

Young Harlem dancer heads to Paris with community support

By BRENIKA BANKS

Special to the AmNews

Culture, excellence, and dreams continue to prevail as special pop-ups occur in Harlem. Another one will happen this weekend at Harlem Haberdashery in support of Sadie Billy’s Paris Send-Off & Fundraiser. This upcoming pop-up highlights nine-year-old youth dancer Sadie Billy and her parents, Sade Williams and Akheem Billy, as they prepare for Sadie’s trip to Paris.

Community staple Harlem Haberdashery is holding the special retail fundraising pop-up in support of Sadie and her family’s trip to Paris through the Crea8ivity Dance exchange program. At the send-off, to be held on Saturday, April 25, the community will have the chance to engage in a meet and greet with Sadie, buy exclusive retail items made by her and other young artists, and, of course, support her journey to Paris as a young, professional dancer.

Cre8ivity in Motion, the dance studio where Sadie trains, offers acting classes as well as ballet, hip hop, and tap. The studio plans on launching their first international dance exchange called “Cre8ivity in Paris" in the spring of 2027.

Alan Robert, a dancer, choreographer, and faculty member at the Tenafly, NJ dance studio described “Cre8ivity in Paris” as a one-week “immersive program where our dancers will travel to Paris to train, create, and perform alongside French dancers.” Robert continued: “This experience is about more than travel, it’s about learning what it truly means to be an artist in a global community.” Cre8ivity in Motion’s Paris program intends to host professional workshops in hip hop, breaking, street jazz, tap, and contemporary dancing with both American and French educators. Harlem Haberdashery sincerely values their local youth. Sadie’s Paris fundraising

pop-up via nonprofit #TakeCareOfHarlem is one of the projects HH is highlighting. “At Harlem Haberdashery, we always support each other,” said Sharene “Shay” Wood, President of Harlem Haberdashery and Board President of #TakeCareOfHarlem. “Family is everybody — it’s community, it’s your blood family.” Wood is the cousin of Sadie and her mother, Sade Williams. Williams expressed being very thankful for her cousin, Wood, using her platform and position as President of Harlem Haberdashery to assist her daughter. “I’m so excited to help Sadie reach her dreams — roots in Harlem, raised in New Jersey, and headed to Paris, that’s a huge deal,” said Wood. “Anything that I can do to help my family move to the next level, I’m there.”

“We’re very excited that we get to showcase [the bracelets and other merchandise] for the fundraiser,” said Sadie’s father, Akheem Billy. “It’s all to support Sadie and getting her to Paris thanks to Shay and

Harlem Haberdashery.” Sadie and her mother make bracelets as part of her dance brand. According to Williams, Sadie started dancing at age four, after she enrolled Sadie into dance classes.

“What inspired me to become a dancer is when I would be seeing music videos and [watching] all those background dancers,” said Sadie. “I would always be like, ‘wow, they’re really good.’”

Robert further explained that during “Cre8ivity in Paris, ”The youth dancers will experience different teaching styles along with new ways of approaching movement and performance. Collaboration is their targeted goal for the dance studio trip as students are expected to create original choreography together, learning how to communicate effectively and resonate with one another across cultures.

“I want her to have a good experience and the opportunities that she has are wonderful for her age. I didn’t have this growing up,”

said Williams. “I’m living through her. She inspires me even though she’s my daughter and I want to see where the journey takes her.” Wood’s dream has always incorporated elevating her family, not only herself.

“If the dream is just for you, it’s too small — I have to think bigger, to make my family’s life better,” said Wood. Robert shared that the students and families in “Cre8ivity in Paris” will have guided tours to facilitate understanding the history and artistry of the city and France. Another exciting aspect is documenting and capturing the growth, in addition to the challenges of one American dancer and one French dancer during this journey.

“I really like dancing and I think it’s important to me because I just know when I get older, I’ll become better,” said Sadie. She continued, “... and not even when I’m older, probably still at this age I can get better at what I’m doing, and I can learn more and more.” Robert said “Cre8ivity in Paris” will be more than a trip: he described it as an investment in a dancer’s future as an artist and a person.

The dance studio, as well as Harlem Haberdashery, are both aligned in Sadie having a great fundraising event before her trip abroad. Wood expressed looking forward to the community being present in support on the 25th. “The dance and documentary opportunity is huge,” said Wood. “It’s a community event, so I’m looking forward to supporting my family and my community.”

“I’m expecting her to do great things, I’m excited for her and I hope her dreams come true,” said Billy, Sadie’s father.

Sadie voiced her advice to kids her age who are also dreamers: “I would say believe in yourself don’t let nobody else say what you can’t do.”

For more information, visit Sadie’s GoFundMe at gofund.me/5412ef3e9, and follow on IG at instagram.com/sadiebilly.

Bruce Cannon, Artistic Director of historic Marionette Theater in Central Park, discusses representation in puppetry

By JOHNNY KNOLLWOOD Special to the AmNews

Creatures of various fur levels, from human to bird to puppet, recently gathered on the lawn in Central Park outside the Swedish Marionette Theater on March 20, World Puppetry Day, to break ground on $10 million dollars in renovations to the historic structure that houses puppetry performances and has been a valuable part of New York City’s artistic landscape since 1876.

Bruce Cannon, the theater’s artistic director, was joined by puppets Garth and Gino Vino, performed by puppeteers Tau Bennett and Sebastiano Ricci, and a host of city politicians and community members to celebrate the groundbreaking which will provide much needed infrastructural improvements to the theater for the first time since 1997.

“Investing in the Swedish Cottage is an investment in the city’s cultural future,” said Heather Lubov, executive director of City Parks Foundation. “These improvements will allow us to continue introducing young theatergoers to the magic and craftsmanship of marionettes, while also expanding the capacity of this gem of a building — in the heart of the city’s most visited park — to reach more audiences and present a wider array of performances, including readings, musical showcases, lectures, intimate rehearsals, and so much more.”

Cannon has kept puppetry alive in NYC for over five decades. The puppeteer, who has worked on big budget films like “Muppets Take Manhattan,” and who serves as a board member for the Jim Henson Foundation where he oversees grant ap-

plications, has spearheaded puppetry productions in the city for much of his career, shifting with the times, and bringing new viewpoints into the medium that has fascinated viewers of all ages for thousands of years. “I think the big change since I first got here is social media … nowadays the kids like a little more visual stimulus,” Cannon told the AmNews in an exclusive

demonstrated a commitment to diversifying the stories told on the puppetry stage in NYC. “We know that parents and teachers like fairy tales — but for us it was important — particularly for me — that we made the fairy tales more multicultural,” Cannon explained to the Amsterdam News. “For instance, we did a story called “The Princess, the Emperor, and the Duck,” which was three Hans Christian Andersen stories. It was “The Princess and the Pea,” which we set in Africa, “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” which we set in China, and “The Ugly Duckling,” which we set in Central Park. That’s the kind of thing we like doing because I feel that it’s important that audiences see — in the puppets and the puppeteers — people that look like them.” Cannon understands the importance of representation across mediums. “When I’m in the building I always come out at the end of the show — and I don’t come out just because I need adulation, I come out because I think it’s important that Black and Brown children see that there is an artistic director of color, and this is something they can aspire to be.”

onsite interview, reflecting on his decades long career as a puppeteer in NYC. “We still have that attraction that we had back then — puppets and children is like a marriage made in heaven; they just love it. As you saw out there, puppets can say anything and do anything and get away with stuff that even humans could not get away with.” Throughout his career, Cannon has

The theater’s current production “Little Red Riding Hood,” will play on select weekends only throughout the renovation. Cannon can’t announce what productions lie on the horizon but expressed excitement. “We have an exciting new show — it’s a new version of a classic story and it’s going to be done like you’ve never seen before.” You can stay up to date with the Swedish Marionette Theater, get tickets to upcoming performances, and donate to the renovation at cityparksfoundation.org

Maestro Merriweather ensures that classical music continues to flourish in Harlem

By MICHAEL HENRY ADAMS Special to the AmNews

Despite intermittent springtime showers sprinkling, Saturday afternoon culminated with a superb sacred music concert at Harlem’s historic Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Celebrating the happy convergence of three anniversaries, the century-old Dessoff Choirs, the New York area’s oldest singing aggregation, presented Johann Sebastian Bach’s magnificent “Mass in B minor.”

No more resonant setting could be found than this atmospheric, century-old, neoGothic style house of worship, filled to its 1,000-seat capacity. Augmented by a full period orchestra, featuring exceptional soloists, this faultlessly performed famous choral work was conducted by Harlem’s marvelous music maestro Malcolm J. Merriweather. The concert was an observance of both Merriweather’s 10th anniversary conducting the Dessoff Choirs and his 10th year as a Brooklyn College faculty member. This was reflected by the inclusion of current college Conservatory students, alumni, and former Dessoff Choirs assistant conductors among the highly impressive ensemble.

Several audience members reported they were as charmed by the presentation’s setting as they were by the lovely music. Built between 1923–1925 on 137th Street near Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, Mother Zion today occupies the sixth building to house its congregation. It was designed by George W. Foster, the first registered African American architect in New York State. The history of this soaring structure is no less auspicious than its architecture.

First organized in 1774, Mother Zion was formed in 1796 by Black members of the predominantly white John Street Meth-

odist Church. Despite an abolitionist orientation, the church maintained strict segregationist policies in substantive ways that they grew to find intolerable. Relegated to the gallery, Blacks were only permitted to take Holy Communion after whites had communed first, children included.

Led by founding bishop James Varick (entombed in the undercroft), Mother Zion was renowned nationally as the Freedom Church. It played a crucial role advancing abolition while helping conduct the Underground Railroad, enlisting member Sojourner Truth in collaboration with members of other AME Zion congregations like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass. Each preached in earlier Mother Zion pulpits.

Until his death in 1963, the Rev. Benjamin C. Robeson, Paul Robeson’s elder brother, served as Mother Zion’s pastor. My personal hero associated with this extraordinary

shrine of liberty was the Rev. George McMurray. Beyond leading valiant opposition in the 1970s against Harlem’s destructive heroin epidemic, he put in motion plans in the 1990s to gain protection for Mother Zion as a designated city landmark.

“That’s only fitting,” said the current pastor, the Rev. Malcolm J. Byrd. Addressing the audience during the intermission, he noted that Mother Zion Church “is older than the nation” and reminded us of the biblical admonition that the Lord “loves a cheerful giver.”

Ample and enthusiastic, although 75% white, those attending this performance were a reminder of the prominent role that classical music has always played in the Black community. Promoted by brilliant professional musicians like Will Marion Cook, brothers J. Rosamond and James Weldon Johnson, Caska Bonds, Sarah

Jessye, and Hall Johnson, the Amsterdam News has always supported the excellence of African Americans involved in “serious music.” We have engaged among the most extraordinary journalists in the field, including Nora Holt Ray and Raoul Abdul. “We are so outnumbered and of necessity, must be so exceptional,” said one of the soloists, mezzo soprano Patrice Pates Eaton. “Manifesting the best work possible is what we do!” Daughter of the late revered Harlem soprano and choral director Patricia (Pat) Pates Eaton, who established the Three-on-Three concert music initiative, she extolled the erudition and virtuosity of the prodigious Merriweather, exclaiming, “He’s been a champion of the once nearly forgotten Black artist, like musical giant Margaret Bonds. Before anyone else, Malcolm resurrected and performed ‘Ballad of the Brown King,’ which she wrote with a libretto by Langston Hughes.”

She reminded me that “he’s Dr. Merriweather”: “Malcolm earned degrees from Eastman, the Manhattan School of Music, and Syracuse University, and was a fellow at Tanglewood!”

She asked, “Did you hear him sing?” and I admitted that I’d been taken aback when the striking conductor quietly put down his baton and commenced to sing, in perfect German in a sweet, pure baritone voice. “Well, he is also most accomplished as a pianist and an organist, too.”

The upshot? Among America’s professional choral and orchestral directors, only a little more than 2% are Black. In the face of the advent of a presidential policy to remove African Americans from every sphere, no less dire than the Nazis’ Nuremberg Laws in 1938, the Amsterdam News pledges to do our best to make sure you know who they are.

Fay Victor, Sistas’ Place, Jazz Genius

In Gotham, the world’s greatest music city, the Jazz Gallery stands out for booking the most inventive artists on the jazz scene. We could refer to the small nonprofit as being audacious, but adventurous is more succinct. They prefer to be outside the jazz realm, presenting artists who energize audiences to say, “Wow, I’ll be back for more of that!”

On April 24–25, the Jazz Gallery (1158 Broadway) presents the innovative vocalist, lyricist, and composer Fay Victor, known to make audiences around the world shout a big “Wow!” For most of her prominent career, she has been equated with the fierce avant-garde song styling of Abbey Lincoln and the vivid revolutionary storytelling of Nina Simone.

As a sound explorer, Fay constantly digs deeper into understanding what she is trying to say in a repertoire that sings far beyond the American Songbook. She prefers the title “sound artist,” which allows her the independence to dive into the intricate works of Ornette Coleman, Thelonious Monk, and her recently acclaimed album “Life is Funny that Way: Herbie Nichols Sung” (TAO Forms 2024). This significant work, which deserved much more attention, marked the first time a full program of lyrics and arrangements had been written and recorded for Nichols’s compositions. Fay effortlessly jumped genres from blues, spoken word, jazz, swing, avant-garde, and free-flowing improv. “I love learning difficult music — it’s a challenge trying to figure it out and do it; it opens up more possibilities for material,” she said. “My joy comes in mastering it and making it seem easy to do so it seems effortless, like the greats.”

Her absorbing improv scats and lyrical phrasing throughout her works of 13 albums are more than improvisational moments. She has an intentional flow — a foundation that supports her lyricism; something Miles Davis referred to as “spontaneous creation.” It’s not unbridled improvisation coming out of nowhere, but structured, disjointed courses that connect.

For her two-night engagement, Fay will be joined by an all-star lineup of creative bandleaders and composers in their own right, forming an inspired nonet to perform Fay’s original work “Faith, The Gift,” an eight-piece movement dedicated to her deceased mother, Faith Evangeline Susannah Victor. It is a media-driven program that includes video, photos, and spoken word by ensemble members. Her rousing roster of friends and former bandmates will include flutes, Nicole Mitchell; bass clarinet, Marty Erhlich; pianist Angelica Sanchez; cello, Marika Hughes; double bassist Sean Conly;

trombonist Zekkereya El-magharbel; trumpeter Chris Williams, and drummer Reggie Nicholson. The nonet will be conducted by Rebekah Heller.

“I started writing this piece in 2018 as a Herb Albert/Yaddo Fellow,” said Fay during a recent phone interview. “Receiving the George Wein TJG Fellowship in 2025 was major in bringing this project together. I have been coordinating this ensemble since last July and we are all very excited about our upcoming performances.”

For tickets, visit jazzgallery.org.

Pianist, composer, NEA Jazz Master Randy Weston’s centennial forges ahead in Brooklyn where last week, the Brooklyn Public Library featured a musical and spiritual journey performed by Gnawa musicians with Maalem Hassan Ben Jaafer, who regularly performed with Weston’s African Rhythms Quintet.

On April 25, Sistas’ Place (456 Nostrand Avenue) honors their native son, Weston, who played at the club on many occasions, with a centennial celebration Westonalia: The Randy Weston Centennial Musical Tribute, featuring percussionist Baba Neil

Clarke, pianist Sharp Radway, and bassist Alex Blake.

Randy’s longtime band African Rhythms usually performs as a complete quintet unit, but for this outing, they will appear in trio mode. “Performing with the rhythm section gives us an opportunity to explore a different aspect of Randy’s music in a trio format,” said Radway. As a Pan-African, Randy’s music was inspired by his Brooklyn roots and the long-extended roots of the motherland. He was a musical sage, a guru. On visiting him in Brooklyn, he made sure I left with a few videos about Africa, CDs, and notes from various projects he was working on.

“For me, Randy’s mentorship is a continuous journey — he never left my side and I continue to experience his mentorship,” said Radway. “This is another opportunity to celebrate Randy as a man, musician, mentor, teacher, and pioneer. We are so honored to have been a part of his life and now to carry on his legacy.”

Two shows, at 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. For reservations, call 718-398-1766. For more info, visit sistasplace.org.

Just a few days ago, on an unusually hot day, I ventured down to Manhattan’s Lower East Side to interview Marc Rabinowitz, owner of Jazz Genius (151 Essex Street, just two blocks from the F train). In recent months, five or more new jazz clubs have sprouted melodic roots.

“I have been going to jazz clubs for over 30 years. It was a real passion. During my vacations, I traveled all over, checking out jazz festivals and local jazz clubs,” said Marc. “Jazz is a universal language that brings people together. I’m trying to create an atmosphere where people can connect while hearing some good music.”

Currently, Jazz Genius is open for a Wednesday night Jam Session led by Michael Shekwoaga Ode, who studied with NEA Jazz Master Billy Hart and has played with Wallace Roney Jr., Gary Bartz, and Javon Jackson: 7:30 p.m.–10:30 p.m., admission $10 plus one-drink minimum. Live sets Thursday through Sunday, two sets each night at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., $30 music charge and $15 minimum.

The Jazz Genius music room is downstairs in the basement with a capacity of 40–50 people. A small number of folding chairs are carefully placed on the left side on entering and directly in front of the band; there are tables and chairs in the rear next to the bar and a long counter that allows folks to eat if they aren’t interested in sitting at a table. There is a perfect view of the band, regardless of where one sits, even though the stage is not elevated. For some reason, it reminds me of Slug’s, one of the Lower East Side’s most popular jazz clubs in the 1960s, maybe because it has such a casual atmosphere.

The kitchen, which is 100% gluten-free, is open during performances. The groundlevel bar and seating allow customers to remain upstairs for food and drinks only. At some point, this space may become open during the day; there is a lot of foot traffic on the block, so perhaps jazz and lunch.

At the moment, Marc’s bookings lean toward piano trios and quartets, but says he is open to other arrangements. “Pianist Cyrus Chestnut is the reason why I started going to see jazz,” he recalled. “Once seeing him, I made it a point to make all his NYC shows when possible. If he ever noticed me, he probably thought I was stalking him. Maybe one day he will perform here.”

The neighborhood is home to major avant-garde musicians, so we can hope that they will be booked since many live within walking distance.

Upcoming artists include April 23–25, Elew Piano Trio; April 30–May 2, Eddie Allen Quartet; and May 7–9, T.K. Blue Trio Planet Bluu. This is a rare opportunity to see saxophonist/flutist Blue, longtime music director of Randy Weston’s African Rhythms and leader of his own bands, in trio mode. For reservations, visit httptickettailor. com/events/jazzgenius or email thejazzgenius@gmail.com.

Legionnaires

meeting, including Kim Smith, a local journalist who founded the Harlem Legionnaires’ Task Force.

“Thankfully we’ve been able to, you know, accomplish a couple of things in such a short amount of time because of the urgency of our

neighbors dying [from] a disease that’s preventable,” Smith told the AmNews. “We can’t just sit back in the cut and [say] we can’t do that … I’m hopeful that we — the community [and] the stakeholders — continue to build on the notion of how [can] we improve.”

The notice credits the Harlem Legionnaires’ Task Force for collecting many of the letters sup-

porting the reforms. Smith says she leveraged relationships in the community as a lifelong resident to bring in those knowledgeable in housing and health last August to help with these efforts.

Back when the task force started, the neighborhood scrambled for more information. Initially, the city did not publicly identify the infected buildings and Smith

later learned she lived between two such clusters. More than 110 known infections were ultimately recorded, and one of the contaminated cooling towers was later revealed to be located at Harlem Hospital.

Frustration has also mounted because the city’s Legionnaires’ outbreaks largely occur in communities of color, most notably

in the South Bronx in 2015, which left at least 16 people dead and fueled many of the original cooling tower regulations. The remaining 30 or so written comments largely raised concerns about how this would impact property owners and managers, as well as questioned the effectiveness of increasing the frequency of monitoring and testing.

government did for me. I’ve been looking to pay it forward ever since. But right now, it seems like all of the headaches, all of the nonsense, and the hurt that people are feeling in this country are coming by way of the federal government. Whether that’s increasing gas prices, inflation going up, a war with Iran, cuts to SNAP, and cuts to Medicare. There’s always something going on that is making our lives more difficult, not easier from the federal government. So I want to be able to go to Washington. Not only to be an activist, but also to get things done.

AmNews: Because of that political landscape you just described, how are you gonna push back against those conservative policies?

Reynoso: I’ve been able to show in my time in the City Council, for example, that even as a freshman member that I’m very effective. I know how to build coalitions. I know how to get controversial bills passed. I got the NYPD Right to Know Act (RTKA) passed. I got Commercial Waste Zones passed. I got outdoor dining passed. These are all pieces of legislation that were very controversial. And I was able to speak to a ton of people with different points of view to get it done. So the skills that I was able to grow into and attain as a councilmember, I think are skills that can be used to finally get some stuff moving in Congress. I feel like I’m uniquely qualified to push the agenda of the workingclass people of America.

AmNews: New York’s 7th Congressional District, right? Very diverse. I know you’re already super familiar with Williamsburg in Brooklyn. So how about the Queens part? How are you getting to know the other half

of the district?

Reynoso: I represented Ridgewood, not only as a staff member with City Councilmember Diana Reyna, but then when I became a councilmember, Ridgewood was a part of my district. I already knew Ridgewood, Maspeth, Glendale, all of Community Board 5 in Queens. Parts of this district that I’m very familiar with so it’s not completely foreign to me. Since the campaign started, I have been in Long Island City. I’ve been in Sunnyside. I went to Queensbridge Houses and Woodside. I’ve been moving around the district and it’s been amazing. It’s been a great experience in this campaign to get to know the neighborhoods, their character, their people, their small businesses. It’s been quite the experience. What I’ve come to note is that we’re all struggling with the same thing. Affordability is giving us a hard time. It doesn’t look like this federal government is working for the working-class people.

AmNews: I noticed you’ve been endorsed by the Queens Democrats, New Kings Democrats, naturally, and the Brooklyn Young Dems, but not the Brooklyn Democratic Party. What’s up with that?

Reynoso: So my history, I was a founder of New Kings Democrats, and was one of the first activists working against the county party in its corrupt ways of the past. And I grew up as a reformer in politics. So I’ve been fighting against the Brooklyn County Party for a long time. I think we need more transparency, more reform.

We are the largest county of Democrats in the country, and we should be a model for how the Democratic Party should be moving, and instead we’re not. We’re constantly caught up in corruption. We use bully tactics. We don’t increase participation. It’s more about amassing power versus helping Democrats win. And so I wanted to change that and I worked for more than

a decade to make that happen. So, I have a relationship with Queens County, with New Kings Democrats, with Brooklyn Young Dems. Those are all organizations that continue to move progressively and have exhibited movement towards more transparency and inclusion. The Democratic Party of Brooklyn hasn’t necessarily moved in that way. So yeah, it’s no shock to me that I haven’t been endorsed by them.

AmNews: On to policy matters. What exactly would you change in terms of the federal immigration policies to better support immigrant communities and asylum seekers?

Reynoso: The first thing is an honest and true path to citizenship. I think the issue we have is that there’s no clear system by which we accomplish immigration reform, and we need to start working on that. There were opportunities for the last couple of decades to get something done, and we haven’t been able to accomplish it. So the first thing I want to do is see if we can build comprehensive immigration reform. And abolishing ICE is deeply important in [the] work that needs to get done. It’s a militaristic force that is terrorizing our communities, terrorizing immigrants that have contributed greatly to this country, especially in cities like New York. So as a son of immigrants, and someone that understands the value of immigrants, I’m going to make sure that I fight for every single one of them.

AmNews: How would you advocate for environmental initiatives and affordable housing at the congressional level? Even with the cuts being made.

Reynoso: Ever since the Faircloth Amendment was enacted in the late 1990s, we haven’t built affordable housing or contributed greatly to the construction of new housing in this country. And I think it’s hurt us. During crisis moments of the past, presidents

and mayors have come together to build a ton of housing during emergency and crisis cases. I believe we’re in a housing crisis right now, and the federal government plays almost no role in supporting the American people. I want to repeal the Faircloth Amendment, to allow for the federal government to partner in the construction and development of new housing, like NYCHA or what people call social housing. Then we need to have a conversation about reestablishing the American dream and assisting with middle-class home ownership. And then environmental justice. We’ve fought here in North Brooklyn against ExxonMobil and Newtown Creek around truck traffic. What we see is a president that is willing to undo decades of environmental, sustainability work over how he woke up that day. We need to build securities in the contracts that are signed by the federal government for issues like environmental justice. When the president wakes up and thinks that wind farms are not something he wants to do, even though we had a contract and millions of dollars have been spent. He shouldn’t have the authority to unilaterally push it back, cost us millions, delay the project, and cost people jobs. So I want to ensure that once contracts are signed, that if a president has an objection, he has to go through proper protocols and channels, to be able to object to it. Freeze the money and then have a court make a decision on whether it can stay frozen or whether the company can keep it. The burden of proof that the program isn’t working, should fall on the president’s office or the president to make a determination, and thereafter if it’s found that it’s not something that should proceed, then we could pull money. But for us to just pull money through executive order, it speaks to partisan politics and political decisions based on emotions versus data and fact.

AmNews: Adjacent to the environmental issue is the rising cost of energy and the war in Iran. What do you think?

Reynoso: Two things. It is absolutely ridiculous that we’re at war, a war that we don’t need to be in, and a war where no imminent threat actually existed. I think that we’ve made a big mistake entering there. But then the repercussions of that are that energy prices are through the roof. We’ll pay more for gas in a time when people have less disposable income than ever. I just think it’s irresponsible for the president to have gone to war and put the American people through this extended crisis. And the other thing is, we wouldn’t be so reliant on oil if we just put forth a lot of the environmental and sustainability practices that we’ve been committing to. I just think that we need to get there and double down on the building of renewable energy infrastructure so we could wean away from the need for natural gas and petroleum. That hasn’t been the case. We’ve been slow-playing our transition and what you see today with the prices of gas and how people are burdened with that is a reflection of our inability to act at the state and city level.

AmNews: So, on the off chance that you don’t win your congressional run, would you consider running against Mayor Mamdani for what would be his second term in four years?

Reynoso: I’m focused on running this race. This race is the one that I think is most important right now. I think the American people need a fighter in Congress, and that’s where I want to be to fight for them. Anything related to my future is something that I’ve not thought about. I’m focused on this race and this race only. I haven’t thought past June 23rd.

The New York State primary will take place June 23, 2026. The general election follows on November 3, 2026.

Education

NYC’s 2026-27 school calendar is out: late September start, a Monday finish in June

By AMY ZIMMER Chalkbeat

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.

New York City’s 2026-27 public school calendar is out, and families can expect a long summer, with the first day of school starting on Thursday, Sept. 10.

They can also expect a late start to next summer, with the last day of school falling on Monday, June 28 — a dog-leg day that’s a recipe for low attendance.

Parents and educators have been eagerly awaiting next year’s calendar, which the Education Department quietly released on Tuesday. School typically starts the Thursday after Labor Day, and because September starts on a Tuesday, this year’s first day of school is on the later side, likely causing many parents child care headaches. (Teachers report to work two days before students return.)

New York state requires 180 days of instruction, but it allows for up to four days of teacher professional development to count toward that target, and New York City is using three such days to meet the mandate. That means students will be in class for 177 days in the coming school year. That

number does not include the two half days students have scheduled for parent-teacher conferences.

The current school year calendar had 176 days for students, and then on top of that, the city got a waiver from the state for a snow day in February. In general, because New York City’s school day of six hours and 20 minutes is below the national average, students in the five boroughs spend less time in class than their peers across the country.

Here are some other quirks and notable pieces of information about this year’s calendar:

Election Day, on Nov. 3, will be a remote day for students, unlike this year when students were off.

School will be off on Good Friday, which is March 26, but not on the Monday following Easter. In 2023, the Education Department added that <a href="https://www.chalkbeat. org/newyork/2023/6/26/23774160/nyc-2023-2024-school-calendar-update-days-offeaster-passover-eid-diwali/">Monday to the calendar following backlash. </a>

To avoid some of that backlash, spring break will be from Thursday, April 22 through Friday, April 30, covering all of Passover.

Although new holidays have been

added to the calendar over the past few years, several of them aren’t days off this year: Diwali, the “festival of lights” celebrated by Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and Jains around the world, falls on a weekend. Lunar New Year falls during the February mid-winter recess. Juneteenth is on a Saturday. (Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is also on a weekend.)

After this story initially published, Education Department officials explained the justification for ending on a Monday, saying that the school year always ends before the second to last weekday in June.

When there was a Monday dog-leg day before winter break a few years back, the city ended up giving that as a day off. And this year, the city wound up also granting a day off when students were scheduled to return on Friday, Jan. 2.

City officials did not commit to whether they will continue the practice of traditional snow days or will once again pivot to remote learning, leaving the possibility open to hold remote classes when buildings are closed due to inclement weather.

Robert Murtfeld, a parent leader in Manhattan’s District 1, who has been pushing for more family involvement in scheduling the calendar — which is hashed out by the Education Department and teachers

union — was disappointed that the city did not immediately notify families upon publishing the calendar.

His district’s Community Education Council, representing Manhattan’s Lower East Side and East Village, passed a resolution earlier this school year calling on the Education Department to make calendar decisions in future years with input from the “broader school community,” including parents and students.

In response, Education Department officials wrote, “We are working on creating an online tool for families and others that outlines the school calendar creation process.”

Education Department officials on Tuesday afternoon sent Chalkbeat a link to this “tool” explaining how the calendar is created, which they released on the same day as the new calendar. Officials, however, had yet to share the tool with the parents who asked for it, Murtfeld said, adding, “No parents were consulted on the calendar.”

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

Update: Officer charged with manslaughter released on bail pending appeal

By TANDY LAU Amsterdam News Staff

Convicted ex-NYPD sergeant Erik Duran was reportedly released from prison on $300,000 bail on Monday, April 20, as he appeals his second-degree manslaughter conviction for killing fleeing Bronx man Eric Duprey by throwing a cooler at his head in 2023. He was sentenced to three to nine years in prison earlier this month.

Background on the incident

On Aug. 23, Duprey allegedly sold cocaine to an undercover officer in the Bronx, according to the Office of the New York State Attorney General. The 30-year-old man allegedly fled on a motorized scooter during the arrest attempt. Duran picked up and chucked a nearby picnic cooler at Duprey’s head, causing him to crash. He was soon pronounced dead.

Like all police killings, the attorney general’s office investigated the incident. Ultimately, Duran was the first officer convicted over an on-duty civilian death since Peter Liang for fatally shooting Akai Gurley in 2016.

What people are saying Duran’s union, the Sergeants Benevolent

Association, published his statement after the news:

“First and foremost, I want to thank my family, particularly my wife, my children, and my parents for all their unconditional love and support throughout this ordeal,” he wrote. “I also want to thank God for giving me the strength and guiding me through the darkness. I thank my entire legal team for never giving up in their pursuit of justice. And finally, I want to thank my union, the SBA, my brothers and sisters in the NYPD, and my brothers and sisters in blue around the world.

“Your unwavering support and solidarity will never be forgotten. Thank you everyone for your prayers. I now look forward to seeing my family and fighting my appeal with the same determination I demonstrated throughout my career in the NYPD

Black Lives Matter of Greater New York leaders Chivona and Hawk Newsome released a statement calling the decision to grant Duran bail pending appeal “an appalling miscarriage of justice.”

“After a fair trial and a historic conviction, the system has once again chosen to prioritize the comfort of a killer with a badge over the safety and dignity of our community,” they wrote. “This is a calculated effort to undermine Judge Guy Mitchell. By granting this stay, the appellate court has signaled that the expertise and authority of a veteran Black jurist — and the decision of a jury of our peers — mean nothing when they conflict with the interests of the ‘Blue Wall.’

“It is a slap in the face to every New

Yorker who believes that no one is above the law. While thousands of Black and Brown New Yorkers languish in Rikers Island without ever being convicted of a crime, a man found guilty of manslaughter is allowed to walk free because of a back-door legal maneuver.”

‘Death of a Salesman’ is devastatingly poignant on Broadway

By LINDA ARMSTRONG Special to the AmNews

There is nothing like it on Broadway! The revival of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” playing at the Winter Garden Theatre (1634 Broadway), is one of the most stunning pieces of theater you will experience this season. Although written in 1949, it is just as relevant today. From the opening scene, you can feel the desperation, the sadness, the hopelessness that the main character — salesman Willy Loman — feels as he comes home early from another unsuccessful sales trip. In fact, he could not even make it to his destination.

Willy has worked for the same company for decades as a salesman, and while he used to be popular and made good money, now many of the people he sold merchandise to are dead, and the new generation of buyers does not know or respect him. Imagine being a salesperson and people not taking you seriously. How can you sell a product when you can’t sell yourself? With Willy’s bills backed up — his is the only income for himself and his wife Linda — plus his two grown sons, Biff and Happy, not having truly found their way in life, you find yourself in a very complex story of how people’s lives can overwhelm them. You find the story of a father and his sons who have not looked at life from a realistic, mature point of view and years later are paying the price for it. What’s the importance of how we achieve the American Dream? What’s the importance of truth

in our lives? If things don’t go as planned, what’s the way out?

If you have never seen “Death of a Salesman” or even if you are deeply familiar with it, you will be moved by the human tragedy before your eyes. It is heartbreaking to watch the mental instability of Willy Loman. It is sad to realize that all the moments of his life he reflects on with joy are merely memories of close relationships with his two boys, especially with his oldest son Biff, that do not exist anymore.

His wife Linda is his constant support, and his advocate for better treatment from his boss at work and for more respect from his sons at home. She is quick to call them out about mistreating him.

This play will have you captivated as you watch the tragedies that befall this family. It is a play that will have you reflecting about the choices we all make in life.

From the time that Nathan Lane is seen on the stage pulling up and parking his car as Willy Loman, he truly embodies the character. He exudes a sense of desperation, slow-building sadness, and a feeling of hopelessness and exhaustion — exhaustion due to the consequences of the choices he has made in life. He is exhausted and frustrated by the lack of choices his grown sons have made in life. He is exhausted by the world around him changing and not being able to feel liked, respected, and successful. Lane demonstrates every level of this character’s mental demise, which makes your heart go out to him. Lane’s flawless performance seems to proclaim

“class is in session” as he delivers a master class in acting, movingly portraying this elderly salesman.

Laurie Metcalf is incredibly moving as Linda. She sees what is good and caring about Willy. She sees his worth and tries to boost him up however she can. She also realizes how he is deteriorating mentally and she is relentless in her defense of who and what he is — a dreamer and a good man.

Christopher Abbott as Biff is poignant, empathetic, and devastatingly touching. Abbott shares this character’s pain with such a depth of emotion and feeling, you have to acknowledge and appreciate it. Ben Ahlers as Happy delivers an engaging performance. His character seems shallow, but has layers to him as well.

Willy’s best friend and neighbor, Charley, is marvelously portrayed by K. Todd Freeman. He performs this role with understanding and empathy as he witnesses Willy’s desperation. Bernard, Biff’s friend from growing up, is stunningly played by Michael Benjamin Washington. Everyone on the stage brings their A game to this production. Other cast members include Joaquin Consuelos as Young Biff; Jake Termine as Young Happy; Karl Green as Young Bernard; Jonathan Cake as Willy’s older brother, Uncle Ben; John Drea as Howard Wagner, Willy’s boss; and Katherine Romans as Miss Forsythe, Willy’s love interest.

The direction by Joe Mantello is nothing less than perfect. Every moment in the theater is gripping. Every facet of this work

screams Broadway gold, from the performance to the technical aspects, including set design by Chloe Lamford, costume design by Rudy Mance, lighting design by Jack Knowles, sound design by Mikaal Sulaiman, and hair & wig design by Robert Psickens.

Make it your business to see “Death of a Salesman.” For three hours, you will be enthralled and moved by this play. You will realize that you’ve been given a theatrical gift to be cherished.

For tickets, visit salesmanbroadway.com.

Health

Under fire, RFK Jr. denies calling for ‘re-parenting’ of Black kids

By JENNIFER PORTER GORE Word in Black

Confronted with a statement he made on a podcast in 2024 calling for Black children on ADHD medication to be “re-parented,” Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told a House committee on Thursday not to believe their lyin’ ears.

During an exchange with Rep. Terri Sewell, an Alabama Democrat, Kennedy said he didn’t recall making the statement and accused Sewell of “just making stuff up.”

The record, however, says otherwise.

“Every Black kid is now just standard put on Adderall, SSRIs, benzos, which are known to induce violence,” Kennedy said on the 19Keys online show, when he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination. “And those kids are going to have a chance to go somewhere and get reparented — to live in a community where there’ll be no cellphones, no screens. You’ll actually have to talk to people.”

Pending budget cuts

The exchange with Sewell, who called Kennedy’s remarks “disturbing,” came during the HHS secretary’s at times contentious testimony before the Republican-controlled House Ways and Means Committee. In his first appearance before Congress this year, Kennedy praised the agency’s work to change the nation’s dietary guidelines and decrease waste, fraud, and abuse.

Kennedy also claimed that the administration’s overhaul has led to improved drug price negotiations that have decreased prices, but a Senate committee report released Thursday finds that drug prices have actually continued to skyrocket.

While the committee’s Republicans praised Kennedy as “a breath of fresh air” for emphasizing nutrition and overall health, Democrats slammed him for the Trump administration’s plan to cut roughly 12% from his department’s 2027 budget. The reduction would carve more than $100 billion from the agency that provides healthcare services to all Americans.

Home energy assistance threatened

Along with slashing $5 billion from the National Institutes of Health, the nation’s world-class health and biomedical research organization, the proposed cuts would also eliminate a program that provides home heating and energy assistance to almost 6 million households. It would also slash budgets for federal programs that help feed low-income families and children.

Kennedy also took fire for changes to the vaccine schedule — a move that the courts have sidetracked for now, which has been halted by a legal injunction — and a series of measles outbreaks that spread through South Carolina and Texas earlier this year.

Kennedy’s remarks about separating Black children who have attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other mental health issues from their parents drew substantial heat.

‘Re-parenting controversy’

Pressed by Sewell, Kennedy continued to deny he said anything of the sort, but

several social media users reposted the original recording of Kennedy touting his plan for “wellness farms.” He also brought up the idea more than once — including during an interview with the High Level Conversations podcast.

At the hearing, Sewell pressed Kennedy:

“Have you ever re-parented — or parented, I should say — a Black child?”

Kennedy responded that he did not “even know what that phrase means” and denied he made the remark. “I’m not going to answer something I didn’t say,” Kennedy said. “You’re just making stuff up.”

Sewell insisted she was “absolutely not making this up, Mr. Secretary.” Even now, she said, Black children and their parents are separated more often than white families “not because of their greater harm, but because of longstanding bias and built-in institutionalism.”

To suggest that Black families “are not capable of raising their own children is deeply offensive, sir,” she said.

Religion & Spirituality Erykah Badu ignites a tithing debate

By REV. DOROTHY S. BOULWARE Word in Black

Erykah Badu: If Tithers Had Invested the 10%, They’d Now be Millionaires

The Black church has long been the place where faith and survival meet; where generations gave what they had to build what they were denied.

So when Erykah Badu suggested there might be more Black millionaires if Black churchgoers stopped tithing — giving 10% of one’s income directly to the church — she wasn’t just talking money. The Grammy-winning, neo-soul pioneer touched a nerve about how traditions intersect with economic realities. For others, it underscores the enduring role of the Black church as both a spiritual and communal anchor.

And it raises questions about whether one of the Black faith community’s most sacred traditions is helping close the wealth gap, or quietly widening it.

‘Group Chat Collection Plate’

Bishop Talbert Swan, prelate of the Greater Massachusetts Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, Church of God in Christ, wasted no time answering Badu. He clapped back in a Facebook post with facts and figures, throwing an elbow or two in the process.

“The average church in America has 75 members or fewer,” wrote Swan, who is also an activist, author, and NAACP president. “Out of that 75, only 10% actually tithe consistently.”

“That’s not a revenue stream,” he quipped, “that’s a group chat with a collection plate.”

With such a small average membership, a Black church “brings in $240,000 or less per year,” Swan wrote. “The average Bentley [luxury sedan] costs $300,000, which is more than many churches bring in all year. So no, the ‘math ain’t mathing,’ and neither is [Badu’s] argument.”

Other pastors and theologians were quick to respond, emphasizing that tithing has sustained institutions that have long filled gaps left by systemic inequities, including helping people stave off eviction, put food on the table, and pay for college. Several have pointed out that tithes were the financial foundation of the civil rights movement.

Tithe, or Bills?

Badu has not added to the original statement, but the conversation it sparked continues to resonate. For some, it raises necessary questions about how traditions intersect with economic realities. For others, it underscores the enduring role of the Black church as both a spiritual and

communal anchor. But at least one Black finance expert says Badu may have a point.

The practice of tithing is deeply rooted in Christian tradition, particularly within Black churches. It has historically served not only as a spiritual discipline but also as a communal support system — and the financial foundation of the Civil Rights Movement, which Swan pointed out in his post.

Badu and Black America, he wrote, “are enjoying freedoms today that were organized, strategized and fought for in Black churches.” Jabbing at Badu’s profession, Swan said the Civil Rights Movement didn’t meet at Spotify headquarters, but in sanctuaries. Churches and pastors led voter registration drives, he said — not concert promoters.

Mutual Aid, Civil Rights

Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, has spoken often on the subject of church stewardship. He often reminds parishioners that tithing “has funded education, civil rights organizing, and community survival.”

Historians note that during segregation and the Jim Crow era, tithes from Black churches helped build schools, funded mutual aid societies, and gave financial support to political movements, including those connected to the Civil Rights Movement.

Scholars consistently note a gap: Black church giving is under-researched, especially compared to predominantly white congregations.

Sociologist Sandra L. Barnes, author of one of the most-cited studies on Black churches across seven denominations, found that tithing is “normative in at least one-third” of Black congregations. The Church of God in Christ (COGIC), Baptist, and Pentecostal denominations have the highest percentages of tithers, compared with Presbyterian or United Methodist congregations.

Paying the Pastor First

While tithing may be more widely practiced in Black churches, congregants are typically giving with smaller sums of money than in white churches — the result of systemic economic disparities. Practically speaking, that means fewer people could become billionaires from withholding their tithes.

Still, some financial experts say Badu’s critique taps into a broader conversation about wealth gaps. According to data from the Federal Reserve, Black households in the United States hold significantly less wealth than white households, a disparity rooted in generations of discriminatory policies. Critics of tithing argue that consistent giving — especially among lowerincome earners — can limit opportunities

for saving and investing.

Dr. Boyce Watkins, a finance expert, author, and founder of The Black Business School, has long suggested that redirecting even a portion of tithes into investments could produce long-term wealth gains.

“Never pay the pastor before you,” Watkins wrote on Instagram. “Pay for your bills, your investments, and your family. Nobody’s coming to save you. You have to save yourself.”

Wealth and Inequality

But many clergy, including Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, argue that the fundamental issue is inequality, not generosity. Barber, a Yale University theologian, pastor, and civil rights warrior, points to structural barriers — including wage gaps, housing discrimination, and limited access to capital — as primary reasons for the scarcity of Black billionaires.

Barber has said that the problem is “not that people give to God. The problem is systems that take from the poor and concentrate wealth at the top.”

If some question whether Black tithing has prevented Black billionaires, there’s no

question that the practice has kept Black people from sinking further into poverty.

Besides funding schools, social services, and civil rights groups, church tithes have financed college scholarships, stocked pantries for food drives, and paid for school backpacks and winter coats. Just recently, Alfred Street Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., donated more than $1 million to prevent more than 300 area families from being evicted. Late last year, Spirit and Truth Church in Southwest Atlanta eliminated $1.5 million in medical debt for approximately 1,100 families in the region.

Within congregations, reactions to Badu’s statement have varied. Some younger churchgoers say her comment reflects a generational shift toward financial literacy and skepticism of institutional practices. Others see it as a misunderstanding of the spiritual purpose of giving.

And Rev. Dr. Gina Stewart teaches her followers that tithing is ultimately it’s a matter of faith.

The practice, she says, “isn’t just about money — it’s about trust and obedience. It’s a theological principle, not a financial transaction.

CLASSIFIED ADS

RULES AND REGULATIONS

CANCELLATIONS must be made in writing by 12 Noon Monday.

The forwarding of an order is construed as an acceptance of all advertising rules and conditions under which advertising space is sold by the NEW YORK AMSTERDAM NEWS. Publication is made and charged according to the terms of this card.

Rates and regulations subject to change without notice. No agreements as to position or regulations, other than those printed on this.

Til forbid orders charged for rate earned. Increases or decreases in space take the rate of a new advertisement.

The New York AMSTERDAM NEWS reserves the right to censor, reject, alter or revise all advertisements in accordance with its rules governin g the acceptance of advertising and accepts no liability for its failure to insert an advertisement for any cause. Credit for errors in advertisements allowed only for first insertion.

CLASSIFIED

• Classified advertisements take the regular earned rate of their classification. Four line minimum on all ads except spirituals and horoscopes (14 lines).

CLASSIFIED DISPLAY

• Classified Display (boarder or picture) advertisements take the regular earned rate of their classification. Display (boarder or picture) advertisements one column wide must be 14 lines deep; two columns, 28 lines deep; 3 columns, 56 lines deep. Classified Display (boarder or picture) placed as close to classifications as rules and makeup permit.

CLASSIFICATIONS

All advertisement accepted for publication is classified according to the standard classifications. Misclassification is not permitted.

BASIS OF CHARGE

Charges are based on point size and characters per line. Upon reaching 15 lines the rate converts to column inch. Any deviation from solid composition such as indentation, use of white space, bold type, etc., will incur a premium.

Notice of Qualification of PLG INSURANCE SERVICES LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/31/26. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 01/29/26. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of formation of STONE AND BLOEM LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on FEBRUARY 19,2026. Office location: New York County (Manhattan). SSNY designated as an agent of Limited Liability Company (LLC) upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY should mail process to JENNIFER M. STONE: 2109 Broadway New York, NY 10023. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION OF Vertigo Autos, LLC Application for Authority filed with the Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 3/20/26 . Office Location New York. LLC formed in DE on 07/10/2014. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of any process to: Vertigo Autos, LLC at 135 W 50th St, Fl 17, NY, NY 10020. Cert. of LLC filed with Secy of State of DE located at 401 Federal St, 4, Dover, DE 1990.Purpose: any lawful activity.

THOMPSON 65 REALTY LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 04/14/26. Office: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, 215 Devoe Avenue, Yonkers, NY 10705. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Qualification of Bebida TCG LLC. Certificate of Authority filed with Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 4/09/2026. Office location: New York County (Manhattan). Limited Liability Company (LLC) formed on 4/06/2026. SSNY designated as agent of Limited Liability Company (LLC) upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to CORPORATE SERVICE CENTER, INC.: 300 DELAWARE AVE., STE 210 Wilmington, DE 19801. Articles of Organization originally filed with Secretary of State (SOS). 130 West 25th Street Suite 5C, New York, NY 10001 Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of formation of 203 W 90th 2G LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/30/2026. Office location: New York County (Manhattan). SSNY designated as an agent of Limited Liability Company (LLC) upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY should mail process to Peta Couzens : 1060 Logan Blvd S, Naples Fl 34116. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of formation of Afterglow NYC, LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 3/09/2026. Office location: New York County (Manhattan). SSNY designated as an agent of Limited Liability Company (LLC) upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY should mail process to Katie Rue: 45 Orchard St, Storefront, New York, NY, 10002. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF Carter & Stanley LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 4/01/26. Office Location New York County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of any process to: Carter & Stanley LLC at 888 7th Avenue 4th Floor, NY, NY 10106. The principal business address of the LLC is 888 7th Avenue 4th Floor, NY, NY 10106. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of CT INVESTOR 2026, LLC

Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/13/26. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 30 Hudson Yards, 72nd Fl., NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of formation of CUE Hospitality LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/06/2026. Office location: New York County (Manhattan). SSNY designated as an agent of Limited Liability Company (LLC) upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY should mail process to Sebastian Lysen: 460 W 50th St, New York, NY 10019. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of formation of HARBINGER ADVISORY LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy of State of NY on 010/8/2026. Office location: New York County. SSNY designated as agent for service of process. SSNY shall mail copy of process to Cassiope Sydoriak, 99 John Street 1107, New York, NY 10038. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Formation of FRESH WATER POND DEVELOPER, LLC

Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/13/26. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 30 Hudson Yards, 72nd Fl., NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of formation of GALA DINNERS LLC . Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/06/2026. Office location: New York County (Manhattan). SSNY designated as an agent of Limited Liability Company (LLC) upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY should mail process to eResidentAgent, Inc.: 1 Rockefeller Plaza, Suite 1204, New York, NY 10020. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of formation of Heights Mental Health Counseling PLLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/16/2026. Office location: New York County (Manhattan). SSNY designated as an agent of Professional Limited Liability Company (PLLC) upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY should mail process to Anita N. Sung: PO Box 307, New York, NY 10040. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Formation of WEQUONNOC VILLAGE DEVELOPER, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/13/26. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 30 Hudson Yards, 72nd Fl., NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION of Myka Window LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 3/20/2026. Office location: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, 79 Melba Street, Milford, CT 06460. Purpose: any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION of Herbie Law PLLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 2/25/2026. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against PLLC to 413 W 14th Street, Suite 200, New York, NY 10014. Purpose: any lawful act.

NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT NEW YORK COUNTY MCLP ASSET COMPANY, INC., Plaintiff against KEVIN C LAU, et al Defendant(s) Attorney for Plaintiff(s) Knuckles & Manfro, LLP, 120 White Plains Road, Suite 215, Tarrytown, NY 10591. Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered February 6, 2025, I will sell at public auction to the highest bidder at Room 252 at the Supreme Court, New York County, 60 Centre Street, New York, New York on May 19, 2026 at 2:15 PM. Premises known as 200 East 94th Street, Unit 2012, New York, New York 10128. Block 1539 Lot 1516. The Condominium Unit (the "Unit") known as Residential Unit 2012 in the building (the "Building") known as Carnegie Park Condominium ( the "Condominium") and by the street address 200 East 94th Street, New York, New York, Borough of Manhattan, County of New York, City and State of New York. Approximate Amount of Judgment is $755,529.61 plus interest, fees, and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of f iled Judgment Index No 850624/2023. Cash will not be accepted at the sale. The foreclosure sale will be conducted in accordance with 1st Judicial District's Covid-19 Policies and foreclosure auction rules. The Referee shall enforce any rules in place regarding facial coverings and social distancing. Referee will only accept a certified bank check made payable to the referee. Paul Sklar, Esq., Referee File # 2296-004151

NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF NEW YORK WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A. SUCCESSOR BY MERGER TO WELLS FARGO HOME MORTGAGE, INC., Plaintiff AGAINST DOUGLAS E. SEWER, INDIVIDUALLY AND SURVIVING JOINT TENANT OF JOSEPH K. SEWER, ET AL., Defendant(s) Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly entered May 1, 2025, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the New York County Courthouse in Room 252, located at 60 Centre Street, New York, NY on May 12, 2026 at 2:15 PM, premises known as 81 West 119 Street, New York, NY 10026. All that certain plot piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements erected, situate, lying and being in the City, County and State of New York, Block 1718 Lot 108. Approximate amount of judgment $1,333,945.21 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index #850001/2010. For sale information, please visit Auction.com at www.Auction. com or call (800) 280-2832. Christy M. Demelfi, Esq., Referee Gross Polowy, LLC 1775 Wehrle Drive Williamsville, NY 14221 00-161915 89484

NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT NEW YORK COUNTY U.S. BANK TRUST COMPANY, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS TRUSTEE FOR VELOCITY COMMERCIAL CAPITAL LOAN TRUST 2023-3, Plaintiff against SUGAR HILL 473, LLC; BIAGIO BELMONTE, et al Defendant(s) Attorney for Plaintiff(s) McMichael Taylor Gray, LLC, 28 Corporate Drive, Suite 104, Halfmoon, NY 12065. Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered December 12, 2024, I will sell at public auction to the highest bidder at Room 252 at the Supreme Court, New York County, 60 Centre Street, New York, New York on May 12, 2026 at 2:15 PM. Premises known as 453 West 140th Street, New York, NY 10031. Block 2057 Lot 138. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, City, County and State of New York. Approximate Amount of Judgment is $2,648,459.02 plus interest, fees, and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index No 850143/2024. The foreclosure sale will be conducted in accordance with 1st Judicial District's Covid-19 Policies and foreclosure auction rules. The Referee shall enforce any rules in place regarding facial coverings and social distancing. Referee will only accept a certified bank check made payable to the referee. Roberta Ellen Ashkin, Esq., Referee File # 24000687-01

NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF New York , U.S. Bank, National Association as Legal Title Trustee for Truman 2016 SC6 Title Trust , Plaintiff, vs . Moshe Rahimi , ET AL., Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Decision + Order On Motion entered on February 15, 2024 and a Decision + Order on Motion entered on March 9, 2026, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at Room 252 of the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY 10007 on May 19, 2026 at 2:15 p.m., premises known as 635 West 42nd Street, a/k/a 627-635 West 42nd Street, Unit 15J, New York, NY 10036. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County of New York, City and State of New York, Block 1090 and Lot 1351 together with an undivided 0.12612 percent interest in the Common Elements. Approximate amount of judgment is $570,028.95 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index # 850111/2020. Paul R. Sklar, Esq., Referee Friedman Vartolo LLP, 85 Broad Street, Suite 501, New York, New York 10004, Attorneys for Plaintiff. Firm File No.: 201235-1

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF NEW YORK

DEUTSCHE BANK TRUST COMPANY AMERICAS, AS TRUSTEE FOR THE REGISTERED HOLDERS OF WFRBS COMMERCIAL MORTGAGE TRUST 2014- LC14, COMMERCIAL MORTGAGE PASSTHROUGH CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2014-LC14, acting by and through its special servicer, Rialto Capital Advisors, LLC, as Special Servicer under the Pooling and Servicing Agreement dated as of February 1, 2014, Plaintiff, -againstCOHEN RITZ RETAIL COMPANY, LLC; CHARLES STEVEN COHEN; BOARD OF MANAGERS OF THE 465 PARK AVENUE CONDOMINIUM; NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF TAXATION AND FINANCE; and NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE, PLEASE TAKE NOTICE, that, pursuant to the Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Decision + Order on Motion of the Honorable Francis A. Kahn III, J.S.C., dated March 24, 2026, and entered in the Office of the New York County Clerk on March 26, 2026 (NYSCEF Doc. No. 148), the undersigned Referee will set at public auction in Room 252 of the New York County Courthouse, Supreme Court, located at 60 Centre Street, New York, New York 10007, on May 19, 2026 at 2:15 pm, the fee and ground lease interests in the real property located at 465 Park Avenue, New York, New York 10022, also known as 101 East 57th Street, New York, New York 10022 (Block 1312, Lots 1301 and 70) (the “Property”), as more particularly described as follows:

As to Parcel I, Tax Lot 1301: The Commercial Unit (&quot;Commercial Unit&quot;) in the condominium (&quot;Condominium&quot;) known as The 465 Park Avenue Condominium and also known by the street number 465 Park Avenue, Borough of Manhattan, City, County and State of New York, said Commercial Unit being designated and described as the Commercial Unit in the declaration dated December 27, 1990, made by The Ritz Tower Hotel, Inc. pursuant to Article 9-B of the Real Property Law of the State of New York (&quot;New York Condominium Act), establishing a plan for Condominium ownership of the building (the &quot;Building&quot;) and the land (the &quot;Land&quot;) upon which the Building is situate (which Land is more particularly described below), which declaration was recorded in the New York County Office of the Register of The City of New York (&quot;City Register&#39;s Office&quot;) on January 30, 1991 in Reel 1759 page 1919, as amended by First Amendment to Declaration dated as of December 16, 1991 and recorded in the City Register&#39;s Office on July 29, 1993 in Reel 1993 Page 299 as further amended by Second Amendment to Declaration dated as of February 28, 1997 and recorded in the City Register&#39;s Office on April 29, 1997 in Reel 295 page 500 as further amended by the First Amendment to the bylaws dated as of February 28, 1997 recorded in the City Register&#39;s Office on April 29, 1997, in Reel 2451, Page 507

on April 29, 1997 in Reel 295 page 500 as further amended by the First Amendment to the bylaws dated as of February 28, 1997 recorded in the City Register&#39;s Office on April 29, 1997, in Reel 2451, Page 507 (the &quot;Declaration&quot;). The Commercial Unit is also designated as Tax Lot 1301 in Block 1312 of Section 5 of the Borough of Manhattan on the Tax Map of the Real Property Assessment Department of The City of New York and on the Plans of the Building, certified by Hurley &amp; Farinella, Architects, and filed in the Register&#39;s Office on January 30, 1991, as Condominium Plan No. 756 and also filed in the City Register&#39;s Office on January 30, 1991, as Map No. 5058/91; TOGETHER with an undivided 33-1/3% interest in the Common Elements as such term is defined in the Declaration; The Land: ALL that certain lot, piece or parcel of land, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, City, County and State of New York, bounded and described as follows: BEGINNING at a point on the northerly side of 57 th Street, distant 17 feet 6 inches easterly from the corner formed by the intersection of the northerly side of 57 th Street with the easterly side of Park Avenue; RUNNING THENCE northerly parallel with the easterly side of Park Avenue, and part of the way through a party wall, 80 feet 5 inches; THENCE easterly parallel with the northerly side of 57 th Street, 52 feet 6 inches more or less, to a point distant 70 feet easterly from the said easterly side of Park Avenue; RUNNING THENCE northerly again parallel with the easterly side of Park Avenue, 20 feet; RUNNING THENCE easterly again parallel with the northerly side of 57 th Street, 60 feet; RUNNING THENCE southerly and again parallel with the easterly side of Park Avenue and part of the way through a party wall, 100 feet 5 inches to the northerly side of 57 th Street; and RUNNING THENCE westerly along the northerly side of 57 th Street, 112 feet 6 inches to the point or place of BEGINNING. TOGETHER with the Benefits but also subject to the terms and burdens contained in a certain Light and Air Easement recorded in Liber 3558 Cp. 151, as partially modified by Reel 374 Page 1757. As to Parcel II, Tax Lot 70: Leasehold interest in the land described below created pursuant to the Ground Lease described on Exhibit B hereto: ALL that certain lot, piece or parcel of land, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, City, County and State of New York, bounded and described as follows: BEGINNING at a point on the northeasterly corner of 57 th Street and Park Avenue; and RUNNING THENCE northerly along Park Avenue, 80 feet more or less; THENCE running easterly, and parallel with 57 th Street, 17 feet 6 inches; THENCE running southerly and parallel with Park Avenue and partly through a party wall 80 feet more or less; THENCE westerly along said 57th Street, 17 feet 6 inches to the point or place of BEGINNING. Together with all personal property located on the real property on the date of the auction. Approximate amount of lien $24,063,716.05 plus interest and costs. Property will be sold in separate parcels but in one judicial public foreclosure auction subject to the provisions of the Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Decision + Order on Motion and Terms of Sale, Index No. 850108/2025. ELAINE SHAYE, ESQ., Referee

one judicial public foreclosure auction subject to the provisions of the Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Decision + Order on Motion and Terms of Sale, Index No. 850108/2025. ELAINE SHAYE, ESQ., Referee

Dated: New York, New York, April 1, 2026 HOLLAND &amp; KNIGHT LLP, By: /s/ David V. Mignardi Keith M. Brandofino, Esq. David V. Mignardi, Esq. Maryanne Pedersen, Esq. Attorneys for Plaintiff, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, as Trustee for the Registered Holders of WFRBS Commercial Mortgage Trust 2014-LC14, Commercial Mortgage PassThrough Certificates, Series 2014-LC14, acting by and through its special servicer, Rialto Capital Advisors LLC, as Special Servicer under the Pooling and Servicing Agreement dated as of February 1, 2014. 787 Seventh Avenue, 31st Floor New York, New York 10019 Tel: (212) 513-3200 Fax: (212) 385-9010

SUPREME COURT ‑ COUNTY OF NEW YORK.

TOORAK CAPITAL PARTNERS LLC, Plaintiff ‑against‑ WEST 125 STREET REALTY LLC, et al Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated February 24, 2026 and entered on March 18, 2026, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction in Room 252 of the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY on Tuesday, May 12, 2026 at 2:15 p.m. premises situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, Coun ty of New York, City and State of New York, bounded and de scribed as follows: BEGINNING at a point on the northerly side of West 125th Street, distant 100 feet easterly from the cor ner formed by the intersection of the northerly side of West 125th Street with the easterly side of Old Broadway; being a plot 72 feet by 100 feet by 64 feet by 100 feet 2 1/2 inches.

Block: 1982 Lot: 5 Said premises known as 543 WEST 125TH STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10027

Approximate amount of lien $8,114,375.69 plus interest & costs.

Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale.

Index Number 850311/2024.

TOM KLEINBERGER, ESQ., Referee

Offit Kurman, P.A. Attorney(s) for Plaintiff 590 Madison Ave, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10022

{* AMSTERDAM*}

NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION OF Wishlab LLC Application for Authority filed with the Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 4/10/26. Office Location New York County. LLC formed in California on 4/3/2026. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of any process to: Wishlab LLC at 9255 Sunset Blvd, 805, W. Hollywood, CA 90069. Reg. Agent: eResidentAgent, Inc. 1 Rockefeller Plz, 1204, NY, NY 10020. CA address of LLC is 9000 Sunset Blvd.,1260, W. Hollywood, CA 90069. The principal business address of the LLC is 9255 Sunset Blvd, 805, W. Hollywood, CA 90069. Certificate of LLC filed withSecy. of State of CA located at 1500 11th St, Sacramento, CA 95814. Purpose: any lawful activity.

M/WBE bids sought for 496 East 134th Street construction project. A scope meeting will be held on April 28. Contact bidding@taxaceny.com for details.

NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT NEW YORK COUNTY U.S. BANK TRUST COMPANY, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS TRUSTEE FOR VELOCITY COMMERCIAL CAPITAL LOAN TRUST 2023-2, Plaintiff against NYLOFLAT LLC; FERNANDO MIGUEL ANTONIO LAURIA; FERNANDO ANTONIO LAURIA, et al Defendant(s) Attorney for Plaintiff(s) McMichael Taylor Gray, LLC, 28 Corporate Drive, Suite 104, Halfmoon, NY 12065. Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered March 19, 2026, I will sell at public auction to the highest bidder at Room 252 at the Supreme Court, New York County, 60 Centre Street, New York, New York on May 19, 2026 at 2:15PM. Premises known as 200 East 66th Street, Unit B1503, New York, NY 10065. Block 1420 Lot 1176. The Condominium Unit (the "Unit") known as B1503 in the building ("Building") known as THE MANHATTAN HOUSE CONDOMINIUM ("Condominium") and by the street number 200 East 66th Street, New York, New York, Borough of Manhattan, County of New York, City and State of New York. Approximate Amount of Judgment is $2,281,311.48 plus interest, fees, and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index No 850652/2023. The foreclosure sale will be conducted in accordance with 1st Judicial District's Covid-19 Policies and foreclosure auction rules. The Referee shall enforce any rules in place regarding facial coverings and social distancing. Referee will only accept a certified bank check made payable to the referee. Elaine Shay, Esq., Referee File # 23-001284-02

SUPREME COURT ‑ COUNTY OF NEW YORK. RIO, THE CONDOMINIUM & SPA, BY ITS BOARD OF MANAGERS, Plaintiff ‑against‑ LINA POLYAKOVA, et al De fendant(s). Pursuant to a Judg ment of Foreclosure and Sale dated November 18, 2025 and entered on December 9, 2025, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction in Room 252 of the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY on Tuesday, May 12, 2026 at 2:15 p.m. premises situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County, City and State of New York, known as Rio, "The Condominium and Spa and buy the Street Number 304 East 65 Street, together with an undivided .5914% in terest in the common elements. Block: 1439 Lot: 1123

Said premises known as 304 EAST 65TH STREET, UNIT 10D, NEW YORK, NY

Approximate amount of lien $37,637.54 plus interest & costs.

Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale.

Index Number 153301/2025.

ELAINE SHAY, ESQ., Referee

Schwartz Sladkus Reich Green berg Atlas LLP

Attorney(s) for Plaintiff 444 Madison Ave., 6th Floor, New York, NY 10022

{* AMSTERDAM*}

M/WBE bids sought for 216 East 201st Street construction project. A scope meeting will be held on April 27. Contact bidding@taxaceny.com for details

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

COUNTY OF NEW YORK

HSBC BANK USA,

-againstKAREN KENNEY A/K/A KAREN KENNY, ET AL. NOTICE OF SALE NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN pursuant to a Final Judgment of Foreclosure entered in the Office of the Clerk of the County of New York on July 3, 2023, wherein HSBC BANK USA is the Plaintiff and KAREN KENNEY A/K/A KAREN KENNY, ET AL. are the Defendant(s). I, the undersigned Referee, will sell at public auction at the NEW YORK COUNTY CIVIL SUPREME COURTHOUSE, ROOM 252, 60 CENTRE STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10007, on May 19, 2026 at 2:15PM, premises known as 144 WEST 123RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10027; and the following tax map identification: 1907-53. ALL THAT CERTAIN PLOT, PIECE OR PARCEL OF LAND SITUATE, LYING AND BEING IN THE BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN, COUNTY, CITY AND STATE OF N.Y.

Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index No.: 810040/2012. Elaine Shay, Esq. - Referee. Robertson, Anschutz, Schneid, Crane & Partners, PLLC, 900 Merchants Concourse, Suite 310, Westbury, New York 11590, Attorneys for Plaintiff. All foreclosure sales will be conducted in accordance with Covid-19 guidelines including, but not limited to, social distancing and mask wearing. *LOCATION OF SALE SUBJECT TO CHANGE DAY OF IN ACCORDANCE WITH COURT/CLERK DIRECTIVES.

Notice of formation of 1315 Madison Street LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 3/16/2026. Office location: New York County (Manhattan). SSNY designated as an agent of Limited Liability Company (LLC) upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY should mail process to Katzner Law Group, P.C.: 1407 Broadway, Room 4002, New York, NY 10018. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of formation of Mestun Cosmo LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 1/26/2026. Office location: New York County (Manhattan). SSNY designated as an agent of Limited Liability Company (LLC) upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY should mail process to Elif Ozyurekoglu : 145 East 48th Street Apt 32B New York, NY 10017. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

NOTICE OF FORMATION of Myka NY LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 7/17/2025. Office location: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Registered Agents Inc., 418 Broadway, Ste R, Albany, NY 12207. R/A: Registered Agents Inc., 418 Broadway, Ste R, Albany, NY 12207. Purpose: any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT- COUNTY OF NEW YORK

U.S. BANK TRUST NATIONAL ASSOCIATION NOT IN ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY BUT SOLELY AS OWNER TRUSTEE FOR RCAF ACQUISITION TRUST , Plaintiff, AGAINST

KELLY J. CONDON A/K/A KELLY CONDON , et al. Defendant(s)

Pursuant to a judgment of foreclosure and sale duly entered on March 12, 2026.

I, the undersigned Referee, will sell at public auction at the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre St, Room 252, New York, NY 10007 on May 26, 2026 at 2:15 PM premises known as 1601 3rd Avenue, Apt 28C, New York, NY 10128.

Please take notice that this foreclosure auction shall be conducted in compliance with the Foreclosure Auction Rules for New York County, and the COVID 19 Health Emergency Rules, including proper use of masks and social distancing.

All that certain plot piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County of New York, City and State of New York. Block 1536 and Lot 1298.

Approximate amount of judgment $766,031.08 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment. Index #850632/2023.

Christy M. Demelfi, Esq. , Referee, Aldridge Pite, LLP - Attorneys for Plaintiff - 40 Marcus Drive, Suite 200, Melville, NY 11747

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF New York, U.S. Bank National Association, as trustee, on behalf of the holders of the Harborview Mortgage Loan Trust 2006-1 Mortgage Loan Passthrough Certificates, Series 2006-1, Plaintiff, vs. Elizabeth Hazan, ET AL., Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Decision + Order on Motion duly entered on October 6, 2025 and a Decision + Order on Motion duly entered on February 26, 2026, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the Room 252 of the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY 10007 on May 12, 2026 at 2:15 p.m., premises known as 1 East 62nd Street, Unit 1A, New York, NY 10065. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County of New York, City and State of New York, Block 1377 and Lot 1100 together with an undivided 5.03 percent interest in the Common Elements. Approximate amount of judgment is $2,525,544.33 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index # 850240/2014. Clark Whitsett, Esq., Referee Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC, 10 Bank Street, Suite 700, White Plains, New York 10606, Attorneys for Plaintiff

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF New York , Stormfield SPV IV, LLC , Plaintiff, vs . Bowery Shed LLC , ET AL., Defendant(s).

Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Decision + Order on Motion duly entered on March 9, 2026 , I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction in Room 252 of the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY 10007 on May 19, 2026 at 2:15 p.m., premises known as 354 Bowery, Unit 3, New York, NY 10012. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County of New York, City and State of New York, Block 531 and Lot 1203 together with an undivided 16 percent interest in the Common Elements, as well as all personal property of Defendant as identified in that certain Consolidation, Extension and Modification Agreement, dated as of May 16, 2023, and recorded on May 23, 2023, as CRFN 2023000126995, and excluding any funds held by Plaintiff in any reserve, escrow, or suspense fund, and excluding any funds held by Plaintiff in any cash management account. Approximate amount of judgment is $1,197,719.00 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index # 850019/2025.

Sofia Balile, Esq., Referee Polsinelli PC, Aaron P. Davis, Esq., 600 Third Avenue, 42nd Floor, New York, New York 10016, Attorneys for Plaintiff

WWK Realty LLC, Arts of Org filed with SSNY on 07/25/23. Off Loc: New York County, SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of process to: The LLC, 15 Division St Fl 2, New York NY 10002. Purpose: to engage in any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of FORTUNE AND GLORY LLC

Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/13/26. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 509 E 83rd St., #3W, NY, NY 10028. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of NORWEST LIMITED, LLC

Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/19/26. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/28/98. Princ. office of LLC: 90 South 7th St., Minneapolis, MN 554027506. NYS fictitious name: WF NORWEST, LLC. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., #4, Dover, DE 19801. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF New York, SIG CRE 2023 Venture LLC, Plaintiff, vs. 126 Retail, LLC, ET AL., Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Decision + Order on Motion duly entered on March 26, 2026, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at Room 252 of the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY 10007 on May 12, 2026 at 2:15 p.m., premises known as 126 University Place, Unit 1, New York, NY 10003. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County of New York, City and State of New York, Block 571 and Lot 1401 together with an undivided 18 percent interest in the Common Elements, as well as all personal property of Defendant as identified in that certain First Mortgage, Consolidation, Extension, Modification and Security Agreement, dated as of December 19, 2017, and recorded on December 29, 2017 as CRFN 2017000474724, and excluding any funds held by Plaintiff in any reserve, escrow, or suspense fund, excluding any funds held by Plaintiff in any cash management account, and excluding any funds held by the court-appointed receiver. Approximate amount of judgment is $4,813,580.15 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index #850257/2024. Elaine Shay, Esq., Referee Polsinelli PC, Alina Levi, Esq., 600 Third Avenue, 42nd Floor, New York, New York 10016, Attorneys for Plaintiff

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF Bray & Yaffe LLP Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on March 5, 2026. Office Location New York County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. The Post Office address to which the SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLP served upon him/her is: 119 West 23rd Street, Suite 900 New York, NY 10011.The principal business address of the LLP is 119 West 23rd Street, Suite 900 New York, NY 10011. Purpose: Law

Notice of Formation of Logistics Q&M LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 4/1/2026. Office Location: New York County, New York. SSNY is designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of any process to 45 Main St. Suite 238, Brooklyn, NY, 11201. Registered Agent: LegalZoom USCA, Inc. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

Notice of formation of Lumavec Group, LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/12/2025. Office location: New York County (Manhattan). SSNY designated as an agent of Limited Liability Company (LLC) upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY should mail process to United States Corporation Agents, Inc.: 7014 13th Avenue, Suite 202, Brooklyn, NY 11228. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Qualification of CS RESORT MANAGER, LLC

Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/19/26. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 01/30/26. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of EDGE EDGECOMBE OWNER LLC

Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/31/26. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/16/26. Princ. office of LLC: c/o Edge Property Group, LLC, 3 West 57th St., 8th Fl., NY, NY 10019. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., #4, Dover, DE 19801. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of formation of Firm of Kenneth M. Berman LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/10/2026. Office location: New York County (Manhattan). SSNY designated as an agent of Limited Liability Company (LLC) upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY should mail process to Kenneth M. Berman: 228 Park Ave S. #547283, New York, NY 10003. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of formation of Atelier ADW, LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/24/2026. Office location: New York County (Manhattan). SSNY designated as an agent of Limited Liability Company (LLC) upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY should mail process to ERESIDENTAGENT, INC. : 1 ROCKEFELLER PLAZA, SUITE 1204 NEW YORK, NY, 10020. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

CLEARHOME LLC Articles of Org. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 03/01/2026. Office in New York Co. SSNY desig. agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to 228 Park Ave S #927698, New York, NY 10003. United States Corporation Agents, Inc. desig. as agent for SOP 7014 13TH Avenue , Suite 202, Brooklyn, NY 11228. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Sarah Shin Productions LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with NY DOS 03/20/26. County: Kings Co. SSNY is agent for process & shall mail to: 565 Gates Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11221. Purpose: any lawful.

Notice of Qualification of GUAPO MEDIA, LLC. Certificate of Authority filed with Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/30/2026. Office location: New York County (Manhattan). Limited Liability Company (LLC) formed on 01/29/2026. SSNY designated as agent of Limited Liability Company (LLC) upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to eResidentAgent, Inc: 1 Rockefeller Plaza, Suite 1204, New York, NY 10020. Articles of Organization originally filed with Secretary of State (SOS). 401 Federal Street, Suite 4, Dover, DE,19901 Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Qualification of Intentional Funds LLC. Certificate of Authority filed with Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/23/2026. Office location: New York County (Manhattan). Limited Liability Company (LLC) formed on 07/25/2022. SSNY designated as agent of Limited Liability Company (LLC) upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to ZenBusiness Inc.: 41 State Street, Suite 112, Albany, NY 12207. Articles of Organization originally filed with Secretary of State (SOS). 401 Federal Street, Suite 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

NOTICE FOR FORMATION of a limited liability company (LLC). The name of the limited liability company is 350 W42 8L LLC. The date of filing of the articles of organization with the Department of State was February 9, 2026. The County in New York in which the office of the company is located is New York. The Secretary of State has been designated as agent of the company upon whom process may be served, and the Secretary of State shall mail a copy of any process against the company served upon him or her to The LLC, 30 Riverside Boulevard, 31B, New York, NY 10069. The business purpose of the company is to engage in any and all business activities permitted under the laws of the State of New York.

Notice of Qualification of GO HUDSON YARDS LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/30/26. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 03/25/26. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, 80 Fifth Ave., Ste. 1201, NY, NY 10011. DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of 713 MADISON 28 TIC OWNER, LLC

Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/31/26. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 122072543, regd. agent upon whom and at which process may be served. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF MAXGEN SOLUTIONS LLC. Articles of Organization filed with Sec'y State of NY (SSNY) on 3/02/2026. Office Location: New York County. SSNY is designated agent of LLC whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail any process against the LLC to 22 West 83rd Street, #4B, New York, NY 10024. The principal business address of LLC is 22 West 83rd Street, #4B, New York, NY 10024. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Qualification of NEUBERGER BERMAN LOAN ADVISERS EUROPE II LP Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/19/26. Office location: NY County. LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 06/26/25. Princ. office of LP: 1290 Ave. of the Americas, NY, NY 10104. NYS fictitious name: NEUBERGER BERMAN LOAN ADVISERS EUROPE II L.P. Duration of LP is Perpetual. SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the Partnership at the princ. office of the LP. Name and addr. of each general partner are available from SSNY. DE addr. of LP: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of LP filed with Secy. of the State of DE, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification Plante & Moran, PLLC

Plante & Moran, PLLC (the "PLLC"), a professional service limited liability company formed on October 1, 2002 under the laws of the State of Michigan, filed an Application for Authority with the New York Department of State on December 30, 2025, pursuant to Section 1306 of the New York Limited Liability Company Law. The county in New York in which the office of the PLLC is located is New York County (Manhattan Borough). The PLLC is authorized to practice the profession of certified public accountancy and public accountancy in the State of New York. The Secretary of State of the State of New York has been designated as agent of the PLLC upon whom process against it may be served. The Secretary of State shall mail a copy of any process served upon it to: 3000 Town Center, Suite 100, Southfield, Michigan 48075.

NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF New York , 188 East 64th PH2 Funding Associates , Plaintiff, vs . 188 E 64 LLC a/k/a 188 East 64 LLC , ET AL., Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Decision + Order on Motion (the “Judgment”) duly entered on March 10, 2026 , I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction in Room 252 of the New York County Supreme Court, located at 60 Centre Street, New York, NY 10007 on May 19, 2026 at 2:15 p.m., premises known as 188 East 64th Street, Unit PH2, New York, NY 10065. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County of New York, City and State of New York, Block 1398 and Lot 1076 together with an undivided 0.9941 percent interest in the Common Elements. As of the date of the Judgment, the approximate amount of judgment is $4,636,331.71 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment and terms of sale. Index # 850126/2025.

Paul Sklar, Esq., Referee

Norris McLaughlin P.A., 7 Times Square, 21st Floor New York, New York 10036 Attorneys for Plaintiff

Notice of Formation of Preventive Health Medical NY, PLLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 03/17/2026. Office location: New York County. SSNY is designated as agent of the PLLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of any process to: The LLC, 100 Christopher Columbus Drive, #2210, Jersey City, NJ 07302, USA. Purpose: to engage in the practice of medicine and any lawful act or activity for which a professional limited liability company may be organized under the laws of New York.

Notice of Qualification of PI2 HOLDINGS LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/20/26. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 03/11/26. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, 500 Washington St., Ste. 400, San Francisco, CA 94111. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, DE, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of formation of What's Underneath Media, LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/24/2025. Office location: New York County (Manhattan). SSNY designated as an agent of Limited Liability Company (LLC) upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY should mail process to WHAT'S UNDERNEATH MEDIA, LLC: 101 PARK AVE, SUITE 1700 NEW YORK, NY, 10178, USA. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Qualification of 63 MADISON DF PARTICIPANT LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/12/26. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 03/05/26. Princ. office of LLC: 1 Vanderbilt Ave., NY, NY 10017. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Neinstein Consulting LLC filed w/ SSNY 2/1/26. Off. in NY Co. Process served to SSNYdesig. as agt. of LLC & mailed to the LLC, 1 Central Park S PH 2011, NY, NY 10019. The reg. agt. is United States Corporation Agents, Inc., 7014 13th Ave, Ste. 202, Brooklyn, NY 11228. Any lawful purpose.

Affirmed Medical, PLLC Articles of Org. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 03/17/26. Office in New York Co. SSNY desig. agent of PLLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to 125 W 31 St, Apt 55B, New York, NY 10001. Purpose: Any lawful purpose

Notice of formation of Allen Signature Services, LLC . Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/20/2026. Office location: New York County (Manhattan). SSNY designated as an agent of Limited Liability Company (LLC) upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY should mail process to Khadeidra Allen : 121 Saint Nicholas Ave, Apt. 5D, New York, NY 10026. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of formation of Cap Studio. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/24/2026. Office location: New York County (Manhattan). SSNY designated as an agent of Limited Liability Company (LLC) upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY should mail process to Leyla Ozden: 959 First Ave, 19C. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of formation of MIMI AGENCY LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/06/2026. Office location: New York County (Manhattan). SSNY designated as an agent of Limited Liability Company (LLC) upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY should mail process to Gillian Schutzer: Gillian.Schutzer@ gmail.com. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of formation of Equus Arcadia LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 3/16/2026. Office location: New York County (Manhattan). SSNY designated as an agent of Limited Liability Company (LLC) upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY should mail process to eResidentAgent, Inc: 1 Rockefeller Plaza, Suite 1204, New York, NY 10020. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of formation of Olive Tree Creative LLC, LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 1/16/2026. Office location: New York County (Manhattan). SSNY designated as an agent of Limited Liability Company (LLC) upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY should mail process to NY Department of State: New York Secretary of State, One Commerce Plaza, 99 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12231. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of formation of LA MAISON DE SOHO, LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/24/2026. Office location: New York County (Manhattan). SSNY designated as an agent of Limited Liability Company (LLC) upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY should mail process to Cohen Edderai LLP: 14 East 4th St., Suite 501, New York, NY 10012.. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

MARLOW 1 LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 03/04/26. Office: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, c/o Blumenson Accounting, 420 Lexington Avenue, Suite 300, New York, NY 10170. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

NDL 305 LLC Art of Org. filed with the SSNY on 12/01/2025. Office: NEW YORK COUNTY. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, ZENBUSINESS INC., 41 STATE STREET, SUITE 112, ALBANY, NY 12207. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Simple Spaces Real Estate LLC, Arts of Org filed with SSNY on 10/18/24. Off Loc: New York County, SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of process to: The LLC, 89 Division St, New York NY 10002. Purpose: to engage in any lawful act.

Notice of formation of Spiral Staircase Editions LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 3/23/2026. Office location: New York County (Manhattan). SSNY designated as an agent of Limited Liability Company (LLC) upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY should mail process to SSNY: jdd17@me.com. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of formation of Bring It Back Boutique LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 1/16/2023. Office location: Schenectady County. SSNY designated as an agent of Limited Liability Company (LLC) upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY should mail process to Diane Rositano: dlee123789@gmail.com. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of formation of FL NYC, LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 3/23/2026. Office location: New York County (Manhattan). SSNY designated as an agent of Limited Liability Company (LLC) upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY should mail process to eResidentAgent, Inc: 1 Rockefeller Plaza, Suite 1204. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

M/WBE bids sought for 469 Troy Avenue, Brooklyn, NY construction project. A scope meeting will be held on April 27. Contact bidding@taxaceny.com for details

Notice of formation of mackenzie.jpg LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 3/20/2026. Office location: New York County (Manhattan). SSNY designated as an agent of Limited Liability Company (LLC) upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY should mail process to Secretary of State of New York: New York Department of State Division of Corporations One Commerce Plaza 99 Washington Ave Albany, NY 12231. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Formation of TH135 LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/12/26. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 122072543. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of formation of Treehouse Creative LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 2/03/2026. Office location: New York County (Manhattan). SSNY designated as an agent of Limited Liability Company (LLC) upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY should mail process to Corey Green: corey@treehousecreativenyc.com. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Qualification of BLACKSTONE ABF WHOLE LOAN ASSOCIATES LLC

Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/19/26. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 06/25/21. Princ. office of LLC: 345 Park Ave., NY, NY 10154. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 122072543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: The nature of the business and purpose of the Company is to act as general partner for certain limited partnerships that invest in privately originated credit and other income-generating investments in the asset based finance market.

Notice is hereby given that a license, serial #NA-0340-25103028 for beer, wine & liquor has been applied for by the undersigned to sell beer, wine & liquor at retail in a restaurant under the ABC Law at 994 Columbus Ave., New York, NY 10025 for on-premises consumption; Limone LLC

NOTICE is hereby given that a license, number NA-0370-24135212 for liquor, wine, beer & cider has been applied for by the undersigned to sell liquor, wine, beer & cider at retail in a bar/tavern under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law at 4371 3rd Ave; Bronx, NY 10457 in Bronx County for on premises consumption. Zion Restaurant and Lounge Corp d/b/a Zion Restaurant and Lounge

Notice of Qualification of AP CREDIT SOLUTIONS HOLDINGS (AIV) II, L.P. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/08/25. Office location: NY County. LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/26/24.

Princ. office of LP: Attn: General Counsel, 9 W. 57th St., 43rd Fl., NY, NY 10019. Duration of LP is Perpetual. SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the Partnership at the princ. office of the LP. Name and addr. of each general partner are available from SSNY. DE addr. of LP: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of LP filed with The Secy. of State of the State of DE, Dept. of State, Div. of Corps., John Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Occupational Therapist Priority Care Staffing. Full time. Bronx. 75,712/year (36.4/ hour) Evaluate patients’ conditions; Develop and implement treatment plans; Demonstrate exercises to help relieve patients’ pain; Evaluate results and progress of occupational therapy on patients; Educate caregivers and family members of clients on patient care. usotjobs@prioritycarestaffing. com.

Climate law reversal

Continued from page 2

Sandy affected my community. We have to make sure that it doesn’t happen again,” said Wright. “We live on the water here in Harlem and we have to ensure that as these things are being considered, that we’re [not] on the fringes.”

Black and Brown communities tend to be more systemically vulnerable to warmer temperatures that demand access to air conditioning, shade, and trees. They are also statistically more exposed to climate change pollutants that can lead to breathing and health issues.

“Gov. Kathy Hochul is hoping Black and Brown New Yorkers won’t read the fine print on the proposal,” said Moore. “By November this will be a down-ballot thing, and the Democrats went along with it. Voters are going to remember who took away their climate law.”

Last year, climate groups opted to sue Hochul’s administration for missing the 2024 climate law deadlines. A state Supreme Court judge extended the deadline until this February. Hochul’s office turned around to appeal the court order on the grounds that President Donald Trump’s opposition to renewable energy and the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic have made the climate law difficult to implement.

Hochul is not moving on other big-budget items until the climate policy issue is resolved.

“The climate law requires the governor to reduce pollution, and in the process, also reduce energy bills and make sure that the communities all over the state are protected, particularly low-income communities of color,” said Pete Sikora, the climate and inequality campaigns director with New York Communities for Change (NYCC), who was a part of several groups organizing a sit-in in Albany. “She has refused to do that, and so she got sued about a year ago to enforce that very clear language in the law.”

Hochul is suggesting delaying the law’s mandates from 2030 to existing 2050 targets, with timely progress toward a to-be-determined 2040 milestone. She would also change the “emissions accounting methodology.” This is not seen as gutting the CLCPA, but rather acknowledging current economic and political realities that have shifted since the law passed, said Hochul’s office. Moving the date would also essentially kill the lawsuit.

“Reckless policies coming out of Washington D.C. are driving prices up across the board, and struggling New Yorkers cannot be expected to shoulder higher costs,” said Ken

Stop Deed Theft

threat stems from a disputed sale of the property to 227 Group LLC, and a guardianship fight involving Charrington’s elderly father, Allman Charrington, a battle which could determine who has the authority to sell, void, or reclaim the deed to the house.

Though Carmella was freed from Rikers, supporters said they expected marshals to show up at the home and try to force the building’s residents out. Supporters said they would be willing to camp out at the house all day and put their bodies on the line to make sure the property is not taken.

Lovett, senior communications advisor on energy and environment for Hochul. “That’s why Governor Hochul is proposing commonsense reforms to the climate law that protects the environment and vulnerable communities while prioritizing affordability. The Governor’s all-of-the-above approach to energy will give New York the resources it needs to keep the lights on and costs down.”

Despite derision, Hochul’s office is standing behind its record on clean energy. The state has the first utility-scale offshore wind farm in operation in the U.S, with two more under construction: the Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE), which is hydroelectric power; and the nation’s first-ever congestion pricing program, which helped decrease emissions in the city and downstate. Lovett added that there’s a combination of obstacles to getting the climate law off the ground, including high inflation, supply chain issues, Trump’s imposed tariffs driving up project costs, Trump’s attacks on any new offshore wind projects, and the elimination of federal incentives for solar and electric vehicles.

Advocates vehemently oppose any amendments to the climate law and disagree with Hochul’s reasons for the rollbacks.

Her argument is that the climate law is raising utility bills, which Sikora claims is categorically

“The climate law requires the governor to reduce pollution, and in the process, also reduce energy bills and make sure that the communities all over the state are protected, particularly low income communities of color. ... She has refused to do that, and so she got sued about a year ago to enforce that very clear language in the law.”

—Pete Sikora, Climate and inequality campaigns director with New York Communities for Change (NYCC)

“untrue.” It would also save the state money in the long run, claimed a 2025 analysis from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and Resources for the Future (RFF). That said, a 2026 letter from NYSERDA’s President & CEO Doreen Harris later stated that if the climate law were fully implemented as is, New York households and businesses would see high costs.

In Albany, passionate environmental groups have traveled to the state’s capitol to perform a sit-in outside Hochul’s office, ending in the arrests of several people on April 21.

“Our message to Governor Hochul is clear, if you want lower

gas and electric bills, then you should protect our climate law instead of trying to roll it back,” said Patrick Robbins, director of the Utility Customers Association, in a statement. “We are grateful for the climate and affordability champions in Albany who are speaking out for the CLCPA.”

Other legislators have even taken to social media to post videos of themselves gawking at gas station prices and slamming Hochul for not supporting the climate law. In one post, Assemblymember Joanne Simon and Senator Roxanne Persaud attribute increasing energy costs to “Trump’s illegal war in Iran” and implore Hochul to change her mind.

evictions, allowing them to profit by flipping the properties.

group here. You’re all welcome to my courtroom.

Karen Charrington testified on April 16 during the guardianship proceedings that she has been legally married to him for nearly 10 years now and had not seen Charrington since Nov. 1, 2023.

When she was in court on April 17, she declined to speak to the AmNews about her case because she is not a native of this country and does not fully understand how legal procedures work in the U.S. But Allman Charrington’s children claim that his wife and the Georgia-based guardianship administrator of his affairs have been going through his funds and trying to sell his properties without his permission.

The Charringtons have been fighting to keep Allman out of the guardianship proceedings and to save their long-term Brooklyn home from what they say are

The fight over ownership of the property stems from the fact that Carmella’s father, Allman Charrington, who is in his 80s, reportedly fled Georgia in 2024 to avoid involuntary guardianship and to prevent being fleeced by his estranged wife Karen, a woman 30 years his junior. According to court testimony, there were indications that Karen Charrington, a Jamaica native, was taking funds from his bank account and gaining access to his properties in Georgia and New York.

fraudulent claims. Allman Charrington has been a partial owner of the house with his sister since the 1980s. After a court-appointed conservator was assigned to help him with his finances, Carmella and her sister filed to be declared his legal guardians, but the court refused. Soon after, Carmella said the conservator began liquidating her father’s assets, including attempting to sell their Jefferson Avenue family home.

The property was reportedly purchased by 227 Group LLC, a company based in Long Island City, for $1.4 million. The owners are Etai Vardi and brothers Elliot and Joseph Ambalo. Last year, an article in The City described them as “Speculator Bros Ripping Off Heirs and Evicting Tenants Across NYC.” Multiple allegations claim that 227 Group LLC contacts distant heirs of recently deceased property owners and encourages them to claim partial ownership, which is then sold to the Ambalos and Vardi. They tend to target older homes in Black and Brown neighborhoods, pay distant heirs small sums for partial shares, and use these payments as leverage to force sales or

Carmella and her family claim this is what happened to them. The company has attempted to evict them from their home, but Carmella has been resisting through the courts. She says the guardianship case is another way they are trying to take her home.

Carmella Charrington was taken into custody on Thursday, April 16, during an appearance at Kings County Civil Supreme Court in front of Judge Rachel Freier. After an attempted eviction was postponed on March 31, Carmella had a court date to see Judge Freier regarding the conservatorship of her father in Georgia.

Because Carmella did not bring her father into court, Judge Freier declared that the court’s efforts to ensure the elder Charrington’s safety were being thwarted. “I want to know why Mr. Charrington is not here today and … I want to know where he is,” the judge said. “This is the guardianship court. I want to state for the record that we have a full courtroom, and I do note the presence of the Stop the Deed Theft

“This is our courtroom, and this is the guardianship part. This is not a foreclosure part, this is not the property part, this is the guardianship part,” he continued. “We are here to [determine] the whereabouts of Mr. Charrington. This has been going on for quite a significant amount of time. If you all want to sit and listen to a guardianship hearing, you’re welcome to stay … but this is not about deed theft. It’s about the whereabouts and the condition of Mr. Charrington and why he isn’t where he’s supposed to be — with his wife.”

Carmella’s attorneys could not attend the April 16 hearing and requested a postponement of the case. Although they were absent, Judge Freier allowed testimony regarding the guardianship to go forward, and when Carmella attempted to leave the courtroom, she was told she was being detained. The judge found Charrington in contempt for failing to bring her elderly father to court and had her held at Rikers Island.

High-profile players join Liberty and Sun through free agency

By LOIS ELFMAN

Special to the AmNews

Free agency has brought some significant reshuffling of WNBA team lineups. Much to the relief of New York Liberty fans, Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, and Jonquel Jones are all returning. They are joined by familiar faces: Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, returning from injury; Han Xu, who made a splash her rookie season in 2019 and in 2022 and ‘23; and Rebecca Allen, who played for the Liberty from 2015–22 before the 2023 trade that brought Jones to New York. Also heading to training camp is Rebekah Gardner, who played with the team last season, seeing limited minutes, but could be a much more substantial contributor after an outstanding Athletes Unlimited season this winter.

The big addition to the Liberty lineup is two-time All-Star Satou Sabally, for whom this is a homecoming. Although her sister Nyara won’t be here, selected by the Toronto Tempo in the expansion draft, she is reunited with Ionescu, whom she played alongside at

the University of Oregon. Although raised in Germany, Sabally was born in New York.

“This aligns with my identity of wanting to be at the highest level,” said Sabally, who loved beginning her time in Brooklyn with a community youth event.

“Youth are the backbone of society. … Sports liberate you and I just love to bring that to the youth

and show that and be an example for that. This is super-dope. I serve through basketball.”

A shout-out goes to the Connecticut Sun as they prepare for the team’s “sunset season” in Connecticut.

Three-time Olympic gold medalist and WNBA Champion Brittney Griner (BG) has signed on for the season. She joins a roster that in-

cludes Saniya Rivers, UConn alums Aaliyah Edwards and Olivia Nelson-Ododa, the recently acquired Diamond Miller, and 2026 NCAA Champions Gianna Kneepkens and Charlisse Leger-Walker. This move is perfect for Griner because the team will move to Houston, her hometown, in 2027.

“It’s a little bittersweet moment of the beginning [of] the end in

Connecticut,” said Sun general manager Morgan Tuck. “This year, we’re obviously excited to celebrate our players, but also our former players, our fans, all the supporters that we’ve had. We look at the change that’s on the horizon and look at it as an opportunity for growth. … To have someone like BG, who is a legend … the impact she has is really special.”

Alycia Baumgardner retains super featherweight titles at the Garden

By DERREL JOHNSON Special to the AmNews

Alycia Baumgardner just keeps winning. At 18-1 with seven knockouts, she has not lost a fight in nearly eight years. Her streak continued last Friday night at Infosys Theater at Madison Square Garden as Baumgardner, from Fremont, Ohio, retained her WBA, WBO, and IBF super featherweight championships with a 98-92, 99-91, 98-91 win over South Korean Bo Mi Re Shin (19-4-3, 10 KOs).

“When we talk about legacy, and we talk about development, these are the types of fights that I need to be in,” said Baumgardner after her victory. “These are the type of fights that really put my skills to the test and my mentality and my mental. Physically, I have it, but mentally, it’s another threshold to overcome.”

Baumgardner, who will turn 32 next month and whose last defeat was to Christina Linardatou in July 2018, is now targeting a potential superfight against undisputed light welterweight champion Katie Taylor.

“I think when we talk about a Katie Taylor, we talk about some-

(right) lands a left hand versus Bo Mi Re Shin last Friday at Infosys Theater at Madison Square Garden. (Valuable Promotions/ Michelle Farsi photo)

one who is just as skilled,” she commented. “I believe in my abilities, and I’m sure she believes in hers. But when we talk about high-level boxing, when it comes to women, she’s a perfect person to be in the ring with.”

In the co-main event, Lani Daniels (12-4-2, 2 KOs) became a threedivision world champion with a ninth-round TKO over Paterson, New Jersey’s Shadasia Green (16-2,

11 KOs) to win the IBF, WBO, and Ring super middleweight titles.

In a reminder of the dangers of boxing, both women skipped the post-fight press conference, and Green released a statement on social media from the hospital earlier this week.

“With everything in me, I wanna thank those who had great concern and even the people who figured out during the fight some-

thing was wrong,” Green posted on Instagram. “I passed out due to bleeding out of my brain. However, I am in ICU on the road to healing.” Despite her condition, Green proclaimed, “I’ll be back to get what’s mine…”

Uniondale, New York, native and former UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling will take on Youssef Zala on Saturday in Las Vegas.

Dominican UFC star Waldo Cortes-Acosta, a former minor league pitcher from 2010 to 2012 with the Dominican Summer League Reds (an affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds), who defeated MMA legend Derrick Lewis earlier this year, is scheduled to battle Alexander Volkov in the co-main event at UFC 328 at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., on Saturday, May 9.

In a highly anticipated boxing card, Puerto Rican WBO and WBA junior middleweight champion Xander Zayas (23-0, 13 KOs) will take on Jaron Ennis (35-0, 31 KOs) on June 27 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

“It’s always been about legacy. Becoming the youngest world champion at 22 when I did it. Youngest unified world champion,” Zayas, now 23, said at a press conference earlier this month in Brooklyn. “Anybody could have taken the easy route and just get an easy win, and that’s it. I want to fight the best.” Ennis, who predicted he would win by knockout, said he’s prepared for the moment. “Come fight night, he’ll see. I’m going to show everyone that I’m the best in the world.”

With Jordi Fernández locked in, the Nets seek cornerstone players

By DERREL JOHNSON Special to the AmNews

While the next big date for the Brooklyn Nets is May 10, when the NBA Draft Lottery will be held in Chicago, the franchise has stabilized the coaching staff for the immediate future. While NBA head coaching positions can be fluid, Nets owner Joseph Tsai has proven to believe in Jordi Fernández.

On Monday, eight days after completing his second season as the Nets’ head coach, Fernández and his entire coaching staff signed multi-year extensions to continue to be at the forefront of the Nets’ challenging construction project. Per team policy, the terms of the deals were not released.

In addition to Fernández, assistant coaches Steve Hetzel, Juwan Howard, Jay Hernandez, Dutch Gaitley, Deividas Dulkys, Ryan Forehan-Kelly, Connor Griffin, Corey Vinson, and Travis Bader inked extensions.

“Jordi is a tremendous leader who, along with his coaching staff, put his stamp on this franchise from the moment he arrived in Brooklyn,” said Nets general manager Sean Marks in a written statement.

“Over his first two seasons, Jordi has built a strong foundation rooted

in player development, a competitive spirit, and honest communication, all of which have been embraced throughout our roster. The energy and passion the entire staff relentlessly pour into our players reverberates throughout the organization, and we are excited to have this group continue to lead our franchise into the future.”

While the team’s 46-118 record under Fernandez has some ques-

tioning the decision to add more years onto his contract, he has done an excellent job of sending a clear message over two seasons: getting 1% better every game. No month demonstrated his coaching prowess more than December 2025, when Brooklyn posted a strong 7-4 record.

Fernández was also in the tough position of developing the league’s youngest roster, with an average age of 23.4 years old, while the or-

ganization’s leadership understandably desired securing the best odds of landing the No. 1 overall pick in June’s draft. It’s debatable as to whether the Nets tanked by not regularly putting their best lineups on the floor in the season’s closing weeks. But by and large, the players put forth maximum effort and intent. The Nets just weren’t equipped to compete with more established rosters.

Brooklyn finished the season with one of the league’s worst three records at 20-62. The Washington Wizards were 17-65 and the Indiana Pacers 19-63. Each has a leaguehigh 14% chance of landing the No. 1 pick in the lottery.

No player flourished under Fernández more than Michael Porter Jr. In his first season with the Nets after being acquired in a trade with the Denver Nuggets last summer, Porter Jr., who won a championship with the Nuggets in 2023, had the best statistical season of his career, averaging career highs of 24.2 points and 3.0 assists in 52 games.

A consistent leadership trait that Fernández displayed was holding himself and the players accountable.

“I think that it goes through making mistakes, and I make a lot of mistakes in every game,” Fernández said on New Year’s Day. “I have a very good coaching staff that holds me accountable and helps me with that.

“I have to look at myself in the mirror,” he continued, “whether I’m trying to put a player in a situation or running a play for [a player]… accepting that you’re going to make mistakes, but your mistakes have to be honest mistakes because you try to do what is best for the group…”

Many Mets are accountable for the team’s early season plight

By JAIME C. HARRIS AmNews Sports Editor

What are the Mets? Are they a potentially good team going through an abysmal stretch or a ball club currently well below .500 that is a high-payroll, substandard collective? The Mets were 7-16, the worst record in Major League Baseball, and on a 12-game losing streak when they hosted the Minnesota Twins at Citi Field (Wednesday) in Queens last night.

Star outfielder Juan Soto was expected to return to the lineup. He has not played since April 3 due to a right calf strain. In his absence, the Mets’ offense has been lifeless. During the 12game skid, they were outscored 67-22. Do the math. That’s an average of 1.8 runs per game over that horrific span.

“I didn’t think we were going to be having that much [of] a hard time scoring runs without him,” said the Mets’ embattled third-year manager Carlos Men -

doza of Soto after the team’s 5-3 defeat to the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday at home. But again, as I said before the game, it’s hard to put a lot on Soto. But it’s going to be good to have him in the lineup tomorrow.”

Before last night’s game, the Mets were batting .161 with runners in scoring position, had a .222 team batting average, and lowly .617 OPS (Onbase Plus Slugging). Closer Devin Williams, who was signed as a free-agent by the Mets to a three-year, $51 million deal in December following pitching last season for the Yankees, has a 9.95 ERA and has allowed seven earned runs in his last three outings.

Another winter free-agent signee, infielder Bo Bichette, is batting .219 with one home run. Centerfielder Luis Robert Jr., who the Mets acquired in a trade with the Chicago White Sox in January, hasn’t been much better. He was hitting .242 with only two homers and

RBI. And star shortstop Francisco Lindor has made uncharacteristic mental errors in the field and on the base paths while starting slow at the plate. He was hitting an alarming .209 with two home runs and four RBI’s prior to last night’s game. Mendoza gets much of the blame for the Mets myriad issues as managers. Invariably, managers take the brunt of criticism. But an equal share should be ascribed to general manager David Stearns, who constructed the team. How patient will Mets owner Steve Cohen be with Mendoza and Stearns, who are steering a $381 million payroll — the second highest in MLB behind the Los Angeles Dodgers’ $413 million — off a cliff? History says the Mets will not make the playoffs. No team that has lost 12 or more straight games in a season has reached the playoffs. That’s the longterm goal. Unfathomably, the short-term aim is just to win a game or two.

Rutgers’ Kaylah Ivey attends prestigious basketball coaching program

By LOIS ELFMAN

As graduate student Kaylah Ivey winds down a six-year college journey (one year off due to injury), she does so with a great sense of satisfaction. Not only did she earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Boston College, but she overcame injury to become a starting point guard. She still had one year of eligibility (for everyone who played in 2020–21), so she joined the women’s basketball team at Rutgers University, starting in 29 games and leading the Scarlet Knights in as-

sists. She will complete her master’s in education next month.

While the team’s results weren’t what Ivey had hoped for, she is deeply appreciative that coach Coquese Washington, who left Rutgers at the conclusion of the season, nominated her for the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s (WBCA) “So You Want to Be a Coach” program, which was held in Phoenix at the WBCA convention during the Final Four.

“I figured I want to be a coach, so I went the education route to understand how to educate young people and the different teaching

styles that people need, because everyone doesn’t learn the same way,” said Ivey, who studied psychology as an undergraduate. “So You Want to Be a Coach was a great experience. I met and talked with so many people, so many coaches.”

The two-day program informs student-athletes in their last year of eligibility about the skills necessary to get a coaching job. This year’s group was particularly large, but there was ample time for the participants to network and meet coaches and administrators. Tara VanDerveer, Stanford’s coach emerita, was among the speakers.

Season 2 of ’Harlem Globetrotters: Secrets of the City’ is in production

By LOIS ELFMAN Special to the AmNews

The network aspireTV, which explores and celebrates Black culture and urban lifestyle, is in production for the second season of “Harlem Globetrotters: Secrets of the City,” which spotlights the world travels of the renowned show-basketball company. This travel series follows the company touring the globe to mark an incredible 100 years of the Globetrotters.

“The goal behind season one was to figure out how we could bring the good vibes, the positivity, the family atmosphere of what happens every single time you go to a Globetrotters game,” said Angela Cannon, general manager of aspireTV. “The Globetrotters travel the world and visit over 120 countries.”

Cannon developed a series that involves cultural immer-

sion, showing the players partaking of food and local culture in the countries they visit. Season one had eight episodes.

Season two will feature Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris, Lagos, Athens, Rome, Tahiti, and Chile in its eight episodes expected to premiere in early 2027.

“I wanted aspireTV viewers to be inspired and aspire to go to new exotic places,” Cannon said.

Season one performed extremely well on aspireTV and it is still one of the top-viewed shows on the streaming platform, aspireTV+. Season two episodes will include some game action, showing how the players engage with various audiences.

Viewers get to see team dynamics away from the game as the Globetrotters try different cuisines and explore new places.

Season one included a trip to Cairo, Egypt, because some Globetrotters alumni said that was

one of their favorite places to visit and even recommended certain local delicacies.

There are several Globetrotters troupes, most of which include at least one female player.

Fatima “TNT” Lister, who joined the Globetrotters in 2011, will be featured in season two. Players also get to meet up with Black Americans living abroad, as well as see what Black culture is like in different countries.

“We’re excited for aspireTV to have its first sports travel show,” said Cannon. “The Globetrotters go everywhere. We don’t always think about ex-pat communities or Black or Brown cultures [in some countries]. They’re going back to Tahiti after 40 years. To be able to see the culture there … that is the purpose of this show: to bring out a new way of thinking about travel. … You can see Black and Brown people everywhere around the globe.”

“There were so many great people and I learned so much,” said Ivey.

Ivey said the participants came from a diverse range of institutions, including Division III and even NAIA. It was enlightening to hear people’s perspectives on their seasons and even the resources their schools have.

“Being able to hear the different coaching stories from the coaches was so insightful,” Ivey said. “Everyone has their own journey. Obviously, the ultimate goal is to be at a Division I program, but you have to start from somewhere.

All these coaches [who] came and

talked to us — they all had a different path starting out. One thing that stuck with me is never to compromise yourself for a job. … Continue to be yourself and build those relationships.”

Sports

In Atlanta for Games 3 and 4, urgency is required from the Knicks

By JAIME C. HARRIS AmNews Sports Editor

Jalen Brunson entered the Knicks’ postgame press conference at Madison Square Garden on Monday night and slumped onto a folding chair next to teammate Josh Hart behind a dais set up at the front of the room.

Wearing a knit cap and dark sunglasses, Brunson’s demeanor was understandably serious and sober. Roughly 30 minutes earlier, the Knicks surrendered command of Game 2 of the opening round Eastern Conference playoff series versus the Atlanta Hawks — relinquishing a 91-79 lead they held at the start of the fourth quarter and ultimately losing 107-106. Instead of taking a 2-0 series advantage, the Knicks face the Hawks tonight in Game

3 (7:00 p.m., Prime Video) on the road, tied 1-1, with Game 4 also in Atlanta on Saturday (6:00 p.m. NBC/Peacock).

Although Brunson scored a team-high 29 points, he labored offensively for much of the night, shooting just 10-26 overall and missing six of 10 3-point attempts. As the point guard, his facilitating and ball distribution were suspect. After center KarlAnthony Towns scored 12 points in the third quarter, he did not take a shot in the fourth quarter despite an efficient 8-12 evening for 18 points. It was counterintuitive that Brunson and Knicks’ head coach did not prioritize and feature Towns on the Knicks’ offensive end because thus far in the series, the Hawks have no answers to stop his power game in the paint.

“I’ll just say I can control what I can control,” said Brunson in rationalizing the Knicks’ fourthquarter offensive failings in Game 2.

“Poor decision-making on my part. A couple of positions, they played great defense and smacked

the ball out of my hands. We got to play better with the lead, that’s twice in the fourth quarter now that we’ve done that.”

The same could be said for the collective squad after Game 1 on Saturday. The Knicks left the Garden with a 113-102 victory, but the Hawks sliced the Knicks’ 106-87 lead with 4 1/2 minutes remaining to 106-98 late in the quarter, going on an 11-0 run.

But two nights later in Game 2, the Hawks, driven by 34-year-old veteran CJ McCollum, who dissected and probed the Knicks’ defense for a game-high 32 points, consummated the comeback. McCollum also replaced former Hawk Trae Young as an antagonist and target of the Knicks fans’ disdain following a nose-to-nose verbal exchange between him and Knicks reserve guard Jose Alvarado in the third quarter.

From then on, many in the MSG crowd vociferously booed the 6’3” guard and chanted

“F-you CJ” in unison. McCollum and Alvarado were previously teammates on the New Orleans Pelicans.

“I am no villain. I’m a nice guy with two kids and a wife,” McCollum countered afterward. “I think it’s admiration. They’re great, passionate fans that create a hostile environment … it’s fun, it’s basketball, it’s the playoffs. If anything, I think it’s a sign of respect.”

McCollum added he has attended Knicks playoff games as a fan so he knew what to expect in the Garden’s charged-up atmosphere.

The Knicks must adjust their defensive schematics against McCollum ahead of Game 3, particularly on high screens. In Game 2, Hawks head coach Quin Snyder repeatedly put Brunson in conflict on picks to switch him onto McCollum. It was advantage McCollum, as he attacked Brunson for

opportune scoring opportunities. McCollum was also a force on offense in Game 1, pacing the Hawks with 26 points.

“Give Atlanta a lot of credit. A couple of times we could have pulled away and we didn’t,” said Knicks head coach Mike Brown on Monday. “We have to keep putting bodies on bodies.

“…The last thing I would say is that, in that fourth quarter too, you could tell that they were playing with a level of desperation, and there were four 50/50 balls, and they got three of the four. We always use that stat to gauge the level of aggression in a game, and in that fourth quarter their aggression stepped up.”