Vol. 76, No. 15
What’s inside?
Thursday, April 9, 2026
Competitive Assembly race emerges By Olivia Young oyoung@riverdalepress.com
Books x Bodegas Stories stock bodega shelves Page A3
$1.00
The race for the Assembly District 81 seat is gaining momentum, emerging as a competitive contest between longtime incumbent Assembly member Jeffrey Dinowitz and teacher and community activist Morgan Evers. Dinowitz is leading Evers in petition signatures and finances raised toward the campaign, but the race still marks his most competitive in recent years. He has held his seat since 1994. Evers said she filed 2,600 signatures, more than five times the amount needed to earn a spot on the ballot. Dinowitz said he collected 4,600 signatures, more than
nine times the amount needed. The New York City Board of Elections said it does not line count signatures and could not confirm the exact numbers given by candidates. Both candidates said they focused their efforts on doorknocking with volunteers across the district neighborhoods of Riverdale, Kingsbridge, Kingsbridge Heights, Van Cortlandt Village, Marble Hill, Nor wood, Wakefield and Woodlawn Heights. New York State Board of Elections campaign records show that after expenses, Dinowitz’s campaign currently has $235,523.11, and Evers’ has $36,883.94. Both qualified for local contributions to be matched by the state, and said they
expect additional funds to come in soon. Evers will officially appear on the ballot once she is approved by the New York City Board of Elections. The primar y ballot certification will be filed by April 30, according to the New York State Board of Elections. Evers said she expected Dinowitz to challenge her petition. By the deadline on April 2, Dinowitz’s campaign office told The Press they did not contest, and never had any intention to. New York City Board of Elections records also did not show any objections. Evers told The Press she is optimistic about the campaign, and emphasized she is fighting against what she feels is the “same old status quo.”
“There’s a lot of excitement,” Evers said. “This is a grassroots movement, but it feels larger than life.” Evers previously ser ved as a New York State Committee member from 2022 to 2024, a volunteer role that connects the community to state Democrats. If elected to Assembly, she would be the first blind woman to be a part of the New York State Legislature, Evers said. She criticized the “machine,” or the idea of a political structure that limits local input. Evers referenced the 2024 Assembly race, where Dinowitz ran uncontested, and emphasized the importance of a competitive primar y election. ASSEMBLY ON PAGE A4
New book explores ‘meaning’ in Bob Dylan’s music By Michelle Mullen mmullen@riverdalepress.com
21, the leak was less severe as it only ran for about 15 minutes, Donegan said. But, it still flooded from the studio into the hallway, forced a three-day closure and cost roughly $10,000 to repair, according to Deblois. The day of the second leak, there was no one in the studio at the time, and the sprinkler ran for more than 30 minutes before an instructor arrived, Deblois said. The water marked the orange carpet with dark-colored spots that still remain despite repeated cleanings, and seeped into the bathroom, the hallway, and the break room of the Advanced Endoscopy Center next door, Deblois said. Repairs at the endoscopy center were underway when The Press visited March 25, and were completed the following weekend, Steven Housberg, administrator at the center, said. The New York City Fire Department
On May 13, 2011, singer-songwriter Bob Dylan posted a brief note with an unusual proposition on his official website, BobDylan.com. “Everybody knows by now that there’s a gazillion books on me either out or coming out in the near future,” he wrote. “So I’m encouraging anybody who’s ever met me, heard me or even seen me, to get in on the action and scribble their own book. You never know, somebody might have a great book in them.” More than a decade later, one reader decided to take him up on the offer. Singer-songwriter Kevin Kane has spent decades listening to Dylan, drawn to the cultural icon’s unconventional sound and offbeat lyrics — lines like “The sun isn’t yellow, it’s chicken,” from the 1965 song “Tombstone Blues.” Now 70, the longtime Riverdale resident is less interested in what the songs say than in what they leave behind. In his first book, “Seeking Mirth & Beauty: Musings on How Things Come to Be,” Kane does not retell Dylan’s life or try to decode his lyrics. Instead, he focuses on the experience of hearing the music — why some songs stay with people, and why others don’t. “I point out very emphatically that the book is not about him at all,” Kane told The Press. “People try so hard to explain what he means, and it dawned on me a long time ago that his songs don’t mean anything any more than Jackson Pollock means something. Or Picasso putting the nose on the side of the face, it doesn’t mean anything, except that when he does it, it’s really good.” The book grew slowly. Kane began writing during the pandemic, but the ideas had been building for years in notes and reflections. “It became enough and comprehensive enough that it was all hanging together,” he explained.. “I thought, ‘I want to organize my thoughts and see what I actually think about all this.’” Kane said the way he listens to music comes from how he grew up. He was one of nine children in a busy household in Connecticut, where quiet was hard to find. “I just wanted to live alone so bad,” he reflected. “I loved my brothers and sisters, but I just wanted to be left alone and have some privacy.”
YOGA ON PAGE A4
BOB DYLAN ON PAGE A4
Holocaust exhibit Drawings discovered in home Page A5 GARY JEAN-JUSTE
From left to right, general manager Dereck Deblois, co-owner Kerry Donegan and co-owner Dionne Presinal.
More than $10k raised for Bronx Yoga Lab after flooding By Olivia Young oyoung@riverdalepress.com
Partners in protest Love and activism for local couple Page A6
The Bronx Yoga Lab at 5500 Broadway suffered its second sprinkler malfunction of the year March 8. The issue led to what staff estimated was 8 to 9 inches of water pooled in the corner of the studio, three days without operation and the need for costly repairs. But community members swiftly came together to support the Marble Hill-based hot yoga studio, which offers classes, retreats and workshops. A local fundraiser has raised thousands of dollars to go toward repairs for the studio. Co-owners Kerry Donegan and Dionne Presinal took over the studio in February 2020 after starting out as students five years prior. Now, they have built a community of more than 100 members and roughly 450 monthly classgoers, general manager Dereck Deblois said. De-
spite the recent setback, their connection to Bronx Yoga Lab runs deep, and they are set on staying open to serve their students, Donegan said. “We’re really fighting for them as much as we are the business,” Donegan said. “It’s just really important to us that everybody that comes here has a safe space.” On March 17, studio student Edith Lucas and nonprofit Friendly Fridge BX founder Sara Allen — both with longstanding ties to Bronx Yoga Lab — launched a GoFundMe campaign for repairs. As of April 6, community members donated $10,675. The goal is $30,000, most of which will go toward tearing up and replacing the studio floor, according to Deblois. Deblois said maintenance companies estimated total repair costs would fall between $50,000 and $60,000. When the first sprinkler burst on Jan.
Artist’s NYC works are making art accessible By Olivia Young oyoung@riverdalepress.com
Longtime Riverdale resident and artist Nina Seigenfeld Velazquez’s exhibit at Early Bird Cafe on Mosholu Avenue is made to be shared. Along with other New York-centric designs, Seigenfeld Velazquez creates unique renditions of the city’s famous Anthora cup on coffee sleeves, which baristas give to customers at random. “Coffee Reimagined” is a “way to get art into people’s hands,” Seigenfeld Velazquez said. From opening her own gallery at 21 in the East Village to sketching chalk outlines of women’s faces on Riverdale streets, the Upper East Side
native has always been of the belief that everyone can be an art collector, and has kept it at the center of her work. “People are coming into Early Bird, they’re grabbing their coffee, they’re looking at my artwork — It would be nice if they walked out with something,” Seigenfeld Velazquez said. The idea for the show came to be when 64-year-old Seigenfeld Velazquez was considering what a “real iconic image” was, she said. For her, it was undoubtedly the blue and white patterned paper Anthora cup, with its “We are happy to serve you” message. Since it was a coffee-themed exhibit, Early Bird Cafe owners Katie Mayer VELAZQUEZ ON PAGE A4
Courtesy Nina Seigenfeld Velazquez
Nina Seigenfeld Velazquez, right, with the help of her friend Mario Fernandez, left, dropped out of the School of Visual Arts to open her own gallery.