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☆ New York Is Forcing Schools to Change How They Teach Children to Read
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Troy Closson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Twenty years ago, during the Bloomberg administration, Chancellor Joel Klein ushered in the era of balanced literacy at city schools, until a lack of progress led him to pilot other approaches. Years later, another chancellor, Carmen Fariña, a believer in independent reading time and having students choose their own books, again encouraged schools to adopt those strategies. Mr. Banks, and the mayor, Eric Adams, who has dyslexia, has said reading would be one of the top priorities for the administration. Already, Mr. Banks has required schools to adopt phonics programs and opened several new programs for students with dyslexia. Teacher training on the new programs will begin this week and continue over the summer, and coaching will continue during the school year.

☆ Where the Milkshakes Are Served With a Celebration of Black Culture
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Kayla Stewart | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On a corner in Central Harlem, just blocks from the Apollo Theater and Marcus Garvey Park, stands Harlem Shake, a diner designed to look as though it’s been there for decades. The walls are covered with Jet magazine covers and photographs, some signed, of Black American musicians and celebrities: Regina Hall, Diddy, Maya Angelou, Questlove. Its retro diner-style menus and swivel bar stools evoke nostalgia for an era of charm — and upheaval — in American culture. Rasheeda Purdie, a neighborhood resident of 14 years, finds comfort in how distinctly Harlem the restaurant is. “Sharing food is almost like a love language,” said Dardra Coaxum, an interior designer and Harlem native who opened the restaurant with Jelena Pasic.

☆ A New Survey Erases Male Artists From the Western Canon
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Tiana Reid | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

But although her index of names succeeds in providing some answer to the question posed in Linda Nochlin’s trailblazing 1971 essay “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?,” Hessel does less than Nochlin did, 50 years ago, to unsettle the terms of the question itself. Can inserting women into the art-historical canon interrupt the system of canonization itself? Why does Hessel rely on the same methods of archival organization — linear history, market-based tastes, distinct genre boundaries — that played a part in producing women’s very exclusion? How instead might the fact of women’s presence disrupt the presuppositions of art’s place in the world? An especially moving chapter, “The Body in Sculpture,” initiates an answer.

☆ Drag queens and the long, vibrant history of drag in the US
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Scottie Andrew | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +15 min

Barbara Alper/Getty ImagesDrag has become increasingly visible in recent years through mainstream shows like “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and popular public events such as drag brunches, drag bingo and drag queen story hours, in which drag performers read children’s books to young audiences, often at libraries. Some trans drag queens who received hormone injections were “strongly deplored by stage impersonators who (said) that the whole point of female impersonation depends on maleness,” Newton wrote. But “Drag Race” has also skewed viewers’ definition of drag – no drag kings have ever competed on the series, Testa noted, and the judges have long imposed somewhat traditional beauty standards upon contestants. Pickle reads from a book during the Drag Queen Story Hour program at a Los Angeles library in 2019. These lawmakers falsely claim that drag performers “groom” or sexualize children, of which there is also no evidence.

☆ Opinion | American Road Deaths Show an Alarming Racial Gap
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Adam Paul Susaneck | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +15 min

The year before, pedestrian deaths reached a 40-year high. Pedestrian and cyclist injuries tend to be concentrated in poorer neighborhoods that have a larger share of Black and Hispanic residents. Roosevelt Boulevard North Philly High Injury Network West Philly 3 miles Percent Black and Hispanic 20 40 60 80% Washington D.C. Oslo and Helsinki, which adopted Vision Zero in the 1990s, recorded zero traffic deaths in 2019, and Helsinki had just two pedestrian deaths in 2021. In Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington, pedestrian deaths have actually risen since the adoption of Vision Zero.

☆ A Harlem Institution Reimagines How Americans Interact With the African Continent
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Dionne Searcey | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Situated on an East Harlem street corner overlooking Central Park, the Center has welcomed billionaires Bill Gates and Mo Ibrahim talking about the future of African business as well as the actress Lupita Nyong’o reading from her children’s book on colorism. Hank Willis Thomas’s Afro Pick installation was situated on its plaza. The Center has hosted African presidents and prizewinning authors — and a sweaty crowd breaking into a dance party. “There are places where your behavior has to be precious,” said Iweala, speaking about his vision. But that would require significant new fund-raising and a bump in staffing, which now stands at 11 full-time positions and four part-time.

☆ Harlem Businesses Sue to Stop Cannabis Dispensary Planned for 125th Street
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Ashley Southall | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A prominent Harlem business group filed a lawsuit on Wednesday seeking to stop the state from building a recreational cannabis dispensary on the neighborhood’s main street, adding to the challenges faced by New York State in its rollout of the recreational marijuana industry. The lawsuit may signal trouble for efforts to open stores in some communities that lawmakers intended to benefit the most from legalization, and it underscores the sentiment expressed by some that they have been left out of the planning process. The suit, filed by the 125th Street Business District Management Association in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, seeks to cancel the state’s lease on a storefront at 248 West 125th Street, across from the Apollo Theatre, in the first case challenging the secretive process regulators use to choose dispensary locations. “This is a naked, intentional and bold attempt to avoid community opposition,” the lawsuit said. While the association said it does not oppose having a dispensary on 125th Street or elsewhere in Harlem, the complaint said the current location is “irredeemable” because it would add to the crime, congestion and open drug use already plaguing the area.

☆ Harry Belafonte on His Artistic Values and His Activism
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( The New York Times | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Harry Belafonte, the singer, actor and activist whose wide-ranging success blazed a trail for other Black artists in the 1950s, died on Tuesday at age 96. A child of Harlem, Mr. Belafonte used his platform at the height of the entertainment world to speak out frequently on his music, how Black life was depicted onscreen and, most important to him, the civil rights movement. Here are some of the insights Mr. Belafonte provided to The New York Times during his many decades in the public spotlight, as they appeared at the time:His musicMr. Belafonte’s string of hits, including “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” and “Jamaica Farewell,” helped create an American obsession with Caribbean music that led his record company to promote him as the “King of Calypso.”But Mr. Belafonte never embraced that sort of monarchical title, rejecting “purism” as a “cover-up for mediocrity” and explaining that he saw his work as a mash-up of musical styles. He told The New York Times Magazine in 1959 that folk music had “hidden within it a great dramatic sense, and a powerful lyrical sense.” He also plainly conceded: “I don’t have a great voice.”

☆ Factbox: Facts about actor-activist Harry Belafonte
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

* Belafonte received a Tony Award in 1954 for his role in Broadway's "Almanac" and became the first Black actor to win an Emmy for a 1959 television variety special. * Belafonte received three Grammys, including a Lifetime Achievement Award. * Although Belafonte and co-star Dorothy Dandridge were accomplished singers, their vocals in the 1954 movie "Carmen Jones" were sung by LeVern Hutcherson and Marilyn Horne. * Belafonte's movies often had racial themes. * Belafonte produced the 1984 movie "Beat Street," one of the first movies about break-dancing and hip-hop culture.

☆ Harry Belafonte, who mixed music, acting, and activism, dies at 96
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Bill Trott | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Belafonte was born in New York City's borough of Manhattan but spent his early childhood in his family's native Jamaica. A few weeks before the launch, Belafonte told Rolling Stone magazine that singing was a way for him to express injustices in the world. "We were instructed to never capitulate, to never yield, to always resist oppression," Belafonte told Yes! "The Navy came as a place of relief for me," Belafonte told Yes! Belafonte was the first Black performer to win a major Emmy in 1960 with his appearance on a television variety special.

CNN —Harry Belafonte, the dashing singer, actor and activist who became an indispensable supporter of the civil rights movement, has died, his publicist Ken Sunshine told CNN. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images Belafonte, left, plays a school principal in a scene from the film "See How They Run" in 1952. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images Belafonte poses with the Emmy Award he won in 1960 for the musical special "Tonight With Belafonte." Fred Sabine/NBCU/Getty Images Belafonte and other recipients of Albert Einstein Commemorative Awards display their medallions after being honored in 1972. He is survived by his wife Pamela, his children Adrienne Belafonte Biesemeyer, Shari Belafonte, Gina Belafonte, David Belafonte, two stepchildren Sarah Frank and Lindsey Frank and eight grandchildren.

☆ Harry Belafonte: A Life in Photos
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Peter Keepnews | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Harry Belafonte, born in Harlem to West Indian immigrants, captivated audiences with his singing and almost single-handedly ignited a craze for Caribbean music. He achieved movie stardom with his striking good looks and won a Tony Award for best featured actor in a musical. But Mr. Belafonte, who died on Tuesday, was more than an entertainer; his primary focus from the late 1950s until the end of his life was civil rights. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and took part in the March on Washington in 1963. In the 1980s, he helped organize a cultural boycott of South Africa under apartheid to raise money to fight famine in Africa.

☆ Harry Belafonte, calypso star and civil rights champion, dies at 96
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Alex Johnson | Diana Dasrath | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Singer Harry Belafonte speaks during a press junket at The Bing Decision Maker Series with the Sing Your Song Cast and Filmmakers on January 22, 2011 in Park City, Utah. American singer Harry Belafonte performing in a recording studio, circa 1957. By the early 1960s, Belafonte had become a force in the civil rights movement. A crowd of over 10,000 civil rights marchers gathers in the Manhattan Garment Center as Harry Belafonte sings at spiritual at a civil rights rally. A capacity audience of civil rights advocates turned out to watch a glittering array of theater personalities perform.

☆ In Harlem, a 19th-Century Home That’s Playfully Modern Inside
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Vivian Marino | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

(“I hired him to be a collaborative partner, then he became my partner partner,” she said.) The Harlem townhouse is going back on the market for $3.25 million, according to the listing brokers Stan Ponte and Colin Montgomery of Sotheby’s International Realty. Measuring around 4,900 square feet over four stories, the townhouse has five bedrooms, two full bathrooms and a powder room. “In the late 1800s it was a place for horses, and now it’s a place to park your car,” Mr. Montgomery said. “What was a luxury then is still a luxury today.”

☆ A New York woman lost all her belongings to a moving company scam. She got a $10,000 settlement, but is living with her parents and scraping together 5 part-time jobs to make ends meet.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Eliza Relman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

The 45-year-old lactation consultant won about $10,000 by suing the moving company. There weren't a lot of options available when it came to moving companies, but she eventually found Gold Standard Relocation. Everything seemed normal on Wagner's moving day — until the movers didn't show up and the company wouldn't answer the phone. She'd already paid the moving company about $4,300 to transport and store more than 70 boxes of her things and many furniture pieces for six months. Fraudulent moving companies will often offer customers a low estimate and deposit price, and then demand additional exorbitant fees after taking their belongings hostage.

☆ Happy 100th Birthday, 16-Millimeter Film
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Devika Girish | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

One hundred years ago, the Eastman Kodak Company introduced a shiny new camera that promised to revolutionize moviemaking. The technical marvel, however, wasn’t just the camera but also the film inside. Until 1923, the film used most commonly in motion pictures was 35 millimeters wide. Until digital video arrived in the late 1990s, 16-millimeter film was the mainstay of the amateur or independent filmmaker, requiring neither the investment nor the know-how of commercial cinema. The third film, “Black Faces” from 1970, was an ebullient, one-minute montage of portraits of Harlem residents.

Here’s what to know about Mr. Bragg’s background and career:The district attorney has lived in Harlem for most of his life. Mr. Bragg was born on Oct. 21, 1973, to Alvin Bragg Sr., a social services worker, and Sadie Bragg, a teacher. He attended Trinity, an elite private school in Manhattan, before going to Harvard. Mr. Bragg beat out eight other candidates to become the district attorney. In June 2019, Mr. Bragg declared that he was running for Manhattan district attorney.

Persons: Bragg, Alvin Bragg, Sadie Bragg, ”, Robert Patterson Jr, ’, Preet Bharara, “ We’re Organizations: Trinity, Harvard, Black Students Association, Harvard Crimson, New, Southern, of Locations: Harlem, Manhattan, “, New York, of New York

☆ 109-year-old went viral after celebrating his birthday with a belly dancer. Here are 12 lessons he says helped him have a happy, healthy life.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

After his marriage, Betty Markoff made sure he ate a mixture of protein vegetables, and rich deserts, but always eaten in moderation, he said. Later in life, Markoff made a good living as a vacuum salesman. From a young age, Markoff picked up odd jobs here and there, working as a shoeshine boy, newspaper boy, and more. Love deeply and take care of peopleMorrie and Betty Markoff on their 80th wedding anniversary. Courtesy of Thomas MarkoffMarkoff puts down a lot of his long life to luck.

☆ They Had $350,000 and a Dream to Live Together. Could They Make It in Manhattan?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Joyce Cohen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

For 30 years, Ms. Denlinger rented a sunny fifth-floor walk-up in Manhattan Valley. Ms. Ladin, 62 — the first openly transgender professor at Yeshiva University, where she taught English — suffers from myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome. “I had not done any real estate hunting for 30 years,” Ms. Denlinger said. To find her Manhattan Valley apartment, “I got a Village Voice, looked in the ads, called up the landlord and made an appointment. “We needed two rooms that could be really separate, where one was not a bathroom or a kitchen,” Ms. Ladin said.

☆ Exonerated 'Central Park 5' member mimics Trump's 1980s ad that called for the return of the death penalty
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Isobel Van Hagen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

One of the "Central Park Five" mimicked a 1989 full-page ad that Trump placed calling for the death penalty. In the mock ad, posted on Twitter, Salaam referred to Trump's recent indictment and arrest. In the ad, which was posted on Twitter, Yusef Salaam mocked Trump's recent indictment and arrest while imitating the statement Trump advertised in multiple New York newspapers. Salaam was one of five Black and Latino teenagers who were wrongly convicted of the assault and rape of a young white woman in Central Park. Salaam, however, said he ultimately wished Trump "no harm," even though the former president had "effectively called for my death and the death of four other innocent children."

☆ Factbox: From Bragg to Tacopina: Who's who in Trump hush money case
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Mike Stone | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/5] New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg leaves after former U.S. President Donald Trump's indictment by a Manhattan grand jury following a probe into hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels, in New York City, U.S., March 30, 2023. At issue is a $130,000 hush payment to an adult film star made in the waning days of the 2016 election campaign. Allegedly the payment was hush money paid to benefit Trump's presidential campaign, to cover up a 2006 sexual encounter. ALVIN BRAGGTrump's indictment has thrust New York prosecutor Alvin Bragg into the spotlight. He has represented rapper Meek Mill, former Yankees baseball star Alex Rodriguez and Donald Trump Jr.'s fiancée Kimberly Guilfoyle.

☆ New York man gets 22 years in jail over killing of Chinese immigrant
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 31 (Reuters) - A New York City man who pleaded guilty to manslaughter and a hate crime in the 2021 killing of a Chinese immigrant has been sentenced to 22 years in prison, authorities said. Police surveillance video of the April 2021 attack showed Ma being knocked down from behind and kicked in the head multiple times by a lone man. Ma was a pastry chef who came to the U.S. with his wife two years before the attack, U.S. media have reported. Bragg's office said Powell admitted in his plea that he targeted Ma due to his Asian heritage. The attack on Ma came a month after a shooting spree at three Atlanta spas left eight people dead, including six Asian women.

☆ Alvin Bragg: Who is the New York prosecutor who got Trump indicted?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Luc Cohen | Thomson Reuters | Reports On The New York Federal Courts. Previously Worked As A Correspondent In Venezuela | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Companies Trump Organization Inc FollowNEW YORK, March 31 (Reuters) - Donald Trump's indictment has thrust into the spotlight Alvin Bragg, the prosecutor whose office convinced a New York grand jury to bring the first criminal charges ever against a former U.S. president. Bragg, 49, took office in January 2022, the first Black person elected Manhattan District Attorney. In 2021, Bragg won a crowded primary for the Democratic nomination to succeed Cyrus Vance as Manhattan District Attorney. "I've done this type of work under this type of scrutiny," Bragg said during the campaign, referring to the case against the Trump Foundation. Bragg came under criticism last year for declining to bring charges against Trump over his family real estate company's business practices.

☆ Trump Indictment Places Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg in Spotlight
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Corinne Ramey | James Fanelli | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg ’s pursuit of criminal charges against former President Donald Trump could provide a case for the history books while also testing one of New York City’s top prosecutors, a newcomer to political office who built his career in state and federal law enforcement. Mr. Bragg, 49 years old, took office in January of last year, becoming the first Black district attorney in Manhattan after winning the nomination in a crowded Democratic field and then triumphing in his first run for public office. He campaigned by touting his lengthy record in law enforcement, which includes stints with the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York and the New York attorney general, as well as sharing his personal experiences living with crime and aggressive policing while growing up in Harlem during the 1980s crack epidemic.

☆ Trump Probe Places Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg in Spotlight
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Corinne Ramey | James Fanelli | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg ’s pursuit of potential criminal charges against former President Donald Trump could provide a case for the history books while also testing one of New York City’s top prosecutors, a newcomer to political office who built his career in state and federal law enforcement. Mr. Bragg, 49 years old, took office in January of last year, becoming the first Black district attorney in Manhattan after winning the nomination in a crowded Democratic field and then triumphing in his first run for public office. He campaigned by touting his lengthy record in law enforcement, which includes stints with the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York and the New York attorney general, as well as sharing his personal experiences living with crime and aggressive policing while growing up in Harlem during the 1980s crack epidemic.

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