This is part one in a six part series, the remaining five posts will follow every other week for the next two months.
They pass by every half-hour right outside my apartment window. The double-decker buses loaded with tourists rolling down Broadway and past our building on West 133rd before swinging a right on 131st on their way to Madame Alexander’s Doll Factory, the second biggest tourist attraction in Harlem after the Apollo Theater.
Hailing from a small town in Texas, Ebony Jones quit her day job as an Algebra teacher, and pursued her dreams to work for Sean “P. Diddy“ Combs. Being a football player, she brought her “A” game to the competition, and scored the winning touch down, in landing a job as our fellow Harlemite’s assistant. We at HW took the time out to catch up with miss Ebony from “I Want To Work For Diddy.”
Betsy Sathers wears the glow of a new mother as she perches on the couch in her family room, smiling and chatting with visitors while still managing to keep an eye on the 2-year-old twins burbling and cavorting at her feet.
Sathers — whose husband was killed when a Minneapolis freeway bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River in 2007 — is realizing her dreams of being a mother with the adoption of Ross and Alyse from Haiti.
The twins, brought to Sathers’ home just days after the earthquake in Haiti, suck from baby bottles and drag toys across the floor. On the wall hangs a framed wedding day photo of Sathers and her late husband, Scott.
Join The Danny Tisdale Show at a New Time, on a New Day.
This Tuesday, February 9th, 2 pm it’s a great conversation with HW dance writer Walter Rutledge on great dance from East Harlem to West Harlem, Dr. Linda Rock on the highs-and-lows of race, law and American society as part of the Constitutional READ-IN with Professor Gloria Browne-Marshall and actress/educator Jill Marie-Lawrence’sA Spawning of Arts in Africa with Marianna Houston founder of the International Theatre & Literacy Project (ITLP) in Africa.
Last Friday at 5 AM Jimmy Booker, acclaimed Harlem-based journalist/griot, suffered a heart attack and past away. Fondly known as the Dean Of Black Journalists, Jimmy Booker was a rare individual. Jimmy Booker’s Amsterdam News columns were must read destinations for the African-American weekly faithful. His columns, were informative, edgy and insightful whether it was an unfolding story in the Harlem community, City Hall, or Washington, DC. Keep reading →
Vanity Fair’s annual Hollywood Issue has always been on the cutting edge of what’s next or what’s hot in Tinsel Town. The 2010 edition, boldly titled “A New Decade, A New Hollywood,” hits newsstands Feb. 9. But there is already an uproar brewing about the issue’s cover. Outlets such as USA Today , E! Online, Huffington Post, and others are taking the magazine to task for a cover that features only white women. This is the second time this year that Vanity Fair finds itself in hot water for its very narrow — and white — view of reality.
I hate to tell Vanity Fair this, but nothing about the cover is in line with current trends, or at all an accurate portrayal of the next decade of talent, or even Hollywood’s current makeup. Not one mixed person, tan person or Asian person? No one from Bollywood? No one from Latin America? I thought the cover reflected more of an “Old Hollywood” throwback issue. In the 15 years of the Hollywood Issue, never has there been one that has been so one dimensional, or covered such a narrow scope.
Sometimes you wonder if someone, something is looking down on us and want to give us a nudge towards the better saints in all of us. This win for the Who Dat nation was, well, right on time. Saints fans hugged, kissed, and spilled onto the streets Sunday as a citywide party erupted after their once woebegone NFL franchise defeated the Indianpolis Colts in the Super Bowl. Keep reading →
Business Insider.com spoke with a member of governor Paterson’s communications team who denies that the governor is planning to resign. The official confirmed that a New York Times story is in the works but says it will not run Monday.
Gawker got an on-the-record comment from Paterson’s deputy communications director Marissa Shoenstein, who said: “There is absolutely zero truth to these rumors. The governor is not resigning.” She also denied that there’s anything particularly scandalous in the NYT story:
Bear witness to the unique pairing of trombone and piano and the supreme musicianship of jazz innovators Wycliffe Gordon and Eric Reed performing an intimate set of duets from their collaborative project ‘we’ featuring an assembly of original compositions, jazz standards and spirituals.
Presented by Jazzmobile in partnership with The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
This program is presented as part of COMPOSERS NOW, a festival that celebrates the diversity an dpresence of living composers in our society. For more information and a detailed schedule of events and partnering instituitions, please visit http://www.composers-now.org/
Not big on anyone slapping another person, but this is funny. A man arrives at a beautiful woman’s house for their “first date”. He is then quickly introduced to her 4 year old son who waste no time explaining the house rules.
This is part of the 2010 Crash the Super Bowl ad campaign & can be featured in Super Bowl XLIV.
Photographs of President Barack Obama’s first year in the White House are now on display at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem.
The exhibit includes almost 80 photographs taken by chief official White House photographer Pete Souza and 35 watercolors documenting African-American history from colonial times to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Keep reading →
Bill Clinton, who is helping relief efforts in earthquake-torn Haiti, has stepped in to the U.S. missionaries’ adoption mêlée. His diplomatic efforts may free all but one of the 10 jailed missionaries. The group’s leader, Laura Silsby, will likely still be held. During a visit Friday, Clinton said he believed the Haitian government would likely want to find a way “to defuse the crisis.”
As Clinton works to spring the U.S. missionaries charged with kidnapping, the case highlights a new evangelical strategy: Adopt Third World babies and convert them.
For the past week, the news from Haiti has been dominated by the story of 10 American evangelicals from Idaho who were caught at the border of the Dominican Republic attempting to take 33 Haitian children, many with living parents, out of the country without documentation. The Americans, missionaries with the recently created New Life Children’s Refuge, were arrested and charged with kidnapping and criminal conspiracy—a reprieve from the child trafficking charges they may have faced. Keep reading →
The Oak Room in the Algonquin Hotel will present distinguished actor, musician, director, producer and educator, Avery Brooks, in concert. Among Mr. Brooks’ musical accomplishments, are the title role in the American Music Theater Festival production of Anthony Davis’ opera, X: The Life andTimes of Malcolm X, and the role of Cinque in Mr. Davis’ opera Tania.Keep reading →
Critically ill ICU patients at a hospital in Harlem were four times more likely to get a deadly blood infection than the average ICU patient nationwide, a new study shows.
The Consumer Reports Hospital Ratings study, released Tuesday, says North General Hospital’s so-called central line infection rate was 394% worse than the national average – and the worst in the city. Keep reading →
“Some men see things as they are and say why, I dream things that never were and say why not?” – RFK
Listen to the words, listen to the timelessness of what can be each our next steps. A dramatic cinemotagraphic reflection and rememberance of Robert F. Kennedy. The speech is the eulogy by Teddy Kennedy, at RFK’s funeral.
For some longtime West Harlem tenants, 131st Street in Manhattanville is just a shadow of its former self.
With several auto mechanics surrounded by post-industrial buildings, the street sports but a few remaining relics of its past. Now, one of the block’s persistent tenants may soon be permanently saying its goodbyes to 131st. Keep reading →
A Bald Eagle spotting isn’t unheard of in New York City—but it’s still neat to see one milling about in Harlem instead of, say, behind bars at the Bronx Zoo. One blogger recently spotted one heading to Fairway, saying: “Since the opening of the Harlem Piers I have always appreciated its close views of Hudson River bird traffic, all the while knowing that Bald Eagles sometimes ply these fish rich waters. So today, as I was about to head into Fairway, I scanned the rough ice and to my surprise, found a bald eagle in almost complete adult plumage.” (Maybe he knows where that Harlem wiley coyote is.) Find out more about the city’s history with the Bald Eagle, here.
We sens our love and respect to the family in passing of one of the most accomplished and high respected black journalist of the 20th Century, Mr. Jimmy Booker. To many, he was known as the “dean of black journalists.” His pen empowered many, especially in the political arena. He died this morning.
In a closed courtroom in one of the few government buildings still standing here, Laura Silsby and nine other American missionaries were charged Thursday with abducting children from this earthquake-ravaged capital.
When the proceeding was done, the 40-year-old from a mountain valley in Idaho walked out of Le Tribunal de Paix, past a scrum of microphones, cameras and seething Haitians and into a government minivan with a co-defendant. As they waited to return to a fetid cell with mattresses on a concrete floor, they appeared to pray.
Their lawyer, Edwin F. Coq Jr., said they had been charged with child abduction and criminal association and not the more-serious charges of kidnapping and child trafficking in connection with trying to take 33 children into the neighboring Dominican Republic. The charges could carry sentences of up to nine years and up to three years, respectively, Mr. Coq said. Keep reading →
Kicking off his second term as Manhattan Borough President, Scott M. Stringer delivered his State of the Borough speech tonight in the Council Chambers at City Hall. Entitled “Magnet City,” Stringer’s address highlighted the key accomplishments of his first term and outlined an ambitious agenda focused on assisting working families and growing the local economy.
The Borough President was introduced by former NYPD Commission William J. Bratton, and the evening included a performance by Vy Higginsen’s Gospel for Teens Choir and welcoming remarks by Lillian Rodríguez López, President of the Hispanic Federation. Keep reading →
Ten U.S. Baptist missionaries were charged with kidnapping Thursday for trying to take 33 children out of Haiti to a hastily arranged refuge just as officials were trying to protect children from predators in the chaos of a great earthquake.
The Haitian lawyer who represents the 10 Americans portrayed nine of his clients as innocents caught up in a scheme they did not understand. But attorney Edwin Coq did not defend the actions of the group leader, Laura Silsby, though he continued to represent her.
“I’m going to do everything I can to get the nine out. They were naive. They had no idea what was going on and they did not know that they needed official papers to cross the border,” Coq said. “But Silsby did.
The ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy is really about to be a wrap! Harlemite General Colin Powell, who was one of the main opponents of allowing gays to serve openly in the military back in the ’90’s, publicly addressed the policy today saying he’s changed his mind. Pop the hood to read what he has to say now. Keep reading →
A Launch To Believe, To Bridge and To Build Our Haiti
The BelTiFi “Pretty Young Girl” committee for young Haitian-American women aims to create bonds, bridge caps, and rebuild Haiti. The committee will start the New Year with their launch “Ladies Luncheon” on March, 13, 2010 promptly from 1:00pm-4:30pm at the Langston Hughes Cultural Center located at 100-01 Northern Boulevard Corona, NY 11368. Our credo surrounds the “secret garden,” which embodies our mission to unravel the secrets of the Haitian community and set a new standard for the “traditional” Haitian woman. The March luncheon will serve as the BelTiFi committee’s introduction to the Haitian community and aims to create a unity among the Haitian youth of today and established more Haitian leaders of tomorrow. The luncheon will include a presentation from the BelTiFi committee, an award ceremony, and a panel of top Haitian and Haitian-American female professionals from various industries including—law, healthcare, politics, education, entertainment, and entrepreneurs. Keep reading →
After opening a store in late November with promises of jobs and economic revival for the community of East Harlem, warehouse club Costco Wholesale Corp. terminated 160 of its 453 workers there last month in order to cut costs. Keep reading →
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