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In near perfect weather for a long distance race, with clear sunny skies and temperatures rising to the mid-50s, Sheila Chepkirui held off defending champion and fellow Kenyan Hellen Obiri in the final mile of Sunday’s TCS NYC Marathon to capture the professional women’s title. In another dramatic finish, the race came down to a battle of wills and kicks between Chepkirui and Obiri.

“Let me push the last mile, let me give it my best,” Chepkirui said. “When we were around 600 meters to go, I said to myself, ‘I have to push harder.’ When I saw Hellen wasn’t coming, I knew I was going to win and was so happy.” Chepkirui managed to outkick Obiri to open up an insurmountable lead in the last 200 meters and win by 14 seconds in 2:24:35.

Predominantly a middle distance runner for most of her career, it was the 33-year-old Chepkirui’s first time running the New York race and she began running marathons in 2022. It was also her first win at a World Marathon Major, which also includes the Boston, Chicago, London, Tokyo, Sydney and Berlin marathons.

RELATED LINK: Korir and Hug capture men’s titles at the 50th TCS NYC Marathon

While Obiri was the pre-race favorite, Chepkirui came into the race with the fastest personal best in the field at 2:17:29, which she ran at the 2022 Valencia Marathon. Obiri, who finished in 2:24:49, was looking to be the first repeat champion since Mary Keitany of Kenya won three in a row from 2014 to 2016.

Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya took third place in 2:25:21, giving the African nation the top three spots. The top American women’s finisher, Sara Vaughn, finished in sixth place after dropping out of the lead pack when the runners entered the Bronx at mile 20. Vaughn was a late addition to the NYC Marathon roster after COVID-19 prevented her from running the Chicago Marathon three weeks ago.

Susannah Scaroni crushes women’s wheelchair race

Susannah Scaroni blew past the competition to win the Women’s Wheelchair Division race by the biggest margin in the 20-year history of the event. Scaroni won in 1:48.05, beating fellow American Tatyana McFadden who finished in 1:58:47 by more than 10 minutes. Manuela Schar of Switzerland rounded out the top three winners finishing in 1:59:20.
While the race has had five different winners in the last five years, Scaroni became a two-time winner, also taking the race in 2022. “Always so special to be here in New York City,” Scaroni said.

“I woke up feeling great today, never take it for granted. Coming up the last hill we had a tailwind today. So I had a little more energy than I normally do at that hill.”

With Daniel Romanchuk’s win in the Men’s Wheelchair race the USA swept the wheelchair division, a marathon first, and Scaroni and Romanchuk became the first pair of U.S. athletes to win the NYC Marathon wheelchair division races.

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As the leaves turn and the crisp autumn air settles in, the city of London gears up for one of its most celebrated musical events: the 2024 EFG London Jazz Festival. Set to take place from Nov. 15 to Nov. 24, this year’s festival promises a lineup that spans a wide range of jazz styles, showcasing both legendary artists and innovative newcomers.

The London Jazz Festival has long been a platform for artistic expression, and 2024 is no exception. This year’s program includes performances from world-renowned jazz musicians, as well as exciting collaborations that push the boundaries of the genre. From classic bebop to contemporary fusion, the festival is set to feature an eclectic mix of local and international talent. Notable acts include Meshell Ndegeocello, Kenny Barron Trio, and London’s fresh talent, Amy Gadiaga.

With venues scattered throughout the city, the festival offers jazz lovers an opportunity to explore London’s cultural tapestry. Locations such as the Royal Festival Hall, Barbican, and historic Ronnie Scott’s will host a variety of performances, while intimate pop-up shows in hidden gems provide a chance to discover emerging artists in a more personal setting.

Beyond the performances, the festival also emphasizes education and community engagement. A series of workshops, masterclasses, and panel discussions will be held throughout the event, allowing aspiring musicians and jazz enthusiasts to learn from the masters. Topics range from the history of jazz to modern improvisation techniques, fostering a deeper appreciation of this art form.

The London Jazz Festival is committed to celebrating diversity in the jazz community. This year, thighlights include the contributions of underrepresented voices in the genre, featuring female artists, musicians from diverse backgrounds, and ensembles that challenge traditional norms. The festival aims to create an inclusive environment where everyone can experience the transformative power of jazz.

Whether you’re a lifelong jazz aficionado or a curious newcomer, the London Jazz Festival 2024 promises an exhilarating journey through sound. It is set to reaffirm London’s status as a global hub for jazz. Mark your calendars and prepare for a week of unforgettable music, inspiration, and celebration of this timeless art form.

Tickets for the London Jazz Festival 2024 are now available, with a variety of pricing options. Many performances are designed to be family-friendly, encouraging audiences of all ages to engage with the music. The festival is also committed to making its events accessible to all, with venues equipped to accommodate individuals with disabilities.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the official London Jazz Festival website at www.efglondonjazzfestival.org.uk.

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LONDON — Outspoken, right-leaning lawmaker Kemi Badenoch was named leader of Britain’s opposition Conservatives on Saturday, as the party tries to rebound from a crushing election defeat that ended its 14 years in power.

The first Black woman to lead a major British political party, Badenoch (pronounced BADE-enock) has pledged to bring the right-of-center Tories “renewal” by pushing for a smaller state and rejecting identity politics.

Badenoch defeated rival candidate Robert Jenrick in an online and postal ballot of party members, securing 57% of the almost 100,000 votes cast to Jenrick’s 43%.

Badenoch, 44, replaced former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who led the Conservatives to their worst election result since 1832 in July.

The new leader’s challenge is to restore the party’s reputation after years of division, scandal, and economic tumult; hammer Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s policies on key issues, including the economy and immigration; and return the Conservatives to power at the next election, due by 2029.

“The task that stands before us is tough but simple,” Badenoch said in a victory speech to a roomful of Conservative lawmakers, staff, and journalists in London. She said the party’s job was to hold the Labour government to account, and to craft pledges and a plan for government.

Addressing the party’s election drubbing, she said, “We have to be honest — honest about the fact that we made mistakes, honest about the fact that we let standards slip.

“The time has come to tell the truth; to stand up for our principles; to plan for our future; to reset our politics and our thinking; and to give our party, and our country, the new start that they deserve.”

Badenoch was born in London to Nigerian parents and spent much of her childhood in the West African country. She served as a business secretary in Sunak’s government.

The former software engineer depicts herself as a disruptor, arguing for a low-tax, free-market economy and pledging to “rewire, reboot, and reprogram” the British state. Like her rival Jenrick, she has criticized multiculturalism and called for lower immigration, although unlike him, she has not demanded that Britain leave the European Convention on Human Rights.

A self-proclaimed enemy of wokeness, Badenoch opposes identity politics, gender-neutral bathrooms, and government plans to reduce carbon emissions in the UK. During the leadership campaign, she drew criticism for saying that “not all cultures are equally valid,” and for suggesting that maternity pay was excessive.

Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said the Conservative Party was likely to “swing towards the right, both in terms of its economic policies and its social policies” under Badenoch.

He predicted Badenoch would pursue “what you might call the boats, boilers, and bathrooms strategy …. focusing very much on the trans issue, the immigration issue, and skepticism about progress towards net zero.”

While the Conservative Party is not representative of the country as a whole (its dwindling membership of 132,000 is largely made up of affluent, older white men), its upper echelons have become markedly more diverse.

Badenoch is the Tories’ fourth female leader, after Margaret Thatcher, Theresa May, and Liz Truss, all of whom became prime minister. She’s the second Conservative leader of color, after Sunak, and the first with African roots. The center-left Labour Party has a more diverse membership, but has only ever been led by white men.

In a leadership contest that lasted more than three months, Conservative lawmakers reduced the field from six candidates in a series of votes before putting the final two to the wider party membership.

Both finalists came from the right of the party, and argued they could win voters back from Reform UK, the hard-right, anti-immigrant party led by populist politician Nigel Farage that has eaten away at Conservative support, but the party also lost many voters to the winning party, Labour, and to the centrist Liberal Democrats. Some Conservatives worry that tacking right will lead the party away from public opinion.

Starmer’s government has had a rocky first few months in office, beset by negative headlines, fiscal gloom, and a plummeting approval rating, but Bale said the historical record suggests the odds are against Badenoch leading the Conservatives back to power in 2029.

“It’s quite unusual for someone to take over when a party gets very badly beaten and manages to lead it to election victory,” he said. “However, Keir Starmer did exactly that after 2019. So records are there to be broken.”

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A decisive number of Americans — more than 71 million — apparently are not ready for a woman to lead the nation, and certainly not a Black one. Like Grover Cleveland in the 19th century, Trump appears to be set to become a re-elected former president, and his victory led to a tsunami of red that overwhelmed the blue wall. Although his margin of victory over Vice President Kamala Harris was narrow in the vital battleground states, an inch was as good as a mile in this highly contested race.

According to several exit poll reports, the economy was a deciding factor for most voters. Of course, we know that few are ready to list race as a factor in their determination, and at no point was there any disavowal of the humiliating attacks on Harris, right down to J.D. Vance calling her trash. Nor are they willing to concede that gender governed their choice; like the misinformation and lies that permeated this absolutely unconventional bid for the White House, it will take a few weeks to sort out the complexity of the outcome.

The overall count is still not official, but as we went to press, Trump had a commanding lead across the board with 276 Electoral College votes to Harris’s 223. Even more troubling, the Republicans appeared to have gained control of the Senate and be on the verge of keeping the House. Red was the dominant color on the maps posted by various television stations.

In his victory speech, Trump stated, “This is a movement like nobody’s ever seen before, and, frankly, this was, I believe, the greatest political movement of all time … America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate. We have taken back control of the Senate … And I want to thank [Speaker of the House] Mike Johnson. I think he’s doing a terrific job.”

Van Jones, a Democratic strategist, was tearful on the air during his commentary, noting that “People are going to be terrified … There are going to be people who are going to clean your teeth tomorrow who don’t have papers. And they are terrified tonight.”

Jones’s comments were in reference to Trump’s promise to deport immigrants, imprison his enemies, and become a dictator on day one. He promised a bloodbath if he lost and the fear factor might have been motivation for both his loyal base and Democrats troubled but another Jan. 6 uprising.

What lies ahead for the nation is on the minds of many Americans as Trump returns to the Oval Office with vengeance.

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As organizers watched red drench the electoral map at the New York Immigration Coalition’s election night watch party, a nervousness filled the air. It was still early in the night, but another Trump presidency felt like a real possibility — one which would endanger the same populations they work with given his platform and previous term characterized by deportations and xenophobic rhetoric. And many attendees could do nothing but watch, barred from the electorate process as non-citizens.

“As a green card holder, it could be a little bit frustrating not to have that option to vote when you actually contribute so much [and] when you actually feel part of the community,” said Jorge Paz Reyes, a community organizer for Brooklyn’s Mixteca. “However, you have to stay in community, you have to be educated and be active in all these spaces so you can show your perspective and help those who actually have the choice to vote, to see your vision, to see how you contribute, so they can represent you with their vote.”

Still, gloom and doom remained largely absent. For Sophie Kouyate, the membership & services manager for African Communities Together, connecting African migrants to services in Harlem continues no matter who ends up in the Oval Office.

“No matter the outcome tonight, they need to know that we are here to stay, and we’re not going anywhere,” Kouyate said. “And we’re going to move things and we’re going to continue to protect our community through all this. The fight is long, but we’re going to continue.”

Milena Mojica, an education coordinator for Mixteca, says she feels even American citizens feel shut out of the presidential election here in New York thanks to the electoral college. A Colombian immigrant, she fears how a second Trump term will impact people around her, even though she is on pathway to American citizenship.

“Even though I think my case is really straightforward, I still am afraid that I’m gonna lose a lot of people that work alongside me [that] I work with daily because of this election. So it definitely changes everything.”

But the work does not start or end on election day.

“One of the first things that I’m taking as a preparation [in my work] as a community organizer, is [informing the community on] their rights,” said Reyes. “Knowing the rights and/or how to deal with situations when we are questionable or background or question[s] about immigration status, I think being informed is key. Thankfully, we live in New York City, which is a place where we still own and enjoy a lot of the rights as immigrants. Yet we know that things might change with the federal administration.

“But staying optimistic is a way of being prepared too, meaning [building] community [and] showing up to rallies [and] mobilizations. Because at the end of the day, you have to show that we’re still there, and you have to show that regardless, we want to get through this. However, we want an outcome that at the end of the day will help our communities.”

Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.

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The darkness and dread Vice President Kamala Harris feared now looms closer and closer to becoming a reality, as she concedes victory to her opponent. For a candidate who was suddenly thrown into one of most consequential presidential races in the nation’s history, Harris ran a remarkable campaign and her speeches should be compiled and made mandatory in school curricula.

Unlike Hillary Clinton, who had the gender factor to overcome in her failed attempt in 2016, Harris had the double whammy of race and gender, and her conduct and demeanor never wavered from being respectful and hopeful of bringing the nation closer to together, to uphold the standards of democracy and set aside the grievances of the past.

Alas, it was all in vain, and now the nation must find a way to endure what could be an exceedingly long nightmare of hate, division, and much more than incipient fascism. Trump has been nothing less than a fount of misinformation, lies and distortion, but we should never lose sight of the menace he promises because in his previous White House conquest, he gave us a dress rehearsal on how mean-spirited he can be.

Harris is still the vice president and with a plate full of issues to contend with, to say nothing of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and the plight of Ukrainians. Both on domestic and global fronts, a second Trump administration will be a dangerous thing, something that Harris had stressed like an unceasing heartbeat.

We are still waiting for the final results, though the possibility of flipping the House grows dimmer by the minute, and ultimately we face the grim prospect of all three branches of government under Republican control, including the Supreme Court.

Kamala Harris: Your vision and voice, your unbreakable will was something we hoped would be more than just a passing fancy, that more than 66 million put forth to support your campaign. This election has been a true learning experience, a civics lesson some Americans will ignore and dismiss as nothing more than campaign fodder. We know, and as Harris knows, it is not easy to convince the undecided and uncommitted to join the crusade for decency, integrity, and the noble values entrusted by those who sacrificed their lives for democracy.

When Trump takes his position once again in the White House, the challenge we face as hardworking, God-fearing Americans, is how to maintain a sense of optimism, that no matter the evil foisted on us, we will not shrink from the promise we found in the Harris campaign. Her legacy is something we embrace and cherish, and that no matter the darkness on the horizon, that it, like Trump, shall pass.

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A somber Gov. Kathy Hochul acknowledged disappointment among her constituents over the election of Donald Trump Tuesday, despite New York State going for Vice President Kamala Harris for president. Despite the clear weather in New York City, Hochul likened the news to a storm — to be weathered like ones before.

Hochul announced the Empire State Freedom Initiative, a taskforce for developing measures to protect New Yorkers from adverse policies developed under the upcoming Trump administration. The experts have developed an early plan stemming from the president-elect’s campaign platform.

“I’m committed to working with anyone on policies that make our state stronger, safer, and more livable — but my administration will also be prepared to protect New Yorkers’ fundamental freedoms from any potential threats,” said Hochul.

Joining Hochul was State Attorney General Letitia James, whose office sued the previous Trump administration nearly 100 times. James also expressed willingness to work with the president-elect but maintained she would refuse to compromise on the Empire State’s values.

“No matter what the next administration throws at us, we’re ready to respond to their attacks,” said James. “We’re ready to respond to any attempts to cut or eliminate any funding to the great state of New York as the governor outlined. Despite what has happened on the national stage, we will stand tall in the face of injustice, revenge, or retribution.”

With the passing of Proposition 1, Hochul extolled the new Equal Rights Act’s role in enshrining a woman’s right to choose in the state constitution, thus protecting reproductive rights, but she said medication-assisted abortion and even contraception could be a challenge due to federal regulation.

Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.

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First, to address the elephant in the room: I wrote this column before the national election, and so I have no idea what the result might be. There is a decent chance that even when this column is published, we still will not know for certain who will be president come January. This is a terribly fraught time, with the fate multi-racial democracy in the balance. I encourage everyone reading this to continue standing up for the rights of yourselves and others, including the right to collectively determine this country’s leadership through free and fair elections. 

But now to local news, where another issue of fairness is progressing in the right direction.

In a few days, New York City will finally join just about every other city in the nation and affirm a simple principle: tenants shouldn’t be charged exorbitant fees to brokers their prospective landlord hired. That’s the idea behind the FARE Act (Fairness in Apartment Rental Expenses), a bill introduced by the City Council Member from my native Bedford-Stuyvesant and northern Crown Heights neighborhood, Chi Ossé, which is slated to pass on November 13^th. 

Here’s how the system has worked for years in New York City—and virtually nowhere else. A tenant finds a listing for a vacant apartment. They make an appointment to see the place. Perhaps there is a broker there who shows them the unit; perhaps there is not. If they apply for the apartment and are selected, there is a high probability they will owe a broker as much as 15 percent of the annual rent for the apartment. In Manhattan today, that would add an additional $7,740 to the median priced apartment on the market, on top of first month’s rent and a security deposit, for a ghastly total of $23,200. This is an amount few New Yorkers can afford, given that the median household earns less than $77,000 a year. 

While there’s a lot we can, should and must do to bring down housing costs, one of the simplest things we can do right now is to relieve tenants of exorbitant brokers’ fees. Under the FARE Act, tenants will only be responsible for that fee if they hired the broker directly. If the broker is working for a building owner, as is most often the case, the fee will be paid by the landlord. It is a simple, clear principle we at the Community Service Society of New York have been advocating for years.

In 2019, when legislators in Albany were contemplating a comprehensive reform of our state’s rent laws, we encouraged lawmakers to address New York City’s unfair broker fee system in the bill. When the historic Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act was passed, it eliminated brokers fees, along with other unreasonable tenant application fees, unless a tenant hired a broker directly. An Albany County judge, however,  prevented the state from implementing a broker fee ban in 2021, and tenants have continued shouldering these fees since then. Councilmember Ossé’s FARE Act undoes this act of judicial malpractice at the local level.

Last spring, when the FARE Act came up for a public hearing, we presented data from our most recent Unheard Third survey of New Yorkers showing that renters rarely have enough money to cover stiff broker fees. When we asked how much money people have in savings, the most common answer for rent regulated, subsidized and public housing residents was between zero and ninety-nine dollars. A majority of our tenant respondents said that if they faced a $400 expense, they would have to take on debt, borrow from friends or family, or sell something in their possession. 

As a result, lower-income renters cannot move out of their homes, even if they are suffering through substandard or hazardous conditions or facing landlord harassment. As I wrote in a June column on this issue, the last New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey shows that tenants who moved from one apartment to another between 2021 and 2023 tended to be white and have higher incomes than renters who remained in their homes. Fifty-six  percent of tenants who moved made more than $100,000, even though tenants with such high incomes only make up 36 percent of the city’s renters. Half of the recent movers were white, while whites make up only 32 percent of tenants overall.

The city, state, and—God help us—federal governments must invest in more tools to produce affordable housing, from the construction of new social housing to the expansion of rental assistance to tenants in need. But as we’re doing that, we can also take simple, straightforward and sensible reforms to bring down the cost of living in the city — including the cost of moving into a new, and hopefully better, home. We should be proud of the New York City Council for passing the FARE Act and taking one big burden off of tenants’ backs.

David R. Jones, Esq., is President and CEO of the Community Service Society of New York (CSS), the leading voice on behalf of low-income New Yorkers for more than 175 years. The views expressed in this column are solely those of the writer. The Urban Agenda is available on CSS’s website: www.cssny.org.

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While the fledgling hip hop culture was still in its infancy during the 1970s, few knew it would become the global phenomenon it eventually morphed into during the succeeding decades. One Bronx-native just happened to be in tune, and began visually documenting its artistic aspects simply for the love, unknowingly also capturing its history.  While doing so, Joe Conzo, 61, has become recognized as one of the genre’s premier photographers.
“I didn’t do it on purpose,” he tells the AmNews. “It happened organically. I love taking pictures of my neighborhood.”

His stepfather gave him his first camera at around 10 years old, which sparked his interest, as he flicked away at family functions. “Thankfully my parents supported my love for photography,” he says.

Coming of age during the 1970s at the South Bronx’s Jackson Houses and Michelangelo Apartments, he was right in the hub where it was bubbling, with “true skool” artists DJ AJ and Phase 2 residing there, as well as Mean Machine from nearby Patterson Projects.
While attending South Bronx High School in the late 70s, he formed alliances with DJ Toney Tone & Easy A.D. as they were establishing the almighty Cold Crush Brothers, and became an honorary member of the legendary MC crew, whom he still tours with til this day. He began capturing their local festivities and was meeting “all the bricklayers of hip hop culture.”

He’d attend various block parties, park and street jams, as well as events at school gymnasiums and playgrounds. Additionally, he began covering the Zulu Nation anniversaries. He was capturing the music, b-boys dancing, and graffiti in the streets before corporate America got involved.

“It wasn’t in the clubs yet,” he recalled.  “It was still in the park and community centers.”
Slowly, artists began performing at venues such as Danceteria, Negril’s, the Roxy, the Garage, and Disco Fever. The first major events he covered were the Cold Crash Brothers at the T Connection in 1979, and their legendary 1981 battle versus the Fantastic Five at Harlem World.

He’s photographed “The Soul Sonic Force, Funky Four +1, Fearless Four, Kool Herc, all the founding fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters of Hip Hop culture.”

His first published photo appeared in the New York Post, of actor Paul Newman on the set of filming “Fort Apache The Bronx” in 1981.  He began receiving requests to cover various events from his unique street perspective.  His flicks were featured in many European magazines, which were mesmerized with the sublevel culture. 

He’s documented numerous concerts and events like LL Cool J’s Rock The Bells and SummerStage, as well as movies and video shoots, and his work has been featured in countless magazines and more than 100 books.

“I didn’t have anyone to look up to,” he said. “I’ve been all over the world. All just because I took pictures.”

Hip hop historian Bill Adler said, “Joe Conzo is the greatest hip hop photographer of all   because he came from within the culture.”

Along with his lens-men brethren, Ernie Panicolli and Jamel Shabazz, they have helped bring street culture to the general public.

“We all travel and do exhibitions together. We’re a tight group of friends,” Conzo says. “Without our photographs there would be no history of the early days of the culture.”

As technology advanced and film became obsolete, he also went digital. “You gotta adapt with the times.” He released his book “Born in the Bronx: A Visual Record of the Early Days of Hip Hop” in 2005, and is still doing exhibitions.

“Hip hop is a culture, a way of living I love and subscribe to everyday,” he concludes. “I’m grateful to what I contributed and people respect my work.  If people loved the culture how I do, the world would be a better place. “

For more on Conzo’s work, follow @joeconzo on all social media platforms. 

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