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On April 23, DaShena Stevens, a member of the St. John’s University Athletics Hall of Fame, received another honor, this one tied to her home state: She was inducted into the Connecticut Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame (CWBHOF) in recognition of her outstanding play at Trinity Catholic High School and with a nod to her incredible accomplishments with the Red Storm, scoring 1,515 points during her collegiate career.

“It was amazing,” said Stevens. “A lot of my family was there and some of my friends. It was a reunion in a sense. Then, being able to meet some of the individuals from the selection committee and others from the CWBHOF was exciting. 

“Both of my parents played high school basketball; they went to Stamford High School,” she added. “To have both of them there was excellent.” 

As a standout high school player, Stevens received a lot of attention, but always remained focused on team success. “From a playing standpoint, I had to play every single position—the one through five,” she recalled. “In college, I had my position, maybe a hybrid position, but in high school, I played them all. That was cool…also, keeping everyone involved and making sure it was still fun. These were all your best friends.” 

Coming into college, Stevens had insight into each position, which she said made her a better teammate. She was instrumental in making St. John’s a national presence, including being part of the Red Storm team that broke the University of Connecticut’s 99-game home court winning streak. She was excited to see St. John’s do it again this year. 

After graduating in 2012, Stevens played professionally, and eventually returned to St. John’s as assistant coach for three seasons before turning her attention to athletics administration. Today, she is the deputy director of athletics at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas.

In addition to the contingent of parents, sibling, uncles, cousins, and long-time friends, Stevens’s daughter Aria was in attendance. “As she’s getting older, I think she’s realizing that when everybody talks about me and basketball, they’re talking about me playing,” she said. “She said, ‘I think you were kind of good. Can you still play?’ 

“She’s starting to know that side of me,” Stevens added. “She Googled me the other day when we were at home. She saw all of my basketball pictures. That was a proud moment.”

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In the months after Brittney Griner’s December release from a Russian penal colony, she kept a relatively low profile. While she and wife Cherelle have made a few public appearances, attending the Super Bowl and the NAACP Image Awards, Griner has not sat for a televised interview or held a press conference. On April 27, with WNBA training camps about to kick off, she faced the media for the first time.

The press conference was hosted by the Phoenix Mercury, the team for which Griner has played since 2013. She wore a shirt indicating the Mercury’s support of Bring Our Families Home, an organization focused on bringing attention to individuals wrongly detained overseas. This mission will be part of the team’s platform this season.

Griner noted that there was more media in attendance than what she normally sees at a Mercury press conference, and she encouraged the media to cover the WNBA throughout the 2023 season. “I expect to see this same coverage because we have a great product,” she said. 

“I’m no stranger to hard times,” said Griner about her resilience in the face of an overwhelmingly negative situation. “Just [keep] digging deep, honestly. You’re going to be faced with adversities throughout your life. This was a pretty big one, but I just kind of relied on my hard work [for] getting through it.”

Being prepared to play professional basketball again after nearly 10 months with no play or serious training has been challenging. “It’s still a process,” Griner said. “As an athlete, you always want to be where you left off, and I left off playoffs, finals in Chicago. I wanted to be that player when I started back, and everybody was telling me to give myself grace and it’s going to take time, but that’s the hardest thing to a pro athlete because we always want to be right back at our tip-top shape. It’s liberating as well, just getting back to my craft.” 

As was discussed repeatedly during Griner’s detention in Russia, she was there to earn money in the WNBA’s off-season. Asked if she’d play overseas again, Griner’s answer was decisive. “I’m never going overseas to play again unless I’m representing my country at the Olympics,” she said. “I’m hoping that our league continues to grow, and…I hope you continue to cover our league and bring exposure to us.”

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New York City Mayor Eric Adams raised the brightly colored South African flag high above Bowling Green Park as he proclaimed April 27, 2023, South Africa’s Freedom Day in the city of New York.

In his comments during the ceremony, Adams said, “This is the second time we’ve been able to come here to Bowling Green to raise the flag for South Africa, and my love and aspiration for the country. I still remember the days of driving from Soweto to Port Elizabeth to Jo’burg to Cape Town and just seeing a beautiful country and what it represents, and the spirit and energy that looking out from Robben Island, a place where Nelson Mandela spent 27 years…in prison, and the 29th year of acknowledging Freedom Day and what it means and what it represents. As the country continues to evolve from so many years of being under the grip of apartheid, that shows the resiliency of the country and what it represents. 

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“I am so proud to say that I am the second African American mayor [to make such a declaration]. Sometimes when I say I am the second African American mayor, we only focus on the ‘American’ part. But let’s be clear: I am African. I am African, and we should not allow ourselves to be ripped apart from the success. 

“When you look up and you watch me speak and stand on and fight for what is right, something special should come between what you are feeling and our ancestors [who] lie on the bottom of the ocean floor. This is a proud moment for them because although you can take away the physical presence, the anatomy of our spirits and our heritage and our lineage—it goes throughout time. It doesn’t end and it doesn’t conclude. It is always here, so you can hear the cries from Fort Elmina in Ghana, you can hear it from Goree Island outside of Senegal when we visit there in the Door of No Return.”

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(GIN) — Yusuf Bangura will always remember the legendary calypso singer, actor, and social activist Harry Belafonte for “bringing happiness and hope to many people around the world.”

Although many Americans know of Belafonte’s activism to end apartheid in South Africa, the whole story of his no-holds-barred diplomacy is still to be told. 

Kenyan independence hero Tom Mboya first met American stars Harry Belafonte, Jackie Robinson, and Sidney Poitier when he was coordinating an airlift of 81 Kenyan students to the United States. That was the beginning of a warm friendship between Belafonte and Mboya. With funds from an “African Freedom Dinner” and the help of Martin Luther King Jr. and other African sympathizers, Mboya was able to raise enough money to fund the airlift.

Belafonte made his first visit to Kenya in 1963, in time for Kenya’s Uhuru celebrations, along with the great South African singer Miriam Makeba. The two won a Grammy in 1964 for the concert record “An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba.”

As a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF for 36 years, Belafonte’s dedication and generosity of spirit helped set a high standard for the role. He met with world leaders to secure support for the issues that affected children’s lives, said UNICEF director Catherine Russell.

“Kenya’s decision to abolish school fees is a shining example of just what can be achieved in the developing world by sheer political will,” Belafonte said.

RELATED: Farewell to a beloved elder: Activists reflect on Belafonte

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed deep sadness on the eve of the country’s Freedom Day Celebration. “He was an influencer of his time who spared no energy in supporting our liberation struggle and in campaigning for human rights in many other parts of the world,” he said of Belafonte. “We will remember him as a hero and true friend of South Africa that we must celebrate during our National Orders ceremony and for many years to come.”

Banning Eyre, lead producer of the Peabody Award-winning public radio program Afropop Worldwide, also shared a memory. “It is impossible to overstate the enormity of the loss of this icon of global entertainment and social activism, around longer than most of us have been alive. His story will be told many times and in many ways in the days to come, and most beautifully in his 2011 memoir, ‘My Song.’”

In 1987, Belafonte traveled to Dakar and Senegal, where he served as chairperson of the International Symposium of Artists and Intellectuals for African Children. In 1994, he went on a mission to Rwanda, and launched a media campaign to raise awareness of the needs of Rwandan children. In 2001, he visited South Africa to support the campaign against HIV and AIDS. In 2002, Africare gave him the Bishop John T Walker Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award for his efforts to assist Africa.

The Beninese-French musician Angélique Kidjo called Belafonte “the brightest star in every sense of that word. Your passion, love, knowledge, and respect for Africa was unlimited.”

Finally, Ittu Aba Farda contributed this to Ethiopian ZeHabesha.com: “To us above all he was a friend of the country that produced us all. He was by her side during her deadly rainy days. May he rest in eternal peace!!!!”

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January is now Muslim Heritage Month in New Jersey. Gov. Phil Murphy signed a joint resolution (SJR105/ AJR194), sponsored by Senators Joe Pennacchio and Brian Stack, and Assemblymembers Angela McKnight, Shanique Speight, and Annette Chaparro, to designate the month during an Eid celebration on April 29.  

“I am proud to designate January of each year as Muslim Heritage Month, as it will shine a light on the rich histories, cultures, and shared principles of Muslim Americans,” said Murphy.

In a statement, Madina P. Ouedraogo, government affairs manager at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, New Jersey (CAIR-NJ), said: “New Jersey’s Muslim community has long awaited this moment, when the Muslim heritage month resolution is passed and signed into law. Today, the Garden State is proudly celebrating its rich religious and cultural diversity. 

“American Muslims have and continue to be a pivotal foundation of this state, but they have long been stigmatized, marginalized, and underappreciated. This new law signals a new tide.”

According to CAIR, 3.5% of New Jerseyans are Muslim—the highest percentage of Muslim residents in the U.S. 

The organization also noted that “Muslim Heritage Month started with a vision from the Honorable Imam Warith Deen Mohammed. The first Muslims to observe Ramadan in America were enslaved Africans who carried their faith with them and used it as a way to stay connected to their identities that were being brutally stripped from them while in bondage. It was their descendants, Black and African American Muslims, who would go on to later lay the foundation for the modern-day American Muslim experience. The Honorable Imam Mohammed sought to make sure that this history is acknowledged and celebrated.”

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Harry Belafonte, who died this past week, was celebrated outdoors at Lincoln Center on April 28, 2023. To the delight of fans of the beloved singer/actor/activist, Jamal Josephs’s Impact Theatre Group performed two of Belafonte’s best-known songs: “Day—O” and “We Are The World.” 

Bill Moore photos

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Every month, seniors at the A. Philip Randolph Center in Harlem celebrate birthdays. Here they are honoring folks blessed in April. There was a jazz band, music, food, dancing, and raffles.

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* This article was originally published here