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The Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance (NoMAA) is seeking submissions for “Women in the Heights: Up Close and Personal”. The 12th annual Women in the Heights exhibition, curated by Andrea Arroyo, will be held in-person, to inaugurate NoMAA’s new space in the historic United Palace.
In celebration of Women’s History Month (March), we invite artists to submit works that reflect on personal and collective experiences during these challenging times, while inspiring connectedness and hope.February 8, 2022 – Submission Deadline
Eligibility: Open to self-identified women artists working or residing in El Barrio, Inwood, Washington Heights or Harlem. Above 110th Street on the West Side (west of 5th Ave) and above 96th Street on the East Side (east of 5th Ave).
Artwork eligibility: Each artist can submit up to 3 works. Wall-hung works in all fine art media, dimensions limited to a minimum of 10” and maximum of 24” wide, and up to 4” deep (including frame).
Written/spoken word works (maximum 250 words) must be presented printed and framed as per framing guidelines.
For more info: Call For Submissions: Women in the Heights: Up Close and Personal
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday urged Americans to take action during “a critical point in our nation’s history” as thousands of protesters demonstrated across the country against new limits to abortion rights making their way through the courts.
Saturday’s nationwide rallies were sparked by the U.S. Supreme Court’s actions the day before, when the high court intervened to delay rule changes that would have limited the way the abortion drug mifepristone could be used and dispensed. The limits were paused while the court reviews the case more thoroughly.
Harris made a surprise stop in Los Angeles at one of the rallies, where she called the latest upheaval over abortion rights a further incursion by conservatives into myriad “fundamental rights” many Americans thought they had.
“And so this is a moment that history will show required each of us — based on our collective love of our country — to stand up, and fight for, and protect our ideals. That’s what this moment is,” she said Saturday, speaking to several hundred demonstrators from the steps of City Hall. “When you attack the rights of women in America, you are attacking America.”
Some of the protesters voiced their anger at the steps of the nation’s high court, which took Friday’s action at the request of the federal Justice Department. The agency asked the high court to lift restrictions on mifepristone imposed by an appellate court in Texas earlier in the week. The decision by the appellate court reduced the window of time when the drug could be used and prevented the drug from being dispensed by mail.
Critics of the Texas and appellate court decisions, including pharmaceutical companies, viewed the courts’ actions as a dangerous intrusion into the authority of the FDA, which regulates how medications are sold and used in the United States.
Demonstrators in New York City stood behind a sign with a four-letter expletive directed at Texas, where a federal judge set off the latest salvo in the battle over abortion. They held signs urging the government to defend medication abortions.
But the crowd was modest, attracting a little more than 100 people outside the picturesque public library along Fifth Avenue.
Still, the demonstrators attracted looks from passersby along the busy thoroughfare, some briefly joining the group to lend their voices.
“It can be hard to get people out, because people are being bombarded with all kinds of assaults on their bodies and people are tired and poor,” said Viva Ruiz, who said she helped organize the rally.
“The news cycle is so fast that when one thing happens something terrible happens the next day. So it’s hard to sustain the momentum or the energy for people to be on the streets,” Ruiz said.
With few exceptions, many of the rallies — organized under the banner of a group calling itself “Bigger than Roe” — were held in smaller cities.
Since last year’s reversal of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized the right to an abortion, more than a dozen states have effectively outlawed abortion, while additional states have moved to further tighten abortion laws.
On Thursday, the GOP-dominated Florida Legislature moved to became the latest state to ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
Restrictions on the delivery and use of mifepristone, part of a two-drug regimen to end a pregnancy, would be a further blow to abortion rights advocates. The other drug, misoprostol, can be used on its own, but doing so is less effective than using both drugs in combination.
When mifepristone was initially approved, the FDA limited its use to up to seven weeks of pregnancy. It also required three in-person office visits: the first to administer mifepristone, the next to administer the second drug, misoprostol, and the third to address any complications.
If the appeals court’s action stands, those would again be the terms under which mifepristone could be dispensed.
States that support abortion rights, including California and New York, have begun stockpiling misoprostol to assure their states have adequate supplies. Washington state is among those stockpiling a supply of mifepristone or its generic form. And Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Maura Healey said the administration is dedicating $1 million to help providers contracted with the Department of Public Health buy additional quantities of mifepristone.
More than 5.6 million women in the U.S. had used mifepristone as of June 2022, according to the FDA. In that period, the agency received 4,200 reports of complications in women, or less than one-tenth of 1% of women who took the drug.
Calvan reported from New York.
The post Kamala Harris rallies as high court eyes abortion pill rules appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) — Rutgers University and union representatives have announced an agreement on a framework for new contracts with several faculty unions, allowing a halt to a five-day strike that was the first such job action in the 257-year history of New Jersey’s flagship university.
Rutgers said early Saturday that the agreement on the framework on economic issues was reached late Friday night with the aid of Gov. Phil Murphy, and closure on that framework “will allow our 67,000 students to resume their studies and pursue their academic degrees.”
“Nothing we do is as important as living up to the expectations that our students and their families have of us to be fully supportive of them and nurturing of their academic ambitions and dreams,” the school said in a statement.
The unions representing professors, part-time lecturers and graduate student workers told members that they had agreed to suspend the strike and return to work, but more issues need to be resolved before members would have a tentative agreement to vote on.
“Our historic strike got us to this point. And let us be clear, a suspension of our strike is not a cancellation. If we do not secure the gains we need on the open issues through bargaining in the coming days, we can and will resume our work stoppage,” they said, also vowing informational pickets as classes resume next week.
Three unions, which represent about 9,000 Rutgers staff members, have been involved in the strike: the Rutgers AAUP-AFT, which represents full-time faculty, graduate workers, postdoctoral associates and some counselors; the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, which represents part-time lecturers; and the AAUP-BHSNJ, which includes faculty in the biomedical and health sciences at Rutgers’ medical, dental, nursing and public health schools.
The unions said the framework included “significant” pay increases for adjuncts and substantial raises for graduate student workers, as well as more job security for adjunct and nontenure-track faculty, union representation for graduate fellows, and other improvements.
Rutgers said the pact, retroactive to July, will increase salaries across the board for full-time faculty and EOF counselors by at least 14 percent by July 2025. It will also provide a 43.8 percent increase in the per-credit salary rate for part-time lecturers and strengthen their job security, increase minimum salaries for postdoctoral fellows and associates and substantially increase wages and other support for teaching assistants and graduate assistants.
Picket lines went up Monday at the New Brunswick, Piscataway, Newark and Camden campuses as students were finishing their spring semester and preparing for finals and commencement. NJ.com reports that some said they went to classes as usual because some professors were still teaching or handing out assignments, while others said classes were called off or they decided to stay away or even walk picket lines in support of the walkout.
The post Rutgers, unions announce agreement, classes to resume appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.
NEW YORK (AP) — “The Neighborhood” might be a hit sitcom now, but needed some careful planning before laying down a solid foundation.
“We shot the pilot twice. We had to recast. And so, there was moments where you didn’t think the show was going to go,” said Cedric the Entertainer. “But the elements of it, the idea that it was about gentrification, the idea that it was about a Black family kind of staying true to their neighborhood when they saw white families moving in … I think it just caught legs and really resonated with people because we do it in, of course, a sitcom, lighthearted way.”
“The Neighborhood,” now it its fifth season on CBS, follows the Butlers, a Black family led by Calvin (Cedric) and Tina ( Tichina Arnold ) as they coexist with their white neighbors, Dave (Max Greenfield) and Gemma Johnson (Beth Behrs), who moved from the Midwest to a predominately Black neighborhood in Pasadena, California. The show celebrated its 100th episode this week.
While not every episode deals with heavy topics, the show has unpacked topics like Black Lives Matter and social justice, pregnancy loss and white privilege. But as more issues emerge like attempts to ban books and critical race theory, Cedric believes his show is more than capable of exploring them.
“One of the great testaments to the show is that we try not to preach it, but we also aren’t afraid to kind of just dive in,” said the former Emmys host. “We try to … deal with all those kind of subject matters on our show without just saying, ‘Hey, this is the line and this is what we believe in.’ We just raise a question.”
The milestone episode was directed by Cedric, who also serves as an executive producer. He said sitting in the big chair has been the next progression of his show responsibilities.
“It was only natural for me to kind of really morph into directing because I can see the show; when I’m reading the scripts, I kind of know where people are going to be. And so, that was something that I’ve been wanting to grow into,” explained the funnyman, who also directed an episode last season.
The St. Louis-area native began his career in standup comedy, although later than most; after graduating from Southeast Missouri State University, he worked for State Farm before diving into professional comedy in his mid-20s. After making a name for himself locally, he eventually secured hosting stints for HBO’s legendary “Def Comedy Jam” as well BET’s popular “ComicView.”
While his sitcom star is brighter than ever, it’s a culmination of years of experience; he starred in “The Soul Man” which ran from 2012 to 2016, but for many, his role as the loveable sidekick, Cedric Jackie Robinson on the ’90s sitcom, “The Steve Harvey Show,” won the hearts of viewers.
“I really believe that that’s kind of led to my longevity: that idea of watching Steve, being right there close (to him),” Cedric said of his good friend and “Kings of Comedy” brother. “The way he hired, the way he got Black people on the show, how he was able to negotiate his deals — all these things were things that I was exposed to just by being the No. 2 guy in the right situation.”
It was an especially huge payoff because at the time, Cedric had a deal in place to lead his own show. But after seeing Harvey’s early sitcom, “The Boys,” last only one season, he chose learn and observe, rather than jumping into leading a show head-first.
“It’s hard to knock that down when someone is kind of saying, ‘Hey, you’re the man!’ … I kind of saw him fail once. And I was like, I don’t want to run out there and get one season,” said the “Barbershop” star. “I kind of felt like that was the right thing for me to do, and it worked out great.”
Currently, the star comedian is on the 23-city “Straight Jokes No Chaser” tour with D.L. Hughley, Earthquake, and DC Young Fly, hosted by Mike Epps. Cedric notes the current politically correct climate hasn’t necessarily changed his brand of comedy, but believes some programs that provided platforms to create star Black comics might not be able to exist today.
“Def Jam was really one of those rare scenarios where we got to truly voice who we were. You didn’t have to change anything about yourself,” said Cedric. “I don’t think that that kind of rawness, that kind of honesty, visceral, right-off-the top whatever you’re thinking kind of joke-telling…I don’t think you could get away with that in today’s society.”
And while he coyly says today’s society is “soft as hell,” don’t expect “The Neighborhood” star to get any homeowners association violations.
“I want to come out and make people laugh and have a good time … I’m not that comic that’s there to challenge you or super offend you,” says Cedric. “I got the CBS, Paramount shield with me, and we’re doing great. And I employ a lot of people with this show. … I wouldn’t want to be the detriment of somebody else’s livelihood. So, I’m very careful of it without, at the same time, without being precious.”
___
Follow Associated Press entertainment journalist Gary Gerard Hamilton at: @GaryGHamilton on all his social media platforms.
The post Cedric the Entertainer enjoying life in his ‘Neighborhood’ appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.
Thank you for your advocacy @Uptowncollectiv https://t.co/tN48kndwzo
— Carmen De La Rosa (@CnDelarosa) January 19, 2022
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The post The Uptown Tweet of the Week: #PeoplePower first appeared on Washington Heights, Inwood & Harlem Online | The Uptown Collective.
By Gregg McQueen
Location, location, location.
Long the battle cry of real estate professionals, the limited availability of local and accessible space within which to paint, plié and ponder has also been the bane of artists everywhere – and no more acutely than uptown.
Until now.
Since its founding in 2007, the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance (NoMAA) has supported countless uptown artists with programming, resources and monetary grants.
One thing the organization could not offer before was dedicated arts space.
In April 2021, NoMAA moved into a new headquarters, located on the top floor annex of the United Palace in Washington Heights.
The space at 4140 Broadway includes four studios, two of which have sprung dance floors and mirrored walls for dance groups, with all featuring a Bluetooth sound system.
It marks the first time NoMAA has possessed its own studio space to offer to the public.
Read more: New look at NoMAA | Manhattan Times
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By Sherry Mazzocchi
Painter Valeri Larko extracts pristine beauty from urban landscapes.
“I see beauty in things that other people might overlook,” she said.
Larko paints en plein air, which means she works outside, on location, to capture the Bronx’s rugged beauty. Larko’s work is currently on display at Sugarlift, a gallery under the High Line; the exhibit is titled “Hidden in Plain Sight.”
A keen observer, Larko focuses on light and shadow, whether the subject be graffiti-covered buildings or the soaring sculptural qualities of train trestles. In the latter, a viewer might be excused for thinking they see the underpinnings of an imaginary universe rather than Secor Avenue.
Her vision of the Bronx hovers somewhere between Magritte and Hopper. Skies are typically cloudy blue and vistas are free of people and trash. Yet the densely detailed paintings don’t gloss over harsh environments. Instead, they are celebrated and uplifted through an exploration of light and shadow. There is something almost nostalgic in Larko’s work. With her command of color saturation, she conjures a Bruckner Boulevard that is oddly reminiscent of 1950’s California.
Read more: Making it Plein | Bronx Free Press
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McConnell’s remark about African Americans vis-a-vis Americans wasn’t a mistake; it was a Freudian slip.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) January 22, 2022
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Aight y’all this week, all of us together, got 2 train stations Uptown cleaned up. So now let’s use that People Power to get these young Uptown go-getters to the Cheerleading Nationals in February. Click link below to make it happen.
Donate Here: Meet the Monarchs: Let’s Get These Uptown Girls To The Cheerleading Nationals
Donate Here: Meet the Monarchs: Let’s Get These Uptown Girls To The Cheerleading Nationals
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