The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) is celebrating James Baldwin’s 100th birthday with a panel discussion.
The museum will explore Baldwin’s impact on contemporary theater and film with experts including Suzan-Lori Parks, Robert Jones Jr., and NMAAHC Museum Specialist Tulani Salahu-Din.
Writer, activist, and scholar Darnell L. Moore will moderate the conversation.
Union Carpenters and Contractors not only build the city’s infrastructure but also open doors of opportunity for individuals seeking rewarding careers in the construction industry and create pathways to affordability in New York. In the interview below, union carpenter, Simbiat, shares her journey in unionized construction.
Can you tell us about yourself?
My name is Simbiat Adanlawo. I am from Nigeria, and I live in the Bronx. I am a 3rd year apprentice and a member of Local Union 157.
Tell us about your journey to becoming a union carpenter.
I discovered the opportunity of trade work in my last year of college. At the time, I already knew I needed a career, a job that was both meaningful and beneficial to my present, as well as an investment for my future. This was how I discovered NEW (Non-Traditional Employment for Women). One of my uncles who inadvertently inspired me to become a carpenter, is also a carpenter. In primary school, my favorite activity after school was going to his shop and watching him and his apprentice’s work. He made custom furniture and was one of the best at the craft. Though it has been years since I’ve had the pleasure of watching him work, the fond memory remains, and I was reminded of it when I started my pre-apprenticeship with NEW. Although I come from a family of trade workers, as a female I was not encouraged to pursue a career in the trades, so I never considered it.
However, upon discovering NEW and seeing their alumni of capable ladies excelling in trades work, I was further inspired to pursue a career in trade, particularly, as a Carpenter.
How do union carpenters and contractors prioritize safety and skills training?
Union carpenters and contractors prioritize safety by ensuring we are prepared and equipped to go to job sites armed with the knowledge and intention to work safely. Safety is paramount—the union makes sure we have all the necessary certifications we need before we are allowed on a job site. They also instill diligent and safe working habits into us when we attend our mandatory training sessions throughout our apprenticeships.
Have you seen union carpenters and contractors invest in diversity? As an African American, female, and practicing Muslim, I came into the union steeling myself to feel like an outsider before I could prove myself, but I have been well received. My religious beliefs and cultural background have not been a hindrance, and I have met plenty of people who are like myself, and others who are not like me but share the same morals and values within the trade.
How has the union impacted your life? How has access to benefits and healthcare impacted you?
Having a remarkable benefit plan and healthcare gives me peace of mind.
What is the value of mentorship and community within the union?
The union, as the name suggests, is a tight-knit community. Focusing on the best parts, the mentorship program has been the single most influential aspect of my union life. The mentorship has helped to bring me out of my shell. I have a wonderful mentor in Denise Echevarria and along the way, I have been blessed with the guidance of other people in the carpenters’ union.
Also, as carpenters, our time together at job sites can be very brief. However, some of the best moments I have seen have been when carpenters who once worked on a project together years prior meet at another job or a union event. It warms my heart to see the camaraderie between the brothers and sisters alike. The sense of community is palpable between carpenters on any given job site.
Why would you encourage others to join the union? What piece of advice would you give them?
I always encourage others who are looking to join the union to join. There is a misconception about trades work being messy and hard, and yes, this is true–the work requires physical and mental dexterity. However, anything worth doing takes effort. It may be awkward and uncomfortable at first, but you soon find your strength. You find that you are made of the best stuff and your attitude, how you carry yourself, and the mental space you put yourself in when you wake up early in the morning to get ready for the day really matters.
What kind of projects have you/do you hope to work on to build the future of our city? In the last 3 years, I have worked on projects owned by big corporations: Facebook, Amazon, and Disney, just to name a few each one interesting and challenging their way. Most recently, I am at a project very dear to me, we are restoring the Fort Washington Library, a library that was built in 1914!
Being a part of the revitalization of such a historic library brings me such joy. Ascarpenters, most of the jobs we work, however long or fleeting, don’t alwayshave access to return to the jobs as guests. We can only pass by outsideand reminisce that we were there. However, the library is a public space. I can,as a resident of this city, walk into the building and behold what has become ofwhat I helped build. With the assistance of a seasoned journeyperson, I canbehold the walls I put up from laying them out to putting the framing in, sheet rocking and screwing off. Whether I see the end of the project or not, I canalways go back when it opens and say, “I did that” and see others enjoy the laborthat went into making the space what it is.
Where do you see yourself in five or 10 years?
In five to 10 years, I see myself having honed my skills as a union carpenter, andwith many more interesting projects under my belt.
Wells Fargo shared the latest community impact of the company’s Open for Business Fund. A roughly $420 million national small business recovery effort to help those hardest hit during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Launched in 2020, grantees report the Open for Business Fund has now benefited more than 336,000 small businesses, empowering them to keep or…
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In the summer of 1890, developer David H. King Jr. embarked on an ambitious project that would shape the face of Harlem for generations to come. The King’s Model Houses, as they were called, were envisioned as a block of “first-class character” homes between what are now Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Frederick Douglass…
The ongoing rivalry between City Council and City Hall, long an open secret progressing toward common knowledge, continues to quietly rage on with another decree dividing the two public entities.
Speaker Adrienne Adams moved to file the advice-and-consent law with the Board of Elections (BOE) last week so it can appear as a question on the ballot for New Yorkers to vote on in the general election this November, while Mayor Eric Adams concluded his charter revision hearings this week.
The advice-and-consent law, introduced May 23, allows the City Council to approve mayoral appointments for agency commissioners. It was adopted after a majority of councilmembers passed it June 6. Shortly after the law’s introduction, Mayor Adams convened the Mayor’s Charter Revision Commission (CRC) to change the city’s constitution with a particular emphasis on public safety and “fiscal responsibility.” The commission’s first meeting was held May 29. The last CRC convened in 2019 to review the city’s charter through a racial justice lens and took nearly a year to hold public hearings.
The final commission report was released July 23, before the last meeting. The CRC received more than 2,300 written comments and its 12 meetings were attended by more than 750 people in-person and virtually, said the city.
The mayor’s CRC ballot proposals include amendments to expand the sanitation department’s authority over city property and trash cans; assess the fiscal impact of proposed local laws and address “inefficient budget deadlines”; improve the city’s capital planning process; improve minority- and women-owned business enterprises (M/WBEs); and establish requirements and a prior vote for City Council laws centering around public safety.
The latter amendment dicates that if the City Council moves to pass any future legislation applying to the NYPD, FDNY, or Department of Correction (DOC), it would have to first give notice of an intention to hold a hearing and vote to the public, the mayor, and relevant agency heads at least 45 days in advance; allow agency leadership to testify and file a “public safety impact statement”; and give an additional 50-day advance notice before the vote of the public, mayor, and agencies, said the report. The mayor and city agencies would also be allowed to hold their own public hearings on city laws during the period between the notice and the ultimate vote.
Speaker Adams, councilmembers, and some advocates speculate that the CRC ballot proposals are being “rushed” to block voters from voting on advice and consent. Regardless, the law currently authorizes the City Council to practice that process until November 2025.
“The Council is filing the ballot question for voters to decide on the advice-and-consent law in this November’s general election, so voters can exercise their democratic right to vote on this existing proposal,” said Speaker Adams in a statement. “The Mayor’s Charter Revision Commission should refrain from blocking New Yorkers’ ability to decide on advice-and-consent by rushing to create new proposals, because that would be undemocratic. Advice-and-consent strengthens representative democracy and government by ensuring we have the most qualified and ethical commissioners to effectively deliver the services that New Yorkers deserve.”
On July 22, councilmembers in the City Council Progressive and Black, Latino, and Asian Caucuses held a press conference ahead of the CRC meeting in Queens to double down on slamming the mayor’s commission as “undemocratic.”
“The mayor initiated this charter review commission as a very blatant effort to block our ballot proposal that we passed earlier this year that should and must be on the ballot this November,” said Councilmember Sandy Nurse.
“We should be questioning the necessity and legitimacy of this entire process right now,” Councilmember Chi Ossé said. “The council passed the advice-and-consent bill to expand oversight of the city’s executive branch—of the mayor’s work, that he does uphold our Democratic process. Immediately thereafter, the mayor initiated this Charter Revision Commission, clearly as a cynical ploy to force the council’s measure off of our November ballots. Whatever proposals ultimately come from this commission, we know that they are secondary to the commission’s purpose of existence to undercut the Democratic process and the New York City Council.”
Ossé went so far as to liken the mayor’s “power grab” to the authoritarian and furtive political tactics of ex-President Donald Trump. “We do not want a mayor within the City of New York to do that same thing with the process that is undergoing right now,” he said. “We have an obligation to call this out for what it is.”
After the release of the final report, numerous advocacy groups, including Housing Works, New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), Make the Road New York, LatinoJustice PRLDEF, Muslim Community Network, and the Immigrant Defense Project, signed a letter demanding the mayor’s CRC proposals stay off the ballot.
“New Yorkers deserve nothing short of a thoughtful City Charter that creates a city that works for all New Yorkers. This report from the Charter Revision Commission stands in stark contrast to these values, prioritizing political gamesmanship over safeguarding our city’s guiding principles,” said Michael Sisitzky, assistant director of policy at the NYCLU. “This harried, disorganized, and opaque revision process has led to final recommendations that would undermine our local democracy in the service of making agencies like the NYPD even less accountable to New Yorkers. We urge the Commission to keep those dangerous measures off of the November ballot.”
In his usual Tuesday morning briefing, Mayor Adams said that he was impressed with the commission’s job so far and disagreed with the idea that anything was done in haste.
“No: being rushed is introducing legislation in a week. That’s what’s being rushed,” Mayor Adams said. “We allowed New Yorkers to come in and speak. Part of the recommendation that people are saying [is] before you do these changes in law, people should have a right to come in and speak. That’s ironic. It’s all going to work itself out. It is all part of the process. All we need to do is take a deep breath, meditate, drink a green smoothie, and just be fine.”The final public hearing will take place Thursday, July 25, at Brooklyn Public Library Central Library at 2 p.m. The CRC will vote to adopt the final report proposals then. If adopted, they will be placed on the November general election ballot for people to vote on.
