Senator Cordell Cleare kicked off her second annual Senior Day during Harlem Week, an event she initiated more than 20 years ago. The entertaining event stands as a testament to improving the quality of life for seniors and fostering community connections while tackling one of the challenges the city’s seniors face: staying cool. 

Sustainable “beat the heat” legislation has been a priority for Cleare. In response to the depletion of state program funds for Low-income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) during this year’s hottest month, Cleare has introduced a new bill, Senate Bill 7629, aimed at helping more seniors get access to Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) Cooling Assistance benefits and fully funding the program. At the moment, there is also a medical eligibility requirement for seniors that Cleare is advocating be removed. 

As of 2021, NYU Furman Center statistics indicated that 13.6% of Central Harlem’s population is age 65 or older. 

Cleare, who chairs the State Senate Aging Committee, held the Senior Day event in front of the Adam Clayton Powell State Office Building on 125th Street. The plaza was packed with jubilant Harlem seniors. They honored the birth of hip hop and spoke about the importance of homeownership. Cleare bestowed a proclamation on 102-year-old Geri Fowler Mckee.

Mckee, who is white, was 8 years old when she moved to Harlem. She lived at 409 Edgecombe Avenue, the historic residence of Harlem greats like W.E.B. and Shirley Du Bois, painter Aaron Douglas, justice Thurgood Marshall and activist Walter White. Mckee said that in her youth, she worked for an anti-Nazi league that also infiltrated sectors of the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group in the U.S., to learn about and thwart cross burnings and other acts of terror committed against the Black community.

“Laughing all through the problems, dancing, and playing good music,” said Mckee, is her secret to staying young. “Black music.”

The seniors in attendance enjoyed free food, live music, activities, and educational programming under tents to get out of the sun. 

According to Amsterdam News research about the impacts of heat islands, Black neighborhoods like Harlem, Hunts Point, and East Flatbush have historically not been invested in. In 2021, “Harlem was nearly 10 degrees hotter than other neighborhoods surrounding Central Park” and had fewer public cooling centers compared to other neighborhoods. 

“Air conditioners are not a luxury—it’s a health necessity for our seniors, and they shouldn’t have to struggle to get cool,” said Cleare from the podium.

“Extreme heat—especially when combined with high humidity—is the deadliest impact of climate change. But it does not impact everyone equally. For example, in New York City, Black residents are twice as likely to die from heat-stroke as white New Yorkers,” said Justice Caleb Smith, resiliency coordinator at WE ACT for Environmental, in a statement. 

Smith said that removing the medical requirement barrier for access to the HEAP program would make all vulnerable seniors eligible regardless of their health conditions.

Harlem officials like Assemblymember Inez Dickens and Councilmember-elect Yusef Salaam in attendance were behind Cleare’s bill.

“A bill such as this is so important, to not only the senior population but those that are disabled and physically challenged,” said Dickens at the event. “It is incumbent on us to try and fight, and today, our senator is fighting for us and for HEAP to be properly funded on all levels of government.” 

Salaam said that seniors are “near and dear to [his] heart.”
Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her 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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Hollywood’s unionized actors and writers rallied outside the Manhattan offices of Amazon and HBO on Tuesday, Aug. 22, with a few hundred of their unionized friends, in an effort to show their labor muscle.

Picketing members of SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) and Writers Guild of America, East (WGA) completely covered two long blocks—between 31st and 33rd Streets on 10th Avenue—with posters, placards, horn-honking trucks, whistles, megaphones, drums, and enthusiasm. A serious and determined group, they chanted “Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Corporate greed has got to go” and “Who’s got the power? We’ve got the power! What kind of power? Union power!” and marched while calling for attention to their ongoing strike.

SAG-AFTRA and WGA leaders had called on other unions to join them in this “National Day of Solidarity” in New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Los Angeles. In New York, several other unions were quick to join the rally. Members of the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council (HTC), New York State Nurses Association, American Federation of Musicians, LIUNA (Laborer’s International Union––Laborers Local 79), NewsGuild of New York, and Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) were among the more prominent picketers taking part in the rally.

“This contract is about healthcare,” said SAG-AFTRA member Alphonso Walker Jr. “I want to be sure I’ll be able to take care of myself when I’m not at work. Most times as an actor, you’re not on set all the time—you have what I call survival jobs. Acting is not necessarily what everyone is able to do full time. People are trying to make a living at this, trying to support their families.”

WGA members began their strike on May 2 and SAG-AFTRA members stopped work on Hollywood projects on July 14. Negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) have remained stalled over issues such as fair compensation for work that ends up on streaming video services like Netflix, Amazon, and HBO; how artificial intelligence will be used; and sustainable health and retirement funds.

Jose Cruz, who is now retired but still a supporter of his LiUNA Laborers Local 79, said he knew it was important to come out and support the WGA and SAG-AFTRA workers after coming to New York in the 1980s and working here for decades. He said it’s important for union workers to show their strength in situations like this. “We have to show that we are fighting for the city,” he said. “If we want to keep it, help it to grow, we have to support unions, or we’ll be in very bad conditions.”

Alphonso Walker Jr. said the day of protest was energizing, but not working has been tough. “What I’ve been trying to do is stay my course, keep my faith, remembering who I am outside of what I do. Because it gets lonely and it gets confusing; you have to think about ‘how am I going to eat, how am I going to put food on my table?’ 

“Listen,” he added, “I’ve been praying a lot, I’ve been praying a lot! God is good; God is good all the time. And look, when they see us out here, all these numbers of all these people out here, they have to concede and give us what we need.”

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On Aug. 11, 2023, Major League Baseball launched a business partnership with Mass Appeal’s Hip-Hop 50 Live at Yankee Stadium, home of the 27-time World Series champion, New York Yankees. 

The stadium is located in the Bronx, which is well-known as the birthplace of rap music, one of the core elements of hip-hop culture.

With this one-year partnership continuing into the 2024 season, the MLB along with all 30 teams will provide baseball and rap music fans a variety of things such as content creation, merchandise, and other exciting giveaways to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the marriage of the music genre and culture to the city of New York.  

The choice to be the music ambassador for this year-long extravaganza turned out to be an easy one if you’re a hip-hop fan. 

Chuck D (born Carlton Douglas Ridenhour on Long Island, NY) is the leader of the iconic group Public Enemy. 

One of the more recognizable voices of the hip-hop generation, Chuck D has always been an ambassador to this music, so adding the title music ambassador, which will include his overseeing special content and programming, allows Major League Baseball to educate its fanbase to the overall impact of the music and culture while enjoying the historical game of baseball and its impact on African-Americans. It kind of brings Jay Z’s partnership with the NFL to mind.

Chuck D showed his humility as the first rap artist to work exclusively with MLB.

“As a longtime baseball fanatic, I am beyond honored to be the first hip-hop artist to work with Major League Baseball in this exciting new way – connecting sound and culture to the stories of the game,” said Chuck D. “Thank you MLB for adding me to the lineup… and the pitch is on the way.”

Chuck D’s love of baseball is not just for today’s game or just the MLB. He is a student of the game with knowledge dating back to the Negro Leagues. Just last year he took to social media to honor the Philadelphia Stars.

Look for Chuck’s exclusive content on all of MLB’s platforms; MLB.com, MLB.TV and the MLB Network as well as social media handles like @MLB and @MLBLife. The cerebral rapper’s resumé shows that Baseball got the most-qualified man for the job.

Besides producing iconic albums, Chuck D and Public Enemy have been the recipients of numerous honors including the group being 2013 inductees of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys.

Just this year, Chuck D released “We Wreck Stadiums” which is a collection of songs honoring some of baseball’s players from the past and their impact on the game of baseball and society.

He also developed and executive produced “Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World,” a four-episode documentary series covering the evolution of the music genre and its significant impact on society and the World. It premiered on PBS in 2023. 

With his love for baseball cards, Chuck has also taken up drawing. One standout piece is his illustration of the old Shea Stadium—formerly home to his beloved Mets. (He hated the Yankees!)

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Of the 107 historically black colleges and universities in the United States, only nine are considered to be in the Northern region of the country: one in Delaware, four in Maryland, two in Pennsylvania, and two in Washington, D.C. There are none in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut, although the three states have a plethora of natives and transplanted residents who are HBCU alums. Still, the culture of HBCUs is thriving in the Northeast. 

Daryl K. Roberts and Rachel E. Naughton, producers of the HBCU All-Star Dream Classic, are committed to moving it forward and exposing numerous youth to the educational and athletic opportunities the college network offers. Roberts is a graduate of Lincoln University and member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. Naughten is a St. Paul’s College (Virginia) alumnus.

The duo staged the Dream Classic on August 5 at Rucker Park through the Harlem-based nonprofit Bridging Structural Holes, founded in 2018 by its CEO, the Harlem-born and -bred Roberts. The event featured 40 men’s and women’s HBCU basketball players, live musical entertainment, step shows by Divine Nine fraternities and sororities, marching bands, and cheerleaders. 

The two men’s and two women’s squads were composed solely of ballers who collectively attended 28 HBCUs. New York City basketball point guard royalty Kenny Anderson, the current men’s head coach at Fisk University, served as one of the coaches. The Booker Tees won the men’s game 71-59 over the MLKings, with Yasim Hooker of Miles College earning MVP. SoJo’s Truth edged Althea’s Aces 51-46 in the women’s matchup and Bryanna Brown of Lincoln University was named MVP. 

“What I am most proud of,” Roberts told the AmNews, “is that all 40 of the players received their college degrees. We want to expand the message that student-athletes can gain a high-quality academic and athletic experience at HBCUs. They don’t have to attend PWIs (predominantly white institutions) to create prosperous career pathways after college.”
HBCUs are in Roberts’s DNA: Two of his grandparents attended HBCUs, as did his mother (Oakwood) and father (Morgan State). 

Roberts is also the organizer of the HBCU Harlem Renaissance Classic. The games and activities were held at City College over the Thanksgiving holiday in the past two years but will move to the Gauchos Gym, scheduled for November 25. 

Harlem basketball legend and longtime youth advocate Bob McCullough was honored with the inaugural Bob McCullough Community Icon Award. Sponsors for the affair included Northwest Mutual, M&T Bank, Champion, and Wilson. KRSB Radio Philadelphia streamed the event live. HBCU Gameday and For Us By Us Network (FUBU) were also represented as prominent media partners of the Dream Classic.

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It was widely speculated that the days of Wagner mercenary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin were numbered after an aborted coup in June. Now there’s speculation that he may be among those killed on a plane that crashed in Kuzhenkino, Russia.

At presstime, the most extensive reportage of the crash comes from Reuters via the BBC, where footage shows the plane, which Prigozhin owns, spiraling from the sky after an apparent explosion. According to early reports, Prigozhin’s name is on the passenger list, although there’s no conclusive evidence that he was actually on the plane.

Thus far, a Russian news agency reports that four bodies have been taken from the fiery crash. According to the passenger list, 10 were aboard the plane, which was en route from Moscow and possibly St. Petersburg, a frequent pattern of flight.

None of the social media accounts believed to be linked to Prigozhin have so far made any claims about whether he is dead or alive. Some are saying that another business jet owned by him was also in the air at the time of the crash, also having departed Moscow.

Several experts on Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, suggested that Prigozhin, 62, who was allied with Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, broke with Putin on a number of former agreements, including pay and military strategy. Many conclude that those issues precipitated the coup attempt that was halted once the forces and its leaders realized they would be slaughtered.

CNN, which showed footage of the plane falling from the sky, said it could confirm the authenticity of the video, but RIA Novosti claimed it was the moment that an Embraer jet fell from the sky in the Tver region of Russia.

President Biden, back in the White House after a visit to Hawaii, has been briefed about the incident but had released no comments at presstime for this issue.

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