Empire State Building to be Lit in Red, Black & Green in Honor of Black History Month

By SÍLE MOLONEY

Fashion For All Foundation (FFA), founded by Hannah Stoudemire and Ali Richmond, have partnered with the NAACP NY State Chapter in lighting the Empire State Building in red, black and green (colors that represent the Pan African Flag) in honor of Black History Month 2021. According to the organization, it is the second year in a row that FFA has had the honor to light up the building, and the lighting will take place on Thursday Feb. 25. The Empire State Building will be lit for one evening only, starting at dusk (at 6:07 p.m.) and will shine all evening and

By SÍLE MOLONEY

In celebration of Black History Month, NYC Parks will host a virtual panel discussion focused on the ongoing effort to name park spaces in honor of the Black experience. The discussion, entitled, “Honoring Black History: The Parks Naming Project” will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 24, from 6 to 7 p.m. NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver, a fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners, will be the panel moderator and the panel will discuss the agency’s work to incorporate Black history into the fabric of New York City and make the park system more diverse and reflective

By SÍLE MOLONEY

Bitta Mostofi, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, issued a statement, on Feb. 18, in response to U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Congresswoman Linda Sanchez (D-CA) unveiling the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021. The bill would create a pathway to citizenship for approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants, most of whom have been long-standing, essential members of various U.S. communities. The bill also places a strong emphasis on the integration of immigrants by increasing access to citizenship, strengthening labor protections, addressing naturalization and other backlogs, expanding access to legal counsel, providing grants for legal services, expanding caps

By DAWN CLANCY

The City’s department of administrative services (DCAS) has proposed to Bronx Community Board 7 (CB7) to convert the second floor of the currently vacant Old Fordham Library, located at 2556 Bainbridge Avenue in Fordham Manor, into a new computer-based testing and application center (CTAC), to facilitate more opportunities for a wider number of local candidates to apply for City jobs. At the latest Bronx CB7 housing and land use committee meeting, on Feb. 9, the agency proposed relocating the Bronx’s current CTAC, located at 1932 Arthur Avenue in Crotona, to the Fordham Library location, and judging from the

By DAVID GREENE

This week, we asked readers how they planned to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “I do have plans with a special guy this year for Valentine’s Day. We talked about the possibility of going out to a restaurant for this day, and we both decided it’s best to just stay at his place, and he’s going to cook for me. It is because we are choosing not to be around too many people, and who knows if restaurants are going to get crowded on Valentine’s Day, due to reopening of indoor dining on this holiday. I

By DAVID GREENE

A North Bronx grandmother, frustrated that parents aren’t explaining to children why they are being told to wear masks and to wash their hands more frequently, has written a poem/rap and has been distributing copies of it to folks at different sites across the borough in an effort to enhance health education among kids and help them understand why it is important to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Long-time activist and Community Board 12 member, Barbara Gibson, 81, recalled, “As a teacher, I noticed society was not approaching the children and explaining to them what the virus

By RACHEL DALLOO & SÍLE MOLONEY

Editor’s Pick Black History Month Lecture Series Presented by the Lehman College Art Gallery, the program covers two of the most important authors to contribute to the North American slave narrative genre: Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass. Collective Black Fugitive Practices in Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl will take place onThursday, Feb. 4, at 2 p.m. Eve Eure, an assistant English professor at Lehman College, will discuss Harriet Jacobs’s slave narrative—the first book-length fugitive slave narrative published by a Black woman in the United States. Focusing on the means by which Jacobs navigates the legal and social enclosures of slavery,

By SÍLE MOLONEY

Last year, having been shut for several months after the coronavirus pandemic first hit in March, the DEMA Community Martial Arts School, based at 283 East 204th Street in Norwood, restarted outdoor Tae Kwon Do classes in July in an attempt to keep the school afloat. Despite that innovative approach, and other collective efforts by the local Tae Kwon Do community to support the school, it is now, sadly, at risk of closure. As reported by Norwood News last year, more than a dozen young students were seen throwing kicks and punches in the open air in Mosholu Parkway

By SÍLE MOLONEY

Bronx District Attorney, Darcel D. Clark, announced on Wednesday, Jan. 27, that a Bronx man who was active in an anti-gun violence group has been indicted for fatally shooting another man in August 2020. Clark said the defendant, Mervin Joseph Moore, 37, of Sheridan Avenue in the South Bronx, was arraigned on charges of second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter, and two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon before Bronx Supreme Court Justice, Michael Gross, and remains in custody. He is due back in court on April 28, 2021. According to the investigation, at around 1.30 a.m.