4
OUR TIME PRESS February 28-6 March, 2019
VOL. 23 NO. 9
WHAT’S GOING ON Ό
By Victoria Horsford
MARCH HIGHLIGHTS
March 2019 is Women’s History Month, it’s the year’s first retrograde Mercury which begins on March 5. Hold the dates March 4-5 for Carnival in New Orleans, Trinidad, Brazil. Ash Wednesday is on March 6. Daylight Savings Time is March 10. On March 17, there is St. Patrick’s Day and the beginning of March Madness. The vernal equinox, aka springtime, arrives on March 20. Forgot the most important March arrival, the allergy season!
Andrea Stewart-Cousins
POWER POLITICS/NYS
Congrats to Councilman Jumaane Williams, now NYC Public Advocate-elect. In a crowded field of 17 contenders, he led the vote by about 33%, no small feat. Black and white NY politicos rushed to his celebration to consume his victory speech where the DJ has soca music blasting and many in attendance were screaming, “WE READY!” His poignant speech included profuse thanks to enablers, unions, political parties and the people. He continued talking about his recent three years of therapy and how he understands and knows those little Black boys who go to bed crying every night for answers. NEW YORK: Are relations between the newly empowered Progressive Senate Leader A n d r e a StewartCousins and Jumaane Williams Governor C u o m o growing sour, especially after the Amazon debacle? Cuomo attributes the Amazon fight to Senator Michael Gianaris, a vocal opponent of the deal whom Stewart-Cousins named to a panel whose unanimous approval was necessary for the Amazon deal to move forward. No one mentions that Cuomo has to approve of all the people in that panel. Cuomo denounced the Senate action as “political malpractice.” What’s really happening in the Democratic universe and the outside world? Stewar-Cousins becomes vulnerable to an occasionally vindictive governor; the Democrats look like they are anti-business, which could hurt many suburban senators. A
REAL ESTATE MATTERS
Harlem will soon resemble Manhattan’s midtown – a busy construction strip. The talk of uptown is about a proposed mixed-use 385,000-sq-ft., 42-floor residential towe,r which will be erected at the site of 260-270 West 126th Street, between Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. and Frederick Douglass Boulevards in Central Harlem. Space is west of the Apollo Theater. The skyscraper will house 34 residential floors and a ground-floor church. Newyorkyimby.com published renderings of the building, but was short on info about the principals, construction and completion dates. Thomas Memorial Wesleyan Methodist Church, which partially occupies the space, must be one of the building’s principals. Queen L a t i fa h ’s BlueSugar Corporation will partner with a local NJ developer and invest in Queen Latifah a $14 million affordable housing development in her native Newark, New Jersey. Project includes 20 three-family town houses and another mixed-use building which will house 16 affordable rental units.
OSCAR NOTES
Congrats to all of the winners at the 91st Academy Awards ceremony. Oscar 2019, from the red carpet to the awards ceremony, was so glamorous, elegant and hypnotic! It was also politically nuanced. Special congrats to the Black American Academy Award winners. The show opened in earnest when the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Regina King fell off a presenter’s lips.
Brooklyn's "Lila" Hosts the Oscars
T
he 91st Academy Awards broadcast on the ABC Television Network, Sunday, February 24, made history in Hollywood and had a presence in Bedford-Stuyvesant that evening, too. Oscar ambiance pervaded Lila Café at Debbie Dangerfield’s 29th Annual “Hollywood in Brooklyn” soiree. Located at 911 Dekalb/Marcus GarveyGarvey, Lila was a front-runner in the décor category. Dangerfield outfitted the place in framed movie posters for such 2019 winners as BlacKKKlansman and Black Panther. There were Oscar mini-statuettes and large screens presenting the West Coast event live for diners.
lot can happen by November 2020. Was the IDC necessary to make nice with the business community? Was that why Cuomo quietly supported the IDC power-broker role? Politics makes strange bedfellows.
Photo by (C) Yaw Mfoni
Ms. Debbie "?LECPȏCJBȩ ACLRCP ȩ is seen here with Lila Café owner David Young and manager Barbara Ann Hutson.
Pretty Yende
Regina King She was a vision awash in a stark white, goddess-inspired, haute couture splendor. Mahershala Ali was named Best Supporting Actor for “Green Book.” Ruth Carter won the Best Costume Designer Oscar for “Black Panther.” During a red-carpet interview, someone asked Carter what does she want as much as Oscar. She replied, “A good man to come home to at night.” Hannah Beachler won the Oscar nod for Best Production Design for “Black Panther.” The Ruth Carter and Hannah Beachler Oscars are emphasized because they were “firsts” for Black artists. Peter Ramsey won Ruth Carter an Oscar for Best Animated Feature for “Spider Man.” Spike Lee took home his first Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for “BLACKkKlansman.” Was he ecstatic or was the audience ecstatic?! He came really close this year for two major Oscars – Best Picture and Best Director. The Best Picture was “Green Book,” which was loosely based on the life of African-American classical pianist Don Shirley. “Green Book” has been branded controversial since its launch. The story begs too many questions and answers which are included in Richard Prince’s “Journal-isms,” a digital magazine, this week.
ARTS/CULTURE/ HISTORY
MUSIC: There is a Zulu moment at the Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center, during Donizette’s “LA FILLE DU REGIMENT.” South African Bel canto soprano, Pretty Yende, performs in the title role and steals some creative thunder as she delivers some Zulu clicks. Yende is on the cover of February’s Opera News where she explains her Zulu epiphany. “FILLE” will
be broadcast live in cinemas worldwide on March 2. The 2019 St. Lucia Jazz Festival will be produced in collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center, America’s preeminent jazz emporium. The weeklong festival will run from May 5 to 12. Some participating artists include Dianne Reeves, The Baylor Project, the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, Etienne Charles, Gregory Porter, Christian McBride and Ledisi. The St. Lucia Festival is the JALC first full-scale live production outside the USA. BOOKS: Michelle Obama’s memoir, “BECOMIN,” continues to dominate book best-seller lists and sale,s according to the NY Times and others. Jamaican-born university Professor Marlon James’ new novel, “BLACK LEOPARD, RED WOLF,” is set in a fantasy version of Africa where a loner named Tracker joins a group of disparate characters in search of a missing boy. “BLACK LEOPARD” joined on 2/24 the NY Times best-seller book list. James also wrote the novel, “A Brief History of Seven Killings,” which won the 2015 Man Booker Award.
WOMEN’S HISTORY AGENDA
Daytime TV celeb and gossip guru Wendy Williams returns to her show on Monday, March 4, not a moment too soon. Her absence has made morning TV an even greater wasteland. America is waiting with bated breath to hear revelations about the “hot topics” in her life. Reel Sisters and the NJCU co-host the Visionary Women Champions of Peace and Nonviolence Festival, a daylong celebration of film arts and culture on March 8 at the NJ City University in Jersey City. The featured artist at a book-signing/reading is Baruch College Journalism Professor Bridget Davis, who wrote the memoir, “My Mother’s Life in Detroit Numbers,” which has captured widespread media attention. Event begins at 5:30 pm. RSVP at reelsisters.org. The Network Journal, the online business α Continued on page 5
Spike Lee Oscar Acceptance
T
he word today is “irony.” The date, the 24th. The month, February, which also happens to be the shortest month of the year, which also happens to be Black History month. The year, 2019. The year, 1619. History. Her story. 1619. 2019. 400 years. Four hundred years. Our ancestors were stolen from Mother Africa and bought to Jamestown, Virginia, enslaved. Our ancestors worked the land from can’t see in the morning to can’t see at night. My grandmother, [inaudible], who lived to be 100 years young, who was a Spelman College graduate even though her mother was a slave. My grandmother
who saved 50 years of social security checks to put her first grandchild — she called me Spikie-poo — she put me through Morehouse College and N.Y.U. grad film. N.Y.U.! Before the world tonight, I give praise to our ancestors who have built this country into what it is today along with the genocide of its native people. We all connect with our ancestors. We will have love and wisdom regained, we will regain our humanity. It will be a powerful moment. The 2020 presidential election is around the corner. Let’s all mobilize. Let’s all be on the right side of history. Make the moral choice between love versus hate. Let’s do the right thing! You know I had to get that in there.