Date: May 31, 2011
Calling all children under 12 who want something fun to do on a sunny afternoon.
Games such as giant tic tac toe, lawn bowling, hopscotch, jump rope and more will be ready for your arrival. Sign them out, enjoy your play, and then return the games so they will be there next week!
Start time: 10:00 am
End time: 2:00 pm
Contact phone: 311
Location: West Harlem Piers Park
Civil rights advocates claim a recently passed law that requires voters to show photo identification threatens to stymie the African American and politically disenfranchised in the 2012 election.
The law, which requires voters to show state-issued identification may keep millions of African American who lack the time and resources needed to obtain the proper documents from the polls.
Barbara R. Arnwine, executive director for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, said:
"The time and resources needed to acquire the identification as well as lack of easy access to the needed underlying documents, such as a certified birth certificate and other forms of documentation, are particularly burdensome on minority, low-income, elderly, disabled and student voters."
RELATED:
Voting Experts Predicts Black Vote Will Help Re-Elect Pres. Obama.
What Obama Must Do To Keep The Black Vote [VIDEO].
ALBANY, N.Y. — The fight over whether New York's prisoners should be considered residents where their prison cell is located or their home town just got more heated.
Civil rights groups have filed a legal motion to defend a new state law that counts prisoners as still being residents of their last home town when election districts are redrawn next year.
The law favors urban, mostly Democratic strongholds.
But if inmates in mostly upstate prisoners were counted as residents of their cells, more sparsely populated upstate Republican districts could get more clout, and more state and congressional districts.
Republicans have already sued to block the law.
In one rural upstate district, prisoners account for 12,000 people.
—Copyright 2011 Associated Press
Two new Harlem buildings are slated to rise on this (DNAInfo/Jeff Mays)By Jeff Mays
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
HARLEM—Two new apartment buildings with a total of nearly 200 units are coming to central Harlem — one on West 116th Street and the other on West 117th Street.
L+M Development Partners Inc., the developers who own the nearby buildings Kalahari and P.S. 90, are in the process of getting approval to build a new 12-story residential 95-unit market rate building with 20,000 feet of retail space on West 116th Street, they confirmed. They also have a nine-story, 100-unit affordable housing building with 9,000 feet of community facility space planned for West 117th Street.
Across the street from the proposed new development on West 116th Street is the Kalahari. The 249 unit condo contains 125 affordable units. (DNAInfo/Jeff Mays)A parking lot and basketball court now occupies the future site of the buildings, between Fifth and Lenox avenues.Both projects are still in the middle of the uniform land use review process.
Community Board 10 will have a hearing on proposed zoning changes on June 1. The developer is requesting changes and exemptions to the commercial zoning now in place at the locations.
L+M Development Partners Inc. declined to comment further. The group is responsible for redeveloping P.S. 90, a six-story Beaux Arts building at West 148th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard. The former school was abandoned because of asbestos problems.
P.S. 90, a six-story Beaux-Arts building at West 148th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard.P.S. 90 includes 75 units ranging from studios to three-bedrooms that range in price from $450,000 to $899,000. Twenty of the units were set aside as affordable housing.
The proposed new development on West 116th Street is across the street from the Kalahari, a 249-unit condo that includes 125 affordable units.
Some members of Community Board 10's land-use committee complained that the affordable units should be divided among the two proposed buildings.
Even so, the projects received the land-use committee's stamp of approval as well as the support of area Councilwoman Inez Dickens.
By Jeff Mays, DNAinfo.com
Follow Jeff on Twitter @JeffCMays
The unemployment rate for African-Americans now soars at an astonishing 15.8 percent, the highest it has been in years. African-Americans also have an unemployment rate that is twice as more than whites (who come in at a lower 7.7Â percent), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Could discrimination be a culprit in the high unemployment rate for African-Americans?
Many African-Americans site race-related discriminatory hiring practices as a challenge when looking for work. Could this be a reason that the Black unemployment rate is so high? Could there be a lack of postings for jobs at companies interested in diversity?
One form of discrimination that has been documented is against the unemployed. Some employers were caught posting available jobs with the attached statement, "NO UNEMPLOYED CANDIDATES WILL BE CONSIDERED AT ALL." States like New Jersey have started to crack down on this practice. N.J. Gov. Chris Christie signed a law that prohibits companies from posting jobs with such application requirements. Violators can be fined up to $1,000 for the first offense and up to $5,000 for subsequent offenses. New Jersey state Rep. Celeste Riley (D-Cumberland) explained to The Huffington Post, why she supports the bill and not the employers:
"My district has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state, and when jobs are few and far between, I don't want somebody saying, ‘Just because you're unemployed I'm not gonna hire you,'" she told The Huffington Post. "There's the old theory of ‘you need a job to get a job,' but that's absolutely unacceptable. You should be employed based on your skills and what you bring to the table."
It is usually thought that African-Americans are discriminated against based on race while job searching. Discrimination can also come from different angles, such as this case of discrimination against the unemployed. While this is not directly race-related, it may have a greater impact on the already large African-American unemployment rate than it does for the unemployment rate of whites.
In the end, no one should be discriminated against when looking for work based on any factor, whether it is age, gender, race or employment status. In current times of high unemployment rates it is important to get people jobs for which they are qualified.Â
Looking for work? Click here to see Monster's diversity job openings on BlackPlanet.com.
The National 9/11 Memorial and Museum is on track to open in time for the tenth anniversary of the attack, but it seems that there's just one little problem: you may have to hold it in while you're there. "Visitors will be provided with information to help plan their visit, including being advised that bathrooms will not be accessible on the site," Bloomberg spokesman Andrew Brent told the Post. [ more › ] 
Mayor Bloomberg offended some New Yorkers with comments about parents fighting his plan to shutter schools. (Jill Colvin/DNAinfo)By Dave Goldiner
DNAinfo News Editor
MANHATTAN - Mayor Michael Bloomberg put his foot in his mouth Friday when he said that parents who oppose his plan to shut down poorly-performing schools lack "formal education."
On his weekly radio show, Bloomberg appeared to insult parents who are fighting to keep their children's schools, including several in Harlem, from being shut down.
"They never had a formal education and they don't understand the value of education," he said.
The billionaire mayor showed his tone-deaf side when he continued to discuss the opposition to closing the schools, at which many students come from poor, homeless or immigrant families.
"The old Norman Rockwell family is gone," he said.
City Advocate Bill de Blasio told The New York Times that the mayor's comments were "profoundly disrespectful." Parent advocates also slammed the comments as insensitive.
The teachers union and parents are suing to block Bloomberg's controversial plan to shut down nearly two dozen schools citywide.
Among the targeted schools are Intermediate School 195 in Harlem; the Academy for Collaborative Education in Harlem; the Academy for Environmental Science Secondary High School in East Harlem; the Frederick Douglass Academy III in Harlem; Kappa II in East Harlem; and Norman Thomas High School on the Upper East Side.
Close to five years ago Sean Bell was shot in a hail of 50 bullets on a Queens, New York street.
Today, a new community center erected in the name of Sean Bell has opened on the intersection now known as Sean Bell way in Jamaica, Queens. It is called the Sean Elijah Bell Community Center on Sutphin Boulevard, reports the Daily News.
The center, which will offer mentoring, GED and tutoring programs for children and adolescents, as well as job-training referral programs for adults, is expected to be fully operational by June.
The nonprofit center, which is expected to serve up to 5,000 locals annually, was funded by a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant
RELATED:
Sean Bell Community Center Opens In Queens
NewsOne Staff
Fri, 20 May 2011 14:55:21 GMT
Have you seen, heard or read something interesting lately?
In a decision that can only be described as touchy, a Brazilian judge has reportedly ruled that a 36-year-old female accountant can legally masturbate at work and watch porn on her work computer.
Ana Catarian Bezerra successfully argued that she suffers from a chemical imbalance that triggers severe anxiety and hypersexuality, according to a viral news story.
Ana Catarian Bezerra is a 36-year-old Brazilian woman who suffers from a chemical imbalance that triggers severe anxiety and hypersexuality. Ana, an accountant by day, began to have problems at work because the only way to relieve said anxiety is by masturbating. A lot. Now, after winning a court battle and seeking professional medical help, Ana is allowed to masturbate and watch porn — using her work's computer, no less — legally.
Ana wasn't always like this, she was worse:
"I got so bad I would to masturbate up to forty seven-times a day. That's when I asked for help, I knew it wasn't normal."
Carlos Howert, Ana's doctor, prescribes Ana with a "cocktail" (read: an entire medicine cabinet's worth) of tranquillizers. We're not sure how that "cocktail" doesn't knock Ana out (half a Claritin feels like an elephant tranquillizer to us), but thanks to Dr. Howert's concoction, Ana only has to masturbate around eighteen-times a day.
So, like, a little less than Elvis Crespo.
Of course all of this sounds absurd and hilarious to most us but for Ana it's probably anything but. Last April she had to take her employer to court in order to be allowed to masturbate during work hours. Ana won.
Still, imagine an office full of of scandalized and perverted stares as you exit the bathroom or bend down to pick up a pencil — awkward? Very. Also, as a woman, having a bunch of men knowing you're a clinical nympho probably doesn't help deter unwanted sexual advances.
Source: Analitica
What do you think?
Brazilian Woman Wins Right To Masturbate At Work
Rafael Martínez Alequín
Tue, 17 May 2011 17:10:00 GMT
By Jeff Mays
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
HARLEM — Looking at Harlem's ornate buildings sets Lynn Lieberman's imagination loose.
At James Van Der Zee's former photo studio on Lenox Avenue, Lieberman thinks about all the famous, and not so famous, people who had their portraits taken there. A few blocks away, a row of abandoned brownstones conjures thoughts of the lives lived there.
"I really love these old buildings and the things that I know happened there," said Lieberman, 61. "We have such wonderful history in Harlem."
So in 2004, after leaving the consulting business she and her husband founded, Lieberman, a Harlem resident, began painting some of the buildings that fascinated her. Formerly a glass mosaic artist, Lieberman had been longing to try her hand at being a full-time artist.
A few years later, friends and family saw a map of Harlem painted in her whimsical style using watercolors, and suggested she try selling it.
"I thought they were being ridiculous," Lieberman said. "This was just my version of what Harlem looks like."
It turns out they were right. The Studio Museum in Harlem loved the map.
Soon, Lieberman's depictions of Harlem landmarks, such as Sylvia's, Lenox Lounge and Abyssinian Baptist Church, were being carried as notecards and postcards in several boutiques and stores throughout Harlem.
"People who live here love the familiarity of looking at places we know and visitors want to take a piece of Harlem home with them," said Louis Gagliano, co-owner of Flor Boutique, describing why Lieberman's notecards sell so well. "I love the vibrancy of her work."
Lieberman painted Jacob's, a soul food buffet on Lenox Avenue, after she learned that the owners fed the homeless for free on Thanksgiving. And although Red Rooster is one of Harlem's hottest attractions today, when Lieberman's eye was drawn to the beautiful ornate style of buildings on the same block, she painted those instead.
Lieberman makes no bones about being a commercial artist. While she'd like to spend more time painting, she has to spend time choosing paper for her note cards and prepping marketing materials.
"I am a commercial artist and that is what pays the bills," said Lieberman. "I'm not just an artist who shows."
But she's being pushed in that direction more and more by fellow Harlem artists.
Her work is now on display at the Dwyer Cultural Center as a part of their "Spirit of Community" exhibition and Cafe One on Amsterdam Avenue also recently launched a display of Lieberman's work.
"I get a lot of support from other Harlem artists. We show up for each other's functions," Lieberman said of some on the Harlem art scene. "The artists here put competitiveness aside."
Sensing the popularity of her Harlem series, Lieberman has started a Greenwich Village series. The arch in Washington Square Park and the purple New York University buses are some of her first renderings.
But Lieberman says she's not done with Harlem yet. There are already 50 Harlem renderings in her portfolio and many others waiting to be fleshed out in her sketchbook. She has yet to make her way uptown through Sugar Hill.
"I can go up and down Seventh and Eighth avenues all day long looking at the peeling paint," Lieberman said. "Each layer represents a layer of lives."
By Jeff Mays, DNAinfo.com
Follow Jeff on Twitter @JeffCMays
A twilight tour of numerous bridges along the Harlem River.
Join us for a twilight tour of numerous bridges over the Harlem River, the Bronx Kill, and Little Hell Gate Inlet, with stops in Manhattan, Wards and Randall's Island, and the Bronx. Find little-known bicycle access points and takes in stunning sunset vistas while touching on environmental issues as overly industrialized waterfronts, highway systems, and damaged marine and shore ecosystems are viewed.Though it's just 6 miles long, the Harlem River is crossed by 14 bridges, making it the most-bridged waterway of that length in the world. Our ride will take us to both NYC's oldest and newest bridges and over two car-free spans as we cross between islands and the mainland (i.e., the Bronx). The last bridge we cross will leave us at 179th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan, from which some people will head to the subway and others will ride back to the start location. Total r
Mayor Bloomberg has gone too far. And we are fighting back!!!
Over the past year, at least 50 schools have participated in the many Fight Back Fridays that have occurred across the city.
GEM is teaming up with other teacher activist groups to pull in as many schools as possible to this important day of action.
May 20th is the next city wide FBF and it needs to be huge!!
What is Fight Back Friday?? Read on or Email: peter.lamphere@gmail.com [1]
FBF gives every school community a chance to stand up and say NO to the cuts and lay-offs at whatever level the community can be organized.
-Everyone wears black (Wear black, take our schools back!). It can be as simple as just that.
-We have stickers people can print out with messages about the cuts and the kinds of changes we would all like to see in education that folks can wear and give out.
-We have fliers that you can adjust to fit your school, which you can use on the day of.
- Many schools have a picket outside of school either before or after the school day. We have fliers you can use to publicize the picket during the week leading up to the 20th.
- The fliers will be in at least English and Spanish, and if we can, Chinese.
- We have post cards that we are asking people to get signed that will then be delivered en-masse to city council members. You can print those out, or come get them at a couple of different locations.
- We ask everyone to take pictures to send in that then go on our fight back friday blog and face book page.
We will be putting out a press release and press statement and pushing the press to cover as many school events as we can. And the more schools participating the more coverage we will get.
Please, even if it sounds hard or overwhelming, consider pushing your school community to join in. Email
Peter at peter.lamphere@gmail.com [1] with any questions. We will send you the tool kit with all the fliers and stickers and such. We are happy to help you think through all the steps.
This is a way for your whole community to work together, parents, students and staff, to build solidarity within and across schools. These actions are great for training ourselves to do the organizing that we need if we are to turn the tide of the destruction of public education. In order to fight for the transformations we all want to see in our education system, we need to do the grassroots educating, organizing and mobilizing that it takes to move whole communities.
Thanks,
In solidarity,
Peter Lamphere, for the GEM and the Fight Back Friday Committee
CAPE, Grassroots Education Movement, Independent Community of Educators, NYCoRE, People Power Movement, Teachers for a Just Contract, Teachers Unite
recent work by Skylar Fein titled Black Lincoln for Dooky Chase will be on view at the Brooklyn Museum from March 23 through August 2011 as the centerpiece of an installation including related works from the permanent collection. In Fein's 2010 work he overlays a silhouette portrait of Abraham Lincoln on a panel created to resemble an old wall menu from Dooky Chase, a well-known New Orleans Creole and soul food restaurant
Jun 16, 2011: Skylar Fein: Black Lincoln for Dooky Chase at Brooklyn Museum
Sat, 14 May 2011 09:02:28 GMT
By Jeff Mays
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
HARLEM — When she gets on a Mississippi-bound bus to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Riders later this month, Victoria Albino, 15, a freshman at East Harlem's Renaissance Charter High School for Innovation will be thinking about immigration.
Her best friend is an immigrant whose brother was deported shortly after receiving his high school diploma because he did not have legal status.
And just like the Freedom Riders — civil rights activists who were imprisoned and attacked when they rode buses across state lines to challenge segregation laws — Albino believes immigration laws need changing.
"He wasn't born here but he's been here since he was young," she said of her friend's brother. "I would have done it for something I believe in. I would have rode to change immigration."
Albino will join 14 other students from the neighborhood's first charter high school and dozens more from around the city for a four-day ride starting May 20 that will retrace the route of the original Freedom Riders, making stops in Washington, D.C., Greensboro, NC, Atlanta, Ga. and Jackson, Miss.
Lawmakers in Albany sent Governor Cuomo a letter on Monday imploring him to cease participation in a controversial immigration enforcement program, the Times reports. Run by the Department of Homeland Security, the Orwellian-sounding Secure Communities was implemented under President Bush in 2008, and checks the "fingerprints of everyone arrested and booked…against Department of Homeland Security immigration records," so illegal immigrants convicted of a crime are swiftly deported. [ more › ] Originally Published:Tuesday, May 10th 2011, 12:19 PM
jlauinger@nydailynews.com
Two years ago, one of the greatest singers of our generation Whitney Houston declared herself clean from her drug addiction demons.
Today, with the Waiting To Exhale sequel confirmed for production, the singer is taking no chances and checking herself back into rehab. She is in an out-patient program for drug and alcohol recovery.
Is it to impress the producers and assure them she will be fine, or did Whitney go back to drugs?
Only time will tell.
Read more at The Hollywood Reporter
RELATED:
Whitney Enters Rehab As “Waiting To Exhale” Sequel Talks Start
NewsOne Staff
Mon, 09 May 2011 18:14:37 GMT
Pinkster Comes to Philipsburg Manor on Sunday, May 15, 2011 | ||||||
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CONTINUING A TRADITION celebrated as early as the 17th century, Pinkster at Philipsburg Manor brings to life the most vibrant elements of African-American history unique to the Hudson River Valley. Pinkster 2010 is an event filled with music, dance, stories, food, honor, and revelry! Scheduled PerformancesStorytelling with Pinkster Griot (J. Gilliam Brown) African Colonial Dance (Judith Samuel and the Children of Dahomey) African Drumming and Dance (Kofi Donkor and Company) Pinkster Parade and the Game of Lies The Election Ongoing Tours + Activities
Consult on-site program for more details and location information
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