MC Sha Rock Cultural Day to be held on June 5 for African American Music Appreciation Month

By SÍLE MOLONEY

June is African American music appreciation month and the hip hop community are getting together to honor the mother of the mic, the first female emcee of hip-hip, MC Sha Rock. MC Sha Rock Cultural Day will be held on Saturday, June 5, from 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in Williamsbridge. Organizers said in addition to celebrating “luminary icon,” MC Sha Rock, other legendary contributors to African American music and culture will also be honored. They include Grammy award-winning singer of The Manhattans, Gerald Alston; Amadeus, CEO of Platinum Boy Music Inc; and Rocky Bucano, executive director and president

By SÍLE MOLONEY

Dear Readers, In 2020, in acknowledgement of the diverse composition of the local communities the Norwood News serves, we updated our website, www.norwoodnews.org, to allow users to read our site in Spanish, Bengali, Arabic, Chinese and French, using a Google Translate function. Readers can translate the site from English into each of these languages by selecting the relevant language from the drop-down menu located in the top, right-hand corner of the home page. As a nonprofit news organization, with limited resources, we decided to include this translation function on our site to help you, our community of readers, access local

By JOSÉ A. GIRALT

The transformation of the South Bronx continued Thursday, May 20, with a groundbreaking ceremony for a new museum which will memorialize the history of hip-hop in the borough, part of a $349 million development known as Bronx Point. With shovels in hand and scooping dirt from a pile of earth, elected officials, including Mayor Bill de Blasio, State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., joined hip-hop legends, Grandmaster Flash, Slick Rick, LL Cool J, Chuck D, Nas, and Fat Joe, in marking the ceremonial foundation of the museum’s construction. The 22-story building

By RACHEL DALOO & SÍLE MOLONEY

Editor’s Pick Looking to start a new piece of writing or a creative project? Longing to get back to the page, but finding yourself blocked? Join the NYCWP’s Generative Writing Boot Camp from June 1 to June 3, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., for three days of generating your own creative writing! Over this three-day “boot camp,” writers will have the opportunity to engage with a variety of prompts, and participate in micro-studies of various craft elements, creative forms, and model readings. To register or for more information, visit https://www.lehman.edu and go to “All Events” or email jane.higgins@lehman.cuny.edu. Registration

The Bronx Youth Empowerment Program will be hosting its 15th Youth Speaks 2021 forum on Wednesday, May 19, at 4 p.m. According to organizers, this year’s forum will be centered on music and art, as program participants will be joined by a dynamic guest panel. It will include Tara Wallace of Love and Hip-Hop New York; MC Sha Rock, the first female rapper and MC of Hip-Hop culture; Valerie Simpson, legendary songwriter, music producer, singer and performer; and Kylerr Bucano, social media manager of the Universal Hip-Hop Museum. Aside from the discussions on music and art, Youth Speaks

By JOSÉ A. GIRALT

Residents of Fordham Manor will have a chance to voice their views on the eventual use of a building which formerly housed the Fordham branch of the New York Public Library (NYPL), located at 2556 Bainbridge Avenue. As reported last week by Norwood News, the virtual hearing will be held on Tuesday, May 18 at 6:30 p.m. The building has been selected by the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) to house a Community Technical Assistance Center (CTAC), a new computer-based testing and application center, to facilitate more opportunities for a wider number of local candidates to apply for

By SÍLE MOLONEY

Dance Parade New York, an annual celebration of dance in all its forms, will host an interactive online dance festival on Saturday, May 22, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. EST. According to its organizers, one thousand dancers from around the world will connect to family-friendly, fun and movement joy in DJ-lead dance rooms, free dance classes with top professionals, dance-offs between participants, and free dance classes. In addition, the winning videos from the Dare-to-Dance challenge contest will be premiered. Greg Miller is executive director of Dance Parade New York and said the past year has been really

In celebration of Pride Month, and kicking off New York City’s post-pandemic summer, Rockefeller Center opened submissions on Friday, May 14, for couples to experience a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to celebrate a complimentary wedding at the center. The “Love Above All” series is an annual Rockefeller Center tradition to celebrate and support the LGBTQ community during Pride. Following the “Love Above All Ball,” held in 2019 at the Rainbow Room, the 2020 “Love Above All Virtual Auction” raised over $42,000 for The Ali Forney Center, the largest LGBTQ community center helping LGBTQ homeless youth in the United States. This year,

There’s been a sudden boom in traffic on the corner of Burke Avenue and Holland Avenue in the Williamsbridge section of The Bronx. Fans of hip-hop artist, DMX, and members of the Ruff Ryders motorcycle club have flocked to the intersection to memorialize the hip-hop icon who died on Friday, April 9. “Where my dogs at?” is a phrase and a song popularized by DMX. According to the late, multi-platinum selling rapper, whose real name was Earl Simmons, his “dogs” were his brothers and sisters from the “hood,” and for the past month, they’ve been out in packs, making

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MC Sha Rock Cultural Day to be held on June 5 for African American Music Appreciation Month

Norwood News Website Available in Spanish, Bengali, French, Arabic, Chinese & English!

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