Botanical Garden: Enid A. Haupt Conservatory Palm Dome Completed

By SÍLE MOLONEY

On Monday, Sept. 14, 2020, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. attended the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) ribbon-cutting ceremony for the newly renovated Enid A. Haupt Conservatory palm dome which was recently completed. The iconic venue reopened in accordance with “New York Forward” safety guidelines, with very limited capacity. The magnificent glasshouse, which includes galleries, features aquatic plants and vines, lush tropical rain forests, cactus-filled deserts, and its palm dome, an architectural gem, newly replanted with majestic soaring species from around the world. Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. also helped the NYBG kick off their annual

By SÍLE MOLONEY

On Monday, Sept. 17, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. attended the The New York International Latino Film Festival (NYLFF) which, this year, hosted New York City’s first Latino drive-in experience in the Bronx. The film festival, which ran from Sept. 14 to 20 featured drive-in / in-person movie experiences and was held across the street from the Bronx Terminal Market. The venue was ADA compliant and screenings included the New York City premieres of Angel Manuel Soto’s “Charm City Kings” and John Leguizamo’s “Critical Thinking,” as well as other virtual programming. https://twitter.com/NYLFF/status/1309265429714665474?s=20 “I could not think

By AURÉOLE RIBES

As a youngster in the Sixties and Seventies, Stephen Ritz and his friends would drill a hole in a quarter, put a fishing string through it, and play infinite pinball games at Larry’s Luncheonette on the corner of Gun Hill Road and Tryon Avenue in Norwood. They got away with it for a few weeks. Ritz recalls this little ploy with fondness and has an amalgam of other memories as well. He remembers learning basketball at Mosholu Montefiore Community Center, building little tree houses in Reservoir Oval Park, biking down Gun Hill Road, and meeting the Duncan “YoYo”

By SÍLE MOLONEY & MIRIAM QUINONES

On Thursday Sept. 3, 2020, a commemorative “Care” mural was unveiled in the patio of the rotunda building (building 4) at Jacobi Medical Center in the Morris Park section of the Bronx. The idea behind the mural was to promote greater neighborhood wellness, and to help build trust and engagement between the community and the hospital. Designed by artists, Andrei Krautsou and Yulia Puhach, the project was an artistic collaboration with the staff of Jacobi Medical Center, in conjunction with the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund. Since Friday, Aug. 21, the project participants had been painting, in stages,

By JOSÉ A. GIRALT

At first glance, the relationship between skydiving, a woman’s right to vote, and Woodlawn Cemetery might not seem obvious. On Aug. 26 though, four members of the Highlight Pro Skydiving Team parachuted from helicopters 4,500 feet in the sky onto the grounds of the cemetery and placed a yellow rose at the gravesite of suffragist, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and other pioneering women. Other celebrations took place across the country on the same day to commemorate the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution which secured the right to vote for women. In Manhattan, a monument to women’s rights

By SÍLE MOLONEY

The New York State Museum, located in Albany, has begun programming to commemorate the 19th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. On Friday, Sept. 11, 2020, the museum’s senior historian and curator of the World Trade Center Collections, Aaron Noble, provided a gallery tour of World Trade Center: Rescue, Recovery, Response to commemorate the anniversary. A video of the program is available on the museum’s web page, as well as on the museum’s YouTube page. Additionally, since Friday, Sept. 11, 2020, a display of World Trade Center artifacts has been added to the Windows on

By SÍLE MOLONEY

With only 22 days left until the conclusion of the 2020 census, following President Trump’s move to cut it short by one month, on Tuesday, Sept. 8, NYC Census 2020 announced the third contestants in the “NYC Census Subway Series,” to mobilize New Yorkers to self-respond immediately. NYC Census 2020 Field Director Kathleen Daniel released the following statement about the series. “Our Census Subway Series has unleashed the power of neighborhood pride in bringing out the census count, and we’re thrilled to bring the competition to the Boogie Down Bronx. For the third week of our Census Subway

By JOSÉ A. GIRALT

Bronx poet and spoken word artist, Lorraine Currelley, has nurtured a life-long love of the written word, and actively shares that passion with as many people as possible. As executive director of both the Bronx Book Fair and the Poets Network & Exchange, she is leading a group of fellow word lovers on a mission to expand literacy in the borough, provide workshops for writers, and promote storytelling by underrepresented groups in the literary world. “I’m about change,” Currelley said. “I’m about growth.” In May, she was appointed State of New York Bronx Beat Poet Laureate for 2020-2022

By JOSÉ A. GIRALT

Wooden boards on the storefront glass of the Amalgamated Bank at 94 E. Burnside Ave. give it the appearance of a long-time shuttered business. Officially though, it is scheduled to close by Sept. 25. On Monday, Aug. 24 a group of protestors gathered to let bank administrators know the decision will hurt a community already facing daunting financial prospects in the midst of an economic downturn complicated by a public health crisis. Speakers at the rally included several small business owners as well as community board leaders. The protest, organized by the Jerome Avenue Revitalization Collaborative (JARC),