Andy King Talks Being Black in America at Unity and Solidarity Event

By Síle Moloney

Impassioned and resolute, Bronx City Councilman Andy King laid out the implications of being Black in America from a physical, emotional and economic standpoint when he addressed a crowd at a Unity and Solidarity food and face mask distribution event on Jun. 9, 2020. Joined by former NYPD officer and Brooklyn Borough President, Eric Adams, and 32 BJ Union President Kyle Bragg, King appealed to Black elected leaders to seize the moment and stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter protestors to effect lasting change. The event was held outside King’s District 12 office on East Gun Hill

By Síle Moloney

In response to the uprisings across the globe demanding justice for Black lives, New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture has created a Black liberation reading list. The 95 titles on the list represent books that the Center and the public regularly turn to as activists, students, archivists, and curators, with a particular focus on books by Black authors and those whose papers the center stewards. For 95 years, the Schomburg Center has preserved, protected, and fostered a greater understanding of the Black experience through its collections, exhibitions, programs, and scholarship. Most of the #Schomburg95 books

By Síle Moloney

Jonnel Doris, Commissioner of the Department of Small Business Services (pictured in the featured photo), Mark Gjonaj, Council Member and Chair of the Committee on Small Business, Lisa Sorin, President of the Bronx Chamber of Commerce, Justin Lerner, Executive Director of the White Plains Road BID, will tour the Bronx on Friday, Jun. 12, to distribute face coverings to small business owners to support the health and safety of businesses as they re-open. This comes on the heels of a recent announcement about the new resources available to small businesses in preparation for Re-Opening Phase One. The event

By Síle Moloney

A peaceful Black Lives Matter protest took place in Riverdale on Saturday, Jun. 6, 2020 as part of the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement sweeping the country following the death of George Floyd on March 25, 2020. Approximately 200 protesters, made up of different races, and including members of Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition started the day in Ewen Park and later proceeded through the Riverdale neighborhood to Van Cortlandt Park, gathering by the tortoise and hare statue where they sat, stood, and knelt down at various moments during the event. Opec Vistle captured the protestors marching

By SÍLE MOLONEY

Monday, Jun. 8 marked Phase One of the City’s reopening plan, part of the New York Forward initiative, as a bit more life was seen in and around Bainbridge Avenue in the Norwood area of the Bronx. Some people were returning to work for the first time since early March when the COVID-19 pandemic hit hard, and a statewide PAUSE order was implemented to curb the spread of the coronavirus. People were seen standing in line, in the morning sunshine, at Chase bank on BainBridge Avenue, adhering to social distancing guidelines, and almost everyone was wearing a mask, an

By Síle Moloney

On Thursday, Jun. 4, 2020, at approximately 6:30 p.m., in the vicinity of Brook Avenue and East 149th Street, officers conducted a car stop in relation to an “open container in a vehicle” violation (alcohol-related). The car in question was occupied by two males and one female. Following an investigation, police recovered a number of items from the vehicle including lighter fluid, two hammers, spray paint, a laser pointer, a helmet, a sledge hammer and fireworks. Alexander Hogan, a 25-year-old male, Garrett Gebhardt, a 21-year-old male and Jacqueline Oglesby, a 25-year-old female were arrested and charged with criminal possession of

By Síle Moloney & David Greene

On Tuesday, June 2, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. was joined by a number of other Bronx elected officials, community groups and clergy who gathered in the cold light of day at East Fordham Road and Grand Concourse to witness first-hand the trail of destruction left in the wake of Monday night’s looting and riots. It was reported by NYPD that the riots and looting were orchestrated by organized gangs, and not by protestors who have been rallying for police reform in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man, at the hands

By Síle Moloney

New Important legislation has been introduced to ensure that contact tracing in relation to COVID-19 achieves its public health goals and is not weaponized against communities of color. State Senator Gustavo Rivera and Assemblymember Richard Gottfried, chairs of the Senate and Assembly Health Committees, introduced the bill to ensure confidentiality of contact tracing data and prohibit access by law enforcement and immigration enforcement. Rivera said he was honored to have worked with Neighborhood Defender Services, Center for Community Alternatives, The Bronx Defenders, and the New York Civil Liberties Union in drafting the new bill, based on powerful testimony he

By Síle Moloney & David Greene

Participants who joined in a peaceful protest against police brutality in the Mott Haven area of the Bronx on Jun. 4 were surrounded and corralled by police at the end of the march route at East 136th Street and Brook Avenue ahead of the 8:00 p.m. nightly curfew, an action protestors said escalated tensions between them and police, and ultimately led to violence. In one video tweet, posted by the group Anonymous, some but not all police are seen dressed in riot gear, and protestors are seen being pushed forward by police. Some appear to trip and fall