Aretha Franklin dance tribute opens BAAD!'s BlakTinX Festiva

2018 BlakTinX Performance Series

At BAAD! The Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance

Opens with Aretha Franklin Dance Tribute

Festival runs October 19 to November 20, 2018

Series includes a dance concert tribute to the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, plus evenings of music (all string musicians), poetry and the premiere of three new dance works by Pepatian/BAAD! Jerome Foundation/Artists in Residence  Ebony Golden, Kayla Farrish and ColemanCollective and more!

The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance kicks off its fall season with the BlakTinX Performance Series from October 19 to November 20, 2018.  This annual multidisciplinary festival inaugurated in 2002 celebrates art and performance by Black, Latinx and artists of color. The festival’s opening weekend features a dance tribute to the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. BAAD! is located in a neo gothic style building at 2474 Westchester Avenue. For tickets and information call 718-918-2110 or visit www.BAADBronx.org.

Friday & Saturday, October 19 & 20 at 8pm | $20, $15 (Students/Seniors) 

RESPECT! A DANCE TRIBUTE TO ARETHA FRANKLIN 

The Queen of Soul made us move, groove, and feel the spirit. We honor her legendary music career of more than six decades with a 2-day dance tribute featuring 16 choreographers. Each concert is presented like a gapless album with back to back music and performances.

Friday: Oluwadamilare Ayorinde, Italy Bianca, Cashel Campbell, Havanna Fisher, Gerard Minaya, Jason “Slim Ninja” Rodriguez, Mervin Acharo Smith, Janice Tomlinson and Miki Tuesday/International Affair.

Saturday: Jennifer Acosta, Megan Curet, Jessica Danser, Alfred Gallman, Jayden Higgs, Noele Philips, Kiran Rajagopalan and Vir-Amicus.

Sunday, October 21 at 7pm | Free 

BLAQ & BAAD! SHOW 

BLAQ and BAAD! is a new web show focused on queer culture of The Bronx. It's The View meets The Tonight Show with a (BAAD!) twist. A panel of LGBTQ members meet to discuss current events, culture, and creativity in our city with special performances by local QPOC in front of a live studio audience. Co-hosted by Rosaly Ruiz and Whitney Dav-Rho.

Friday, October 26 at 8pm | $20, $15 (students/seniors) 

STRINGS AND THINGS 

A music concert giving props to the strings section. Singer/songwriters, classical musicians, and rockers join the varied program covering genres of all types. Featuring The Dolly/Workman Project, Mel Greenwich, Ganessa James and Robin Tucker.

Saturday, October 27 at 7pm | Free 

BAAD! HALLOWEEN: PARTY AND OPEN STAGE 

BAAD! brings it on Halloween with costumes, dancing and artful fun. Doors open at 7pm, and everyone is invited to sing, dance, read or perform for the open stage beginning at 8:30pm, and MC’d by Appolonia Cruz. Come dance the night away.

Sunday, October 28 at 3pm | Free 

PRESENTED BY BAAD! AND REIMAGINE 

PERSISTENT VOICES/LAST GASP! 

Persistent Voices takes its name from a poetry anthology highlighting work by writers lost to AIDS. Edited by Phillip Clark and David Groff, the book memorializes legendary poets of a generation. Prominent Bronx queer leaders from literature, social justice, and performing arts select and read works from the book and share personal stories and interpretations. ​Last Gasp!, created and performed by Laura Shapiro, uses mordant humor, talking as well as movement, video projections, and colorful costumes to consider personal end–of–life preparations within a perspective of possible planetary apocalypse and/or exhaustion. A discussion on end of life planning that affirms our lives and deaths are worthy of consideration will follow. BAAD! presents Persistent Voices as part of the Reimagine End of Life Event Series.

Thursday & Friday, November 1 & 2 at 8pm | $20, $15 (Students/Seniors) 

PRESENTED BY PEPATIÁN & BAAD! 

COLEMANCOLLECTIVE | FRUIT PUNCH 

Live and recorded audio including the sounds of a school yard, recited statistics, dissonant statistics, and music by Outkast and Bambounou, incites Fruit Punch, a vibrant work depicting the ins and outs of bullying and how it translates to adulthood. The impetus for the work was a Bronx school stabbing in the fall of 2017. ColemanCollective is a multidisciplinary performing arts company, founded by Cain A. Coleman, Charisma Glasper and Matthew Perez.

Friday & Saturday, November 9 & 10 at 8pm | $20, $15 (Students/Seniors) 

PRESENTED BY PEPATIÁN & BAAD! 

KAYLA FARRISH | SPECTACLE 

Spectacle is a film and live performance production imploding in the possibilities of love, and addressing torrential questions that can come with it. We follow a wild-spirited woman re-examining her sexuality, power, and trauma within society’s placement of a female body, while challenging expectations that propel her to healing and freedom.

Friday & Saturday, November 16 & 17 at 8pm | $20, $15 (Students/Seniors) 

PRESENTED BY PEPATIÁN & BAAD! 

EBONY GOLDEN | wash’d// 

A dance-based performance ritual, wash’d// explores both the violence of misogyny and the strength of sisterhood as they relate to women of color—past, present and future. The piece centers and celebrates the activism present during the founding of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) that organized during the Civil Rights Movement. wash’d// is an embodied meditation on women’s social and political power as a means to highlight sisterhood and its role in dismantling systems of patriarchy, heteronormativity, misogynoir as women and femmes unite and organize for social transformation.

BAAD!/AATT receive support from The Ford Foundation, The SHS Foundation, The NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, The Howard Gilman Foundation, The Mertz Gilmore Foundation, The New York State Council on the Arts, The Jerome Foundation, Councilmember Mark Gjonaj, Jody and John Arnhold, OVATION Stand for the Arts and private donations.

Children's Dance Classes resume at BAAD - AATT Academy Fall 2018

FALL 2018 CLASSES BEGINS FOR AATT ACADEMY  

AFTERSCHOOL ATHLETIC DANCE PROGRAM AT BAAD!

Dance Education for 6-9 year old boys and girls offers comprehensive program in Ballet, Gymnastics, West African Dance and Hip-Hop  from October 15 – December 12, 2018!

SIX SLOTS LEFT FOR BOYS – FREE TUITION AVAILABLE

  

    The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance begins Fall 2018 classes on Monday, October 15 for the AATT Academy, a community-based, accessible dance education program for 6-9 year old boys and girls.  The Academy offers a fully inclusive, nurturing environment that uses multi-media to provide an immersive experience.  The Academy’s diverse and professional faculty provides progressive, non-competitive, gender neutral, quality instruction in movement based techniques from traditional dance to athletics, including a mix of dance forms that include ballet, West African, Hip Hop and gymnastics. The program in its third year, will run Monday and Wednesday afternoons from October 15 to December 12, 2018.  BAAD! is located in a neo gothic style building at 2474 Westchester Avenue. To register a child or for further information about the AATT Academy, contact Dance Education Coordinator Cynthia Paniaguaat 718-918-2110 or cynthia@baadbronx.org, or visit www.BAADBronx.org.

            “At the AATT Academy, BAAD! Boys Move!” shared Ms. Paniagua. “We work to have equal numbers of boys and girls in the program.   We are happy to say that we still have only six slots open for boys.  And for all children we offer free tuition.”

The program offers Bronx children a unique opportunity to receive high quality dance instruction from master teaching artists in the field.   This fall, Hip Hop master Kwikstep founder of Full Circle Productions and Jewel Love , the director of the Bambara Drum and Dance Ensemble (that regularly performs in BAM’s Dance Africa Festival), will be a part of the faculty. The fall program culminates on Wednesday, December 12 with the children publicly demonstrating the dance techniques they’ve learned.

Acclaimed Bronx Choreographer, Arthur Aviles , inaugurated the AATT Academy in 2006 and held classes and workshops in elementary schools and for incarcerated teenage girls.   The program was redesigned and developed as an in-house program in 2016 and was offered as a 5-week dance intensive during the summer and as an afterschool program in the fall and spring.  BAAD! has been a stakeholder in the Bronx for nearly 19 years, has become a beacon for dance and has earned national recognition for its innovative dance and arts programming. The AATT Academy received generous support from the SHS Foundation, Jody and John Arnhold and Councilmember Mark Gjonaj through the New York City Council Cultural Immigrants Initiative.

NYC EMS Plays Boston EMS at Castle Hill Baseball Field

  It was Brian Anderson of the NYC EMS singing the Star Spangeled Banner with the NYC EMS Color Guard and EMS Pipe and Drum Corp standing behind him at the Annual NYC EMS vs. Boston EMS softball game. The game started a little late as the Boston team was celebrating a game one win in Boston the night before. However the NYC EMS showed the New York Yankees how to win game 2 by getting to the Boston pitcher in the first inning. 

The teams lined up for the pregame ceremony.

Above - The pride of the Boston EMS.

Below - The pride of the NYC EMS.

Above - A special honor went to the the Arroyo family by the Boston EMS.

Below - The first pitch was thrown out by Jason Saffran of Station 24 based at Jacobi Hospital. Jason was in an accident where doctors said that his two legs probably would have to be amputated. As you see Jason can stand on his own two feet as he throws out the first pitch of the game.

Above - You see this NYC EMS player was a little late on this pitch as he swung and missed.

Below - Here is another NYC EMS player who is about to hit the ball.

  If you look to the upper left corner of the photo, you can see the ball traveling far into the outfield to give the NYC EMS a lead that would be a sample of what the New York Yankees would do to the Boston Red Sox later in the night at Fenway Park in Boston.

Mayor de Blasio Celebrates Kick Off of the 1st. Annual NY. Pizza Festival on Arthur Avenue

  Mayor Bill de Blasio came to Arthur Avenue to cut the ribbon for the first Annual NY Pizza Festival. Before he cut the ribbon the mayor showed us that he didn't need a knife and fork today, and that he could also speak while eating some delicious pizza. Pizza makers came from all over the country as dozens of booths were set up for ticket buyers to select which pizza they wanted to taste.

Above - Mayor de Blasio chomped down on pizza while he spoke of what this festival would mean to the Arthur Avenue area, and the Bronx. Hundreds of people jammed the two block area to taste some of the beat pizza in the country.

Below - One pizza maker came from Connecticut. 

Above - The Brooklyn Pizza Crew.

Below - The Bronx's own Zero Otto Nove.

Comptroller Stringer Statement Denouncing Confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh

  “We are in the midst of a defining moment for America, one that will shape how our children understand power and who wields it, who is believed and who is not. I want my two young boys to know that real power – the kind that matters – lies in recognizing each other’s full humanity. And we can’t do that without believing the brave survivors who come forward.

“This confirmation process exposed a profound lack of decency. Just this week the investigation into the allegations against Judge Kavanaugh was revealed to have been plainly partisan and incomplete. The president cruelly ridiculed Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, provoking laughter at her expense. Today’s vote to propel Judge Kavanaugh to our nation’s highest court – despite bipartisan concern about his judicial temperament and credibility – has been the final, searing insult.

“What must not get lost are the voices of the millions of people who spoke out in opposition, and we will not be silenced. We will only grow louder and stronger in our fight for equality, a woman’s right to choose, for families who come to this country for a better life, and for every person this administration tries to stifle. Our democracy depends on it.”

Engel on Senate Confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court

  “I’m deeply disappointed by the Senate’s vote today to confirm a man with so many red flags to our highest court. Brett Kavanaugh holds some dangerously conservative views, and the terrible damage he will do to women’s rights, workers’ rights, and civil rights as a Supreme Court Justice cannot be understated. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the problems surrounding his appointment. Judge Kavanaugh has also proven, beyond any doubt, that he is ill-tempered, highly partisan, and wholly unqualified to offer any objective judgements on the Supreme Court. This is to say nothing of the credible accusations levied against him by Dr. Ford and others, or the fact that it appears he repeatedly lied under oath to the Senate. Any one of these issues should have been more than enough to derail his confirmation. But the Senate GOP was undeterred, even in the face of overwhelming backlash from the American people.

“Senate Republicans have been right to call this process shameful. But the blame for that lies squarely with them, not the Democrats. By nominating an unfit candidate and ramming his nomination through—after having completely ignored the nomination of Merrick Garland by President Obama—the GOP has violated the spirit of the Constitution and directly undermined the institutions of both the Supreme Court and Senate. Their actions prove their allegiance belongs firmly to their ideology, not their country. Hopefully the voters remember that lesson in November.”

Former New York City Correction Officer Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Smuggle Contraband into Jail

Six Co-defendants Previously Pleaded Guilty for Their Participation in the Conspiracy

  Carl Noel, a former correction officer employed by the New York City Department of Correction (“DOC”), pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe Correction Officers at the Manhattan Detention Complex (“MDC”) in lower Manhattan.  The plea proceeding took place before United States District Judge Pamela K. Chen. 

Previously, co-defendants Christian Mizell, Warren Green, Patrick Johnson, Robert Martino, Malik Holloway and Asha Patterson pleaded guilty to the same charge for their roles in the conspiracy.  Noel was arrested on February 8, 2018, and he was dismissed from the DOC on February 21, 2018.  With Noel’s guilty plea today, all defendants charged in this conspiracy have entered guilty pleas.    

Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, James J. Hunt, Special Agent-in-Charge, Drug Enforcement Administration, New York Division (DEA), and Mark G. Peters, Commissioner, New York City Department of Investigation (DOI), announced the guilty pleas. 

As detailed in the indictment and other court filings, co-defendants Green and Johnson, both of whom were incarcerated at the MDC on charges unrelated to this conspiracy, arranged for marijuana and other contraband to be packaged and delivered covertly by co-defendants Martino, Holloway and Patterson to DOC Correction Officers Noel and Mizell.  In return, Noel and Mizell received thousands of dollars in bribes, among other benefits, from their co-defendants, to smuggle the narcotics past DOC security for eventual distribution inside the prison.

When sentenced, the defendants each face up to five years in prison, as well as fines of up to $250,000. 

The government’s case is being handled by Assistant United States Attorney Erik Paulsen of the Office’s Public Integrity Section and Nomi Berenson of the Office’s International Narcotics and Money Laundering Section.

The Defendants:

CARL NOEL
Age: 32
New York, New York

Christian MIzell
Age: 49
Queens, New York

WARREN GREEN
Age: 41
Pine City, New York

PATRICK JOHNSON
Age: 27
Bronx, New York

ROBERT MARTINO
Age: 37
Queens, New York

MALIK HOLLOWAY
Age: 23
Bronx, New York

ASHA PATTERSON
Age: 44
Queens, New York

EIGHT THERAPISTS ARRESTED IN SCHEME TO DEFRAUD PROGRAM FOR DEVELOPMENTALLY DISABLED CHILDREN

Defendants Allegedly Defrauded the New York State Early Intervention Program Out of More Than $600,000 Through Fraudulent Billing for Therapy Sessions that Never Occurred

  A criminal complaint was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging Kaderrah Doyle, Cara Steinberg, Marina Golfo, Ego Onaga, Lyubov Beylina, Danielle Scopinich, Patricia Hakim and Enock Mensah with stealing more than $600,000 in funds from Medicaid and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene through fraudulent billing practices in connection with the New York State Early Intervention Program (EIP). The EIP is a New York State program that provides remedial services to developmentally delayed children from birth to age three. The defendants, all EIP therapists, were arrested earlier today and are scheduled to make their initial appearance this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Sanket J. Bulsara.

  Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, William F. Sweeney, Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), and Mark G. Peters, Commissioner, New York City Department of Investigation (DOI), announced the charges.

  “As alleged in the complaint, the defendants defrauded government agencies out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in public funds designated for therapeutic care for developmentally disabled children.” stated United States Attorney Donoghue. “The victims of this fraud include not only the children and their families who were deprived of the therapeutic care that these defendants claimed to have performed, but ultimately the taxpayers whose taxes support Medicaid. This Office and our law enforcement partners are committed to ensuring that those who defraud benefit programs will be held accountable.” Mr. Donoghue also expressed his appreciation to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene for its assistance during the investigation.

 “As we allege today, these defendants stole hundreds of thousands of government dollars from a program designed to aid some of our city’s most vulnerable residents,” stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Sweeney. “Rather than provide honest services, they chose to line their own pockets at the expense of taxpayers and the developmentally-delayed children and their families for whom these funds were targeted. Today’s arrests should serve as a reminder that the FBI will continue to be vigilant in our effort to root out fraud and abuse in programs intended to serve the public when these programs are corrupted by greed.”

 “These eight therapists shamefully benefited by stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in public funds while developmentally disabled and delayed children in their care were denied thousands of crucial therapy sessions, according to the charges,” stated DOI Commissioner Peters. “DOI thanks the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York for its prosecution of these crimes.”

 According to the complaint, between approximately 2012 and 2018, the defendants submitted thousands of fraudulent session notes and accompanying invoices for nonexistent EIP therapy sessions. As a direct result of their fraudulent submissions, the defendants received hundreds of thousands of dollars in reimbursements from Medicaid and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. On many occasions, the defendants were not present at the place where the therapy sessions supposedly occurred, including instances in which they were outside of New York State or even outside of the United States. For example, Beylina allegedly submitted approximately 51 fraudulent invoices for EIP therapy sessions that purportedly occurred when she was in the Dominican Republic. On other occasions, the defendants submitted documentation containing the forged signatures of the children’s caretakers, including parents, guardians, teachers and daycare providers. In other instances, the defendants falsely claimed to have performed EIP therapy sessions for two different children at two different locations at the exact same time. Many of the defendants also falsely claimed to have performed EIP therapy sessions when they were, in fact, at work elsewhere, including as full-time teachers with the New York City Department of Education.

 The charges in the complaint are allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

 If convicted, the defendants face a statutory maximum of 10 years’ imprisonment.

The Defendants: 

KADERRAH DOYLE Age: 41 Bronx, New York 

CARA STEINBERG Age: 40 Old Bridge, New Jersey

MARINA GOLFO Age: 44 North Pelham, New York 

EGO ONAGA Age: 45 Staten Island, New York 

LYUBOV BEYLINA Age: 30 Brooklyn, New York 

DANIELLE SCOPINICH Age: 35 Ozone Park, New York 

PATRICIA HAKIM Age: 54 Forest Hills, New York

ENOCK MENSAH Age: 58 Mount Olive, New Jersey