About Summer Eldemire

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Tracy Morgan, Last O.G., Returns to Bed-Stuy to Show Off New Basketball Courts

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Tracy Morgan at Marcy Playground (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for TBS)

Bed Stuy has new hoops thanks to comedian Tracy Morgan, who returned to his childhood neighborhood yesterday to unveil new basketball courts at Marcy Playground.

The $215,000 park renovation was funded by TBS in conjunction with The Last O.G., in which Morgan’s character returns to the once hardscrabble streets of Brooklyn after 15 years in prison, only to find moms “alkalizing” their tots with seaweed and hipsters expounding on Michelin starred vs. Michelin rated. 

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Arts & Culture, news No Comments

Buy a Senator(‘s Portrait) Just Like the NRA Does!

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Susan Collins by Kim Do.

“The NRA knows how easy it is to buy a senator,” says Kim Sillen, “So we wanted to offer everyone the same opportunity.”

On Saturday, you’ll be able to do just that, as works from the Senator Portrait Project will be auctioned off at BestWorld Gallery, on the Lower East Side. Among the 50 portraits of representatives who’ve voted against gun control: Micheal Bennet Senator of Colorado who paradoxically supports both marijuana and guns and Senator John McCain anxiously clutching a pair of rifles.

“There are humans who voted to allow children and other Americans to die,” says Sillen. 

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Arts & Culture, City Hall, news No Comments

City Reliquary Unveils a Sculpture Garden That’s Pure Garbage

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(Courtesy of City Reliquary)

Many art shows can be classified as “trash” but a new sculpture garden takes it a step further. Part of the ongoing “NYC Trash!: Past, Present, & Future” exhibit at the The City Reliquary, the new garden features creations made from garbage by 10 local artists to show that trash “can and should be reused.” Global warming permitting, an opening reception will take place in the Williamsburg museum’s back garden on Saturday, April 7, at noon. 

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Arts & Culture, Business, news No Comments

Enter the Kosmodrome: Part Rave, Part Self-Help Seminar

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If your health insurance stopped covering your favorite therapist and your ex changed their Netflix password, consider the Kosmodrome, a one-night motivational and immersive theater event happening next month. It combines “elements of science fiction cinema, light, and sound for people who desire complete enhancement of their capabilities to unlock life’s full potential.” And it’s free.

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City Hall, news, Social Justice No Comments

Twins Who Grew Up in Queens Together May Be Split By Deportation

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(Photos by Ben Toren)

After living undocumented in New York City since they were two years old, Juan Esteban Barreto and his twin sister Daniela both applied for protection under the DACA act. Daniela was approved, but Juan was not so lucky. He was denied, his family believes, because he shoplifted from a bodega when he was 17. If Juan is deported, a bottle of soda will have sent the twins on completely different life trajectories.

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Arts & Culture, news No Comments

Protesters Decry ‘Racism Disguised as Art’ as Controversial Chinatown Show Closes

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(Photo: Summer Eldemire)

Most artists would be happy to have a closing party thrown for their show. Not Omer Fast. On Saturday, activist groups held a protest to celebrate the end of an exhibition they deemed “racism disguised as art.” Fast’s work was an insult to native Chinatown residents being pushed out by galleries, critics argued.

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Arts & Culture, news, Social Justice No Comments

Hear Syrian Activists Tackle the Problem of ‘Hell On Earth’

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When Radwan Ziadeh was living in his hometown of Daraya, southeast of Damascus, its population was 300,000. Now, he says, the population is zero. Ziadeh, a political opponent of the Bashar al-Assad government, came to the U.S. after his outspoken belief in democracy made it unsafe for him to remain in Syria.

But after 10 years, the U.S. may no longer be an option. In June his application for political asylum was revoked because of a conference he organized between Syrian opposition groups. The State Department saw the conference as offering “material support” to terrorist groups despite the American government providing aid to several of them. During his 10 years in the U.S., Ziadeh has been a fellow at Harvard, Georgetown and the congressionally funded U.S. Institute of Peace.

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City Hall, news, Social Justice 1 Comment

Why Venezuelan Immigrants Approve of Trump’s Latest Travel Ban

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A protester in Venezuela this year. (Photo: Efecto Eco)

New York’s Attorney General is demanding a temporary restraining order against the Trump administration’s third travel ban, it was announced today. But while A.G. Eric T. Schneiderman claims Trump’s new limitations on travel from North Korea and Venezuela are “a Muslim Ban by another name,” some in the Venezuelan community are just fine with it. Unlike the restrictions on seven other countries, the restrictions on Venezuela target select government officials rather than citizens in general. Some emigres see this as justice served.

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City Hall, news, Social Justice No Comments

East Village Puerto Ricans On Trump’s ‘Sickening’ Response to Hurricane Maria

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Joey Montalvo, a proud Puerto Rican New Yorker.

Hurricane Maria hit close to home for the many Puerto Ricans living in Alphabet City. Among the 34 who died when the storm hit Puerto Rico was Joey Montalvo’s uncle. The San Juan resident had a heart attack and medical assistance couldn’t reach him. “He can’t even have a decent funeral because all the cemeteries are flooded,” Montalvo told us during a recent visit to Don Juan’s Barbershop, on East 4th Street.

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