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WHAT’S GOING ON

2018 MIDTERMS

OPINION: I no longer listen to the TV political pundits babbling from dusk to dawn about midterm outcomes after their miserable performance and forecasting in 2018. We all know more than is necessary about POTUS 45 and his base, whose numbers are about 30%. How will Americans vote on November 6 is anyone’s guess? These midterms are highly important if there is any hope of saving the Republic of the United States of America. Start by getting out to vote.   New Yorkers should have info about their polling sites.   It is important to monitor actions in other states as well.

 Voter purges are useful tools and weapons for GOP-dominated states which have sizeable populations of color. Since the US Supreme Court took the muscle out of the Voting Rights Act, the South is working assiduously to purge voters. Georgia and the gubernatorial race is a case in point. There has been a surge in voter registration in Georgia this year. Brian Kemp, the Georgia Secretary of State, is running for Governor opposite a Black woman, Stacey Abrams. He has invalidated lots of write-in votes, tilting the scales in his favor.  A number of civil rights groups are urging Kemp to vacate his office until after Election Day. The GOP must not be allowed to steal any more American elections from Black people.    Other tactics employed in the American South, vis-à-vis elections, is closing polling places in predominantly Black, Latino and Asian-American neighborhoods.  Abrams is “destiny’s child” and history-maker. When she wins next month, she becomes the first Black woman governor in America’s 50 states.   Send money to her campaign and help petition legal eagles to remove Kemp from his Secretary of State chores.

We must continue to financially support the gubernatorial candidacies of Ben Jealous in Maryland and Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum in Florida. November 6 will determine if the widespread American anger expresses itself at the polls….and that America is more blue/purple than it is red/autocracy.

Keith Wofford

NYC Public Advocate Letitia James seems destined to become New York’s first African-American and woman to be the state’s top lawyer. Her Republican opponent, Keith Wofford, 49, a Harvard Law School alum, pro-Trumpian, made $4+ million last year at Ropes and Gray, a law firm.   He is the first Black to get the GOP nomination for Attorney General.

 NEW YORK

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Check out the NY Congressional race in the 19th District where Democratic hopeful Antonio Delgado, Harvard Law School grad, is running against incumbent GOP John Faso. Faso has resorted to lifting words from Delgado’s pre-college raps, saying that content makes him ineligible to run. Late August polls showed a tight race.   A Delgado/Faso debate will air on October 23 on Spectrum TV.

The City University of New York established a new school, the School of Labor and Urban Studies, dedicated to public service and social justice. It will be the nation’s only college program committed to the interdisciplinary study of work and workers in the urban environment.   Learn more about the school, its Labor Studies and Urban Studies programs at an open house on November 15 at 6 pm at 25 West 43rd Street, Manhattan.   [Call 212.827.0200]

BLACK ENTERPRISE

The Harlem Entrepreneurial Fund (HEF) hosts a small business seminar, “SHOW ME THE MONEY: Access to Capital, Build Business Credit,” at 361 West 125th Street in Harlem on Tuesday, October 30 at 6-8 pm.   See if you   prequalify for a HEF Credit Builder $5000 loan.   Registration required. [Visit accessandcredit.eventbrite.com. or call 212.749.0900, Ext.122]

Read the Essence.com essay about Harlem-based mom/wife/entrepreneur Alyah Horsford-Sidberry titled “She Built a Thriving Lounge in the Center of Harlem’s Food Scene.”

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ARTS/CULTURE

Rev. William Barber

Congrats to the 25 MacArthur Foundation Genius Awards 2018 recipients, which includes five Blacks. They are William Barber, pastor and social justice advocate; playwright Dominique Morriseau; John Keene, writer and Chair of Rutgers University Department of African-American and African Studies; choreographer Okwui Okpokwasili; and fine arts painter Titu Kaphar. Each of the MacArthur Geniuses will receive a $625,000 cash prize.

The Apollo Theater presents, “SAY IT LOUD, I’M BLACK AND I’M PROUD at 50!”, a concert celebration of James Brown’s music and the Black pride it instilled and inspired among artists like the Temptations, Sly & the Family Stone and countless others since the summer of 1968. Concert is set for October 20 at 8 pm at the Apollo with Christian McBride as the musical director and Nona Hendryx as a special guest. [Visit Apollotheater.org]

PEOPLE       

Condoleezza Rice

BIRTHDAYS: Belated Libra Birthday greetings to Assemblyman Charles Barron, Fikisha Cumbo, Dr. Neil Tyson, Our Time Press Publisher David Greaves and NY1 Anchor Cheryl Wills………..Scorpio Birthday greetings to author/professor Herb Boyd, Rep. Yvette Clarke, Sean P. Diddy Combs, publisher Isseu Diouf, journalist Joy Elliott, Whoopi Goldberg, Vy Higginsen, Colin Kaepernick, Kim Weston Moran, Dr. Condoleezza Rice, Tracie Ellis Ross, Will Smith, Robin Bell Stevens, Michael Strahan and Gabrielle Union.

Silicon Harlem hosts its 5th Annual Next Generation Tech Conference, themed “RETHINK EVERYTHING,” on October 26 at the National Black Theatre, located at 2031-33 Fifth Avenue in Harlem from 8am to 5pm. Some of the conference agenda items include Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Blockchain and Virtual Experiences. Registration necessary. [Visit      Siliconharlem.net]

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A Harlem-based management consultant, Victoria can be reached at Victoria.horsford@gmail.com.

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