Good Morning, Brooklyn: Wednesday, January 19, 2022

January 19, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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NEW ACADEMIC PROGRAMS OFFER SCHOLARSHIPS: Brooklyn College’s Murray Koppelman School of Business is working with Aon plc and The Spencer Educational Foundation to develop a series of cutting-edge risk management courses and programs at the undergraduate level to better prepare students for a career in risk management, insurance, finance, and other professions. Aon, a leading global professional services firm, will provide full-course tuition awards for up to 25 students enrolled in these courses with GPAs of 3.00 or higher.

As part of Brooklyn College’s and Aon’s commitment to diversity, at least 50 percent of the students receiving the tuition awards will come from traditionally underrepresented and diverse backgrounds.

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MTA SUBWAY LINES RESUME: Full weekday service has been restored on several subway lines that run through Brooklyn, the MTA announced on Tuesday. Service on the A, B, J, Z, 6-Diamond and 7-Diamond service, effective today, Wednesday, Jan. 19. The MTA had adjusted service by suspending the B (which runs through Kensington and Midwood down to Coney Island) and Z trains, as well as the rush-hour Rockaway Park branch of the A train, in order to keep subway service at all 472 subway stations during the COVID-19 Omicron variant surge in New York City.

The restoration of full service on these six lines comes as ridership on subways has increased. On Thursday, Jan. 13, subway ridership was approximately 2.52 million, the highest since the start of the Omicron surge just before Christmas.

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RALLY TO EXTEND MORATORIUM: Tenants were set on Tuesday to hold a rally and speakout at Brooklyn Eviction Court on Livingston Street, to demand the state end evictions immediately and extend the eviction ban through the end of June. The event was scheduled for the first court business day following the moratorium, which elapsed on Saturday, Jan. 15.

Tuesday morning, a group of tenants delivered to Governor Hochul and the state Legislature a petition with the signatures of more than 680 clergy members and people of faith, demanding the state act to keep people housed and to meet tenants’ demands, including the abolishment of winter evictions and evictions made without cause.

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UJA-FEDERATION SERVICE PROJECT: On Monday, Jan. 17, 2022, The UJA-Federation of New York held its annual region-wide MLK Day of Service on Monday, a legal holiday celebrating the birthdate of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. More than 2,000 New Yorkers volunteered in person and virtually at 35 separate service projects in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Westchester and Long Island, including packaging sites where they assembled meals, play-packs for Afghan refugee children, diapers and other baby essentials.

UJA-Federation service projects in other boroughs included assembling hygiene and self-care kits at Commonpoint Queens Sam Field Center in Little Neck, packaging food for seniors struggling with food insufficiency for Citymeals on Wheels, and packaging meals at The Riverdale Y for shipment to people in need through Rise Against Hunger.

UJA MLK Day – Brooklyn: Brooklyn volunteers pack diapers and other baby essentials with Repair the World for St. John’s Bread & Life at the Old First Reformed Church
Photo courtesy of UJA-Federation of New York

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‘LESSON PLAN’ BASED ON BAROQUE OPERA: Brooklyn native Laquita Mitchell co-stars in On Site Opera’s virtual production of Lesson Plan, which revisits the perils, hilarity, and teachable lessons of 2020 with a live and interactive digital production based on Georg Philip Telemann’s Der Schulmeister with additional music and new English libretto by Rachel J. Peters, Friday, January 21- Saturday, January 29. Tailored for the operatically-curious with audiences taking an active part in the performance, opera greats Stephanie Blythe and Laquita Mitchell and an off-camera furry friend with perfect pitch lead a less-than enthusiastic class of students through an opera workshop in the throes of remote learning. (Ticket information: https://osopera.org/productions/lesson-plan/)

Performed in English for a modern audience, this reimagined Baroque cantata brings an internationally-celebrated operatic contralto (Stephanie Blythe) into the world of Zoom-teaching while her headlining stage engagements are put on hold.

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HIGH SCHOOL PROGRAM IN ARCHITECTURE: Williamsburg High School for Architecture & Design is offering a series of open-house tours, both in person and remotely. (Registration link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdti5avotcQox41KDXcWrRmqipveMU1q3Ie2tFdC356fww4zg/viewform) The school offers, in addition to the mandated state curriculum in English and foreign language, history, and science, a unique, four-year architecture sequence aimed at providing students with specialized skills in the fields of architecture and engineering that will allow them to pursue careers in a continuously changing technological environment.

Students who successfully complete the CTE sequence of coursework and pass the AutoCad exam, will earn a CTE endorsement on their high school diploma and professional certification in Autodesk.

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TREE-PLANTING ON ARBOR DAY: The Prospect Park Alliance invites Brooklynites to Plant a Tree and Honor a Loved One. Friends and neighbors will join forces on Arbor Day, Friday, April 29, to plant community trees in the park.

The Alliance’s arborist chooses the species and location of the trees, and donors with their honorees are invited to participate in the planting.

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IN MEMORIAM: Ed Schoenfeld, a past Brooklyn Heights Press columnist whose career focused on introducing New Yorkers to the breadth of Chinese regional food with a series of top-rated Manhattan restaurants in the 1970s and ’80s, died on Friday, January 14 at age 72, reports New York Times obituary writer William Grimes. Attributing his success to a fascination in learning about flavors and impromptu conversations, Mr. Schoenfeld ran a number of restaurants, including Chinatown Brasserie on Lafayette St. in Lower Manhattan.

Mr. Schoenfeld, who grew up in Clinton Hill, attended the Woodward School and later Poly Prep, wrote a food and restaurant column headlined, “Gravy Stains,” for the Brooklyn Heights Press during the 1970s.

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IN MEMORIAM: News comes of the death last Tuesday, January 11, of Clarence Jr. 2X Hardy Shabazz. Known to the Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights vast community as “The Chief,” Chief Clarence Hardy Jr., 87, spent the latter part of his life serving as an activist for justice. He owned and operated multiple businesses throughout Brooklyn including: Balalian Sales, a bookstore, a framing and art store, a moving company and a pool hall just to name a few. He considered his greatest accomplishment the operation of The Slave Theater and Slave II, The Black Lady Theatre, which is on Nostrand Ave.

The Black Lady Theatre, a historic theater and art facility serving the greater New York City area, is dedicated to providing a safe-space for discussion and exploration while maintaining the legacy of its ancestors

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IPS NEWS: BREAKTHROUGH INFECTION: The Office of U.S. Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez (D-7^th District) reports that she has tested positive for a breakthrough infection of COVID-19. She continues to experience symptoms and is recovering at home.

Congressmember Velázquez had received three doses of the vaccine and “encourages all New Yorkers to do the same.”