By Led Black
January 13 – January 18
The news broke this week that the venerable Mother Cabrini High School would be closing its doors after 115 years in the neighborhood. Hold on – not so fast – the Cabrini Movement has begun. Started within days of the news of the impending closure, current students, teachers, alumni and elected official have banded together to change the fate of the neighborhood institution. The Cabrini Movement has launched a grassroots and social media campaign to save the school. As this goes to print, their Facebook group page dedicated to the worthy cause already has over 3,000 members. Better yet, their Indiegogo campaign raised almost 25K in days. Please support the commendable endeavor and follow the progress of this story via the hashtag, #cabrinimovement.
In early December 2006, popular Power 105.1 radio DJ, Carl Blaze, was brutally shot multiple times and robbed in the vestibule of a building in Inwood. He succumbed to his injuries 2 days before Christmas on December 23rd, leaving behind 2 kids, a family and a neighborhood wondering who could have committed such a heinous act against such a beloved figure in the community. Our contributor, Carl L. Clemons, penned a strongly worded and poignant open letter to his killer who was finally apprehended in 2010.
The Wall Street Journal’s Richard Morgan wrote a great piece on the first installment of the Sunday Movies at the Palace with Lin-Manuel Miranda series at The United Palace featuring The Muppets Take Manhattan. Next up is the classic West Side Story on Sunday, February 23rd. Don’t be a “boy, boy, crazy boy” or girl for that matter and miss out. I sure hope you got that reference.
I recently came across a hilarious post online that tells the story of a Dominican man who moves from the island to Minnesota. This story so perfectly sums up how many Dominicans feel about the winter, the cold and the snow that I translated it to English for all the non-Spanish readers.
By the way, yours truly is a contributor to the inaugural issue of Hydrant, which is a publication celebrating Uptown NYC published by Fractious Press. Please join us at Word Up Books (2113 Amsterdam Ave @ 165th) on Thursday January 30th at 7 pm for a reading to commemorate the release of the periodical.
Keep checking us out at www.uptowncollective.com.
Led Black
Editor-in-Chief
The Uptown Collective
The UC’s mission is to become “the” definitive, transformative and community-based force impacting the arts, culture, business and New York City’s overall perception of Upper Manhattan. Its objective is to reset, reboot and positively redefine Uptown’s artistic, political, cultural and business spheres via the online space as well the collective’s initiatives and functions.
