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Mount Vernon School District Faces Questions After Budget Rejection & Other School Districts Election Results

AJ Woodson
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Mount Vernon School District Faces Questions After Budget Rejection & Other School Districts Election Results

Westchester County, NY – On Tuesday, May 19, voters in 53 school districts in the Lower Hudson Valley braved near 100-degree heat to elect Board of Education members and request budget approvals for 2026–2027. Voting in school districts is different from other elections in several significant ways. For starters, polling places are frequently found in schools, and voting times may vary.

The big news of the Lower Hudson Valley School Board Election is that Mount Vernon voters said no to the $276.2 million Mount Vernon schools budget…

Mount Vernon City School District (MVCSD) Budget Vote and School Board Election Results:

The Mount Vernon community did not support the $276.2 million 2026-2027 school year budget and an increase of 1.99 percent in the tax levy, with an unofficial vote of 768-887. Since the budget was not approved, the District must put a revised or identical budget up for a revote. The statewide uniform budget revote day, if the board chooses to put it to another public vote, is typically the third Tuesday in June, which in this case would be Tuesday, June 16, 2026. If voters reject the budget a second time—or if the school board decides to skip a revote entirely—the district must adopt a contingency budget, according to the New York State School Board Association.

“Tonight, the Mount Vernon community did not support the $276.2 million 2026-2027 school year budget with an unofficial vote of 768-887,” Demario Strickland, Superintendent of Schools, said in a statement. “We will carefully consider our options and announce the next steps in the upcoming days. The proposed budget was developed with the goal of maintaining academic and extracurricular initiatives such as athletics, as well as hiring additional math teachers and making enhancements to bilingual education and world languages. We will continue our work towards improving the Mount Vernon City School District and providing a valuable education.”

Voters elected three members to the Board of Education. Dr. Carleen Evans (867 votes), Steven Vasquez (838 votes), and Dr. Lynne Middleton (825 votes) will begin three-year terms on July 1st

Voters also elected Jonathan Michael Davis, for one (1) available seat on the MVPL Board of Trustees to serve one (1) five (5) year term beginning on the first day of July 2026 and expiring on the thirtieth (30th) day of June 2031

Here are some of the other school districts’ unofficial results (keep checking back, we will update as results come in). Any Westchester School Districts that want to share their results to be added, email us at BlackWestchesterMag@gmail.com

New Rochelle City School District Voters Approve School Budget And Two Bond Propositions

With an official vote of 1860 to 750, New Rochelle voters adopted the City School District of New Rochelle budget for the 2026–2027 school year. The $370.4 million budget, which was approved with a 71% majority, contains a 1.85% rise in taxes.

Additionally, a $35 million bond proposal for district-wide safety and maintenance capital improvements was approved by the community with a 71% majority. HVAC upgrades, public address system modifications, and boiler replacements are among the projects.

Voters also elected Carmen Perez to a five-year term on the Board of Education, and Roshanie Ross was re-elected to a second five-year term.

Voters also approved the Library’s budget and $55 million bond referendum. The bond will support a comprehensive, multi-year revitalization of the Library, including critical infrastructure upgrades to heating, cooling, electrical, and plumbing systems, as well as improvements to public spaces throughout the building. The project is designed to ensure the Library remains welcoming, accessible, and responsive to the needs of a growing and evolving community.

White Plains Community Approves 2026-27 School Year Budget

The White Plains community approved the White Plains City School District’s $284,932,300 budget for the 2026-27 school year during Tuesday’s annual budget vote and Board of Education election. Voters approved the spending plan by a vote of 838-81, which will be certified during a public Board meeting at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. 

In the uncontested Board of Education election, Board President Rosemarie Eller and Valerie Daniele were elected to three-year terms beginning July 1, 2026. Both incumbents were listed as candidates for the two available seats.

Pelham Voters Pass $98.3 Million School Budget, Re-elect Annemarie Garcia and Sid Burke to Board of Ed

Pelham voters approved the school district’s $98.3 million budget and re-elected Annemarie Garcia and Sid Burke to the Pelham Union Free School District Board of Education, according to results counted at the Middle School gym Tuesday evening. 

The district’s $98.3 million budget represents an increase of 2.05 percent over last year’s budget, and an increase of 3.72 percent in the tax levy, the maximum allowed by the state’s tax cap. If the tax rate had exceeded the cap, it would have required approval from 60 percent of the voters. 

While the budget vote was lopsided, the contest for the two openings on the Board of Education was closer.

Garcia collected the most votes, with 708, followed by Burke at 674. Lisa Martino Alves, principal of Hendrick Hudson High School, came in third with 591, in her bid to unseat one of the two incumbents.

Peekskill Budget Vote and Board Election Results

Peekskill City School District’s official Budget Vote and Board Election results are as follows:

Proposition #1 – Budget:
Yes – 319 (88%)
No – 45 (12%)
Total voting on Proposition 1 – 364

Branwen MacDonald (ELECTED) – 317
Hilda Kinga Portik Gumbs (ELECTED) – 62

Somers Central School District Budget Vote & Board Election Results

Voters in the Somers Central School District went to the polls on Tuesday, May 19, to pass the 2026-2027 budget of $116,007,313 and fill a pair of trustee seats on the Board of Education.

The spending plan was approved by a vote of 937 to 410. It represents a 2.23 percent increase over the current spending plan of $113,477,113.

The elections were uncontested. Returned to the board with 881 votes was trustee Patrick Varbero. Elected with 1036 votes was newcomer Tessa O’Connell, according to unofficial results.

Voters Reject Eastchester Union Free School District 2026 School Budget, Elect School Board Members

The voters said no to the $116,858,433 budget that exceeded the state levy cap. Voters rejected the Eastchester Union Free School District’s proposed budget of $116,858,433 for the 2026-2027 school year. Because this plan exceeded the state’s tax levy cap with a proposed 6.31 percent levy increase, it would have required a supermajority of 60 percent of voters to pass. The budget was defeated 1385 to 1196.

Voters elected Robert Krukowski, Sean Fellin, and Jill Cosetino to the three seats available on the Eastchester Union Free School District Board of Education.

The three (3) members will serve three (3) year terms from July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2029

Katonah-Lewisboro School District Budget Passes, LES Proposition Defeated

Katonah-Lewisboro School District voters gave their approval to the district’s $131.8 million budget for 2026-27 and an associated spending question in the May 19 balloting. But a proposed bond to renovate the former Lewisboro Elementary School was defeated by just two dozen votes, 1,431 to 1,407.

Voters also returned incumbents Lorraine Gallagher and Bill Swertfager to three-year seats on the school board Tuesday and chose Stacy Isaacson to finish more than two years remaining in a departed trustee’s term.

Bedford CSD voters overwhelmingly approve 2026-27 budget

Bedford Central School District voters decisively approved the district’s $165.9 million budget by a preliminary tally of 754 in favor, 271 against, according to preliminary results released by district officials shortly after the polls closed on May 19th

Voters also elected incumbent Leo Sposato and newcomer Erin Hayes – the only two candidates in this year’s contest – to the two open seats on the school board. Hayes (764) was the top vote-getter of the two, with the incumbent receiving 746.

Elmsford 2026 School Board & Budget Election Results

The voters approved the $48,098,741 2026 Elmsford Union Free School District budget. The budget was passed 521 to 386.

“The approved $48,098,741 budget reflects the District’s ongoing commitment to its key priorities, including strengthening academic achievement and preparing our scholars for future success,” Elmsford Superintendent Susan Yom said. “We will also continue our efforts to foster safe and supportive learning environments for every child while remaining committed to recruiting and retaining exceptional staff who support that mission every day.”

John Hecht, with 430 votes, and Dr. Charlotte Phoenix, with 487 votes, earned seats on the Elmsford school board. Challenger Charlotte Phoenix defeated incumbent John Hecht in Tuesday’s board elections. Unofficial results show that Dr. Phoenix won by roughly 6% of the vote in a race that took place amid escalating tensions within the district.

Janice Griffin, President of the NAACP White Plains/Greenburgh branch, says many in the community wanted greater engagement from district leadership. “The present school board has repeatedly ignored the community… they declined to meet with us, the NAACP,” Griffin said.

The Elmsford School District, officially known as the Elmsford Union Free School District, is a public school district that serves approximately 980 students in Elmsford.

North Salem Central School District budget passes

Voters in the North Salem Central School District went to the polls on Tuesday, May 19, to pass the 2026-2027 budget of $53,839,468 and fill a pair of trustee seats on the Board of Education.

The spending plan was approved by a vote of 311 to 145. It represents an increase of $1,461,504, or 2.79 percent, over the current $52,377,964 budget.

The elections were uncontested. Re-elected after receiving 357 votes was the board’s current vice president, Kurt Guldan. Newcomer L. Danielle Cylich was elected with 341 votes.        

Lakeland voters approve budget, bus proposition

Residents cast their ballots Tuesday in the Lakeland Central School District (which spans six different towns across two counties, Yorktown, Cortlandt, and Somers in Westchester County, and Carmel, Philipstown, and Putnam Valley in Putnam County), approving the $202,072,582 budget for the 2026-27 school year and electing Keith Baisley, Amanda Franco, and James Hedberg to the Board of Education. The budget passed 1,029-604, according to preliminary results released after the initial tally on May 19.

Mamaroneck 2026 School Board & Budget Election Results

The 2026-27 Mamaroneck Union Free School District budget was approved by voters with 850 YES votes
and 164 NO votes. The $176,560,406 budget includes a tax levy increase of 3.07 percent, which is within the allowable tax cap. Voters also approved a proposition authorizing the use of up to $9 million from the district’s Capital Reserve Fund for infrastructure improvements.

“This budget reflects thoughtful planning, responsible stewardship, and a continued commitment to meeting the needs of every student,” MUFSD Board of Education President Ariana Cohen said, expressing her gratitude to the community for participating in the budget process and for taking the time to vote. “We are grateful for the community’s support of a spending plan that builds on our progress and continues to invest in teaching, learning, and student success.”

Michele Metsch and David Carlos were elected to the school board. Metsch and Carlos will serve on
the MUFSD Board of Education for a three-year term.

Port Chester 2026 School Board & Budget Election Results

The Port Chester Schools 2026-2027 budget was approved by a vote of 853 to 312. The $161,311,010 proposed budget for the 2026-2027 school. includes a 2.01 percent tax levy increase and a 4.4 percent overall spending increase over the previous year.

George P. Ford, Jr. (incumbent) and Roberto Dominquez (incumbent) have been re-elected to the Board of Education.

Yorktown School budget passes

Residents cast their ballots Tuesday in the Yorktown Central School District, approving the $126,640,000 million budget for the 2026-27 school year. The budget passed 821-251. The tax levy increase is 2.38 percent. The estimated tax rate increase in Yorktown, which makes up more than 96 percent of the tax base, is 2.11 percent. New Castle and Cortlandt, each representing less than 2 percent of the tax base, are projected to see decreases of 6.90 percent and 9.98 percent, respectively.

Voters also elected Jacquelyn Guarino, Michael Magnani, and Adam MacDonald to the Board of Education. Incumbent Guarino, who was first appointed to the Board of Education in November 2025 to fill the vacancy left by Jackie Carbone’s resignation, was the top vote-getter with 855 votes. She will serve a three-year term from July 1 through June 30, 2029.

Incumbent Magnani received 821 votes, while newcomer MacDonald earned 734 votes. Magnani, the second-highest vote-getter, will serve a three-year term from July 1 through June 30, 2029. MacDonald, the third-highest vote-getter, will serve from May 20 through June 30, 2027.

NOTE: All results remain unofficial until the Board of Education formally accepts the results. Official results will be announced when all votes are verified.

Keep checking back, we will update as results come in. Any Westchester School Districts that want to share their results to be added, email us at BlackWestchesterMag@gmail.com

Why Mindfulness Feels Different for Black Men

Derek H. Suite, M.D.
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Why Mindfulness Feels Different for Black Men

Before mindfulness can work, the nervous system has to feel safe.

A few years ago, I was sitting in an interdisciplinary meeting at a hospital when one of the senior attendings, a Black physician with years of clinical experience, asked a reasonable question about a treatment protocol. His question reflected the kind of care that comes from having been around long enough to know where systems tend to break down. The response from colleagues came back sharper than it needed to, and it wasn’t openly disrespectful, which is what makes moments like these difficult to explain sometimes. If you replayed the meeting later, some people probably wouldn’t notice anything at all. Sitting in the room, though, you could feel the shift immediately. There was less patience, no curiosity, and a sense that the question was unnecessary.

A few minutes later, another physician asked essentially the same question, and the tone in the room became more accepting and softened completely. The attending didn’t react outwardly. He nodded, leaned back slightly, and kept listening. Then a small thing happened that most people in the room missed. His right hand, resting next to his coffee cup, closed slowly into a loose fist and stayed there for the rest of the meeting. He took the rest of the conversation in through that fist.

Over the years, I’ve learned to pay attention to what happens physically when somebody absorbs a moment they don’t feel safe responding to honestly. The jaw tightens, breathing gets shallower, and a person grows quieter while still appearing composed. It’s a kind of sustained, low-level vigilance that never really lets go.

I’ve watched men walk into mindfulness sessions still carrying this posture, the careful, deliberate way you learn to hold yourself during a traffic stop, where hand placement and stillness are not abstractions. You can see it in the way their shoulders sit, how they place their hands where nobody can misunderstand them, the careful stillness they hold themselves in. The quality of that stillness has less to do with calm and more to do with staying careful. After a while, you recognize how much vigilance can resemble composure.

A lot of Black men become so accustomed to making these small adjustments throughout the day that the tension underneath them starts feeling normal. Monitoring tone becomes automatic. Some men rehearse how something will sound before they say it. Others learn to flatten visible frustration because confidence itself can be misread depending on the room. Many prepare carefully before entering spaces where they aren’t fully sure how their competence will be received.

The body adapts to that kind of vigilance even when the mind starts calling it professionalism.

By the time many men arrive in a mindfulness room, they aren’t arriving unfamiliar with awareness. Most have spent years tracking shifts in tone, posture, expression, interruption, and risk with extraordinary precision, and what often goes unrecognized is that this vigilance already reflects a form of sustained attention, even if it developed for protection rather than restoration.

That distinction matters clinically because mindfulness is often introduced as though the primary problem is distraction or disconnection. For many Black men, the issue is rarely a lack of attention but the burden of carrying too much of it for too long.

Research on social pain, including work led by Naomi Eisenberger at UCLA, has shown that the brain doesn’t separate dismissal from injury as cleanly as we once assumed. Most people imagine stress as one major event with a clear name attached to it: a confrontation, a loss, something traumatic. A nervous system can also wear down quietly through repeated moments of vigilance, restraint, anticipation, and self-monitoring that accumulate over years. Arline Geronimus has described this specifically in Black populations through what she calls weathering: the way chronic exposure to social stress shows up biologically as accelerated aging across the life course. The wear is real and measurable.

I see it in the office regularly. A patient sits down, agrees the chair is comfortable, and his shoulders stay near his ears for the first ten minutes anyway. He’s not anxious in the clinical sense. He’s just somebody whose body learned a long time ago that settling all the way down isn’t always available.

Outside the office, the same men relax in moments that barely register to anybody else. A barbershop chair. Sitting in the car for a few extra minutes before walking into the house after work. Some men I know call this the driveway pause, a small ritual of decompression between roles. The quiet after church lets out and nobody needs anything from them for a moment. Sometimes you realize a man has been carrying tension all day because you finally watch his shoulders come down.

Individually, these moments can seem small, but repeated over years, they teach the body to stay prepared even in places where a person wants to relax. Some men become extraordinarily skilled at functioning while carrying enormous amounts of tension underneath their performance.

Over time, the body adapts to that vigilance. Sleep becomes lighter, and breathing stays shallow longer, stress hormones remain elevated, blood vessels constrict more often, and blood pressure rises. The body becomes less efficient at recovery. Researchers refer to some of this accumulated wear and tear as allostatic load: a term developed by Bruce McEwen to describe what happens when the body stays prepared for stress longer than it was designed to.

What mindfulness can offer in this context isn’t denial so much as a brief interruption. A short lowering of the body’s guard before exhaustion becomes identity.

For many Black men, mindfulness isn’t about pretending the storm is gone but learning how to breathe inside it without allowing constant vigilance to consume the body carrying it. Becoming unaware isn’t the point, since awareness is often what helped them navigate difficult environments in the first place. The work is learning when the nervous system can safely ease its grip, even temporarily, so the body isn’t forced to carry every moment at full activation.

I know many men who keep going long after their bodies have started asking for relief. Myself included. Mindfulness, at least clinically, isn’t about removing somebody from the realities they face. Sometimes it’s simply the few minutes where the nervous system is allowed to stop gripping everything so tightly before returning to it again.

Something else worth saying out loud is that Black men have been practicing forms of this regulation for a long time without always calling it mindfulness. The hush that settles after a praise song in church. The third stanza of a hymn when a man finally lets his eyes close. A slow exhale in a barbershop chair where, for forty-five minutes, nobody is going to misread him. The father who sits quietly in his parked car after work before going inside, allowing himself a few still minutes between responsibilities. These are forms of regulation, too.

And the clinical literature did not invent stillness for us. Howard Thurman was writing about contemplative stillness as survival for the disinherited long before mindfulness-based stress reduction entered hospital protocols, and hush harbors during slavery were, among other things, rooms where breath itself had to be regulated quietly enough not to be heard. The tradition is older than the terminology.

What helps, in my experience, is mindfulness, therapy, and breathing exercises. I’ve watched all of them change people profoundly. What wellness culture sometimes misses is that people don’t enter these spaces with identical relationships to safety. You can’t ask a nervous system to settle while it still believes vigilance is necessary.

Some environments signal safety quickly. Others communicate evaluation just as quickly. Shoulders often register it before the mind does.

In my own work, athletes and executives have engaged deeply with mindfulness once trust was established, and others have become emotionally open once they no longer felt subtly judged, managed, or misread the moment they entered the room. What sometimes gets read as resistance in these rooms tends, in my experience, to be self-protection wearing a different name.

There is another layer that mindfulness spaces don’t always recognize. Many Black men enter these rooms already accustomed to being evaluated constantly, including emotionally, so even the language of “nonjudgment” can become complicated when somebody has spent years being judged in subtle ways before they have spoken at all. Some men quietly worry they are failing mindfulness if they cannot relax easily, cannot empty their thoughts, cannot settle their bodies on command, especially in front of people they don’t know or in unfamiliar settings. For somebody used to being evaluated constantly, even stillness can start to feel performative, and instead of feeling restored, they begin monitoring whether they are performing calm correctly.

Before the body settles, it looks for signs that it can safely unclench. Am I safe enough here?

Dignity in practice often looks ordinary: patience, eye contact, and being listened to without interruption. Not having your competence treated as surprising, or feeling pressure to constantly calculate how you are being perceived while trying to focus on the actual conversation in front of you. These moments seem small until you spend years watching what happens to the body when they are consistently absent.

The form this vigilance takes varies across upbringing, profession, temperament, and experience, but the underlying vigilance itself is something I have encountered repeatedly. Many of the men I know developed extraordinary observational discipline because they had to, and the cost comes when vigilance stays switched on long after the moment requiring it has passed.

As a performance psychiatrist, I have become less interested in telling people to relax and more interested in understanding what allows a nervous system to finally stop bracing itself. Stillness is not relaxing for everybody. For some men, stillness is the first place the body finally lets them feel how tired they have been all along, and that is usually where the real work starts.

I think sometimes about the attending doctor in that meeting. I don’t know whether his hand ever uncurled that afternoon, or whether he carried that fist out of the room with him and into the parking lot, into his car, into whatever quiet he could find before walking through his own front door. What I do know is that for a lot of men I have sat with over the years, the unclenching tends to happen somewhere nobody is watching. Once in a while, if the work is going well, it happens in the room we are sitting in together.

Derek H. Suite, M.D., is a board-certified psychiatrist, founder of Full Circle Confidential, and host of The SuiteSpot podcast. His clinical work integrates mindfulness, sleep medicine, and performance psychiatry. He is a regular guest contributor to Black Westchester Magazine and the author of the forthcoming Sleep as Performance Medicine.

MV NAACP Host MVPL Trustee Candidate Forum

AJ Woodson
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MV NAACP Host MVPL Trustee Candidate Forum

The NAACP Mount Vernon Branch, in partnership with the Mount Zion Christian Baptist Church, hosted a Mount Vernon Public Library (MVPL) Trustee Candidate Forum on Monday, May 11, 2026, at Mount Zion Christian Baptist Church, located at 411 South 8th Avenue in Mount Vernon

There are three (3) candidates: Jonathan Michael Davis, Hope Marable, and Dr Faith Walters running for one (1) seat on the MVPL Board of Trustees to serve one (1) five (5) year term beginning on the first day of July 2026 and expiring on the thirtieth (30th) day of June 2031

The election for School Board and Library Trustees and budgets is Tuesday, May 19, 2026, 7 am to 9 pm

Where do you vote? ED#1 – Lincoln School 170 East Lincoln Ave, ED#5 – Hamilton School 20 Oak St, ED#6 – Traphagen School 72 Lexington Ave, ED#7 – Edward Williams School 9 Union Lane, ED#9 – Graham School 421 East 5th St, ED#11 – Pennington School 20 Fairway, ED#14 – Rebecca Turner Academy 625 4th Ave, ED#22 – Grimes School 58 South 10th Avenue

The Mount Vernon N.A.A.C.P. Branch meets on the 3rd Thursday of every month at 7:00 pm at Macedonia Baptist Church, located at 141 South 9th Avenue, Mount Vernon, NY 10550. For more information, contact us at (914) 297-7228 or via email at naacpmountvernon@gmail.com

Ossining Leaders Push National Caregiver Support Through Dream’s Act

AJ Woodson
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Ossining Leaders Push National Caregiver Support Through Dream’s Act

A Mother’s Fight Inspires National Caregiver Health & Wellness Act

OSSINING, NY — A powerful new chapter in caregiver advocacy was unveiled Thursday, May 7th, as community leaders, healthcare advocates, and elected officials gathered at the Ossining Community Garden of Dreams Legacy Center, located at  50 Spring Valley Road in Ossining, New York, to announce the introduction of Dream’s Caregiver Health and Wellness Act. The legislation, introduced by Mike Lawler on March 12, 2026, seeks to establish a federal grant program within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to support nonprofit organizations that provide critical wellness services to caregivers nationwide.

The proposed “Dream Grants” would provide resources, including meals, transportation assistance, mental health support, holistic wellness services, and other essential programs designed specifically for caregivers — many of whom often sacrifice their own health and financial stability while caring for loved ones. The legislation was inspired by the life and legacy of Dream Ioni Shepherd and the extraordinary caregiving journey of her mother, Diana E. Lemon, Co-Founder and CEO of the Ossining Community Garden of Dreams Legacy Center.

Born with life-threatening sickle cell disease, Dream endured years of medical treatments, including suffering a stroke at just five years old. In an effort to save her daughter’s life, Diana donated stem cells for a transplant. After months in the hospital, Dream returned home requiring between 12 and 14 hours of daily IV care — care insurance providers initially refused to support with trained professionals.

Faced with overwhelming circumstances, Diana E. Lemon transformed personal pain into advocacy, helping lead efforts that resulted in the passage of Dream’s Law in New York State, legislation that ensures patients with complex medical needs receive appropriate professional care upon hospital discharge. Dream’s Caregiver Health and Wellness Act now seeks to expand that mission nationally by recognizing caregivers as essential partners within the healthcare system and investing directly in their well-being.

Congressman Mike Lawler speaking at a press conference held
to announce Dream’s caregiver health and wellness act at the Ossining Community Garden of Dreams Legacy Center (OCGDLC) [Black Westchester]

“Caregivers play a critical role in supporting seniors, individuals with disabilities, and those living with chronic illnesses,” Congressman Lawler stated during the event. “Yet many face high levels of stress, burnout, and limited support resources. Supporting caregivers helps build a stronger, more compassionate care system for the families and communities that depend on them.”

The press conference also marked the release of the Dream’s Garden White Paper, which introduces a Land-Based Recovery Model rooted in healing justice and lived experience. Diana E. Lemon spoke emotionally about the deeply personal meaning behind the legislation, noting how years spent caring for her daughter completely reshaped her life. “Like so many caregivers, I gave everything I had, often without the support systems needed to sustain that level of love and responsibility,” Lemon shared.

Lauren Green, Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Ossining Community Garden of Dreams Legacy Center, emphasized that caregivers themselves deserve healing, restoration, and community support. Additional support for the legislation came from healthcare leaders, including Rhonda Ryan, LCSW, Director of Family Support Programs at Friends of Karen, who highlighted the emotional and psychological toll caregiving places on families without adequate support systems.

Dream’s Caregiver Health and Wellness Act represents more than proposed legislation — it represents a growing national conversation about recognizing caregivers not simply as silent supporters, but as essential pillars within families, healthcare systems, and communities. And for many gathered in Ossining Thursday afternoon, Dream’s legacy continues to inspire a movement rooted in compassion, dignity, healing, and systemic change.

City Council Budget Public Hearings Notice

AJ Woodson
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City Council Budget Public Hearings Notice

LEGAL NOTICE

CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF YONKERS

PUBLIC HEARINGS

2026/2027 PROPOSED BUDGET

I, Lakisha Collins-Bellamy, City Council President of the City of Yonkers, do hereby call a public hearing on the proposed 2026/2027 City of Yonkers Operating Budget and Capital Budget as follows:

Tuesday, May 19, 2026, City Council Chambers, City Hall– 4th Floor, 40 South Broadway, Yonkers, NY, 6:00 p.m. Thursday, May 28, 2026, Auditorium, Saunders High School, 183 Palmer Road, Yonkers, NY 10701 7:00 p.m. 

Anyone wishing to speak may sign up on the day of the hearing at the hearing site. Each speaker shall be permitted three minutes, and speakers shall be called in the order in which they have signed up.

Brand Nubian To Be Inducted in The National Hip-Hop Museum

AJ Woodson
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Brand Nubian To Be Inducted in The National Hip-Hop Museum

Hip-Hop Culture Salutes Brand Nubian With National Hip-Hop Museum Induction

Legendary Hip Hop group Brand Nubian (Grand Puba, Sadat X, and Lord Jamar) have been named as inductees into the National Hip Hop Museum (NHHM) Class of 2026. The induction ceremony and concert will take place on Saturday, June 20, 2026, at The Parks at Walter Reed in Washington, D.C., as part of the 2026 Home Rule Music Festival.

“Home Rule Music Festival is more than just a stage—it’s a space where our history, creativity, and community come together to create something lasting. Every year, we honor the legacy of Black music while building a future that’s rooted in culture and powered by people,” said Founder, Charvis Campbell.

Brand Nubian live at New Rochelle’s Lincoln Park for the 50th Anniversary of Hip-Hop Celebration on Saturday, September 16, 2023 [Black Westchester]

The Now Rule (New Rochelle, NY) rhymeslayers are recognized for their socially conscious and politically charged content, with the release of their inaugural long-player, One for All, on December 4, 1990, by Elektra Records, being considered a Hip-Hop classic. The induction is part of the NHHM’s mission to preserve Hip Hop History and Culture.

Few groups embodied the balance between consciousness, street credibility, lyricism, and cultural pride quite like Brand Nubian. Emerging at the dawn of the 1990s, the trio of Grand Puba, Sadat X, and Lord Jamar helped redefine what intelligent Hip-Hop could sound like during one of the genre’s most important creative eras. At a time when Hip-Hop was expanding commercially, Brand Nubian brought messages centered around Black empowerment, self-knowledge, cultural awareness, spirituality, and social responsibility without sacrificing beats that knocked in the streets or lyrical skill that earned respect from hardcore Hip-Hop fans.

Their 1990 debut album, One for All, is widely regarded as one of the most important conscious rap albums ever released. Songs like “Wake Up,” “Slow Down,” and “All for One” challenged listeners to think critically about issues affecting Black communities while promoting positivity and self-awareness. The group’s heavy incorporation of Five-Percent Nation teachings introduced many listeners to ideas surrounding knowledge of self, empowerment, and discipline, influencing an entire generation of emcees who would later follow a similar path in their music.

Musically, Brand Nubian helped shape the sound of East Coast Hip-Hop in the early 1990s. Their fusion of jazz-infused production, heavy drum loops, socially conscious content, and battle-ready lyricism became a blueprint that many artists adopted throughout the decade. Their style helped pave the way for groups and artists who blended intelligence with street authenticity, including Wu-Tang Clan, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Dead Prez, and many others who carried socially conscious Hip-Hop into future generations.

Grand Puba’s smooth, charismatic delivery and fashion-forward swagger also had a major impact on Hip-Hop culture. Long before lifestyle branding became standard, Puba’s influence could be seen in everything from urban fashion trends to the way artists blended intelligence with cool confidence. Meanwhile, Sadat X earned respect as one of Hip-Hop’s most distinctive voices and underrated lyricists, while Lord Jamar became one of the culture’s outspoken defenders of traditional Hip-Hop values and authenticity.

Brand Nubian’s influence extends beyond music. They represented an era when Hip-Hop served as both entertainment and education — when records could make people dance while simultaneously teaching history, self-worth, and political awareness. Their work helped reinforce the idea that rap music could be socially responsible without losing its edge. Decades later, their messages still resonate because many of the issues they addressed — inequality, identity, community empowerment, and cultural pride — remain relevant today.

In many ways, Brand Nubian helped prove that conscious Hip-Hop could still be hard, stylish, respected, and commercially viable. Their legacy lives on not only through their classic records but through every artist who uses Hip-Hop as a platform to inform, uplift, and challenge the culture to think deeper.

The group’s induction into the National Hip Hop Museum represents more than just recognition for hit records — it acknowledges their lasting cultural impact and contribution to preserving conscious Hip-Hop within the culture’s history. For many Hip-Hop fans, this honor is long overdue. As Hip-Hop continues celebrating over five decades of influence around the globe, Brand Nubian’s legacy remains embedded in the foundation of artists who used music not only to entertain, but to educate, uplift, and empower their communities.

From conscious lyrics and Five-Percent teachings to timeless classics that helped shape the Golden Era of Hip-Hop, Brand Nubian’s influence on the culture remains undeniable. Salute to one of Hip-Hop’s most respected groups & Black Westchester Legendary Lyricists finally receiving their flowers on a national stage.


Legal Notice: Public Hearing Notice – Street Renaming EARL DMX SIMMONS WAY

AJ Woodson
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Legal Notice: Public Hearing Notice – Street Renaming EARL DMX SIMMONS WAY

CORPORATION NOTICE
CITY OF YONKERS-NEW YORK

PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE

Notice is hereby given, pursuant to law, that the City Council of the City of Yonkers, New York, will hold a Public Hearing on Wednesday, May 27, at 6:30 PM in the City Council Chambers, 40 South Broadway, Yonkers, New York, on the following resolution, to wit:

PROPOSED RESOLUTION

A RESOLUTION OF THE YONKERS CITY COUNCIL TO HONOR THE FAMILY AND COMMUNITY’S REQUEST TO HONORARILY RENAME THE CORNER OF SCHOOL STREET AND BROOKE STREET “EARL ‘DMX’ SIMMONS WAY”. Anyone wishing to speak may sign up on the night of the hearing at the hearing site.

Each speaker shall be permitted three minutes, and speakers shall be called in the order in which they have signed up. Said hearing may be adjourned from time to time as necessary. Further information may be obtained at the City Clerk’s office, City Hall, 40 South Broadway, Yonkers, New York, and on the City’s Website.

More Than Hats and Heels: Gamma Xi Zeta’s Scholarship Luncheon Was a Reminder That Black Women Are the Infrastructure

Larnez Kinsey
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More Than Hats and Heels: Gamma Xi Zeta’s Scholarship Luncheon Was a Reminder That Black Women Are the Infrastructure

On Saturday afternoon, April 25, 2026, the VIP Country Club in New Rochelle became the kind of space Black folks know how to create almost instinctively: elegant without being stiff, joyful without being shallow, and deeply rooted in purpose even while people were serving looks.

And let’s be clear immediately: the hats were HATTING.

Fascinators leaned dramatically at mathematically impossible angles. Fedoras carried the kind of confidence usually reserved for aunties who don’t ask for permission to lead family meetings. Royal blue flowed through the room like a visual reminder that Black Greek excellence has never needed validation from outside the culture to understand its own value.

But underneath all the style and yes, there was style, was something much more important.

Work.

Real work.

Generational work.

Community work.

The kind of work Black women have been doing forever while simultaneously being expected to smile through exhaustion and still organize the program booklet.

The Gamma Xi Zeta Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated hosted its annual Finer Fedoras & Fascinators Scholarship Luncheon under the theme “Voices of Change Leading the Way,” and honestly, the title fit because everybody being honored represented a very specific type of leadership that doesn’t always get celebrated enough: the people who keep showing up.

Karen Girven.

Katrina Harris.

Monique Porter.

Teresa Clarke.

The New Rochelle–White Plains Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Incorporated.

Not people who suddenly discovered “community” after it became good branding.

Not people who appear only when cameras arrive.

People whose names have been attached to actual labor for years.

And that distinction matters.

Because one thing Black communities can identify immediately is the difference between performance and commitment.

Inside the room, applause didn’t feel polite. It felt personal. People weren’t clapping because somebody read an impressive bio aloud. They were clapping because they knew the stories behind the accomplishments. They knew who had mentored students quietly for years. Who answered late-night phone calls. Who advocated in rooms where Black communities are often expected to simply accept crumbs and call it progress.

That kind of recognition hits differently because everybody understands what it costs.

And honestly, that’s what made the afternoon feel bigger than a luncheon.

It felt like witnessing Black women refuse invisibility in real time.

Founded in May 1948 in Tuckahoe, Gamma Xi Zeta became the first African American sorority chartered in Westchester County and that’s not just a cute historical fact people should nod at politely before moving on to dessert.

That is legacy-building under pressure.

Black women creating institutions in the 1940s wasn’t simply social organizing. It was resistance. It was strategic survival. It was women deciding they would not wait for systems to recognize their humanity before creating opportunities for themselves and their communities.

And Gamma Xi Zeta has clearly understood the assignment ever since.

Throughout the afternoon, conversations reflected pride in the chapter’s remarkable history, from Soror Bessie Emanuel Smith becoming the first woman of color inducted into the Westchester County Women’s Hall of Fame to the chapter becoming the only Greek-letter organization to meet directly with the Westchester County Executive to discuss community concerns and solutions.

Translation? They weren’t just attending events.

They were pushing agendas.

There’s a difference.

But perhaps the strongest thread running through the entire luncheon was the focus on young people.

Again and again, scholarship funding, mentorship, leadership development, and educational access became the center of the conversation. And that matters because education in Black communities has never simply been about diplomas.

It’s about mobility.

Relief.

Possibility.

Protection.

For decades, Gamma Xi Zeta has awarded scholarships to students throughout Westchester County, helping families navigate systems that often make higher education feel financially impossible.

That mission continues through ZEAL,  the Zeta Educational and Academic Leadership Foundation, which directly benefits from the luncheon’s proceeds.

And while people absolutely enjoyed themselves,  posing for pictures, complimenting hats, laughing across tables, and dancing to live entertainment from Tri-State Jericko, there was also a deeper understanding floating through the room: gatherings like this are necessary because the needs are still real.

Maternal health disparities are still real.

Educational inequities are still real.

Youth support is still real.

Community instability is still real.

Which is why organizations like Gamma Xi Zeta continue partnering with places like Abbott House, the NAACP, March of Dimes, Theodore Young Community Center, Greenburgh Health Center, and the YWCA of White Plains.

Because contrary to popular American mythology, communities do not sustain themselves accidentally.

People sustain them.

Usually Black women.

Usually while tired.

And maybe that’s why the afternoon lingered long after the music slowed down.

Because beyond the fascinators and photographs was a reminder that Black women have always been the infrastructure, building scholarships, building leadership pipelines, building support systems, building institutions, and building futures while much of the world simply called it “volunteer work.”

The hats were beautiful.

But the real statement piece was the legacy sitting underneath them.

Saving Justice: From Reparations to Racial Equity, the Movement Grows by Dr. James Fairbanks

Black Westchester
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Saving Justice: From Reparations to Racial Equity, the Movement Grows by Dr. James Fairbanks

The Resistance Continues: From Harlem to the United Nations: The Expanding Fight for Justice


The Good News is that the Resistance of the No Kings movement, the No More War movements, the
The affordability movement and other Justice movements are growing by leaps and bounds!

The most important are two monumental and historic actions that the Black Press has reported on
extensively, such as the Amsterdam News, but the White press has largely ignored it.

1) The United Nations Reparations Resolution of March 25 of this year.
2) Two new NYC laws of the Office of Racial Equity and The True Cost of Living Reports.

The United Nations Resolution on Reparations

In March of this year, the United Nations adopted an historic reparations resolution presented by Ghana’s president, John Mahama, which stated, “The trafficking of enslaved Africans (12 to 15 million to the Americas) and the racialized chattel enslavement of Africans is the greatest crime against humanity.” The Resolution passed by a vote of 123 to 3. The African Union of 55 nations, the Caribbean Community
of CARICOM nations, the Community of Latin American and American States, and Brazil all voted in favor. The United States, Israel, and Argentina voted no. 55 mainly White European nations abstained.

The African Union (55 nations) announced that it would recognize 2026-36 as the Decade of Reparations. The CARICOM nations announced an agenda that includes direct financial compensation,
debt forgiveness and policy changes.

2) Two NYC laws of 2022 require Annual Reports by the Office of Racial Equity & The True Cost of Living

As to the Office of Racial Equity law, each of the 42 NYC City agencies is required to submit an Annual
Report of the policies, procedures, and practices of racial inequity in their agencies. The Mayor must
release the Annual Report of all of these agencies. Mayor Adams broke the law by refusing to release
the annual Reports on Racial Equity and The True Cost of Living. Mayor Mamdani released the Reports.
Hearings will be held. The Mayor and the City Council can then enact legislation to end racial inequities.

The Annual True Cost of Living Report will tell what is needed for families, workers, and people living on
social services to thrive in the City. Presently, the White family net worth in NYC is $276,900, and Black
family net worth in NYC is $18,870. Seems that someone needs a raise in income!

“It’s been a long time coming!” Decades ago, Councilmembers Bill Perkins of Harlem and Councilmember
Helen Diane Foster of the Bronx introduced legislation similar to the Racial Equity law that voters finally
enacted into law in 2022. At Foster’s office, as another staff member and I worked on this issue, the City Council showed at that time little interest in taking on major challenges of discrimination in City agencies.

How about them NYC voters in the 2022 referendum for enacting the Reports into law by an
overwhelming vote! How about Mayor Mamdani doing the right thing and releasing the Reports!, calling
for public hearings on the Reports, and opening the door for changes in discrimination in City agencies!

Motherhood Beyond Biology: The Women Who Raised Me Into Myself

Larnez Kinsey
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Motherhood Beyond Biology: The Women Who Raised Me Into Myself

Every year around Mother’s Day, timelines fill with flowers, family portraits, carefully chosen throwback pictures, and captions trying to summarize a lifetime of love into a few paragraphs.

And every year, I find myself sitting quietly with a more complicated truth.

Because when I think about motherhood, I don’t just think about the woman who gave birth to me.

I think about every woman who ever carried me emotionally, spiritually, mentally, and sometimes financially through seasons I didn’t think I would survive.

Of course, my mother is where that story begins.

I was born into a racially divided family. When my mother became pregnant with me, her father disowned her because my father was Black.

As a child, I didn’t fully understand what that meant. Children rarely do. We absorb tension without language for it. We notice silence before we understand pain. We feel grief moving through a house before we can identify where it lives.

But adulthood has a way of reopening your childhood and translating things differently.

Now, when I revisit memories of my mother, I no longer just see “mom.”

I see a young woman navigating heartbreak while trying to prepare for motherhood.

I see someone grieving the loss of her father’s acceptance while carrying a child growing inside her body.

I see someone trying to build safety for me while her own sense of belonging was collapsing underneath her feet.

And suddenly moments from childhood hit differently.

The exhaustion in her face I once misread as frustration.

The nights she sat quietly after everyone went to sleep.

The way she sometimes stared into space, like her body was present but her spirit was somewhere trying to recover.

Back then, I thought mothers were just naturally strong.

Now I realize many women become strong because life gives them no safe alternative.

My mother loved me through rejection.

And there is something sacred about a woman who chooses love even when love costs her community, approval, or comfort.

That kind of love leaves marks on generations.

But what I’ve also come to understand is that motherhood has never belonged to one person in my life.

My sheroes are my soul ties.

The women I strategically meet on this journey called life who plant the exact seed needed for the soil I am about to step into.

And I say strategically because some encounters feel far too aligned to be random.

There were women who entered my life for only a season but shifted me permanently.

A friend sat beside me in complete silence while I cried in her car because I didn’t have the energy to explain my pain out loud.

A mentor pulling me aside after a meeting and saying, “Stop shrinking yourself to make other people comfortable,” not realizing those words would echo in my spirit for years afterward.

A woman showed up at my door with food during a season where survival had exhausted me so deeply that feeding myself felt overwhelming.

People think transformation always arrives through major events, but sometimes healing enters quietly.

Sometimes it’s a woman texting, “Did you make it home safe?”

Sometimes it’s someone braiding your hair while reminding you that you deserve softness too.

Sometimes it’s another woman seeing greatness in you during a season where all you can see are your wounds.

Black women, especially, have mastered the art of mothering each other in invisible ways.

We carry each other through divorces, funerals, financial hardship, heartbreak, depression, childbirth, caregiving, and silent battles that never make it into public conversation.

And the truth is, many of us are still alive because another woman refused to let us disappear inside our pain.

Then there are my daughters.

My five daughters.

Nothing prepared me for the ways children hold mirrors to your spirit.

Nobody tells you that motherhood is also confrontation.

Confrontation with your patience.

Your tone.

Your unresolved trauma.

Your tenderness.

Your fears.

There are moments when I watch my daughters sleeping and feel overwhelmed by the realization that I am witnessing healing in real time.

Not perfect healing.

Not curated healing.

But generational healing.

The kind where children laugh freely in rooms that once held tension.

The kind where softness is no longer confused with weakness.

The kind where love is no longer rooted in fear.

And strangely enough, my daughters have mothered parts of me too.

They’ve awakened wonder in me.

Helped me reconnect with joy.

Forced me to slow down long enough to notice how much survival mode had hardened parts of my spirit.

Because eventually you realize something profound:

As women, we exchange these sacred roles continuously throughout life.

Mother.

Daughter.

Sister.

Friend.

Mentor.

We move in and out of these identities for one another forevermore, whether we physically gave birth to a child or not.

Some women mother through advice.

Some through protection.

Some through presence.

Some through accountability.

Some through prayer.

Some through simply refusing to let another woman fall apart alone.

That is motherhood, too.

Screenshot

And I don’t need to name these women individually because deep down, they already know the role they hold in my life.

They know who they are.

The woman who answered the phone on the first ring when my voice cracked.

The women who sat with me in silence when words couldn’t reach what I was feeling.

The women who corrected me with love instead of shame.

The women who protected my name in rooms I wasn’t in.

The women who reminded me of my light during seasons where I could only see my wounds.

Some of them mothered me for years.

Some only for a moment.

But every single one left fingerprints on my becoming.

And maybe that’s the sacred thing about womanhood.

we rarely realize how deeply we are shaping one another while we’re doing it.

A conversation over dinner.

A hand on my back while I was trying not to fall apart publicly.

A random text saying, “Thinking about you.”

A prayer whispered for me that I never even heard.

Seeds.

That’s what these women planted in me.

Seeds of courage.

Seeds of softness.

Seeds of discernment.

Seeds of survival.

Seeds of joy.

And now when I look at the woman I am still becoming, I can trace parts of her back to each of them.

So to every woman who has mothered me in friendship, mentorship, sisterhood, or simple presence, this article is dedicated to you.

You helped carry me toward myself.

So this Mother’s Day, I honor my mother first.

For the sacrifices I am still uncovering as an adult.

For the pain she survived quietly.

For choosing me despite what it cost her.

And I honor every woman who mothered me along the way.

The soul ties.

The mentors.

The sisters.

The friends.

The daughters.

The women who planted seeds in me they may never fully realize bloomed.

Because none of us become ourselves alone.

We are shaped by every woman who loved us enough to help carry us toward ourselves.

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