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By Esther Animalu

TimesLedger Newspapers

Queens College alumnus and award-winning musical composer Arturo O’Farrill was awarded with his fourth Grammy at the 60th awards in January at Madison Square Garden.

O’Farrill won Best Instrumental Composition for his original work “Three Revolutions.” His album features a dynamic collaboration with Chucho Valdes, an Afro-Cuban Jazz musician.

“My fourth American Grammy made me very proud to win it for my mother. She had died a month before,” O’Farrill said in an interview with TimesLedger Newspapers. “I really wanted to win it for her. So many of my past fears have revolved around her aging and health. I really wanted to hold it up in the air and say, ‘This is for you, Mom.’”

“Three Revolutions” hones in on Cuba’s fight for freedom throughout the span of its existence. The biggest island in the Caribbean, Cuba’s historic battle toward freedom dates back to its colonization and imperialism under Spaniard rule, which ended in 1898.

O’Farrill aimed to grasp the resiliency of Cuba’s history through each progression of his album and shed light on the vitality behind his Cuban heritage.

“I was in Havana the day Fidel Castro died. It was heartbreaking because he was seen as a hero to all,” O’Farrill said about Nov. 25, 2016. “It felt like the death of a revolution. He greatly cultivated the progress of Cuba’s history.”

O’Farrill, a Mexican-born, Cuban-American musician, is known for incorporating his Latin roots into the many frameworks of his musical compositions. His Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra is his primary musical project. Every album it has released has been nominated or won a Grammy. He credits one of his Queens College professors, Sir Roland Hanna, for his success. He studied under Hanna at the Aaron Copland School of Music.

“He had very strong ideas about music and life lessons. I am eternally grateful to have worked with him,” O’Farrill said. “I still practice the techniques that he taught me and I owe Queens College gratitude towards my success.”

O’Farrill is the son of renowned Cuban Jazz composer Chico O’Farrill and Mexican singer Lupe Valero. Arturo was born in Mexico City in 1960 and moved to New York years later. With his early exposure to storied Jazz and Latin music, he became widely introduced to the diverse atmosphere of musical works, layout and rhythm.

“I fell in love with a record by Miles Davis, in particular. The improvisation by the pianist fueled my love for being a jazz musician,” he said. “I quickly became infatuated with playing music. It brought a lot of enjoyment into my heart and still continues to do so.”

O’Farrill is currently based in New York and engages in a variety of musical outreach programs and performances within the community.

“Arturo’s achievement serves as an enduring source of inspiration for past, present, and future students at Queens College, and further illustrates that the mentorship and training our students receive prepares them for the very highest level of success,” Queens College President Félix V. Matos Rodríguez said.

O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra perform weekly on Sunday nights at Birdland in Hell’s Kitchen. He routinely strives to showcase his musical talents while also combining Afro-Latin culture. O’Farrill and his compositions have helped revolutionized the music industry, so he’s often asked for advice on how to make it in the business..

“My message to upcoming young musicians is to love your craft,” he said. “Perfection takes time and diligence. In order to make it in this industry you must be passionate about your creative pieces. Loving your craft will help you to contribute to yourself as well as the world.”

Reach reporter Esther Animalu by e-mail at eanimalu@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4574.

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By Tammy Scileppi

TimesLedger Newspapers

No matter who you are and where you’re from, you’re bound to find meaning in the award-winning film “Emerald City,” which is making its borough debut in LeFrak Concert Hall at Queens College Wednesday, March 14, during a celebration of Irish music and dance.

It’s a story about immigrants and is said to mark “the end of an era in Irish-American identity” as Queens celebrates St. Patrick’s Day events.

To get a better understanding of what the movie is about, picture that iconic black-and-white photo shot in 1932 and titled “Lunch atop a Skyscraper.”

It captures 11 fearless construction workers sharing banter and nonchalantly enjoying their lunch break, while perched atop a suspended beam 69 floors above Manhattan.

Few people realize that most of those guys were Irish-born immigrants who came to New York City in search of any kind of work they could get and were willing to risk their lives to build the RCA Building (or 30 Rockefeller Plaza), so they could support their families.

Did you know that about 4.7 million Irish immigrants who arrived as skilled laborers in the 19th century settled in America? And that many took jobs in construction toward the end of Tthe city’s building boom, which spilled over into the the early 20th century?

Chronicling the lives of a hardworking, hard-living crew of modern-day Irish construction workers, and shot entirely in New York, “Emerald City” is loosely based on Irish-American filmmaker Colin Broderick’s own life story. After immigrating to the Bronx from Northern Ireland in 1988 at age 20, young Colin worked in construction as a carpenter for 25 years, while pursuing a literary career. The filmmaker, who recalled working with many Irishmen who lived in Queens, had his first memoir, “Orangutan” (Random House), published in 2009.

Indeed, there are similarities between the film’s four actors (including Broderick), who portray a group of tough working class fellas trying to make it in New York City, and those Depression-era construction workers.

And here’s a fun fact: According to some accounts, there’s a possibility that one worker captured in that vintage image may have been an Irish lad named Francis Michael Rafferty, who was sitting next to his lifelong buddy, Stretch Donahue.

Featuring up-and-coming talent, the film’s only Queens resident, John Duddy, happens to be a former boxer who at one time was among the best known Irish sports stars in the U.S..

Skillfully injecting bits and pieces from his long struggle with alcoholism into his plays, films, and books, Broderick’s newest undertaking deals with issues facing the workers who became his buddies: depression, excessive drinking, loneliness…and through it all a sense of camaraderie and loyalty. “I just wanted to give people a sense of what the modern-day Irish construction scene really looks and feels like,” he said.

“Emerald City” was shot in Sunnyside, all over Manhattan, and in Woodlawn in the Bronx, where Broderick lived when he first came to America.

Mary Murphy has her own story to share. The Queens resident, who is the daughter of Irish immigrants and proud to be a first generation Irish-American, has made a name for herself as a popular Emmy Award-winning WPIX-TV reporter. And, as a member of the “PIX11 Investigates Unit,” she and her team have been out in front on many hot-button topics, like the opioid epidemic.

The Queens College graduate will be the guest speaker at the upcoming event, which will raise money for the college’s Irish Studies Program – one of the oldest in the nation. Festivities will begin with a reception at 6 p.m. followed by a screening of the film from 7:30 to 9 p.m., and then a Q&A, as well as musical performances.

Murphy recounted her family’s journey.

“Both my parents were born in Ireland on farms. Father came here in the late ‘40s, Mother in the early ‘50s. They met at a Rockaway Beach dance hall in the late ‘50s, got married and settled in Woodside,” she said.

With four kids in tow, the family moved to Queens Village where young Mary attended Our Lady of Lourdes. Later, they called Floral Park home.

“I think that almost any person can relate in some way to the movie, which reveals the struggles that workers had adjusting to the stressors of life in America,” said Murphy, whose parents did not finish high school because like so many others, they had to make a living so they could put food on the table.

Most Irish-born parents like hers went into the service industry or took union jobs. Murphy said her father became a New York City bus driver and her mother worked as a waitress at Schrafft’s restaurant and later at a Catholic rectory.

And like all parents, they encouraged their children to get a good education and dream big.

A new era of affluence in Ireland put an end to the age-old tradition of Ireland exporting skilled manual – specifically construction – labor. These days, young adults living there are more likely to train for technology jobs.

According to Broderick, the characters in “Emerald City” struggle with the burden of upholding a fading legacy as the construction workers who “built New York City.”

“They are like the last of the Mohicans,” he said.

The filmmaker will be “off to Ireland” in two weeks to shoot his next movie, “A Bend in the River.”

Tickets for “Emerald City” are $20 for general admission and $15 for students, veterans and seniors.

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By Naeisha Rose

TimesLedger Newspapers

Residents came out in the hundreds for the Southern Queens Park Association’s 16th annual art exhibit at Roy Wilkins Park Family Center Sunday.

The exhibit featured paintings, photos, sketch work, collages and metal work, showcasing the talents of everyone from seasoned professionals to local school kids. All the while, DJ Twizz was manning the ones and twos playing old school reggae, dance hall, soul, R&B and 90s hip-hop music.

Throughout the evening there was a raffle and guests sampled pastries, fruits and hors d’oeuvres.

Mir Ahmed, a fifth-grader from PS 176 in Cambria Heights was excited to participate in the art show. She won the elementary school environmental challenge for her piece.

“I used chalk pastels to make jellyfishes,” said Mir.

Social justice artist Wanda Best had artwork that highlighted domestic terrorism caused by racism and domestic violence.

“With social justice art you create, educate and communicate ideas,” said Best.

Her first piece was a black, white and red collage that had a list going back to 1927 revealing dates and depictions of horrendous acts committed by the Ku Klux Klan, all the way up to present day. Her second piece was a white, red, black and gold collage of a woman crying tears of blood with an inscription beside it. “When a woman cries BLOOD her heart has been shattered,” it said.

Photographer Daniel Leake had framed glass pictures of lions and leopards from the Bronx Zoo displayed at the exhibit.

“I had a telephoto lens and I waited to just get a look and some feeling from the animals,” said Leake. “They are big cats, so… the mere fact that they could eat you is exciting. Even though you are 20 to 40 feet away, you know that you are safe, but you want to zoom in tight and get a nice clear expression.”

Glancing at some of the artwork throughout the evening was state Sen. Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans).

“I think this is great because it exposes the local work of a lot of people from southeast Queens who have a lot of talent that don’t want to go to Brooklyn or Manhattan to show it,” said Comrie. “This will open up a desire for a lot of local people to become artists as well.”

“Being able to display it here locally creates a sense of family and community,” said the senator. “This shows how much creativity we have in Queens and we have as much creativity as anywhere else in the world.”

Reach reporter Naeisha Rose by e-mail at nrose@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4573.

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By Bill Parry

TimesLedger Newspapers

More than 3,500 kindergarten students in western Queens are getting a head start on saving up for college with the help of a charitable nonprofit organization.

U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-Jackson Heights) joined dozens of kindergarten students and their parents at PS 2 in Astoria Monday as NYC Kids Rise announced the opening of its NYC Scholarship Accounts.

“It’s a pilot program here in New York City and we’re here kicking it off with $100 for every child in kindergarten in School District 30,” Crowley said.

The district encompasses Astoria, Long Island City, Woodside, Sunnyside, Elmhurst and Jackson Heights and, pending the success of the program, the initiative would expand to provide a universal scholarship account to every child in the New York City public school system.

“What is so important about this program is that research shows that a low-income child who has between a dollar and $500 in a college savings account is three times more likely to go to college than a child that has no college savings account,” Chairwoman of NYC Kids Rise Julie Menin said. “And when they are in college, they are four times more likely to graduate, so this is one of the reasons for launching NYC Rise.”

The organization also announced a new $500,000 gift from Citi Community Development, which adds to the initial $10 million grant from the Gray Foundation to fund the program and support parent and community engagement.

Menin, who serves as commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, helped start the program when she was the commissioner of the Department of Consumer Affairs. The efforts are the first steps in a long-term partnership with families, schools and communities to save together for every child’s college future.

Families can earn up to an additional $200 in rewards and matching funds, on top of the $100 seed deposit, for their child’s scholarship account during the program’s first three years.

NYC Kids Rise provides the tools and resources to empower families to start saving while their children are young and continue saving. NYC Kids Rise will also enable community members to contribute to participating children’s college savings in the future.

Sesame Street’s Elmo joined Crowley and Menin and entertained the children as the parents turned their attention to a workshop for a new online portal that will allow them to track their children’s NYC Scholarship Accounts, open their own New York State 529 college savings accounts, and earn additional funds for their children’s future.

“It’s something I’m working on at the national level,” Crowley said. “I have a bill that would put $500 in an account for every newborn in America and anyone in the family could contribute up to $2,000 per year towards this account. It’s a meaningful way to save for education, buying a home or starting a business, things of that nature, starting out early and giving people real opportunities.”

Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparry@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4538.

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By Naeisha Rose

TimesLedger Newspapers

More than two months of protests have paid off for the Brian Piccolo Middle School (MS 53) and the Robert Vernam School (PS/MS 42), which Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña had targeted for closure in December.

The chancellor’s recommendation to close the schools were both voted down 6-6-1 on Feb. 28 by the city’s Panel for Educational Policy, according to a post on Queens Borough Melinda Katz’s Facebook page.

“The message is clear: We are not giving up on our kids,” said Katz. “The school communities are clearly vested in their success, as exemplified in both the recent progress in academic performance and the level of engagement by the parents, teachers and students to save their schools.”

Schools like Piccolo and Vernam that were struggling were put under the renewal school list and pumped with money and resources around 2014 so that they could improve.

Schools on the list had to improve their test scores, enrollment, college readiness scores, attendance, instruction, school leadership and have less absenteeism to be removed in three years or else eliminated.

According to Fariña, the two schools did not do enough to meet those requirements and students would be better served at a stronger academic body.

But parents, teachers, students and education representatives thought that Piccolo and Vernam were not given enough time to succeed and said that most education reform initiatives take five years to show effective change.

At a January public commenting form with PEP, Daniel Alicea, a school leader of MS53, said the students at the school had a 12 percent increase in ELA while 82 percent were projected to attend college.

At the forum, students from MS53 said that they felt they made behavioral improvements and that they were excited to participate in the STEM courses.

Local representatives in the Far Rockaway area were pleased by the turnaround.

In February representatives of PS/MS 42 said they reached five out of the seven target goals for improvement, some of which included an incremental 10.5 increase in math and ELA scores. They received an 86 percent score for rigorous instruction and a 97.3 percent teacher-attendance score from the DOE. The school was also praised for effective leadership and collaborative teachers.

“We must continue to invest in our existing neighborhood schools to both ensure full growth in our students and our surrounding community,” said Councilman Donovan Richards (D-Far Rockaway) and state Assemblywoman Stacey Amato Pheffer in a joint statement. “These are our children and their education is worth fighting for!”

Reach reporter Naeisha Rose by e-mail at nrose@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4573.

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By Naeisha Rose

TimesLedger Newspapers

A Pennsylvania man was sentenced to life in prison last week for the 2008 murder of a 14-year-old girl in her Cambria Heights home, according to the Queens district attorney’s office.

Rashon Venable, 25, was found eight years after the murder when a DNA sample of his obtained in Pennsylvania was matched to the one in CODIS, a national DNA database created and maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, DA Richard Brown said.

The NYPD’s Cold Case Homicide Squad Detectives John Roberts and Gary Haber, as well as Sgt. Philip Panzarella, conducted the investigation into the murder.

The CODIS database holds on to DNA profiles from crime scenes and a match for Sabrina Matthews — the teen victim — was found. Soon after on Nov. 7, 2016, the Albrightsville, Pa, native was nabbed in his home state.

“This case highlights how important DNA analysis is when it comes to law enforcement,” Brown said. “My office remains committed to working tirelessly to ensure that justice is done – no matter how many years it may take.”

According to the criminal charges, Sabrina’s father, Livingston Matthews, found her at home on Nov. 9, 2008, with a deep slash wound to her neck and multiple stab wounds to her face, neck and arms.

At the time of the murder, Venable was 16 and lived one town over in Queens Village, according to the DA’s office. The defendant was approximately two miles from the scene of the crime.

After being apprehended in 2016, Venable was extradited back to New York by George Farrugia, chief of the DA’s Extraditions Unit.

ANY MOTLast month, Venable pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder before Queens Supreme Court Judge Kenneth Holder, who imposed an indeterminate sentence of 19 years to life in prison.

“The defendant has now been sentenced for the cold-blooded and heinous killing of a teenage girl, who should have been safe inside her own home,” Brown said. “I am hopeful that the family of the victim will find some comfort knowing the person responsible for this horrific crime will be locked away from society.”

Reach reporter Naeisha Rose by e-mail at nrose@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4573.

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By Bill Parry

TimesLedger Newspapers

The city has agreed to bring traffic calming measures to a dangerous stretch of Skillman Avenue in Woodside to protect students at the newly expanded P.S. 11 in Woodside.

When work was completed on a 350-seat, $92 million annex in time for the new school year, parents complained that the new main entrance put the school’s 1,000 students and faculty at risk. After months of advocacy by City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) and the P.S. 11 Parent Teachers Association, the city’s Department of Transportation agreed and announced Monday it would install two traffic signals in front of the school.

“Two traffic signals — one each at the northern and southern legs of 54th St. — will be installed at Skillman Avenue,” a DOT spokesman said. “The signals will be installed by the end of May 2018, and both signals will be coordinated to avoid any queue backups on any of the approaches.”

In January, Van Bramer held a rally at the school while the PTA submitted a petition to the DOT with over 1,000 signatures calling for safety improvements to be made.

“We came together as a community to demand DOT do the right thing, and they’ve heard our voice,” Van Bramer said. “This is a great win for the P.S. 11 families, the Woodside community and our children’s safety. I am happy that DOT is taking this seriously.”

In addition, the DOT is in the process of restudying the area for additional safety enhancements around PS 343 on the south side of Queens Boulevard in Sunnyside. This review includes another traffic signal study at 47th Ave. and 42nd St., as well as potential signage or markings adjustments.

“After speaking with the DOT, I am hopeful that their current work will produce results,” Van Bramer said. “I will continue to advocate for needed traffic calming measures throughout the district, especially in areas where children’s safety is so obviously at risk.”

With the safety issue resolved at P.S. 11, the community’s focus is expected to return to the DOT’s controversial plan to redesign Skillman and 43rd avenues with protected bike lanes that met with stiff resistance from small business owners who feared that the loss of 158 parking spaces would devastate the neighborhood’s economy. Street safety advocates marched in Sunday’s St. Pat’s for All Parade and renewed their call for the bike lanes.

Macartney Morris of Transportation Alternatives Queens Committee reacted to the news Monday, hours after a car ran a red light Monday killing two children in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

“I’m thrilled to hear DOT was able to address the safety concerns of P.S. 11. Any day that the city is able to make it safer for kids to get to school is a good day for Queens — but especially on a day with such horrific traffic violence against children that has occurred today in Brooklyn,” Morris said. “I hope that the full plan DOT designed for Skillman and 43rd avenues is now able to move forward with a fair hearing by the community without further delay. The thousands of Queens pedestrians and cyclists who use this corridor daily deserve the safest streets possible and nothing less.”

The DOT is organizing a town hall meeting with the date to be announced soon.

Meanwhile, the agency is performing outreach to businesses on Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights to alert them to changes coming the week of March 19. The city will begin implementing its Clean Curbs initiative, a six-month pilot program that will ban curbside loading from Broadway to 90th Street during weekday peak hours, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

“Since the proposal to implement a pilot program in a stretch of Roosevelt Avenue with curbside restrictions became public, the community and business owners along the corridor have raised several concerns, including how and when delivery trucks will be dropping off their merchandise, especially to supermarkets,” state Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst) said. “It is my hope that the many questions and concerns the community has will be answered during the length of the pilot program, and if the results are positive, we will work with all stakeholders to determine how to best approach all traffic-related matters under the 7 train.”

Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparry@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4538.

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