By: Victoria Horsford

THE 2012 ELECTION

President Obama’s prospects of winning key swing states like Ohio, Pennsylvania are salutary. Still much work to be done. And donations and fundraisers are needed. Around the nation, it is important to follow the NBA and Jay-Z and Beyonce leads and to  host big ticket and modest-ticket fundraisers for the Obama campaign.  November 6 is election day!

 NY PRIMARY results.  Brooklyn’s  Walter Mosley won in a  three-way contest to succeed Assemblyman Hakim Jeffries, who biggest supporter.  Scandal-tarnished downstate Democrats, Senator Shirley Huntley and Assemblyman Vito Lopez lost their re-election primary bids at the 9/13 primary.

HARLEM AND NY

The 6^th African Day Parade and Festival will be held on Sunday, September 23, from 12-4 pm, on Malcolm X Boulevard, originating at 134 Street and ending on West 122 Street, where the review stand will be housed.  Parade/Festival theme is 1^st Class World Tour to African Heritage.  Parade celebrates Africa, its Diaspora in the Americas and elsewhere.   For more info, call 347.560.1460 or visit africandayparade.org. The Festival, page 2 begins at 4 pm in Marcus Garvery Park aka Mt. Morris Park at 122 Street.

The   9^th Annual Harlem Business Alliance Business Economic Summit, titled Innovating Through Tough Times, will be held on Tuesday, September 25 at the Schomburg’s Langston Hughes Auditorium & Lobby,  located at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard.. Registration is free, but RSVP  is necessary. Call 347.851.7741 or visit www.hbany.org.

THE  UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY SEASON

THE AFRICA-AMERICA INSTITUTE hosts it 28^TH Annual Awards Dinner Gala on September 26 at the Grand Hyatt NY Hotel at Park Avenue at 42 Street. Two of Africa’s first ladies are awardees, The Honorable Joyce Banda, President of Malawi and the Honorable Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia.  The AAI convenes a Business Investors Conference on 9/27. Speakers include the Honorable Michelle Bachelet and the Honorable Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. For more info about both events, visit www.aaionline.org.

President Ellen Sirleaf Johnson Sirleaf will speak at the Abyssinian Baptist Church on Sunday, 9/23 , which will be followed by a fundraiser reception at the Harlem School of the Arts, to benefit the Sirleaf  Market Women’s Fund. For more info, call 646.732.9856.

REQUIRED READING

Mark Jacobson tells it like it is about the NYC Housing Authority, in his 9/17  NY MAGAZINE story, “The Land That  Time and Money Forgot” a potentially frightening story about the demise of NYC public housing stock, which is the nation’s  most  success public housing authority, and how the city is preparing to sell off NYCHA . Jacobson visits many of the NYCHA  PJs and talks at length with veteran tenants. Piece references the  NYCHA-Citibank deal which includes 21 developments, negotiated  without benefit of  talks with residents. Is NYCHA culture an endangered specie?

PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

Nigerian immigrants have THE highest   level of education in the US, yes besting  Asians and whites, according to the latest  US Census data  and to  analyses conducted by 13 annual Houston area surveys.   According to 2006 info gleaned from US Census Bureau, 17% of  US based Nigerians  holds masters degrees,  4% hold doctoral degrees, and 37% hold BS degrees, which is double the percentage for  US whites in all categories. Go, Nigerians!

TIME OUT

The 2012 Congressional Black Caucus Legislative Conference,  convenes from September 19-22,  at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC.  First Lady Michelle Obama keynotes the  Phoenix Awards Dinners, which honors US Attorney General Eric Holder; film director George Lucas, Congresswoman Corrine Brown and Charlotte, NC first Black mayor Harvey Gant. .  For complete calendar of events, visit www.cbcfinc.org

Harlem culture czar Voza Rivers and  film prof. Jamal Joseph  co-produced feature documentary THE SAVOY KING: CHICK WEBB AND THE MUSIC THAT CHANGED AMERICA, which is among highlights of the 50^th  NY Film Festival. Film screens on 9/ 29 and 10/ 2 at Lincoln Center Theatres.  Bill Cosby, Danny Glover, Billy Crystal, John Legend are among the celeb voices who represent  jazz greats.  Visit www.filmlinc.com

MR SOUL! THE MOVIE kickster launch party and fundraiser reception will be held at the National Black Programming Consortium, at 68 East 131 Street, Harlem,   on  September 24, from 7:30 to 9 pm,   Mr. Soul, is a documentary work in progress, focusing on  Ellis Haizlip, creator/producer of SOUL!, the only TV forum for Black entertainers and  newsmakers, when Black performers were rarities in prime time,  mainstream TV.  SOUL! aired on PBS-TV from 1968-1973. 

Voza Rivers/New Heritage Theatre Group in association with the H.A.D.L.E.Y Players present a play reading, BIG AL, A FEW BRAVE MEN, a drama by Dr. John Mitchell,  which centers on Dr. Aloyis Sam, and three other Harlem men, who survived the segregated U.S Marine Corps and attendant perils during WWII.  Reading will be held on September 30 at 3 pm,  at the Dwyer Cultural Center, 258 St. Nicholas Avenue, Harlem. Complimentary admission with  limited seating.  RSVP at 212.926.2550.

A management consultant, Victoria Horsford is a NY based journalist and pop culture historian reachable at victoriahorsford@yahoo.com