Transcripts For WABC Here And Now 20160821

The 2016 president ial campaign will likely go down in history as one of the most unpredictable, most volatile, and divisive races ever. With less than 80 days to go until election day, its joining us today to take a closer look at the race so far is basil smikle, the executive director of the new york state Democratic Party, and political commentator tiffany shorter. Welcome back to both of you. Its good to be here. So, were gonna get this rollin. Tiffany, i want to start with you. There has been a shakeup this week in the trump campaign, so a lot of people are talking about what that may or may not mean. Your take on it . The base riled up, to transforming himself as a president ial candidate. I think the controversy around the khan family really taught him that he needs to be more decisive and thoughtful in what he responds to to the public. He realizes that he needs to reorganize because his Campaign Fundraising is just a fraction of hillary clintons. So, hes gathering up and reshaping his framework of how he wants to move forward. But hes also it a lot in the last week that, look, im not gonna change. My base doesnt want me to change. Im not changing. But i hear you saying, well, hes recognizing hes now shifting into the role of being a real candidate for president instead of just somebody going after being a candidate. Hes not going to change. His core message will stay the same. I think hell change the way he says it, and hell think about the repercussions. Well still get the same donald trump, who doesnt hold world, so he of course will have to adjust. Okay. So, were gonna get back to that, but i want to bring you in here, basil, because we want to talk about the release of these emails to congress and some of the emails to congress and to the clinton and to the public. Theyre gonna release some of them, make some of them public. This is not going away for hillary clinton. Do you think this will have a negative impact or any impact at all on the race . I mn, and i think, to me, the timing of this is a little suspect because were less than 80 days out and congress has asked for these interview notes from the fbi, which the fbi is going to give over. But theres nothing untoward in them, and, in fact, hillary has said herself, you know, release them to the public, because there are certain elements of the notes that cannot be released to the public because theyre confidential. There, there, and weve been talking about these emails for over a year now. If you look at how voters have responded in this primary cycle up until now, shes got more votes than Anyone Running for president this cycle. She is leading in the polls as we speak. We cant rest on our haunches, certainly. We still need to stay vigilant and keep campaigning hard. But i think voters have have moved on. Now, you talked about her leading in some of these key states. There are key swing states in the race. She is doing very well, leading donald trump in several really important states, but you still this is just a poll. You still have to get people out to actually vote, and she look, the one thing where they are neck and neck is in terms of their unfavorability. How can she overcome that and get people to actually come out and vote . Well, theres a couple of things. This unfavorability, this unlikability, is somewhat nebulous to me because a lot of people cant quite put their finger on where it started, where it came from. Ive known them for a long time, the clintons, and i remember back in 1993 her coming out and saying she wasnt going to be the typical first lady. Talking about healthcare even back then made her unpopular in the eyes of many republicans, Newt Gingrich in particular, and thats where a lot of is so i go back to my earlier point, which is that a lot of this sentiment about her has been baked in for a very long time, but if, in talking about the things that shes done in new york and investigate party building, which, you know, as the head of the state party here in new york, is very important to me because it impacts all of our downballot races, being able to really engage the party and engage the elected officials throughout the ballot, i think, will help turnout in the end, previously red states that may be purple, may be going blue this cycle. Tiffany, i want to ask you you know, theres a lot of talk this week about the fact that mr. Trump received his first briefing on security issues, and theres a big question and debate about whether or not he can be trusted with that information. An unfair characterization, or do you think voters are listening to that . Trump is open, hes honest, security at risk, and thats actually one of his advantages during this campaign season. If something were to happen, if we have another mishap across the world with terrorism, people will turn to trump as the trusted National Adviser someone who can make hard decisions. Hillary clinton, unfortunately, made the wrong call with the iraq war, and i think thats going to be one of his advantages. Well, you know, i would i would i would be concerned i think that, from a foreignpolicy perspective, hes just not fit to lead in that regard. I mean, when you call the sitting president of the United States a founder of isis, to me, thats just reckless. And others around the world have picked up on that and are using it against us. But its about perception, though. Hillary hillary kind of you know, she made the wrong call. Then, well, if we talk about sort of the if were talking about the iraq war vote, there are a lot of people that voted f iraq war, and, afterwards, we see the trouble that that war has caused. And it actually lost her the last election. Well, no, i wouldnt say that. What i would say that is george w. Bush not really implementing a sort of plan or strategy after the iraq war is really what created isis. This predates president obama. So to call the sitting president and the nominee of the Democratic Party cofounders of a terrorist organization would agree that donald trump has a message that has impacted sort of a lot of predominantly white middleclass voters who are really anxious about the economy, i and national security. But i think his response to that has just been all wrong. Okay. We know were gonna have both of you back, but weve run out of time here, cause weve got at least 80 days. Yes. A little bit less. Theres a long way to go. And well continue to have this conversation. Community working together to mentor young people affected by Gang Violence on long island. Stay with us. I know you [laughs] neighbors. We live across the street. Thanks for this. I see youve got Time Warner Cable like the rest of the hood. Genius. Yeah, they offer tons of free hd channels. And you can record six shows at the same time. And with the super fast internet, entertainment nirvana wow. Nirvana. Switch to Time Warner Cable for 89. 99 per month, youll get free hd channels, 100 meg internet with no data cap, and unlimited calling. Call now. Looks like youre all hooked up. Games about to start. Lets do it. Were watching here . Oh yeah. Show . Switching is easy. Youll get our exclusive onehour arrival window, a moneyback guarantee, and theres no contract to sign. Oh youve got the twc phone. Its unlimited calling to like half the world. Including mexico, canada, india, european union. Yeah. This will work as a coffee table. Dont ah it says. Fragile. Get tv, internet and phone for 89. 99 per month. Plus free installation, tv equipment, and epix included. Lawenforcement agencies and communities across the country are working hard to put an end to the vicious cycle of crime and violence that claims too many young lives. In Suffolk County, the council of thought and action is a communitybased program that reaches out to young people caught up in Gang Violence with nowhere else to turn. It is the brainchild of Suffolk County Deputy Police commissioner risco mentionlewis, who is joining us today. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me. What a pleasure to meet you. You have been thats right. And first black first black female. First black and first female. Yes, i am. So, you covered a lot of firsts there. Yes, i have. [ chuckles ] what prepared you for this job . You have an impressive r . Sum . Just give us a little bit of the background. Well, i was assistant d. A. For 19 years in nassau county. Of course, i went to law school at hofstra law school. Ive been working in the streets a long time. Since 99, i started working in the streets as a prosecutor, doing intervention, and the funny thing about that is i didnt know anythi working in the streets, so i just used to go and knock on gang members doors and say, hi. [ both laugh ] yeah, but you know what . You figured out a way to learn it and sort of get acquainted with thugs. Absolutely. And you have to be in the street, i guess, sometimes to know whats going on there. Absolutely. A lot of people you want to you know, you cant find out whats going on on the ground if youre in the clouds. Mmhmm. You got to walk the streets and be on the ground. Yeah. And this program i really want to get to it, and you hear people talk about, you know, working with gang members and keeping people from going in to the gang members. Sometimes you get the feeling that, well, you know, if theyve been there, then were gonna kind of throw those away. Were just gonna pretend that theyre not there. But from what im reading about your organization, you really wanted to take those forgotten people and say, no, no. We just got to figure out where you fit, how you fit in here, and wer together. Right. The first thing is cota members would kill me if i dont correct you and say we dont say were a program. Okay. cause a program only lasts as long as the money. We call ourselves a movement. A movement. Okay. Of change. And we are actually in chicago, so we actually are moving. Mmhmm. But, yes, the one thing ive learned about, when i walked those streets, knocked on the doors, stood around parks talking to kids, went to the corners and talked to them the gang members, guys selling drugs the numberone thing i learned is they wanted better. Yeah. How to get there, you know . And so being an africanamerican female, mother my father died when my mother was 27 and he was 30something, with five kids. My mother had to teach us, you know, how to do the next right thing. Mmhmm. And so i passed on some of those lessons i learned from living in the projects of massachusetts and my mother taking us and moving us to a house. I took some of those lessons i learned about how to think through life, how to organize the concepts of the council of thought and action. It all started just conversations on the corner and realizing which conversations worked and which ones didnt. And was it a difficult sell to get Community Members to sign on to, look, you know, yeah, these kids have made some bad choices these young people, i should say but thats no reason for us to count them out, and if we want them to continue to be or, rather, to be productive members of the community and not to go back to first place, we all have to Work Together on this . Well, cota members the youngest one that ever walked in the door was 9 years old. Got kicked out of school and had been out of school for months 9. The oldest was 65. So, cota runs the range. But, yes, it is a hard sell to people, because lets face it United States, we are 5 of the worlds population, and we incarcerate 25 of the worlds population, so we believe in locking people up. Uhhuh. But were not looking at the cost not only Economic Cost 200,000 to lock a kid up in new york state or over 60,000 for an adult, were not looking at the human cost. And so a part of that sell is making people understand that no matter how many times you lock a person up, theyre always coming back home. Mmhmm. And so isnt it better to stop them from going in the first place or, you know, even when theyre about to come home, which we do, reach out to them and say, youre coming home. Out cause when you come back, were gonna figure out what else you can do. Right. How do you do that . What you know, if i say you said cota deals from 9 years old to 65. What is it that cota is able to offer these folks . So, in Suffolk County, what we have is cotas in two Resource Centers. The county executive, Steve Bellone he established the Resource Centers where you have department of labor, department of social services. Cota also has a case manager whos a former cota member, dorothy henderson, own sober home, right . So she meets with them. She does a corporate plan, which is a written plan for your life, cause one thing i discovered young guys on the corner, even older guys they want to think of themselves as businessmen, so all the language of cota is business language. Youre a corporation. You have a board of advisers. And thats the language we use. And so you do this 45day plan. The first day, the first moment, you do that 45day plan. And then we have these weekly to do. Yeah, and how youre gonna make that plan work for you. Exactly. One of the things i read that was really interesting and, honestly, whether youre cota or not, you should give it some thought the people that you listen to, the five people that you listen to, talk to the most thats your board of directors. Thats right. When you start thinking about that in your life. Yes. Who is around you and who youre listening to, that really gives you pause if you really want to, you know, make a change or to put your p the other thing we ask is so we say, oh, the five people you speak to the most do you want their economic level . Do you want their life . Do you want their family . Do you want their structure . Do you want their relationships . And if the answers no, pick a new five. And so thats a part of the board of advisers and your circle of growth. Are you in a circle of growth . That goes for all of us. You and i right now could look at our board of advisers and ask, whos advising us in our career . Whos advising us for our marriage . And so these things are just the basics right . That we never really put to paper. Yeah. But if we think about it, this is what kind of good families, good, successful people, do every day. But now its put the paper so that people who a lot of their life has been a lot of these peoples lives has been on survival mode. Yeah. Theyve not had any any advice or any family, really. Theyre just survivors. As i said before, your r . Sum . Is impressive and your expertise. Th it. Youre on a president ial council. I know youve been to the white house. Talk to me a little bit about that. The Brennan Center for justice started the lawenforcement leaders to reduce incarceration and crime. As a matter of fact, commissioner bratton is a member. And so you have leaders across the country, lawenforcement leaders across the country, saying, you need two trains leaving at the station. You cant just do suppression. You got to do intervention handinhand. You also have the National Network for safe communities, Jeremy Travis here at john jay, and they are Teaching Police departments across the country and municipalities, how do we do two trains leaving the station suppression intervention . So, theres a National Movement to change this policy weve had of just arresting people. And let me tell you something. Locally, ill tell you how it works. In wyandanch, we got the resource center. The youth center was beefed up. Weve been doing intervention in the neighborhood. Two outreach workers. We have a case manager. And one of the things weve been doing with community and police when theres the shootings that go on we dont wait to see, can we catch em . Can we not catch em . We knock on the doors and say, look, we know what youre doing. We know who you are. You need to stop. And then we give them a piece of paper that says, this is the state time youll get if you continue. This is the federal time youre gonna get. But just know were here to save your life. The police and the community are saying, we need you to stop. in one area we worked in, a 39 reduction in violent crime, a 46 reduction in overall crime in property crime and a 44 reduction overall. And thats between suppression and intervention together. When we do this across the country and it makes complete sense only 2 to 5 of any neighborhood is committing crimes. Yeah. So, what if we focus and knock on their doors . On those yeah. On their doors. We dont need to stop every kid walking down the street. We dont need to stop every kid we know who they are. Were gonna knock on their doors, were gonna visit them in jail, were gonna write letters to them upstate, and say, when you come home, be different, and well show you how. And do you think more and more Police Departments are listening . Absolutely. I mean, its going across the its across the country. Everyone we cannot keep going on as we are because its not working. It is reducing crime, and crimes been reducing, but not to the extent when you do intervention and suppression on the ones that are doing the wrong things. And were doing that in Suffolk County. And it sounds like you are doing a great job. We would love to have you back on the show. I hope you will come back and talk to us a little bit more about the work that youre doing. Thank you. Nice to meet you. You, too. Still to come, tackling Childhood Obesity in when it comes to childhood begins in a school cafeteria. Thanks to the wellness in the schools program, thousands of new york city publicschool students are eating healthier meals. Eyewitness News Reporter Lauren Glassberg has more. Some of you are gonna make a Honey Mustard vinaigrette. Victoria baluk is a chef who works for wellness in the schools, or wits, a nonprofit aimed at empowering schools to provide students with healthier experiences. We come in with our chefs. We come in with our coach. To set their own goals with how they want to work with our chef and with our coach to create healthier places to learn together. We cant do it alone. Nancy easton was a School Principal before she founded wits 11 years ago, and when wits teams with a school, it sends over coaches to coordinate more active recess periods, it sends chefs to work with cafeteria staff to revamp school menus to feature madefromscratch meals, more salads, and vegetables instead of processed foods. Leads that charge for wits. We go into a lot of highpoverty schools and areas where theres food deserts, where theres no fresh food available, and give them lessons about how to take care of their bodies and whats good for them. After three years of wits training, schools run on their own. The new Settlement School in the bronx is an example of that, but the students here still get treated to lab classes. Everybody give it five really good shakes. Where they learn about nutrition and cooking. These very dressings are the same as the cafeteria. Im gonna try that. Thank you. This gives them a sense of pride and puts them on a healthy path. Good job, guys. Were in 75 schools were just finishing up the school year serving, this year, 34,000 children. And nancy hopes to be in all 650 Elementary Schools in the city in the next five years. Why do you think its important to eat healthy . Because it makes you strong. Joining us this afternoon is wits executive chef bill telepan, along with the programs chef coordinator, marion williams. Thank you both for being with us. Thanks for having us. Bill, so nice to see you. You know youre my favorite. [ laughter ] youre one of my favorites, too. Yeah, yeah, cause i was a paying customer. You were a paying customer. Yeah, we like that. This program just is really exciting to me. It seems like such a nobrainer. Yes. Why was it important fo to get involved with wits . Well, i felt like kids needed to do better in school, and i felt like the one place that what people were seeing was that the food that the kids were eating was kind of, like, slowing them down a little, right . Yeah. It was and so we feel like when you feed kids a healthy lunch and give them an active recess, it sort of gives them that energy for the second half of the day, cause thats the hardest part of the day. They had this, like, sort of this lunch thats kind of heavy or loaded down with sugar, fat, around afterwards. I mean, im falling asleep, you know . [ laughter ] so what do you expect from them, right . What do you expect from kids . So, it really gets these kids energized for the second half of the day. Its great. And, you know, how easy or difficult is it to coordinate all this, to get, you know, people on the same page, to teach them how to cook . cause these are its a lot of kids youre cooking for. Right. There are a lot of students. But we work with a lot of partners, and working with the they get all the students together. And then the department of education schoolfood is one of our largest partners that helps us get into the kitchen to train for the alternative menu, and then we work with the students in the classroom. There was an openness to this idea. Was there resistance initially . I mean, you know, the thing is, in the very beginning, it was, you know it started off on the upper west side, so theres a lot of likeminded parents in there. About food this way, and so we always made it a point to go in to these areas, so as we expanded, we included areas like the south bronx, parts of brooklyn that were in need of these things, and so food deserts i think thats what. Fooddesert areas, and a lot of these kids like, you know, this is kind of, like, their only chance to get this hot meal of the day, and so why not make it a healthy lunch . And so its funny going on. When you see the kids come down the line, they dont even think about it. They just grab the tray and food and they go, and then there is you know, there is some initial resistance, these cooking classes that we call wits labs, and those are our best marketing tools, we think. Thats where the kids can you know, they learn about the food, they take ownership of it, and then they try it. Thats the key, is getting them to try it. And once they try it, then, generally, they like it. You know, it takes kids anywhere from 12 to 15 times to try one thing before they actually will like it. And then they go home and they tell you know, they know what they want, they know how its cooked, and i think they take some of that knowledge home. Yeah, and they get excited, right, to cook . Make it in the classroom and then they see it in the cafeteria, then they have a relationship to it, and we give them a recipe to take home, and so now their parents say, oh, you made that . Thats cool you know, and its a whole we make vegetarian chili, and so they dont think of it as vegetarian chili so much as its just a dish they made. Yeah. Yeah. So, talk to me about taste of tennis. Oh, taste of tennis is this big party right before year its on august 25th, i think, at the w hotel on lexington avenue. And they do they come in the chefs come in and cook some food. Its a walkaround. And theres tennis players there, which is kind of fun. Yeah. And so this year, were lucky recipients of the proceeds from the event. But its a ton of fun, and i brought my family last year, and were into tennis, and so you get to meet a lot of the tennis players around, going in behind, helping the chefs cook, and so exactly yeah. You get the chef, you get food, and you get tennis players. [ laughs ] and, also, wits gets some of the proceeds. And wits gets so fourfer. All right. Were good. Exactly. Its a grand slam, right . Yeah. And yeah. This has been going on for a while. Yes. But i guess the special thing for you guys is that you do, instead of just being enjoyment, its also benefiting a great program. Exactly. And the hope eventually is that and the dates. We should give them the dates. 25ths the date. It august 25th. And folks can go to the website, tasteoftennis. Com . Uhhuh. Yes. All right. And thats friday, right . Yeah. Thats this friday. No, its oh, yes, it is. Thursday. Thursday. Thursday . Okay, were not were all confused. Thursday, the 25th, so its coming up. Go to the website. You can buy the tickets. Youre gonna have great food and a good time and meet some of the best tennis players in the world. Exactly. Thats right. And wits the hope is that, well, our goal is to be obsolete. Yes. [ laughs ] we would want there to just be healthy, wonderful options for all students and then for them to understand where their food comes from. Yeah. And just eating healthy, eating well. And just have a better relationship with food. You start young, then they take that. Exactly. I try to tell my schools that id like to create a great food memory in the bodies of my students. My mother would love that. [ laughter ] thank you both for being with us this from city streets to the olympics, when we come back, the push to make wallball a goldmedal sport. No way, thats jacob degrom. Lets get his autograph. Jacob. Can we get your auto. Haha, yeah i get that a lot. Jacob and i could be identical twins. Ed, haha. No way. Well we both throw a heck of a fast ball not just anyone can be a Major League Pitcher like jacob degrom. But anyone could save money with geico. Geico, proud partner the urban dictionary calls it the greatest playground game ever created by man. Were talking about wallball. Now, most of you probably know it as handball. Its a classic game that involves throwing the ball against a wall, catching it now its even being considered for the olympics. Joining us today is jasmine ray, founder of the u. S. Wallball association, inc. Welcome. Thank you so much for having me. So nice to meet you. Very nice to meet you. Now, i know that you were inspired to create this organization by the death of your. My brother my 16yearold brother. Unfortunately, yes, it was october. He was 16 years old. He passed away in a car accident. And handball was something handball, wallball was something that him and i did in the neighborhood in stapleton. So, ive lived in staten island, stapleton, for 15 years, and on weekends, just for some extra recreation he was very athletic you know, him and i would go down the block to the stapleton houses and play handball against, you know, the locals, the kids that lived in the projects, and so when he passed away, you know, that was do something to honor him rather than to be sad about it or cry over it or be depressed. I wanted to do something to sort of keep his spirit alive, and so i had a handball tournament, and i called it the johnny ray memorial, and it was sponsored by his catholic school, Moore Catholic high school his football team. And they gave me 500 bucks. I bought some trophies and some tshirts, and about 50 kids showed up. And when they showed up, i said, i know you guys didnt know my brother. Where are you guys coming from . Oprah would say right . Where its just like, wait a minute. You all play handball . I thought handball was just popular, you know, in sunset park, in certain neighborhoods around new york city. I had no idea that it was such a popular game, and so, you know, as time went on, i just did my research, and i realized that theres over 2,000 handball courts within the five boroughs, and so if you take a neighborhood there and, you know, 10 kids here, 20 kids, 50 kids, theres about tens of thousands of kids that play handball within the five anything to sort of organize the sport, you know . Thats considered a street sport. Yeah, and give it its due. Exactly. So, okay. We have to deal with this name change. Why wallball now . Well, its similar to the concept of football right . Overseas and soccer. Mmhmm. So, over here, we call the sport soccer. Overseas, its recognized as football, right . But its the same exact sport. So, overseas, they actually call handball wallball. Okay. Were the only ones that actually call it handball, but sport called handball thats similar. Its actually completely different. Its com okay. Completely different. So, you know, the version of handball that we play here in new york city its with a ball like this. Uhhuh. You play it against a wall. Yeah. You can play its similar to tennis singles or doubles, right . Two people on the court or four people on the court at a time. Now, the other version of handball its called olympic handball. They call it team handball. Its like as big as a soccer ball, looks like a volleyball, and its on a field and they throw it in a net. Completely different. Exactly. So, wallball is appropriate, but in order for it to be recognized as its own separate sport, it does need to have a name, and, in fact, it is being considered, i understand, for the olympics. So, we had some interest. In 2013, we actually did a demonstration in colombia, in cali, colombia, for the world games association. So, you cant really just go promote a sport thats unrecognized and then just jump into the olympics, right . You got to kind of pay your of the world games association, being part of the pan american games, and so what were trying to do is just give it a platform and say, hey, we exist, you know, and we have over 33 countries around the world that actually play the sport professionally. You know, in france, in the u. K. , and in ireland especially, they have professional stadiums. They have stadiums. They have spectators. You know, their handball players are like superstars over there, you know . Over here in new york city, you know, unfortunately, it has, like, a negative stigma, you know, so peoplas even, like ive heard, jail sport, right . Because people play it when theyre incarcerated. Mmhmm. But, really, its just in my opinion, its the most accessible sport in new york city. And its really been played since, what, the 1800s, i think . 1800s, yeah. It came over here i mean, actually, the irish is responsible. I want to give them their due. Irish is responsible for bringing you know, the immigrants came over here, and they brought the sport with them. And it actually sort of gained in popularity around build, in the 30s, the very first walls, and they built them up the coast in brooklyn. And back, i want to say, like the 30s or the 50s, a stadium used to exist, a handball stadium, that sat Something Like 3,000 people. It doesnt exist today, but the sport is kind of growing again in popularity, where were actually in a position where we need Something Like that again. And, in fact, you are working to raise money to build a stadium, i understand. Yeah. Absolutely. Tell me about that. Were always fundraising. To build indoors walls so that kids are not just able to play six or seven months out of the year, but they can play yearround. So, in new york city, theres a lack of places to play the sport, and so im trying to change that, and ive partnered with the parks department. I work directly with the commissioners of brooklyn and the bronx and commissioner silver, and so were trying to identify different spaces in the city that are, you know, sort of open and underutilized, and so weve example, betsy head pool, which is located in brownsville, brooklyn, which is one of the most its one of the most challenging neighborhoods in brooklyn, and so this huge locker room exists, and they only use it four months out of the year for the lockers of the pool. But eight months out of the year, they actually move the lockers to the basement, and its just a space thats underutilized, and so, you know, working with the commissioners, we decided, you know, we could put some walls. It wont impact the facility, and now the space can be utilized yearround. Now, i kn t excuse me you did mention that there are professional wallball players. Yes. And some of them are here. Mmhmm. And so are these theyre sponsored teams, correct . There are, yeah sponsored players and sponsored teams. Ill tell you, i actually, three years ago, pitched an athlete from the bronx. Gonzalez. Gonzalez, to red bull. Tim gonzalez. Most talented handball athlete in the United States. Hes a world champion, isnt he . Hes competed all over. Hes been overseas. Hes been overseas more than me, you know, playing the sport and competing and actually been an advocate to the sport, and so i pitched him to red bull three years ago. Red bull had this tournament they started it six years ago called slaps red bull slaps. And he won it three years in a row, and so i said to red bull, why dont you give him a shot . Because there are so many people that actually play the sport. He plays it other professional athlete that plays it overseas. Yeah. And i think that if you just give one athlete a shot here in new york city, you know, it could create sort of opportunities for other people. The domino effect. Exactly. Yeah. To potentially change their, you know, economic, you know, status in new york city, so by doing something that they love, a pastime right . That they do when they come out of school, when they you know, to have a chance to play it professionally and actually change their life doing it and travel the world and, you know, be exposed to different youve come with this a sport that you guys played together and you said, you know what . Im gonna do this in your memory, and, you know, look where its getting you. You know, its still, to this day, hard to think about my brother. Just even casually, its still hard to think about him. But, you know, what sort of motivates me is when i have parents tell me that, you know, if it wasnt for the sport and what were doing, you know, their kid never would have gradua or, you know, i had a single father call me one time and said, if it wasnt for you telling my son if he doesnt behave, he cant play, he would have never stopped disrespecting me. And so those are the things that sort of, for me, honor my brother, you know is keeping those kids in his age group giving them something to look forward to and, at the same time, trying to apply some type of discipline in their life, utilizing the sport. Yeah. Well, i think its a great idea, especially because it is such an urban sport. It is an urban sport. And its not that difficult speed. Wallballworld. Com. Thats it. And you can find out more information about what youre doing and maybe help with the fundraising . Yes, please. Jasmine ray, what a pleasure to meet you. Keep us posted. I will. Thank you. Hey, in four or eight years, we could see wallball in the olympics, right . That would be amazing. Thats a dream come true. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Up next, inspiring Young Artists at the sugar hill Childrens Museum of the sugar hill Childrens Museum of art storytelling is housed in one of harlems newest, most artistic, and most ambitious housing developments. It was designed by the internationally acclaimed architect david adjaye with the intent of providing not just housing but also education and cultural programming for underserved children and their for curatorial programs at the sugar hill Childrens Museum. Long title but important work. Thank you so much for being with us. Whats the mission of this Childrens Museum . The mission of the sugar hill Childrens Museum is to provide a place for children and families to learn about the cultural richness of sugar hill, as well as to learn about the world at large through interaction with artists and all kinds of storytelling opportunities. Why was it so important to focus on the children . We really learned that Broadway Housing communities is the Parent Organization of the museum, and this is their seventh building and their first built form the ground up, and they learned over their 30 years of communitydevelopment projects that, you know, working with children and art really went hand in hand with Building Community. And when you say, Building Community because one of the things i mentioned in my Long Development just has so many components. I mean, the exercise was to and intent, i should say, was to make it a real community, almost a little village, in a way, of doing that. And so what role is it your hope that the Childrens Museum will play . Our hope is that giving everybody in the community and the Building Access to really beautiful programming and will be enriched the way that they are all over the upper west side. All over every affluent neighborhood around the city, access to art is just an essential component. Mmhmm. Yeah. Its in their backyard, without having to travel miles to get to it. In fact, maybe that Childrens Museum makes them say, you know what . I really want to go to the metropolitan museum. I want to go to moma, because and is it handson . The actual museum . Mmhmm. Yes. I mean, my role as curator is to make sure that exhibitions are tactile and accessible. Our wonderful Education Department also makes programs that allow children and families to make things inspired by the art that they get to see, so its very a handson space. And i guess thats important in a Childrens Museum. When youre talking about programming for children and from, you know, putting together exhibitions for, you know, galleries or that kind of thing . I think that, you know, were still really learning what that means. Our most immediate approach to making sure that we speak directly to our target audience of children ages 3 through 8 is lowering the artworks eye level. Traditional eye level might be at like 60 inches. We take things down to maybe, you know, like 54 inches so the children dont have to be lifted mmhmm. But i think its also important that, given the cultural specificity of sugar hill and the history that artists of color are very much celebrated as a part of our work, and then, you know, artists who make fun things to engage with is also a very important part of our work. So, in every way, youre trying to speak the little peoples language. Absolutely. Yeah. So, talk to me about some of the specific programs and the artists youre featuring right now, and this is we have three gallery spaces that we program. Our main space is called the living room. Its a 3,000squarefoot gallery where we make mural artwork happen. On view through august 20th is an artist named saya woolfalk. Shes been there since we first opened in october. Were gonna open our next exhibition october 1st z is for zigzag directions around northern manhattan, and it will feature five different artists who all have a specific northern manhattan. And then we have a salon, which is our second space, where we will rotate exhibitions. On view now is an installation by shani peters. And our third space is the legacy gallery, which speaks to the community of sugar hill and all of the cultural richness that has always been there, and right now we have an exhibition on view in partnership with the Studio Museum in harlem. Okay. So, in a way, youre sort of reminding people and paying absolutely. Of the community they live in. Whats been the reaction of the neighborhood, the children, the residents there . You know, were still weve had, i think, over 8,000 people come through the space, i think, and, you know, weve received lots of feedback that this is so necessary. Its so good to be able to just travel one subway stop away and not have to go all the way to brooklyn to have this kind of and just as a curator, how satisfying is it . Because this was a new thing for that community to be, you know, on the ground floor of this experiment. Its incredibly personally gratifying. I love the idea of delivering art in places where you wouldnt necessarily expect to find them, and this initiative is so ambitious. You know, the idea of delivering children also feels incredibly fun. I am most gratified when i see children returning to the space. You know, we have quite a few repeat visitors, and many of them now know exactly where they want to go. Theyre very confident, and to kind of see that growth happen in a repeat child visitor is the most gratifying part of my job. And its your hopes that you are getting them started early in learning to appreciate art know, its the way you you know, thats the way you get introduced to a lot of things, when youre young, that you never think about, oh, well, thats not for me or i dont understand it, because you just become comfortable around it. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said the word comfortable. The best thing an art experience can ever do, whether its visual art or theater or dance its confidence. The arts instills confidence. Okay. Thank you so much for being with us this afternoon. Its the sugar hil museum of art storytelling, and theres a place we can a website, sugarhillmuseum. Org, right . Yes. Yes. And you can find out museum hours and what the exhibitions are, correct . All right. Thank you so much for being with us this afternoon. Nice to meet you. Likewise. Its that time of the year again. In fact, today, you can pick and choose your pleasure r b, jazz, hiphop, blues, and dance. All of those acts are gonna be taking center stage. And, of course, theres also a lot of arts and crafts and food vendors from around the globe to kind of round out the fun. Joining us this afternoon to tell us more is the second vice chair of harlem week 2016, marko nobles. Thank you so much. Nice to see you. Good to see you. Thank you for having us. Right . Yes. Today is harlem day. Yeah. And what does that mean . Harlem day is actually what harlem week began as. Harlem week began in 1974 as a oneday event, which was harlem day. Over the years, that grew to a couple of days and a weekend and a week, and now were up to a month plus of activities that only in harlem can you have a monthlong week, so its still harlem week, but, you know, it is a month of activities, and we are on august 21st with harlem day. I always laugh. Every year, i ask the same question. Im like, but its not harlem week its like harlem month right. Yeah. Everybody says that, so now were just you know, we spent so much time calling it harlem week, and if we call it harlem month, then it might stretch that much further, so we say, lets keep it at harlem week so we rein ourselves in. And harlem week really was started to, you know, highlight the culture of the community. It really was started to highlight the culture, because, did not have the best of reputations. Yeah. It was tough times all over new york city, but harlem in particular. You know, if things happened, you know, in chelsea, it happened on 23rd street. If it happened in harlem, it happened in harlem, you know, and so there was a lot of negative perceptions. So harlem day was created to allow the community to feel better about living in the neighborhood and let them go out and be the ambassadors of harlem, and it really was able to showcase the institutions of 10, showcase all the museums and showcase the art and the music and all of those Different Things that, a lot of times, harlemites didnt know existed because theyd been so beat down by that point. They didnt realize, or maybe they forgot. They forgot. And they werent able to share as proudly as they might, so harlem day was created toward that purpose, and then it just grew and grew, and now we have people coming form all over the world to participate in harlem week. Estimate take advantage of all the wonderful activities . Well, its estimated that about 2. 5 Million People participate in harlem week throughout the time frame. And they come from, obviously, throughout the city and the region, but people come from all over the country and all over the world. We get calls throughout the year from places as far away as japan, australia, england, wanting to know the dates of harlem week and wanting to know what the events are and how can they come and be a part of it. And the beautiful thing about harlem and this event is that there is it really does sort of cover the breadth of what harlem is all the various tastes, the art. And, you know, you really try to reflect the community, and you do. You manage to reflect the community and all thats happened and its history. Absolutely. I mean, thats you know, i like to say harlem week allows for people to see everything that goes on in condensed, onemonth period, so whether its film festivals, whether its outdoor concerts, indoor concerts, youth conference, seniorcitizens days, economicdevelopment conferences, all of those Different Things we try to incorporate in what we do and what we promote during harlem week. Okay. So, today weve got all the music and then the arts and crafts, and then later in the week, theres also is there a classiccar show . Thats going on today, as a matter of fact. Thats today, too . Is going on today. Our second day of our childrens festival is going on today, where we are paying special tribute to muhammad ali. We also have four stages of entertainment going on today. We have a Health Village going on today. And then we lead in to different events. Oh, i should mention theres a dance competition going on today, as well. Okay. For all the dancers who are out there and they want to come out and dance a little bit. They can participate in the dance competition, as well. And next saturday theres a walk, so if youre not able to run 5k or you dont think you can run 5k, you can even walk. You can take the walk and bring the family out, walk with your children, your nieces, your nephews, et cetera. And we want to send folks to harlemweek. Com, and theres a list of all the activities. Absolutely. Thank you so much. Appreciate your being here, marko. Thank you so much. Thanks for joining us on here and now. If you missed any portion of todays show, you can watch at abc7ny, and if youd like to comment or email us at abc7ny or follow us on facebook and twitter. Im sandra bookman. Enjoy the rest of your day. . Hallelujah . . Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah . . . . . . Welcome to our world with black enterprise. Im your host, paul brunsoson. Coming up, my oneonone with the New York Times best selling author whose book chronicles the tale of two boys. If were not willing to learn from west or guys like west, were doomed to repeat this and if we act like tragedies dont happen, they keep happening. Plus our entrepreneurs of the week are gaining attention with their secret recipe for wings. We came up with stuffed chicken wings, pretty much we figured that a chicken wing is small, you know. A lot of people say they dont