A New Hampshire town and a bakery owner are headed for trial in a First Amendment dispute
A First Amendment dispute over a bright painting that shows sunbeams shining down on a mountain range made of sprinkle-covered chocolate and strawberry doughnuts, a blueberry muffin, a cinnamon roll and other pastries is scheduled for trial Thursday. A federal judge in New Hampshire will consider whether a town is infringing on the free speech rights of the bakery owner who's displaying the mural over his business. (AP Video by Robert Bukaty, Ty ONeil)
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San Francisco Chronicle
5 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
The home of one of the largest catalogs of Black history turns 100 in New York
NEW YORK (AP) — It is one of the largest repositories of Black history in the country — and its most devoted supporters say not enough people know about it. The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture hoped to change that Saturday, as it celebrated its centennial with a festival combining two of its marquee annual events. The Black Comic Book Festival and the Schomburg Literary Festival ran across a full day and featured readings, panel discussions, workshops, children's story times and cosplay, as well as a vendor marketplace. Saturday's celebration took over 135th Street in Manhattan between Malcolm X and Adam Clayton Powell boulevards. Founded in New York City during the height of the Harlem Renaissance, the Schomburg Center will spend the next year exhibiting signature objects curated from its massive catalog of Black literature, art, recordings and films. Artists, writers and community leaders have gone the center to be inspired, root their work in a deep understanding of the vastness of the African diaspora, and spread word of the global accomplishments of Black people. It is also the kind of place that, in an era of backlash against race-conscious education and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, exists as a free and accessible branch of the New York Public Library system. It's open to the public during regular business hours, but its acclaimed research division requires an appointment. 'The longevity the Schomburg has invested in preserving the traditions of the Black literary arts is worth celebrating, especially in how it sits in the canon of all the great writers that came beforehand,' said Mahogany Brown, an author and poet-in-residence at the Lincoln Center, who participated in the literary festival. On Saturday, Dr. Jenny Uguru, director of nursing quality at NYC Health and Hospitals, said the Schomburg Center 'stands as an archive to celebrate, recognize and uplift what Black people bring to the table, will bring to future tables.' For the centennial, the Schomburg's leaders have curated more than 100 items for an exhibition that tells the center's story through the objects, people, and the place — the historically Black neighborhood of Harlem — that shaped it. Those objects include a visitor register log from 1925-1940 featuring the signatures of Black literary icons and thought leaders, such as Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes; materials from the Fab 5 Freddy collection, documenting the earliest days of hip-hop; and actor and director Ossie Davis' copy of the 'Purlie Victorious' stage play script. An audio guide to the exhibition has been narrated by actor and literacy advocate LeVar Burton, the former host of the long-running TV show 'Reading Rainbow.' Whether they are new to the center or devoted supporters, visitors to the centennial exhibition will get a broader understanding of the Schomburg's history, the communities it has served, and the people who made it possible, said Joy Bivins, the Director of the Schomburg Center, who curated the centennial collection. 'Visitors will understand how the purposeful preservation of the cultural heritage of people of African descent has generated and fueled creativity across time and disciplines,' Bivins said. Novella Ford, associate director of public programs and exhibitions, said the Schomburg Center approaches its work through a Black lens, focusing on Black being and Black aliveness as it addresses current events, theories, or issues. 'We're constantly connecting the present to the past, always looking back to move forward, and vice versa,' Ford said. Still, many people outside the Schomburg community remain unaware of the center's existence — a concerning reality at a time when the Harlem neighborhood continues to gentrify around it and when the Trump administration is actively working to restrict the kind of race-conscious education and initiatives embedded in the center's mission. 'We amplify scholars of color,' Ford said. 'It's about reawakening. It gives us the tools and the voice to push back by affirming the beauty, complexity, and presence of Black identity.' Founder's donation seeds center's legacy The Schomburg Center has 11 million items in one of the oldest and largest collections of materials documenting the history and culture of people of African descent. That is a credit to founder Arturo Schomburg, an Afro-Latino historian born to a German father and African mother in Santurce, Puerto Rico. He was inspired to collect materials on Afro-Latin Americans and African American culture after a teacher told him that Black people lacked major figures and a noteworthy history. Schomburg moved to New York in 1891 and, during the height of the Harlem Renaissance in 1926, sold his collection of approximately 4,000 books and pamphlets to the New York Public Library. Selections from Schomburg's personal holdings, known as the seed library, are part of the centennial exhibition. Ernestine Rose, who was the head librarian at the 135th Street branch, and Catherine Latimer, the New York Public Library's first Black librarian, built on Schomburg's donation by documenting Black culture to reflect the neighborhoods around the library. Today, the library serves as a research archive of art, artifacts, manuscripts, rare books, photos, moving images and recorded sound. Over the years, it has grown in size, from a reading room on the third floor to three buildings that include a small theater and an auditorium for public programs, performances and movie screenings. Aysha Schomburg, the great-granddaughter of the center's founder, said she understands why many people still don't know about the library. When her parents first met, her mother had no idea what was behind the walls of the Schomburg Center, even being from Harlem herself. 'This is with every generation,' Schomburg told The Associated Press while out at the festival on Saturday. 'We have to make sure we're intentional about inviting people in. So even the centennial festival, we're bringing the Schomburg out literally into the street, into the community and saying, 'here we are.' ' Youth scholars seen as key to center's future For years, the Schomburg aimed to uplift New York's Black community through its Junior Scholars Program, a tuition-free program that awards dozens of youth from 6th through 12th grade. The scholars gain access to the center's repository and use it to create a multimedia showcase reflecting the richness, achievements, and struggles of today's Black experience. It's a lesser-known aspect of the Schomburg Center's legacy. That's in part because some in the Harlem community felt a divide between the institution and the neighborhood it purports to serve, said Damond Haynes, a former coordinator of interpretive programs at the center, who also worked with the Junior Scholars Program. But Harlem has changed since Haynes started working for the program about two decades ago. 'The Schomburg was like a castle,' Haynes said. "It was like a church, you know what I mean? Only the members go in. You admire the building.' For those who are exposed to the center's collections, the impact on their sense of self is undeniable, Haynes said. Kids are learning about themselves like Black history scholars, and it's like many families are passing the torch in a right of passage, he said. 'A lot of the teens, the avenues that they pick during the program, media, dance, poetry, visual art, they end up going into those programs,' Haynes said. 'A lot the teens actually find their identity within the program.'
San Francisco Chronicle
6 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Doctor charged with supplying Matthew Perry ketamine will plead guilty to distributing the drug
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A doctor charged with giving Matthew Perry ketamine in the month leading up to the 'Friends' star's overdose death has agreed to plead guilty, authorities said Monday. Dr. Salvador Plasencia has agreed to plead guilty to four counts of distribution of ketamine, federal prosecutors said in a statement. They said the plea carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison, and Plasencia is expected to enter the plea in the coming weeks. Plasencia and a woman accused of being a ketamine dealer had been the primary targets of the prosecution, after three other defendants, including another doctor, agreed to plead guilty in exchange for their cooperation. Plasencia had been scheduled to start trial in August. An email to his attorney seeking comment was not immediately answered. The 'Friends' star Perry was found dead by his assistant on Oct. 28, 2023. The medical examiner ruled that ketamine was the primary cause of death. The actor had been using the drug through his regular doctor in a legal but off-label treatment for depression that has become increasingly common. Perry, 54, began seeking more ketamine than his doctor would give him. About a month before the actor's death, he found Plasencia, a doctor who who in turn allegedly asked the other doctor, Mark Chavez, to obtain the drug for him, according to court filings in the Chavez case. 'I wonder how much this moron will pay,' Plasencia texted Chavez, according to court filings from prosecutors. The two met up the same day in Costa Mesa, halfway between Santa Monica, California, where Plasencia practiced and San Diego, where Chavez practiced, and exchanged at least four vials of ketamine, the filings said. After selling the drugs to Perry for $4,500, Plasencia allegedly asked Chavez if he could keep supplying them so they could become Perry's 'go-to,' prosecutors said. While Plasencia is accused of supplying the bulk of Perry's ketamine in his final weeks, another defendant, Jasmine Sangha, who prosecutors allege was a major ketamine dealer, is alleged to have provided the dose that killed the actor. She is also scheduled to go to trial in August. She has pleaded not guilty — making her the only one of the five people charged in Perry's death who has not entered a plea agreement. Perry struggled with addiction for years, dating back to his time on 'Friends,' when he became one of the biggest stars of his generation as Chandler Bing. He starred alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004 on NBC's megahit.
New York Post
10 hours ago
- New York Post
Aaron Rodgers' family not sure QB's surprise marriage actually happened
Those related to Aaron Rodgers are apparently questioning the validity of his marriage. That's according to a new report published Monday by the Daily Mail, in which insiders alleged 'the family is unconvinced the marriage is real,' and that the new Steelers QB 'may have had a symbolic 'commitment ceremony' instead of a legally binding wedding.' The report comes on the heels of Rodgers' stunning revelation last week that he's been married 'a couple of months.' Advertisement 7 Aaron Rodgers revealed in June 2025 that he's a married man. AP 7 Relatives of the new Steelers QB were apparently stunned by the news. AP The ex-Jets quarterback, 41, sent speculation about his personal life into overdrive in early June when he was photographed wearing a black band in his contract signing photo for the Steelers, with whom he agreed to play for on a one-year, $13.65 million deal. Advertisement Rodgers revealed in December 2024 he was in a relationship with a woman named Brittani — someone his younger brother, Jordan Rodgers, and his wife, JoJo Fletcher, aren't familiar with. 'Jordan and JoJo didn't go to the wedding and don't even know anything really about Brittani,' a source previously told the Daily Mail of the couple, who wed in 2022 after getting engaged on the famed reality TV dating show 'The Bachelorette' in 2016. 7 Members of Aaron Rodgers' family have allegedly learned bits about Brittani from his parents, seen here in 2011. AP 7 Jordan Rodgers and his wife, JoJo Fletcher. FilmMagic Advertisement 'What they've heard is secondhand from his parents [Ed and Darla Rodgers].' Rodgers, known for having frosty family relations, is said to have caught loved ones 'off guard' with the union. And as of Monday, 'public records show no trace of a legal marriage,' the Daily Mail reported, citing a clerk in Rodgers' rumored new Pennsylvania county and county officials in Las Vegas. Although the Super Bowl-winning quarterback has kept this new chapter largely under wraps, he's been public about past relationships. Advertisement 7 Aaron Rodgers has been open about past romances, including his two-year relationship with Danica Patrick. Getty Images 7 Shailene Woodley and Aaron Rodgers were previously engaged. Disney Parks Rodgers was involved with actresses Olivia Munn and Shailene Woodley, to whom he was previously engaged. The former Packer also dated retired NASCAR star Danica Patrick for two years. 7 Aaron Rodgers wore his wedding band during Steelers practice in June 2025. Archie Carpenter/UPI/Shutterstock Patrick, 43, recently made startling allegations about her relationship with Rodgers when discussing their 2020 breakup on a May installment of 'The Sage Steele Show.' 'It felt like it was my life. So when you live with somebody, it's your whole life… And because the nature of the relationship was emotionally abusive, so that wore me down to nothing,' she said. Advertisement Reps for Rodgers did not immediately return Page Six's request for comment following Patrick's comments. Rodgers will make his regular-season debut for the Steelers on Sept. 7 against his former Jets team.
