Latest news with #AliciaKeys'
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Brooklyn International H.S. nurtures students considering teaching careers
Field trips to Alicia Keys' Broadway show and the Jewish Museum, followed by writing assignments. A 1,500-word essay on any education topic. A 10th-grade seminar where students learn about different career paths in the education sector. At Brooklyn International High School in downtown Brooklyn, public school students from 32 different countries are exploring careers in education, as New York City embarks on a hiring blitz to meet a growing demand for teachers — whether to meet the needs of shifting student demographics or a new requirement to lower class sizes. Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos suggested she had been thinking about the issue since she led the school system's efforts to take in migrant students. 'I was relentless in saying that, as we welcomed thousands of migrant children into our school system, that we needed to be innovative with our approach to building the bilingual teacher pipeline,' she said during a school visit Tuesday with CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos Rodriguez. 'And there's no better place to do that than in our international schools.' Brooklyn International is one of 22 public schools offering an education career program through FutureReadyNYC, a signature initiative of the Adams administration, education officials said. Students earn college credits and job credentials, and participate in paid internships. In total, there are 135 schools in FutureReady citywide focused on health care, technology and other career paths — with plans for an expansion this fall. The career track in education is particularly timely. Independent budget analysts predict New York City will need to hire 17,000 new teachers to comply with the state law to lower class sizes. By fall 2028, classrooms will be capped between 20 and 25 students, depending on grade level. 'So many of them want to become teachers,' the chancellor's first deputy, Dan Weisberg, said of high school students. 'It's a job they see and, for many of them, they love. The FutureReady education pathway is definitely a major piece of the puzzle of how we open up our talent pipeline, for sure.' 'We don't know yet how many more will have ed[ucation] pathways for the next cohort, but it was a significant number that applied to have education pathways.' About 100 Brooklyn International students are on the education career track, according to Megan Minturn, the school's FutureReady coordinator. Another 50 students are expected to join the program this fall when the school launches its second career track in human and social services — focused on jobs such as being a social worker or counselor. Citywide, about 15,000 students are participating in FutureReady. Luis Ruiz, 27, is a graduate of Brooklyn International who participated in College Now, another partnership between the city's public schools and the City University of New York. Just a couple of weeks away from earning his master's degree in teaching English as a second language, he is back at his alma mater mentoring students like him who immigrated from South America to the United States. Ruiz, who is originally from Guatemala, said many of his students are from Ecuador and Venezuela: 'I feel like I can connect with them because I was once in their shoes.' More than 62% of Brooklyn International students speak Spanish as a home language, according to school data. Amy, a Brooklyn International student who is from Senegal, said she had been stressed over career decisions after high school, but her 10th-grade seminar helped her choose what she may want to do in the future. For now, her plan is to become a social worker. 'Because I love helping,' she said. 'I came here three years ago, and I feel connected when I help immigrants.'
Yahoo
09-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Giants' brings the provocative, exciting collection of Alicia Keys and Swizz Beats to the Mia
A pair of drum machines, turntables, Alicia Keys' Yamaha CP-70 piano stenciled with 'Love' and 'Freedom,' Swizz Beats' eight-channel mixer, and a trio of BMX bikes. These objects greet visitors before they step into the Minneapolis Institute of Art's latest exhibit, 'Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys.' Put together by Kimberli Grant, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, 'Giants' glimpses into the collection of the New York musicians. While the rest of the exhibit isn't as concerned with objects as the foyer, it sets a tone. It's a collection with an eye on both history and modernity. Those opening pieces, coupled with a soundtrack selected by Swizz Beats playing throughout the galleries, offer an inescapable sense that history is alive and taking place in plain sight. (The foyer also contains towering portraits of the collectors by Kehinde Wiley, an artist the Mia recently declined to exhibit due to allegations of sexual assault.) The nearly 100 pieces, many of which are appropriately giant, predominantly feature Black diasporic artists, including familiar names like Jean-Michel Basquiat and one-time St. Paul resident Gordon Parks, as well as a glittering soundsuit by Nick Cave, massive paintings of BMX bikers in Baltimore by Michelle Obama portraitist Amy Sherald, a multi-media collage by Ebony G. Patterson, and photographs by Jamel Shabazz. The music, the pervasive reminders that this is a private collection, and the thoughtful themeing of rooms — 'Becoming Giants,' 'Giant Presence,' 'Giant Conversation,' and 'On the Shoulders of Giants' — provide encouragement to connect the frequently bright and large-scale pieces to one another and to broader histories beyond the museum's walls. Amid Titus Kaphar's powerful triptychs or the awe-inducing room of paintings on gender and colonialism by Botswanan artist Meleko Mokgosi, 'Giants' amplifies the political themes found in individual pieces. Together, they provoke discussion on how collecting can be an investigation into which voices are centered and heard. (It's something Kaphar's "A Puzzled Revolution," found in the exhibit's second room, probes itself.) The statements on race and other issues are timely, arriving in Minneapolis just before the five-year anniversary of the Minneapolis Police killing of George Floyd. The presentation of bold artists assembled this way feels prescient in a moment when diversity initiatives are being vilified and extinguished, attempted book bans continue, and the government threatens to withhold funding from arts organizations that center artists of color, women, or queer voices. Even the exhibition's sponsorship — in part, the Center for Racial and Health Equity at Blue Cross Blue Shield, hosted in the Target Special Exhibitions Gallery — seems to invite these conversations as headlines frequently highlight the inequities of the healthcare system and Target retreats from diversity initiatives. It's a stark juxtaposition with a piece like Hank Willis Thomas' "You Shouldn't Be the Prisoner of Your Own Ideas (LeWitt)," a quilt made from the cloth of decommissioned prison uniforms. 'Giants,' full of exciting individual pieces thoughtfully assembled, will reward repeat visits for all it has to say, spoken and unspoken.
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Tank To Make Broadway Debut, Joining ‘Hell's Kitchen' Cast
After 25 years of being the self-proclaimed General of R&B, Tank is taking his talents to the theater. The crooner is making his Broadway debut, joining the cast of Alicia Keys' Hell's Kitchen in the role of Davis in a limited 13-week engagement. Tank is replacing Tony Award nominee Brandon Victor Dixon, who will take his final bow on Mar. 9. 'Stepping onto the Broadway stage is a dream come true,' said Tank in a statement. 'Music and acting have always been a part of my journey, and now, I get to bring them together in a whole new way. The energy of live theater is unmatched, and I'm honored to join this incredible cast and be part of telling this powerful story through Alicia Keys' music. This transition is both thrilling and humbling, and I can't wait to give audiences everything I've got!' Tank is a seasoned actor with notable roles in BET's The New Edition Story and The Bobby Brown Story, Preacher's Kid with LeToya Luckett, Lifetime's Seven Deadly Sins: Lust, HBO's Togetherness, and VH1's Born Again Virgin. Hell's Kitchen is a loose interpretation of Keys' life. 'The characters are definitely inspired by the city, inspired by my experiences of individuals and people,' she told VIBE when the play first opened. 'I think that's what gives it the richness and the relatability that you experience when you come. To me, that's why it feels so good, how art does imitate life because you're able to take the experiences, those fundamentals, those emotions, those connections, those layered, complex behaviors of humanity and put it all together into these stories that really, really hit you.' Tickets are available on the Hell's Kitchen official website, via and in-person at the Shubert Theatre box office. More from Tank Calls Out Homophobia, Addresses The "Gay Agenda" Tank Comes Out Of Retirement With R&B Version Of "Dreams And Nightmares" Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland Support Michelle Williams At 'Death Becomes Her' Opening Night
USA Today
09-02-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Watch Ledisi's fantastic Super Bowl performance of Lift Every Voice and Sing
Often referred to as the Black national anthem, a pregame performance of the hymn 'Lift Every Voice and Sing' has become a tradition at the Super Bowl. A pre-recorded video of Alicia Keys' rendition of the song played before the 2021 game, and in the past three years it has been performed live before kickoff by the likes of Mary Mary, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and most recently Andra Day in 2024. Before Super Bowl LIX between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles in New Orleans on Sunday, the Grammy-award winning artist Ledisi performed the song written by James Weldon Johnson in 1900. Ledisi, 52, won a Grammy in 2021 for Best Traditional R&B Performance for 'Anything For You.' She's also a New Orleans native. Here's her performance of 'Lift Every Voice and Sing.' 🙏 @ledisi performs 'Lift Every Voice And Sing' prior to Super Bowl LIX — FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) February 9, 2025 This star-studded Super Bowl will feature a halftime performance from Kendrick Lamar, who recently took home his own collection of Grammys. DIVE DEEPER INTO FOR THE WIN: Start your day with The Morning Win newsletter for columns, insights and irreverent musings from the world of sports and pop culture
