Community activists are hoping that planned construction projects won't disturb the remains of African slaves buried in a long-forgotten 17th century cemetery underneath an MTA bus depot on East 126th Street. With the MTA planning to replace the bus facility and the city renovating the nearby Willis Avenue Bridge, locals are trying to preserve the graveyard in an effort to keep the burial ground from being desecrated. more ›

The percentage of black students at New York City's best high schools has fallen over the past seven years, since the Mayor took control of public schools. Fewer black students attend seven of the eight public high schools that require entrance exams for admittance, while the number of African American students has stayed the same or fallen at 10 of the 12 schools where more than 90 percent of students graduate with Regents diplomas. more ›

In a major demographic shift for a neighborhood that has long been "synonymous with black urban America," the majority of Harlem residents are no longer black, according to the Times. In a decade when Harlem's population grew more than it has since the 1940s, the number of black residents has fallen to its lowest point since the 1920s. more ›

Yesterday, Senator John McCain was welcomed and endorsed by President Bush. Bush referenced McCain's doubters and past history, "John showed incredible courage and strength of character and perseverance in order to get to this moment. And that's exactly what we need in a President: somebody that can handle the tough decisions; somebody who won't flinch in the face of danger." more ›

I hate going to Broadway shows: fighting through the mobs in Times Square, being herded into the theater like livestock, cramming into a tiny seat while feedback from hearing aids and hacking coughs reverberate on all sides. Admittedly, I’m a world-class grouch when it comes to these things, so it’s no faint praise that I’d eagerly subject myself to it again for Passing Strange, the multidisciplinary rock musical that just blazed onto Broadway. It’s a phenomenal experience that deserves a run ten times longer than Cats and Phantom combined. more ›

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Train muralist James Top (aka JEE 2) was part of the legendary Odd Partners in the 1970s. The Brooklyn crew bombed with throw ups and block letters; they were highly regarded and had a strong presence in the city. These days Top has taken his art indoors -- teaching a graffiti class in the Bronx and, this weekend, opening his first New York exhibit. more ›

A lawsuit filed Monday against the City Campaign Finance Board seeks to overturn a recently enacted funding law that opponents assert will just make the City Council richer - and whiter. The recently-enacted campaign finance restrictions reduces the contributions from companies who do business with the city by a whopping 92%. Translation: In a mayoral race, the individual limit on giving is now $400, versus $4,950; in City Council races, it's $250, down from $2,950. more ›

In the vicious waters of the 2008 presidential campaign, everything is fair game. President Bill Clinton learned that (again!) after a remark he made has drawn the ire of black leaders. So Clinton called into the Reverend Al Sharpton's radio show to explain why used the term "fairy tale" while criticizing Barack Obama. more ›

After months and months of delays, the BAM Cultural District may be moving forward. The NY Times is reporting that city officials have chosen Harlem-based developer and Brooklyn resident Carlton Brown to create what the Times' Terry Pristin calls the "cultural district's centerpiece." This is the first Brooklyn project for Brown, who developed the Kalahari and 1400 on Fifth in Harlem and the Solaire, the city's first residential green building, in Battery Park City. The... more ›

investigation by the Hate Crimes Task Force. more ›

MOVIE: In the unlikeliest of scenarios, rapper (and jeweler) Paul Wall, his grills, Reggaetón king Tego Calderón and Wu-Tang's Raekwon traveled to Sierra Leone. The outcome is an informative documentary called Bling: A Planet Rock which focuses on "the flashy world of commercial hip-hop jewelry played a significant role in the ten-year civil war" in West Africa. more ›

A look at some noteworthy television this week: more ›

The Copacabana, perhaps best known as the muse for Barry Manilow's song of the same name, is closing this weekend (the papers are reporting last night, however their website has a flyer for a Last Dance, tonight). more ›

A look at some noteworthy programs this week:
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THEATER: For a limited run at HERE, James Scruggs and Kristin Marting are presenting RUS, a “multimedia psychosexual murder mystery”, that uses experimental “video puppets”, salsa and tango-inspired movement to “recreate the seedy reality that lies just beneath our everyday lives. Lost in a labyrinth of repeating memories, and trapped in a failing marriage, Rus, an African American man, yearns to feel something new, full and real. But when a car accident connects Rus to Sonny, a gay hustler, he descends into a world of sex, drugs and violence, inevitably leading him down the path to destruction. When Sonny turns up dead, Rus becomes the prime target of a police investigation… but is he a murderer?” Ends Saturday. - John Del Signore more ›

, don't subject us to this. more ›

When you get up early tomorrow to see if Punxsutawney Phil or Staten Island Chuck see their shadows, try to remember to put on something red! February is American Heart Month and the American Heart Association (AHA) is launching the HEART for Women campaign to raise awareness. And the AHA is encouraging everyone to wear red this Friday to spread the word. more ›

VACATION: The Greater Fort Lauderdale visitors' bureau has brought the Sunshine State to NYC in the form of a 3,600-square foot virtual vacation. The space includes a palm tree-lined "beach", complimentary mini-massages and, of course, bikini clad models. Virtual fishing, golf and more, will make you forget the sudden drop in temperature. more ›

The Midtown International Theatre Festival, which opened this week and runs through August 6, is at only 2 venues and has a far smaller number of shows in its lineup than does the Fringe Festival, but that makes it more manageable, a great warm-up, if you will, to the upcoming binge that will sprawl out over most of lower Manhattan and eat every good theatre lover’s schedule alive. This weekend, Gothamist brings you mini reviews of 5 very different shows in the festival: The Girls of Summer; Where Three Roads Meet; The Siblings; Love, Punky; and AfterWords (which is actually a set of three short plays). Check out the festival website for these shows' schedules, as well as to see the other shows on tap. As always, the opinions expressed below are the reviewer’s alone, not Gothamist’s. more ›

FILM: Dutch animator Paul Driessen (who you know even if you don't realize it - he did the Beatles' Yellow Submarine movie), will have films from the last 30 years screened at BAM - as part of their Animation Festival. Step into his socially conscious fantasy world! more ›

Via Kottke: AssembleMe put together a nice set of NYC population graphs for the NYC Demographics page on Wikipedia. What impressed us what how dominant Brooklyn has been in population for the last 90 years-- although it looks like Queens is closing in, having passed Manhattan in the late 1960s. Even Staten Island is closing in on Manhattan-- maybe it's the rent prices! more ›

This week at the movies, there's good news and bad news. The bad news is that the new releases are seriously scrapping the bottom of the quality bucket. How many weeks now has it been that we've had this complaint? The good news is that, as per usual, there's load of other fascinating movie related events In New York to sink your teeth into with relish. more ›

We were clicking around last night when we came across this entrancing animated-GIF of Al Roker on David Cho's site. It is reminiscent of these recent animations of Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, where their facial expressions are strangely static-- but of course, it's a million times better because it's Al Roker. Seems like we aren't the only ones with Roker-on-the-brain today- check out this list from McSweeney's: more ›

It had been awhile since Gothamist was at Second Stage, so we were glad to find it in the excellent form we remembered with its latest show, a revival of Charles Fuller’s A Soldier’s Play. Fuller won the 1982 Pulitzer in drama for it, and was nominated for an Academy Award when it was turned into a movie (A Soldier’s Story), so we went in with high expectations, and fortunately those didn’t jinx anything. We can’t claim to be able to compare this production with the original, but taking the current one on its own terms, we thought the cast top-notch and the staging well-paced and just spare enough to ensure that the events at hand are clearly situated but not overwhelmed with extras. Those events, though technically in 1944 and being viewed from Fuller’s early 1980s vantage point, make the play’s central subject one that will, sadly, probably never cease to be current and pressing – racial divisions. The setting of Louisiana, so recently the real-life stage where the differences between African American and white people in this country played out, only heightens the awareness you have throughout that A Soldier’s Play is still painfully relevant on that level, but it’s also, and maybe above all, a highly effective dramatization of the struggle within the black community to determine which values are going to dominate and act as a cohesive force – something that is just as ongoing but not usually as high-profile, so Fuller’s addition to the conversation, and this strong revival of it, are all the more welcome. more ›

- A judge is delaying the Fulton Fish Market's move to the Bronx, which means a delay of at least three weeks more ›

Well, would you look at that: When the four Democratic mayoral candidates bands together and supports Fernando Ferrer, the Bloomberg campaign gets worried. Ferrer was joined by C. Virginia Fields, Gifford Miller, and the runner-up in the primary, Anthony Weiner, in what Newsday called a "unity ritual" at City Hall, to show that the city's Democratic party could hold hands and that only they could fight the billionaire Mayor. The Mayor's team scrambled to paint him as being in touch with the common man by having Mayor Bling hold a press conference with Reverend Calvin Butts, the influential preacher in the African American community, who praised the Mayor and said the city shouldn't change its path. Fun fact: They met at the Harlem IHOP. more ›

- And for all of you worried about how Katrina has affected the animals, Gothamist was relieved to find out that the Houston Zoo also been helping New Orleans' Audobon Zoo by sheltering their animals... you can also donate to the Humane Society more ›