As the mayor prepares to slash funding for after-school programs across the city, Hunts Point children and their parents are bracing for a difficult future without such free safe havens as the Smart Kidz program at Casita Maria on Simpson Street. “When people talk about cuts, they’re not cuts, they’re [...]
By Daniel Bejarano In the 1950s and ’60s the streets of the South Bronx were brimming with music. The sound of conga drums reverberated between rooftops. Afro-Cuban and jazz rhythms merged with son, mambo and chachacha beats on stoops in Hunts Point, Longwood and Mott Haven to create a new [...]
By Daniel Bejarano With the inauguration of Casita Maria’s new library at 928 Simpson Street, kids in kindergarten through 12th grade will have access to over 3,000 books. They were collected in a book donation drive that started last November and ended in January. The library’s primary goal is to [...]
Sister Thomas was standing on a bandstand on Southern Boulevard when her “bobble-head” likeness passed by. Children from a SEBCO afterschool program fashioned the figurine of the well-known community leader from a papier-mâché orb, a pink cardigan and a photograph as part of their entry for this year’s New South [...]