Comedy tonight at Flushing Town Hall

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Gone are the days that you’d have to trek all the way to Manhattan or Western Queens for some good stand-up comedy. Tonight, Flushing Town Hall will be hosting the Laff Lab Comedy Club from 7 p.m.

Come down and listen to some local up-and-coming comedians perform such as Andrew Lee, Howard Newman, Derrick “OC” Reid, Michael Young Cho, Mel Garlick and Michael Young Cho. Tickets are free with RSVP.

You can RSVP at www.laff-lab.com/

Audition for the Lutheran Church of the Messiah choir

messiah lutheran imageIf you have experience in singing in a high school, college or church choir, and you’d like to get involved with a local church choir once more, you can check out the Lutheran Church of the Messiah.

The church is getting ready for their May concert and are holding rehearsals every Monday from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Those who are interested can attend rehearsals and see if joining the choir is something you’d like to do.

In a statement, the choir wrote, “Our director is most capable of bringing out the best in people who like to sing and have some knowledge of written music. Aside from our love of singing, we have a good time. After all, we are beginning our 56th year – we must be doing something right!”

For more information call 718-326-1922 or 718-224-0204, or email csofq@aol.com.

Dozens arrested in LaGuardia Airport demonstration

lGA proitestHundreds of city officials, airport workers and advocates rallied for higher wages and benefits at a Martin Luther King Day rally on a cold Monday afternoon.

Dozens were arrested in the demonstration, including Manhattan council members Corey Johnson and Mark Levine and Harlem Assemblyman Keith Wright.

The rally continued the call for a $15 an hour minimum wage, extended benefits and a right to unionize for airport workers. Led by 32BJ, the largest service employees union, the protest was part of a nine-city civil disobedience action.

Hector Figueroa, president of 32BJ, said Dr. Martin Luther King demanded a $2 minimum wage when he marched on Washington in 1963. Adjusted for inflation, that would roughly be $15.51 per hour today.

“This is how we celebrate the birthday of the great Dr. Martin Luther King, we celebrate by taking a stand,” Figueroa said. “He would be 87 years old today. We are fighting for what Dr. King fought for in 1963.”

This demonstration came two months after the union led a multi-city Thanksgiving fast for higher wages and more benefits.

Full story here.

Global arts shape winter lineup in Flushing

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With Queens being one of the most diverse places in the world, Flushing Town Hall’s new Winter and Spring seasons surely reflects the global community through the arts.

From January to June, the venue will host dozens of performances and exhibitions ranging from jazz musical performances led by NEA Jazz Master Jimmy Heath to improv storytelling sessions. Last Thursday, Flushing Town Hall hosted a preview of those upcoming performances. Musicians such as Falu Shah took to the stage to sing or play classic traditional music, while artist Skip La Plante demonstrated a small sample of his unique Symphony of Chimes.

The Symphony of Chimes WHEN includes hundreds of items created into various chimes, including the use of forks, spoons, tweezers, compasses and license plates.

“This is an amazing opportunity because I lived in a loft in Manhattan for so many years and never thought to make a definitive piece until my building got sold,” La Plante said. “The place we have in RIdgewood now can hold about 30 chimes on the ceiling.

“Flushing Town Hall said we could make the piece here so there’s not much of a more definitive statement.”

Not only are the chimes visually quirky and appealing, but the harmonious sounds that the chimes can give off are quite surprising. One of the more unexpected, bizarre items that La Plante has used as wind chimes includes aspects of a broken lobster pot such as the metal cage, aluminum rings and string webbing. A lot of the process is trial and error, but the result is a wonderful interactive musical display.

Shah, meanwhile, will be backed up by her Bollywood Orchestra when she performs on March 26th. Trained in Northern Indian classical music, Shah comes from generations of female singers. She’s known for her involvement in the creation of a genre of music called Indie Hindi, where all the songs are in English but are based on Indian ragas, or melodic scales.

For her performance at Flushing Town Hall, Shah and the Bollywood Orchestra will perform classic Bollywood songs from the 1960s and 1970s.

“Those are my favorite songs, done before I was even born, but they’ve lived for 30 years and I want them to live for 30 more years in a way that my kids’ kids can love them too,” Shah said. “We try to figure out how to modernize the same songs to make them relevant while keeping the same melody.”

Read the full story here

Flushing Woman Accused of Keeping Two Korean Children As Slaves

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According to DA Richard Brown, A Flushing woman allegedly held two Korean children in her house as slaves for the past six years.

“The defendant lives on a quiet, tree-lined Queens street with neat brick veneer homes that offered no clues to the horrors that she allegedly made her two young victims endure beginning when they were nine and eleven in age,” said District Attorney Brown

She has been forcing them to do housework, give her massages, and work until 2 a.m. each night before going to sleep on the floor, the Queens District Attorney reported.

Park has been charged with labor trafficking, third-degree assault, and endangering the welfare of a child.

Over the six years the siblings were in Park’s captivity, they were regularly subject to physical abuse, according to the DA’s report:

Park routinely beat them by striking them with objects, slapping them, stepping on their legs and kicking them about the body for not obeying her orders, causing them to fear her…. In November 2015, Park allegedly scratched the female victim about the legs with a nail clipper, causing scratches and substantial pain, because the manicure and pedicure that the victim was giving her were not up to her standards.Two months later, on January 4, 2016, Park alleged became angry with the female victim and began kicking her on her leg, causing swelling and substantial pain, and the following day, Park became angry with her and cut off her hair and kicked her in the head, causing swelling and substantial pain.

 

 

Read the full release here.

Outline your health priorities for Flushing

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The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is hosting an information session for Flushing to outline the health priorities of their neighborhood to city officials. The program is part of Take Care New York, a initiative to narrow the health gaps between New York City neighborhoods.

“In New York City health outcomes differ dramatically between communities – poor health outcomes cluster in places where resources and opportunities are limited,” a flier about the event reads.

The event is Wednesday, Jan. 13 from 6-8 p.m. at the Flushing Library Community Room, 41-17 Main St.

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Recycle with the Queens Botanical Garden

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On Sunday, January 10, the Queens Botanical Garden will be hosting a day filled with recycling events for everyone in the family.

From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., there will be the 13th Annual Electronic Waste Recycling Event in conjunction with the Lower East Side Ecology Center. At the event, you can dispose of broken or unwanted gadgets.

The drop off location will be at the parking garden entrance at 42-81 Crommelin Avenue.

Children will also get the opportunity to learn about recycling at the Education building from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. In fact, kids will be able to create crafts out of recycled and repurposed items.