Take it easy and take part in the Health Matters Spa Day, sponsored by the Barbados Ex-Police Association in Brooklyn on Saturday, March 8.
The daylong event of Swedish massage, reflexology treatments, foot and hand massages, and cleansing detox sessions will be held at the association’s headquarters, 703 Crown St. (between Troy and Schenectady Aves.) in Crown Heights, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Enclosed booths will be set up for privacy, and teas, fruit and holistic items will be available.
Appointments are necessary, and a client must check in 15 minutes before his or her appointment.
For prices, information and appointments, call (347) 513-1283 or (347) 787-3095.
Haitian health fund-raiser
The New York Chapter of the Association of Haitian Physicians Abroad will present its benefit gala dance on March 15 on Long Island at the Sand Castle Caterers, 519 Franklin Ave. in Franklin Square.
The fund-raiser, which will be held from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., will aid the 35-year-old association’s efforts to advocate for community health matters, help Haitian physicians and contribute to public health in Haiti.
The 2008 honorees include registered nurse Sonia Alfred; Dr. Linda Brady, president and CEO of Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center; Patrick Gaspard, executive vice president of the 1199 SEIU-Service Employee International Union; Life Underwriters Training Council Fellows Victor (Frerot) Leon and Serge Pinard, Fritzner Nau; Rep. Charles Rangel and Valerio Saint-Louis.
Tickets are $150 per person. To get information about tickets and sponsorship, call Dr. Jean-Robert Desrouleaux at (516) 292-7443, Dr. Mario Saint-Laurent at (718) 507-5656, Elsie Jean-Bart at (516) 473-3474, or visit www.amheny.org online.
Team Bickle benefit
THE TEAM JAMAICA Bickle hospitality project – which makes it possible for scores of Jamaican high school athletes to have meaningful and positive excursions to the annual Penn Relays track meeting in Philadelphia each year – will hold a big benefit concert in New York in April.
The Brooklyn College Performing Arts Center’s Whitman auditorium will be the site of the Team Jamaica on the Road to Beijing concert, which will be held April 20 starting at 7 p.m.
Proceeds from the benefit will help fund TJB’s Penn Relays efforts and support its scholarship fund. TJB founder Irwine Clare added that a donation, in honor of the late, great Jamaica Olympian Herb McKenley, will be made to help athletes preparing for the Olympics.
For information about the benefit show and opportunities for sponsorship of the event, call (718) 523-2861.
Summer law program
The word is out and students with a legal career in mind will come from all over to take part in the Ron Brown Summer Law Program, a St. John’s University’s School of Law effort to help low-income, first-generation college students and others achieve law degrees.
Eligible students from St. John’s, York College in Queens, Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn and Manhattan’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice can take part in the seven-to-eight-week-long program. Participants are taught by law professors, get the opportunity to get high-powered internships and a free Law School Admission Test prep course. Tuition and materials are free.
Prof. Racquel Brown-Gaston, who is the Medgar Evers’ pre-law advisor and a part of the selection process for students from her school, explained that the special program takes students away from their everyday environments and immerses them in the legal profession.
Low-income or first-generation college students and members of groups underrepresented in law school are eligible. Student must have a grade point average of 3.0 or better and have completed 45 to 75 credits as of June 2, 2008.
Students from the participating schools get more information by calling their respective colleges: Prof. Shirley Ostholm of York College at (718) 262-2692, Prof. Jodie Roure of John Jay College of Criminal Justice at (212) 237-8749 or Prof. Racquel Brown-Gaston of Medgar Evers College at (718) 270-5129. For information on the Ron Brown Summer Law Program, call Prof. Leonard Baynes of St. John’s University School of Law at (718) 990-6032.
Reggae museum update
CACE INTERNATIONAL TV – the cable television show produced by photographer and author Fikisha Cumbo – will air features on music archivist Roger Steffens’ coming reggae museum in Kingston, Jamaica and guitarist extraordinaire Stanley Jordan.
The Steffens segment can be seen on in Brooklyn on Wednesday, March 5 at 1:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. on cable channels 34 and 67. Manhattan cable channels 76 and 85 will air the Stanley Jordan special on Wednesday at 5 p.m.
For information and a full schedule of shows, visit www.caceinternational.com or an alternate website, www.myspace.com/caceinternationaltv.
Jamaican music pioneer dies
Owner and employees of Queen-based VP Records recently sent condolences to Jamaica on the passing of pioneering reggae producer Joe Gibbs, who died recently at 65.
Born Joel Gibson, he began his music career recording early Jamaican rock steady performers, and moved on to reggae, where he produced hundreds of hit songs over his career with artists such as The Heptones, Dennis Brown, Jacob Miller, The Mighty Diamonds and Gregory Isaacs.
At a prolific time in his career, his studio band, The Professionals, included drummer Sly Dunbar, bassist Robbie Shakespeare and guitarist Earl (Chinna) Smith. Gibson’s influence and contributions even extended into the dancehall era of the 1980s.
Reprinted with permission from the Sunday, March 2 New York Daily News.
