Members of Son of Bazerk perform at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame on June 11. Photo by Rita J. Egan
Members of Son of Bazerk perform at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame on June 11. Photo by Rita J. Egan
MC Glamorous performs at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame on June 11. Photo by Rita J. Egan
DJ Johnny Juice and AJ Ron perform at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame on June 11. Photo by Rita J. Egan
Dinco D performs at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame on June 11. Photo by Rita J. Egan
DJ Johnny Juice and Dinco D perform at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame on June 11. Photo by Rita J. Egan
Dinco D performs at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame on June 11. Photo by Rita J. Egan
Keith Shocklee during the June 11 hip-hop Q&A at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame. Photo by Rita J. Egan
Long Island hip-hop artists at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame on June 11 celebrating 50 years of hip-hop. Photo by Rita J. Egan
Artist Sherwin Banfield explains the details on the statue honoring LL Cool J. Photo by Rita J. Egan
AJ Rok from JVC Force and DJ Wildman Steve talk about the early days of hip-hop. Photos by Rita J. Egan
Many who visited the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame in Stony Brook Sunday, June 11, may have thought they stumbled upon a family reunion. In a way they did, as Long Island hip-hop artists were on hand to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the genre at an event hosted by the museum and venue.
The Sunday afternoon event started with a “knock out” presentation as the museum unveiled a statue of LL Cool J, born James Todd Smith in Bay Shore. The actor, rapper, songwriter and music producer’s successes include the hit “Mama Said Knock You Out” (1990) and his role on “NCIS: Los Angeles.”
The statue, known as The G.O.A.T. Monument, is officially titled “Going Back to The Meadows, A Tribute to LL COOL J and Performance at FMCP” and was created in 2021 by artist Sherwin Banfield. During the unveiling ceremony, Banfield pointed out different accents he included on the 8 1/2-feet tall, 600-pound statue, including a boom box with a cassette tape of the rapper’s debut album “Radio” (1985). Banfield also played homage on the piece to what he called “the determination pin.” The rapper’s right arm was paralyzed when he was younger, and his mother would pin his right sleeve to the mattress to inspire movement.
Composed of bronze, stainless steel, steel, winter stone, resin, cement and wood, the statue was displayed in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park for a year. It includes a solar panel that powers an audio system.
Blasts from the past
Visitors were treated to performances as well as a Q&A panel where the artists shared stories from the early days of their careers, many of them knowing each other since they were younger.
Before the performances featuring DJ Jazzy Jay (John Bayas), DJ Johnny Juice Rosado, AJ Rok (AJ Woodson) of JVC Force, MC Glamorous (Chaplain Jamillah), Dinco D (James Jackson) of Leaders of the New School and the group Son of Bazerk, the artists participated in the Q&A panel along with Keith Shocklee of the producing team The Bomb Squad and an original member of Public Enemy as well as video jockey and director Ralph McDaniels. The panel members were happy to share the history of hip-hop on Long Island stories with attendees.
Shocklee, who was born in Roosevelt, said he, along with his brother and friends, started DJing by playing in his family’s basement in the 1970s. They then began to play at local youth centers around the Island and throw parties in friends’ basements and backyards. Soon they were DJing at the local parks. While others would go to Centennial Park in Roosevelt to play basketball, other young people would go to play music, Shocklee said.
“It’s something we did to stay off the streets of Long Island,” he said. “It wasn’t as dangerous as the Bronx or Brooklyn, but you had your stick-up kids.”
MC Glamorous, originally from Freeport, said events such as Roosevelt Day, Freeport Day and Wyandanch Day gave the communities something to look forward to and the artists a chance to perform.
“It brought people together, and we got a day to shine also with those jams,” she said.
Shocklee said Long Island hip-hop artists in the 1970s were aware the Bronx was the epicenter of hip-hop, where he said the DJ technique scratch, MCs, hip-hop culture and breakdancing were born and developed.
McDaniels said the hip-hop culture on Long Island was different from what was happening in the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and parts of New Jersey. He said when he hosted “Video Music Box” he was able to compare music scenes.
“There was something going on in Long Island that was different,” he said. “When I heard Public Enemy, when I heard EPMD [from Brentwood], I was like, ‘This is different.’ This is not what the rest of the city or the rest of the country sounds like, and I think that’s what makes Long Island its own — or Strong Island — its own unique sound, because we weren’t as thirsty. We had homes. Some of us had parents. Some of us went to college. We were relaxed.”
McDaniels reference to “Strong Island” was a song recorded in 1988 by JVC Force sampling a phrase that Public Enemy’s Chuck D used while working as a DJ at Adelphi University’s radio station, WBAU.
Woodson, who spent several of his younger years in Central Islip, said the reason the group recorded the song “Strong Island” was because “you literally had to be from the five boroughs to get respect.”
Bayas, who was part of the development of Def Jam Recordings, remembered when he would come down from the Bronx to play in Amityville, and the first time he said, “We’re going out to the country.”
During those visits to the Island, he said he met hip-hop artists Biz Markie, Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith — the latter two from EPMD — when they were children. Bayas said before hip-hop, if someone didn’t know how to play an instrument, they weren’t considered a musician. For that reason, he learned to play the drums and, as a DJ, he said he and others were always searching for the rare group to play at the parties.
“Hip-hop allowed us to be musicians because we have something to offer, because we know what music to play,” Bayas said.
The LIMEHOF received a surprise visit toward the end of the event from rapper Keith Murray who grew up in Central Islip. The venue had to postpone its induction of The Fat Boys, from Brooklyn, as surviving member Kool Rock-Ski (Damon Wimbley) was unable to attend at the last minute.
Ali Khosronejad in front of the Santa Maria Cathedral, which is considered the first modern cathedral in Madrid.
By Daniel Dunaief
An approaching weather front brings heavy rains and a storm surge, threatening to inundate homes and businesses with dangerous water and potentially undermining critical infrastructure like bridges.
Once officials figure out the amount of water that will affect an area, they can either send out inspectors to survey the exact damage or they can use models that take time to process and analyze the likely damage.
Ali Khosronejad
Ali Khosronejad, Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at Stony Brook University, hopes to use artificial intelligence to change that.
Khosronejad recently received $550,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for four years to create a high-fidelity model using artificial intelligence that will predict the flood impact on infrastructure.
The funds, which will be available starting on June 20, will support two PhD students who will work to provide an artificial intelligence-based program that can work on a single laptop at a “fraction of the cost of more advanced modeling approaches,” Khosronejad said during an interview in Madrid, Spain, where he is on sabbatical leave under a Fulbright U.S Senior Scholar Award. He is doing his Fulbright research at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.
Stony Brook University will also provide some funding for these students, which will help defray the cost of expenses related to traveling and attending conferences and publishing papers.
In the past, Stony Brook has been “quite generous when it comes to supporting graduate students working on federally funded projects,” Khosronejad explained and he hopes that continues with this research.
Khosronejad and his students will work with about 50 different flooding and terrain scenarios, which will cover about 95 percent of extreme flooding. These 50 possibilities will cover a range of waterways, infrastructure, topography, and coastal areas. The researchers will feed data into their high fidelity supercomputing cluster simulations to train artificial intelligence to assess the likely damage from a flood.
As they build the model, Khosronejad explained that they will collect data from floods, feed them into the computer and test how well the computer predicts the kind of flooding that has can cause damage or threaten the stability of structures like bridges. Over the next four years, the team will collect data from the Departments of Transportation in California, Minnesota and New York.
Nearly six years ago, his team attempted to use algorithms available in ChatGPT for some of his AI development. Those algorithms, however, didn’t predict flood flow prediction. He tried to develop new algorithms based on convolutional neural networks. Working with CNN, he attempted to improve its capabilities by including some physics-based constraints.
“We are very enthusiastic about this,” Khosronejad said. “We do think that this opportunity can help us to open up the use of AI for other applications in fluid mechanics” in fields such as renewable energy, contaminant transport predictions in urban areas and biological flow predictions, among others.
Planners working with groups such as the California Department of Transportation could use such a program to emphasize which infrastructure might be endangered.
This analysis could highlight effective mitigation strategies. Artificial intelligence can “provide [planners and strategists] with a tool that is not that expensive, can run on a single laptop, can reproduce lots of scenarios with flooding, to figure out which infrastructure is really in danger,” Khosronejad said.
Specifically, this tool could evaluate the impact of extreme floods on bridge foundations. Floods can remove soil from around the foundation of a bridge, which can cause it to collapse. Civil engineers can strengthen bridge foundations and mitigate the effect of future floods by using riprap, which is a layer of large stones.
This kind of program can reduce the reliance on surveying after a flood, which is expensive and sometimes “logistically impossible and unsafe” to monitor areas like the foundations of bridges, Khosronejad said. He plans to build into the AI program an awareness of the changing climate, so that predictions using it in three or five years can provide an accurate reflection of future conditions.
“Floods are getting more and more extreme” he said. “We realize that floods we feed into the program during training will be different” from the ones that will cause damage in subsequent years.
Floods that had a return period of every 100 years are now happening much more frequently. In one or two decades, such a flood might occur every 10 years.
Adding updated data can allow practitioners to make adjustments to the AI program a decade down the road, he suggested. He and his team will add data every year, which will create a more versatile model.
What it can’t do
While the AI programs will predict the damage to infrastructure from floods, they will not address storm or flood predictions.
“Those are different models, based on the movement of clouds” and other variables, Khosronejad said. “This doesn’t do that: if you give the program a range of flood magnitudes, it will tell you what will happen.”
High fidelity models currently exist that can do what Khosronejad is proposing, although those models require hundreds of CPUs to run for five months. Khosronejad has developed his own in house high fidelity model that is capable of making similar predictions. He has tested it to examine various infrastructures and used it to study various flooding events. These models are expensive, which is why he’s trying to replace them with AI to reduce the cost while maintaining fidelity.
AI, on the other hand, can run on a single CPU and may be able to provide the same result, which will allow people to plan ahead before it happens. The NSF approved the single principal investigator concept two months ago.
Khosronejad has worked with Fotis Sotiropoulos, former Dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Stony Brook and current Provost at Virginia Commonwealth University, on this and other projects.
The two have bi-weekly discussions over the weekend to discuss various projects.
Sotiropoulos was “very happy” when Khosronejad told him he received the funds. Although he’s not a part of the project, Sotiropoulos will “provide inputs.”
Sotiropoulos has “deep insights” into fluid mechanics. “When you have him on your side, it always pays off,” Khosronejad said.
You’ve heard of ChatGPT, yes? So had a lawyer in Brooklyn from his college-aged children. While the lawyer has been in practice for 30 years, he had no prior experience with the Open AI chatbot. But when he was hired in a lawsuit against the airline Avianca and went into Federal District Court with his legal brief filled with judicial opinions and citations, poor guy, he made history.
All the evidence he was bringing to the case was generated by ChatGPT. All of it was false: creative writing generated by the bot.
Here is the story, as told in The New York Times Business Section on June 9. A passenger, who had sued the airline for injury to his knee by a metal serving cart as it was rolled down the aisle in 2019 on a flight from El Salvador to New York, was advised that the lawsuit should be dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired. His lawyer, however, responded with the infamous 10-page brief offering more than half a dozen court decisions supporting their argument that the case should be allowed to proceed. There was only one problem: None of the cases cited in the brief could be found.
The decisions, although they named previous lawsuits against Delta Airlines, Korean Airlines and China Southern Airlines, and offered realistic names of supposedly injured passengers, were not real.
“I heard about this new site, which I falsely assumed was, like, a super search engine,” lamely offered the embarrassed attorney.
“Programs like ChatGPT and other large language models in fact produce realistic responses by analyzing which fragments of text should follow other sequences, based on a statistical model that has ingested billions of examples pulled from all over the internet,” explained The NYT.
Now the lawyer stands in peril of being sanctioned by the court. He declared that he had asked questions of the bot and had gotten in response genuine case citations, which he had included in his brief. He also printed out and included his dialogue with ChatGPT, which ultimately at the end, offered him the words, “I hope that helps.”
But the lawyer had done nothing further to ensure that those cases existed. They seemed professional enough to fool the professional.
Now the tech world, lawyers and judges are fixated on this threat to their profession. And warnings exist of that threat being carried over to all of humanity with erroneous generative AI.
But this is not an entirely ominous story.
Researchers at Open AI and the University of Pennsylvania have concluded that 80% of the U.S. workforce could see an effect on at least 10% of their tasks, according to The NYT. That means that some 300 million full-time jobs could be affected by AI. But is that all bad? Could AI become a helpful tool?
By using AI as an assistant, humans can focus on the judgment aspect of data-driven decision-making, checking and interpreting the information provided by the bot. Humans provide judgment over what is provided by a bot.
Ironically, the lawyer’s children probably passed their ChatGPT-fueled courses with good grades. Part of that is the way we teach students, offering them tons of details to memorize and regurgitate on tests or in term papers. The lawyer should have judged his ChatGPT-supplied data. Future lawyers now know they must.
As for education, emphasis should go beyond “what” and even “so what” to “what’s next.”Learning should be about once having facts or history, then how to think, to analyze, how to interpret and take the next steps. Can chatbots do that? Perhaps in an elementary way they now can. Someday they will in a larger context. And that poses a threat to the survival of humanity, because machines will no longer need us.
Allison McComiskey, chair of the Environmental & Climate Sciences Department at Brookhaven National Laboratory
By Daniel Dunaief
Daniel Dunaief
The wildfires last week in Quebec, Canada, that brought an orange haze, smoke and record pollution to New York were not only disconcerting, but also were something of a reality check.
These raging fires occurred earlier than normal and, with a so-called cut-off low in Maine acting like a bumper in a pinball game driving the smoke down along the eastern seaboard, created hazardous air quality conditions from New York through Virginia.
“There’s a real concern about this intensity, the size of the fire, happening this early in the season,” said Allison McComiskey, chair of the Environmental & Climate Sciences Department at Brookhaven National Laboratory. “Typically, wildfire season starts later in the summer and extends through the fall. If we’re going to be having wildfires of this size this early in the season and it continues, [there will be] much more of an impact on people in terms of air quality, health, and well being.”
Dry conditions caused by climate change intensified the severity of these fires, making them more difficult to extinguish and increasing the amount of particulates that can cause lung and other health problems thrown into the air.
“Wildfire season is getting longer,” said Dr. Mahdieh Danesh Yazdi, an air pollution expert and environmental epidemiologist from Stony Brook’s University’s program in Public Health. These fires are “spread because we have drier conditions, the vegetation is dry, we have droughts. Those require long-term solutions of trying to tackle climate change on a fundamental level.”
The intensity of the smoke and the cancelation of events like the Yankees and Phillies games has raised awareness of the downwind dangers from wildfires.
“This is like our Hurricane Sandy from an air quality perspective,” said Brian Colle, division head in Atmospheric Sciences at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University.
Scientists urged a multi-level approach to tackle a wildfire problem that they believe will become increasingly dangerous for human health.
Forest management, including controlled burns, would reduce the available fuel for fires started by natural causes such as lightning.
“Forest management may be one approach,” said Dr. Danesh Yazdi. That alone, however, won’t solve the threat from wildfires amid higher temperatures and more frequent droughts, she added.
McComiskey added that researchers are “certain” that wildfires are going to increase in the future due to climate change and suggested that these events ratchet up the need for getting better predictive models about what these fires will mean for human health and the climate.
The heavy smoke that descended on New York, which some health officials described as creating conditions for those who spent hours outdoors that are akin to smoking several cigarettes, is “a wake up call that we need policies” to deal with the conditions that create these fires, McComiskey said.
The increase by a “fraction of a degree in temperature is really not the point,” McComiskey added. “We need to decarbonize our economy and we need to move toward addressing the bigger causes of climate change.”
A wildfire occurring earlier in the year with smoke filled with particulates could raise awareness and attention to the dangers from such events.
“Having this kind of thing happen in the East Coast through New York and [Washington] DC, as opposed to where we typically think of bad wildfire happening out west, in Washington State and the Rocky Mountains, might help in terms of the awareness and urgency to take some action,” McComiskey added.
Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo!
Last chance to catch a performance of Cinderella at Theatre Three. The show closes on Saturday.
Photo by Peter Lanscombe/Theatre Three Productions, Inc.
PROGRAMS
Sensational Seahorses
Calling kids who like science and art! The Whaling Museum, 301 Main St., Cold Spring Harbor presents a drop-in program, Sensational Seahorses, on June 17 from 1 to 3 p.m. Come discover the amazing abilities of these ocean creatures and create a colorful oceanscape diorama. to take home. Admission fee + $10. 631-367-3418.
Giant Game and Big Voice Day
Join Emma Clark Library, 120 Main St., Setauket for Giant Game and Big Voice Day, an afternoon of fun and games on the library’s lawn, on June 17 from 2 to 4 p.m. Try your hand at games such as giant versions of Connect 4, Scrabble, and Checkers, move and balance with Twister,sing your heart out with karaoke or spin the prize wheel! Open to all. No registration required. 631-941-4080
Father’s Day Drop-In Program
Stop by the table in front of the Sunken Meadow Nature Center, Sunken Meadow Parkway, Kings Park anytime between noon and 2 p.m. on June 18 for some fun Father’s Day activities and crafts! No reservations are required. 631-269-4333
Marsh Mania
Sunken Meadow State Park, Sunken Meadow Parkway, Kings Park presents a Tiny Tots program, Marsh Mania on June 22 from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. This program will connect children ages 3 to 5 and their parents with nature through short walks, animal visitors, and crafts. $4 per child. To register, visit Eventbrite.com and search #NatureEdventure.
Shark Invasion!
Celebrate sharks this summer at the Whaling Museum, 301 Main St., Cold Spring Harbor, Thursdays to Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Uncover amazing facts about these incredible predators as you hunt for clues in this shark-themed scavenger hunt. Then roll up your sleeves and excavate a genuine shark tooth fossil to take home! Admission fee + $10 participant. 631-367-3418
FILM
‘The Lion King’
Cinema Arts Centre, 423 Park Ave., Huntington continues its Cinema for Kids! series with a screening of Disney’s The Lion King (1994) on June 18 at noon. The animated feature follows the adventures of the young lion Simba and his quest to take back his homeland from Scar with the help of his friends Timon and Pumbaa. Rated G. Tickets are $12, $5 children 12 and under. Visit www.cinemaartscentre.org.
THEATER
‘Cinderella’
Theatre Three, 412 Main St., Port Jefferson closes its children’s theatre season with an original retelling of the poor waif Cinderella from May 27 to June 17. The classic love story finds its power in a pumpkin, a palace, a prince and a young girl whose belief in herself can overcome any obstacle. When her Fairy Godmother adds a dash of excitement, the magical possibilities are endless. Don’t miss this musical enchantment for the entire family. All seats are $10. To order, call 631-928-9100 or visit www.theatrethree.com.
‘Flat Stanley’
John W. Engeman Theater, 250 Main St., Northport presents The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley from May 28 to July 2. Stanley Lambchop is an ordinary ten-year-old who longs to travel the world and do something amazing! Careful what you wish for, Stanley! One morning, Stanley wakes up really, REALLY flat! In a whirlwind musical travelogue, Stanley scours the globe for a solution to his unusual problem. He’s stamped, posted and mailed from Hollywood to Paris to Honolulu and beyond hoping to once again become three-dimensional. All seats are $20. To order, call 631-261-2900 or visit www.engemantheater.com.
‘Seussical Jr.’
Smithtown Performing Arts Center presents an outdoor production of Seussical Jr. on the grounds of the Smithtown Historical Society, 239 E. Main St., Smithtown from July 8 to Aug. 17. Horton the Elephant, the Cat in the Hat and all of your favorite Dr. Seuss characters spring to life onstage in this fantastical musical extravaganza. Tickets are $18 per person. To order, call 800-595-4849 or visit www.smithtownpac.org
Mt. Sinai Congregational Church, 233 North Country Road, Mount Sinai invites the surrounding community to attend a free “Senior Safety” presentation by Officer Sergio Moller on Wednesday, June 21 at 2 p.m. in Voorhees Hall. The presentation will cover cons and scams, personal protection, shopping and banking, ID theft, safety on the road, home protection, and services for seniors. Call Jayne at the church office to reserve your seat. 631-473-1582.
BRINGING SAM COOKE TO LIFE
Darrian Ford will perform the Cooke Book at The John W. Engeman Theater on June 20.
Thursday June 15
St. Philip St. James Family Festival
Saints Philip & James Roman Catholic Church, 1 Carow Place, St. James will host their 2023 Family Festival today from 6 to 10 p.m., June 16 and 17 from 6 to 10:30 p.m. and June 18 from 5 to 9 p.m. This family friendly annual festival features exciting carnival rides for all ages by Newton Shows, delicious festival eats and carnival treats, games andprizes, and fun for the entire family. Free admission, pay-one-price rides or individual rides. 631-584-5454
Friday June 16
St. Philip St. James Family Festival
See June 15 listing.
Third Friday at the Reboli
The Reboli Center for Art and History, 64 Main St., Stony Brook continues its Third Friday series with an informative talk by fashion designer Celine Chen from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Chen will educate guests on her life, her experience working in the fashion industry, her experience running a business and some interesting similarities and differences between the fashion industry in China and America. Light refreshments and snacks will be served. Free, no reservations required. 631-751-7707
Pride Concert
The Long Island Gay Men’s Chorus celebrates its 15th anniversary season with a free concert at Middle Country Public Library, 101 Eastwood Blvd., Centereach at 7 p.m. Titled “Why We Sing,” the performance is a wide-spanning musical celebration of the LGBTQ+ community featuring some of the members’ favorites selections from the last 15 years of concerts. 631-585-9393
Saturday June 17
St. Philip St. James Family Festival
See June 15 listing.
International Day of Yoga
The Meadow Club, 1147 Route 112, Port Jefferson Station hosts a freeUnited Nations 10th International Day of Yoga from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Participate in yoga, meditations, ayurveda, pranayama, reiki, sound healing, and so much more. Bring your family and friends, meet the speakers — enjoy an offering of vegetarian fare if you wish for $35. RSVP at www.learnwithmasters.com.
All Souls Treasure Sale/Bake Sale
All Souls Church, 61 Main Street, Stony Brook will hold a Treasure/Bake Sale on the lawn of the church starting at 9 a.m. There will treasures, home-baked goods, hot dogs and refreshments as well.Proceeds to benefit All Souls’ Handicap Accessibility Project.Call 631-241-2775 for more details.
Strawberry Festival/Tag Sale
Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, 716 Route 25A, Rocky Point present their annual Strawberry Festival and Church Tag Sale from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with delicious food and desserts, bake sale, HUGE Tag Sale, gift basket raffles, crafts, local vendors, bounce house and children’s activities. 631-744-9355
Wet Paint Festival
Join Gallery North for its 19th annual Wet Paint Festival, an outdoor event that provides the community with the unique opportunity to watch Long Island’s plein air painters as they capture the area’s historic and natural beauty, at Old Field Farm, 92 West Meadow Road Setauket today and June 18 from10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with live music, nature tours, kids activities and more. Rain dates are June 24 and 25. Free. 631-751-2676, www.gallernorth.org
Kings Park Day
Come on down! The Kings Park Chamber of Commerce presents the 45th annual Kings Park Day at the Library Municipal Parking Lot, 1 Main St., Kings Park from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Enjoy a craft fair with over 100 vendors, international food court, live music, kids activities, and more. Perfect Father’s Day gift shopping. Free admission. 631-846-1459.
Spring Craft and Flea Market
Harborfields Public LIbrary, 31 Broadway, Greenlawn will host a Spring Craft and Flea Market on its circular driveway from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The outdoor fair will feature craft vendors, local businesses, and flea market items from individual sellers. Held rain or shine. 631-757-4200
Farmers & Artisans Marketplace
Farmingville Residents Association hosts a Farmers, Artisans and Friends Marketplace at Triangle Park, corner of Horseblock Road and Woodycrest Drive, Farmingville from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. featuring over 45 vendors selling local produce, handmade and homemade items and flea market treasures with live music by Visco & McNeill. 631-260-7411.
Freedom Day Celebration
The Town of Brookhaven will hold its 9th annual Juneteenth Freedom Day Celebration at the historic Longwood Estate, 205 Longwood Road in Ridge from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in recognition of the 157th anniversary of the end of slavery in 1865. Included is a BBQ picnic, games, music, dancing and activities for the entire family. For TOB residents only. Visit www.BrookhavenNY.gov/Juneteenth or call 451-2627 to RSVP.
Father’s Day on the Farm
Join Benner’s Farm, 56 Gnarled Hollow Road, East Setauket for a Father’s Day Special Weekend today and June 18 from noon to 4 p.m. before the farm closes for the season. Featuring antique trucks and tractors on display, farm implements, home-made ice cream making, the Big Swing, and visits with the farm’s baby animals. The Little Store will also be open offering eggs, maple syrup, T-shirts and more. Admission is $12 adults, $10 children, free for all fathers. 631-689-8172
Northport Pridefest
The Village of Northport will host a Pridefest in the Park at Northport Village Park from 1 to 4 p.m. Enjoy a “pre-tea” afternoon music festival, with a brief program, and vendors located harborside at the foot of Main Street. Some locationswill host “tea” starting at 4 p.m., and the Northport Historical Society Museum will present a PRIDE pop-up exhibit. www.northportpridefest.com
Juneteenth Celebration
Town of Huntington will celebrate Juneteenth with a day filled with dancing, food, music, Double Dutch tournament, history, drummers circles and more at Heckscher Park, 2 Prime Ave., Huntington from 1 to 7 p.m. The event will include an art activity with Art League of Long Island from 1 to 3 p.m. and free admission to the Heckscher Museum of Art. Bring seating. Free. www.heckscher.org
Sunday June 18
St. Philip St. James Family Festival
See June 15 listing.
Wet Paint Festival
See June 17 listing.
Father’s Day on the Farm
See June 17 listing.
Father’s Day at the LIM
In honor of Father’s Day, the Long Island Museum, 1200 Route 25A, Stony Brook offers free admission to fathers and grandfathers from noon to 5 p.m. Spend some quality time together exploring the museum’s latest exhibits: Picturing America’s Pastime andHome Fields: Baseball Stadiums of LI and NYC and visiting the state of the art Carriage Museum. 631-751-0066
Juneteenth Walking Tour
The Northport Historical Society, 215 Main St., Northport celebrates Juneteenth with a Black History Walking Tour at 1 p.m. and again at 3 p.m. Researcher Ceylan Swenson will offer attendees a new perspective on familiar locations and tells the stories of the generations of Black families who lived in and around Northport. Tickets are $10 per person. To register, call 631-757-9859 or visit www.northporthistorical.org.
Monday June 19
TVHS lecture
Three Village Historical Society continues its lecture series at the Setauket Neighborhood House, 95 Main St., Setauket at 7 p.m. Rev. Lisa Williams and Ann Pellegrino will present Planting Seeds of Hope: The Bethel Hobbs Community Farm Story. Come learn about the farm’s rich history, its growth and development, present service and operation and future vision. Suggested donation, free for members. Also available via Zoom. Register at www.tvhs.org. 631-751-3730
Tuesday June 20
NSJC Social Club event
North Shore Jewish Center Social Club, 385 Old Town Road, Port Jefferson Station invites the community to a talk by Rabbi Aaron Benson about the “Destruction of the Temple” and its ramifications in the Social Hall at 11 a.m. Bagels, cream cheese and coffee will be served. $5 per person, $4 members. 631-928-3737
Tribute to Sam Cooke
The John W. Engeman Theater, 250 Main St., Northport presents The Cooke Book, a celebration of Sam Cooke’s career that blazed a trail for Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, Rod Stewart, Smokey Robinson, and many other giants of soul music performed by Darrian Ford in concert at 8 p.m. Tickets are $45. 631-261-2900, www.engemantheater.com
Wednesday June 21
No events listed for this day.
Thursday June 22
Summer Thursday at the LIM
Kick off your summer with a free outdoor concert featuring Ray Lambiase on the grounds of the Long Island Museum, 1200 Route 25A, Stony Brook from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Pack a picnic supper, enjoy the concert and view the latest exhibits at the History Museum. In the case of rain, concert will be held in the Carriage Museum’s Gillespie Room. Free admission.631-751-0066
Summer Swap Concert
The Jazz Loft, 275 Christian Ave., Stony Brook presents a free “Summer Stage With a Purpose” (Summer SWAP) concert featuring the Equity Brass Band on the front lawn of the museum from 6 to 8 p.m. Grab a lawn chair and come on down! Sponsored by Stony Brook University and Stony Brook Medicine. The concert series continues with Nikos Chatzitsakos Tiny Big Band on July 13, and the Melanie Marod Ensemble on Aug. 10. 631-751-1895, www.thejazzloft.org
Theater
‘The Sound of Music’
The John W. Engeman Theater, 250 Main St., Northport is The Sound of Music from May 18 to July 2. The final collaboration between Rodgers & Hammerstein was destined to become the world’s most beloved musical. Featuring a trove of cherished songs, including “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” “My Favorite Things,” “Do Re Mi,” and “Sixteen Going on Seventeen.” Tickets range from $80 to $85. To order, call 261-2900 or visit www.engemantheater.com.
‘Something Rotten!’
Theatre Three, 412 Main St., Port Jefferson continues its Mainstage productions with Something Rotten! from May 20 to June 24.Living in the shadow of Renaissance rock star The Bard, two brothers set out to write the world’s first musical in this hilarious mash-up of sixteenth-century Shakespeare and twenty-first-century Broadway. But amidst the scandalous excitement of opening night, the Bottom Brothers realize that reaching the top means being to thine own self be true.Contains adult humor and situations. Tickets are $35 adults, $28 seniors and students, $20 children ages 5 and up. To order, call 928-9100 or visit www.theatrethree.com.
‘The Two Gentlemen of Verona’
The Carriage House Players continue their 34th annual Summer Shakespeare Festival in the mansion courtyard of the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum, 180 Little Neck Road, Centerport with The Two Gentlemen of Verona from June 4 to 30. Young Valentine travels to Milan to find his fortune, but instead falls for the fair Silvia, daughter of the Duke. His world is turned upside down when his best friend, Proteus, abandons his love, Julia, in Verona to woo Silvia for himself. With a pair of bumbling servants and a dog, it’s a lively Shakespearean comedy about the complexities of love, lust, and friendship. Tickets are $20, $15 children under 12. To order, visit www.vanderbiltmuseum.org.
HUZZAH! From left, Jordan Breslow, Joseph Anthony Smith and Richard Risi in a scene from Gilbert & Sullivan’s Princess Ida. The show heads to the Smithtown Performing Arts Center on June 17. Photo by NanMagna
‘Princess Ida’
Smithtown Performing Arts Center, 2 E. Main St. Smithtown hosts a performance of Princess Ida, the classic comic opera by Gilbert & Sullivan, on June 17 at 8 p.m. Presented in an all-new production by the Gilbert & Sullivan Light Opera Company of Long Island, the opera follows Princess Ida who has fled an arranged marriage to the son of King Hildebrand and instead sets up a college for women, where she teaches the then-unthinkable principles of women’s rights and equality for all, regardless of rank, gender, wealth or nationality. Featuring a 23-piece orchestra. Tickets are $30, seniors and students $25. To order, visitwww.gaslocoli.org. 516-619-7415
Class Reunions
•Hauppauge High School Class of 1978 will hold its 45th reunion on July 22, 2023 with a reunion party on July 21 and a reunion picnic on July 23. For details, email [email protected].
•Ward Melville High School Class of 1973 will hold its 50th reunion at the Setauket Neighborhood House, 95 Main St., Setauket on Sept. 9, 2023 from 6 to 11 p.m. For ticket information, contact Tibo Dioguardi at [email protected].
•Save the date! Port Jefferson High School Class of 1964 will hold its 60th reunion at the Meadow Club, 1147 Route 112, Port Jefferson Station on Oct. 17, 2024. For more information, email Mike Whelen at [email protected].
Vendors Wanted
■ Vendors are wanted for the 2nd annual Port Paws Dog Festival at Joe Erland Park in Port Jefferson on July 15 and 16 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fee is $350 for 10X10 booth for both days. Visit portpawsdogfest.com/vendors or text 516-939-8960.
■ Spirit of Huntington, 2 Melville Road, Huntington seeks artists, musicians, and vendors fort its Spirit of Summer Art Festival on Aug. 6 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. $125 fee for 8’ by 10’ area. Rain date Aug. 13. Deadline to apply is July 28. Visit www.spiritofhuntington.com.
■ The Village of Lake Grove seeks arts & crafts, food and community vendors for its 2023 Lake Grove Summer Festival at Memorial Park, 980 Hawkins Ave., Lake Grove on Aug. 20 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Visit lakegroveny.gov for an application.
■ Vendor applications are now available for Sunshine Prevention Center’s Family Fall Festival at 468 Boyle Road, Port Jefferson Station on Oct. 14 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (rain date Oct 15). Fee is $50 for a 10 x 10 space, no charge for Agency Resource tables. Bring your own tables, tents, chairs. All vendors must also donate a prize ($20 value) for a raffle. Register at www.sunshinepreventionctr.org or email [email protected].
■ Craft and new merchandise vendors are wanted for the St. Thomas of Canterbury Church Fall Car Show and Craft Fair, 90 Edgewood Ave., Smithtown, on Oct. 14from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. $50 per booth (10’ by 10’ space). For more information, call 631-265-4520 or visit www.Stthomasofcanterbury.net.
Dr. Justice Achonu. Photo by Jeanne Neville/ Stony Brook Medicine
Justice Achonu, MD, an orthopaedic surgery resident at Stony Brook Medicine, is one of four orthopaedic surgeons in the U.S. to be selected for the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery’s (ABOS) Resident Advisory Panel. Responsible for providing insight into the resident experience, the panel collaborates with multiple other committees within the ABOS to support the interests of residents throughout the country. His two-year term on the panel begins July 1, 2023.
According to the ABOS, each applicant to the panel is reviewed by at least two ABOS Board members who are all accomplished leaders in their field. Applicants practice in all regions of the country. Dr. Achonu’s panel cohort is the third ever selected by the ABOS. Every year, the panel is tasked with identifying and completing a project that will benefit orthopaedic residents across more than 200 accredited training programs nationwide.
Panelists are encouraged to provide the ABOS with recommendations, several of which have been adopted by the Board, including an official Residency to Retirement Roadmap.
Dr. Achonu received a B.S. in neuroscience from the University of Pittsburgh in 2015 and graduated from the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University in 2020. He resides in Holbrook.
Stony Brook’s Department of Orthopaedics provides full-service patient care and sub-specialty resident and faculty training in all areas of Orthopaedics. The department includes a comprehensive Orthopaedic Research Program featuring clinical and laboratory facilities and resources for investigation of molecular, biologic, and biomechanical research topics.
The Ward Melville Heritage Organization has announced the in-person return of its annual fundraiser, the Summer Soirée. The event will be held on Thursday, June 22 at the newly renovated Three Village Inn in Stony Brook, “where it all began.”
The event will raise funds to support the restoration of the 20’ wooden eagle that is affixed to the pediment above the Stony Brook Post Office. This beloved local and national treasure has flapped its wings every hour on the hour for over 80 years.
Funds raised will also support two new engines for the Discovery Pontoon boat, digitizing Ward Melville’s archives, repairs to the roof at the Brewster House (c.1665), a new exhibit at the Thompson House (c.1709), as well as education programs.
The benefit will honor community members Katharine Griffiths, Director of Avalon Park and Preserve; Olivia and Harlan Fischer; Sally Lynch, President of Old Field Farm Ltd.; Nicole Sarno, Business Managing Director, Business Banking, Webster Bank; and awarded posthumously, philanthropist Judi Betts.
One of the highlights of the event will be a live auction where one of the many wonderful items will be a painting of the Stony Brook Post Office by Setauket artist Dino Rinaldi who has been working on creating this beautiful work of art on the Village Green over the last few weeks.
The WMHO will take phone call bids for the painting from the public until 5 p.m. on June 21. Valued at $1,200, bids for the painting will begin at $400. The successful bidder of the painting will be announced on June 22 and will receive a phone call or email the following day.
For further information, please call 631-751-2244.
Peter Moloney, 58, of Bayport, was arrested June 7 for his alleged involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Moloney is co-owner of Moloney Funeral Homes, which has seven locations throughout Long Island. He is now on administrative leave with no involvement in day-to-day operations, according to the business.
“We will not allow his actions on January 6 to distract us from our everyday focus on providing care and comfort for families during their most difficult times,” read a June 8 spokesman’s statement.
Moloney, who was identified as the protester dubbed “Black Bono Helmet” by internet sleuths two years ago, now faces eight charges related to his alleged actions during the Capitol riot. Court documents say Moloney, donning a bike helmet and protective eyewear, sprayed law enforcement officers with Black Flag Wasp, Hornet, & Yellow Jacket Killer. This kind of preparation, documents say, “indicates that he went to the Capitol on January 6, 2021, prepared for violence.”
He is also accused of attacking members of the news media, who were there to photograph the breach of the Capitol.
On the day of the arrest, his brother and co-owner Dan Moloney said in a statement, “For over 90 years the Moloney family has served our neighbors during their most trying times and has a long and proud history of supporting the law enforcement and first responder communities. The alleged actions taken by an individual on his own time are in no way reflective of the core values of Moloney Funeral Home, which is dedicated to earning and maintaining the trust of all members of the community of every race, religion and nationality.”
Peter Moloney appeared at the federal courthouse in Central Islip June 7 following his arrest, and was released on $100,000 bond. Outside the courthouse, his lawyer stressed that Moloney has not entered a plea, and the arraignment is scheduled for June 20 before a District of Columbia judge. “He is presumed innocent pursuant to the laws of the United States of America, and we’ll proceed accordingly,” the lawyer said.
Moloney is one of more than 1,000 individuals from around the country who have been arrested in connection with the riots since the incident in 2021, according to the Department of Justice, and more than 270 of those have been charged with “assaulting or impeding law enforcement.” The DOJ investigations continue.
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