Friends of the Library Treasurer Tamykah Anthony hosts “Black Inventions Bingo Game” at the Queens
Public Library at Long Island City. Photo: Angélica Acevedo/QNS
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.2 COM | JAN. 24-JAN. 30, 2020
BY BILL PARRY
The oldest surviving
synagogue in Queens was selected
for a Sacred SiteGrant
by The New York Landmarks
Conservancy.
Congregation Tifereth Israel
in Corona was one of 22
grants awarded to historic
religious properties throughout
New York state.
The synagogue was founded
by Ashkenazi Jews who
had moved to Queens from
the Lower East Side in 1911.
The building was modeled after
the narrow tenement temples
with eclectic decoration
of the tripartite front facade
that incorporates typical elements
of synagogue architecture
in the late 19th and early
20th century: Gothic arched
windows, a stained glass
window with a Star of David
motif and a central roof pediment
on corbel brackets.
Congregation Tifereth
Israel will receive a $10,000
grant to help fund perimeter
waterproofing.
The Sacred Sites Program
provides congregations
with matching grants
for planning and implementing
exterior restoration
projects, technical assistance,
and workshops.
Since 1986, the program has
pledged nearly 1,500 grants
totaling more than $11.1
million to 805 religious
institutions statewide.
“We are very pleased to be
able to assist another diverse
group of religious institutions,”
The New York Landmarks
Conservancy President
Peg Breen said. “Aside
from architectural merit,
each one is an important
community anchor.”
As Corona began to
change in the 1960s and the
Ashkenazi began to move
away Bukharan Jewish immigrants
from the former Soviet
Union replaced them in
the congregation. Currently,
Congregation Tifereth Israel
reaches about 500 people a
year through life-cycle events
and other programming.
The building, located at
109-20 54th Ave., received city
landmark status in 2008.
Reach reporter Bill Parry
by e-mail at bparry@schnepsmedia.
com or by phone at
(718) 260–4538.
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
In celebration of Martin
Luther King Jr. Day, community
leader Tamykah Anthony
hosted a fun and educational
bingo game night with a dozen
kids and their parents in
the Queens Public Library at
Long Island City on Thursday,
Jan. 16.
Anthony, who was recently
sworn in as the treasurer for
Friends of the Library at Long
Island City Library, launched
her “30 Days of Black Inventions”
curriculum and bingo
game in order to highlight
the many inventions people of
color have created throughout
history.
“I did this because I realized
that in order for us to
get together and do positive
things, we have to know where
we come from to know that
greatness is already in us,”
Anthony said.
During the event, Anthony
gave kids and their parents
a marker and a bright yellow
bingo card, which featured images
like a pencil sharpener,
dust pan, mailbox, gas mask,
potato chips and much more.
She then gave clues for the
players to guess which object
was created by the inventor’s
names, adding information
about their lives and the time
period they lived in when they
created their products.
In the end, 7-year-old Stanley
Skeeter was the first to
shout “Bingo!” and win two
AMC movie theater tickets.
His grandmother, Stephanie
Chauncey, said she loved Anthony’s
teaching style.
“Black innovators aren’t
something that is taught in
school,” Anthony said. “We
hear about George Washington
Carver and the peanut, but
we don’t know that almost everything
we use on a daily basis
was either influenced by or
actually patented by a person
of color.”
Part of the intimate event
was sponsored by local nonprofit
Reconstruction of a
Village. Sonya Glover, leader
of Reconstruction of a Village
and community activist,
said they are always looking
for ways to engage Astoria’s
youth.
Glover said Anthony’s MLK
event is a way to “feed our children
the knowledge” they need
to look ahead and for them to
learn about their history, because
“you can’t go forward
without knowing where you
came from.”
Anthony is a forensic toxicologist
and CEO of Xanthines
All Natural Products, a natural
line of home, bath, body
and hair products. She also
recently established a Go-
FundMe, “A New Home and
Future for Camp Wakanda,” to
help her raise funds for a space
in Astoria, where she’ll be able
to grow her after-school and
homeschooling programs, as
well as provide a community
center for local organizations.
As someone who has been
and continues to be faced
with many obstacles in her
own career as a woman of
color, Anthony believes that
by lifting up her community
and showcasing everything
good they’ve done for society,
they’ll live by what MLK truly
stood for.
“We focus so much on ‘I
have a dream’ and how he
wanted to integrate so badly,
but at the end of his term he
spoke about how he feels like
he may have integrated us
into a ‘burning building’ or
‘house’ — meaning that we
need to be strong as a people
first before we can integrate to
anything,” Anthony said. “So I
want to bring up those parts of
his life too. He wasn’t always
like, ‘Let’s integrate with the
rest of the world.’ It was more
like, ‘We need to instill a sense
of pride into our people and
the youth and then we can be
a part of other things, once
we’re strong that way.’”
Congregation Tifereth Israel in Corona is selected for a sacred
sites grant from The New York Landmarks Conservancy.
Courtesy The New York Landmarks Conservancy
Boro’s oldest synagogue
receives a $10K grant
LIC community celebrates
Dr. King Jr. at library event
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