At the bottom please find a YouTube link to view one of pieces Marguerite performed at the ceremony.

Borough President James Oddo named Marguerite Maria Rivas as Staten Island’s first Poet Laureate during a ceremony at Borough Hall on June 26, 2019 at 6 PM. The appointment of the Staten Island Poet Laureate is an unpaid, volunteer position, appointed for a 4-year term by the Borough President, based on the recommendation of a selection committee. The Poet Laureate will be charged with performing responsibilities related to community outreach and projects that promote poetry and/or literacy on the Island.

The event, which was open to the public, was attended by members of the local arts community who came to celebrate the work and achievements of Marguerite Maria Rivas. Attendees were honored with a poetry reading of a few of Marguerite’s pieces, including one titled “Staten Island Night Chant, for Staten Island”, which can be viewed here.

During the ceremony, Marguerite was presented with a MakerspaceNYC handmade broach to celebrate her appointment as Staten Island’s first Poet Laureate.

“I've become a big fan of our new Poet Laureate Dr. Marguerite Maria Rivas because her deep affinity for Staten Island is quite evident. I love the way she champions our community,” said Borough President James Oddo. “I didn’t know there was in fact already a de facto Poet Laureate for Staten Island, tonight she is de facto no more. I love having you as an ally, please continue to do your wonderful work.”

A special thanks goes to the selection committee who made their recommendation to the Borough President, which included Elizabeth Bennett, Director of Staten Island Arts; Saroltya A. Takacs, PhD, Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences at the College of Staten Island; and Abriana Jette, Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at St. John’s University.

“Staten Island has always been my home, my subject, and my inspiration,” said Dr. Rivas. “Throughout my adult life, it has been my privilege to have taught poetry in the community, in grammar schools, and in colleges. Poetry brings people joy, an understanding of themselves, and an awareness of their connectedness to their communities and the world around them. It is a living, breathing expression of shared experiences.

“Borough President Oddo’s decision to appoint a Staten Island Poet Laureate demonstrates his commitment to the arts and their role in the promotion of literacy. It is a profound honor to be appointed the first Poet Laureate of Staten Island, one of three Borough Poets Laureate of New York City. I look forward to working with the Borough President’s Office and Staten Islanders as we celebrate and elevate our beautiful island home.”

A native Staten Islander, Marguerite Maria Rivas is a graduate of Tottenville High School and holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from the College of Staten Island. She received a Doctor of Arts and Letters degree, specializing in poetry, in 2001 from Drew University. She is an Associate Professor of English at the Borough of Manhattan Community College.

As the sole supporter of her children, Dr. Rivas often worked three jobs while earning her doctorate. In between working and studying, she wrote poetry, often at night while her children were sleeping. Dr. Rivas’ poetry, both lyric and long-form, is largely based on the culture, history and natural environment of Staten Island. Her poetry has been widely published in journals, anthologies and in a best-selling college textbook. She is also the author of two full-length collections of poems. In her book, “Tell No One: Poems of Witness,” her poems reflect the kinship and the resiliency of Staten Islanders in the aftermath of Sept. 11. A poem from this collection, “Witness,” is included in the National September 11th Museum’s online collection, along with two others.
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She has received numerous grants and awards for her poetry, including the National Council of Teachers of English/Two-Year College Association National Poetry Month Award for her poem “Witness.”  She is also the recipient of the Staten Island Arts Excellence in Literature Award, The Marg Chandler Memorial Award from A Room of Her Own Foundation, and The Irene C. Fromer Award from Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden. 

Borough President James Oddo hosted a Dominican Heritage Celebration at Staten Island Borough Hall. In celebration of the upcoming citywide parade to take place Sunday, August 11, we joined to celebrate Dominican heritage, culture, and food. This ceremony, which took place at Staten Island Borough Hall on Tuesday, June 25th, served as a heritage celebration that was one in a series of kick-off celebrations to take place in all five boroughs.
 
Before we were honored with Bryan Bautista, NBC’s The Voice Season 10 semi-finalist, performing the United States of America National Anthem, and Tessoro Estrella performing the Dominican National Anthem, Pastor Carlos Jimenz have the evening’s invocation.
 
Elias Cabrera, retired sergeant-at-arms from the City Council, was presented with a proclamation from Borough President Oddo as an honoree of the evening in addition to an award from the Dominican Day Parade team.

Borough President Oddo was also honored during the ceremony, being named Staten Island’s first Adopted Honorary Dominican by the Dominican Day Parade team.
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"Absolutely wonderful vibe in the room at our inaugural Dominican Heritage Celebration. And how great it was to honor Elias Cabrera, who for years was our Chief Sergeant at Arms in the City Council. Such a good man. Thank you Maria Khury & my dear friend Diana Reyna," said Borough President Oddo. "“The fact that you reached out and that you want Staten Island to be associated with the city-wide parade, that you came to us wanting to include all five boroughs, that really means something to us.”
 
Elias Cabrera was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and was raised by his maternal grandmother till the age of eleven, at which age he came to live with his mother in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He attended P.S. 122, then was accepted to Aviation High School, graduating as an FAA licensed Airframe & Power plant aircraft mechanic. Next, Elias attended New York City Technical College obtaining an Associate Degree in Applied Science. Upon graduation, was drafted into the US Army and after three years, was honorably discharged as a Specialist 5th Class in instrument repair. Elias, married in 1976 to his wife of 42 years Doris, is now a Staten Island resident. At his wife’s urging, he enrolled at City College of New York and graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Electro-Mechanical Engineering. During that time he joined the firm Loral Electronic Systems. While employed there, he attended Adelphi University and received an MBA in management.
 
Their son Alexander was born in 1993, the same year he began his career as the Chief Sgt-at-Arms in The Council of New York City, where for the next twenty years he was responsible for maintaining order and decorum in all council hearings and at the same time provided security along with the NYPD. In retirement, he is staying active in his community by being a member of The Knights of Columbus.
 
Attendees of the ceremony heard from Maria Khury, DDP Past Chair, Wilton Cedeno, DDP Chair, and Diana Reyna, former City Councilwoman, DDP 2nd Vice Chair, and Director of Borough Events.
 
Over 40 members of the community attended to celebrate this Dominican Day Heritage Celebration.

Borough President James Oddo is pleased to announce that Child Mind Institute (CMI) – the children’s mental health facility which launched a groundbreaking research program on Staten Island called the Healthy Brain Network (HBN) back in 2015 – has obtained the financing necessary to maintain a presence on Staten Island thanks to funding provided by the de Blasio Administration.

This program collects information on how children think, feel, and learn, and also collects data from many sources (including, but not limited to, neuropsychological testing, IQ testing, EEGs and functional MRI scans) in order to create the largest biorepository of information on children's mental health. The goal is to identify new ways to diagnose and treat mental health disorders in children and adolescents, using a biological approach.

CMI/HBN on Staten Island was only funded for a five year period. Without further funding, its doors would have closed on Staten Island as originally planned, and they would have moved to their Harlem location, in order to focus on recruiting children and families from other boroughs. Staten Island was in danger of losing a unique and valuable resource that provides free, comprehensive mental health screenings and evaluations for our community. At the request of Borough President Oddo to Mayor de Blasio, City Hall agreed to fund the Child Mind Institute in order for them to continue to operate on Staten Island.

Borough President Oddo is also pleased to announce his office has been working closely with top administrators and the Department of Pediatrics at Richmond University Medical Center (RUMC) to enable the co-location of CMI/HBN at their outpatient pediatric ambulatory center.

“As you can imagine, had we lost these valuable services it would have left a huge gap in our community, since it is highly unlikely that many – or any – of our families would have traveled to Harlem for twelve hours of screening. The methods we used to obtain this funding from City Hall were extensive and varied, and in the end the Mayor came through,” said Borough President James Oddo. “Mental health and learning disorders are real, common and treatable, but the majority of children don’t get the care they need. The number of children screened through the CMI/HBN represents not just the children who received needed evaluations, but also their families who were searching for answers. Far too many children and adolescents simply don’t get the treatment they need, which is why we did whatever it took in order to help obtain funding to continue their important work right here on Staten Island.

“Reading Dr. Warren Farrell’s book ‘The Boy Crisis’ reaffirmed our belief in the importance of fighting for these resources and strengthened our resolve to not allow this critical work to come to an end. Councilman Joe Borelli, an early supporter of our Boy Crisis work, stepped up to be the City Council sponsor for this money in the recently adopted city budget. Thanks must also go to Emma Wolfe, Chief of Staff to the Mayor, without whose behind the scenes work and support this would not have happened.”

“In New York City, we recognize that there is no health without mental health. Failing to invest in diagnosis and treatment for kids means missed opportunities to improve people’s lives early on. I applaud Borough President Oddo’s commitment to the mental health of Staten Islanders and am glad to know kids and their families will continue having a much-needed resource to get the screenings and help they need,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“I’m so glad we were able to ensure that the Child Mind Institute remains on Staten Island. The free screenings provided by this program have been positively affecting the lives of thousands of children and their parents over the last 5 years. Too often, we have to travel and endure long commutes with our children because of a lack of available local resources,” said City Councilmember Joe Borelli, “the funding BP Oddo and I were able to secure will keep this resource right here and available to our community.”

In just under five years on Staten Island, the CMI/HBN has provided FREE mental health and learning evaluations as well as language screens to over 2,000 children ages 5-21 on Staten Island. Of those children, 48% children enrolled in the HBN were diagnosed for the first time during their participation. All families who enrolled in this study were given comprehensive feedback reports and a one-on-one session to discuss their child's results with the licensed clinician who conducted the evaluation.
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The work of the CMI on Staten Island doesn’t end with the HBN. When our office asked the CMI to help identify other ways to integrate mental health care into primary care, the CMI launched a unique pilot providing pediatricians in our borough with an easy to use iPad screening tool for use during well visits. The tool allows pediatricians to easily screen their patients for behavioral, emotional, and other complex mental health issues that require attention and is currently offered in both English and Spanish. Over 2,000 parents and children have completed this screening tool thus far with 11.8% of patients meeting levels of clinical concern for emotional problems, 8.9% for ADHD, and 6.9% for eating disorders. A staggering 4.8% reported suicidal ideation, and 11.9% reported being the victim of bullying.

​Borough President James Oddo sponsored a Lyme Disease Awareness Forum on Monday, June 17th. This free event took place at 7pm at Wagner College (1 Campus Road) in a Spiro Hall lecture room. Over 150 Staten Islanders came out to learn how to protect themselves and their loved ones from ticks and Lyme disease. After having to reschedule in May due to inclement weather, we were extremely pleased to hold a standing room only event.
 
“Our quest to mitigate the growing number of Staten Islanders suffering from Lyme disease is being fought on many fronts, and educating the public about the disease and how it is spread is a vital step. We will continue to raise awareness on this topic because it is real and it is affecting Staten Islanders,” said Borough President Oddo.
 
At the forum, researchers from NYC DOHMH presented an update on their surveillance measures with statistical updates on the incidence of Lyme disease cases in New York City and on Staten Island as well as information on the black-legged ticks that are vectors for the disease. Borough President Oddo was pleased to hear their tick surveillance has been increased from 14 to 24 sites in parks across our borough and that they will be implementing Met52 in their tick control measures, a fungus based approach that kills ticks without hurting any other invertebrates.
 
Maria Diuk-Wasser, Associate Professor and Researcher at Columbia University, presented information on how exactly ticks get around and where people are exposed to ticks. Can you guess how ticks ‘move’ around parks in New York City? That’s right – deer. Deer are where ticks meet and reproduce. She stressed that connectivity is key, as only parks close to other parks in NYC have ticks. Parks surrounded by vegetation and are more connected to others by habitat corridors have more ticks infected with the Lyme bacteria. We continue fight for ways to control the deer population to also reduce the tick numbers and Lyme cases on Staten Island.
 
Attendees also heard from Dr. Christopher J. Pappas, Ph.D., Associate Professor at Manhattanville College, who talked about what attracts the different types of ticks we have on Staten Island, how to avoid them and prevent tick bites, as well as do’s and don’ts on tick removal. Among many tips, one that stuck out: make sure to put clothes in the dryer, not the washer to kill ticks. Drying ticks out kills the ticks.

Dr. Ernest Visconti, pediatric infectious disease specialist, moderated a question and answer period with the audience following the pretensions.

Gaynor McCown Expeditionary Learning School tabled at the event showing their school projects to educate Staten Islanders on how to protect themselves from ticks and Lyme disease. 
 
Here is the link to the PowerPoint presentations from the forum: http://www.statenislandusa.com/lymeforumslides.

Borough President James Oddo will name Marguerite Maria Rivas as Staten Island’s first Poet Laureate during a ceremony at Borough Hall on June 26, 2019 at 6 PM. The event is open to the public and all are invited to attend.

The appointment of the Staten Island Poet Laureate is an unpaid, volunteer position, appointed for a 4-year term by the Borough President, based on the recommendation of a selection committee. The Poet Laureate will be charged with performing responsibilities related to community outreach and projects that promote poetry and/or literacy on the Island.

A selection committee of literary and arts “experts” from the local community, including Elizabeth Bennett, Director of Staten Island Arts; Saroltya A. Takacs, PhD, Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences at the College of Staten Island; and Abriana Jette, Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at St. John’s University, made their recommendation to the Borough President.

“We were delighted by the number of nominations,” noted Borough President Oddo. “What that tells us is that the community wants a Poet Laureate. This is important.”

A native Staten Islander, Marguerite Maria Rivas is a graduate of Tottenville High School and holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from the College of Staten Island. She received a Doctor of Arts and Letters degree, specializing in poetry, in 2001 from Drew University. She is an Associate Professor of English at the Borough of Manhattan Community College.

As the sole supporter of her children, Dr. Rivas often worked three jobs while earning her doctorate. In between working and studying, she wrote poetry, often at night while her children were sleeping. Dr. Rivas’ poetry, both lyric and long-form, is largely based on the culture, history and natural environment of Staten Island. Her poetry has been widely published in journals, anthologies and in a best-selling college textbook. She is also the author of two full-length collections of poems. In her book, “Tell No One: Poems of Witness,” her poems reflect the kinship and the resiliency of Staten Islanders in the aftermath of Sept. 11. A poem from this collection, “Witness,” is included in the National September 11th Museum’s online collection, along with two others.

She has received numerous grants and awards for her poetry, including the National Council of Teachers of English/Two-Year College Association National Poetry Month Award for her poem “Witness.”  She is also the recipient of the Staten Island Arts Excellence in Literature Award, The Marg Chandler Memorial Award from A Room of Her Own Foundation, and The Irene C. Fromer Award from Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden.

“Staten Island has always been my home, my subject, and my inspiration,” said Dr. Rivas. “Throughout my adult life, it has been my privilege to have taught poetry in the community, in grammar schools, and in colleges. Poetry brings people joy, an understanding of themselves, and an awareness of their connectedness to their communities and the world around them. It is a living, breathing expression of shared experiences.

“Borough President Oddo’s decision to appoint a Staten Island Poet Laureate demonstrates his commitment to the arts and their role in the promotion of literacy. It is a profound honor to be appointed the first Poet Laureate of Staten Island, one of three Borough Poets Laureate of New York City. I look forward to working with the Borough President’s Office and Staten Islanders as we celebrate and elevate our beautiful island home.”
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To attend the naming ceremony, please RSVP to Diane Marciuliano at (718) 816-2246.

Borough President James S. Oddo is excited to announce the dates and lineup for his 2019 Summer Sunset Concert Series. All concerts will take place at 7pm, with the exception of August 1st where the concert will begin at 6:30pm. The Thursday night concert schedule is as follows:
 
June 27th—Lemon Creek Park (Seguine Avenue & Johnston Terrace) featuring Grounded 4 Life and Freepass
July 11th—Historic Richmond Town (441 Clarke Ave.) featuring The Black Ties
July 18th—Snug Harbor Cultural Center (1000 Richmond Terrace) featuring Anthony DeRoss and Joan Caddell and the Midnight Choir
July 25th—Conference House Park (298 Satterlee Street) featuring The Resistance
August 1st— United States Coast Guard Appreciation Night at Fort Wadsworth (210 New York Avenue), with a special thank you to our Military service members, featuring 42nd Division Infantry Band. *6:30PM START TIME*
August 8th—Westerleigh Park (Neal Dow Ave. and Maine Ave.) featuring Julia Gargano and JD & the All Stars
August 15th—Silver Lake Park (Forest Ave. at Haven Esplanade) featuring Cause and the Effects
August 22nd—Wolfe’s Pond Park (Cornelia Ave. and Chester Ave.) featuring Whiskey Tango Four and Saints in the City
 
A special concert with headliners Vito Picone and the Elegants and guests will take place on Saturday, August 17th at 7pm at Midland Beach Splaza (Fr. Capodanno Blvd. at Seaview Ave). Additionally, Back to the Beach will take place on Saturday, July 13th and Sunday, July 14th.
 
“We at Borough Hall are excited to offer this free entertainment series to Staten Islanders for another summer, while giving some of our homegrown talent a chance to show off their musical skills,” said Borough President Oddo. “This is a wonderful way for people to enjoy our Borough of Parks and experience some of the homegrown talent Staten Islanders have to offer. Good music should be enjoyed!”
 
The Summer Sunset Concert Series is sponsored by Borough President Oddo and Councilmembers Debi Rose, Steven Matteo, and Joe Borelli.
 
For more information, visit statenislandusa.com/sunset.

Borough President James Oddo has issued the following statement regarding the Bay Street Corridor Re-zoning Plan. As part of the Uniform Land Use Review Process regarding the Re-zoning Plan, Borough President Oddo issued a formal ‘Disapproval With Modifications’ response.

“For five years, Borough Hall has attempted to inject some common sense into the de Blasio Administration’s plan for affordable housing on Staten Island.  Their strategy, which will add thousands of new residents to the North Shore in mid- and hi-rise buildings along the Bay Street Corridor, will provide little in the way of corresponding services. 

“We have tried to make them see this issue through the single most important prism to Staten Islanders: infrastructure and the diminishment of our quality of life when our infrastructure is resoundingly insufficient.  It’s a reality we experience in various ways on a daily basis – because of a void in the farsightedness of past leaders.

“In recent months we have aggressively used social media to express facts, concerns, and realities on the ground, and we even used a good dose of ‘reductio ad absurdum’ to ensure the Administration and the local Council Member did right by this borough. They have come up short, which means we at Borough Hall have missed the mark, and the people of Staten Island, both current and future residents, are worse off for it.

“For all this density and the infrastructure challenges that most certainly will come with it, what are we really getting? Well, we seem to have a commitment to pay off an existing debt to Staten Island -- the Cromwell Center and a new school at the Hungerford site – and projects created long ago by the Bloomberg Administration, which heretofore have remained unfulfilled during the current administration, i.e. waterfront plans.

“Peel back the onion a bit and take away the $92 million for the Cromwell Center, which we were promised anyway; the tens of millions for the Hungerford site, which would have been allocated anyway; the $39 million from FEMA for the esplanade, which was expected anyway; and well, that onion will indeed make you cry.  Cry for the opportunities missed, for the shirking of responsibility by the agencies, for their refusal to do the hard work, for how let down Staten Islanders have been, and for the looming specter that what could have been a transformative moment in our history is now likely to go sideways.

“What you won’t see in this re-zoning announcement is as critically important as what you do see.  You won’t see any genuine effort to stop the already awful traffic and transit reality from getting exponentially worse, let alone being mitigated to some degree.  At this point, why not call in Staten Island’s old ‘friend,’ former NYC DOT Commissioner Janet Sadik Khan, and have her make the entire stretch of Bay Street a pedestrian plaza?  Because with tens of thousands of people added to this corridor as a result of this re-zoning, commuting or traveling by vehicle will certainly be painful, and maybe even pointless.

“What was done today was a repeat of the lack of planning that has plagued Staten Island ever since the opening of the Verrazzano Bridge. Today’s decision makers, just like our counterparts of decades ago, will have the benefit of being long gone when the byproducts of their shortsightedness manifest themselves. 
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“As bitterly disappointed as I am, the harsher arbiter will be time.”