pdf  Retiree News & Views - Mar/Apr 2015 From left, Winston George, deputy director, Retiree Division, and Patricia Stryker, recording secretary, present the Golden Teamster Award to State Sen. Leroy Comrie, as Nancy B. True, director, Retiree Division, looks on.

The Retiree Division’s Black History Month Celebration highlighted the contributions of African Americans to music, theater, fine arts and leadership. In his welcoming remarks, Winston George, deputy director, Retiree Division, said that the program, held on Feb. 27, was created to “enrich, inspire and motivate us to continue the great struggle begun by our forefathers.”

Pianist Alva Nelson provided a musical prelude with vocalist Elmore James amid an exhibition of artworks painted by Colin Dublin, a self-taught artist and maintenance worker at Harlem Hospital.

State Senator Leroy Comrie, of the 14th District in Queens, a former City Councilman, was honored with a Golden Teamster Award for supporting the Labor Movement and Local 237 over the years. Comrie’s legislative accomplishments include increasing tax and property exemptions for seniors and instituting the city’s first foreclosure prevention program.

“The only way to have a strong middle class is through unions,” said Comrie, who serves on the Civil Service and Pension Committee. He urged members to help him “articulate the agenda” and “get what we want” in Albany.

Crowning the event was a performance of “Snow,” a tribute to Valaida Snow, directed by Imani and written by Lena Charles. Snow, a trumpeter and contemporary of EthelWaters and Josephine Baker, performed her way around the world in the 1920s and 1930s.

Guests at the celebration toast to the ancestors.

Actors perform a scene in “Snow,” a tribute to Valaida Snow, a 1920s international entertainer.