STANDING Brooklyn’s Biggest Booster
Digital assets lecture to die for
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS
An expert lawyer gave an insightful
lecture to fellow legal eagles on
the importance of knowing the ins
and outs of passing on digital assets
after death, at the Brooklyn Bar
Association’s headquarters on
Remsen Street on April 17.
It is more important than ever to for
lawyers to know how to advise their clients
on what they need to know about
their online information once they
themselves move on to the proverbial
cloud, according to the lecturer.
“You’re giving clients information
on how to best pass their assets on
when they pass, so it’s good to let their
clients know what
their survivors
should have access
to,” said Robert
Harper (at left), a
trust and estates
lawyer based on
Long Island.
Digital assets
come in a variety
of forms, such as
email and social media accounts,
cloud storage, and even crypto
currency accounts.
Trust and estate lawyers should advise
their clients that they need to explicitly
allow their survivors to access
the content of these accounts, such as
the content of emails, as opposed to just
a catalog of the information, in other
words dates, senders, and recipients.
“If your client wishes for their
survivors to have access to content,
then the client needs to affi rmatively
grant it. If you don’t do that, their
survivors may not get the access,”
Harper said.
The state’s laws on these issues only
came into effect in 2016, but they still
have some catching up to do in order to
keep pace with the high-speed technological
changes, according to Harper.
“Technology has developed a lot
faster than the law has, which is slowly
but surely catching up,” he said.
— Kevin Duggan
FLATLANDS
Keeping the faith
Three cheers for the Bridge Multicultural
Advocacy Project, which held
its third annual Interfaith Unity Seder
on April 14.
The ceremony brought together
more than 350 people of different faiths
for a night of music and dancing, said
the event’s organizer.
“It’s amazing, with so much being
written about rising hatred, that over
350 people came and danced away the
night,” said Mark Meyer Appel (pictured,
right). “People of Jewish, Christian,
COURIER L 34 IFE, APRIL 26–MAY 2, 2019 PS
and Muslim
faith, as a community
comming
together in
unity.”
A number of
local elected offi -
cials attended the
event, including
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams,
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, Councilman
Mathieu Eugene (D–Flatbush),
and Assemblywoman Mathylde Frontus
(D–Coney Island).
Two city police offi cers, Sergeant
Zagham Abbas (pictured, left) and Detective
Mohamed Amen, received citations
from the District Attorney for
their “outstanding leadership in public
service to our diverse community,”
according to Appel.
Appel said the event, aimed at
celebrating a community of diverse
faiths, took on special meaning
this year.
“There are those from the right and
the left that are politicizing hate,” he
said. “But we are a community that rejects
hate. We are a community of love
and unity.” — Aidan Graham
BOROUGH WIDE
Wiz kid
Hip, hip, hooray for Patrick McConnell,
of Brooklyn, who is a member of
Hamilton College’s Model UN team
and attended three conferences during
the spring 2019 semester, winning
awards at each.
The team went to the North American
Model United Nations Con-
MARINE PARK
Three cheers for PS 207, Elizabeth
G. Leary School, in Marine
Park, which celebrated its 10th
annual art show on April 15.
More than 400 families attended
the show, which featured artwork
from students from kindergarten
to eighth grade, according to the
school’s art teacher.
“It was very heartwarming because
kids were able to show their
work, and their parents were so
proud,” said Michele Kelly. “And,
us teachers were able to celebrate
the students, which was great.”
Students from each grade competed
for medals awarded to the best
of the 500 pieces of art submitted to
the show, according to Kelly.
“The kids were eligible for gallery
awards, including grade-level
gold, silver, and special recognition
awards,” she said. “We have senior
students who have a friendly competition
to design a T-shirt that we sell
as a fund-raiser.”
Since Kelly began the art show in
2009, it has dramatically increased
in size and scope.
“We originally started 10 years
ago, and we’ve increased the size
and increased our ability to outreach
to students, so that more of
them participate. Now we have it in
the evening across two days so that
families can come.”
In addition to paintings, the
show also now features photography,
visual animations, and
three-dimensional printings, said
Kelly.
“We’re giving the kids a better
understanding of how arts works,”
she said. “Some really amazing creations
came out of it.”
— Aidan Graham
BEDFORD-STUYVESANT
Chess success
Success Academy Bed-Stuy
Middle School students placed
second in the Kasparov Chess
Foundation All-Girls National
Championship last weekend in
Chicago.
The charter school’s two fi ercest
competitors were eighth-graders
Geah Jean Baptiste and
Jessica Hyatt. Baptiste placed
fourth out of 61 players in her
division, while Hyatt tied for
seventh.
Hyatt, the academy’s highest
rated chess player, recently
won the New York State Chess
Championship, and dreams of
one day being the fi rst African-
American female chess master.
Currently, she stands as one of
the top 10 black women chess
players in the United States.
Baptiste and Hyatt’s former
chess teacher, Tyrell Harriott,
is hopeful about the upcoming
championship.
“I’m thrilled with the team’s
performance. Geah, in particular,
played incredibly strong this
weekend. Next up, Junior High
Nationals!” said Harriott.
Success Academy will send
its top two student chess teams to
Texas for the 2019 National Junior
High Championship. As of now,
Hudson Yards Middle School
and Bed-Stuy Middle School are
fi rst and third.
“The goal going into the championship
is to place fi rst. They are
going in a lot stronger this year,”
said Press Associate for Success
Academy Charter Schools, Liz
Ruiz.
ference hosted by University of Toronto,
the Princeton Diplomatic
Invitational hosted by Princeton
University, and Model United Nations
hosted by The College of
William and Mary.
This is the fi rst time in the organization’s
history that the team has
taken awards at every conference it
attended in a semester, and it is currently
on a streak of four-straight conferences
where Hamilton has received
at least one award.
McConnell, a senior majoring in
economics and government, is a graduate
of Stuyvesant High School.
WINNER: A PS 207 eighth-grader poses with her painting, which was chosen as the
show’s T-shirt design. Michele Kelly
Ten years of art shows at PS 207
Photo by Steve Solomonson
Photo by Caroline Orso