In 1970, “revolution” was more than a song title in parts of New York City. In the South Bronx, activist groups championed the needs of Black and Puerto Rican neighborhoods that received scant funding from the city’s government. One of the most crucial of these needs was health care.

“This is the time to celebrate community and begin anew,” said Jeanne Newman, founder of SHARE the Project, one of two nonprofit organizations hosting events in Hastings this Sunday, June 13. 

“Oslo,” the 2017 award-winning play by J.T. Rogers of Hastings, has legs, as show-biz folks would say. On May 29, the film adaptation premiered on HBO and HBO Max, where it can be viewed for the foreseeable future.

A love of history and research, plus a push from a friend, supplied lifelong Hastings resident Robert Roche with the spark to write his first novel. “A War on Two Fronts,” set during World War II, was published in paperback in April and is available through Amazon for $12.95.

The global pandemic has kept Broadway Training Center, the Hastings-based performing arts school, out of the footlights. But alhough the Irvington Theater, its home stage, has been off limits, that hasn’t stopped BTC from mounting not one, but two full-fledged musical productions this spring.

As New York opens back up, the Village of Hastings is working to entice locals to spend their weekends downtown this summer, dining, shopping, and enjoying free concerts. 

The Hastings Historical Society celebrated its 50th anniversary in April. The fact that the organization has been around for only a half-century may come as a surprise to those who have visited the society’s headquarters, located in an antique cottage nestled among the trees in Draper Park. …

Hastings K.I.D.S. is an acronym for “Kids Involved Doing Service,” which describes the volunteer opportunities this program provides. A prime example: the upcoming “community walk” designed to get Hastings strolling through the village to raise money for the American Cancer Society (ACS). 

During the Hastings Police Department’s annual inspection on Friday, May 14, the following members were honored for their standout service between 2018 and 2020.

Funding is falling into place for the restoration of Hillside Woods and Park, which has been devastated by a combination of deer and invasive plants.

Caleb Painter and Adam Oppenheimer have been best friends since they met in sixth grade, when both their families moved to Hastings. So it is heartening that each will play a special role when they graduate from Hastings High School.

Bassist John Patitucci has won three Grammy Awards and performed with jazz legends in his decades-long career. Now, the 61-year-old Hastings resident has another major accomplishment to his credit: film score composer. May 12 will mark the national theatrical release of “Chicago: America’s H…

The second annual Hastings Bioblitz — in which residents were encouraged to find, photograph, and log local flora and fauna — ended April 30 with far more contributions than the first one.

Angela Ries of Hastings competes in a cargo bike grocery bag relay race during the first Hastings Bike Rodeo held at the Zinsser commuter parking lot on Sunday, May 2. Andrew Heilakka of Hastings organized the event with the support of the Hastings Police Department and the Hastings Recreati…

If food captures the heart and soul of a place, Hastings’ new community cookbook, “It Takes A Village,” does that and more. 

Hastings High School will present its first in-person show in more than a year this weekend, with two outdoor performances of the Elvis Presley-themed musical “All Shook Up!” 

“Ribbons of Remembrance and Hope,” a rally at Draper Park last Sunday, April 18, was the response of the local community to the recent rise in violence against Asian Americans. 

Iris Burkat first met her husband, Howard, on a Greyhound bus, when both were heading back to school in Philadelphia in the 1960s. Travel has been a major motif of their union ever since. 

The renovated second floor of American Legion Post 1195 in Hastings was dedicated to 96-year-old James Pasanello on the afternoon of Saturday, April 10. 

The Hastings Pollinator Pathway Project is sponsoring its second seed swap at the Hastings Farmers’ Market next Saturday, April 17. The swap is a reprise of a successful event in February, where the seeds of 38 different plants, both edible and decorative, were given away. 

During his decades-long career as a dealer of books and other printed matter, Hastings resident Tom Lecky has sifted through reams of pages in search of what he calls “the rare and unusual.” 

The colorful banners hanging along Warburton Avenue and Main Street this month celebrate the 30th anniversary of a Rivertowns institution, the Upstream Gallery. 

Kaylee Oppenheimer and Bryce Jacobs, both members of Melissa Shandroff’s Science Research class at Hastings High School, were named finalists at the Westchester Science and Engineering Fair (WESEF) virtual awards ceremony on March 23. They each received a $400 prize and the chance to compete…

Schools Superintendent Valerie Henning-Piedmonte announced March 18 that she will retire effective July 1, two years into a three-year contract. The school district must now hire a new superintendent for the fourth time in five years. 

From Alba of Argentina to Zahra of Zambia, “G My Name is Girl,” written and illustrated by Hastings resident Dawn Masi, is a parade of playful, powerful girls from around the globe. The book, published last month by Doubleday for kids ages 3-7, takes the familiar schoolyard rhyming game “A M…

Should birth control pioneer and former Hastings resident Margaret Sanger be consigned to the ignominy of this era’s “cancel culture”?

The view of Manhattan from Hastings has changed significantly over the past decade, with the addition of tall and slender skyscrapers engineered by longtime Hastings resident Silvian Marcus.

“Frankly, this whole pseudonym thing is becoming a bit burdensome,” said Ruth Grill of Hastings, who published her memoir, “Davka: I Will Dance,” this past November under the pen name Naomi Silver. 

The Village of Hastings released a draft of its Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative Plan last week. It represents five months of work by a 30-person committee representing Village government and law endorsement, religious and educational institutions, private citizens, and students.

The simmering controversy over the removal of a book from eighth-grade English classes at Farragut Middle School this past December boiled over when a teacher resigned last month. 

The studio of sculptor Jacques Lipchitz, who lived in Hastings from 1947 until his death in 1973, has been donated to the Village.

The seeds of 38 different plants — from asters to four kinds of tomatoes — were available for free during the Hastings Farmers’ Market on Saturday, Feb. 20.

For decades, 10 green spaces in Hastings were parks in name only, including Hillside Woods, Zinsser Park, and Uniontown Park. That changed on Tuesday, Feb. 16, when the Hastings Village Board dedicated those locations as “official” Hastings parklands.

Keeping middle school students active during midwinter can be a challenge. That’s especially true this season, with many modified sports and after-school programs canceled due to the pandemic. 

When the pandemic limited access to research labs last year, some high school students lost opportunities for internships that might have yielded material for science projects. That was no problem for Hastings senior Adam Oppenheimer, however. Working virtually to study galaxies far, far awa…

week, while progress continues on other building projects throughout the district. At the Feb. 8 Hastings School Board meeting, district treasurer Maureen Caraballo, who oversees the $18 million capital project that the public voted for in February 2019, updated the status of its elements at…

Greenleaf Pharmacy will administer Covid-19 vaccines at the James V. Harmon Community Center on Main Street beginning later this month or early March, part of the Biden administration’s new initiative to combat the coronavirus.

Hastings Democrats caucused on Jan. 21, unanimously selecting incumbent Niki Armacost as their mayoral candidate and Mary Lambert and Thomas Drake for the two open village trustee seats.

Looking back at his logs from over a half-century of firefighting, James Drumm figures that he has participated in about 4,000 fire responses and 3,000 ambulance responses. 

Celeste Paerels of Hastings was one of 300 high school seniors named scholars this month in the annual Regeneron Science Talent Search, based on an original research project she submitted in 2020. She and her school will each receive $2,000.

Ingenuity and resilience, by most measures the survival tools of the hour, are the topic of this year’s Dewey talks, an annual program presented by the Friends of the Hastings Library.