NYS Senator Julia Salazar and NYS Assembly Member Emily Gallagher continued their annual Women of Distinction Celebration. Last year was the inaugural celebration of inspiring local women. This year’s honorees are: Trina Rose Cutugno, Lauren Comito, Vivian Legions, Tami Green, Lina Lee, Hannah Anousheh and Dana Rachlin. The event was held at the Wythe Hotel’s Bar Blondeau.
“Trina Rose Cutugno is an accomplished artist in Greenpoint and a dedicated advocate for home care, accessible and affordable housing, disability inclusion, and health justice. She’s one of the most effective activists I’ve met and I’ve learned so much from her,” said Gallagher
The choice to honor Lauren Comito (Leonard Street Library’s managing librarian and Urban Librarians Unite’s executive director) doesn’t take book smarts. That is an easy decision. While the Leonard Library has been under renovation, she has been a welcome sight accompanied by Nellie the book wagon at various locations and events throughout the neighborhood (check the Brooklyn Public Library — BPL site for a schedule); she also helps connect asylum-seeking families to resources within BPL. Her advocating for library funding in a year when Mayor Eric Adams proposed $58.3M in cuts is a super-heroic feat.
Vivian Legions is the president of the Berry Street–South 9th Street Houses Tenant Association. As such she advocates for residents, organizes community events, works to improve quality-of-life for her neighbors, and during the pandemic she organized distribution of food and PPE.
“Ms. Green organizes neighborhood events focused on sanitation, lot clean-ups, and block parties. She also has been a leader in forming block watch associations in the area around upper Highland Park, Sunnyside Avenue, and the often-overlooked residential street that runs along the Jackie Robinson Parkway,” said Salazar.
On accepting her recognition, community leader, Tami Green quoted James Brown’s song “This is a man’s world, this is a man’s world but it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman.”
Lina Lee is the executive director of Communities Resist (CoRe) has extensive experience representing low-income immigrant tenants facing eviction, harassment, and housing discrimination in some of the most gentrified neighborhoods in NYC.
The East New York Community Land Trust in a nutshell fights against displacement and for public lands in community hands. Co-founder Hannah Anousheh serves as the organization’s campaigns director.
Dana Rachlin is the co-founder and executive director of We Build the Block. This community organization enables community-developed and -led models that reduce violence and increase safety.
This timely event set in Women’s History Month acknowledges the women in the community that are making their own marks on history.
The Greenline 