{"id":268681,"date":"2026-06-16T17:44:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T17:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/268681\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T17:44:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T17:44:27","slug":"mamdani-joins-brownsville-students-to-celebrate-knicks-championship-win-while-promoting-2-k-initiative-brooklyn-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/268681\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani joins Brownsville students to celebrate Knicks championship win while promoting 2-K initiative \u2022 Brooklyn Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

As city agencies ramp up preparations for Thursday\u2019s historic ticker-tape parade celebrating the Knicks\u2019 second NBA championship in 53 years \u2014 and the first ticker-tape parade in franchise history \u2014 Mayor Zohran Mamdani visited the Nat Azarow Children\u2019s Center in Brownsville on June 15, where he joined pre-K students in putting the finishing touches on a large banner decorated with basketballs and hoops and emblazoned with the phrases \u201cKNICKS IN FIVE!!!\u201d and \u201c2K For All.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahead of the mayor\u2019s arrival, Dr. Ashley Williams, executive director of the Brooklyn Kindergarten Society (BKS), which manages seven children\u2019s centers in northern Brooklyn, including Nat Azarow Children\u2019s Center, told Brooklyn Paper that while she was excited about the mayor\u2019s visit, she was even more excited that BKS was among the early childhood education providers selected for the city\u2019s 2-K program that Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul announced in March.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids are super ecstatic. Not only did the Knicks win, but the mayor is also joining, and they are hoping to participate in creating a banner as well,\u201d Dr. Williams said, noting that the classroom capacity for 2-K was 12 students.<\/p>\n

\"\"Mayor Zohran Mamdani (left) and Assembly Member Latrice Walker (right) helped putting the finished touches on the Knicks banner. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

Emmy Liss, Mamdani\u2019s executive director of child care and early childhood education, told Brooklyn Paper it was an \u201cincredible\u201d time to be in New York City \u2014 not only because of the Knicks\u2019 historic win, but also because enrollment for 2,000 2-K seats in five New York City school districts opened June 2: District 6 in Manhattan, District 10 in the Bronx, Districts 18 and 23 in Brooklyn, and District 27 in Queens.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe application is open until June 26, and so we\u2019re encouraging all families with children who were born in 2024 to go online and apply now at myschools.nyc, and to make sure that they can get a 2k seat for this fall,\u201d Liss said, noting that the goal is to serve 2,000 children this year as the Mamdani administration plans to expand to 12,000 seats next year and reach universal access within four years.<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Mamdani and the Knicks\u2019 youngest fans perfected the banner, which will be displayed on one of the parade floats Thursday, adding blue and orange handprints. Five-year-old Kyle Matthews, who partnered with Hizzoner on the art project and also presented Mamdani with a friendship bracelet in the Knicks\u2019 colors, told the Brooklyn Paper that he was \u201csuper excited\u201d that the Knicks won and that he was \u201chappy\u201d to have gotten to collaborate with the mayor.<\/p>\n

State Sen. Jabari Brisport and Assembly Member Latrice Walker stressed the significance of pairing an art event celebrating the Knicks with the rollout of the 2-K program.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a chance to show that our education can be current and fun for our youth, so it\u2019s combining all the great things that are happening under this mayoral administration; 2K but also the Knicks winning a tournament in decades,\u201d Brisport, whose district includes parts of Brownsville, said. \u201d I think it builds off of some things that people were frustrated about in the initial outlets of Universal Pre-K and 3-K, in that it is full day, full year, and also that it\u2019s very deeply integrated with existing providers like Brooklyn Kindergarten Society.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Mayor Zohran Mamdani joined Pre-K students in Brownsville in putting the finished touches on a Knicks banner. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

Walker, who pointed out that the Knicks had not won an NBA championship since before she was born, said early childhood education leads to long-term positive outcomes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an amazing new initiative with 2-K; the earlier the better. We know that the earlier we invest in our babies, the more magical our outcomes are,\u201d Walker said. \u201cWe are in a process now of tearing down generational bad press as it relates to our educational scores here in District 23, and this, quite frankly, is the antidote to making sure that we have the scores that we need in years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As city agencies ramp up preparations for Thursday\u2019s historic ticker-tape parade celebrating the Knicks\u2019 second NBA championship in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[63992,103734,98,100,103735,99,6616,103736,41803,103737,95118,103738,22925,103739,9,24,12,370,63,103740],"class_list":["post-268681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-2-k-program","tag-assembly-member-latrice-walker","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-kindergarten-society","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-brownsville","tag-dr-ashley-williams","tag-emmy-liss","tag-knicks-banner","tag-knicks-fans","tag-knicks-in-five","tag-mayor-zohran-mamdani","tag-nat-azarow-childrenu2019s-center","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-nyc","tag-senator-jabari-brisport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}