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AMY GOODMAN: Yes, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani has made history as New York’s first Muslim, first South Asian, first African-born mayor, and, at the age of 34, the city’s youngest mayor in more than a century. During the public New Year’s Day ceremony on the steps of City Hall, he was introduced by Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO–CORTEZ: New York, we have chosen courage over fear. We have chosen prosperity for the many over spoils for the few. And when the entrenched ways would rather have us dig in our feet and seek refuge in the past, we have chosen instead to turn towards making a new future for all of us.
In Zohran Mamdani, we have chosen a mayor who is relentlessly dedicated to making life not just possible, but aspirational for working people. New York City has chosen the ambitious pursuit of universal child care, affordable rent and housing, and clean and dignified public transit for all. And we have chosen that over the distractions of bigotry and the barbarism of extreme income inequality. We have chosen this path because we know that it’s the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do, and that if we can make it here, we can make it anywhere.
New York City, this is an inauguration for all of us, because choosing this mayor and this vision is an ambitious pursuit. It calls on all of us to return to public life en masse. Now is the time for us to turn towards our neighbors, stand with them and return to community life. A city for all will require all of us to fill our streets, our schools, our houses of faith, our PTAs and our block associations as we support this mayor in making an affordable city a reality for all of us.
Zohran Mamdani be the first Muslim mayor of our great city. He will be our first immigrant mayor in over a century. And he will be the youngest mayor of New York City in generations. But most importantly, Zohran will be a mayor for all of us.
With that, let us extend our deepest well-wishes and support to Zohran, his wife Rama and his family, as well as those of our public advocate, Jumaane Williams, and comptroller, Mark Levine. We send you, your spouses and families and all your loved ones all the support in the world as you embark on this great pursuit of a better city and future for all. ¡Felicidades!
AMY GOODMAN: That was Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez welcoming people to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s inauguration. The ceremony also included National Book Award finalist, inaugural poet Cornelius Eady, who recited his original poem “Proof.”
CORNELIUS EADY: The poem is called “Proof.”
Proof
You have to imagine it.
Who said you were too dark, too large, too queer, too loud?
Who said you were too poor, too strange, too fat?
You have to imagine it.
Who said you must keep quiet?
Who heard your story, then rolled their eyes?
Who tried to change your name to invisible?
You’ve got to imagine.
Who heard your name and refused to pronounce it?
Who checked their watch and said, “Not now”?
James Baldwin wrote,
“The place in which I’ll fit will not exist until I make it.”
New York, city of invention,
Roiling town, refresher and renewer.
New York, city of the real,
Where the canyons whisper in a hundred tongues.
New York, where your lucky self waits for your arrival,
Where there is always soil for your root.
This is our time.
The taste of us, the spice of us,
The hollers and the rhythms and the beats of us,
In the echo of our ancestors,
Who made certain we know who we are.
City of insistence
City of resistance.
You have to imagine
An army that wins without firing a bullet.
A joy that wears down the rock of “no,”
Up from insults,
Up from blocked doors,
Up from trick bags,
Up from fear,
Up from shame,
Up from the way it was done before.
You have to imagine
That space they said wasn’t yours,
That time they said you’d never own,
The invisible city lit
On its way.
This moment is our proof.
Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: National Book Award finalist and inaugural poet, Cornelius Eady. The New Year’s Day inauguration ceremony included the swearing-in of Mark Levine as the city comptroller. He placed his hand on the Torah, the book of Hebrew Scripture, as he took his oath. As New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, a son of immigrants from Grenada, was sworn in on his father’s Bible, he began to cry as he addressed part of his speech to his younger self.
JUMAANE WILLIAMS: I don’t know if when my mother, my Grenadian mother, arrived as a teenager, she hoped that a half a century later her son would speak from these steps. But she could have, because here in New York City, we choose to celebrate possibility and work to make reality.
I wish I can go back and tell my younger self that. Instead, I’ll say to my daughters today, to the children of the Perez Alnaude family, to everyone who may question their own worth like I did, on whether it’s worth fighting for the city with all its contradictions and problems and possibilities. And I got to take a second to say something to so many young people who are out there, and I’m going to say it to one person who’s waited 49 years to hear it: Little Black boy, you were worth it, and you always were. And without any titles, you were enough. You were always enough. You deserve to accept love, and you deserve to be protected. And I’m honored to be here to help create a city that’s worthy of that for you. And I’m so proud of you. So, just hold on. We gon’ be alright. We gon’ be alright. I’m so proud of you.
As we head into a new year, a new term, I want to ask all of you to take an oath with me. Our neighbors, I know, in Brazil adopted this motto, and I’ve tried to embody — I did it here for Comptroller Lander, but I give him his credit — that no one let go of anyone’s hands, because if we’re all connected, we can’t lose anyone. So we hold on to the hand of our neighbor, and we reach out with our other hand to grasp someone who may fall through cracks, and we bring them along. I want everyone, if they’re comfortable, take a hand of the person next to you, or the arm, and just repeat after me. We can all be the voice of the people.
CROWD: We can all be the voice of the people.
JUMAANE WILLIAMS: I know what’s ahead, but I won’t lose hold.
CROWD: I know what’s ahead, but I won’t lose hold.
JUMAANE WILLIAMS: And I won’t lose hope.
CROWD: And I won’t lose hope.
JUMAANE WILLIAMS: Anything can happen, so anything can happen.
CROWD: Anything can happen, so anything can happen.
JUMAANE WILLIAMS: And as we march forward —
CROWD: And as we march forward —
JUMAANE WILLIAMS: — no one let go of anyone’s hands.
CROWD: — no one let go of anyone’s hands.
JUMAANE WILLIAMS: Peace.
AMY GOODMAN: New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. When we come back, we’ll hear some of the comments of independent Senator Bernie Sanders, who swore Mayor Mamdani into office, and we’ll hear a large part of Mayor Mamdani’s address. Stay with us.
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AMY GOODMAN: “Bread and Roses,” performed by Lucy Dacus at the New Year’s Day inauguration of Mayor Mamdani.
