Beyoncé wins her 32nd award at the Grammys and announces the soon-to-be iconic Renaissance World Tour. Viola Davis’s Grammy win for audiobook makes her an EGOT. The Brooklyn Nets trade NBA player Kyrie Irving, going to the Dallas Mavericks after a controversial year. The city ends the COVID-19 vaccination mandate for city employees. Harlem’s African American Day Parade founder Abe Snyder dies at age 87. Adams denies he has a rat problem at city hearing. Locally collected data shows that mostly Black and low-income students left the New York City public school system in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic. Actress Sheryl Lee Ralph sings “Lift Every Voice” at the Super Bowl.
A sixth Memphis police officer, who participated in Tyre Nichols’s beating, is fired and the first officer involved sent to prison. Chiefs beat Eagles 38-35 at the Super Bowl while superstar Rhianna surprises the audience with the announcement of her second pregnancy at the halftime show. Trugoy the Dove, one-third of De La Soul, dies at 54. Asylum-seeker influx continues as the city scrambles to put people up in emergency shelters and hotels. CBS’s Gayle King gets Cronkite journalism excellence award. Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce celebrates its 125th anniversary. Brittney Griner re-signs with the Phoenix Mercury team. Simone Edwards, the first Jamaican to play in the WNBA, dies at 49. Adams makes another round of budget cuts to city schools. Adams’s brother leaves his volunteer post as a mayoral security adviser, a position he took after controversy over initial plans to hire him in a high-paid city job.