✨ Business Spotlight: 🌿 Seven Senses Organic: The Astoria Tea in 250+ Stores

🏀 The Knicks Are Champions — Parade Is TOMORROW

⚠️ Storm Warning: Heavy Thunderstorms Expected Today

🤖 AI Is Reshaping NYC Film — Astoria Is Right in the Middle

👮 Mamdani vs. His Own Base: DSA Rebukes NYPD Expansion

⚖️ Judge Tells Elmhurst's “Worst Landlord” to Fix It — Or Else

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17

🎭 Everyday Charlie: The Musical — 7pm. Court Square Theater, 44-02 23rd St., LIC. Through June 21.

💃 Gayli: A Pride Celebration — 7pm. Irish dance in a queer-friendly space. NY Irish Center, 10-40 Jackson Ave., LIC. Ages 16+.

🎨 Painting Watercolor Gardens Workshop — 1pm. Voelker Orth Museum, 149-19 38th Ave., Flushing.

THURSDAY, JUNE 18

🏀 KNICKS CHAMPIONSHIP PARADE — 10am, FREE! Battery Park → Broadway Canyon of Heroes → City Hall. Streets close at 7am.

🎆 Independence Day Celebration + Grucci Fireworks — 6pm. Fort Totten Park, Bayside. Free admission.

🏳️‍🌈 LGBTQ+ Film: "A Quiet Love" — 7pm. CraicFest at NY Irish Center, 10-40 Jackson Ave., LIC. Irish deaf love stories.

🎸 Richie Santa: Elvis Forever (FREE) — 7pm. Juniper Valley Park, Middle Village.

FRIDAY–SUNDAY, JUNE 19–21

⚽ World Cup Fan Zone — Ongoing through June 27. USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows.

🌻 Astoria Farmers Market — Sunday, June 21, 10am–4pm. 31st Ave Open Street at 34th St. Great for Father's Day!

👨 Father's Day! — Sunday, June 21. Spoil someone special.

📌 Coming Up / Mark Your Calendar

🗳️  Early Voting closes Sun, June 21 — Primary Day is Mon, June 23

🇺🇸  America's 250th Celebration at Astoria Park Great Lawn — Thu, June 25

🏊  Astoria Pool opens — estimated late June

You’re walking through one of those summer markets where every table blurs together. Candles, soaps, hot sauce, more candles. Then someone hands you a small cup of tea and asks you to just try it. You take a sip and something shifts. It's not fancy. It's not complicated.

It tastes like a hillside smells after rain, like herbs that have been growing in the same soil for centuries. You look down at the tin and read "Mountain Tea." You look up and realize you've been standing at this table for five minutes asking questions. That’s how Seven Senses Organic tends to find its people.

The company is a family operation rooted in two cultures and one shared obsession with doing things the clean way. Patricia Graells and her partner Billy Karis, a Greek American born and raised in Brooklyn, launched Seven Senses Organic out of Astoria. Patricia's sister Carolina rounds out the team as the sales and marketing engine. The Graells sisters grew up in Barcelona with an Argentine mother and a Spanish father, so the Mediterranean wasn't just geography for them. It was the dinner table, the garden, the way their grandfather lived to 95 and never stopped crediting what he put in his body. Billy brought the Greek side of the equation. Their teas are sourced from small family farms near Kilkis, a rural area outside Thessaloniki where the herbs grow wild on the mountainsides.

Every leaf is hand-picked, hand-packed, certified organic, and free of preservatives. The farmers they work with are mostly women sustaining families in a region where good jobs are hard to come by. So when you buy a tin, you're not just getting tea. You’re keeping someone's lights on halfway around the world. 

The product that started it all is Mountain Tea, harvested from one of the world's recognized Blue Zones. If you haven't heard the term, Blue Zones are the handful of places on the planet where people consistently live past 100. Researchers point to this specific herb as one reason why. That's not marketing copy. That's epidemiology with a kettle. Beyond Mountain Tea, Seven Senses offers a range of organic single flavors and premium blends across three formats: loose-leaf tins and doypacks for your kitchen shelf, teabags ready to serve at cafes and restaurants and bulk supply for private-label partners. Their Lemon Ginger blend is a standout for anyone who treats their throat like it matters. Flavors cross formats, so whether you're buying for yourself or stocking a shop, the lineup stays consistent.

The reach is bigger than you'd guess for a company running out of Queens. Seven Senses is currently in over 250+ stores across the U.S. and Canada, plus locations in Europe. Their bulk and private-label business supplies major players, including Harney & Sons, one of the top five tea companies in the country. Locally, you'll find their teabags served at established spots like Pi Bakerie, a New York City institution  in Soho, that’s been open for over 60 years. The family also took home the Sustainability Award at the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas, which is basically the Super Bowl of the tea industry. Patricia and Billy pitched on that stage and  walked away with the kind of credibility that doesn't come from a logo redesign.

You’ll find Seven Senses Organic popping up at summer markets throughout the season, including Port Jefferson, Port Washington, and events right here in the neighborhood. They always bring samples, so you can taste before you buy and ask Carolina every question you’ve ever had about Greek herbs. If you want to skip the wait, their full catalog is available online with direct-to-customer shipping.

Follow Seven Senses Organic on Instagram at  https://www.instagram.com/sevensensesorganic.us/ or find them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/sevensensesorganic.us/. Browse their full collection and place orders at https://www.sevensensesorganic.us/. If you're a cafe, restaurant, or retailer looking to carry organic teas with a real story behind them, reach out directly. They're always open to new partnerships.

Astoria has always been a place where Greek roots run deep. Seven Senses Organic is proof that those roots are still producing something worth paying attention to.

New York finally has its championship. The Knicks ended a 53-year drought on Saturday, June 14, defeating the San Antonio Spurs 94–90 in Game 5 to claim the 2026 NBA title. For context: the last time the Knicks were champions, Nixon was president and the World Trade Center was still under construction.

The Canyon of Heroes parade happens tomorrow, Thursday June 18. It kicks off at 10am at Battery Park, marches up Broadway, and ends at City Hall — where Mayor Mamdani will present the team with keys to the city. Streets along the route close at 7am. If you're heading into Manhattan, build in extra commute time.

One note on safety: postgame celebrations turned ugly in parts of the city, with a 17-year-old shot in the Bronx and three school buses set on fire. The NYPD is significantly boosting its security presence for tomorrow's parade. Come celebrate the Knicks — just stay aware of your surroundings.

👉 Full parade route, closures & security info (Patch)

👉 CBS New York parade coverage

A Queens Housing Court judge has ordered A&E Real Estate — repeatedly cited as one of the city's worst landlords — to complete emergency repairs at 41-25 Case Street in Elmhurst by the end of this month. Tenants there have documented years of mold, broken heat, vermin infestations, and neglect that persisted even after a city-funded repair program was supposed to address the conditions.

The judge set a June 30 deadline with contempt proceedings on the table if A&E fails to comply. Two weeks. Tenant advocates say they will be watching closely to make sure the deadline is actually met.

We first covered conditions at this building in Issue #24 when tenants organized against the same company. Good to see the courts stepping in — now we wait to see if A&E follows through.

👉 Queens judge orders worst landlord to repair Elmhurst building (Queens Eagle)

The Tribeca Film Festival just wrapped its 25th anniversary run, and this year's defining debate wasn't about any particular movie — it was about whether AI would replace the people who make them. Panels on artificial intelligence dominated the schedule, with filmmakers, studios, and streaming executives wrestling with the same question: adapt or fall behind.

The stakes are real for Western Queens. NYC's film and TV sector employs roughly 185,000 people and accounts for about 12% of the city's creative economy — and that workforce is concentrated in LIC, Astoria, and surrounding neighborhoods built around production. Kaufman Astoria Studios, still navigating foreclosure proceedings, sits at the center of this shift. AI-powered script tools, visual effects pipelines, and automated post-production are already in use at major studios.

“It's optional to use AI, but it's not optional to learn about it,” one Tribeca panelist said. For Astorians who work in production, the arts, or adjacent industries, that's worth sitting with.

👉 AI Forces a Reckoning Across NYC Film Industry (Patch)

Mayor Mamdani is hiring 580 new NYPD officers — and his progressive coalition is publicly pushing back. The NYC Democratic Socialists of America issued a formal rebuke this week, calling the expansion “counter to socialist and working-class values.” Four additional organizations co-signed: Desis Rising Up and Moving, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, NY Communities for Change, VOCAL-NY, and the Justice Committee.

Mamdani, who swept into office in 2025 partly on a criminal justice reform platform, defended the decision as a response to genuine public safety needs — particularly in the Bronx — and tied the new hires to expanded training requirements and civilian oversight mechanisms. Aides framed it as a pragmatic evolution, not a reversal.

This is the first major public crack between Mamdani and the coalition that elected him. For Western Queens — where progressive community organizations were central to his win — the question is whether this is a one-time pivot or the beginning of a pattern.

👉 Full story: City & State NY

Astoria Insider is inviting local businesses and organizations to be featured in its growing community newsletter.

The platform highlights local news, events and community stories, providing businesses with an opportunity to reach a highly engaged local audience and showcase what they offer.

From restaurants and shops to services and community groups, all are encouraged to participate and share their story with readers across the Astoria and surrounding areas. Don’t own a business? That’s ok… Know of one that should be featured?

Those interested in being featured can reach out to learn more about available opportunities and upcoming editions. Click the button below to feature your business or send an email to [email protected] with your business details and we’ll reach out!