Community

From the desk of MIKE BLOOMBERG

Dear Reader,

Thank you for taking the time to learn about The Greenwood Initiative.

As someone who has been very lucky in life, I often say my story would only have been possible in America — and that’s true. But I also know that because of the artificial barriers of discrimination, my story likely would have turned out very differently if I had been Black, and that more Black Americans of my generation would have ended up with far more wealth, had they been white.

Building Generational Wealth for Black Families is Critical. That’s why I launched The Greenwood Initiative in Tulsa last month. I visited the site of the Black Wall Street Massacre, where a white mob decimated the prosperous community of Greenwood. It is to the memory of the lost lives and promise of Greenwood that we’ve dedicated The Greenwood Initiative: a plan to address the systematic bias that has kept Black Americans from building wealth.

THE GREENWOOD PLAN WILL: • Create 1 million new Black homeowners • Double the number of new Black-owned businesses • Invest $70 billion in the country’s 100 most disadvantaged neighborhoods

Fixing the System for Black Families. When I was mayor of New York, I was proud to take on the systematic inequality that held back too many New Yorkers. We increased education funding, built 650 new schools and raised Black graduation rates to record highs. We led an ambitious effort to reduce poverty and managed the largest amount of affordable housing in the nation. And as President, I will work even more aggressively to combat inequality nationwide.

I understand that undoing generations of systematic discrimination won’t happen overnight, but we can make progress with a clear vision and a comprehensive plan. I’ve included a pamphlet along with this letter that lays out my plan. When I’m President, implementing The Greenwood Initiative will be a top priority.

Join me in ending the systemic inequality that has held Black Americans back for too long!

Sincerely,

Mike Bloomberg

New York’s 17 th

Century African Burial Ground on Wall Street

By: Erin Lewenauer

One of the most important archaeological finds of our time is New York’s African Burial ground: the nation’s earliest and largest known African-American cemetery. For years it was hidden and violated, but holds the remains of New York City’s African and African-American pioneers and represents their significant history.

According to historical records, the first person of African descent to arrive in Manhattan was Jan (Juan) Rodrigues who was with the navigators, traders, pirates, and fisherman who boldly crossed the Atlantic as free men during the era of slavery. Rodrigues was a free black sailor from Santo Domingo (now the Dominican Republic), who arrived in 1613 and set up a trading post with the native Lenape people on the island of Manhattan.

The first enslaved Africans arrived in what was then called New Amsterdam in 1625 as workers for the Dutch West India Company whose profits relied on slave labor for the fur trade and later slave trade.

Along with European merchants and sailors, Africans developed the early colony throughout the 17 th and 18 th centuries. Africans were an important 20 percent of the city’s population in the 18 th century.

Under Dutch rule, African slaves built New York City. They cleared land for farms and shore areas for docks as well as broadened former Native American trails (Broad Way) to accommodate horse-drawn vehicles. The first community of free blacks emerged during the worst fighting of the Dutch and Indian War. In 1644, 11 enslaved men were freed and granted farmland in the dangerous frontier territory North of New Amsterdam. This spanned the “Negro frontier” and “land of the blacks”: the Central region of Manhattan extending from Canal St. to 34 th St. In 1653, upon Governor Peter Stuyvesant’s orders, the colony’s slaves helped to build the most famous fortification: The Wall (Wall St.). In 1658 the same laborers constructed the region’s first highway connecting New Amsterdam with the island’s second largest village: the “road to New Haarlem”. In 1664 the English conquered the Dutch colony and New Amsterdam became New York. The English rescinded many rights for free blacks including the right to own land and, shut out of churchyards within the city, a separate burial ground for Africans developed. The ground eventually covered 5 city blocks and held 20,000 burials.

In 1975, the African Burial land was subdivided and sold for house lots. In the 20 th Century it became New York’s government center. Its existence was forgotten until an archaeological excavation in 1991 in preparation for construction of a federal office building.

The African Burial Ground was designated a New York City Historic District and a National Landmark in 1993 and in 2003 some 10,000 participated in the “Rites of Ancestral Return” and re-interred the remains in a hand-carved wooden coffins from Ghana along with nearly 8,000 personal handwritten messages from the living to the African ancestorswerealso buried. In 2006, the African Burial ground was proclaimed a national monument and in 2007 the African Burial ground National Monument became the first National Monument dedicated to Africans of early New York and Americans of African descent: a sacred space honoring their memory, work, and lives.

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BROOKLYN UPCOMING EVENTS FREE Recurring Events in Brooklyn:

Office of the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office (209 Joralemon St.): Mon.- Fri., All day Score NYC Small Business Mentoring

Office of the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office (209 Joralemon St.): Mon.- Thurs., 9:30am-4:00pm Constituent Assistance Center Walk-In

Brooklyn Bridge Park (Fornino at Pier 6) Tues. nights, 7:00pm NYRR (New York Road Runners)

Van Dyke Community Center (392 Blake Ave.): Fridays, 2:00-3:00pm FREE Zumba for all HealthFirst members

Tuesdays until June 30 7:00-9:00pm Ronald K. Brown Com munity Dance Class

All dance levels are welcome to this commu nity dance class with Ronald K. Brown at the Billie Holiday Theatre. Classes begin center floor with an emphasis on alignment, rhythm and using the body to express ideas and themes; strength, prayer, and celebration. Resto ration Plaza. 1368 Fulton Street. $15.

Now Until June 13 4:00pm DanceAfrica at Weeks ville Weekends

Experience the magic of DanceAfrica at these free community workshops on the 2nd Saturday of the month. Led by BAM teach ing artists Kimani Fowlin and Farai Malianga, class es will focus on a variety of dances, songs, and tradi tions from Africa and the diaspora. Weeksville Her itage Center. 158 Buffalo Avenue. FREE.

Weekends in February 11:00-4:00pm Lunar New Year Join Prospect Park Zoo every weekend in Febru ary to celebrate the festival of the new moon and animals of the Chinese Zodiac. Meet one of Pros pect Park Zoo’s smallest animals – the super tiny Eurasian harvest mouse! Special activities, and a zodiac scavenger hunt are part of the fun. Learn how the Wildlife Conservation Society is helping animals in China and Southeast Asia! 450 Flatbush Avenue. FREE with Zoo admission. Now Until February 27 6:00-9:00pm OSHA Training Work shops

Every Tuesday and Thursday join Brooklyn Bor ough Hall for OSHA Training Workshops and become certified. 209 Joralemon Street. FREE.

February 20-22 7:30pm Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale There are many themes in A Winter’s Tale: grief, jealousy, rage, forgive ness, and love. Classified by scholars as both a ro mance and a comedy, the play follows the fall from grace of a once-be loved queen accused of adultery by her jealous hus band. Everything changes 16 years later when a chance meeting leads to a fated romance proving time heals all wounds. A Winter’s Tale also includes one of the most famous stage directions in theater history: “Exit, pursued by a bear.” Brooklyn College. 2900 Campus Road. $22. February 20 10:30-12:30pm February Break Discov ery Day

Explore habitats from around the world and have some hands-on sci ence fun during the midwinter school break. Families can learn together at stations inside BBG’s Stein hardt Conservatory. Kids use their senses to inves tigate plants and objects firsthand and find out how plants survive in environ ments ranging from deserts to rainforests alongside volunteer Discovery Docents. Explore the lush conservatories on a scav enger hunt and pot up a plant to take home. 990 Washington Ave. FREE for kids of all ages!

February 20-21 1:00-3:00pm Coming in from the Cold

Join Prospect Park Al liance at Lefferts Historic House this Mid-Winter Re cess to learn about salve and then make a small jar of your own scented salve to take home. Guests can choose from a variety of essential oils to scent an all T:10"

natural salve similar to 19th century recipes. Lefferts Historic House. 452 Flat bush Ave. $3.

February 22 12:00-3:30pm Grow Mushrooms In doors

Learn simple and af fordable techniques to grow mushrooms for food, medicine, and fun. Get hands-on and create your own mushroom starter to take home while we ex plore fascinating fungal intelligence and the po tentials of partnering with fungi to build, nourish, heal, and restore. BBG. 990 Washington Ave. $66.

February 23 2:00-3:30pm BSO: Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Marquez, Beethoven

The Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra begins a year long celebration of Ludwig van Beethoven’s 250th birthday with a concert featuring his “Leonore” Overture, which was writ ten to open his opera Fidelio. The BSO also performs Franz Liszt’s tone poem “Les Préludes”; Danzón No. 4 by Arturo Márquez; and Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Or chestral Suite No. 4 (called “Mozartiana” in tribute to Tchaikovsky’s favor ite composer, Wolfgang Mozart), featuring orches tra concertmaster Carlos Camposeco in an extend ed solo during the work’s final movement. 200 East ern Parkway. $20-$25.

February 23 7:30-9:30pm Crystals + Stones II Chakra Alignment: Base to the Crown

This workshop will focus on the fundamentals of the seven chakras and chakra alignment with crystal en ergy. Principle areas of focus: Basics of the seven chakras and their purpose, Self care rituals for using crystals + stones to unblock and activate chakras, and more. Heal Haus. 1082 Ful ton Street. $25.

February 23 9:00-10:45am Winter Wellness Sun days:

Medicinal, delicious, and seasonal foods for the winter months. Warm up with the Garden’s Win ter Wellness Sundays series featuring restorative movement, meditation, and plant medicine. BBG. 990 Washington Ave. $35.

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CARING FOR THE WHOLE YOU. Harlem Community Newspapers | February 20. 2020 T:4.92"