| From the Villa ge of Brook ly n |
OUR TIME PRESS THE L OCAL PAPER WITH THE G LOBAL VIEW
| VOL. 23 NO. 25
June 20 – 26, 2019 |
Since 1996
Settling Debts, Building Futures
DELIVERING KING’S MESSAGE: At The Cooperative Culture Collective’s 19th Annual Fort Greene, Brooklyn Juneteenth Arts Festival, gifted twelve-year-old Javier Gooden stunned the audience in his delivery of poignant messages of freedom, liberation and power through the speeches of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The gifted actor, dancer, singer and spoken word artist, in a commanding performance, channeled the walk, tenor and style of the late leader and orator, before an intergenerational audience of some 200, Saturday, June 14th in Cuyler Gore Park.
Next week, Our Time Press recaps the event where cultural arts takes center stage with history, and awards are presented to community standouts. Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the June 19th, 1865 announcement in Texas that slavery had been abolished. The TCCC event is the oldest event of its kind in Brooklyn and Javier is the youngest honoree in TCCC history. For more information, visit: www.fortgreenebrooklynjuneteenth. org. (Photo credit: Bernice Elizabeth Green)
EMBRACING THE MANDELA SPIRIT:The leadership of Bed-Stuy’s Nelson Mandela School continues to live up to the mission of the great South African leader whose nme it bears. At a recent awards event for achieving students, a young middle school student, Miss Corbin, was invited to stand in this group shot with principal Tabari Bomani and community leaders Stefani Zinerman (left), Former Chief of Staff of Councilman Cornegy, NAACP Brooklyn Chapter Leader, and Ms. Katrena Perou, CEO of Inspiring Minds (a Youth Mentoring/ Empowerment/Leadership Program). Ms.
Zinerman received the Baba Nkosi Kinard Award (named after Baba Stan Kinard) for her commitment to the spirit of Harambee and Ubuntu. Ms. Perou, CEO of Inspiring Minds (a Youth Mentoring/Empowerment/Leadership Program) received the Community Ubuntu Award for the great work she and Inspiring Minds have accomplished. But the biggest award may have gone to this young lady who was invited to stand in the midst of education greatness. The middle school student is the sister of a Mandela graduating senior who will attend Medgar Evers College in the fall.
Congressional Testimony on Reparations Heard on Juneteenth
T
Senator Corey Booker
he House held on Juneteeth, Wednesday, June 19, the first hearing in more than a decade on reparations – the idea that the descendants of slaves in the U.S. should receive some kind of compensation for the suffering experienced by their ancestors. Among those testifying were presidential candidate Sen. Corey Booker (D-NJ), writer Ta-Nehisi Coates and actor Danny Glover. The purpose of the hearing: The Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties is debating H.R. 40, a bill sponsored by Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), that would establish a commission “to study and consider a national
apology and proposal for reparations for the institution of slavery, its subsequent de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans, and the impact of these forces on living AfricanAmericans.” Sen. Corey Booker spoke in favor of the bill, citing a national failure to address “the root causes of a lot of the inequities” that exist in the U.S. The senator said the country has not yet confronted its long history of racism and white supremacy, and that establishing a commission to study the issue would provide an “historic opportunity to break the silence, to speak to the ugly past and talk constructively about how we will move this nation forward..”
➔➔ See Page 10
An article printed in the June 6-12 edition of the paper objected to EMBER Charter School’s submitting a request to the Department of Education for an expansion from K-8 to K-H.S. This week, EMBER founder and Managing Partner Rafiq R. Kalam Id-Din II responded, presenting the merits of the school and correcting what he says are some inaccurate assertions. ➔➔ See Page 8.