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Nobel and Pulitzer winning author Toni Morrison placed the African American Voice at the center of the nation's experience. She will be missed. Obituary Page 3
Authoritarian regimes, dictators, despots are often, but not always, fools. But none is foolish enough to give perceptive, dissident writers free range to publish their judgments or follow their creative instincts. They know they do so at their own peril. They are not stupid enough to abandon control (overt or insidious) over media. Their methods include surveillance, censorship, arrest, even slaughter of those writers informing and disturbing the public. Writers who are unsettling, calling into question, taking another, deeper look. Writers—journalists, essayists, bloggers, poets, playwrights—can disturb the social oppression that functions like a coma on the population, a coma despots call peace, and they stanch the blood flow of war that hawks and profiteers thrill to. From Toni Morrison's The Source of Self Regard
Cory Booker: White Supremacy is Fueled by a "Dangerous Tolerance"
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HARLESTON, South Carolina — Cory Booker stood in the well in the hallowed halls of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Wednesday morning and challenged Americans to act on the country’s gun violence epidemic, just days after mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, that killed at least 31 people and brought the country to a grieving halt. Booker offered a lyrical and, at times, spirited speech that presented an intersectional message on the dangers that white
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By Darren Sands, BuzzFeed
Presidential candidate Cory Booker spoke at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston SC Church where nine were murdered in 2015. supremacy and gun violence pose to America. “We must acknowledge as a country that as much as white supremacy manifests itself in dangerous and deadly acts of terror, it is perpetuated by what is too often a willful ignorance or dangerous tolerance of its
presence in our society,” Booker, the fourth black American ever popularly elected to the US Senate and now one of two top black candidates for president, said. “And the twisted
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T Toni Morrison (right) with Angela Davis in Brooklyn. The two met at Café Rue Dix, a French-Senegalese restaurant still operating in Crown Heights.
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Recent Documentary Shares "Pieces" of Morrison's Treasures
oni Morrison is so loved that her death has ardent fans across the world declaring themselves shattered. Fortunately, we’ve been left a roadmap to her heart and a blueprint for mending ours. The documentary, The Pieces I Am, released just a few months ago, will help us to re-member our own pieces in the wake of this great loss. It is one of Toni’s parting gifts not only to her fans, but to the world. Such is the importance of what she set out to do and the brilliance with which she achieved it. The Pieces I Am is directed by Toni’s longtime friend, photographer Timothy
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By Maitefa Angaza
Greenfield-Sanders, who shot several of her book covers as well as photos for magazine profiles. The director of the nine-portion film project, The Black List, GreenfieldSanders is a photographer first, but, as in the case of that project, was called to this documentary by its compelling subject. He’s worked on it for many years, but as Toni approached age 88, felt an urgency to finally complete it. The documentary shares lots of unknown stories and, to her apparent delight, Toni gets to tell most of them. Painting the picture along with her are, Sonia Sanchez, Angela Davis, Farah Jasmine Griffin, Walter Mosley, Oprah Winfrey and others. It’s
gratifying to see Black and Latin experts centered in the film, sharing their perspectives and their experiences with Toni. The director used a device he hadn’t seen before in documentaries, and he wasn’t sure it would work – Toni speaks directly to the camera, while others do not. Although on-camera, they are in conversation with someone off-camera. I didn’t question that choice while watching the film. Although it felt a bit different, I was so engrossed that I assumed the something different was simply Toni, shoes presence and voice are captivating.
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Booker: We see tweets and hateful words that ultimately endanger the lives of people in our country ➔➔ Continued from page 1 irony of this poison is it’s corrosive; it hurts the very people it claims to represent.” Booker reiterated his support for an assault weapons ban and called for a requirement for federal law enforcement to track terrorist threats by domestic-born white supremacists and report its findings annually. Earlier in his campaign, Booker had proposed a federal gun licensing program and closing the so-called Charleston loophole that essentially allows some weapons to be obtained by consumers before routine background checks are complete. That change is meant to commemorate the nine people who were murdered here by a 21-year-old in 2015. The bill was sponsored by South DBG MEDIA Publishers of Our Time Press, Inc. 358 Classon Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11238 (718) 599-6828 Web site: www.ourtimepress.com e-mail: editors@ourtimepress.com Publisher DBG MEDIA Editor-in-Chief David Mark Greaves Copy Editor Maitefa Angaza Columnists Eddie Castro Victoria Horsford Abigail McGrath Marlon Rice Reporters Akosua Albritton Margo McKenzie Contributors Lisa Durden Fern Gillespie Web Editor www.ourtimepress.com Lauren Cullins Legals Manager Joanna Williams The Best of Our Time Bernice Elizabeth Green, Editor © 2015, DBG MEDIA Publishers of Our Time Press, Inc., printed in New York City. All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced without prior permission of the publishers. Publishers are not responsible for any ad claims. MBE Certified in NYC, NYS and the Port Authority of NY & NJ Member: New York State Press Association
Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, direct on the topic yet. “White the highest-ranking black supremacy allows political leadDemocrat in the House of ers to promise to ‘build the wall’ Representatives. — while not building hospitals, “Each person, each schools, or infrastructure. It talks generation, has a decision about the invasion of immigrants to make,” Booker said — while allowing deadly opioids Wednesday. “Do you to invade communities and kill our want to contribute to our children. collective advancement “And it creates a dangerous or — through inaction or delusion that some among us are worse — to our collective outside of our moral concern — retrenchment. To our progthat we don’t have to care about ress or — through apathy those ‘others.’ We don’t have to and indifference — to the think about them, that they should violence that threatens to Photo: By Cie Stroud express gratitude simply to be here, tear us asunder? That is the In Charleston, Booker quoted Morrison: “The function of an idea that some Americans can challenge of our generation freedom is to free someone else.” Here in 2015, he inducts even be a threat to other Americans today. It is the collective Toni Morrison into the New Jersey Hall of Fame at the just by existing, when, in reality, crossroads we are at. NJPAC, Newark, 2008 we share a common cause and a “Addressing this isn’t common purpose. There is only an act of charity or philanthropy. It is an center as premeditated, saying the shooter one American destiny.” issue of national security, it is an issue of drove hours across Texas to the border town. Booker said the shooter in Texas is reprepatriotism, it is an issue of love.” In Charleston, Mother Emanuel seats sentative of a long-festering problem in the On the evening of June 17, 2015, 12 500. In the foyer, framed black-and-white country. “The act of anti-Latino and anti-imparishioners were meeting for Bible study pictures of the AME church founder, Bishop migrant hatred we witnessed this weekend in the basement of Emanuel AME Church. Richard Allen, and his wife, Sarah, hang in- did not start with the hand that pulled the A white shooter killed Clementa Pinckney, side a dark frame. On Wednesday morning, trigger. It did not begin when a single white the South Carolina state senator and Mother the air was damp with the smell of wood. supremacist got into his car to travel 10 hours Emanuel’s senior pastor, along with eight A lone officer paced about the building’s to kill as many human beings as he could,” other people: Myra Thompson, Ethel Lance, facade. Booker emerged wearing a dark suit he said. “They were planted in fertile soil beSusie Jackson, Cynthia Hurd, Sharonda and dark tie, a look he associates with civil cause the contradictions that have shadowed Coleman-Singleton, DePayne Middleton- rights causes — he donned a similar look at this country since its founding remains a part Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, and Daniel the commemoration of the “Bloody Sunday” of who we are.” Simmons. The shooter was found by Judge march from Selma to Montgomery at Brown Lisa Izzo, an activist involved with the Richard Gergel to have no mental illness AME Church in Selma, Ala., in March. group Moms Demand Action in Charleston, and was formally sentenced to death for his Earlier this week, Booker placed respon- said her horror at the events in El Paso recrimes in January 2017. sibility for the weekend shooting in El Paso called how, when she was a little girl, she had The events here and in El Paso are at the feet of President Donald Trump. The learned that there were two separate drinking separated by four years, as many states, and senator did not mention Trump by name fountains for students: one for black children nearly 1,700 miles, but the massacres have a Wednesday morning, explicitly setting aside and another for white students. grim similarity: A weekly ritual was violently “calling out the shortcomings of our leaders.” “That made the hair on my neck stand interrupted by assailants who sought to inflict Booker pointedly read a Scripture from the up, and I’m standing in this church all these pain on soft targets with greater significance. book of Galatians: “Do not be deceived, God years later,” Izzo said Wednesday morning. Before his act of terror, the Mother Emanuel is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this “It’s almost like it’s been under the surface shooter visited sites around Charleston tied he will also reap.” all along and it’s rising with the hate speech to the state’s history, including Sullivan’s “The act of anti-Latino, anti-immigrant we have, but now it’s clear that it’s not just Island, which held slaves. The shooter, an hatred we witnessed this weekend did not Trump, and it’s painfully obvious we have avowed white supremacist, was familiar with start with the hand that pulled the trigger,” this nightmare, and this is where we’re at. the church’s history, especially as it related Booker said. “It did not begin when a single “You know, I’m sitting there listening [to to Denmark Vesey, who, according to legend, white supremacist got into his car to travel Booker] and thinking, How are we still here planned a slave revolt that never happened. 10 hours to kill as many human beings as he talking about this?” El Paso is one of America’s unique could. It was sowed from the highest office in As Trump prepared to leave Washington border towns: Juárez, Mexico, and El Paso our land, where we see in tweets and rhetoric for Dayton and El Paso, someone rang a are essentially connected, and for its former hateful words that ultimately endanger the single note on the church’s chime bells at representative Beto O’Rourke, who is also a lives of people in our country. People of 9 a.m. sharp. Thirty minutes later, Booker Democratic candidate in the 2020 primary, the color, immigrants, of us all.” appeared, flanked by the Rev. Eric S.C. community has served as a broad tableau for Although he did not say Trump’s name Manning. Manning introduced the senator, why Americans should feel comfortable — he described white supremacy as a more saying the church had stood against injustices moving toward better immigration policy. Law insidious disease that predated the president’s enforcement described the act at the shopping election — Booker’s words were his most ➔➔ Continued on page 4
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Photo: Christy Bowe/ZUMA Wire
May, 2012 Morrison receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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Credit Image: © Globe Photos/ZUMAPRESS.com
Nov. 12, 2004 Nobel Prize winning author Toni Morrison at a "Reading Time Out” at the 5th Ave. NBA Store.
Toni Morrison, One of America’s Greatest Writers, Passes
n describing the literary greatness of Toni Morrison—winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first awarded to an African-American woman—the Nobel Foundation said that Morrison, “in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality.” She pursued and fulfilled that mission throughout her prodigious literary career. According to her publisher, Morrison died on Monday evening in a New York hospital, the Washington Post reports. She was 88 years old. Knopf spokesman Paul Bogaards confirmed her death but didn’t announce an immediate cause. Born on Feb. 18, 1931 in Lorain, Ohio, Chloe Ardelia Wofford was the second oldest of four children born to George and Ramah Wofford, sharecroppers who had migrated north from Alabama. The couple raised their children in an integrated, working-class neighborhood. Morrison would later reportedly tell the New York Times: “When I was in first grade, nobody thought I was inferior. I was the only Black in the class and the only child who could read.” She displayed an early love for literature, reading the works of many European writers and learning Latin. She also changed her middle name to “Anthony” after converting to Catholicism at age 12. Morrison graduated with honors from Lorain High School in 1949 and went on to Howard University, where she majored in English and minored in the classics. (She also started using the name “Toni” at Howard, reportedly because it was easier to pronounce.) In Washington, D.C., for the first time, she saw segregation up close. After graduating in 1953, she pursued a graduate degree in English at Cornell University, which she completed in 1955. Morrison returned to Howard in 1957 to teach English; while there, she met Harold Morrison, an architect from Jamaica. (She also became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.) The couple married in 1958 and had two sons: Harold, born in 1961, and Slade, born in 1964, the same year their marriage ended. The single mother subsequently moved with her children to Syracuse, N.Y. to take a job as a senior editor at a textbook publishing company. A year and a half later, Morrison moved to New York City to become an editor at Random House, where she worked with authors such as Toni Cade Bambara and Gayl Jones. She also worked on the
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Monée Fields-White, theroot.com
Toni Morrison with sons Harold and Slade groundbreaking historical anthology The Black Book (1974). While teaching at Howard, Morrison joined an informal group of poets and writers. Her first piece was a short story about a young Black girl who strongly believed that her impoverished upbringing would be better if she had blue eyes. That story would turn into her first novel, The Bluest Eye, which was published in 1970. Critics applauded Morrison’s style, though the novel didn’t sell well. Her next work of fiction, Sula, was published in 1973; it told the story of the troubled and complex friendship between two women who grew up together in a small Ohio town. The novel was nominated for the American Book Award. It was her next novel, however, that would bring her broad national attention. Song of Solomon, published in 1977, was a featured selection of the Book-ofthe-Month Club, the first honor for an African American author since Richard Wright’s Native Son in 1940. The novel, about Milkman Dead’s journey through the South in search of his roots, won the National Book Critics’ Circle Award. Morrison’s 1981 novel, Tar Baby, which explores the love affair between a Black man and woman who connect across very divergent paths, received mixed reviews. Her 1987 work, Beloved, is generally considered to be Morrison’s masterpiece. It is the story of Sethe, a former slave who is haunted by her memories of attempting to kill her children to save them from slavery. Morrison received the American Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988 for Beloved, which was later turned into a movie by Oprah Winfrey. In 2006, the New York Times Book
Review named Beloved the best novel of the past 25 years. In 2005, Time magazine listed it among the 100 Best English-language novels from 1923 to the present. Morrison taught at Princeton University from 1989 to 2006, where she held the Robert F. Goheen Chair in the Humanities. During that time, she formed a special workshop for writers and performers called the Princeton Atelier, which enables students to collaborate with established artists to produce original works for public presentation. While continuing to write novels, from Jazz in 1992 to God Help the Child in 2015, Morrison expanded into other art forms. She wrote a libretto for the opera Margaret Garner, which told the story of slavery through the life of one woman, as well as the play Desdemona. As a champion of the arts, Morrison didn’t shy away from speaking her mind on key issues. In 2009, she spoke out against censorship after one of her books was banned at a Michigan high school. She also edited Burn This Book, a collection of essays on censorship and the importance of the written word. Morrison also offered her views on major political events. During the 1998 impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton, she claimed in a New Yorker essay that Clinton was being mistreated because of his “blackness,” writing: “Years ago, in the middle of the Whitewater investigation, one heard the first murmurs: white skin notwithstanding, this is our first Black President. Blacker than any actual Black person who could ever be elected in our children’s lifetime. After all, Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness:
single-parent household, born poor, working class, saxophone-playing, McDonald’sand-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas.” Ten years after that controversial commentary in 2008, Morrison would endorse then-Sen. Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential primary—her first public endorsement of a presidential candidate as she wrote in a letter to Obama: “[O]f one thing I am certain: this opportunity for a national evolution (even revolution) will not come again soon, and I am convinced you are the person to capture it.” When Obama presented Morrison with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012 he said, “Toni Morrison’s prose brings us that kind of moral and emotional intensity that few writers ever attempt...The rest of us are lucky to be following along for the ride.” Her last published and filmed works, both released early this year, were self-reflective. The Source of Self-Regard gathered together decades of Morrison’s speeches, reflections and criticism, while a documentary on Morrison’s life and work, The Pieces I Am, emphasized her substantial contributions to American life and letters. Featuring anecdotes from Morrison herself, the film was intended to be a “living memorial” in the words of her friend Angela Davis. “The theme of Toni Morrison’s work has been a very deep engagement with race,” Davis told The Root, adding that Morrison’s work helped her not just think differently, but to see and feel differently. “Her work can play a foundational role in the new conversations we need to be having during this period...of what kind of world we need to envision for the future.” It is not hyperbole to say that Morrison’s contributions—as a novelist, as a champion of Black writers, as a moral voice in a country seemingly incapable of squaring honestly with its own demons—went far beyond shaping generations of writers who came after her. She reconfigured the American literary landscape, which is to say, she shaped this very country—a country that, facing its most profound moral crisis since the turn of the century, must now grapple with her loss. Morrison summarized her own approach to mortality accordingly: “We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.” Monée Fields-White is a freelance writer and editor based in Los Angeles. Maiysha Kai and Anne Branigin contributed to this report.
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WHAT’S GOING ON ■■
By Victoria Horsford
USA/LONG HOT SUMMER The Middle East used to be the world’s main danger zone, with car bombs, geopolitical wars and multiple strains of terrorists. Today, the Middle East can take a back seat to the USA – the world’s new killing fields where gun violence is as American as apple pie. In one week, there were three massacres in as many American cities: Gilroy, California, with five dead at the Garlic Festival on 7/28; El Paso, Texas, with 22 dead at an international shopping center on 8/3; and Dayton, Ohio with 9 dead at an outdoor late-night entertainment complex. The three white gunmen, all equipped with assault weapons, are finally being called domestic terrorists. At press time, the FBI confirms that the Gilroy and El Paso gun violence incidents are being
assessed as hate crimes. And the hate provocateur and instigator, is US President Donald Trump. While the 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls engage in debates about how America must work towards that more perfect union, President Trump holds forth at his reelection rallies to his MAGA fans, talks about the disintegration of the union in remarks which encourage racial hatred and discord among the races: “whites vs. nonwhites like Blacks and Latinos.” There is no place for national gun orgies-turned-massacres. Trump talks directly and indirectly to a growing subculture of white nationalists which is not reluctant to kill and to make America white again. The US Republic cannot endure 16 more months of the Trump presidential brand. El Paso, Texas is an international city which is 85% Latino, people who were targets of the gunman. The El Paso gunman is alive and an
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admitted white supremacist. The Dayton gunman killed six Blacks and his biological sister. Authorities have concluded that he had a multiplicity of mental disorders unrelated to race. Trump waited 48 hours before addressing the nation about the weekend tragedy, saying that this nation has no tolerance for hate! He said nothing about revisiting gun laws and gun reform. Why are Americans armed to the teeth with assault weapons intended for use in war zones? Congress should cut its recess short and attend to the American crisis – the pandemic of weekly, race-related carnage all over the land. A toxic, race-baiting Oval Office occupant coupled with the millions of assault weapons in the hands of white nationalists is a recipe for more disasters.
CARIBBEAN/AUG. MONDAY Last week included the first weekend in August and it precedes August Monday, a major cultural interlude in the history of Black Anglophone Caribbean. Emancipation Day and August Monday are interchangeable in the Caribbean. August Monday is a time for celebration and carnival in many Anglophone nations. Why? Emancipation Day, August 1, 1833, was the date of the Slavery Abolition Act, which ended that institution in the British Caribbean colonies. Rihanna, international pop superstar-cum-entrepreneur, returned to her native island in the sun, Barbados, for Crop Over from August 1-6, the annual carnival celebration and tourist attraction. She was pretty in pink, wearing a costume of pink feathers – no doubt a couture piece from her own fashion house – as she joined and feted during the Grand Kadooment Day Parade. Last weekend was all fete and
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➔➔ Continued from page 2 and welcomed leaders who shared those values. He said they’d feel comfortable with any candidate who wanted to come to speak out against the type of rhetoric that was tearing the country apart. In an interview after the speech, Manning told BuzzFeed News that he and other leaders did not come to the decision to receive Booker lightly. “Always,” Manning said, when a local reporter asked if he’d been in prayer regarding the decision. He
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bacchanal at the annual Toronto Caribbean Carnival, aka annual Caribana Carnival in Ontario, Canada, which is (arguably) the biggest Caribbean cultural celebration in North America. More than a million Caribbean Diasporans descend on Toronto to immerse themselves in dance, music and cultural festivities redolent of the “old country,” south of the border. Marching band competitions, Soca, Calypso, J’Ouvert and assorted Caribbean pageantry are part of the Toronto Caribana menu. Parade weekend draws tourists who pour roughly $400 million into the Toronto economy. Other August Monday/Carnival celebrations in the Lesser Antilles include the Antigua-Barbuda Carnival, which runs from July 26 to August 6 and the Anguilla Carnival, August 1 to 11. August Monday/Emancipation Day celebrations fall during the pre-hurricane season when Caribbean weather is inviting, and airline tickets are not prohibitive.
ARTS/CULTURE RIP: Toni Morrison, the American literary icon of the 90s, died in NY on August 5. News of her transition arrived at press time. Novelist, essayist, Princeton professor, major book publisher editor and intellectual, Toni Morrison Morrison, 88, exemplified American exceptionalism. Most of her novels, “SULA,” “THE BLUEST EYE,” “TAR BABY,” centered on Black women protagonists. She chronicled Black life in America from the antebellum era through the 20th century. A keen observer of the psychic, psychological and the emotional pain that attended slavery and its cruel legacy. Her novel, “BELOVED,” set in the 19th century, was based on a story lifted from the nonfiction work, which she co-edited, “THE BLACK BOOK,” which spans 300 years of Black American narratives, oral histories, pictures and other mementos that is veritable American historical fiction. Ohio-born, Morrison is the daughter of parents who traveled north as a part of the “Great Migration.” She attended Howard University, where she earned a BA, then Cornell, where she earned her MA and wrote her dissertation on Virginia Wolfe and William
Cory Booker
said he spent the few minutes before his introduction thinking about humility and Mother Emanuel’s role as a force for moral clarity. “We have always taken a stand against the injustices of this world,” Manning said. “So I asked myself, well, who am I?” Clay Middleton, a US veteran and state director of Booker’s campaign in South Carolina, said he began reaching out to leaders once Booker heard of the carnage that unfolded in El Paso on Saturday. At various points, Booker has met with Pinckney’s widow, Jennifer,
Faulkner. Her Faulkner fascination would explain the bold, nontraditional terrain she navigates, and her interest in the American South in her fiction and the comparison between her and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Perhaps her most influential storytelling emanates from family and the ghosts of African American stories, to which she was exposed from early childhood. A Nobel laureate in literature, Toni won the Pulitzer Prize for “SONG OF SOLOMON,” and was the 2012 recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She embraced Catholicism in her early teens. Morrison is survived by one of her two sons, Harold. BOOK TV should rebroadcast its 3-hour IN-DEPTH interview with her. I met the remarkable storyteller at Margaret Troupe’s Harlem Arts Salon in her honor in 2013. Her genius is embodied in her works. Read a few of her books.
SUMMER PLEASURES The Health Wealth and Music Tour in NYC kicks off on August 9 at Marcus Garvey Park, 124th Street at Fifth Avenue, Harlem, from 6 to 8:30 pm. The eclectic music festival is equal parts HIP-HOP, R&B, Jazz, Soca, Afro Beat and Pop. The free, family-friendly event has topliner acts like Bobby Booshay, Young Devyn, Keith “the Captain” Gamble, the Nu Gypsies, Napoleon Da Great, 3The Rapper and Too True Dancers. Tour is co-presented by 360 Entertainment International/ New WorldStation.com in association with Voza Rivers New Heritage Theatre, Harlem Media Group, Jazzmobile Summerfest and the Harlem Arts Alliance. The African Film Festival is all over town, year-round, in search of film exhibition venues. The AFF weekend schedule, in collaboration with Brooklyn’s MoCADA, includes the films “SARAFINA” (117 minutes), an antiapartheid musical which will be screened on Friday, August 9 at 7 pm at The Plaza, located at 300 Ashland Place, Brooklyn and “WALLAY,” a story about a rebellious teen boy who lives in France who gets to taste culture shock when he is sent to live with his uncle in Burkino Faso in West Africa. This will be shown on Governor’s Island on August 10 at 7 pm. Screenings are free and open to the public. A Harlem-based branding and public relations consultant, Victoria can be reached at Victoria.horsford@gmail.com.
and Polly Sheppard, two survivors of the shooting. Sheppard testified during the gunman’s trial that he said he was sparing her life for her to tell the story. “It’s hard, but Cory has already set the tone,” Middleton said. “And it always goes back to our moral compass. We are one nation under God, and the Bible says that where two or more are gathered that God is in the midst. Those ideas are deeply rooted in faith, whether you are Christian, Muslim, or Jewish. These things are rooted in your faith, and he displayed that today with his words.”
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Thinker’s Notebook
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Guns Kill People ■■ By Marlon Rice
saw two people that I knew die from gun violence before.
It was 2005. At the time, I was the Operations Director for a security firm that secured the Medgar Evers Houses and the Betty Shabazz Houses along Gates Avenue from Throop Avenue to Lewis Avenue. I used to ride my bike to work. I would ride up Throop to Gates, make that right on Gates and then ride Gates down to my office at 745. It was around 2:30pm, I was due in at 3pm. I rode down Gates, stopping at the Westbound bus stop at the corner of Gates and Marcus Garvey to speak to a young man that lived in the building right near the bus stop. His name was James. He was in his early 20’s and had just become a father to a beautiful baby girl. I asked him how she was doing. He smiled, and said she was doing fine. We talked for a minute, and then I told him I’d see him later and I rode off. I rode my bike across Marcus Garvey, stopping in front of 701 to talk with Ms. Rogers, the head of the Tenant’s Association. She was one of my favorite ladies from the block, always warm and genuine. She saw me on my bike and laughed aloud, saying that I was too big for the bike. I got off of the bike, smiling as she teased me when I heard a car screech behind me. That sound was followed by a cluster of gunshots that sounded like they were right on top of us. I grabbed Ms. Rogers and hit the ground, huddling next to a burgundy car as gunshots rang out in bunches. I was scared for my life. Everything sounded like it was happening right on us. Finally, after what seemed like forever, the shots ended, and
I could hear commotion and chaos. I head in an attempt to cover his face. got up, picked Ms. Rogers up from the When he did that, he revealed the ground and scanned around me, trying wounds to Carlos’ chest. It was horto figure out what happened. I looked rible, the bullets ate that boy’s skinny back across Marcus Garvey to where I chest up. The cops came, the entire was just standing talking to James, and block was going crazy, and I went to I saw a figure on the ground, people my office and broke into tears. I didn’t crowding around the figure, wailing and even take my bike. A guy from 701 screaming for help. I don’t know why, happened to know that the bike laying but I ran across the street in the direction on the building was mine, and he took of the fallen. When I reached the crowd, it inside and brought it to me later that I realized that the guy on the ground was evening. James. His blue shirt looked purple, I tell this story because last week soaked in blood. His chin was blown there were two mass shootings in this off, making his face look mangled. He nation. In El Paso Texas, a young man was laying on the ground trying to curl walked into a Walmart and killed 22 himself into a fetal position. people, wounding another two dozen. I will never forget that. Thirteen (13) hours later, in Dayton It hurt to watch him--it was like he Ohio, another young man walked into was still trying to hide himself from the a bar and killed 9 people, injuring shots. Ricardo, a maintenance man on Photo: Marlon Rice about two dozen. And while we can the premise, grabbed James’ hand and At this Brooklyn Intersection of Gates and Marcus talk about all of the reasons and mobegged him to fight until help arrived. Garvey two young men lost their lives to gun tivations behind each shooting, there I looked up and down Marcus Garvey violence. is only one common denominator looking for help when I realized that in the El Paso shooting, the Dayton someone else was on the ground across Gates shooter over on his back and I realized that I shooting, the shooting in Brownsville at at the corner. One of my security guards was knew him, too. His name was Carlos. Carlos Old-Timer’s Day, and the shooting on Gates handcuffing him, but the people around the was a kid from the neighborhood, always Avenue in 2005. guard were screaming that the guy was already getting into fights and in the middle of stuff. The gun. dead. I walked across the street. The guard saw He was young, maybe 17 or 18. I used to talk In the madness that is America, the prolifme and started yelling towards me, telling me to Carlos a lot. He wasn’t bad, but he was lost, eration of firearms in such an indiscriminate what happened. The guy on the ground here the kind of kid that would’ve benefitted by manner as what currently exists, is akin to had hopped out of a car and shot James. When positive role models because he wasn’t afraid smoking a cigarette while filling your gas tank. he ran across the street, my guard was standing to be [positive]. But instead, because his role It’s dangerous. It’s foolish. And occasionally, it on the corner and shot him. The guard was models were negative, he wasn’t afraid to be is going to explode. All of those other factors a retired police officer, as most of my guards negative. His eyes were open, rolled into his can be argued and debated. However, the gun were, so he followed protocol by handcuffing head. The guard, realizing that Carlos might factor cannot be. Our attitude in this country the shooter and calling it in. He turned the really be dead, pulled Carlos’ T-shirt over his about guns is killing us.
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OUR TIME PRESS August 8 – 14, 2019
VOL. 23 NO. 32
Cong. Yvette Clarke: Hate in America fueled by "racist, xenophobic, bigoted president"
rooklyn, NY -- Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke (NY-09) issued the following statement in response to the El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio massacres over the weekend: Our country is in crisis and in mourning. This past weekend our nation again saw violence tear apart two more communities. My heart goes out to the people who are grieving today in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio where dozens of lives were stripped away too soon by white nationalists. The hate held by white nationalists and white supremacists in America has been fueled by a racist, xenophobic, bigoted president, and as a result, these radical white males feel emboldened to commit attacks on American soil. The string of attacks by these radical white males means we must increase our intelligence resources to monitor and circumvent future attacks by white nationalists because no person
in America should feel scared to leave their house to go to Walmart or to socialize with their friends. It is imperative that our country addresses the threat of white nationalists and white supremacists. We saw our government react after the Oklahoma City Bombings, which was done by a radical white male, by paying close attention to white nationalists to prevent future similar attacks. America’s focus shifted after
the tragic September 11th attacks in devoting intelligence resources to preventing Islamic and foreign terrorism. Today with the trend of more and more white supremacist attacks, our government needs to put the same amount of resources into studying the behavior of white nationalists as we do in to foreign threats to our country. Tragically, lives continue to be lost because of hate-fueled mass shootings and massacres, but at the end of the day, whether these human lives are lost by the bullet of a white supremacist or by the bullet of a foreign terrorist, the American government has a responsibility to identify and ward off all threats by allocating proper intelligence resources regardless of where these perpetrators reside. We must also keep on pushing to enact gun safety laws in Congress. The House of Representatives passed a bill months ago which would require universal background
checks before purchasing a firearm--but this legislation sits stagnantly in the Senate. At what point will our Republican elected officials choose human life over gun lobbies? As public servants, we have a job to protect people from gun violence which starts with getting guns off the streets and by siphoning off access to black-market guns from the iron pipeline. We must not see the day when we turn on the tv with news of a mass shooting somewhere in America and find this “normal.” We must not ever become desensitized to the gun violence that is plaguing our communities. It is my hope that our prayers will be answered-prayers that our Republican lawmakers will do what’s humane and put lives above lobbies. I pray that with bipartisan action to enact common sense gun safety laws in Congress that never again will we have to grieve the losses from another mass shooting or gun massacre in America.
The hatred embedded in the white supremacy behind the mass shooting in El Paso cannot be eradicated by reasoning, or a call to love. It is rooted in the 400 years of slavery and those roots are deep and tangled. It can only be contained by societal pressure, laws and the removal of its weapons. As for President Donald Trump, his incompetence, emotional immaturity, ignorance and racism are beginning to take hold, and such is the power of the office, that the nation itself is becoming sickened. Add to Trump, vibrating as he does with the white supremacist legacy of the Wild West genocide of native people and enslavement of Africans, white male anger, fear and guns and you have what we have today, carnage in the street and terror in the homes. From 1997 we reprint the following look at insurrections in the Carolinas. Written 49 years after the end of slavery, we see the empathy of the writer for slaveowners, how slow is the evolutionary process of a civilization. To help remember how far we have come in the struggle against white supremacy and the extent of its danger, we offer the following. DMG
Police Control of the Slave in South Carolina ■■
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by Howell Meadoes Henry
(This article is transcribed from Mr. Henry’s thesis. It does not reflect the opinion of OUR TIME PRESS.)
he following paragraph will narrate some instances of well-known insurrectionary attempts that may be found treated in other accounts of slavery. Their mention here will not only serve to complete the description of the police control of the slave, but will at the same time show what basis there was for the great fear which the whites continually felt in varying degrees of intensity.” The danger from insurrections seems to have been imminent from early times since almost the first act on slavery, that of 1690, provided the death penalty for an attempt to instigate an uprising. As a precaution the act of 1722 made it the duty of the Justice of the Peace to seize any horses kept solely for slaves since they afforded additional opportunity for the carrying on of insurrectionary plots. The first plot of much importance was the Stono* uprising of September 9, 1739. The Spanish colony at St. Augustine was always hostile to the South Carolina settlement, and seems to have encouraged in every way the incendiary propensities of the South Carolina slaves.* McCrady, (South Carolina Under the Royal Government, 1719-1776 p185) whose account is for the most part followed here, says that the slaves were encouraged by emissaries of the Spanish to leave their masters and on reaching the Spanish fort were protected and even organized into militia companies,” and these fact were communicated to other slaves in Carolina to encourage them also to leave. A number of negroes finally assembled at Stono, broke open a warehouse, killed the two guards, stole the arms and ammunition and preceding further, killed a Mr. Godfrey and family and fired his house. Governor Bull met them on his return from a visit to the outside. A Mr. Golightly had also observed them from a safe distance. These two spread the alarm, the latter pressing immediately after them on securing the assistance of the white men who were attending worship at a Presbyterian Church, and who in obedience to the law had gone to church armed. The
militia surrounded the rebellious negroes and captured nearly all of them. Those who apparently had followed because of pressure were pardoned those losing their lives in the attack and those of the negroes executed amounted to forty-four. The outbreak brought consternation to the peaceful inhabitant of the colony. The militia patrol to the Southwards was strengthened. In 1740 the great slave act was passed which remained the basic negro law for the next century and a quarter. It would not be surprising that on investigation This code should be found to be severe. Such is not the case however. McCrady states that in some respects the condition of the slaves was ameliorated. The precautions against insurrections, however, were rigid, one section prohibiting beating drums, blowing horns or the like which might on occasion be used to arouse slaves to insurrectionary activity.* The City Gazette and Daily Advertiser (ed. Note ital) (Charlston) of November 22, 1787 tells of four negroes being tried on the charge of conspiracy to fire the city of Charlston. One turned state’s evidence against the others. This one with one of the others was sentenced to be transported, while the other two went to the scaffold. Five days later another was implicated and hanged... Some fear apparently had come to be had of unprincipled and irresponsible whites who for any reason might aid in insurrectionary movements. The act of 1805 made it treason punishable with death for “any person” in any way to aid in an insurrection. Confession or the testimony of two witnesses was sufficient to convict. Good reason for believing that this was intended to reach whites is that no such limitations as to evidence would be probable in the case of a negro. The Camden attempt at insurrection occurred in 1826. The betrayal of the plot led the whites to believe that it had been in contemplation for a long time. The plan was to fire the “powder magazine,” an old arsenal. Thus attracting the attention of the white people to that part of the town while the negroes should assemble in another quarter,
massacre the whites and burn the rest of the town. They had apparently, as was usually the case except in the Vesey instance, nothing further definitely in view. The date for the attempt significantly set for July 4.* A faithful slave revealed the plot to his master who communicated with the governor. An officer of the militia was detailed to secure evidence of the plot, without if possible revealing the identity of the informing slave. By a shrewd stroke Col. Chestnut carried on a counter plot and in this way secured the details of the original plot. Seventeen were arrested, seven of whom were convicted after a trial before a court consisting of two magistrates and five freeholders. Five were executed; one was pardoned after all the plans for his execution had been completed;...the informing slave was purchased by an act of the legislature appropriating $ 1,100 for the purpose and giving to the slave $50 per annum during his lifetime. But the attempt as insurrection which is the best known was one of the more important plots in the United States, and which showed more intelligence in its conception and plans, was the Vesey plot of 1822 in Charlston. Denmark Vesey, a free negro, planned it in conjunction with certain slaves, the more important of whom were Gullah Jack, Monday Gell and Peter Poyas. The plan was for those in the plot to rise suddenly about the first of July, seize the shipping, burn the town, and then sail away to the West Indies. The slaves invited to join were told that the whites were contemplating a gigantic slaughter of the negroes because they had become too numerous. Everything was apparently in readiness for some time. On May 20, Peter, a faithful slave who had been asked to join the plot, communicates what he knew to his master. The city authorities were apprised, a court summoned and information sought. Arrests were made, and, to show the persistence of the leaders, even after some of those involved had been arrested, they either in desperation or without fully calculating the determination of the whites made efforts to bring the plot into
execution. But the greater part of them were intimidated... The number arrested was 131, 67 of whom were convicted; the number executed was 35, all slaves except for Vesey; the number deported, 32. In the appendix to Kennedy & Parker’s Negro Plot (ital) p189 , is related the trial and conviction of four white men in the session court for complicity in the plot. Their sentences ranged from three to twelve months imprisonment and upon release they were to be required to give security for good behavior for five years in sums ranging from $ 100 to $1,000. If the Vesey plot put everybody to thinking, the fancied security of the whites, if it existed, had a rude awakening. Everybody was anxious that some remedy should be applied, but were perhaps doubtful of what it should be. Citizens of Charlston presented a memorial to the legislature praying the expulsion of free negroes from the state. Indeed, because Vesey was free and because he was not a native of the state, great distrust of the free negroes arose, and particularly did the people appear to think that every precaution should be taken to keep any of this class from coming into the state. Since several strengthenings of the slave law had already been accomplished in the three years just preceding - as a new patrol law and one prohibiting further manumission - the only direction in which further improvements could be effected was in stricter enforcement of the laws and passing of the seamen acts.* But the extreme precaution taken against immigrant free persons of color in the seamen act threatened to cause international complications. As Professor Phillips suggests, the Vesey plot checked any tendency toward liberalism which may have been prevalent at this time and made the arguments of the abolitionists which began to be disseminated in the next decade, the less acceptable to the South. * The act of 1822 also provided the death penalty for participating in an insurrection whether successful or not.
VOL. 23 NO. 32
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OUR TIME PRESS August 8 – 14, 2019
President Barack Obama Calls For Gun Laws and Tolerance
M
ichelle and I grieve with all the families in El Paso and Dayton who endured these latest mass shootings. Even if details are still emerging, there are a few things we already know to be true. First, no other nation on Earth comes close to experiencing the frequency of mass shootings that we see in the United States. No other developed nation tolerates the levels of gun violence that we do. Every time this happens, we’re told that tougher gun laws won’t stop all murders; that they won’t stop every deranged individual from getting a weapon and shooting innocent people in public places. But the evidence shows that they can stop some killings. They can save some families from heartbreak. We are not helpless here. And until all of us stand up and insist on holding public officials accountable for changing our gun laws, these tragedies will keep happening. Second, while the motivations behind these shootings may not yet be fully known, there are indications that the El Paso shooting follows a dangerous trend: troubled individuals who embrace racist ideologies and see themselves obligated to act violently to preserve white supremacy. Like the followers of ISIS and other foreign terrorist organizations, these individuals may act alone, but they’ve
been radicalized by white nationalist websites that proliferate on the internet. That means that both law enforcement agencies and internet platforms need to come up with better strategies to reduce the influence of these hate groups. But just as import ant, all of us have to send a clarion call and behave with the values of tolerance and diversity that should be the hallmark of our democracy. We should soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalizes racist sentiments; leaders who demonize those who don’t look like us, or suggest that other people, including immigrants, threaten our way of life, or refer to other people as sub-human, or imply that America belongs to just one certain type of people. Such language isn’t new - it’s been at the root of most human tragedy throughout history, herein America and around the world. It is at the root of slavery and Jim Crow, the Holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda and ethnic cleansing in the Balkans. It has no place in our politics and our public life. And it’s time for the overwhelming majority of Americans of goodwill, of every race and faith and political party, to say as much - clearly and unequivocally.
Gun Violence and Domestic Terrorism Need Solutions
A
■■
By Luke Visconti, Chairman, DiversityInc
s we reel from another set of white male mass murderers, we need to address and confront uncomfortable truths: The president is responsible for this. A long-term employer of undocumented
workers and H2B temporary workers, President Trump is promoting hatred of people of color to maintain his political base. The Republican Party is his enabler.
➔➔ Continued on page 10
Elite D.C. School Reveals Founding Nuns Sold Slaves, Not Taught Them
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■■
By Katherine Lewin
he elite Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School in Washington, D.C., has had to face an ugly side of its past after research revealed that the founding nuns of the school didn’t teach slaves to read, as the legend goes – the nuns actually sold slaves. It was the 1820s and debt was piling up for Mother Agnes Brent, the superior of the Georgetown Visitation Convent in Washington. The convent had broken ground on a new chapel. To fund the chapel’s construction, Brent needed money, and it came: relatives of two nuns had four spare slaves, two adults and two children, and offered them as a “gift” to Georgetown Visitation to sell. This is just one instance that was found and documented in a report compiled by a Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School archivist and historian. These revelations have rocked the school, one of the oldest Roman Catholic girls’ educational institutions in the nation and destroyed its rosy self-image. It was common knowledge that the founding nuns of the school owned slaves, but school lore has held that the sisters allowed enslaved children to attend Saturday
school and defied the law by teaching them how to read. That’s not what happened. The 65-page report, which is available online, details the way the nuns sold scores of enslaved people. Georgetown Visitation sisters owned at least 107 enslaved people, including men, women and children, from a year after its founding until 1862, when the federal government made slavery illegal in the District, the report found. “It’s hard history to read, and that’s the reality of it,” Caroline Handorf, the director of communications for Georgetown Visitation, told The Washington Post. “But you can’t move forward unless you understand where you’re coming from.” Ne’Miya McKnight, 16, a junior at Georgetown Visitation, told The Post that she thought that white students at the schol were more shocked than nonwhite students. “Slaves built a lot of D.C. — all over the U.S., but D.C. especially,” McKnight told The Post. “We were glad, though, that Visitation was focusing on this history of having enslaved people on campus — not tapping into that energy, exactly, but just acknowledging it.” Diversityinc.com
Photo courtesy of the author.
Educator Summit in 2019 in Philadelphia attracted attendees from around the country.
A
What White People Need to Know ■■
By Zachary Wright
few weeks ago, I attended a conference called Educator Summit in Philadelphia. I’m not much of a conference attendee and didn’t know exactly what to expect. I stood in the back of a dimly lit ballroom, waiting for an address from a man named Howard Fuller, a name that rang familiar, but of whom I had little real knowledge. From the moment Dr. Fuller took the stage, I was transfixed by his words, his passion and his fearlessness to speak truth to power. At the end of his talk, I plucked up the courage to approach him and ask him a question that’s been on my mind for a good long while: What should White, anti-racist co-conspirators say to other White people?
Humility and honesty Dr. Fuller, who I later learned was the distinguished professor of education and founder/ director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University and author of “No Struggle No Progress,” answered me with patience, kindness and unwavering honesty. He told me that White people need the humility to understand that helping is not the same as controlling. Not only should we not assume the lead, we must also possess and exercise the humility to be told what to do, what is best, what is right—and what is wrong. We need to help support communities gain the power to control their own destiny, not “help” them by assuming that control for ourselves. And we need to be honest. If who we truly are does not allow us to teach, support, care, love and fight for Black and Brown kids, then we need to go do something else. These were not easy things for me to hear. I was triggered, defensive and unsure. Which was precisely the reaction that demonstrated how comfortable I had been telling others what to do and how to be, but how little experience I, as a White man, had being on the opposite side of the conversation. And I don’t think I’m alone. I’m thinking of well-meaning school networks that educate student bodies that are nearly 100% Black or Brown, and are also run by boards and funders who are nearly all White, and who can make a whole lot of money doing so. I’m thinking of cohorts of young White teachers entering classrooms with dreams of saving young Black and Brown children, who then advocate for those same students being suspended or removed for rough-housing, talking back and being disrespectful with nary a twinge of irony. I’m thinking of myself as a young English teacher passing judgment on rap songs I felt were inappropriate, passing judgment on families based upon how they dressed and spoke and passing judgment on books I thought weren’t worthy enough to be taught or included in the canon.
Who the hell did I think I was?
Looking inward as agents of social change So often, we White people look outward when we want to be agents of social change. We look outward when we want to be anti-racist co-conspirators. We look outward when we want to be so-called progressives at the forefront of social justice. We are so quick to laud the virtues of grit, self-control and growth mindsets; to tell families in Black and Brown communities that their children need grit, that their children need self-control, that their children need growth mindsets. But what about ourselves? What about our children? Do we really value kindness if it is more important for my child to get a 5 on her AP test than it is to be decent? Do we really value growth mindsets when we just assume some kids can’t read, or can’t do math or that some families don’t care? Do we really have the gall to tell Black and Brown communities that their kids need grit when their children likely have more grit in one fingernail than we may have in our entire bodies? Again, this is not easy to hear. I’m struggling even as I’m writing this. But the struggle tells me that this is truth.
Serving communities of color with love and respect After all, if our passion as White anti-racist co-conspirators isn’t rooted in humility, love and respect for communities of color; if we don’t love the kids when they’re hard to love, if we only see the cultures and communities of urban students as impediments to replace rather than assets to encourage, then our classrooms and school hallways are likely to resemble areas of continued persecution, not empowering scenes of liberation. is a difference between serving a community and controlling a community; between empowering a community to help them control their own destiny, and dictating that destiny. Those of us, myself included, who choose to serve these communities need to understand these truths if we want to ensure that our schools and classrooms are places of liberation, not oppression. I didn’t start my career with these beliefs. It’s been a long road of learning—one that will never end. Zachary Wright, a national finalist for the United States Department of Education’s School Ambassador Fellowship is an assistant professor of practice at Relay Graduate School of Education serving Philadelphia and Camden. Prior to that, he was the 12th-grade world literature and AP literature teacher at Mastery Charter School Shoemaker Campus for the last eight years, teaching the school’s first eight graduating classes
8
OUR TIME PRESS August 8 – 14, 2019
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Notice of formation of 846 NEW LOTS AVENUE LLC a Limited Liability Company (LLC). Certificate of registration filed with Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 4/22/2019. NY office location: Kings County. SSNY is designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of process to the LLC at 1022 Carroll Street, Brooklyn, New York 11225. Purpose all lawful activities. Notice of formation of 1022 CARROLL STREET LLC a Limited Liability Company (LLC). Certificate of registration filed with Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 4/22/2019. NY office location: Kings County. SSNY is designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of process to the LLC at 1022 Carroll Street, Brooklyn, New York 11225. Purpose all lawful activities. Notice of Formation of 513 REALTY LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY)
on 7/15/19. Office location: Kings County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to: 1640 W. 6th St., Bklyn, NY 11223. Purpose: any lawful act. Hair We R Barbershop & Salon LLC. Art. Of Org. Filed Sec. of State of NY 6/19/2019. Off. Loc.: Kings Co. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail proc.: c/o Dylan Simon 2052 East 60th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11234. Purpose: Any lawful act or activity. Notice of Formation of 2379 84th STREET LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 06/21/19. Office: Kings County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, 8217 24th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11214. Purpose: Any lawful purpose. Notice of formation of FETE SOCIETY LLC., arts of org. Filed with Secy. Of State of NY (SSNY) on 4/13/18 Kings County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon
LEGAL NOTICES SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF KINGS REVERSE MORTGAGE SOLUTIONS, INC., V. PRISCILLA CYRUS, ET AL. NOTICE OF SALE NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN pursuant to a Final Judgment of Foreclosure dated June 14, 2019, and entered in the Office of the Clerk of the County of Kings, wherein REVERSE MORTGAGE SOLUTIONS, INC. is the Plaintiff and PRISCILLA CYRUS, ET AL. are the Defendant(s). I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the KINGS COUNTY COURTHOUSE, ROOM 224, 360 ADAMS STREET, BROOKLYN NY 11201, on September 12, 2019 at 2:30PM, premises known as 5811 SNYDER AVENUE, BROOKLYN, NY 11203: Block 4706, Lot 6: ALL THAT CERTAIN PLOT, PIECE, OR PARCEL OF LAND SITUATED IN THE BOROUGH OF BROOKLYN IN THE COUNTY OF KINGS IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index # 505277/2016. Angelicque Moreno, Esq. Referee. RAS Boriskin, LLC 900 Merchants Concourse, Suite 310, Westbury, New York 11590, Attorneys for Plaintiff. SUPREME C O U RT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK - COUNTY OF KINGS
DEUTSCHE BANK NATIONAL TRUST COMPANY AS TRUSTEE FOR INDYMAC INDX MORTGAGE LOAN TRUST 2006-AR21, MORTGAGE PASSTHROUGH CERTIFICATES SERIES 2006-AR21, V. LORIAN KING-NURSE A/K/A LORIAN KING A/K/A LORIAN NURSE, ET. AL. NOTICE OF SALE NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN pursuant to a Final Judgment of Foreclosure dated January 14, 2019, and entered in the Office of the Clerk of the County of Kings, wherein DEUTSCHE BANK NATIONAL TRUST COMPANY AS TRUSTEE FOR INDYMAC INDX MORTGAGE LOAN TRUST 2006-AR21, MORTGAGE PASS-THROUGH CERTIFICATES SERIES 2006AR21 is the Plaintiff and LORIAN KING-NURSE A/K/A LORIAN KING A/K/A LORIAN NURSE, ET AL. are the Defendant(s). I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the KINGS COUNTY COURTHOUSE, 360 ADAMS STREET ROOM 224, BROOKLYN, NY 11201, on September 12, 2019 at 2:30PM, premises known as 561 CHAUNCEY ST, BROOKLYN, NY 11233: Block 1511, Lot 45: ALL THAT CERTAIN PLOT, PIECE OR PARCEL OF LAND, LYING AND BEING IN THE BOROUGH OF BROOKLYN, COUNTY OF KINGS, CITY AND STATE OF NEW YORK
whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o The Corporation, 269 Marion Street, Brooklyn NY 11233. Purpose: any lawful activity. Notice of Formation of CC And a Blessed One LLC Art. Of Org. Filed Sec. of State of NY December 3, 2018. Off. Loc.: Kings Co. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY to mail copy of process to: CC And a Blessed One LLC 1417 New York Avenue, 3G, Brooklyn, NY 11210. Purpose : Any lawful act or activity. NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION of UPP Global, LLC, d/b/a NY Parking Co. Application of Authority Filed with Secy. Of State of NY (SSNY) on 5/16/19. Off. Loc.: Kings County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o The Corporation Trust Company, Corporation Trust Center, 1209 Orange Street, Wilmington, DE 19801. Purpose: any lawful activity. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index # 512387/2017. Helene Blank, Esq. - Referee. RAS Boriskin, LLC 900 Merchants Concourse, Suite 310, Westbury, New York 11590, Attorneys for Plaintiff. NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT: KINGS COUNTY. SK INDUSTRIES, LLC, Pltf. vs. MELVIN JACKSON, et al, Defts. Index #16925/2013. Pursuant to judgment of foreclosure and sale entered Jan. 14, 2019, I will sell at public auction in Room 224 of the Kings County Supreme Court, 360 Adams St., Brooklyn, NY on September 12, 2019 at 2:30 p.m. prem. k/a 1150 East 93 Street, Brooklyn, NY. Said property beginning at a point on the Southwesterly side of East 93rd St. distance 72 ft. southeasterly from the corner formed by the intersection of the Southeasterly side of Conklin Avenue, with the Southwesterly side of East 93rd St., being a plot 78 ft. x 30 ft. 6 1/4 inches. Approx. amt. of judgment is $908,384.57 plus costs and interest. Sold subject to terms and conditions of filed judgment and terms of sale. JAGESHWAR SHARMA, Referee. LAW OFFICE OF SAMUEL KATZ, PLLC, Attys. for Pltf., 4533 16th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY #97432 SUPREME COURT – COUNTY OF KINGS WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A. AS
➔➔ Continued on page 10
VOL. 23 NO. 32
Downtown Salsa: BK’s Ballet Suavé! ■■
D
Photos & text by: Bernice Elizabeth Green
J John John Acevedo’s salsa rhythms are gonna get you if you happen to be at Brooklyn’s Willoughby Plaza (Pearl Street intersection) August Thursdays, 6p-9p. Last week, we discovered what local salseros -- led by the famous Salsa Salsa Dance Studio -- have known for years: salsa -- a distillation of African, Cuban, Puerto Rican and Caribbean music/dance moves -is a peace movement of international proportions, breaking down what unity in the community also can mean. And now we know where OTP friends like local jazz singer Tulivu Cumberbatch go to “feel the beat.” A measure of the degree of happiness in those feet can be seen, here, in the smiling faces and mesmerizing flow. Please note: this month, salsa lessons are offered, early in the evening, before Acevedo turns up the heat with his platter of vinyl spice. Next month, the weekly Dance Around Downtown series continues in MetroTech Commons with Swing, September 5-26, 5p-8p. It’s all free and it’s all good!
OUR TIME PRESS August 8 – 14, 2019
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OUR TIME PRESS August 8 – 14, 2019
Domestic Terrorism Crisis Needs Solutions ➔➔ Continued from page 7 They must be called to justice and the current Democratic Party leadership has failed. The President must go. The House needs to do its job, the leader needs to stop criticizing her peers and start impeachment proceedings against our country’s greatest threat. The day-late/dollar-short militarized police response (if he’s white, get the guy Burger King, if he’s Black, empty your weapon), combined with tacit approval from the practically all white male Republican Party members emboldens these misfit white men. In reaction to the latest tragedies, rightwing information sources are citing inner city murders as a deflection. They’re understandably not interested in talking about failing white people and the suicide pandemic that white gun culture enables. Read “Dying of Whiteness; How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America’s Heartland“ by Dr. Jonathan Metzl. But the murders of people in our inner cities is as big a problem as the declining life expectancy of white people in red states. The common problem is guns. It is long past time to effectively create the “well regulated militia” which is called for in the opening words of the Second Amendment. As a veteran and former master rated target shooter, I offer the following common sense advice: IMMEDIATELY stop all sales of ammunition and firearms until the supply chain can be investigated and criminals arrested where (currently) legal ammunition and firearms are diverted to the criminal market. This might take years unless manufacturers cooperate. I guarantee you that most ammunition is hoarded by white people, inner city deaths will dry up quickly as ammunition supplies dry up. IMMEDIATELY make large capacity magazines illegal. Nobody needs more
than a five round capacity for any weapon. When I was competing, I could put ten rounds in a very tight group (with a rifle) in 60 seconds at 200 yards with one magazine change. Nobody needs more than that. Possession of large capacity magazines should be punishable by an immediate two week jail sentence and misdemeanor conviction to be vacated in 6 months with no further violations. Anyone wanting to take it to court should face felony charges. I feel the same punishment should apply for employing undocumented workers. Two weeks of eating green baloney sandwiches will cure most people of bad behavior. IMMEDIATELY implement universal registration for all firearms, with sharp limits on ammunition possession. (Nobody needs more than 20 rounds in their house.) Permission to possess guns or ammunition must include training, demonstration of proficiency, registration and home inspection for safety. IMMEDIATELY have all social media and email platforms require absolute tracking to hard proof of ownership for all social media accounts (just like you have to do when you open a bank account). At least one of our 17 intelligence agencies must be exclusively dedicated to tracking of domestic threats. Websites must have proof of ownership (to an individual) and all websites should be blocked until compliance is done. The above will not prevent tragedy, but it might slow the next one down. The threat is existential: As Professor Steve Phillips documents, every day our country adds 8,000 net new citizens. 7,000 are not white, 1,000 are. We cannot tolerate an environment of armed white terrorists in our midst, whipped up by unaccountable social media provocateurs, including our enemies (Russian and others) operating under anonymity enabled by Silicon Valley and gun industry profiteers.
LEGAL NOTICES ➔➔ Continued from page 8 TRUSTEE F/B/O HOLDERS OF STRUCTURED ASSET MORTGAGE INVESTMENTS II, INC., STRUCTURED ASSET MORTGAGE INVESTMENTS II TRUST 2007-AR4, MORTGAGE PASSTHROUGH CERTIFICATES SERIES 2007-AR4, Plaintiff against ADRIAN JOI BROWN, et al., Defendants. Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered on October 3, 2017, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction in Room 224 of the Kings County Courthouse, 360 Adams Street, Brooklyn, N.Y. on the 12th day of September, 2019 at 2:30 p.m. premises described as follows: All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Brooklyn, County of Kings, City and State of New York, bounded and described as follows: BEGINNING at a point on the westerly side of East 7th Street distant 467 feet southerly from the corner formed by the intersection of the southerly side of Avenue Z with the westerly side of East 7th Street; THENCE westerly parallel with Avenue Z and part of the distance through a party wall, 100 feet; THENCE southerly parallel with East 7th Street, 22 feet; THENCE easterly parallel with Avenue Z and part of the distance through a party wall, 100 feet to the westerly side of East 78th Street; THENCE
northerly along the westerly side of East 7th Street, 22 feet to the point or place of BEGINNING. Said premises known as 2658 East 7th Street, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11235. (Block: 7243, Lot: 30). Approximate amount of lien $ 630,308.72 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of the filed judgment and terms of sale. Index No. 22483-13. Steven Z. Naiman, Esq., Referee. Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC Attorneys for Plaintiff, 10 Bank Street - Suite 700, White Plains, New York 10606 (914) 949-2574 NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT - COUNTY OF KINGS GOSHEN MORTGAGE LLC, AS SEPARATE TRUSTEE FOR GDBT I TRUST 2011-1, Plaintiff, Against CARLTON EXILE A/K/A C. EXILE, ET AL, Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale, duly entered 5/9/2014, I, the undersigned Referee, will sell at public auction in Room 224 of the Kings County Supreme Court, 360 Adams Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201, on 9/5/2019 at 2:30 pm, premises known as 123 Montauk Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11208, and described as follows: ALL that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Brooklyn, County of Kings, City and State of New York, and designated on the tax maps of the Kings
VOL. 23 NO. 32
CLASSIFIEDS Attorney Aug Sept Lung Cancer? And Age 60+? You And Your Family May Be Entitled To Significant Cash Award. No Risk. No Money Out Of Pocket. For Information Call 877-225-4813 Auto Donations August September Donate your car to Wheels For Wishes, benefiting Make-A-Wish. We offer free towing and your donation is 100% tax deductible. Call (917) 336-1254 Finance Aug Sept Need IRS Relief $10K - $125K+ Get Fresh Start or Forgiveness Call 1-877-2581647 Monday through Friday 7AM-5PM PST Finance July Aug Denied Social Security Disability? Appeal! If you’re 50+, filed for SSD and denied, our attorneys can help get you approved! No money out of pocket! 855-478-2506 For Sale Aug 5, 12 Sept 2, 9 KILL BED BUGS! Buy Harris Sprays, Traps, Kits, Mattress Covers. DETECT, KILL, PREVENT. Available: Hardware Stores, The Home Depot, homedepot.com Health Aug 5 FARMERS, LANDSCAPERS or GARDENERS, did you or a loved one use Roundup Weed Killer and were diagnosed with NON-HODGKINS LYMPHOMA (Cancer)? You may be entitled to compensation. Call Attorney Charles Johnson 1-800-535-5727 Health August September A PLACE FOR MOM has helped over a million families find senior living. Our trusted, local advisors help find solutions to your unique needs at no cost to you. Call: 1-800-404-8852 Health Health Aug Sept VIAGRA & CIALIS! 60 pills for
County Treasurer as Block 3,992, and Lot 5. The approximate amount of the current Judgment lien is $966,297.14 plus interest and costs. The premises will be sold subject to provisions of the aforesaid Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale; Index # 45556/2007. Nancy Schacher, Esq., Referee. SHELDON MAY & ASSOCIATES Attorneys at Law, 255 Merrick Road, Rockville Centre, NY 11570 Dated: 7/18/2019 File Number: 25672 MNB NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT, COUNTY OF KINGS, PENNYMAC CORP., PLAINTIFF against PATRICIA CAMPBELL, CHASE MANHATTAN BANK USA, N.A. ET AL., DEFENDANTS. Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated November 5, 2018 and duly entered thereafter, Steven B. Shapiro, Esq., the court appointed Referee will sell at public auction in Room 224 of the Kings County Supreme Court, 360 Adams Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 on Thursday, August 29, 2019 at 2:30 p.m., the premises known as 1301 St. Johns Place, Brooklyn, NY 11213; all that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the County of Kings, City of New York, and State of New York Block 1377, Lot 149. Approximate amount of judgment is $1,037,948.72 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of said Judgment. Index No. 27873/2009. Steven B. Shapiro, Esq.,
$99. 100 pills for $150 FREE shipping. Money back guaranteed! Call Today: 800-404-0244 Health July August Finally, affordable hearing aids!! Highquality Nano hearing aids are priced 90% less than other brands. Buy one/get one free! 60-day free trial. 866-251-2290 Help Wanted July 22, 29 Aug 5, 12, 19 JOB OPPORTUNITY $18.50 P/H NYC $15 P/H LI $14.50 P/H UPSTATE NY If you currently care for your relatives or friends who have Medicaid or Medicare, you may be eligible to start working for them as a personal assistant. No Certificates needed. (347)462-2610 (347)565-6200 Home Improvement Aug Sept BATHROOM RENOVATIONS. EASY, ONE DAY updates! We specialize in safe bathing. Grab bars, no slip flooring & seated showers. Call for a free in-home consultation: 888-657-9488. Home Improvement August September DISH TV $59.99 For 190 Channels + $14.95 High Speed Internet. Free Installation, Smart HD DVR Included, Free Voice Remote. Some restrictions apply. 1-800-943-0838 TV Internet Phone Aug Spectrum Triple Play! TV, Internet & Voice for $99.97/mo. Fastest Internet. 100 MB per second speed. Free Primetime on Demand. Unlimited Voice. NO CONTRACTS. Call 1-855977-7198 or visit http://tripleplaytoday.com/press TV Internet Phone Aug Get DIRECTV! ONLY $35/month! 155 Channels & 1000s of Shows/Movies On Demand (w/SELECT All Included Package.) PLUS Stream on Up to FIVE Screens Simultaneously at No Additional Cost. Call DIRECTV 1-888-534-6918
Referee, Lawrence & Walsh, P.C., 215 Hilton Avenue, Hempstead, NY 11550, Attorneys for Plaintiff NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF KINGS, WILMINGTON SAVINGS FUND SOCIETY, FSB, D/B/A CHRISTIANA TRUST, NOT INDIVIDUALLY BUT AS TRUSTEE FOR PRETIUM MORTGAGE ACQUISITION TRUST, Plaintiff, vs. DOROTHY ALEXANDER, NICHOLE ALEXANDER, ET AL., Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly filed on May 24, 2018 and an Order Pursuant to CPLR 2004 Extending the Time to Set Sale and to Ratify Sale Nunc Pro Tunc filed on June 21, 2019, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the Kings County Supreme Court, Room 224, 360 Adams Street, Brooklyn, NY on September 5, 2019 at 2:30 p.m., premises known as 420 Autumn Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Brooklyn, County of Kings, City and State of New York, Block 04170 and Lot 00025. Approximate amount of judgment is $465,190.34 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index # 512372/2015. Helene Blank, Esq., Referee Knuckles, Komosinski & Manfro, LLP, 565 Taxter Road, Suite 590, Elmsford, NY 10523, Attorneys for Plaintiff Cash will not be accepted.
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OUR TIME PRESS August 8 – 14, 2019
Sunday, August 18th Friday, August 9th FREE COMMUNITY OSHA 30-HOUR CONSTRUCTION TRADES PROGRAM Antioch Baptist Church Fellowship Hall, 828 Greene Ave., (parking lot entrance on Lexington Ave.) FREE. Today is the deadline to register for the 5-day course. [Call 718-455-4308] Course begins at the church on Monday, 8/12 from 10am5:30pm (doors close sharply at 10:15) and ends on 8/16.
WHAT’S GOING ON! Prospect Park Bandshell, 9th St. & PPW, 7:30 show, 6:30 gates (but line up earlier), FREE. Marvin Gaye’s masterwork 1971 album, What’s Going On, will be performed in its entirety by an all-star, all-woman band. Curated by guitarist and bandleader Felicia Collins, it features friends and fellows Toshi Reagon, Siedah Garrett, Terri Lynne Carrington, Kim Clarke, Valerie Naranjo, La Tanya Hall and other singers and instrumentalists.
Sunday, August 11th CLIMATE REALITY – AMPLIFIED! 53 Prospect Park West, 11am and 2pm, $10 (suggested contribution). A multimedia musical presentation by The Climate Reality Project, created by Kathleen Kirkwood with musical director Kemol Taylor aka DJPricei$right. Hosted by the Ethical Living Committee of the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture. Adult content. Children under 13 must be accompanied by an adult.
Monday, August 12th GET FREE SUMMER
‘WORD PLAY’ WITH THE FREE BLACK WOMEN’S LIBRARY
MEALS THRU AUGUST 30TH Hot breakfasts and hot
lunches are waiting for people 18 and under at many city schools. Cold breakfasts and lunches are available at pools, parks and libraries across the city. All menus are subject to change, but are pork-free with no artificial flavors, colors or sweeteners. [Visit: www. schools.nyc.gov/summermeals]
Tuesday, August 13th LIVE FINANCIALLY CLEAN Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon St., 6:30-8pm, FREE. Learn key financial principles at this 8-week workshop held on Tuesdays to help you reach your financial goals and create generational wealth. Shaun Lynda and Mr. 850 will help you learn to leverage credit, save and invest, become a landlord, graduate with minimal debt, transition from consumer to supplier and more. RSVP to livefinanciallyclean.splashthat. com, where you can also learn about the livestream. Presented by Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams.
Wednesday, August 14th HPD IN YOUR DISTRICT Council District 36, Restoration Plaza, 1360 Fulton St., Suite 500, 10am-6pm, FREE. Learn more about HPD and housing-related issues. During these office hours you’ll be helped to: Prepare to Apply for Affordable Housing, Understand Your Rights and Responsibilities, File A Housing Complaint, Finance Improvements and Repairs, Register Your Building, and Remedy a Violation.
Thursday, August 15
th
Van Hunt
VAN HUNT BAM Metrotech, 304 Bridge St., 12-2pm, FREE. The Grammy-nominated and genre-defying Van Hunt serves up the unique mix of R&B, soul, funk and rock that earned him a place touring alongside artists like The Roots, Mary J. Blige and many others. Opening for him are Questlove’s sister, Donn T, and rapper Chill Moody—the new hip-hop and R&B duo & more. They take on issues of power, social justice and love with sleek melodies and pulsing beats.
The documentary briefly mentions Toni’s role in championing the careers of other Black writers such as Toni Cade Bambara, Henry Dumas, Wole Soyinka, Gayl Jones, Chinua Achebe and others and her midwifing of Muhammad Ali autobiography, The Greatest and the 1974 anthology, The Black Book. What Toni did to wedge open doors in a still-startlingly-white publishing industry was brave and crucial. There could have been more time spent on this. Similarly, I was overjoyed to see how many of her literary girlfriends Toni took with her to Switzerland when she received The Nobel Prize. But footage of them all in her hotel room drinking champagne and helping her picking out what she’d wear, was fleeting. That was important for Black women to see and celebrate, but we didn’t really get the chance. Greenfield-Sanders has
said that deciding what had to be left on the cutting-room floor was excruciating. Twelve interviews and lots of other material had to go. Perhaps among that was additional footage of that triumphant time in the hotel with her friends, celebrating not just for Toni, but for the gifted Black women who had never been counted in the cannon, celebrated with prizes, or even published. I also noted the absence of family members. GreenfieldSanders says time is spent talking about them. Yes, but no one is talking to them. And there is no mention of the devastating loss of her son Slade to pancreatic cancer at 45 or of Harold Morrison, former husband and father of her sons. I thought I might come to know how my icon weathered those storms – not just for my own inspiration, but because I care. But we don’t have a right to know all that we might want to. What is here, however is more than enough nourishment,
Black Card Revoked, etc. And bring a book written by a Black woman to donate or trade. E-mail thefreeblackwomenslibrary@ gmail.com if you’re interested in volunteering or competing. Storytime for kids is from 2-4:00.
Saturday, August 17th FORT GREENE & FARRAGUT FRESH PANTRY NW Corner of Nassau & Navy Streets, 9:30-11am, FREE. The Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership and City Harvest have joined forces to open the Fort Greene & Farragut Fresh Pantry to help fight food insecurity in the community. The Fresh Pantry distributes 10,000 pounds of produce, FREE of charge, to residents of Farragut, Whitman and Ingersoll Houses once per month, first-come, first-served.
Documentary Illuminates Morrison ➔➔ Continued from page 2
MoCADA House, Nolan Park, Governor’s Island, 12-5pm, FREE. Hop on the free boat to Governor’s Island and be there as MoCADA (Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art) hosts Ola Ronke’s traveling library at the Museum’s summertime island residency. Join in a day of literacy, fun, and games inspired by Black women’s literature, art, history and culture. Play charades, Jeopardy and Pictionary with categories and questions inspired by Black women authors. Also, Scrabble,
inspiration and challenge. Toni tells us to risk, invent, feel authorized to write about our people and for our people. She dismisses the white gaze and calls white people to take responsibility for fixing what’s broken in their contract with the world. There is also lots of laughter, joy, visual art, music and memories. I am so happy to be alive in an age when Toni Morrison was living and writing! The opening credits for The Pieces I Am are accompanied by a kaleidoscopic collage by artist Mickalene Thomas that both obscures and illuminates Toni’s face, reminding us that there was, always, so much more to her than we could readily see. And whichever luminous thing she next produced, there would be still more to come after that – and it would be delightful, or it would be devastating, but it would be unexpected. Except, of course, for its genius.
Word Play
Bishop Eric R. Figueroa Sr. and
The New Life Tabernacle Ministerial Council
Bishop R. of Figueroa Sr. Request theEric honor your presence Atand the
The New Life Tabernacle Ministerial Anniversary Celebration Ministerial For Council Request theTaharka honor of your presence Rev. W. Robinson At the Celebrating
Ministerial Anniversary Celebration Ten Years Of Evangelism Through Activism Sunday, AugustFor 11th, 2019 4:00pm
Rev. W. Robinson NewTaharka Life Tabernacle 1476Celebrating Bedford Avenue
Ten Years OfBrooklyn, Evangelism NY Through 11216 Activism Sunday, 11th•, 2019 4:00pm R.S.V.P. (718)August 636-4938 Bavcinc@aol.com New Life Tabernacle
1476 Bedford Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11216
R.S.V.P. (718) 636-4938 • Bavcinc@aol.com
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OUR TIME PRESS August 8 – 14, 2019
VOL. 23 NO. 32