Brooklyn Ron

A Tree Grows in New Brooklyn: Coming of Age Stories by Caribbean-Born Oronde Ash

I like to call this place New Brooklyn.

Mostly I have in mind all the crazy development that's taking place, the new medium-high rise condos and the reno jobs like the old Watchtower building where someone slapped down 6 million dead presidents for a place to lay her head and view the East River.

The cultural and artistic underpinning of this New Brooklyn was laid over the past two decades by a group of young intellectuals who are never called intellectuals but rather hip hop artists, and who rarely disagree with that designation because it often translates into a paycheck, often a big one. Ask Jay-Z.

Now comes one who surely qualifies as a serious thinker by any scholar's definition, who has strung together some beautiful videos offering reflections on the life of a West Indian-born black kid growing up in late Twentieth Century Brooklyn.

His name is Oronde Ash [photo], and taken together his pieces are a coming-of-age tale, told in YouTube fashion that updates the reflections and truths once related by Betty Smith, who penned the classic "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" set in Williamsburg in the first years of the 1900s.

The honesty in the videos is striking, the rhythms are catchy, and the insights are universal but told with a style that belongs to the artist himself.

In my Net research I've discovered that Ash is completing a book "17 to Life," which is really as memoir of the artist as a (still) young man. Ash is a former assistant men's soccer coach at North Carolina State University and is a motivational speaker, having set up a company he calls "bygINCpresents."

To read a correspondence from Ash to us, click here.

And now, just below, is the "Tree Grows in Brooklyn" video. Others can be found by going to his YouTube page.

Thought Double-Dutch Was a Creation of Black Girls in Brooklyn? Wiki Says It Was Started By . . . The Dutch!

Oh well, be that as it may, the undeniable fact is the rope jumping was a feature of life in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Harlem and other black communities in the wee years of the twentieth century.

There's a certain daring quality to the double rope jumping past-time, like acrobatics done to a beat, though a little less reckless -- that urban past-time of two youngsters turning a rope, doubled around, while a person in the middle shows off her jumping and rhythm-making skills.

Here's what stuns us: Wikipedia has the nerve to say that Double-Dutch was brought here by the Dutch in the early years of that place once known as New Amsterdam, now New York, and that the long-lasting name of the game was bestowed by the Brits who migrated here and gawked at the bouncing young Dutchmen . . . whoops we mean Dutch girls.

The nerve!

Well, here's a segway.  Jump-rope and other playful urban arts -- like basketball! (which we're absolutely certain was invented by black boys in Brooklyn) will be on display Saturday, April 5th, as the borough of Brooklyn presents a special activities day for young ones.

Youngsters, it is said, are simply putting on too much weight and the idea of this event is to get them more active and thinner.

It's being called The Brooklyn Children's Sports & Fitness Expo and will take place in the afternoon at St. Francis College in Downtown Brooklyn.

Borough President Marty Markowitz is the honorary chair of the event. To learn more about it, you can visit www.bodysculpt.org, which was founded by Vince Ferguson.

Called the Tiger Woods of Swimming, She's 13 and From Brooklyn

Lia Neal just turned 13 and already she's breaking swimming records (one of the records had been on the books for 23 years!).

Soon she'll be going to Olympic trials.

As so often happens with loved and well-raised young ones, Lia sometimes seems oblivious to all she is doing and all that she (to many others) represents. (see New York Times article on Lia.)

Though she and her parents - her father is Black and mother Asian, drawing comparisons to a certain golfer who sometimes calls himself a "Cablanasian" - live in Brooklyn, the lithe swimmer is a seventh grader at Convent of the Sacred Heart on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Wish her well.

Ed Towns Switch Hits, Now Says He's No Friend of Roger Clemens

After taking a lot of hits for embracing Roger Clemens - the man he was supposed to be investigating - with the glee and giddiness of an underage baseball fan, Congressman Ed Towns is now saying that Clemens is a liar.

The whole episode was supposed to be about Roger Clemens and the allegations that he took steroids to enhance his on-the-field performance.

But it's turned into a sideshow for Towns, who otherwise would be under a perhaps more searing glare from those opposed to his support of Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama.

His voting constituents in the Feb. 5th primary chose Obama decisively; and a running question has been whether Towns and other so-called superdelegates would ultimately go against the will of the majority of voters at the Democratic National Convention in August.

The superdelegates, of whom there are about 800, have special powers within the party and could end up selecting the next Democratic candidate.

The Newsday article about Towns' change of position on the field of steroid dreams is instructive.

Without coming out and saying so, the piece in the end portrays the Representative as flying gleefully and solo through rough skies.

The only question is whether the craft will ultimately crash and burn.

On a more upbeat note for the Congressman, the nation's social workers, with black icon Dorothy Height out front among them, joyfully reported that Towns is sponsoring a bill to help their profession through the difficult times that reign now in the country. (Read the Fox news report about the bill.)

Central Brooklyn Youngsters! Sign Up to Play Little League Baseball!

It's that time again, young athletes, parents and friends. The baseball seaon will soon begin and the deadline is (very) fast approaching for players to sign up.

The Inner City Sports League will be holding its final player registration for 2008 on Saturday, Feb. 23rd.

The location is Herbert Von King Community Center, 670 Lafayette Avenue (between Marcy and Tompkins Avenues).

For registration requirements and details please call Michael Harris at (917) 804-1703 or email him at ICSLIttleleague@aol.com

The league is open to the communities of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick, Fort Greene, East New York, Brownsville, Ocean Hills, Crown Heights and, Clinton Hills.

Ed Towns Knocked for Taking Clemens' Side in Drug Allegation

Ed Towns is being called all kinds of names, not good ones, on sports pages and in the sports blogosphere, these days.

Some are saying he acted improperly - like a silly, star-struck kid - as he figuratively and literally embraced star Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens before Clemens gave his testimony to a Congressional committee.

The Committee, which Towns sits on, is the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform. It is investigating allegations by a former New York City police officer, Brian McNamee, who claims he gave steroids and performance enhances drugs to Clemens.

It's said that the Justice Department may soon take up the investigation, which of course means there could eventually criminal charges against the proven liar in this case.

Towns was taking Clemens' side in the dispute, as Clemens visited the Brooklyn Congressman's office last week. (The hears begin this week.)

Here's The Daily News' Mike Lupica slamming Towns:

"Here is Rep. Edolphus Towns of Brooklyn this week acting as giddy as a 10-year-old at a Hannah Montana concert after getting some face time with Clemens. Here is Towns accepting Clemens' version . . . as if Towns were accepting a signed baseball signed by 'The Rocket.'

"All of a sudden Clemens . . . [has] got Towns out front with him now. It is why Towns shouldn't be allowed to ask a single question [at the Congressional hearing] on Wednesday. He is about as impartial on Clemens now as a Yankee season-ticket holder."

In the baseball blogosphere, where many did not know who Towns was beforehand, he seems to be drawing attention now. But the comments are two-edged.

Said one post:

"US Representative Edolphus Towns (D-Brooklyn) has been making a lot of comments lately about the Roger Clemens steroids/syringe investigation. He seems naive or dumb. But maybe he's a good guy."

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