Brooklyn Ron

"The Evocation of a Sea Island Heritage," by Sharon Bourke

Sharon Bourke is a loving cousin of BrooklynRon’s. She writes all the time, except when she’s painting. She was an ever-present source of knowledge and inspiration for BrooklynRon as he worked on his book, “Boss of Black Brooklyn: The Life and Times of Bertram L. Baker.” She loves editing, and the fine points of word usage are deeply in her. It’s also meaningful to BrooklynRon that Sharon will be 90 years old in 2019! Now how’s that for a cousin to look up to!

Here’s the bio that goes with the current article Sharon did for Montreal Serai. “Sharon is a poet, painter, and printmaker of African American heritage. She was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1929, and still creates visual art, though not commercially. She was formerly a president of The Graphic Eye Gallery (Port Washington, N.Y.), and occasionally still exhibits with the Long Island Black Artists Association. Sharon concentrates more these days on prose rather than poetry. A short story by her appeared recently in Montréal Serai. Her poetry has appeared in Poetry magazine and numerous anthologies, including Understanding the New Black Poetry, Celebrations, Children of Promise, Songs of Seasoned Women, Long Island Sounds, Toward Forgiveness, and Temba Tupu: Africana Women’s Poetic Self-Portraits.”

Go to Montreal Serai by clicking here.

Oh God. Times says Michael Cohen Met for Prayer with Al Sharpton. What next?

“The Rev. Al Sharpton sat at a table at the Loews Regency hotel on Park Avenue one morning last week, his shoulders hunched as he prayed with an unlikely dining companion: Michael D. Cohen.

“Mr. Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, had asked Mr. Sharpton to meet him for breakfast not long after he pleaded guilty in a federal court in Manhattan to an array of charges.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/nyregion/michael-cohen-al-sharpton-democrats.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share

Sent from my iPhone

J’Ouvert Was Peaceful but Some Said They Were Searched Several Times by Police and Found the Event Boring and Insulting

Brie Etienne, left in the photo, and her friend Chauncey Adams enjoyed themselves on J’Ouvert morning.

But several J’Ouvert participants I chatted with early Monday looked depressed and tired. They said that too many police officers had been assigned to the event. One said their group had been searched by police “several times.”

Part of the problem is that, throughout the Prospect Lefferts Gardens neighborhood, many groups of officers stood together, all white, all male and their faces showed derision and hostility.

That was noticeable also in the past. But more so this time, it seemed. Some of the police officers' facial anger must have to do with being forced to work on Labor Day, while some of their families in Suffolk County were getting ready for barbecues. But It seemed evident also that some officers just did not like being around the J’Ouvert paraders. This was a reflection of the racial tensions shamefully promoted by Donald Trump.

The photographed couple, Brie Etienne and Chauncey Adams, were themselves in a partying mood. The West Indian Day Parade, the high point of the week, was several hours away. Others, too, with whom I spoke said they were pleased overall with the way things had gone so far and that there had been no shootings or fisticuffs.

J’Ouvert has been marked by such violence in the past that Mayor de Blasio held a press conference Thursday, saying he and police officials would do all they could to assure this morning’s activities were calm and safe. I do not know at all if the mayor would consider it a compliment that, according to some, the morning was downright dull. (J’Ouvert is a French Creole word said to have originated in Trinidad. It is pronounced JooVey and it literally means the opening of the day.)

By the way, back to our photographed new friends: Brie Etienne is of Haitian descent and Chauncey Adams’ family is from Trinidad. If they get married someday, West Indians and their offspring (include me) will call it a mixed marriage

There have been many such unions in Brooklyn’s long and rich history.

Who Will Save Our Communities Struggling to Survive?

It is election time and Sen. Jesse Hamilton recently held a protest against gun violence outside of his office at Rogers Ave. and Montgomery St., which I passed by this morning. There were reported to be bullet holes (and some standers-by shot!) last week when gunmen shot off pistols. You can’t see damage here. It’s morning and the gates are up.

Walk a block from here in Crown Heights to Bedford Ave. and you’re standing at the site where a black lawyer, Carey W. Gabay, a Cuomo official, was gunned down mortally in a gang shootout on the morning of the West Indian Day Parade. Which is to say, Labor Day. Which is to say just about exactly three years ago.

Clearly Sen. Hamilton’s recent protest had a lot to do with his upcoming Election Day challenge. His opponent, Zellnor Myrie, is being supported by a strong coalition of progressives upset that Hamilton joined forces in the past with State Senate Republicans.

It’s chickens coming home to roost.

Question of the moment is whether politicians and police can keep anyone from being killed or shot this coming Labor Day, one week away.

When I spoke to folks in Crown Heights this morning they said there needs to be continuous and aggressive actions against guns.

Part of the problem is that many here are so transient. Some with heavy Caribbean accents said they didn’t even know about the killing of Gabay. The shooting occurred outside the huge sprawling Ebbets Field housing project on Bedford Ave.

Perhaps the answer is here right next to Sen. Hamilton’s office. It’s the Endtime Rescue Mission Church.

Be at peace, but work with deep purpose. Live as of you have one day to live and you have ten thousand days to live. Rescue whom you can. Have a mission.

Haitian-American Dottie Joseph Beautifully Juggles Two Cultures, Seeking to be Florida State Legislator

Dottie Joseph (photo) is running to be a state legislator in Florida. When speaking, she toggles musically between Millennial English and Haitian Creole. Find the video on her website.

“Dotie Joseph was born in Haiti, and grew up in the North Miami, attended Miami-Dade public schools throughout the District, and earned degrees from Yale University and Georgetown University Law Center.”

http://dotiejoseph.com/

Brian Lehrer Makes Clear that Leecia Eve, Candidate for NYS Attorney General, is a 'Lobbyist'

This focus on Eve's background of several years working with Verizon won't help her with staunch progressives. The tone of this interview that Lehrer does with Eve is so interesting. Lehrer is strong in asserting purist values of detachment from big name influencers, like Verizon. It's clear also that Eve resents the approach, even without coming out and saying so, as when she passingly states that Lehrer's question was long-winded.

Ouch on both sides of the table!

I Met a Simple Kind of Guy Seen as a Beacon of Hope

The photo above is of Perry Gershon, who I met Saturday in Sag Harbor. Gerson is a Democrat trying to unseat Lee Zeldin, the Republican incumbent seeking a third term.

The setting is the First Congressional District. Yes, of all 27 congressional districts in New York State, this is the first. I often describe Suffolk County this way: You go to the east end of the county, dive in, and keep swimming. Soon you’re in Europe.

Suffolk has never been my favorite place. A guy from my Brooklyn high school, the long shuttered Brooklyn Prep, is a Congressman out in Suffolk, one of the three in the county. His name is Peter King and he’s a Republican Trumpista.

Blacks out in Sag Harbor these days are looking over their shoulders. Realtors and suburban come-uppers are trying to push middle class blacks out of the area, to make the region truly great again, in Trumpian terms. Those ultra rightists look around and see too many Mexicans and Central Americans, along with the blacks, who together are a perceived brown onslaught taking the charm out of the land of the old Melvillian whalers. But the truth is that many of the 19th century whalers in Suffolk were blacks.

The event on Saturday, where I met Democratic Congressional candidate Perry Gershon, was a celebration of the Pickens family that pioneered an early 20th century influx of blacks into this part of Sag Harbor, including a community called Sag Harbor Hills. Bill Pickens, now in his 80s, is a grandson of one of those early 1900s pioneers and he spoke at the event, as did Gershon.

Good Lord! Every Democrat on God’s Earth (i.e., Brooklyn) is Against Incumbent Sen. Jesse Hamilton

They are angry that he caucused with the Senate Republicans, hurting the Democratic agenda. How is Hamilton reacting? Senator, tell us what you think. Please! There are only so many Republicans in Central Brooklyn for you to count on. Maybe the power of incumbency will take you to victory. But it’s looking a little uphill, no?

Sent from my iPhone

Borough President Adams Plans to Run for Mayor, a Report Notes (Among Other Things)

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams is openly contemplating running for mayor in 2021, but he has faced remarkably little scrutiny, and a closer look suggests that he may be willing to reverse course or sacrifice principles to politics, Brooklyn journalist Norman Oder writes.

The article is in City&State’s political news website. The article by Norman Oder further says: “Eric Adams has faced less scrutiny than he deserves.”

On the positive side, Oder writes, “Adams’ inspiring midlife decision to reverse his diabetes through diet and exercise has prompted much positive coverage.”

Personal note: Adams is a vegan, like yours truly.

It’s worth mentioning that Norman Oder has strong resentments against politicians who have supported, or been wishy washy about, the extraordinary transformation of the Barclays Center area, a process that has quickened gentrification and led to the displacement of many Downtown area Brooklynites. 

Oder notes, as have others, that BP Adams, an ex police captain who boldly challenged police higher ups, was once a Republican. (He is now, of course, like any serious Brooklyn-wide politician, a Democrat.)

Read the article here:

https://www.cityandstateny.com/articles/opinion/commentary/eric-adams-has-faced-less-scrutiny-he-deserves.html

As Election Day Approaches, Pols are Nervous About Their Paychecks

Ouch! Errol Louis whacks elected officials with this one:

“The typical pol, especially an incumbent, has a lot riding on the outcome of the election. Their paycheck, health benefits, pension and personal prestige are at stake.”

Errol especially calls out the Democratic elected officials (for instance, like Brooklyn’s State Sen. Jesse Hamilton whom I mention because he’s my rep) who caucused with Republicans in Albany.

Errol says there’s a way to hold such elected officials accountable. Make them give serious attention to the plight of so many black and brown New Yorkers serving time in jail, while they haven’t even been convicted of a crime.

read here:

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-a-political-pledge-to-exact-20180813-story.html