Sometimes defining moments come upon us so softly that few notice the stark transformation taking place before our eyes.
Such is the case with the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn, where ongoing gentrification is bringing in monied professionals into the neighborhood, as black residents and struggling black entrepreneurs are being displaced.
Survival of the fittest, some might say; but that only fudges, perhaps intentionally, the truth of what is happening, which is that the monied interests and property owners are pushing out the very kinds of black businesses and black artists who have long defined and given special value to Fort Greene.
The latest and most unsettling news is of the group of black women known as 4W, a kind of shorthand for the large-sounding Women Working and Winning for the World Circle of Art and Enterprise.
The organization was an "incubator" for scores of black-owned businesses that set up in Fort Greene over the past 15 years, most of them women of African descent, from all over the African diaspora, the U.S, the Caribbean and Africa itself.
And now 4W is being forced to shut down.
Founding director Selma Jackson says the outfit rented its space for $2,000 back in 1991 and in 2008 the landlord wants to increase it to an incredible $8,000, an amount 4W just cannot afford.
The tragedy, and one might even say crime, of this is that Fort Greene has been a neighborhood of special importance to the black community in Brooklyn.
Lafayette Presbyterian Church, where the progressive white activist pastor, Rev. David Dyson, fights for social justice and against the displacement and other abuses occurring in the neighborhood, was once a stop on the Underground Railroad, a place where black slaves found refuge on their way to freedom more than 150 years ago.
Dyson was once quoted as saying his church and Fort Greene have "a tradition to uphold," one of racial diversity and social justice. (See Washington Post story from almost seven years ago.)
Sadly, there now seem to be many forces working against this.
Mentioning sadness, the most heart-wrenching story coming out of this gentrification mess is that of three African American men who put a million dollars into a venture on Fulton Street in Fort Greene, only to be told early this year that they had to move out of the building to make way for the BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) cultural development taking place in the area.
Brooklynron said they were "BAMboozled."
Which reminds us, speaking of "Bamboozled," that director Spike Lee (he of "Bamboozled" movie fame) started his Forty Acres and a Mule production company right there in Fort Greene.
Moreover, Richard Wright wrote "Native Son," one of the greatest classics of black literature, sitting right there in Fort Greene Park.
What history, what tragedy.
this is getting really serious and something needs to be done. i hope the politicians finally step up.
bobbyg
Posted by: Bobby G | December 30, 2007 at 10:44 PM