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.

From Brooklyn's Marcy Housing Projects, Sound Advice to Obama

Quiet as it's kept, Barack Obama's affection for the music of Jay-Z, hip hop artist extraordinaire, serves him well not so much with droopy-drawer young brothers from the 'hood but rather with hip young whites who are the major fans of the music genre.

Jay-Z, once a resident of the rough Marcy housing projects on the edges of Bed-Stuy, is in fact the featured artist at the upcoming , world-renowned Glastonbury music festival in South West England.

In some ways it could be said that Jay-Z, in the minds of some young devotees of Obama, has come to represent the cultural roots of the presidential candidate's vaunted cool-ness.

Some might remember, a couple of months back, after a debate in which the ABC questioners seemed to gang up on Barack and toss softies at Hillary Clinton, Obama met with a gathering of supporters (no, fans) and told them that the thing to do when under such pressure is simple:

Just brush the dirt off your shoulders.

And in a memorable gesture, he did just that, rubbing the symbolic dust off one shoulder and then the other.

[To see and hear Obama following the advice of Brooklyn's Jay-Z, click the side-pointing triangle in the image below.]

The phrase in question comes from a Jay-Z hit, "Dirt off Your Shoulder," that in some ways is as raunchy as any rap piece, but that carries a special significance, in the way of telling how to attain coolness without hurting others.

Ah, who would have guessed that wise counsel from a Brooklyn public housing project would be fuel for a candidate's journey to the White House?

[read about Jay-Z's upcoming appearance in England, itself a topic of some controversy ignited by guitar, rock-loving purists. click here.]

[read a Gawker piece about how conservatives are turning Barack's hip-hop connections into Fox fodder to be used against him. click here.]

[lastly, to see and hear Jay-Z performing "Dirt off Your Shoulder, click the side-pointing triangle in the image below.]

A Song From Northern Ireland to the Campaign of Barack Obama: A Change is Coming

"Give Time, a Change is Coming" is a composition of Alex Pascall [photo], songwriter, storyteller and journalist.

It was originally  written for the children of Northern Ireland in the middle of the turbulent 1990s, when an end to thirty years of bloody sectarian violence in the province was beginning to seem possible.

The Clintons claim a role in the efforts to revolve that crisis, but Pascall says that Obama is the one who can reclaim for the U.S. the kind of respect and credibility that will allow it to broker peace around the world.

"Give Time, a Change is Coming" was first performed by the choir of Our Lady of Mercy High School, a Catholic girl’s school in Strabane, Belfast, in November 1995, under Alex's supervision.

The song is now available for purchase on iTunes. It was sent to Brooklyn Ron by Tony (Milverton) Wallace, a Jamaican journalist and college professor now living in Britain. [Click below and listen to a nice clip.]

Tony says of Pascall, "He believes that Barrack Obama represents the best hope for an American foreign policy that favours peace before war and that restores an honourable and respected place for America in the world."

Tony quotes Pascall as saying, “Let us all hope that this song will help to transmit the message for real change that Obama’s candidacy has evoked in people, young and old, far beyond the boundaries of the USA.”

Pascall did this new arrangement with his daughter, Deirdre Pascall.

Born on the island of Grenada in the Eastern Caribbean, Alex Pascal is perhaps best known for being one of the founding fathers of the Notting Hill Carnival (Europe's largest street festival).

He was also part of the team that started one of Britain's most popular black newspapers The Voice.

Mighty Sparrow, Legend of Caribbean and Brooklyn, Sings for Barack Obama

The Mighty Sparrow has been honored by Brooklyn Borough Presidents for his unparalleled contributions to the music of this great hemisphere.

Now standing along with millions of other Americans at what he considers a critical juncture in the nation AND the hemisphere AND the world, Mighty Sparrow has penned an ode to the person he believes should be leading the free world: Barack Obama.

The opening line perhaps says it all: "The respect of the world that we now lack, If you want it back, then vote Barack!"

Enjoy.