Dr. Josephine English, Entrepreneur, Medical Doctor, Passionate Community Advocate, Passes at 91

Dr. Josephine English, beloved matriarch, real estate magnate, theatre arts trailblazer and medical doctor who counselled Malcolm X — a woman truly ahead of her time who epitomized the ultimate multitasker, passed Sunday (18) at the Dr. Susan Smith McKinney Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Brooklyn, NY.
Dr. English leaves a tremendous legacy. Her expertise in the field of OB/GYN and her dedication to empowering the community through the cultural arts, were as respected and popular as Shirley Chisholm’s in politics, Hattie Carthan’s in urban ecology, Lucille Rose in civil service and currently Elsie Richardson in community development and Adelaide Sanford in education.
Born on December 17, 1920, Dr. English was born in Ontario, Virginia, one of four children of Whittie English Sr. and Jennie English. She grew up in Englewood, New Jersey and earned her B.A. from New York City’s Hunter College in 1939. English went on to earn her M.A. in psychology from New York University and subsequently attended Meharry Medical School where she specialized in obstetrics and gynecology. English graduated in 1949 as the first African American woman to practice OB/GYN in New York State. She spent seven years working at Harlem Hospital in Manhattan and she then became the first African American woman to open a private OB/GYN practice in New York State.
She worked at Harlem hospital for seven years, She moved to Brooklyn in 1956 and founded a women’s community health clinic in Bushwick in 1958, and a second clinic in Fort Greene in the 1980s. She established the Adelphi Medical Center, a senior citizens center, the Up the Ladder Day Care Center and After School Program, as well as a summer youth camp. In 1982, she purchased a dilapidated church next to her Adelphi Medical Center in Fort Greene, and converted it into the legendary Paul Robeson Theater, naming it after her hero and neighbor.
Dr. English delivered more than 6,000 babies, among them the daughter of former Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown and the six daughters of Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz. She also delivered Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage.

It also is reported that Dr. English would urge her patients to get involved with community health issues, and even had players create local fun performances for families in her Brooklyn neighborhood, delivering theater messages about health and nutrition.
Michael Anthony Sheppard, one of her four sons, informed Our Time Press that Dr. English “loved people – real people, and she did what she could do to create opportunities so that people could uplift themselves. She was an icon in Brooklyn history and was concerned that young people were not being taught about the contributions of the great people around them whose shoulders they stand on.”
In fact, Dr. English founded the Paul Robeson Theater to enrich and strengthen the community through art, culture and education. The theater was declared a City landmark in October.
Her greatest wish, according to her son, was that her theater provide an accessible and open forum for creative expression for the generations to come, in perpetuity. It showcases a versatile array of innovative work that reflects the legacy of Paul Robeson.
“Our children need to attend the theater, because when they get older they will know there are some things other than the movies,” said Dr. English in an interview. “Theatre is a meaningful experience.”
Currently, Paul Robeson Theatre is undergoing a major restoration campaign for theatre renovations. Dr. English said, “We put out good theatrical productions. And the people support us.”
Dr. English died the day after her 91st birthday. A private service is being planned for next week. BGreen

Neighborhood Technical Assistance Clinic (NTAC) Salutes Individuals and Local Non-Profits as Champions for Bedford Stuyvesant

On Thursday, December 1, 2011 from 6pm-9pm at the Victorian Mansion, 247 Hancock Street, Brooklyn, NY, “something special will happen in Bedford-Stuyvesant!,” says Valerie Durrah, Founder and CEO of The Neighborhood Technical Assistance Clinic (NTAC), an organization which specializes in giving individuals and groups the tools and resources that truly make things happen for the Bedford-Stuyvesant village!

Ms. Oliver-Durrah is a nationally known non-profit expert and philanthropic advisor.

She announced last week that NTAC “will launch its Champions for Bedford Stuyvesant benefit reception this fall to praise and celebrate neighborhood leaders, corporate representatives and several key nonprofit organizations who are lifelines for the community through their work and commitment.”

This year’s honorees are Seth Edwards, Vice President, Community Relations, Brooklyn and Staten Island, JPMorgan Chase; and Ralph Bumbaca, Senior Vice President, Brooklyn and Staten Island Commercial Lending, TD Bank.

“The theme for our neighborhood-based initiative is ‘Nonprofits Rule: Neighborhoods Matter,’she announced in an NTAC press release.

At the event, nonprofit organizations and their attending board staff will be recognized as partners of NTAC who share NTAC’s ultimate mission of community empowerment and enrichment. These organizations include:The Bedford-Stuyvesant Family Health Center, Inc., Bedford-Stuyvesant Lions, Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, Bedford-Stuyvesant YMCA, Bridge Street Development Corporation, Brooklyn Central Community Development Corporation, Brownstoners of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Community First Services, Inc., Neighborhood Housing Services of Bedford-Stuyvesant, The Noel Pointer Foundation, The Northeast Brooklyn Housing Corporation, Magnolia Tree Earth Center.

Commenting on the fund-raising reception Valerie Oliver-Durrah stated, “We hope to raise funds to provide free training for grassroots organizations and block associations in Bedford-Stuyvesant, such as the Bedford-Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corps and groups who are service our seniors.

“We also expect that this event may serve as a catalyst for bringing together Bedford-Stuyvesant homeowners, leaders, businesses and nonprofits in the future to discuss critical issues affecting the greater Bedford-Stuyvesant area.”

At the Champions of Bedford Stuyvesant event, there will be an opportunity to bid on auction items for hotel accommodations in Brazil, the Caribbean, Italy and more.

NTAC chose to kick off its first neighborhood celebration within Bedford-Stuyvesant because it is the beloved home for several decades of the nationally known Ms. Oliver-Durrah and her family.
For ticket information, contact the Neighborhood Technical Assistance Clinic at 718-455-3784 or via email at volivere@aol.com.
Our Time Press is the event media partner. We’ll see you there!

Bertram Baker Legacy in Bedford-Stuyvesant

Last Saturday, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and his lovely wife, First Lady Diane Patrick, an attorney, along with hundreds of friends, supporters and family members proved you can go home again —  especially when home is Brooklyn.

The Patricks joined celebrants in the co-naming of Jefferson Avenue, between Tompkins and Throop, as Bertram L. Baker Way – a tribute to Brooklyn’s first Black elected official who assumed office as a State Assemblyman in 1948. Lady Diane and her cousin journalist Ron Howell, an event host and planner, are grandchildren of the late pioneer.  Baker’s life and achievements inspired Governor Patrick who lived on Midwood Street in the Lefferts Manor section of Brooklyn in the 1980’s.

In the early afternoon, The Governor and First Lady spoke at the co-naming event, and later joined guests at Tremaine Wright’s Common Ground café for a reception and book signing for “A Reason to Believe,” Governor Patrick’s new memoir.

The book is about the Governor’s early life in relative poverty  and about the spirit that allowed him to later grasp at opportunities, to attend the elite Milton Academy and then Harvard College and Harvard Law School. Patrick later become head of the Civil Rights unit in the Justice Department under President Bill Clinton.

Jacqueline A. Berrien, Chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission EOC), who splits her time between Washington, D.C. and her Brooklyn brownstone, told Our Time Press,  “I am proud to call Bedford Stuyvesant home. All of us here in Brooklyn have a debt to repay Mr. Baker who opened the doors. This event honors the work to which he dedicated his life: community service.”

“The co-naming also links Bedford Stuyvesant’s historic past to its history-making present,” said Peter Williams, President & CEO of the Mid Bronx Desperadoes Community Housing Corporation, who is Ms. Berrien’s husband.  “It also reflects Bedford Stuyvesant’s connections to worlds beyond its borders.”

Astute political analyst and author John Flateau, a longtime Bedford-Stuyvesant resident, offered a sweeping survey of the scene from 1949-1970, giving a nod to the power plays and the players, including Baker, Wesley McHolder, and Maude Richardson and Ida Jackson – “women who helped set the stage for Baker’s nomination in ‘48,” the Bedford Stuyvesant Political League, The United Action Democratic Association, his father Sidney Flateau and more.

“In the 1960s Baker became Majority Whip of the Assembly, the highest position of a black person in the state at that time,” added Flateau. “Earlier in the 1950s hepushed through first-of-its-kind laws barring housing discrimination in the 1950s.  The impact of that work is still felt– more than 50 years later.”

Gov. Patrick,center at Common Grounds book signing with Brooklyn Attorneys Jamal and Monique Murphy

Ms. Berrien noted that some of today’s established politicians were campaign workers to major politicians in the past.  “They taught us.   Many of us volunteered to work on campaigns.  I’ve often said, I was privileged to practice Civil Rights law under giants.  At the core, Bertram Baker worked for the betterment of others, and worked to be of assistance and support to others. Service provides an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others; the reward is in the work. Everyone here shares that mission.”

“And the impact of Mr. Baker’s work reverberates beyond Brooklyn’s political life; it touches education, as well,” said educator Bernadette U. Okeke-Diagne. “I believe young people will benefit from the example set today by the Patricks who traveled here to celebrate with us, and they will learn from this experience.”

Mrs. Violet Payne, commenting on the event’s “historical perspective,” said, “Kids growing up in today’s world need to know this history so there’s no need to recreate the wheel.  The event solidifies why we do some of the things we do to push forward certain issues that relate to the African American community. It is so important for young people to know that there were people back then working to make a difference in the life of the community.  They need to know so they can continue to build on the work started and move it forward.”

Gov.  Patrick, in noting Baker’s extensive contributions to Brooklyn politics, told young people to take to heart the messages of the day and “Believe!”   He also said,  “It’s a good day for Bedford Stuyvesant and a good day for Brooklyn. It’s wonderful to be back home.”

Educator Patrika Wellington, excited by the moment, told us, ‘We only have three African-American governors.  I said to Governor and First Lady Patrick, ‘I’m honored to meet you and see you.’  Relationships and connections seem to always bring you back to Brooklyn.  We are such a mighty spiritual bunch in a mighty spiritual place.”

Among other guests attending the post-event reception were: Marian Baker Howell, daughter of the late Assemblyman Bertram Baker; U.S. Eastern District Court Judge Sterling Johnson; Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Borough President; Altovise Fleary, President of the Jefferson Avenue TNT (Tompkins and Throop Aves.) Block Association; Hon. Annette Robinson, State Assemblywoman; Hon. Hakeem Jeffries, State Assemblyman; Hon. Letitia James, City Councilwoman; Lee Daniels, Director of Communications, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; Robert Cornegy, State Committeeman; Dr. Sydney C. Butts, Assistant Professor, SUNY Downstate Medical Center; Dr. R. Damani Howell and wife Dr. Brittany Howell, both of New York University Medical Center; Dr. Paul and Susan Fox; Robert Swan, founder of the Black Brooklyn Historical Society; Jamal and Monique Murphy, Brooklyn attorneys; Audrey Edwards, realtor, author and journalist; Ozier Muhammad, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times photographer; Hunter College Professor of African-American History Joanne Edey-Rhodes and her husband Ed Rhodes, marketing officer with the City University of New York; Brooklyn College Professor Paul Moses, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author of  The Saint and the Sultan: the Crusades, Islam and Francis of Assisi’s Mission of Peace and wife Maureen Moses, nurse; Les Payne, the Pulitizer Prize winning journalist; William C. Rhoden, New York Times sports columnist and author of Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete; and Mama Iyafin Olatunji, widow of Babatunde Olatunji, the famous drummer, who once played with Gov. Deval Patrick’s late father, jazz saxophonist Pat Patrick.

Block association president Altovise Fleary pushed to get the co-naming action of Bertram L. Baker Way through the City Council; last December, City Councilman Al Vann sponsored the legislation for it

Harlem Sunday

Uptown Dance Academy’s “Black Nutcracker” To Offer More Gifts Than Meets the Eye at The Apollo in Harlem, December 16

AFRICAN ATHLETES WIN BIG AT THE ING NEW YORK CITY MARATHON RACE

Seven Runners Score in Top Ten Combined Men’s & Women’s Categories

THE BIG WIN

There are wins based on besting others. There are wins based on personal best. There are wins determined by endurance and going the distance. Then there are wins associated with the successful relaying of the baton or by the simple acts of moving forward and catching up. These interpretations combined declare Africa as the biggest winner of last Sunday’s ING New York City Marathon – the largest marathon in the world – where 45,000 runners set out to reach the finish line.

THE TOP THREE MARATHONERS: Ethiopia's Gebre Gebremariam (center), the 2010 ING New York Marathon champion, is flanked by Moses Kigen Kipkosgei, third place winner (left) and Emmanuel Mutai, the second place finisher, both from Kenya. (Credit Image: (c) Sonia Moskowitz/Globe Photos/

Seven runners – 5 men and 2 women – from Kenya, Ethiopia and Morocco posted fast times in the top 10.. The USA had two winners; Russia, one. Among the women, Kenyans Edna Ngeringwony Kiplagat, 31 (2: 28:20), mother of two who was the first-place winner; and Mary Keitany (2:29:01), third, cruised to the finish line. The top five in the men’s division were: 26-year-old Gebre-egziabher (“Gebre”) Gebremariam (2:08:14) of Ethiopia (in his first NYC Marathon); Emmanuel Mutai (2:09:18) of Kenya; Moses Kigen Kipkosgei (2:10:39) of Kenya; Abderrahim Goumri (2:10:51) of Morocco; and James Kwambai (2:11:31) of Kenya. The runners bested defending champion Meb Keflezighi (2:11:38) of the U.S, who placed sixth. America’s Shalane Flanagan (2:28:40), in her first-ever marathon, was the second-place finisher in the women’s category; Inga Abitova of Russia (2:29:17), fourth; and Kim Smith (2:29:28) of the United States, fifth.

Mr. Gebremariam, father of two sons, grew up in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and trained later near Addis Ababa. In the final two miles of the New York City Marathon, he breezed to the finish line, all by himself. Almost. Something happened on the Queensboro Bridge. To learn how to go the distance, Mr. Gebremariam studied the style and moves of role model Haile Gebrselassie, considered the greatest long distance runner ever with 27 world records, including his unbroken 2:03:59, set in Berlin in 2008. The athlete, who starred in Endurance, a Disney movie about his life story, intended on Sunday to conquer the only world-class marathon he had never run, New York City’s. As everyone knows, Gebrselassie was forced to leave the race just before the 16-mile mark due to a serious leg injury. What many people do not know is Mr. Gebrselassie is a champion off the track. He is known for his extensive charity work on behalf of Ethiopian causes and “his dedication to expanding the running community to people of every ability.” The great star ended his career crossing the Queensboro Bridge, but not before commanding his heir, Mr. Gebremariam, to victory.

The story goes like this, according to the Associated Press: Gebre Gebremariam saw his country’s greatest marathoner pull up in pain on the Queensboro Bridge at the 16th mile. He urged Haile Gebrselassie to keep going, but what the world-record holder felt in his right knee told him his career was over, and it was time for a new Ethiopian star. “I can’t, Gebre. You have to move,” the 37-year-old told Gebremariam as the leaders of the New York City Marathon ran on. “You have to reach them.” Gebremariam, who started the race certain he couldn’t win it … {became} the first man to win New York in his marathon debut since Cuba’s Alberto Salazar in 1980.

The winner from each division received $130,000. Second place earns $65,000 and third $40,000, respectively. Men (Full marathon) 2010 1: Gebre Gebremariam – 2:08:14 – Ethiopia 2: Emmanuel Mutai – 2:09:18 – Kenya 3: Moses Kigen Kipkosgei – 2:10:39 – Kenya 4: Abderrahim Goumri – 2:10:51 – Morocco 5: James Kwambai – 2:11:31 – Kenya Women (Full marathon) 2010 1: Edna Kiplagat – 2:28:20 – Kenya 2: Shalane Flanagan – 2:28:40 – United States 3: Mary Keitany – 2:29:01 – Kenya 4: Inga Abitova – 2:29:17 – Russia 5: Kim Smith – 2:29:28 – United States

THE GOVERNOR’S CHEF COMES TO BROOKLYN… Thanks to the Bed Stuy Farmers at the Brooklyn Rescue Mission

AT HOME Summer: From Brooklyn to Bali …Part One

It was Taaeba Fattah’s account of her March trip to Bali with her mother, Nadia, and friends Sheila Szklanny and Leslie Wilks that turned us on to Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love bestseller that’s enjoying a new surge of interest due to the Columbia Pictures film of the same title starring Julia Roberts and premiering Friday (13). 
Images of the Fattahs and friends grace these pages, and the personal experience they told us about their visit impressed us.
Yesterday, I plodded through Gilbert’s (partially funded) year-long sojourn to three countries in search of mind, heart and body (not necessarily in that order) refreshment.  She finds nourishment eating through Italy and praying through India, but she really scores in Bali, as much for finding a love-mate as for reconnecting with a soul mate, the elderly healer and reader Ketut Liyer.
Unlike the miles of women across the world who have begun to retrace Ms. Gilbert’s footsteps in hopes of finding self and an orgasmic happy ending, Taaeba, an equal opportunity employment specialist; Nadia, an arts consultant, and educators Sheila and Leslie are inveterate travelers; for them, the happy ending is the travel: they’re not getting away from something or in a state of seeking something – although they love to shop.  
“I love learning about other cultures, enjoying changing landscapes,” says Nadia.   Which is exactly what they were doing when the Fattah ladies first met Sheila and Leslie several years ago on an Egypt-bound cruise ship.   It turned out that Sheila and the Fattahs live within blocks of each other in Brooklyn, the place they call comfort zone.  It’s been “Have Passports, Will Travel Together” ever since.  (Leslie lives in North Carolina.)
Since then, the Friends have racked up a combined hundreds of thousands of miles on train, bus and plane, traveling roundtrip to Morocco, Tunisia, Costa Rica, Rome, Florence, the Phillipines and Hong Kong.  Last year, they all visited Senegal – just after Taaeba and Nadia returned from Cartagena.
Next year, Nadia is pitching for a group trip to Bahia, where she’s visited at least five times. “It’s multisensual, great people, good food, nice breezes, wonderful to wake up to.”   A graduate of Pratt Institute, Nadia reveals she has traveled since her early teens.  She now visits galleries in different countries and is a collector of fabrics from different locales.
The ladies arrived in Bali, March 28,and  stayed 8 glorious days, before departing for Taiwan.
When the ladies arrived, they wanted to go into the villages – away from the tourists – where the people live, the food is homecooked and the culture is active and real. Taaeba told Our Time Press that when she and the ladies are traveling with a tour group, they always separate themselves, create their own itinerary and go off on their own personal tour for a different experience.  The results: they wind up seeing more places, having more exciting adventures and meeting different people, unfettered and unencumbered.  In Bali, they were part of a group of more than 100 people – but not for long.
The tour guide happened to mention that Julia Roberts had just filmed Eat Pray Love days before, and there was a medicine man she met in Ubud. It dawned on the women they could obtain their own personal readings from Bali healer Ketut Liyer, central to Gilbert’s true-life story. They hired a livery and without any prearrangements or an appointment to meet with Ketut, they set out for his residence, determined to get their readings. 
Once they arrived, an hospitable and gracious Ketut made himself available. Yet, at the time, no one could foresee that Ketut would receive a special reading, too.  From Taaeba.
“It was meant to be – the trip to Bali and the visit to Ketut,” said Taaeba, adding,”My grandmother loved ladybugs and a very rare deep-orange colored one, positioned itself outside the rear window of the cab, passenger side,where my mother (Nadia) sat, and accompanied us all the way from the hotel to Ketut’s abode. We saw it as a lucky charm; my grandmother was with us.
“We entered Ketut’s sanctuary through an ornate brick gate, and walked past structures, statues and an altar, then through a mini-botanic garden of lush plants and trees,” recalled Nadia. “At first we did not see him.  He was sitting on the porch partially obscured by the sweep of tree fronds on the porch of his villa.  He sat to the left, and smiled as though he knew us.
“Since there were two or three others ahead of us, we wandered around, and saw all the spaces in his house. There were exotic birds and monkeys throughout his compound.”
After the reading, Ketut asked Taaeba, through his broken English, if she could read passages from Gilbert’s book in which his name appeared.  He explained that Eat Pray Love had not been translated to Balinese, so he hadn’t read the book.  So she opened it to a page that featured him prominently, and began reading to him.  She says he looked shocked – pleasantly so. “I spoke slowly and noticed that he smiled broadly whenever I mentioned his name.  It was quite an engaging moment.”
Taaeba asked if he would sign her paperback book.  “I thought it would be fascinating to have his autograph on one of the pages that fascinated him. He signed his name on Chapter 75 in the book, which begins “So this is how it comes to pass” — where Gilbert starts her Bali journey in earnest. 
“He did not have a concept of ‘giving an autograph.’  It appeared he had no idea just how immensely famous he is, although he says business has picked up since the filming.”
Just before Taaeba commenced to read passages, she beckoned to her mother to take still pictures. Nadia actually videotaped it.  In a future issue, Nadia’s images of the Bali landscape and the Liyers’ home will be featured along with Taaeba’s recommendations as to where one can go in Brooklyn for a gloriously inexpensive and rich Bali experience. 
Taaeba sees Gilbert’s book as having relevance to everyone.   And, like Gilbert, she assesses that home ultimately is something carried inside of us.  “I saw real beauty in the people there. They fascinated us, and they were fascinated by us.  They are used to seeing the stereotypes presented by television and videos. We did not fit those images.
“And there was something else.  My perception of poverty has changed because of this trip.  What is poor? And who is really poor?  I know there are some who are suffering, although we did not see this in Bali. 
“On the whole, these people are very rich – in their culture and in their values.  All of the children smiled regardless of their situation.  They are not a material people; there’s no real technology.  Everything is natural. They go to markets for their food.  They daily eat fresh fruit and vegetables.  Nothing canned or frozen. They are wealthy, no one starves.
“Something happens when we tourists arrive with our ‘culture.’  We create a want for things the host country or village does not need.  Sometimes . not all the time . with tourism comes greed, violence, transfer of diseases, illnesses.  Sometimes, we disrupt perfectly natural cultural foundations.
“In some ways, Bali is ahead of us.  Soon the world will go back to basics – which is where Bali is, right now. For the short time I was there I see Bali offers us a way of ordering our lives.  We certainly can learn something from the people there, the least of which is how to make sense of where we are in the world.
“Ketut, they say, is between 90 and 100.  He is ageless, and he has such a beautiful handwriting. He is not weak.  He is a thinker.  He has good humor. We learned so much from him, and I do believe he learned from us, too.”

This Week: “Eat, Pray Love” From Brooklyn to Bali

Our Time Press visits Bali through the adventures of our outreach specialist Nadia Fattah, and her daughter Taaeba. The Fattah women traveled to the beautiful Indonesia locale just days after Sony Pictures wrapped location filming for Eat, Pray, Love starring Julia Roberts opening nationwide, this Friday.

Brooklyn's Taaeba Fattah met Bali medicine man Ketut Liyer earlier this year. Ketut is the transitional center of the film based on the best-selling book "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Elizabeth Gilbert’s autobiographical bestseller on which the film is based reveals how the author finds herself through a soul-searching journey to three different places in the world, unique in what they offer her. In Our Time Press, the Brooklyn-based Fattah women, inveterate world travelers, offers a universal message for our readers and the world.

Images of the home of the “medicine man” around which the Bali section of the film centers, will be featured, and later in the month, through the photographs of Barry L. Mason and Hiroki Kobayashi the stunning and stylish Taaeba will show readers where to go — within blocks and a few miles of home — to get the Bali-look. Through Home Shopping Network, OTP reveals, you may not need to leave your home at all. So, here’s to life’s basics: eating, praying and loving.

On The Road …with a Long-Distance Biker

    Malik Rahim’s Journey for Bike for Peace

Rahim is en route to the capital to confront legislators to take action in the Gulf oil spill and to bring awareness to the masses of such simple efforts as biking as a way to decrease the carbon footprint, and bring peace to the world. We caught up with him yesterday – on the 13

“My message is not one of finding a message,” he told us. “In part, I want people to think about how we can preserve life as we know it. My grandmother did not give us sodas for dinner; we had lemonade from rainwater. My children and grandchildren will never taste the sweetness of it. When she first heard about the toxins in streams during the early 1950’s, she purchased Ozone water.

“I come from Algiers, Louisiana. At one time among our people the emphasis was on acquiring land and property before purchasing a vehicle. Our mode of transportation was the cheapest: walking and biking.

“You might not have afforded to purchase a car or maintain it if you could, but you could pump a bike and patch a tire. And for gas, there was strictly your leg motion. You had you.”

During Rahim’s 25-year involvement in environmental justice movements, he ran for City Councilman and then for Congress as a Green Party candidate. Today, he is running for something else: in solidarity with political activist Cynthia McKinney, who is biking from California to Washington with other Bikers for Peace.

Rahim decided to start his course from the Gulf area when the BP disaster erupted. During rest stops in various towns, villages and cities, he conducted media interviews and meetings with environmental organizations. If all goes on schedule today (29

As part of its Greenprint for Change continuing series, Our Time Press is following Malik Rahim’s Journey with periodic updates and a full story and profile to appear in our upcoming issues covering the 5

“Everything becomes mute, if we do not care for the water we drink, the air we breathe, the food we eat and how we live,” Rahim told us. “If we lose life as we know it because of our inability or refusal to save it, I want one thing to be said: ‘He was a crazy old man with dreds and a bike who tried to save the world,” More on www.ourtimepress.com.

th day of his journey which ends in the capital September 22nd — as he stood on the balcony of the Meg Perry Center for Environmental Peace and Justice in New Orleans enjoying the sounds of birds. th), he is meeting with Sea Grant, Mobile Bay and the Mississippi/Alabama Estuary Project. His goal: to bring awareness of the full impact of the latest disaster in the Gulf; the U.S. is losing not only its soul, but also its wetlands. “Since 1932, we’ve lost enough wetlands to fill the state of Delaware.”the Anniversary of the Katrina hurricane tragedy. Of the 1.1 billion bikers in the world, Malik Rahim, 62, co-founder of Common Ground, is the only one pedaling a “regular old seven-speeder” through the Deep South heading east on a 1500-mile trek to Washington, D.C. while carrying a 20-lb tent with a singular mission: to save the world from itself and its excesses.

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