Comptroller Liu Awards Management of $962 Million Bond Sale to Loop Capital Markets

Our Time Press Interviews  John Liu Comptroller, City of New York.

Comptroller Liu, can you tell us what’s different about this process and what has happened in the past?
Would you believe that the way the city sells bonds, billions  and billions of dollars each year is done by rotation, meaning a few of these really large companies, household names, actually take turns being the lead underwriter for these bond sales. There’s a fair amount of profit involved in being the lead underwriter. The problem with this method is that it’s the same people taking turns. I never understood why that had to be the case. So this particular bond deal, which ultimately turned out to be nearly $1 billion, was done by what is formally called a bakeoff, which is instead of having the same people take turns and just calling out the next one in line, we open it up to 14 companies who we have done business with and have a certain track record with the city and let them put proposals to be the lead underwriter.
It was competitive because all these proposals were evaluated on the merits and in the process the firm that gained the highest evaluation turned out to be a minority-owned firm, Loop Capital.  I’m very happy with the result of this particular bond offering.  First and foremost, it saved our taxpayers $82 million – essentially, this bond offering was a refinancing of previous bonds-secondly, it shows what can be achieved if we open up the process and let everybody get in on the level playing field. And in this case, we opened up the process and gave everybody a chance and a minority firm came out on top.
Is “rotation” a practice in other parts of the city’s contracting as well?
Well, first of all, would you believe they actually call this rotation
‘the Syndicate”.  You can’t make this stuff up.  Apart from that, I don’t know exactly where else in city contracting this concept of rotation occurs but I am going to bet that it is not only in bond underwriting that the city follows this kind of approach.
I really believe that the city’s purchasing power, i.e., the ability to put out billions of dollars worth of contracts every year, has the potential of not only creating jobs overall but to eliminate these historical disparities that exist within our city. Disparities in contracting the minority and women on firms as well as disparities in unemployment rates, where you have communities throughout the city who face much higher unemployment levels than the average for the city.
The question of minority grew out of the Civil Rights Movement, do you break out or can the Comptroller’s office do a break out of the minorities.  Are they African-American, Asian or Latino?
There is not enough of that done. We have a Local Law 129  that sets goals for the different types of business ownerships such are the Latino-owned, African-American, Asian or women-owned.   And they are broken down by type of business ex: construction or professional services, etc. These goals are laid out in  Local Law 129 but it has been nearly impossible to track the city’s progress with regard to compliance with Local Law 129. So this is an issue that is at the top of my priorities and in the absence of readily available information, we are conducting studies in my office to start to get our arms around this problem.
There was a time when Dinkins was mayor that the city had a very strong minority contracting process.  Does the Bloomberg Administration have a system for minority contracting?
Mayor Dinkins was one of the first, if not the absolute first, strong voice in this city to address this issue. The problem being the disparities in minorities getting contracts from the city.  Mayor Dinkins put in place a set of concepts and procedures that in intervening years have not been upheld. What my office is focused on is continuing the legacy that Mayor Dinkins began 20 years ago.
Can you elaborate on what this kind of contract procedure could potentially mean for the Kings County community?
When we open the doors to more minority contracting, we open up economic opportunities to everybody, especially residents in the New York City neighborhoods and let me add that minority-owned firms have a strong track record of hiring people in our neighborhood.
The Department of Education changed how they purchase books.  You mentioned the rotational aspect of bond buying, but the DOE put a high size limit to the companies that can sell books and African-American firms that had been selling to the city were lost.   What kind of rules exist and can you have any effect on those rules that take minority firms out of the process?
It is unclear where else in city contracting this rotational concept is in practice. None-the-less, it is  my goal to ensure that the way the city lets out contracts doesn’t discriminate in any way and, furthermore, that contracts are let out in a way that chips away at historical disparities.    I’m very excited about what’s happening here and this is only the beginning.

Racial Barriers to Highest Level Financial Transactions Shattered in Bond Sale Award

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 travelled 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 travellers, 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.

State Senator Kevin Parker’s Recommendation to MWBE’s After New Bill Signed into Law

On July 15, 2010, Governor David Paterson made history in New York by signing into law the first comprehensive legislation for the inclusion of Minority and Women Business Enterprises in the bid and business process throughout the state.  It is now a law of the land, and will have a broad generative effect across the board for enhancing and empowering Black-and minority-owned businesses.  Historically speaking, these businesses have been marginalized, or not included at all in many of the major multimillion-dollar contracts leD by City and State government.

Major vendors have come into the area and have been able to establish businesses without including local businesses, contractorS or services.  With the signing of the bill, the dynamic has changed.  The implications for Brooklyn’s minority business enterprises is tremendous.

State Senator Kevin Parker, of Brooklyn’s 21st Senatorial District, which encompasses Flatbush, Ditmas Park, Midwood and other areas,  took time to spell out the details and the impact these four new bills will have on Black-and minority-owned businesses in Brooklyn and throughout the state. 

What follows is a brief interview with the senator, immediately after Governor David Paterson’s historic signing of the bill into law:

GDW: What’s the significance of this bill?  And what does this mean for us in Brooklyn?

KP:  Well, it’s actually a package of four bills, three of which deal with something called 15A, which deals with procurement for the state of New York.  And the fourth bill actually deals with the Emerging Managers bill which now, for the first time, allows Blacks, Latino, women and Asians who are engaged in financial services, to now have a program that requires the state to give them their due.

To further put that in perspective, Senator Parker compared New York’s budget with the rest of the world: “Right now, the state of New York is the third- largest budget in the entire country.  First is the Federal Government’s budget, [second] the state of California, then the state of New York.  Out of that $136 billion that we’re going to spend this year in the state of New York, between $25 and $30 billion is procured out for everything from paper clips to large construction projects.  And so, historically, African-Americans, Latinos, women and Asians have had very, very, very small percentages — actually less than two percent totally  — of that money.  This is now going to expand the process — the process has existed for a while — but this will expand the process by which MWBE’s get access to those state contracts.”

GDW:  Brooklyn is the entrepreneurial capital of New York.  More people actually have their own small businesses. Specifically, what kinds of things are you going to do in Brooklyn to ensure those people are involved?

KP:  Well this is the first time that we’re connecting Wall Street to Main Street. Literally, Wall Street to the Main Streets of my community.  The Church Avenues, the Flatbush Avenues, the Nostrand Avenues.  And so, one,  there are going to be a lot of programs vis à vis every agency.  So from the Department of Transportation to the Empire State Development Corporation will be having programs.  A lot of elected officials, including myself, are doing press conferences, press releases and notices, and mailers to our community to let them know what’s going on.

GDW:  Is there anything that the other side of the community needs to do.  In other words, those people who are just getting into the fray and have never been certified as an MWBE can do?

KP:  Well, I think that what the people should be doing is reaching out to the agency, particularly to the Empire State Development Corporation.

Senator Parker is known for encouraging local small business growth with the creation of Building Blocks Local Development Corporation.  He has also hosted three business development forums throughout the district, so his sense of commitment to business development is already established.

That said, he offered several recommendations to MWBE’s  who stand to benefit from this new legislation:

KP:  There are really a number of things that people need to do.  I have five quick tips:

One, people need to get their paperwork straight.  Your personal financials; if you have a business already, get your business finances together and make sure you have a good business plan.

Two, research the opportunities that are available with the state.  Whether you’re selling furniture, there’s the Department of Education, you may want to look at the Health Department; if you do construction, you may want to talk with the Thruway Authority and the Dept. of Transportation; you can research and see who is your best opportunity to do business with.

The Third thing you want to make sure that you do is to get certified.  There’s a certification process with the state.

GDW:  Having worked as a minority business liaison in the past, I have to ask you has that process been streamlined?  It used to take forever.

KP: It has been.  It’s now a two-day process — it used to be a very long process, we’ve streamlined it.  I think it’s a one-page form now.  But it’s much easier.  And then last, make sure you reach out to your elected officials.  So, whether it’s myself or your assembly or city council person, they will have information on how minority—and women—owned businesses are working; and how you get your best access back to those opportunities.

KP: The important point is that we provide transparency to the process, accountability to the process; and more importantly, enforcement to make sure that people who were not in compliance with it are taken to task. The signing of this bill by the governor today is an acknowledgment that labor market discrimination exists in the state of New  York.  And that we, in fact, need to address it.  The way to address it is to make sure that Black and Latino, Asian and Women—Owned Businesses have more capacity to do hiring by giving them more business opportunities.  More business opportunities equates to more employment opportunities in all of our communities.

If you are interested in additional information on the Minority and Women Business Enterprises, contact the Empire State Development Corporation at www.empire.state.ny.us, or Senator Kevin Parker’s office at (718) 629-6401.

For a more in depth report on the MWBE and its impact, log on to my Blog:  http://www.gloriadulanwilson.blogspot.com

John White Steps Forward to Fulfill Sentence

Flanked by his wife and sons, last week John White reported to the courtroom of the Honorable Barbara Kahn in the Suffolk County Court. He began his sentence of 2-4 years resulting from the incident in which John White was defending his family and home from a mob of drunken teens. That incident resulted in the death of one of those teens.
Noel Leader, along with other members of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, escorted John White and his family to the court “because of the sensitivity of the case and threats made to him, his wife and sons.” Leader said, “Members of our organization picked the family up at their house and had the unfortunate task of escorting him to the courthouse, where he was then taken into custody to complete his sentence.”
Describing the mood of the family, Leader said “Surprisingly, John was more upbeat than all of us were. Because of the magnitude of the injustice to him as well as his family, we all were sad. He was very upbeat. He knew what he did was the right thing to do. He had nothing to hang his head in shame over. He was sad over the fact that he was going to miss his wife and children.”
According to Leader, John White’s “sons were, of course, very sad. They know that they are going to miss their father for the next couple of years unless Governor David Paterson does the right thing and grants clemency or a pardon.”
Someone close to the family said John White could not submit a clemency application until White was in custody inside the prison.
John White has exhausted all appeals on the state level. Since that last state appeal was rejected, something occurred to give the family additional hope. The U.S. Supreme Court decided in McDonald v. City of Chicago that the Second Amendment, which protects the right to bear arms for the purpose of self-defense, also applies to the states (not just the District of Columbia, as decided in the Heller case). The family will need to raise funds to start a federal lawsuit.
“Everyone who is familiar with the facts of this case knows that we are not holding our heads down for John.  He did nothing wrong,” Leader said. “All of us will miss him. All of us share the unfortunate time he will now serve in prison. Right now, what everyone is pinning their hopes on is the governor intervening.”
The weapon involved in the incident was a family heirloom. It originally belonged to Napoleon White, John’s grandfather. According to family history, the White family was chased out of Oneonta, Alabama in 1929. One night the Klan came to the family home to get someone in the family. Napoleon White was able to defend the family and get most of them out. The Klan set the house on fire. One of John’s aunts was not able to get out. She died in the fire. In the aftermath, the White family split up. Some settled in Cleveland, others in Georgia. John White’s branch of the family landed in New York.

Community Rallies Around John White and Family

Diverse community members and organizations brought nothing but love to CEMOTAP’s support rally for John White and his family Despite the sweltering heat, Nazarene Congregational Church was packed with supporters. John White sat humbly in the first pew, with his wife Sonia and sons Nahshon and Aaron directly behind him. Rev. Conrad Tillard, Dr. James McIntosh and Betty Dopson warmly welcomed the gatherers.
Dr. Leonard Jeffries, said”Looking at our history as a people, we have never deserved what has happened to us over the past 500 years. We have shown we are resilient, we have the ability to restore ourselves, we have the ability to overcome the greatest of obstacles. That tradition will still hold with the John White family and the work we can do to help them succeed. I hope the governor would find the strength to do what the system can’t do – the judicial system and the Black leadership can’t do because they are trying to find a niche in the system of white supremacy – hopefully the governor will surprise everybody and do the right thing.” Jeffries was referring to the governor’s power to grant pardons.
Attorney-at-War Alton Maddox likened John White’s situation to that of Emmet Till. “We can’t really defend John White until we can put ourselves in his shoes. No one can explain to you what this brother is going through. Trying to still maintain a family. Trying to maintain a home dealing with mounting legal expenses. Trying to deal with the continuing racism that he has to face.”
“Some people believe you don’t have the right to take a white man’s life or a white boy’s life, I don’t care what the circumstances are,” said Maddox. “There are some people who still have the mindset of Money, Mississippi, the place where Emmett Till found his fate. I’ve been concerned with the lack of present memory of what happened August 28,1955, some 55 years later. It opened our eyes to a different kind of atrocity. I was thinking about what would have happened if John White had been Emmett Till’s uncle, and they had come to John White’s house looking for his nephew. And the level of consciousness that he had and the love that he had as opposed to brother White. We may have still had Emmett Till with us.”
Maddox said, “We are here in the midst of a hero. Somebody who not only had the right to kill anybody who trespasses on his house, threaten to rape his wife and kill his son. He had the obligation. And he exercised that as any other human being would do. We are the only people in the world where somebody is prosecuted for the human right or animal right of self-defense. We are the only ones. This brother finds himself in this predicament.”
Connecting John White’s situation to the political process, Maddox said ‘”This issue goes back to our being in the Democratic Party -the party of Thomas Jefferson who authored the Notes on Virginia, which in his mind had us so down on the totem pole, that even Benjamin Banneker had to respond to his de-humanization of us. And Andrew Jackson, who gave us Justice Roger Tatum, who gave us the Dred Scott decision, which is still the law of the land today, because the 14th amendment was never ratified. Had the 14th amendment been ratified, John White wouldn’t be sitting here today. Because he would be celebrated as a hero. But because we do not really understand what is at stake, we continue to finance the Democratic Party. The Lord works in mysterious ways. What that really meant was the Lord works in certain ways. Sometimes you don’t focus in on what the target appears to be, but you focus on something other than the target that actually connects what you are focusing on to the target.
Maddox believes “We have our next best chance in organizing a Freedom Party. The only remedy for brother White today is in the political process. We can’t trust the courts. We couldn’t trust the 2nd Judicial Department, which affirmed the opinion of the lower court. We can’t trust the NY Court of Appeals. We certainly can’t trust the U.S. Supreme Court. What we can trust is ourselves. We have the power. If we misuse it, we are going to kill the hopes and dreams of future generations if we use it wrong. Hopefully, we will support this family until justice has been accomplished. This should be a continued commitment, not only to John White, but to what has been always our two major problems in the United States: the right of free speech and the right to bear arms. This case represents Negroes with guns.”
Omowale Clay spoke on behalf of the December 12 Movement. He said “The hardest thing for a young Black man to do is to grow into a man. Black men have the responsibility to teach manhood to young warriors.” He asked, “Is the issue guns or Black hands on guns? We stand and represent our people all the way back to slave ships. Cowardice is something that is nurtured. We have been trained to act in a way that is opposed to the interests of our people.”
Clay said, “When your son comes to you in danger and threatened, ask yourself, ‘Will I have what it takes?’ We have the right to defend ourselves, our family, and our children. Anyone who violates that has a problem.”
Looking directly at John White, Clay said “To us, you are our hero. We say to your family, we honor and respect you. Your character has taught many Black men how to be men. We won’t forget that.”
Michael Greys, from 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, gave an eloquent account of the series of events John White found himself immersed in. “Imagine yourself in John White’s shoes for one hour, Greys said. “Just last week, the Suffolk County prosecutor was still trying to put White in jail.”
The story according to Greys: “His son was at a party. Using Aaron’s name, so-called friend Longo put something on MySpace suggesting sexual desires for a young white woman. At the party, the young white girl was uncomfortable. Aaron was asked to leave, and he did. En route, Aaron got a call from five armed young men who instructed him to ‘be in front of your house when we get there’. But Aaron said to himself, ‘I have a father.’ Aaron woke his father out of his sleep while putting his phone on speaker. John White heard the young men threaten to rape his wife and kill his son. John told his wife to call 911. Concerned for the well-being of her husband and son, she did not. Meanwhile, John went into the garage to get his gun (it was not kept in the house). John then ordered the drunken young men to move off his property. One of the young men, who had weapons (bats) said ‘What you gonna do, you old skinny nigger?’ John White was able to back them from his house to the curb. John turned his back to go back to his house. Ciccero came behind John and tried to take the weapon. It discharged, hitting Ciccero in the head.” Greys said, “Ciccero caused his own death, with help from his friends. The hospital is a 10-12 minute drive from White’s house, yet Ciccero’s friends took more than an hour to get him to the hospital. The court is supposed to be the tryer of facts. The court never asked why they took an hour or more to get to the hospital.”
According to Greys, Cicero’s friends were allowed to diminish the role they played in the incident. “They testified against John White,” said Greys, “The court treated them as witnesses. They were not charged with threatening or menacing.” (According to published reports, Ciccero’s friends were granted immunity in exchange for their testimony.) “John White was told he should have stayed in his house and wait for Suffolk County Police,” Greys said. He then asked, “Do we have the right to defend ourselves?”
Greys described the court atmosphere during White’s trial. Minister Abdul Haffiz, formerly Kevin Muhammad, from Harlem’s Mosque #7, and members of both the Nation of Islam and the Fruit of Islam, attended the trial, as well as members of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care attended the trial regularly, and sat between John White and the family and friends of Ciccero. “Every day after court, Blacks were kept in the court, while the whites were allowed to leave. They let the whites clear the corridor and go to their cars,” Greys said. “When the all clear signal came from the parking lot, the Blacks were allowed to leave. After John White’s sentencing, Ciccero’s father told reporters ‘Wait until Aaron gets shot.’”

“John White’s life is valuable. John White’s family’s life is valuable,” Greys said. “If we lose this opportunity, the entire country is in trouble.”
Gubernatorial candidate Charles Barron said “Racism id no the badge. It is easy to see racism in police brutality. Racism is also in the budget. We can’t just organize around symptoms. If the machine is producing unemployment, homelessness, inadequate health care, police brutality, and mis-education, we need to use leverage politics to change the system,” said Barron. “We can pick, choose, or be the next people in powerful positions.”
Labor activist Brenda Stokely spoke of her grandfather and grandmother, both of whom had to violently defend themselves against being lynched. Stan Kinnard referenced Robert Williamson’s book “Negroes with Guns” and Malcolm X’s “Ballot or Bullet” speech and recalled Mayor Koch applauding Bernard Goetz, who shot several Black youths on a NYC subway.
The rally raised more than $6,000 in cash and checks for the John White family and another $6,000 in pledges.
Flanked by his family, John White thanked 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, the Nation of Islam, CEMOTAP, and “all the people who came to our aid and support. I give all honor and glory to God.”

View From Here: The Freedom Party – Waking Giant

“Say it loud! I’m Black and I’m Proud!” When we entered the Siloam Presbyterian Church, whose 161 year-old history includes the congregation taking up a $25 collection for the visiting John Brown on his way to Harper’s Ferry, the beat of James Brown was reverberating from the large meeting room up the stairs and over the Sanctuary. There we were engulfed by the heat of over 250 pulsating souls charged with the electricity of the moment as an exhorter preacher-woman of activism stood in front and reminded the crowd, many with more gray in their hair than not, that the formation of a Black-led Freedom Party was a cause whose time has come. And being there among the standing-room only coming together of people, who like Fannie Lou Hamer, are “sick and tired of being sick and tired,” was to know that whether it was Montgomery, Alabama before the bus boycott or Selma before the great march, this is what the ground floor of a movement looks like. This is how it begins. Ain’t No Stoppin’ us Now!”
Viola Plummer told the assembly that the Freedom Party is about power and respect in the political process and organizing to achieve it. That was what brought this gathering behind the standard-bearer of the Freedom Party, former Black Panther and current City Councilman Charles Barron.
The petitioning process begins July 6, and this seasoned group is particularly well-suited to that task. The technology of the signature getting has not changed. It remains hand-to-hand-combat. And this first wave of activists bring their old-school patience and people-skills combined with, in some cases, decades of experience in navigating the infamously treacherous New York City petitioning review process. It will be hard work and long hours. In all likelihood, they will get their signatures and they will be good.
Nest will be the education of the masses and with conditions being what they are, the audience will be receptive to the message that a vote for Andrew Cuomo from the Black community is clearly a vote for Massa and there is no freedom in it. It demonstrates nothing except a willingness to be taken for granted. The Democratic Party has already anointed Cuomo governor, so that’s done as far as they’re concerned. The needs of the African-American community are simply of no interest to them. They are strange but not unusual in that way. Even June 29th’s New York Times Echoed Charles Barron’s complaint with the Democratic Party ticket, reporting on the amazing whiteness of Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s administration. “The city’s non-Hispanic white population is now 35%.But Mr. Bloomberg presides over an administration in which more than 70% of the senior jobs are held by whites.” This explains why we see Dennis Walcott, Deputy Mayor for Operations, at so many events representing the mayor. He’s the designated guy.
This political system makes decisions based on a white supremacist legacy, a sort of “Post-Traumatic White Supremacist Syndrome” where the centuries of indoctrination in the belief of white superiority, is difficult to shake.
An example of the difference this thinking makes in real-world actions was the Division of Economic and Financial Opportunity created by Mayor David Dinkins, which was bringing fairness to New York City contracting and was on the way to creating businesses and jobs in the African-American community but the Giuliani administration killed it. Now Governor David Paterson is having agencies unbundle their contracts to include minority and women suppliers, increasing that purchasing by tens of millions of dollars. To see that those kinds of initiatives are continued in the next administration, African-Americans have to demonstrate they have the power to take away massive numbers of votes and break the back of any candidate that does not get with the program.
This business of being disorganized while everywhere we look, other groups come together and march sharply up to the front of the line, has to come to an end.
The consciousness-raising, the fund-raising and the vote getting will need to harness the mass communication ability of the Web-savvy, PDA-equipped generation. All of the eighteen-year-olds who are ready to vote speak to each other by text and keep up with current events through their mobile devices. With their ability to communicate so quickly they are a sudden army, waiting to be roused. Waiting to plead their own cause as young African-American people.
What is needed is a coming together around the recognition of the unique history of African-Americans and a willingness to demand that history be addressed in policy changes. When the Freedom Party garners several hundred thousand votes, then we’ll see something new start to happen.

Magnolia Tree Earth Center’s Garden Party Fundraiser

Offers Surprises and 2010 Hattie Carthan Founders Day Awards to Ten Top New Yorkers SATURDAY, JUNE 26 at the VICTORIAN MANSION in Brooklyn

New York City prides itself on being ahead of the curve in the “green” movement.  But more than 40 years ago, the late visionary Hattie Carthan, Bedford Stuyvesant’s First Lady of the Environment saved one magnificent tree from Model City bulldozer’s, inspired several block associations to join in the planting of 1500 trees, and subsequently jumpstarted the neighborhood’s first “green” initiative.

Her Magnolia Tree Earth Center — three connecting brownstones on Lafayette Avenue across from Von King Park – still stand protecting the magnificent Magnolia grandiflora, from north winds. The Board of Directors there has formed a protective embrace around Mrs. Carthan’s legacy, and is working hard to bring it into the 21st century … as Mrs. Carthan would have wanted.  And you can join in the effort.

There’s still time to help the Board reach its goal for the summer.  Their annual Summer Solstice fundraiser – complete with lemonade, music, networking, remembrances, silent auction (including framed photograph of a window in environmentalist Harriet Tubman’s home donated by artist Olivia Cousins; a book of John James Audubon’s watercolors work donated by Bernice Elizabeth Green; Matthew Fraser’s popular Miracle Step health product, an officedesk water fountain crafted by Joanna Williams), and more — takes place this SATURDAY, JUNE 26, 4:00-8:00pm in the elegant Carthan-like setting of the historic Victorian Mansion, 247 Hancock Street, near Marcy Avenue in Brooklyn.  Tickets are $40.

In addition, ten of New York’s most distinguished community leaders who exemplify Mrs. Carthan’s ideals of excellence, leadership, and proactive vision, will be awarded The Hattie Carthan Founder’s Day Award, the highest honor of the Board of Directors of the Magnolia Tree Earth Center of Bedford-Stuyvesant.  Awards ceremony commences at 5:45pm. 

The honorees include: Kristina Beecher, principal of The Bedford Village School/P.S. 3; Carlton Brown and Walter Edwards, COO and CEO, respectively, of Full Spectrum New York green construction firm; Pamela E. Green, Executive Director of the Weeksville Heritage Center; Sydney Katz, founder of Super Foodtown; Liam Kavanaugh, First Deputy Commissioner of New York City Department of Parks and Recreation; David McMaster, Vice President, Bartlett Tree Expert Company; Akiima Price, Chief of Education, New York Restoration Project; Dr. Vicente Sanchez, USDA Forest Service; and Antonia Yuille Williams, Director of Public Affairs, Con Edison.
This award is bestowed annually to individuals, organizations or enterprises that best exemplify the standards and vision of the late great environmentalist Hattie Carthan whose visionary work more than 40 years ago – in developing a neighborhood ecology and environment center for children – continues to inspire young people today.  Her accomplishments – ahead of their time – also have contributed directly to Bedford-Stuyvesant’s active participation in New York City’s movement towards sustainability.
Says Board Chair David Mark Greaves, “These leaders, through their work and commitment to building a sustainable future for the City’s under-resourced neighborhoods where Mrs. Carthan lived and worked, are deserving of this honor.  We’re proud they are part of our family and we’re proud of them.
“Also, this year, the Board is proud to announce two milestones: the 40th anniversary of the designation of the Lafayette Avenue environmental center’s 19th century magnolia grandiflora as a New York City historic landmark (New York’s only living landmark), and the debut in the fall of a perfume developed by Rodney Fitzgerald Hughes from the essence of the tree’s flower petals.  The perfume, now in its 12th month of an 18-month process, will be ‘tested’ by Hattie’s Angels, Alma Carroll, Elsie Richardson and Vernell Albury, three stalwart pioneers in Bedford Stuyvesant history.  And as a salute to Mrs. Carthan’s emphasis on children first, there will be music and oratorical performances by young people associated with the Center through Project Green and other programs.”
This annual summer solstice event kicks off Magnolia Tree Earth Center’s seasonal fundraisers; one is scheduled for early fall, when the much-anticipated, high-end Magnolia Grandiflora perfume will debut and in the early winter, when a possible Harvest/Winter Ball will take place.
This season’s event is being catered by Simply Elegant and will feature the R&B sounds of the popular U4RIA group.  For more information, call Andrea Brathwaite: 718-387-2116.  Tickets are $40.  For press interviews, call Bernice Green, 718-599-6828.

Baba Chuck Davis Proudly Walks … and Dances … in the Footsteps of The Ancestors

Chuck Davis, the architect of  DanceAfrica – the largest cultural event in this nation devoted to the African dance experience and traditions, is very clear on his role: he is not the creator nor is he the founder.

 ”DanceAfrica is a direct result of what is happening in the community and what has evolved over centuries, and of all the beauty of tradition and history – everything – in all of the cultures spread across the vast African continent,” he told us in a phone interview weeks ago from his North Carolina home.

“We have a world of knowledge explored and unexplored,” he said. “My role is to make people aware of the existence of those traditions as we destroy negative images of people of African descent that have been thrown out there for such a long time. Traditions born in Africa are spread throughout the world and  touch every aspect of culture and dance in the universe, so  we must pay homage to it. That is my role. I walk in the footsteps of the ancestors who lead me in the right directions.”

And he also is forging a path of his own.  He has carried DanceAfrica from its Brooklyn start 33 years ago to several other cities in the nation.  And he has embraced more than 100 dance companies, groups and ensembles that have performed in Brooklyn annually since February of 1977. 

Baba Chuck is tirelessly passionate “about just how fantastic we are as a people and their contributions to not only dance, but fashion, music, culture, the arts and more.”
All of modern dance and every modern dancer are in debt to Africa, he says.  “Not only is it important to recognize that, it is imperative that we preserve the knowledge and the facts.  DanceAfrica takes pride in who we are and where we come from and in preserving the traditions.
 ”Are you aware that in some areas of Africa there are no drums; there is handclapping, blowing on twigs.  A leaf can be made to sound like a Jewish harp.”

“Our dress is not costume; it is depiction,” he says. “Through the fabrics we wear, our heritage is recognized.  Our attire is handed down from generation to generation. There are even lessons in which ethnic group of Africa fostered which style.”
“With regards to rhythm, we all are endowed with it: One may skip.  One may slide.  One may jump yet, we always return to the earth.”

The skipping, sliding and jumping led to one of the world’s most celebrated dance forms at one of the world’s most celebrated places. We asked Baba Chuck about it.

“Ahhh Swing. Harlem. The Savoy.  Yeaahhh,” he mused about the era that was in the fullness of its life when he was about 12.  “I’m about 7,000 years old now. So I was there. I had at least two generations of lives that hit the Savoy ballroom. I was there with Frankie Manning and Mama Norma Miller, and all the dancers who hit that one special jitterbug corner.  I relate to that place. There was a time when I was there. There was a time when all of us were there.
“You can see those movements and that swing today wherever people are moved to move their bodies.”

Another honor we can give to Africa is the birth of the break-dance, he says.  “The whole style of it came from the nomads of West Africa who made acrobatic dancing a part of their entire culture. Ballet Africaine sojourned through there.  The whip stop, whip-and-turn and all the other movements formed the groundwork.  Children, there, do those dances before they walk, talk or hum.

“Now, you know, our young people don’t wait; they take a move and go with it.
 ”We constantly remind them that what such artists as MC Hammer, Usher and others are doing is from Africa. My only thing against some of today’s young artists is they never give Africa credit or remind their followers that their style is from Africa.”

Yet, DanceAfrica, the week-long master of master classes for global dance, will continue to give credit where it is due.  Every May over the past 3 decades, the event has merged areas of Brooklyn into a total dance village with a marketplace for local and regional entrepreneurs; free schools of dance instruction for the community; and entertainment, including cinema fest of African films for all ages. 

As mentioned, DanceAfrica is alive and well in Washington, D.C. and Chicago and other cities during different parts of the year. We estimate the annual week-long treat has resulted in billions of impressions.  “Audiences are increasing, and it is gaining recognition, more and more people understand its educational value.

“It can only move forward.  It’s like a tide, gathering more and more and more.    We can not just put Africans in one little tiny space and say, ‘Now you exist.’  No, Africa is all encompassing. Everything born there is all-encompassing.  It also is being recognized that that everyone on the continent of Africa isn’t black.”

“I’ve learned from every source I’ve come in contact with.  Everything I know has had an impact.
And Davis, in turn, is having an impact. Two years ago, he expanded DanceAfrica to reach out and touch Weeksville Heritage Center in the Ocean Hill section where a 19th century longshoreman created New York State’s … and possibly the nation’s …first self-sustaining  African American village. Davis coaxes prodigies … from individuals to  cultural organizations – to come out of the shadows.  And join his dance.

Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corp. along with Weeksville and other venues is now part of DanceAfrica, so the DanceAfrica village extends several miles.
 DanceAfrica “exists to celebrate the community’s African identity.  Weddings, christenings, and other ceremonies have taken place during DanceAfrica.”  As well as a huge celebration of the ancestors and elders preceding the opening of Brooklyn Academy of Music performances.
“We must carry forward the special knowledge the ancestors gave to us – immerse ourselves in it – in order to understand our greatness.

Baba Davis’ role is to show and to let people all over the world know.
This Memorial Day weekend,  DanceAfrica swings  inside and outside of the Brooklyn Academy of Music as it does every year.

The theme is African Rhythms / American Echoes.  Performing companies include:  Pamodzi Dance Troupe (Zambia), Dallas Black Dance Theatre (Dallas) Illstyle & Peace Productions (Philadelphia) and BAM/Restoration DanceAfrica Ensemble.   (Bernice Elizabeth Green)
For schedule and more information, visit www.bam.org/

Wikipedia Background:
In the 1960′s, Chuck Davis moved to New York to perform with musician Michael Babatunde. When he arrived, Alvin Ailey, Talley Beatty and Donald McKayle were with the New Dance Group at the Harlem Cultural Center, and they appeared in productions at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Davis also studied Katherine Dunham technique and jazz with Syvilla Fort. In 1967 Davis formed the Chuck Davis Dance Company at the South Bronx Community Action Theatre, later moved to Bronx Community College.

In February 1977, the Chuck Davis Dance Company performed in a constructed African village in the BAM Lepercq Space. The following Spring, DanceAfrica debuted with a day-long African bazaar.  Arthur Hall, Charles Moore, Chuck Davis, Dinizulu, and the International Afrikan American Ballet participated in the festival, which offered five performances in the BAM Playhouse and culminated with all five companies-approximately 70 performers-on the Opera House stage. DanceAfrica is BAM’s longest running performance series-and has become a Memorial Day weekend tradition in Brooklyn.

In the 1980s Chuck Davis added master classes in African movement and music. DanceAfrica 1993 opened with a motorcade procession from Harlem to the steps of BAM. Fifty-two members of the Imperial Bikers Motorcycle Club, each carrying the flag of an African country, were joined by the Council of Elders, artists, and dignitaries for a libation pouring ceremony that included a gigantic carrot cake baked in the shape of Africa. The 20th Anniversary Celebration in 1997 debuted the BAM/Restoration DanceAfrica Ensemble, a collaboration between BAM and the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation’s Youth Arts Academy that has become an annual crowd favorite.

In 2007, DanceAfrica celebrated its 30th festival with 30 Years of DanceAfrica: Remember! Honor! Respect! An African Dance Odyssey, and marks another milestone-its founder Baba Chuck Davis’ 70th birthday.

DanceAfrica has showcased troupes based both in Africa and the African Diaspora including many from New York. Companies have ranged in style from indigenous African to urban American hip-hop. DanceAfrica has shown that “traditional” African dance is not fixed in time and remains tremendously inclusive and diverse, and that even the most cutting-edge choreography can contain African influences. DanceAfrica embodies tradition, but also a spirit of change and growth reaching back into the past and forward into the future, embracing the links between cultures across the African Diaspora, always bearing the message, “Peace, love, and respect for everybody!”

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