With profound sorrow Our Time Press newspaper announces the tragic deaths of our podcast producer and contributing editorial content writer Pojanee Fleury, 42, and her sister, Marine Corps veteran and x-ray technician Frantzia Fleury, 47, on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 27, in a fire at their family home in Orange, N.J.
According to news reports, the Fleury women were killed after guiding their children to safety from the burning house, then reentering to rescue their wheelchair-bound father who suffers from dementia. Firefighters were able to save Mr. Fleury.
“P.J.”, wife, mother, and well on her way to building her own media company, produced Our Time Press’ Thursday “Sports with Eddie Castro” podcast, and oversaw production on podcasts for other independents.
Her Our Time Press credits also included exemplary work on publisher David Greaves’ “2025 Summer Block Party” series for which she multi-tasked as lead field reporter, writer and photographer. Those weekly summer stories brought Our Time Press closer to Central Brooklyn’s on-the-ground, long-time resident stakeholders, as a precursor to this fall’s Bed-Stuy Villager series launched on Thanksgiving Day.
As a tribute to P.J.’s work on assignment, DBG Media has grouped her stories in a special section of the www.ourtimepress.com website for all to enjoy and reflect, through the end of the year.
Dr. Kim Best, the Central Brooklyn-based internationally known faith leader and youth mentor, knew PJ as a humbled, talented woman who loved her community. “I recall she was into wellness and health. I got to know her during her support of the community’s National Night Out initiative during the past three years.”
Dr. Best reveals that she was instrumental in bringing PJ to the attention of Julie’s Management media chief Dewey Dockery, thus setting the ball rolling for P.J.’s introduction to Our Time Press for production work on the weekly “Sports with Eddie Castro” Mr. Castro commented, “I’ve had the pleasure of working side-by-side with PJ for the past 5 months after Our Time Press presented me with the opportunity to bring a dream project to life as host-anchor of my own podcast.
PJ was kind, informative and very supportive of me and my visions for the show. She would give me feedback every week, post-show, which made me want to step my game up every time in the best way I could. She was what you call in baseball, a ‘five-tool player’.
“There was simply nothing PJ couldn’t conquer. I’m forever grateful for the time and dedication she put forth towards the show, and the belief she had in me.
“It will be a very weird feeling stepping into the studio without her this week, but the best thing I can do is pay tribute to her the only way I know how to. I miss her dearly and I extend my prayers to the family’s loss of two exceptional women.”
“PJ had an entrepreneur’s spirit and boundless optimism,” said Greaves, CEO, DBG Media, and co-founder with Bernice Elizabeth Green, Legacy Ventures, of the local publication. Greaves noted that “In addition to her technical, producing, and writing abilities, she was ‘Such a nice lady,’ as remembered by staff member Lauren LeBrun. As Our Time Press approaches its 30th anniversary, I am watching out for potential ‘heirs’ who can carry the Our Time Press legacy forward. PJ was in sight.”
When Greaves gave PJ the baton with a simple directive, “Get the Block Party stories,” she took a team into the field to find real people in real places parallelling the OTP co-founders’ strategies of 30 years earlier with the birth of this newspaper in 1996 and, what some 30 years prior in the 1960’s, Bed-Stuy’s Roxie Roker and Emmy Award-winning producer Charles Hobson, first accomplished with their ground-breaking ‘Inside Bed-Stuy’ local news series: She told the story of Bedford-Stuyvesant from the grassroots perspective. Because of her diligence there is an unfiltered historical print and, in some cases, video record of sections of Bed-Stuy in 2025 with people talking about how they live and what concerns them.
Our Time Press will pay special homage to P.J. tonight on “Sports with Eddie Castro” at 5-6 pm. Readers and viewers are invited to reflect on PJ’s legacy via editors@ourtimepress.com. Or tune in tonight at ourtimepress.com and call 917-319-5481
Details on services, memorials and tributes to Pojanee and Frantzia, unavailable now, will be announced as we receive them. Check ourtimepress.com for updates.
The Our Time Press family extends our deepest condolences to her husband Joshua, and the Fleury family, friends and neighbors.
— Bernice@ourtimepress.com