By Enoch Naklen
Pojanee “P.J.” Fleury, remembered across creative, entrepreneurial, and community circles for her generosity, invention, and collaborative spirit, died on Thanksgiving Day in a house fire in Orange, New Jersey, along with her sister, Frantzia Fleury. Authorities said the two sisters lost their...
The Vulcan Society Inc held its 2025 Annual Memorial Service in honor of departed members, on Sunday at St. Philips Episcopal Church on Macdonough Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The Rev. Dr. V. Simpson Turner delivered the stirring invocation and sermon -- with special messages in...
Artist & Urban Griot Makes the Connections That Matter …in Life and On Canvas - Mere Exhibition at African Voices Gallery Extended thru November 21
by Bernice Elizabeth Green
In July 2025, Carolyn Butts, founder and CEO of both African Voices magazine and Reel Sisters, hosted...
.. working with neighbors, she saved a house; working with people in the community, she inspired a love for words.
Next year marks the 20th anniversary of the appearance of Aminisha Black's Parent's Notebook in Our Time Press. The esteemed late writer-educator's column was hugely...
Our Time At Home
Congratulations to fine artist and professional photographer Barry L. Mason, a staff member of Our Time Press, Chief Photographer for Legacy Ventures publications since 2006, and a friend of more than three decades. Barry has received multiple honors this year, including...
by NZINGHAJune is the month where we celebrate Father's Day. It’s the day we honor men who embody the task of not only siring children but also serving as an example of responsible manhood by the character and integrity that they possess. They are...
Baba Obediah Wright, founder and director of Brooklyn’s Balance Dance Theatre, is beloved in Brooklyn. A renown, choreographer, director and educator, Wright marvelously weaves dance, spirituality, education and Black culture to create uplifting edutainment. This month, he’s returning to the Central Brooklyn Juneteenth Arts...
“Mothers are the peace on Earth that make the world go round. The love they give is always of hope and blessings so good and pure.”--- from The Spirit of a Woman by E. Ballard-Balewa (aka Ameiye— Original Grandassa Model, 1967)
Ndola Brathwaite Carlest (Grandassa...
Flower Bed-Stuy 2025
This spring, Bridge Street Development Corporation and The Bed-Stuy Works Alliance of Block and Resident Associations are proud to present the 15th Anniversary of Flower Bed-Stuy, a beloved community beautification and engagement initiative that continues to blossom year after year.
On Saturday, May...
By Bernice Elizabeth GreenMany thousands of trees grow in Brooklyn, and the most famous of them all is rooted in Bedford Stuyvesant on Lafayette Avenue in front of a three-building complex, The Magnolia Tree Earth Center of Beford Stuyvesant.
In addition to its status as...
-Bernice Elizabeth Green
In late winter 1998, artist-photographer Barry L. Mason, his daughter, Da'Nelle Mason and I attended an Underground Railroad tour event hosted by LaFern Joseph in Peekskill, NY. Joseph, proprietor of The Fern Tree gift shop in the city introduced us to historian-writer...
In this photograph taken by Melissa Sutphen in November 1976, these three school-age girls, now possibly 60 years old, are studying a Magnolia seedling as intently as 10-year-olds today peer at cellphone screens.
Nearly 3 decades after Sutphen took this shot, Our Time Press...
On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Tompkins Park Senior Center’s Writing Class in Bedford-Stuyvesant, group members, sent reflections on the passing of sister-scribe Salina Coleman.The group was formed in 2015, according to the mission statement written by Selma Jackson (President of...
By Bernice Elizabeth GreenAbigail Rosen McGrath, founder and director of the historic Renaissance House for Artists & Writers on Martha’s Vineyard and direct heir to the Harlem Renaissance, passed on December 20 at 84.
McGrath: writer, artist, producer, actress, entrepreneur, mother, filmmaker, former street performer,...
On November 13, 2024, Ms. Salina Coleman, a former resident of Cornerstone Nursing Facility for Seniors, passed at 50 as a result of complications related to Lupus, a condition she experienced for more than 25 years. The former educator and athlete, spent most of...
Vice President Kamala Harris’ positive messages this month encouraging the next generation of leaders to “stay in the fight” echoed Kwanzaa founder Maulana Karenga’s end-of-year reflections: “We are, each and all of us, always standing at the crossroads of history with our foremother Nana...
ABG Memorial Foundation Finalized a Philanthropic Partnership Agreementwith the U.S. National Park Service and the U.S. Interior Department
New York City Trailblazers, Historians and Stewards of a Legacy: The African Burial Ground Memorial Foundation (ABGMF), represented here by Architect Rodney Leon (fourth from left), Co-Founder...
By Bernice Elizabeth Green
Last Tuesday’s celebration of the birthday of Dr. Adelaide Luvenia Sanford (born November 27, 1925), an American leader, orator and national advocate for African-centered education for students of African descent, was more than a party. It was an experience.
Held at Brooklyn’s...
