Celebrating Marcus Garvey in Bed-Stuy

By Jeffery Kazembe Batts
Saturday, August 17th was the birthday of Jamaican born, pan-African leader, the Honorable Marcus Garvey. Celebrations of his life and legacy were held worldwide including in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. In the late morning drummers and dancers from the African cultural institution Cumbe commenced the first Marcus Garvey Day festivities at the Brooklyn Peace Center.

Cumbe led community residents up the outside staircase and into the Main room filled with vendors selling clothing, food, jewelry and cosmetics. Attendees joined Cumbe artists up front dancing as everyone was uplifted by the opening cultural performance. As the Inaugural speaker, I spoke giving a brief history of the role I played along with Sony Carson and the Committee to Honor Black Heroes in urging the city council to change Sumner Ave to Marcus Garvey Blvd after Malcolm X Blvd, located three blocks away, had previously been changed from Reid Ave.

Kazembe also described his personal journey that took him from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. via the “Eyes on the Prize” documentary to studying about the life of Malcolm X and learning that Malcolm’s father was a leader in Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association.

The day-long event included an Ethiopian coffee ceremony and a documentary by artist Parris Jaru on his visit to Shashemene, Ethiopia. In the afternoon, professor of Africana studies at Seton Hall Nkosi DuBois Anderson, who was the master of ceremonies for the day, moderated a panel discussion which included Africanist Rev. Melake Tsion Kess Mahitama and Executive Director Jason D. Williamson of NYU’s Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law.

Dub roots artist Addis Pablo and friends closed the celebration with more cultural music, similar to how the day began. Jason Storbakken and the Peace Center team kept Black empowerment front and center with a comprehensive, day-long tribute, that took place across from Woodhull Hospital near the beginning of the only street in the United States named after Marcus Garvey!

Further down Marcus Garvey Blvd at Loudmouth celebrating for upliftment continued. Inspiring Minds NYC hosted a youth entrepreneurship networking and showcasing event. The UNIA encouraged business development so the celebration of youth finishing their 6-week pilot programs on his birthday was most appropriate. Youth and young adults were outside on the street, inside the well-stocked hip-hop cultural store and outside in the backyard event space where upcoming rappers and spoken word artists performed backed by DJ Jahmedicine.

Compliments of Sam Morris and Loudmouth early arrivers received vinyl recordings of Master Ace, Erykah Badu or Kendrick Lamar. Last week, on August 10th, Loudmouth hosted both the grand marshal ceremony and the after-parade party for the Universal Hip-Hop Parade which is a mashup that honors both the legacy of Marcus Garvey and the elements of Hip-Hop culture.

NYPD and a small minority of residents have caused a famous Bed-Stuy gathering to be cancelled. Not to be denied the beloved TAMA Fest seemed to find a home again on Hancock St. between Tompkins and Marcy Ave on Marcus Garvey’s birthday. Over the last few years, until recently, Tompkins Ave, between Gates Ave and Halsey St., showcased Black creativity with art, food, music and vendors. In a most uplifting way, on August 17th culture and energy were consolidated onto Hancock St.

Walking thru the block and seeing neighbors sitting on the stoops while interacting with each other – OUTSIDE – had many thinking of the famous Garvey saying: “Up you mighty race, you can accomplish what you will!”

Not far away at the Restoration Plaza, in front of Moshood, many Red, Black and Green flags representing Black unity and liberation blew in the wind. The December 12th Movement was once again educating the community by hosting a “Marcus Garvey Celebration: Reparations and Pan-Africanism” community empowerment event.

Surrounded by D12 members in their traditional Malcolm X uniformed attire, scores of activists & passers-by listened to detailed presentations by veterans of the movement for Black power as well as by younger leaders who all shared detailed information about the current situation in Darfur, and the budding confederation of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Bringing the purpose back to the USA, reparations as a right and the need to fight for reparations was forcefully expressed by both elected officials and D12 leaders such as Roger Wareham and Chairman Omowali Clay.

The spirit and purpose of Marcus Garvey was manifested all over Bed-Stuy on his birthday. Yes, since 1990 this historic and proud Bed-Stuy neighborhood has been gentrified and has lost much of its traditional Black population. Nonetheless D12, Garveyites and others understanding Garvey’s purpose and vision say “we still here and we not going anywhere.”
@kazbatts