Helene Nomsa Brath, former Grandassa Model and esteemed community activist, will be honored with Harlem Street Naming, Sept 28.

The late Helene Nomsa Brath, a former Grandassa Model who made a great impact on her Harlem community with her legacy of activism and commitment to community empowerment and family, will be honored September 28, 2024, with the installation of a sign bearing her name outside her former Harlem residence.

The public naming was proposed to Harlem’s District 9 Councilman Yusef Salaam by Nomsa’s Cinque Brath– one of six biological sons plus a daughter and a nice parented with her husband, the esteemed late scholar Elombe Brath. Cinque The September suggested the salute shortly after his mother’s passing on October 30th, 2023.
Nana Brath memorial was specifically significant to Salaam, too.

Nana Brath was responsible for the formation of “Mother’s Love” — a group of women organized to address wrongfully accused Black male youth in New York City. Salaam was one of the Exonerated Central Park Five. Brath faithfully advocated for the rights of the five young men, accused of a brutal rape and beating inside the NYC landmark.

The accolades accredited to Helene Nomsa Brath are extensive. They include, in addition to her role as a member of the famed original Grandassa Models, an ensemble created by African Jazz and Arts Society and Studios (AJASS) founded by scholar Elombe and his brother, Kwame Brathwaite, the photographer, in 1956.

The Models are credited as the first women’s collective to don African attire and wear natural hair as a political and fashion statement. Nomsa Brath along with her grand sisters toured the nation promoting the AJASS’ Black is Beautiful theme and “natural hair” movement — which played a key role in the transformation of the Black community nationally, raising awareness of self-esteem through artistic expression.

Nomsa also worked hard in her community as an activist member of several educational committees and organizations, while homeschooling her last two children. She served as PTA president and Parents Committee chair in Harlem public schools and, in 1997, represented parents on a panel for Education Reform on C-SPAN as part of special coverage on U.S. Education of Urban Residents. She was a spokesperson for the New York Urban League’s Partners for Reform in Math and Science.

Nomsa led early efforts to abate asbestos in the schools her children attended. When she learned education officials ignored scientific studies indicating that 20% of NYC schools had detectable levels of asbestos, she organized protest rallies, spearheaded letter-writing campaigns, and eventually worked with the Schools Superintendent – to protect the children’s health. As a result, federal guidelines, and regulations on asbestos testing and detection were revised and expanded nationally.

On September 28, 2024, she becomes recognized as an important player in the history of all of both New York City by way of the street naming in her honor: Helene Nomsa Brath Way at 112th Street & Adam Clayton Powell Blvd./ 7th Ave.

@Dr.Wright24, author of Booker T. Washington & Africa: The Making of a Pan Africanist, is a scholar/activist. For more information, visit WWW.ELOMBEBRATHFOUNDATION.ORG