A Salute to Good Fathers and Other Men of Honor and Change

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 the Westchester County NAACP-Act So Award for Distinguished Community Service. He is the featured interview subject in several high-profile magazines, including the 2025 Harlem Fine Arts Show’s Spectrum, and, currently, as a feature story subject in the high-profile Westchester Magazine. Danny Simmons described Barry as the Basquiat of our times. His work hangs in collections throughout the nation.(Photo Credit: Bernice Elizabeth Green)
barrymasonart.com

Stars Shine Bright on Fulton St. in Bedford-Stuyvesant: Boys & Girls H.S. teacher wins Tony for Excellence in Theatre Education
Gary Edwin Robinson, head of the Theatre Arts Program at Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn, received the Excellence in Theatre Education Award at the Tonys on Sunday, June 8.
Robinson made history as the first New York teacher to be awarded the honor at the 78th annual event, presented jointly with Carnegie Mellon University.
“I’m getting an award for going to work and enjoying what I do. I love it,” Mr. Robinson told the media.
The Baltimore, Md. native credits his dance instructor, Miss Jackson, with igniting his interest in theatre. He started tap dancing at age eight and quickly fell in love with theatre. Robinson went on to study music at Intermediate School 59 and Andrew Jackson High School in Queens before joining the Dance Theatre of Harlem chorus.
While studying with dance great Arthur Mitchell in Harlem, Robinson decided to pursue vocalist/theatre performance and later went on to study theatre education at Howard University.
“I am charged with the fact that I’m teaching theatre, and I love theatre. That’s what gets me ticking, tocking, that’s the love,” Robinson told Carnegie Mellon University.
According to Yahoo.com, Robinson previously received an honorable mention at the 2025 Tony Awards and an honorable mention in the education category in 2023.
The Excellence in Theatre Education Award honors one educator in the United States every year who demonstrates exceptional commitment, innovation, and impact on students’ lives through theatre education.
And that is what he does every day for his students. Congratulations, Mr. Jackson, from Our Time Press.

Work in progress: Artist Joe Grant is bringing the fading mural of the late urban ecologist Hattie Carthan to life.
Grant told Our Time Press yesterday afternoon that the completion date is June 21st, just concurrent with the blooming of the Magnolia Grandiflora Carthan and the Bed-Stuy community saved in the 70s, and the Board’s fundraiser. (Credit: Bernice Elizabeth Green)