A stalwart in the Bed-Stuy community for over 50 years, Joseph Foster, 84, has seen the neighborhood change many times throughout the years for both good and bad, but still to this day he remains a figurehead among the neighborhood’s small business community.
Owner and operator of The New Bed-Stuy Animal Spa, located at 413 Tompkins Ave., Foster has what Kenneth Mbonu, Director of Economic Development at the Bridge Street Development Corporation, calls it “one of the most stable businesses in the Tompkins Ave. commercial district.”
The New Bed-Stuy Animal Spa offers mainly dog and cat grooming services as well as pet accessories. They specialize in washing, trimming, styling and even nail painting. They also have animal pickup and drop-off services.
The family-owned and operated business — Foster’s two sons and wife all work there — has been offering pet grooming services for over 12 years and remains one of the few grooming businesses in the neighborhood.
Before starting The New Bed-Stuy Animal Spa, Foster’s first venture was a dry cleaning business, Foster’s Dry Cleaners, on Ralph Ave., which he operated for about 50 years. Eventually, he became fed up with all the government bureaucracy that came with owning a dry cleaners and sold it.
“I was trying to get out of it because the government was trying to get in your pocket too much for all the dry cleaning rules and regulations,” said Foster
After leaving, he started the Bed-Stuy Animal Spa in 1998, operating out of the back of a sports clothing store. Eventually, the New York State Board of Health told him that where he was operating was not allowed, so he packed up and moved into his current location.
“I’ve always had a love for animals,” said Foster about starting a pet grooming business.
In 2000, Foster decided to retire and leased the business to promote and consult young entrepreneurs with similar interests. After his brief retirement, Foster returned to form ‘The New Bed-Stuy Animal Spa in 2009, just as the lease was about to expire. It was during this time that Foster was approached by Mbonu with how the Bridge Street Development Corporation could help his business. The BSDC helped Foster receive a new front gate, introduced him to an accountant, and even helped to enroll his business in the New York Main Street Program, which is a program that targets small businesses and communities throughout the state. The Main Street program helps businesses by providing funding and grants from the New York State Housing Trust Fund Corporation to local branches of government, business improvement districts and other not-for-profit organizations like Bridge Street Development Corporation.
BSDC also aided Foster with receiving a state-backed loan that covers at least half of any repair or renovation costs to small businesses.
Foster has said that since his partnership with the BSDC he has seen an improvement in his business, and is currently working with BSDC on another business venture, which Mbonu calls “a really incredible and excellent idea”, but remained silent on its details out of fear that someone might copy it before it comes to fruition. Mbonu thinks of Foster as a mentor and role model for other local small business owners
Foster’s two sons, Carlton and Adrian Brown, admit that they both love working with their father, and feel a sense of pride in keeping the business alive and engaged with the community.
“I’ve been doing this for about 8 years now and I have the scars to prove it,” said Adrian, the Chief Groomer.
Both are also actively involved in the community and help maintain the partnership with BSDC.
Aside from pet grooming, The New Bed-Stuy Animal Spa also offers an educational program, where they travel to local schools and speak to the kids about animal care. They also have a program in which schools sometime send students to the spa who are interested in learning more about animals and animal care.
For more information about The New Bed-Stuy Animal Spa, you can log on to their Web site at www.newbedstuyanimalspa.com, and for more information about BSDC you can log on to their Web site at http://www.bsdcorp.org.
Animal Spa in Heart of Bed-Stuy
Calendar March 15, 2012
Anniversaries
Sunday, March 18
4:00p- The Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive to African People (CEMOTAP) Celebrates 25 Years. Black Spectrum Theater/177th St. & Baisley Blvd. 718-322-8454.Free Admission.
Arts
Friday, March 16
8:00pm & 10pm (two shows): CYNTHIA HOLIDAY QUINTET in concert at Jazz966 for Women’s Herstory Month. 966 Fulton Street (bet. Grand and St. James Pl.) 718.638.6910. sam_pinn@yahoo.com. www.jazz966.com
Theater talks at the Schomburg: Amanda Seales with Elon James White
7:00pm-9:00pm: Amanda Seales, a self-described “Renaissance Woman,” whose work spans art, music, and pop culture criticism, launches The Schomburg’s Theater Talks, a new series of conversations with those who bring the theater experience to life. Culture critic Elon James White will speak with Seales about her new one-woman show, Death of THE Diva, which takes a unique, approach to the portrayal of women in pop culture. FREE! To register, call (212) 491-2040.
BLACK WOMEN’S ARMY CORPS. Opening night for Court-Martial at Fort Devens by Jeffrey Sweet at the Castillo Theatre (543 West 42nd Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues), 7:30p. Performances run through April 1. Based on a true story, drama presented by Woodie King, Jr.’s New Federal Theatre, documents the strike of black WACs (Women’s Army Corps) stationed in Massachusetts during World War II. The women joined the Army to be trained as nurses, only to be relegated to cleaning toilets, mopping floors and doing laundry. When they are court-martialed for refusing to follow orders during wartime, they fight a pioneering battle for racial equality in the segregated U.S. military. The WAC’s court struggle was covered extensively in the African-American newspapers during the 1940’s. Mary Beth Easley directs a cast that features Alia Shakira Chapman, Evander Duck, Gillian Glasco, Nambi E. Kelley, Frank Mayers, Emma O’Donnell, Bill Tatum, Keona Welch, and Eboni Witcher.
www.castillo.org/current-season
Monday, March 19
SCHOLARSHIP OPPTY!!!Attention: Students Graduating from High School this year. The New York Metropolitan Area Chapter of the American Association of Blacks in Energy (AABE) has extended the deadline to today for scholarship applications. Visit www.aabe.org
7:00pm- Broadway’s A Streetcar Named Desire: A Conversation with the Cast and Artistic Team, presented by The Greene Space. Brian McKnight will host conversation with: two-time Golden Globe nominee Blair Underwood, in his Broadway debut as Stanley, Daphne Rubin-Vega (Rent) as Stella, Wood Harris (“The Wire”) as Mitch, Director Emily Mann (Artistic Director of Princeton’s esteemed McCarter Theatre) and the play’s executive producers Stephen Byrd and Alia Jones of Front Row Productions. Venue: The Greene Space, 44 Charlton St. (nr. Varick) in Manhattan. Tickets: $15. 866-811-4111
7:00pm-9:00pm: Women’s Jazz Festival: Celebrate Great Women of Jazz and Blues at the Schomburg. A Gathering of some of New York’s Best come together to give praise to those who lead the way. Featuring: Tamar Kali, vocalist; Christelle Durandy, vocalist; Imani Uzuri, vocalist; Josette Newsam Marchak, vocalist; Karma Mayet Johnson, vocalist; Mayra Casales, percussionist; Liza Jessie Peterson, poet, author and peformer; Michelle Dorrance, dancer; and Allison Miller, drums and band leader. $20 Members; $25 Non-Members – For ticket charge, call 1-888-718-4253 or 212-491-2206; visit ShowClix.com.
Friday, March 23 – April 15
Opening: 8:oopm: Journalist/Playwright Betty Dopson’s SHARED SECRETS of ELDER SISTERS, a play about the gripping confessions of seven sisters born in the early 1900’s who fought battles against racism, disrespect, sexism and poverty and won because of the choices they made. Stars: Dr. Adelaide Sanford; Nana Camille Yarbrough; Nana Betty Dopson. Runs on weekends: Fridays and Saturday eves, 8:00pm and Sunday matinees, 4:00pm. Black Spectrum Theater, 177th St. & Baisley Blvd. (Inside Roy Wilkins Park) Jamaica, NY. Tickets, Info: 718-723-1800
Monday, March 26
7:00pm-9:00pm: Celebrate Bernice Johnson Reagon Songbook at the Schomburg’s annual Women’s Jazz Festival. Tonight, $20 Members; $25 Non-Members – For ticket charge, call 1-888-718-4253 or 212-491-2206; visit ShowClix.com.
Wednesday, March 28:7:30pm: Premiere of Nia Productions’ “Marry Me!,” a romantic comedy written by Kuba and featuring Regine Mont-Louis, Larry Greenbush, Liz Peterson, Gary Lawson and Flor Bromley, tells the story of a young attractive female Haitian immigrant who is having an affair with a married older man, and then she is about to be deported. Nia theme line: Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who wants to live in an institution? Roy Arias Theatre, 300 W. 43 St., NYC, nr. 8th. Runs through Sunday, April 8. L. Earl Ford is the director. Evria Dechane Atwell, the assistant director. Tickets: $30. Students and seniors, $20, all shows. Special group discounts. Information, reservations: 718-346-6591.
Thursday, March 29-Sunday, April 1:
The Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College (CUNY) will host the Eleventh National Black Writers Conference (NBWC) on the college campus at 1650 Bedford Ave., Brooklyn. Centered around the theme “The Impact of Migration, Popular Culture, and the Natural Environment in the Literature of Black Writers,” the 2012 Conference will honor literary and cultural icons Kenyan-born writer Ngig) wa Thiong’o; poet, novelist, essayist, publisher Ishmael Reed; poet Nikki Giovanni; and scholar Dr. Howard Dodson, the new Director of the Howard University Libraries and its Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. Hailed by best-selling author Walter Mosley as the most significant gathering of Black writers in the country,” the NBWC is the only gathering of its kind in North America. “Black writers and artists are natural cultural explorers and investigators,” said Dr. Brenda M. Greene, Director of the National Black Writers Conference and Executive Director of the Center for Black Literature. Dr. Myrlie Evers-Williams, Honorary Chair of the Conference, reminds us that “Perhaps one of the most powerful things that we have as human beings is not only the spoken word, but the written word that lasts forever.”
This year’s conference highlights: a poetry presentation by South African Poet Laureate Keorapetse Kgositsile; a conversation with author and broadcaster Tavis Smiley; and a roundtable discussion and critical response to Manning Marable’s Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention with Haki Madhubuti, Herb Boyd, Ron Daniels, and Michael Simanga. Also, one day will be devoted to film screenings by Black filmmakers. For information, details: call 718-804-8883 or visit the Conference Web site at www.nationalblackwritersconference.org.
Friday, March 30
PHENOMENAL WOMEN in ENTERTAINMENT Awards and Brunch at Von King Park Cultural Arts Center, 670 Lafayette Ave. Marjorie Moon, Executive/Producer, Billie Holiday Theatre; Ellen Holly, first African-American daytime television star One Life to Live; television, film and stage star Kim Brockington (Felicia Boudreau on The Guiding Light), actress/arts educator Peggy Alston of Restoration’s Youth Arts Academy; vocalists/community advocates Tulivu-Donna Cumberbatch and Mari Toussaint; dancer Cheryl Todmann; Brooklyn Community Church choir director Michelle White, actress Deborah Britt of Von King Park, actress Vivian Jett of Brownsville Recreation Center, flautist Jennine Carella are among this year’s Von King Park Cultural Arts Center’s March “Phenomenal Women” honorees. The annual event, founded, directed and executive produced by Von King longtime culinary instructor Charlotte Renee Mial, has celebrated some 100 women since its inception in 2008. This year’s event, produced by Bernice Elizabeth Green, also presents a lobby display saluting ancestors Dr. Josephine English, founder of The Paul Robeson Theatre; actress Gloria Lowery Tyrell (Harriet Tubman); actress/vocalist Whitney Houston and playwright Zora Neale Hurston. Event is invitation-only.
PHYLLIS YVONNE STICKNEY: Back to Brooklyn with Phyllis Yvonne Stickney’s comedy kick-off at Brown Sugar Supper Club, 433 Marcus Garvey Blvd. Two Shows at 7:30p and 10p. Ticket information: Victoria-347-658-8459. A presentation of Lauren P. Raysor and Victoria. Visit: www.phyllisyvonnestickney.com.
Community GreeningSponsored by Magnolia Tree Earth Center
of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Inc.
Friday, March 16
(10am-4pm) Greening from the Ground Up Conference, Pratt Institute-Higgins Hall/Brooklyn, is joint effort of the Brooklyn Community Foundation and the Brooklyn Greens partners that it supports – Pratt Center for Community Development, Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, Cypress Hills LDC, El Puente and LISC New York City’s Green and Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative with additional support from State Farm. Workshops include: Growing Urban Agriculture; Healthy, High-Efficiency Homes: How Retrofits Meet Community Development Goals; Engaging Young People in Environmental Justice and Public Health; Green By Design: Arts, Culture and Sustainability; Greening for Community Safety; and Built-In Health: The Built Environment and Public Health. Details:greeningfromthegroundup.eventbrite.com.
Sunday, March 18
11a-4p: Changing Stories of Our Lives at the Magnolia Tree Earth Center, 677 Lafayette Avenue. GG to Bedford-Nostrand. Facilitated by: Bedford Stuyvesant women security founder/Urban Farmer Yonnette Fleming. CHANGING THE STORIES OF OUR LIVES. Suggested donation: $5, includes healthy snacks and beverage.
What are the stories that we women had been told about ourselves? In a culture where women’s contributions are often ignored , where women are expected to “suck up” toxic emotions and where our anger is written off as hysteria, many women have unconsciously bought into these oppressive ways of understanding themselves. Join us as we go inward to uncover those stories, return them to their sources of untruth and create new stories of change. Please bring the pictures and stories of powerful women who have set the template for our civilization and a blanket for our journey. This journey will end in a symbolic burning of the stories and harmful words that prevent us from living to our highest potential and an intentional circle where we will create new stories that serve us on our journey.
SUPPORTERS: Hattie Carthan Community Market & JUST FOOD.
Tuesday, March 20
3pm-5pm: Health organizations in East New York and Brownsville, where two of three adults are overweight or obese, will host a COMMUNITY WORKSHOP ON CREATING HEALTHIER FOOD PLACES w/ LOCAL GROCERS & BODGEAS. “These neighborhoods are characterized by a food retail environment dominated by small- corner grocery stores (bodegas) with limited fresh produce, low-fat dairy products and other healthier food options,” according to the release. “To address these problems, local organizations and city agencies have been working with small stores to make healthier food available and invite community members to learn how to support community healthy-food-conscious stores.” Sponsors: NYC Dept of Health and Mental Hygiene, Brooklyn District Public Health Office, Brownsville Partnership and others. Where: East New York Diagnostic and Treatment Center, 2094 Pitkin Ave. For more information, visit: creatinghealthyplace@health.nyc.gov.
Health
Wednesday, March 28:
Harriet Washington7:00pm-8:30pm: Talks at the Schomburg: The Intersection of Health Care, History and Justice
Join Columbia Sociology Professor Alondra Nelson, who holds an appointment at Columbia’s Institute for Research on Women and Gender, Jonathan Metzl, MD/PhD (director of Vanderbilt University’s Center for Medicine, Health and Society), and medical ethicist Harriet Washington (author, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present) for a conversation on race and health in America. These three noted experts on health care and distinguished authors will discuss how access to quality health care—or in far too many cases, any health care at all—often falls along racial lines and is an issue that activists, beginning with the Black Panthers, have been fighting for decades.$15 for non-members; $10 for members, Friends and students – For ticket charge, call 1-888-71-Tickets
or visit ShowClix.com
Housing
FORECLOSURES
Monday, March 19
9:00a CONGRESSIONAL HEARING in Brooklyn Borough Hall courtroom: Today, Rep. Ed Towns (NY-10), former chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will host a hearing investigating how Brooklyn will be affected by the National Mortgage Settlement, in Borough Hall’s Centennial Courtroom, 209 Joralemon St., 2nd Fl., Brooklyn.
Saturday, March 24
10:00a – NACA brings its “Save The Dream Workshop” to Brooklyn, borough with largest number of pre-foreclosure notices and highest number of foreclosures. Bedford Stuyvesant Multi Services Calendar, 1958 Fulton Ave.. A train to Ralph Ave. #25 bus to Ralph Ave; #47 bus to Ralph Ave./Fulton St. Register on line at www.naca.com
Kings County Politics (KPC)
The New York State Black, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus is prepared to go to court to stop the state senate’s proposed new senate district lines.
“This is not about protecting incumbents, it’s about adhering to the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 and renewed by Congress in 2006,” said Assemblyman and Caucus Chair Karim Camara.
The caucus collectively put out a press release alleging the districts drawn by Senate Republicans “crack and pack minorities with blatant disregard to communities of interest and in some instances county lines so that the Senate Republicans can maintain their current strongholds and dilute the power of minority communities.”
Camara said while it has been the traditional practice to allow each house of the legislature to determine its own lines, standing idly by as theses lines are proposed would be an injustice to the caucus.
While Camara stopped short of saying this was the case in Brooklyn, he said the proposed lines diminish the strength or racial minorities in other counties including Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Erie and the city of Rochester.
“If these lines pass, we will consider all options including legal-based voting rights violations,” Camara said.
Turner to challenge Gillibrand
In an abrupt about-face, Republican Congressman Bob Turner announced this week he will challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.
Turner won a special election last year to replace the disgraced Anthony Weiner in a congressional district that spanned both Queens and Brooklyn. That district was one of the two statewide that was eliminated due to the last census figures.
A good portion of that district was added into Rep. Ed Towns newly created 8th Congressional District, which also happens to be a federal Voting Rights District.
Thus, while blacks continue to have a slim voting age majority in the district, it now includes such historically white neighborhoods as Howard Beach and Manhattan Beach, joining with such historically black neighborhoods as East New York and Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Ironically, Brownsville (which has also historically been in Towns’ district) was put into Congresswoman Yvette Clarke’s district, which is also a Voting Rights District.
In any event, Turner, who previously said he’ll run for Congress under any new lines, now says he will challenge Gillibrand.
Among his supporters for the senate bid is Kings County GOP Chair Craig Eaton.
“Bob Turner can beat Kirsten Gillibrand – I know that and so will the public,” Eaton reportedly wrote in a confidential e-mail to other county chairs.
Brook-Krasny not looking at Congress
Popular Brighton Beach Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny told KCP this week that he will not enter the newly created 8th Congressional District Democratic Primary race.
Thus far, Incumbent Ed Towns, Fort Greene Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries and City Councilman Charles Barron are in the June 26 primary in a Federal Voting Rights District that has a razor-thin majority of black voters – about 58% – thus opening the door for a possible white candidate looking to take advantage of a split black vote.
But Brook-Krasny, the first elected official from the former Soviet Union, said he’s not interested in the seat.
“I don’t feel like it’s my year for Congress,” said Brook-Krasny. “I am considering running for the City Council in Domenic’s (Recchia) seat next year.”
Like many in Southern Brooklyn, Brook-Krasny said he is currently preoccupied with the heated contest between Democrat City Councilman Lew Fidler and Republican David Storobin, also a Russian immigrant, to replace convicted felon and former state Sen. Carl Kruger.
Ultimately, Kruger’s old seat might be swallowed up in a newly created “Super Jewish” senate district.
Excerpts from NAACP Panel at United Nations: “Voting Rights and People of Color in the U.S.”
(Geneva) – Leaders of the NAACP testified today in front of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. They described how a wide range of new legislation threatens to prevent millions of Americans, particularly people of color, from exercising their right to vote. Excerpts from the panelists’ testimony are below:
Roslyn M. Brock, NAACP National Board Chairman: “As of December 2011, 14 U.S. states passed 25 measures designed to restrict or limit ballot access of voters of color, threatening to disenfranchise millions of eligible Americans. Furthermore, since January 2012 additional states have introduced measures that, if enacted, would result in the disfranchisement of even more racial and ethnic minorities.”
Benjamin Todd Jealous, NAACP President and CEO: “We are here today because in the past 12 months more US states have passed more laws pushing more US citizens out of the ballot box than in any year in the past century. Historically, when people have come after our right to vote, they have done so to make it easier to come after so many of our other rights that we hold dear.”
Ryan Haygood, NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund: “These restrictions on the right to vote are a direct response to two developments: unprecedented levels of political participation of black voters in the United States in 2008, and a reaction to the significant growth of communities of color as reflected in the 2010 census.”
Kemba Smith Pradia, Author & Advocate for the rights of formerly incarcerated people: “I struggle with the fact that as of today I cannot vote in Virginia because this is where my offense occurred. But in other states I wouldn’t have to deal with this issue. It is as if other states understand the need for forgiveness and the right of citizens to not be isolated from the rest of the population because they have been denied this human right.”
Austin Alex, Student Texas Christian University: “I’m here to speak on behalf of the thousands of students in Texas who will be impacted by new voter ID laws. Other states have passed similar laws that no longer allow student id to be an acceptable form voter identification. I am concerned about the impact this will have on the right of students like me to vote.”
Hilary Shelton, NAACP Senior Vice President for Advocacy: “These forms of disenfranchisement prevent those most in need of an advocate from the ability to elect someone who will represent their concerns: the need for a decent public education, for a health care system that addresses their specific demographic needs, as well as the creation of decent jobs, a functional criminal justice system and other basic human needs.”
Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization. Its members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter mobilization and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and private sectors.