Our Time PressThe Local Paper with the Global View

By Mary Alice Miller

When the US Supreme Court returns from its summer recess in October, one of the cases on its docket is NYS Board of Elections v. Margarita L¢pez Torres. What started as one minority woman’s quest to become a NYS Supreme Court Judge has morphed into a large-scale fight- pitting the brightest minds in NYC, NYS and the USA against each other.
In 2004, Judge L¢pez Torres went to federal District Court in NYC asking for a change in the way candidates for NYS Supreme Court are placed on the ballot. Her case was heard by U.S. District Court Judge John Gleeson, who defined the issues as the following: “The plaintiffs [Judge L¢pez Torres and several other individuals] in this case claim that New York State’s electoral process for the office of Supreme Court Justice violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution.” (The First Amendment states that ‘Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; of the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for redress of grievances.’ The Fourteenth Amendment states ‘…No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, nor shall any State deprive any person life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.’)

Judge Gleeson goes on to explain: “Specifically, [Judge L¢pez Torres] claim[s] that the system both deprives voters of the right to choose their parties’ judicial candidates and imposes insurmountable burdens on challenger candidates who seek a major party nomination without the support of the local Democratic or Republican Party leaders.”
Judge Gleeson then goes on to define the solution Judge L¢pez Torres requests by bringing this situation to court: “The plaintiffs seek a declaration that the New York’s judicial convention system is unconstitutional and a preliminary injunction directing the New York State legislature to create a new system. In the meantime, and for as long as the legislature fails to do so, the plaintiffs request that this court direct that Supreme Court Justices be nominated through direct primary elections.”
Judge Gleeson held a hearing that spanned 13 days and generated 10,000 pages of documentary evidence. After oral arguments from both sides, Judge Gleeson wrote in his decision: “The plaintiffs have demonstrated convincingly that local major party leaders – not the voters or the delegates to the judicial nominating conventions – control who becomes a Supreme Court Justice and when. The highly unusual processes by which that extremely important office is filled perpetuate that control, and deprives the voters of any meaningful role. The result is an opaque, undemocratic selection procedure that violates the rights of the voters and the rights of candidates who lack the backing of the local party leaders.”
The NYS Supreme Court is a highly coveted position. It is the trial court with the broadest jurisdiction (authority). It can hear both civil and criminal matters, except claims brought against the state. Supreme Court is the only court that can grant a divorce, annulment or separation. The NYS Supreme Court’s jurisdiction creates heavy caseloads and demands a large number of judges.
NYS Supreme Court Judges serve for 14 year terms, as do Surrogate’s Judges. In Brooklyn, there are only two Surrogate’s Judge positions, who are elected through the petition, primary and general election. By contrast, there are 52 Supreme Court Justice positions in the 2nd Judicial District, which covers Brooklyn and Staten Island. NYS Supreme Court Judges are the only judges in NYS who are elected through the judicial convention process. Judges of the Court of Claims, which only hears cases brought against the State of New York or certain agencies, are appointed by the governor and serve 9-year terms. Family Court Judges serve 10-year terms. Within NYC, Family Court Judges are appointed by the mayor; Outside NYC, they are elected. NYC Civil Court Judges are elected for 10-year terms; they handle civil matters involving amounts up to $25,000 as well as issues involving real property within NYC. The Housing Part of NYC Civil Court hears landlord-tenant cases and promotes enforcement of housing codes. Housing Court Judges are appointed to 5-year terms by the administrative judge of the Civil Court. NYC Criminal Court Judges are appointed by the Mayor for 10-year terms.
Judge Margarita L¢pez Torres has a stellar professional history. She started as a substitute teacher with the NYC Board of Education, then attended Rutgers U. School of Law. After graduation, L¢pez Torres worked for 13 years as a staff attorney for several legal service organizations.
Judge Gleeson’s District Court decision describes in detail Judge L¢pez Torres’ experiences in her quest to become a Supreme Court Judge.
In 1992, L¢pez Torres became a candidate for countywide Civil Court Judge in Brooklyn. The Kings County Democratic County Committee supported her candidacy, and being uncontested on the primary ballot, she was elected in the Nov. 1992 general election.
Shortly after she was elected, L¢pez Torres was “told by [Clarence] Norman, the county leader, and Vito Lopez, her district leader, to hire a particular young attorney as her court attorney. The directive came in a Nov. 4, 1992 letter to L¢pez Torres from Steven Cohen, a Brooklyn Democratic Party official.” Judge Gleeson explains the importance of a court attorney to a Civil Court Judge. A court attorney “provides help in all phases of managing and deciding cases.” L¢pez Torres looked into this prospective court attorney’s qualifications and references, and after an interview, decided he was “unqualified for the position… she hired a qualified attorney for the position.”

This is where things get interesting. According to the case record, “This was perceived by Norman as an act of defiance. In December of 1992, Norman chastised L¢pez Torres for not hiring the young lawyer he had sent to her, telling her that she did not understand how the process worked. He directed her to fire the attorney she had hired. When L¢pez Torres refused, Norman told her she would not become a Supreme Court Justice.”
“At approximately the same time, [Vito]Lopez, the district leader who had assisted L¢pez Torres in becoming a Civil Court judge, angrily confronted L¢pez Torres about her refusal to hire the attorney sent by ‘County,’ i.e., Norman. Her ungratefulness to Norman had made Lopez look bad. To fix that problem, Lopez directed L¢pez Torres to redeem herself by firing her court attorney and hiring ‘County’s’ choice. She again refused.”
The story goes on: “In June 1995, Lopez gave L¢pez Torres another opportunity for redemption: if she hired Lopez’s daughter, a recent law school graduate, as her court attorney, Lopez would get L¢pez Torres nominated to fill an upcoming vacancy on the Supreme Court that the party leadership had earmarked for a “Latino.” L¢pez Torres declined, refusing to fire the qualified attorney she had initially hired to the position. From that point forward, Lopez never supported the judicial aspirations of L¢pez Torres, and indeed he worked against her in 2002 when she was reelected to the Civil Court.
According to Judge Gleeson’s decision: “In 1997, L¢pez Torres first sought the Democratic nomination to the office of Supreme Court Justice. She requested a meeting with Norman, who met her on August 22, 1997 in Junior’s Restaurant on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. Norman reminded L¢pez Torres that her failures to hire as her court attorney the people sent to her by party leaders had been a serious breach of protocol. L¢pez Torres replied that she was at that point between court attorneys and was willing to consider a qualified applicant referred by Norman. Norman told L¢pez Torres that she needed to obtain the support of the “Latino” district leaders.
“Three weeks later, however, Norman placed an urgent call to L¢pez Torres, demanding that she remove her name from consideration at the upcoming nominating convention. Her failure to do so, Norman declared, would be a direct challenge to him. An open convention involving the competing nominations of more candidates than vacancies was “not the way it works,” according to Norman. L¢pez Torres declined, expressing the naive view that she had a right to seek the nomination at the convention even without Norman’s support. At the convention itself shortly thereafter, Norman was proved correct, as not a single delegate proposed L¢pez Torres for nomination.
(Case note: “Lopez’s daughter was hired by another Civil Court Judge in Brooklyn who was subsequently nominated and elected to the office of Supreme Court Justice.”)
“L¢pez Torres tried again in 1998, when she applied to, and was interviewed by, the Kings County Judicial Screening Committee. In late September, before the nominating convention, she tried repeatedly to ascertain the results of that process, i.e., whether the screening committee had reported her as qualified. Neither Jerome Karp, the chair of the committee, nor Norman would provide that information, so L¢pez Torres ended her bid for the nomination.
“In January 2002, L¢pez Torres renewed her effort to obtain the Democratic nomination for Supreme Court Justice. She contacted Norman and Karp to tell them so and to commence the screening process. Karp responded that the screening panel would consider only candidates referred by Norman. Norman made it clear that he would not make such a reference.
In February and again in May of 2002, he told L¢pez Torres that his concerns with her candidacy had nothing to do with her qualifications, but rather arose out of her disloyalty – her failure to hire the people sent to her by the party leadership and her refusal to withdraw her candidacy in 1997.
“Without the support of Norman, L¢pez Torres’s efforts to obtain a nomination at the 2002 convention were doomed. Her name was placed in contention by a supportive delegate, but the overwhelming majority of delegates voted instead for the package of candidates
supported by Norman.
(Case note:”While she was petitioning to get herself on the primary ballot for Civil Court in 2002, L¢pez Torres tried to include on her petitions slates of delegates to the judicial convention as well. It was a difficult task. Other elected officials who appeared with her on joint petitions and who supported her for Civil Court were reluctant to support her delegate slates because Supreme Court Justice positions were supposed to be “decided by the district leader and the county leader.” L¢pez Torres amassed many signatures [about 30,000], but they were virtually all from only eight Assembly Districts. Only 17 of the 47 delegates on the petitions, 15 of whom [from two ADs] ran without opposition, were elected.
(Case Note: The defendants’ claim that L¢pez Torres simply didn’t try hard enough to obtain the nomination [in 2002 and other years], like their attack on her qualifications, is meritless.”)
“Norman was not content to simply block L¢pez Torres’s effort to be elected as a Supreme Court Justice. In that same year, she was up for reelection to the Civil Court, and he chose to have the Democratic Party in Kings County support another nominee, an unusual tactic that evidenced the party leadership’s overt hostility toward L¢pez Torres. Elections for that judicial office, as discussed earlier, involve a primary in which a challenger candidate like L¢pez Torres can appeal directly to the voters. L¢pez Torres did just that, and she not only prevailed over the party leaders’ preferred candidate in the primary, but she received more votes in the general election for Civil Court (200,710) than any of the Democratic candidates for Supreme Court Justice received on the same day.
“In January of 2003, L¢pez Torres again wrote to Norman and Karp, declaring her candidacy for the office of Supreme Court Justice and requesting to be considered by the screening committee. At that time, it remained the policy of the committee to screen candidates only at the request of Norman or his Republican counterpart. Norman, who faced mounting criticism of the process, allowed the screening committee to interview L¢pez Torres. However, Norman still refused to support L¢pez Torres. In a meeting on June 6, 2003, he reiterated his displeasure at her refusal to withdraw her candidacy in 1997. He also stated that L¢pez Torres did not have sufficient support. Since she had been the leading vote-getter among elected judges in Brooklyn just six months earlier, Norman was not referring to support in the electorate.
Rather, he was referring to the only support that matters when it comes to Supreme Court Justice candidates in the Second District – his own and that of the district leaders. Norman summed up his position by telling L¢pez Torres that ‘County,’ i.e., the leadership of the Kings County Democratic County Committee, would only support candidates who support ‘County.'”
“As described above, L¢pez Torres’s efforts to identify and lobby the delegates to the 2003 convention were frustrated by both the timing of the relevant events and the antipathy of  the party leadership. At the convention, two delegates attempted to nominate L¢pez Torres. The effort failed, and the convention nominated the package of candidates endorsed by Norman. In a letter to his fellow district leaders, District Leader Ralph Perfetto explained that he voted against the “highly qualified” L¢pez Torres because she was an “ingrate”; she had “courted Vito Lopez to support her for Civil Court, but then decided she didn’t need him anymore and denied his daughter a job.” “Too many judges have the same attitude towards district leaders,” Perfetto lamented. He offered to take a polygraph test on the question whether Norman and Lopez had influenced his vote, and denied “any ‘deals’ or conspiracy.”
“L¢pez Torres’s seven-year effort to obtain her party’s nomination for Supreme Court Justice is the selection process in microcosm. The path to the office of Supreme Court Justice runs through the county leader of the major party that dominates in that part of New York State. Without his or her support, neither superior qualifications nor widespread support among the party’s registered voters matters.” (Since initiating her claims regarding how NYS Supreme Court Judges are placed on the ballot and subsequently elected, Judge Margarita L¢pez Torres has gone on to be elected in 2006 to Surrogate in Kings County without the help of the Kings County Democratic County Committee.)
Gleeson ordered that “the defendants (the New York State Board of Elections and others) are enjoined from enforcing New York Election Law 6-106, and from using the existing procedures set forth in New York Election Law 6-124 for major party nominations for the office of Supreme Court Justice. Until the New York legislature enacts another electoral scheme, such nominations shall be made by primary election. The petitioning requirements that will attend those primary elections shall be set forth in a subsequent order, after parties have had the opportunity to be heard.”
The NY State Board of Elections appealed Gleeson’s order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which upheld the District Court decision. The NYS Board of Elections appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which will hear the case during its 2007- 08 term.
(Note: When asked why the state legislature did not take up the issue of judicial conventions and how NYS Supreme Court judicial candidates are placed on the ballot as suggested in Judge Gleeson’s decision, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries said once the U.S. Supreme Court decided to take the case, the NYS Assembly chose not to duplicate efforts.)

By Akosua Kathryn Albritton

Peterkin in Focus
Lem Peterkin is the tall, burly photojournalist whose work is seen in many New York City publications.  Peterkin says the New York Times, New York Newsday, New York Post and every African-American newspaper use his photos.  Peterkin was surprised that anyone knew his first name because his photo credit have become consistently photograph by Peterkin.  Rather than fight the name drop, he capitalizes on it.  His business card reads, “Photographs by Peterkin.”
In his forty years in photography, he’s stayed in step with each advance in image technology.  These days his mobile office includes a Canon EOS 30D digital camera, a ZiO CameraMate Card Reader to store his shots from the camera, a Dane Electric zMate Golf Flash drive for his documents and a Sony VAIO laptop computer.  The HP Photosmart C4180 All-in-One printer is in his office at Restoration Plaza.  This printer also scans and copies.
His life in photography began in grammar school.  For the fourth grade science fair, his project was “Photo Micrography.”  Peterkin used a microscope and a manual Kodak Hawkeye camera.  He shot photographs of such life form as amoeba and paramecium.  He’s a proponent of citizen reporting in that he’s championed the reality of everyone owning a camera.  Says Peterkin, “Everyone should have a camera.  You don’t know what you’re going to see.”  While cell phone cameras are making this possible, Peterkin prefers a stand-alone camera.  He says, “Cell phone cameras don’t have sufficient resolution for a quality picture.  Adobe Photoshop or any other image- editing software can’t enhance the sharpness.”
60 Seconds to Save the Earth
Al Gore took the global climate crisis to the people using social media with excellent results.  He’s arranged house parties across the US where local folks invite neighbors and friends to watch An Inconvenient Truth on their PCs.  Afterwards, envelopes and writing paper are distributed to prepare letters for the elected that makes your stance on global warming known.  The same method was used to air the complete Live Earth (http://www.liveearthmusic.com/algore) worldwide concerts.
Gore’s organization has teamed with Current TV, the 24/7 cable and satellite network produced by audience submissions, and the Alliance for Climate Protection to sponsor 60 Seconds to Save the Earth.  This media campaign shares the message creation with the people.  The concerned average person is encouraged to create 15, 30 or 60-second advertisements that shows what you or someone else is doing to alleviate the climate crisis.  The other option is creating a compelling message that informs, engages and enables people to take a stand on global warming.  This contest is limited to the UK, Republic of Ireland  and US.
The video is submitted to Current TV’s Web site, www.current.tv.  A panel of celebrity judges that includes George Clooney, Cameron Diaz and director Sam Mendes will review these videos and choose twenty finalists.  The people, through an online vote on Current TV will judge these twenty finalists.  The top ads will be aired on Current TV, featured in the Alliance for Climate Protection’s national campaign and showcased on MySpace’s Impact Channel, http://impact.myspace.com.  The deadline for submission is September 12, 2007, 3:00 PM EST.
The grand prizewinner gets a Toyota Highlander hybrid car; three finalists will get Sony electronic products and sixteen semi finalists will win T-Mobile Sidekicks.  September 12, 2007 is just around the corner.  Visit www.current.tv/ecospotcontest for details.  Current TV offers much advice on appearance and location releases and legal video and music sampling.  This sounds like Al Gore and partners have pulled strings to make 60 Seconds to Save the Earth a hit.
Akosua@plans4success.com

By Errol Louis

Good in the ‘Hood: Bombay Masala
Hot on the heels of Sushi Tatsu II, a Japanese restaurant at the corner of Franklin Avenue and Dean Street, an Indian restaurant has opened a couple of blocks away. Bombay Masala is at 678 Franklin between St. Marks Ave. and Prospect Place, and they are open 7 days a week starting at noon.  It’s a little pricey, about $11 or $12 per entr‚e, but I can personally vouch for the vegetarian samosas, chicken tikka masala, chicken kurma, banana pakora and the garlic nan bread.  They deliver, and take credit cards for delivery. The phone number is 718-230-7640.
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Copeland’s R.I.P.
The funeral of a good friend should be a time for celebration rather than mourning, and so it must be with the closing of Copeland’s, the soul food emporium on West 145th Street that opened in 1958 and shuttered its doors just shy of 50 years later, at the end of July.
According to the New York Times, the restaurant’s founder and chef, 82-year-old Calvin Copeland, believes the shop is a casualty of the changing face and tastes of Harlem. Black patrons, according to Copeland, have been moving out of the neighborhood, and “the white people who took their place don’t like or don’t care for the food I cook,” he said. “The transformation snuck up on me like a tornado.”
Tornado is right. New construction is everywhere in Hamilton Heights, and the new shops indicate a new kind of customer. As Copeland’s closes, a branch of New York Sports Club and a Starbucks are slated to open a few blocks east on 145th Street.
The lessons for Harlem businesses should be clear. One lesson is that it pays to buy real estate: companies that own their space can’t be priced out of the market by rent hikes and can bank potentially tremendous upside profits from rising property values.
The second lesson is that as younger and wealthier families move uptown, entrepreneurs must be prepared to adapt to their tastes. And it’s important to keep in mind that newly arriving black yuppies, or buppies, can be just as demanding as their white neighbors – and will vote with their feet and their wallets if they don’t get what they want.
When it comes to soul food, for instance, Copeland’s stuck to a traditional menu and presentation, notably the restaurant’s famous Sunday brunch, complete with a gospel choir. It was a favorite among older Harlemites, along with the now-defunct Wilson’s Restaurant and Bakery on Amsterdam Ave. and 158th Street.
Much of the soul food trade has shifted 30 blocks south to Amy Ruth’s on 116th and Lenox, where Carl Redding – who learned the ropes as a dishwasher and baker at Wilson’s – offers a snappier menu with chicken & waffles, salmon croquettes, ice tea and sweet potato pie spiced with cinnamon. More importantly, the restaurant stays open 24 hours on weekends to accommodate the late-night party crowd.
Amy Ruth’s Redding understands his clientele and bends over backward for them. There’s a bench outside where patrons can rest while waiting on the often long lines to get in, and the menu playfully names individual dishes after local celebrities and near-celebrities. Diners who want short ribs of beef order the Hon. Keith Wright; to get the chicken and waffles, you ask for an Al Sharpton.
There’s no need to mourn the passing of Copeland’s: a profitable half-century run is something most businesses can only dream of. But the next wave of Harlem landmark institutions should realize that serving the turbulent, demanding market uptown will require getting to know the new neighbors.
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From the Mouth of Babes, Common Sense
One of the anti-development blogs recently hit a new low by publishing snarky remarks aimed at a high school kid named Sean Murphy who wrote a better-than-decent op-ed in BTHS News, Brooklyn Tech’s online student publication.
Having lost court cases, regulatory rulings, local elections and public support, it seems trying to bully and discourage a child is about all the antiproject people can do while the bulldozers hum along.
What provoked the attack on Murphy is the fact he describes the Atlantic Yards conflict the way that many people in central Brooklyn see it, which happens to conflict with the antidevelopment orthodoxy promoted by a vocal minority. Here’s a sample:
“Native New Yorkers, primarily of African-American heritage, greeted the project with open arms. Many of these individuals weathered some of the worst years New York City ever experienced, when it was not uncommon to find junkies shooting up on DeKalb as gunshots blared on adjacent Lafayette Avenue.
“On the other hand, Bruce Ratner’s plan has been vehemently opposed by the nouveau riche of the aforementioned ‘old Brooklyn’ communities, most of whom are out-of-towners. Using Ratner’s invocation of eminent domain rights in select, isolated portions of Prospect Heights as a ruse for protest, these individuals fear – unjustly, especially if the development is a success – that their property values will rapidly decrease.
“They could care less about the surplus of job opportunities for lower-income residents that Atlantic Yards will unleash; to them, the acquisition of a historic brownstone is merely a stepping stone to the eventual Village loft or Dakota apartment.”
Good stuff, Sean! If you are reading this, don’t let the attacks bother you: telling the truth well always draws squeals and squawks from those who would rather not have their actions and motives examined.
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Black Business Boom
According to a report by the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy, the number of new firms and total revenue by Black businesses grew sharply between 1997 and 2002. Comparing Black- Hispanic- and Asian-owned businesses, the report found that the number of Black-owned firms grew by 45.4% to a total of 1.2 million firms and now make up about 5% of all companies in America.
Unfortunately, these Black firms reaped less than 1% of all business revenue, proving there’s a long way to go. But it seems clear the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well. The full report is available at www.sba.gov/advo/research/demographic.html.

By Louis Reyes Rivera

On Wednesday, July 18, 2007, at 5:47a.m. (ET), poet Sekou Sundiata passed away. A highly esteemed performing poet, Mr. Sundiata wrote for print, performance, music and theater. Born Robert Franklin Feaster in Harlem on August 22, 1948, Sundiata came of age as an artist during the Black Arts/Black Aesthetic movements of the 1960s and 1970s.
While attending the City College of New York (CCNY) where he began reciting poetry publicly, Sundiata converged with several other student activists, including once-mayoral candidate of Pittsburgh and longtime friend Leroy Hodge to form the basis for what soon became known as the Black and Puerto Rican Student Community of City College (BPRSC). This phalanx of 400 students soon made their own history, closing the 21,000-student campus during the spring of 1969, to demand, among other things, that CCNY be renamed Harlem University. The net effect of the student takeover culminated in both an Open Admissions Policy that took effect in September 1970, the full legitimization of ethnic studies departments throughout the nation, as well as the requirement that all education majors within City College take courses in African- American History and to have Spanish as a Second Language.
Among his acknowledged mentors at City were Toni Cade Bambara, June Jordan, and fellow student Louis Reyes Rivera, with whom Sundiata helped to establish the first Black student newspaper in the City University, CCNY’s The Paper. Their association would span close to forty years of mutual respect and admiration.
Upon completing his bachelor’s Degree (circa 1974), Sundiata enrolled and completed his master’s in Creative Writing while regularly producing community-based poetry readings that were known to draw SRO crowds. In 1976, his creative sensibilities, his innate organizing skills, and his associations with a convergent

 generation of excellent poets, musicians and dancers immediately led to a collaborative project he directed that would commemorate 100 years of Black struggle for freedom and human rights. Titled The Sounds of the Memory of Many Living People (1863-1876/ 1963-1976), this production, which included upcoming novelist Arthur Flowers and such poets as Safiya Henderson-Holmes, BJ Ashanti, Tom Mitchelson, Louis Reyes Rivera, et al, was staged in Harlem over a period of two days, signaling much of what was to come from Sekou’s sense of vision, steadily breaking ground for what was then a new literary genre, Performance Poetry, fully anticipating elements of both Hip- Hop Culture and Spoken -Word Art.
In 1977, the aforementioned poets, along with Zizwe Ngafua, Rashidah Ismaili, Fatisha (Hutson), Sandra Maria Esteves, Akua Lezli Hope, Mervyn Taylor and Sekou, among others, formed the Calabash Poets Workshop, which signaled the arrival of a new literary heat in New York, regularly producing soir‚es and fori (1977-1983) that included all of the arts and culminated in a three-year attempt (1979-1982) to establish an independent Black Writers Union.
Upon the release of his first vinyl album (circa 1980), Are & Be, Sekou Sundiata was dubbed by Amiri Baraka as “the State of the Art.”Since then, Mr. Sundiata established a longtime relationship with CCNY’s Aaron Davis Performing Arts Center, through which venue he intermittently produced new material for the stage, consistently collaborating with musicians, dancers and actors. He was eventually selected for a number of earned fellowships, including a Sundance Institute Screenwriting Fellow, a Columbia University Revson Fellow, a Master Artist-in-Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts (Florida), and as the first Writer-in-Residence at the New School University in New York, in which at the university’s Eugene Lang College he remained a professor.
He was, as well, among those featured in the Bill Moyers’ PBS series on poetry, The Language of Life, and in Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam on HBO.
Among several highly acclaimed performance theater works in which he served as both author and performer are: The Circle Unbroken is a Hard Bop, which toured nationally and received three AUDELCO Awards and a BESSIE Award; The Mystery of Love, commissioned and produced by New Voices/ New Visions at Aaron Davis Hall in New York City and the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia; and Udu, a music theater work produced by 651 ARTS in Brooklyn and presented by the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven, the Walker Arts Center and Penumbra Theater in Minneapolis, Flynn Center in Burlington, VT, the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and Miami-Dade Community College in Florida. Throughout this period and since 1985, he developed a close association with co-collaborator and legendary trombonist Craig S. Harris.
Blessing the Boats, Sundiata’s first solo theater piece, an exploration into his own personal battles with kidney failure, opened in November 2002 at Aaron Davis Hall, NYC. It has since been presented in more than 30 cities and continued to tour nationally. In March 2005, Sundiata produced The Gift of Life Concert, an organ donation public awareness event at the Apollo Theater that kicked off a three-week run of Blessing the Boats at the Apollo’s Soundstage, in partnership with the Apollo Theater Foundation, the National Kidney Foundation and the New York Organ Donor Network with support from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Since 2006, his The 51st (dream) State has been presented throughout the U.S. and in Australia. Both Blessing the Boats and The 51st (dream) State were produced in collaboration with MultiArts Projects and Productions (MAPP). In addition to working within community engagement activities at Harlem Stages/Aaron Davis Hall, the University of Michigan and University Musical Society (Ann Arbor, MI), the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC), the University of Texas Austin (Austin, TX), in Miami- Dade College (Miami, FL), and the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, Sundiata has appeared as a featured speaker and artist at the Imagining America Conference (Ann Arbor, MI), at the Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston, MA) and at the Pedagogy and Theater of the Oppressed Conference (Minneapolis, MN), among others. Prior to his demise, he was engaged in producing a DVD documenting the America Project for use by universities and presenters as a model for art and civic engagement.
In addition to the 1979 Are & Be album, Sundiata’s other releases include a second album, The Sounds of the Memory of Many Living People, and two CDs, The Blue Oneness of Dreams, nominated for a Grammy Award, and longstoryshort. Each of these works are rich with the sounds of blues, funk, jazz and African and Afro-Caribbean percussion, with the latter two featuring Craig Harris.
He is survived by beloved family members, including his mother Virginia Myrle Feaster, his wife Maurine Knighton, daughter Myisha, stepdaughters Dina Gomez and Aida Riddle, grandson Aman, brothers William Walter Feaster and Ronald Eugene Feaster, sister Devona, sister-in-law Nitah, a niece, Tisha Taylor, nephews William, Keith Omar and Glenn and their respective wives, Aloma, Irene and Marie, as well as a host of other relatives, admirers, students and friends.

By Linda Armstrong

Theater Is Abounding This Summer
There is theater everywhere you look in New York City this summer and it is coming from quite a few places. I’m going to tell you about three in particular. The Public Theater in Manhattan is presenting something very ambitious. African American, Pulitzer Prizewinning playwright Suzan Lori Parks undertook a marvelous project in November 2002; writing 365 plays in 365 days. It’s a play series entitled simply 365 Days/365 Plays and it will go on for a year. The part of it that is being presented during the month of August and September will include a diverse group of theater companies performing. The eight companies include: The Brick Theater, Inc., The Classical Theatre of Harlem , The H.A.D.L.E.Y. Players, LAByrinth Theater Company, Ma-Yi Theater Company, MUD/BONE, TADA! Youth Theater and viBe Theater Experience. These companies will present their interpretations of Parks’s texts across New York City for seven days each in theaters in Battery Park, Harlem, Queens, Brooklyn and The Bronx.
From the Young Voices section viBe Theater Experience will combine original music and dance elements with text to continue their mission of empowering urban teenage girls. TADA! Youth Theater’s Resident Youth Ensemble will do vaudeville-style productions.
A section called Celebrations of Diversity will include Ma-Yi Theater Company performing plays on the Asian American experience in America. LAByrinth Theater Company will celebrate the diversity of New York City. The Classical Theatre of Harlem will use their 365 week to continue bringing theater and art to a culturally diverse Harlem audience.
In the third and final section, Collaborative Creations MUD/BONE will have their storefront studio in the South Bronx showcase their multidisciplinary community of artists. The Brick Theater, Inc., best known for their large-scale collaborative projects, will present the same seven 365 texts every night for a week employing different creative teams – a total of 49 different productions.
For the full performance schedule, visit www.publictheater.org/365/participants.php.
Over 600 theaters have joined a grassroots premiere of the plays in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Colorado, Greater Texas, Los Angeles, Minnesota, New York, the Northeast, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, The Southeast, Universities (365U), Washington D.C. and the western U.S. The 365 National Festival is produced by Suzan-Lori Parks and Bonnie Metzgar. For information on the 365 National Festival, visit www.365days365plays.com.
Summer Shorts, a festival of new American short plays, will be presented from August 2nd-30th at 59E59 Theaters. John McCormack and J.J. Kandel, in association with The Open Book, will present the festival. Summer Shorts offers nine one-act plays, eight having their world premieres, in two separate evenings. Tickets are $18 each. Tickets can be purchased by calling 212-279-4200 or online at www.ticketcentral.com.
The Strawberry One-Act Festival, presented by the Riant Theatre, which will held at the American Theater of Actors, located at 314 W. 54th Street, will occur from August 2nd-19th. As always, when you see a production in the festival you are also able to vote for it to win awards, which will be presented at the August 26th awards ceremony held at Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre at Symphony Space. For ticket information call 646-623-3488 or go to www.therianttheatre.com. Tickets for the shows are $20, $25 and $35.
On another note: The Public Theater is now accepting applications for The Emerging Writers Group, a new initiative that seeks to target playwrights at the earliest stages in their careers and nurture their artistic growth by providing necessary resources and support. The initiative seeks to develop new American playwrights. This program is the first program of The Public Writers Initiative, a long-term program that will provide key support and resources for writers at every stage of their careers. Time Warner is the Founding Sponsor of The Public Writers Initiative.
The 12-15 people who will be chosen through an open application process will benefit a great deal for the year they are involved with the initiative. Selected playwrights will receive a $3000 stipend. They will also participate in a biweekly writers group led by The Public’s Literary Department and master classes with established playwrights. Additionally, they will have a chance to observe or assist playwrights in rehearsal for a production at the Public. Career development advice and artistic support will be provided by a variety of successful writers and the Public artistic staff. Works by Emerging Writers will be presented in at least one reading at The Public. Members of the group will also receive complimentary tickets to The Public Theater shows and a supplemental stipend for tickets to productions at other theaters. For more information and application guidelines visit www.publictheater.org/artists/emergingwriters.php. 
The applications deadline is August 31, 2007.