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The Brooklyn Contemporary Chorus is one of the borough’s longest-running community musical groups.ÿ Today, after 35 years, it is alive and well and rehearses every Monday from September to June at Cadman Memorial Congregational Church at Lafayette and Clinton Avenue in Clinton Hill.ÿ The current director, Aaron Williams, is well-loved by the members and challenges them to high-level performances of choral music ranging from classical to modern pop.
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The origin of the name, Brooklyn Contemporary Chorus, seems lost in antiquity.ÿ The charter members that are still active in the chorus (Pete Beveridge, Leslie Bilancia, Gwen Finch, Thelma Jack and Evelyn Whitaker) might chuckle at the thought of being contemporary but the timelessness of the chorus’s music and the ebullient spirit of the chorus’s members make the name indeed apt.
In the fall of 1970, local residents Parker Jones and Velma Johnson proposed forming a community chorus.ÿ The response was enthusiastic and James A. Simms volunteered to lead the chorus.ÿ This was a coup because Jim was no wannabe stick-waver.ÿ He was, in fact, an experienced and immensely talented organist, choir director and conductor who had worked at St. George’s Church and Riverside Church and, at the time, was serving at Trinity Church, Wall Street, where he shared in the direction of that parish’s extensive music program, including a noonday recital series and worship services both at Trinity and St. Paul’s Chapel.ÿ He was also the choral director of the Bell System Chorus.
ÿOn Sunday afternoon, January 23, 1971, after months of hard work, BCC made its formal debut, presenting a concert at Emmanuel Baptist Church featuring portions of Handel’s Messiah.ÿ The chorus went on, under Jim Simms’ guidance, to give two or three concerts a year for the next twenty years.ÿ From the beginning, the music presented by the chorus was challenging, including works such as Brahms’s Liebeslieder Waltzes, Randall Thompson’s Frostiana, Mozart’s Requiem Mass in D Minor, Zoltan Kodaly’s Missa Brevis and, not to neglect the lighter side of things, Gilbert and Sullivan’s Mikado.
ÿBetsy Lewin, noted author and an early member, remembers the 1975 Mikado concert held in Pratt’s Memorial Hall with the chorus dressed in colorful kimonos, or versions of.ÿ On the way home, she and her husband Ted spotted a parakeet in a bush.ÿ They rescued it and named it Yum-Yum, after a character in the Mikado.
ÿIn 1992, Simms’ church commitments took him to New Jersey, making weekly evening trips into Brooklyn difficult.ÿ Fortune again smiled on the Chorus, bringing Aaron Williams as its new director.ÿ Aaron, in addition to his formal schooling in music, has worked as a free-lance singer, accompanist, conductor and composer/arranger.ÿ He was and is an instructor of vocal music at a middle school in the South Bronx, and still finds the energy to lead the Chorus, as well as being accompanist for the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church’s Inspirational Ensemble and Director of Music for Cadman Church.ÿ His work with the Chorus has included Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Schubert’s Mass in G, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Faure, Verdi and Mozart’s respective Requiems, Handel’s Messiah, Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance, Trial By Jury and Iolanthe, Moses Hogan’s settings of traditional and contemporary spirituals, and many other traditional and contemporary works.
ÿAlthough BCC employs professional singers and musicians as soloists and accompanists, there is no chorus member audition.ÿ A love and ear for music are the only requirements for membership.
ÿÿFor more information about the Chorus’s programs, or about joining the Chorus, call 718-855-5519, 718-953-8727, or visit the Chorus’s website.
wwww.brooklyncontemporarychorus.org.

A little over a month ago, Vaughn K. Roy experienced something that no 14- year-old would ever imagine having happened in this day and time when African-Americans and whites willingly work together, dine together, worship together and socialize together. On July 10, 2006, between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m., Vaughn – who had just left Fort Hamilton High School where he is enrolled in a summer program in preparation for high school this fall – was attacked by a gang of white teens and beaten with a pipe along with a friend.
According to his aunt, Andrea Owensford – who has been doing a great deal of the public speaking on behalf of her sister and Vaughn – said that on the day in question while about a block and a half away from the high school, several white boys approached Vaughn. “You have a problem, why you looking at my girl,” one of the teen boys allegedly said to Vaughn. Owensford said her nephew replied that he didn’t know who the girl was. He and his friends – who proceeded on their journey – assumed that everything was fine. Until, Owensford says, two teen boys came from the corner of where Vaughn and his friends were headed, and started beating the boys with a pipe.
Owensford said that as the boys were getting beat, Vaughn was blocking the blows with his hands and his elbows. Vaughn’s other friend managed to get away. Owensford said that as the boys were beating Vaughn, they were asking, “You want more nigger? What are you doing here, nigger?” What’s worse, she says, is the boys hit her nephew about two or three times before passing the pipe over to the boy who initially accosted Vaughn.
The attacks ended and the teens disbursed, Owensford says, when a female passerby started screaming that she was calling the police. However, Vaughn was later able to identify three of the teen attackers to the dean of the school from Fort Hamilton’s yearbook. According to Owensford, there were about 12 boys involved, ranging from 14 to 20 years old. She says this incident has left Vaughn with emotional scars and 15 stitches. Besides the magnitude of this incident, Owensford says Vaughn – who is a basketball player – is extremely disappointed. He had to forgo playing in the Nike Switch this summer. He shoots with his hand, and that’s the one that sustained bruises.
“Vaughn’s family is taking the beating really hard”, says Owensford, especially since he’s a good student who has never been in trouble in school or with the law. “What’s also troubling is the lack of proper attention and urgency being given to her nephew’s case as well as the attitude and behavior of the 68th Police Precinct”.
“What made Vaughn’s mother even sicker to her stomach is that she thought [the Police Department] had a youth prom going on because [the police] were all there and sitting on the desks – laughing and talking like it was nothing,” says Owensford.
Owensford says Vaughn’s mother initially reached out to Charles Barron’s office. However, no one returned their phone calls. Owensford then reached out to 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care. She received a response that same day within an hour time span.
“When we heard the story, it sounded as if the proper protocol wasn’t followed as it relates to a New York Police Department hate-crime procedure,” says Noel Leader, co-founding member of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care. He explains that proper procedure should be that when officers respond to a situation where there’s a possible hate crime, they are to immediately notify their supervisor – which is the sergeant or lieutenant. Once this person gets on the scene, he or she verifies the important once that there may be a possible hate-crime situation. And then the sergeant or lieutenant calls the duty captain. The duty captain will notify the Hate Crimes Unit, which would ultimately make the determination of whether it’s a hate-crime situation.
“It definitely should have raised some flags amongst the officers who responded or the detective who was assigned the case,” Leader says. “This is definitely a hate-crime situation and [100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care] are upset over the fact that the victim had identified three of the perpetrators inside the next day and some were allowed to leave allegedly by the assigned detective. This 14- year -old will get justice.”
In the end, Owensford and her family are also confident that justice will be served. In addition getting advisement from Leader’s organization, the family has hired Norman Siegel to be their legal representation. And, of course, they look to a spiritual council.
“The bottom line is that God has everything covered, and you will reap what you sow,” Owensford insists. “We want to send a message that anyone who is being raised or has the mentality or learned behavior [to act this way] that this is not acceptable.”
Owensford is extremely proud of her nephew. “When [the attack] happened, Vaughn’s mother was going to immediately take him out, but he said, ‘No, I’m not running.'”
At such a young age, Vaughn has courage and determination. These are character traits of a leader. This is a lesson everyone can learn and appreciate.

The residents of 300 Putnam Avenue are dealing with some very basic issues.  The incinerator is not working and garbage is jammed from the 2nd to the 6th floor. There is no gas, no elevator and no hot water.  There are doors broken, sewage is backed up, windows are missing, they have squatters in the building and someone has thrown garbage out the window.
This was part of the litany of complaints that local elected officials State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, Assemblywoman Annette Robinson and Councilman Al Vann had been informed about and were meeting in the crowded room to report back to the tenants on progress they had made on ownership and administration of the building. 
Senator Montgomery said that they had been able to have HPD move the building up to” their number one priority” and she had Department of Housing Preservation and Development staff attorney Carlton Gordon present to report on actions the agency is taking.
Attorney Gordon said that on August 22 at 9:30am, the move to assign an administrator for the building, will be at 141 Livingston Street, Housing Court,  in Judge Gonzales’ courtroom on the fourth floor.  Waving an inch and a half thick listing of  the building’s violations, Gordon said he would normally believe that he’d have no problem having the Bridge Street Development Corporation named as administrator of the building.  
However, Mr. Gordon spoke of a “funny phone call”about the building and was concerned that because of the size, location and the real estate market in Brooklyn, “someone may try to take over the deed,” a last minute buyer, saying they have the “deep pockets” necessary to do the repairs. In that eventuality, “The judge will want to hear what he has to say” and HPD will have to listen to it also.  So there are “no guarantees” Gordon cautioned  although HUD has said they will “proceed to block any sale” and Senator Montgomery added that the delegation wanted Congressman Ed Towns, to put pressure on HUD to fulfill that commitment. 
Rhonda Lewis, President and CEO of the BSDC said that if they were approved to take over the building, they would want to begin to collect rent and that everyone would need their income certifications. She also suggested that the residents show up on their day in court August 23 because  their presence will have an impact.
Councilman Al Vann let the tenants know that 300 Putnam was a project that Bridge Street Development didn’t have to take on.  “She chooses to do this because no one should have to live like this.”
Assemblywoman Robinson said to loud approval that when this change does come, everybody had better check their own households and “get ready because we will come in and do what we have to do,” to clean up the building.
Michell Spense, president of the Tenant’s Association, has been around Putnam Avenue for 28 years.  She said everyone should ask themselves “what part are we going to play in cleaning the building?”  She asked for a $3 donation from the tenants to purchase bags and cleaning supplies, saying, “We’re all in it together and we will win together.”
  David Mark Greaves

The 10th Congressional district race, with Councilman Charles Barron and Assemblyman Roger L. Green challenging Congressman Edolphus Towns, is a tough one to call as the challengers have similar views on so many issues.   But the only weapons that can defeat a sitting congressman are money or passion and while neither Barron or Green have money long like that, what Barron does have, is the ability to inspire passion on the street.  And while we like Roger Green and respect his long progressive career, it’s in passionate beliefs of the people in the street, where this election will be won.
It can be said that this nation is at war, and not just in the Middle East.  We are at war stateside for rights and freedoms, for tax fairness and reparations.  The corporate right wing of the Republican party has been pretty much leading the Democrats around at will and this go-along to get-along nonsense has got to stop.  There is a war being fought for the direction of this country and the progressives, the not-rich and the people of African and Indigenous Descent, need a warrior.  People on the street recognize Barron as that man, a congressman with a national voice, tending to both his District and national interests as well.
In Congress, they might not like what Barron says, but he will help shape the debate and sometimes a little shaping is all you need.