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The first I’d heard about an alternative lifestyle called “down low” was when Dr. Monica Sweeney spoke of it at the Health Crisis meeting called by Congressman Major Owens.   She explained, “What is ‘life on the down low?’  That means there are men who are married or otherwise connected to a female partner, who, when they have their infidelities, have it with men and their partners are totally unsuspecting.”  
Where did this kind of behavior come from, this “down low” lifestyle of men sleeping with men? Provocatively featured in The New York Times Magazine, this behavior that Dr. Sweeney warned us about is spreading HIV/AIDS throughout African-American communities to devastating effects.   “It comes from the prison system,” said the caller to WBAI (99.5FM), and her words rang true.  Of course the prison system would play a part in this.  After all, that’s where the unbelted pants and untied shoes come from.  And sex in prisons is a long-known worldwide phenomenon that comes from incarcerating men for long periods of time.  The race of the person has nothing to do with it.  But here in the United States, we have a situation where blacks, while only 13% of the U.S. population, are 50% of all prison inmates.  In fact, the Justice Policy Institute notes, “Between 1980 and 2000, it is estimated that African-American men were added to the prison system at 3 times the rate they were added to colleges. During that period, 21,800 African American men were estimated to have been added to the prison system and 7,247 were added to colleges.  In 2000, one out of three young black men was either locked up, on probation, or on parole.”   This explains how Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn has an enrollment that is 78% female, mirroring the situation we find at Historically Black Colleges across the country. 
In New York State, these men come  mostly from neighborhoods here in the city, and if you live in central Brooklyn, then “behind the  prison wall” is really the room in the next building.  And when men are released from a punitive rather than rehabilitating environment, from an environment that does not allow them to learn, to grow and to come to their senses, and they are dropped off on the street by bus or subway directly from the prison door without being phased into society, then many times the behaviors they were practicing yesterday are transferred to the next block or around the corner.   
The Lowdown on the “Down Low”:
And yet that doesn’t explain where it comes from, this acting on a desire, while uncaringly and wantonly spreading disease throughout the general population.  Dr. Amos Wilson said that when you look at this kind of situation, you have to ask, “Who benefits from this aberration in the Black man’s mind?  What is the social, political and economic benefit, and for whom?” 
Who Profits?
Taking Dr. Wilson’s admonitions to heart we ask, “What is the social role, function and benefits of this behavior, who profits?”
If you look at the net effect of this reported “downlow” culture, it has to be acknowledged as being a White supremacist’s favorite dream.  Black men removing themselves from sexual competition for females, and when they do compete in the heterosexual market, they spread the highly communicable and deadly disease, HIV/AIDS.  While being highly profitable for the pharmaceutical and health care industries, at the same time it destroys the African-American community, certainly making it easier here in Brooklyn for Whites to buy or “gentrify” as these system beneficiaries innocently call it when they smilingly move in up the block.
Continuum of Community Destruction
This disease and takeover of the Black communities is occurring at the end of a forty-year process, so let’s take a look at how we got here.  In the December 1999 issue of OTP, we wrote about the history of  Africans-in-America and the continuum of States’methods used to break down our communities.  The following is an excerpt from that issue.
 “After the Voting Rights Act of 1965, there was a quickening impatience with the White supremacist culture of the United States.  The anger erupted in the street rebellions of the 60’s.  These were first met with troops and tanks and then as the anger became more focused and organized, there was a Counter-Intelligence Program.  Known as COINTELPRO, this operation combined city, state and federal law enforcement agencies in a joint effort to destroy the increasingly militant activism of the African-American community. Groups like the Black Panther Party were infiltrated and destroyed.  Misinformation was sown and African-American dissenters were treated by law enforcement agencies in the same way as dissenters are in any country with very strict rules for minority people and dissenting opinions.  Some like Fred Hampton were murdered in their beds.  Others were shot down in the streets or jailed on false charges.   This history continues to live on in prisons where many of those politically-active black people are still held today. 
 One of the things that may have been learned by COINTELPRO operatives was that African-Americans are an unusually resilient and community-centered people – there is a legacy of spirituality and self-help-and a way had to be found to break that.   It was during the Sixties that highly addictive and debilitating compounds, drugs, became readily available in African-American communities across the country.  If you want to know where in the world the drugs at the corner were coming from, look to where in the world the CIA was active at the time. In the Sixties, the heroin epidemic came in from CIA cohorts in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. This is extensively documented in Al McCoy’s book, “The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia.”
Going into minute detail, McCoy shows how the CIA’s connection with its covert allies led directly to the heroin epidemic of the 1960’s. The crack explosion coincided with the CIA’s work on behalf of the Reagan administration in support of the Nicaraguan Contras in the mid-Eighties. In Dark Alliance, investigative reporter Gary Webb reveals the connections between the Contras, the CIA and the crack epidemic of the 1980’s.   In one instance, Danilo Blandon, a CIA “asset”, was reported to have brought in “easily” 55 tons of cocaine between 1980 and 1991.   This is only one of the people controlling deliveries destined for African-American communities. As one convicted deputy put it in Dark Alliance, “I didn’t pump 500 tons of cocaine into the ghetto.  The United States government can’t say that.”
Prison “Seasoning”: Updating Human Software
One of the distinguishing features of the slavery business was the one-to-three-year formal process known as “seasoning.”  This was when new captives from Africa were terrorized and programmed into slavery and their roles on the plantations.  If we were to judge the United States as we do people, that is by what it does rather than by what it says, then the current criminal justice system can be seen as an updated version of the “seasoning” process.  It catches unending streams of black men and puts them into cages for the installation of new behavior software to fit the current needs of the ruling classes.   Farmwork is long past and the industrial age is shifting offshore.  The remnants of those jobs and the remaining technical, government and small businesses can be handled by a much smaller workforce.   There are people needed in the service areas, but according to a New York judge, those folks won’t need more than an eighth-grade education. 
So one of the things that is done is shown in a report from the College Consortium at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. They note that “in 1994, under a provision of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, Congress eliminated inmate eligibility for Pell Grants. Allowing inmate access to Pell Grants was viewed as taking money away from law-abiding citizens, despite the fact that inmate education accounted for 1/10 of 1% of the Pell Grants’ annual budget.  At the time that federal support was removed, extensive research demonstrated that recidivism rates decline significantly with higher education.  Despite the evidence, by 1995, all but eight of the 350 college programs in prisons were closed nationwide. As public funds for college education in all New York State prisons were eliminated, a successful college program at BHCF, run by Mercy College from 1984 through 1994, closed its doors. Given the extraordinarily low levels of educational achievement with which most enter prison, this loss was not only educationally consequential but also, according to reports from women and corrections officers at BHCF, profound in terms of morale and discipline.” 
Did you spot the enemy’s PR marker in the above paragraph?  It’s “viewed as taking money away from law-abiding citizens.”   That’s the way a lobbyist says, “You’re taking money from White people and giving it to Blacks.”  What’s left unspoken is that it’s being used to give them an education and the collective subconscious, part social-engineering and part genetics, does not even want them to survive.
New Technology Leads Way
to Solving Control Problem
One of the technologies used in WWI was social engineering, and the importance of the work of Dr. Edward Bernays, “The Father of Public Relations,” cannot be overstated. Bernays was the author of Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923), Propaganda (1928) and The Engineering of Consent (1947).  During the war, he worked for the U.S. Committee on Public Information (CPI), the group charged with marketing the war to the American people.  It was they who developed the WWI rallying cry, “To make the world safe for democracy,” to help bind the nation behind the war, and also to create the template for all the war-rallying that has followed.  From these kinds of government projects, as well as work being done with mass psychology in the private sector, it would indicate that state-of-the-art social engineering  is a tool that any ruling class or business has in its kit. 
I believe it is this cumulative use in business and government, expressed most visibly in advertising and political action committees, that creats a collective subconscious that is always looking for profit and racial control and because it’s exercised mostly by Whites, there is a peculiar sense of racial superiority and animosity is exercised as well.  That’s why an obvious solution – education in prisons – is a very difficult idea.
This subconscious would have had two intolerable situations developing after WWII.  African-American businesses were growing  in pockets around the country and African-American children, taught in second-class schools by first-class teachers who believed in them, were becoming increasingly militant and vocal. 
Working in a way that is not a conspiracy but has the effect of one, government and business were able to take the journey for equal rights, for which African-Americans had marched and fought for during the Fifties and Sixties, and transform it into a movement that “wins” by having White businesses accept Black patronage and demanding that European people educate (or miseducate, according to Carter G. Woodson) Black children.
A  popular quote by Bernays  from Propaganda is, “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in a democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitutes an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country…. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.”
“My People are Destroyed for Lack
of Knowledge…” Hosea 3:6
Referring to what is needed to cure the current conditions of Africans in America, Reverend Johnny Ray Youngblood, of East New York’s St. Paul Community Baptist Church, says that “when ‘our’ masses begin acknowledging and purging the pain of the past, profound political, social and economic change is inevitable.”   Toward that end, for the last nine years St. Paul has hosted a “Commemoration of the MAAFA”, a Kiswali term encompassing the experience of millions of Africans during the Middle Passage, when they were brought to the Americas for enslavement. 
In workshops and seminars led by experts in their field, the Commemoration seeks to reveal the American situation and that “The way out is back through.”  And in that knowledge we have the key to stopping unhealthy, self-destructive and community-degrading behavior.   We have to also remember that in a very real way, helping us to rebuild will be an old spirit.    Brought together by technology and the conditions of African people worldwide, there is a new excitement around Pan-Africanism, the work of the African Union and the tantalizing promise of the synergy of the AU’s proposed “Region Six”, comprised of the Diaspora with all of its economic and political potential.
If we can stop the violence, stop the disease, and exercise the right to vote as diligenlly as we do

The African Burial Ground
More than a decade ago in New York City, archeologists excavated one of the most significant finds in American history: the largest known intact colonial African cemetery in America, the African Burial Ground. Stretching more than five city blocks, from Broadway beyond Lafayette Street to the east and from Chambers beyond Duane Street to the north, the cemetery was discovered in 1991 during the construction of a federal office building at 290 Broadway.
The remains of approximately 20,000 enslaved Africans were buried in the Lower Manhattan cemetery, which opened in the late 1600s and closed in 1795, and at that time represented the outskirts of the city proper. The remains of more than 400 men, women, and children were discovered carefully shrouded, buried mostly in hexagonal coffins, with coins and other artifacts. Half of those discovered were under the age of twelve, and some 1.5 million artifacts clothing, food, and other materials-were found at the burial ground and construction site. The discovery was a staggering one for anthropologists, historians, and the community. More than evidence of the often concealed or overlooked contributions of African Americans to New York City history, the remains are a poignant reminder of the inviolability of the family, community, and cultural ties among enslaved Africans living under the most oppressive of circumstances.
The burial ground, virtually disregarded before 1991, was for nearly 200 years concealed below city buildings, parking lots, and streets. Today it reflects a rich African history and culture in this city, a history that dates back more than 350 years. This fall, after some ten years of study, the ancestral remains from the burial ground will be returned to a permanent resting-place adjacent to 290 Broadway.
The 6-city commemorative ceremony, organized by the Schomburg Center and the U.S. General Services Administration, will  include Washington DC, Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, Newark and end in Lower Manhattan. The event will take place over five days, in five states and the District of Columbia, ending with an arrival ceremony, vigil, tribute, and reinterment ceremony at the African Burial Ground.
(Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture)

When my mom and I got on the plane at La Guardia Airport, I was very excited. Waiting in the airport for the flight, there were a lot of celebrities going to the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina that I already knew. Barbara Montgomery kissed me on the cheek, said “hello,” and gave me a hug. We also saw Mr. Woodie King, Jr., Rome Neal, and Andre De Shields. Ralph Carter hugged me and introduced to his mother. We saw the cast of American Menu and we told them how great their show was.
On the plane ride down, I played my Gameboy Advance. When we arrived in Greensboro, North Carolina, I was very happy to be back- I had gone with my mom two years ago to the festival.
From the airport a van took us to Winston-Salem, North Carolina and we went to our hotel room, which was very pretty. In the lobby of the Adam Mark Hotel, where a lot of festival activities occurred.   I was very excited when I saw Janet Hubert, the mom from Fresh Prince of Bel Air. When I said “hello” to her, she gave me a hug and we took a picture together.  Actress Ebony Joann said “hello” and gave me a big hug; so did Lillias White.
That night, my mom and I went to the awards dinner. It was very nice. Then we went to see Lillias White in her opening night show, From Brooklyn to Broadway II. White was excellent. She really knows how to work her magic onstage.
The next day actress Edithe Jason said “hello” to me and shook my hand. Garland Lee Thompson said “hi” and hugged me. My mom and I went to see two plays in the afternoon. Hillary & Monica is an extremely funny show. The women that play Hillary [Heidi J. Dallin] & Monica [Jacqueline Kristel] and the president’s secretary Betty [Marjorie Johnson], and the man who plays the president [Randall England] do a wonderful job. The man who plays the president also plays Sam, Hillary’s secret service agent. People really need to see this show.
Aunt Rudele’s Family Reunion was the next play. In that show a man [Nate Jacobs] plays a woman-Aunt Rudele and other characters. The show is about Aunt Rudele and her family going on a picnic for their family reunion and her talking about everybody. It was a very funny show. There were certain parts that a child my age shouldn’t have seen, but it was very entertaining.
That night, we saw a play about Louis Armstrong called A Tuff Shuffle: Backstage with Louis Armstrong. The man that played him [Danny Mullen] did a very good job. He sounded like Mr. Armstrong and he reminded me of him. The actor talked about everything that happened in Mr. Armstrong’s life. When he ate gumbo in front of the audience, said he was going to the bathroom and at intermission he was going to take a shower, it was like you were in the house really talking with Mr. Armstrong.
Rome Neal did a great job in Monk as Monk. He plays other characters also. He talks about everything that happened to Monk when he was a kid and when he was growing up.
The next day we saw Miss Evers’ Boys, a very serious drama. This show is about a disease called syphilis that kills people. Doctors have a cure called penicillin. But they won’t give the sick men the cure. They will study the men as they let them die. Nurse Evers is taking care of the sick men and tells the story from her point of view. She didn’t want to do it, but she had no choice. She had to follow the doctors’ orders.
Barefoot in the Park is very funny. It’s about a couple married for six days who move into a run-down apartment, and that’s where the laughs begin. The man that plays the husband Paul [Tony Grant] does a very good job. His singing is wonderful. Kim Fields plays Corie his wife. She does a great job. Ella Joyce plays her mother and does a wonderful job also. People really need to see this show.
Kids from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, did a show called Home & Hood. It was part of the Celebrity Youth Project. Home & ‘Hood was a very entertaining show. Sixteen kids were rapping, dancing and some were singing about life in the ‘Hood.
The Piano Lesson was very nice. Some of the play was funny, some very serious and some spiritual. It was about a brother and sister arguing over selling a piano. The piano had to stay in the sister’s house because a ghost would not let it go. The piano had been in this family since slavery and connected with the souls of their ancestors.
These are some of the plays I saw with my mom.
Going to the 2003 National Black Theatre Festival was an extraordinary experience.

From August 4-9 the only place to be was Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where the 14th Anniversary National Black Theatre Festival (NBTF) was held. It was absolutely glorious.
For theater lovers the event was like journeying to a theatrical mecca. The Reader’s Theatre, now in its 10th year, coordinated by Garland Lee Thompson of the Frank Silvera Writers’ Workshop, provided multiple opportunities for hearing thirty new works of playwrights in play readings that occurred during the day and night. Celebrities like Hal Williams and Andre De Shields participated in these readings. This year’s Reader’s Theatre was dedicated to the memory of the late playwright John Henry Redwood. Redwood delighted audiences with magnificent plays including The Old Settler.
Companies from around the country performed thirty full productions including dramas, comedies, musicals, cabaret, youth, collegiate and hip-hop theater. However, theater companies from the New York area distinguished themselves this year, as they presented seven of the shows.
Broadway Diva, Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards recipient Lillias White had the headliner show which opened the festival. A native of Brooklyn, White’s show, From Brooklyn to Broadway II is a cabaret-style production. White kicked back, sang, danced and told the audience about her life.
The Billie Holiday Theatre in Brooklyn presented the dramatic comedy Faith On Line written and directed by Joyce Sylvester. It is the story of siblings arguing over whether to sell their inherited Harlem brownstone.
Rome Neal from the Nuyorican Poets Caf‚ performed the one-man show Monk written by Laurence Holder and co-directed by Neal and Holder. The play was an in-depth look into the jazz pianist and composer’s life. Monk was presented by Holder/Neal Productions.
New Federal Theatre presented playwright Ron Milner’s Urban Transition: Loose Blossoms. Directed by Woodie King, Jr., the play vividly chronicles a family’s destruction. When a father is unable to work, his young son turns to crime to keep the family financially stable.
Black Spectrum Theatre, based in Jamaica, New York, gave a rousing performance of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson. The production was directed by Bette Howard. “The Piano Lesson” focused on a brother and sister arguing over selling a piano which had been in the family since slavery. The production was absolutely incredible.
The Harlem-based H.A.D.L.E.Y. Players had two productions at the festival. American Menu, a brilliant AUDELCO Award-winning drama written by Don Wilson Glenn and directed by Ajene Washington, looked at racism in the South in 1968.
The other H.A.D.L.E.Y. Players piece was A Song for You…A Civil Rights Journey of a Negro Woman: Lena Calhoun Horne. The play is written and performed by Wendi Joy Franklin and directed by Leon Pinkney. The production took the audience on a journey through the childhood and career of this talented entertainer.
Theatrical professionals hailing from New York were also among the honorees at NBTF. Carl Clay, artistic director of the Black Spectrum Theatre, was given the Larry Leon Hamlin Producer’s Award. Bette Howard received the Lloyd Richard’s Director’s Award, along with Rome Neal. Playwright P.J. Gibson was given the August Wilson Playwright Award. Actor Adam Wade was honored as a Living Legend.
Actor Ralph Carter, also from New York, demonstrated his writing ability as The Reader’s Theatre performed his work called Grandma’s Hand. It is a story focusing on the relationship and love between five generations of women. The play demonstrated how supportive family could be and was filled with engaging humor.
The event, co-chaired by Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Melba Moore, was a gathering of the Black Theatre family at a homecoming that celebrity and noncelebrity alike look forward to attending every two years. Festival founder, producer and artistic director Larry Leon Hamlin has created a must-go event.
This year’s festival brought one up close and personal with stars including Barbara Montgomery, Richard Roundtree, Bill Cobbs, Diahann Carroll, Malik Yoba, CCH Pounder, Adam Wade, Andre De Shields, Hal Williams, Joseph Marcell, Ella Joyce, Maurice Hines, Mercedes Ellington, Kim Fields, RaeVen Larrymore Kelly, Kim Brockington, P.J. Gibson and many others. There was time to shoot a picture, get an autograph or simply talk.
There was so much to experience at the festival. It will be difficult to wait until 2005 for the next one.

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1pm-6pm:  First Thursdays at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum.  The first Thursday of every month is free at the museum.  The museum provides activities like “Let’s Get Physical” and “Animal Architects” for the children.  Brooklyn Children’s Museum, 145 Brooklyn Ave., Bklyn, NY.  Museum hours:  Tues.-Fri. 1-6pm; Sat. and Sun.  11am-6pm.

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10:am   Million Youth March.  Rally at noon.  For Black Power, unity and stopping violence injustice.  At Fulton Street and Nostrand Avenue, Brooklyn.  For info. (212) 387-2077.

3pm-7pm:  Alternative Health Fair, presented by Southern Comforts.  Come and meet some of the best health professionals in the field-ask questions, receive literature and view free demonstrations.  There will also be chair massage specials for $1.00 per minute (10-minute minimum).  Admission is $10.  Southern Comforts, 483 Atlantic Ave. (between Nevins St. and 3rd Ave.), Bklyn, NY.

2pm-4pm:  Nubian Heritage Book-Signing,  Three Days Before the Crow Flies by Danny Simmons.  Nubian Heritage, 560 Fulton St., Downtown Bklyn.  For more information call (718) 797-4400.

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2pm:  Family Culture Workshop:  A Handful of Fortune, presented by the Brooklyn Children’s Museum.  Explore the meaning of the hamsa (Arabic for five), an ancient symbol of an open hand that is used by Muslim, Sephardic Jewish, and Christian families for good fortune and protection.  Brooklyn Children’s Museum, 145 Brooklyn Ave., Bklyn, NY.

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3pm-5pm:  Nubian Heritage Book-Signing, He’s Just a Friend by Mary B. Morrison. Nubian Heritage, 560 Fulton St., Downtown Bklyn.  For more information call (718) 797-4400.

7:30pm-9:30pm:  Rehearsals for the fall concert to be given by The Brooklyn Contemporary Chorus begin.  If you like to sing, come an join us.  The fall concert is November 23, 2003.  Location for rehearsals:  Cadman Memorial Congregational Church, Clinton and Lafayette Aves. (entrance on Lafayette Ave.).

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9am:  Ceremony in honor of The 12 Black Firemen who Perished in the Sept. 11 WTC Disaster, presented by First Quincy Street Green Thumb and Vulcan Society, Inc., F.D.N.Y.  Location:  397-401 Quincy St. (near Tompkins Ave.).  For more information call (718) 547-6175 or (718) 574-6291.

6pm-9pm:  Public Forum on “Rites of Ancestral Return:  Commemorating the Colonial African Heritage” at Medgar Evers College.  There will be a slide presentation on the history of the African Burial Ground, an update on Oct. 3-4 commemorative activities and Q&A about public participation.  Medgar Evers College, Founders Auditorium, 1650 Bedford Ave., Bklyn, NY.  For more information call (718) 270-5051 or (212) 491-2040.

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6pm-9pm:  Male and Female Pampering Party, presented by Southern Comforts. (See page 12)  Advance Ticket Sales Only.  Ticket Deadline Thursday, September 11.  Southern Comforts, 483 Atlantic Ave. (between Nevins St. and 3rd Ave.), Bklyn, NY.

Noon:  National Reparations Rally, to demand that criminals pay for their crimes against humanity.  United Nations, 47th St. and 1st Ave., New York, NY.  For more information contact Millions for Reparations, 456 Nostrand Ave.; Bklyn, NY 11216, (718) 398-1766.

13-27
Commemorating the MAAFA 2003.  “The Way Out is Back Through.”  My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.Hosea 3:6. For more information call St. Paul Community Maafa Resource Center at (718) 257-2884.

2pm-4pm:  Nubian Heritage Book-Signing, The Sycamore Tree,  a children’s book by Our Time Press Publisher, David Greaves.  Nubian Heritage, 560 Fulton St., Downtown Bklyn.  For more information call (718) 797-4400.

10am-6pm:  2003 Community Day and 10K Walk/Run, presented by the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation.  The day will commence with the run and fun walk.  Later on there will be music, dance performance, storytelling, and more.  Prizes and trophies will be given to the top male and female runners.

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 5:pm-7pm:  Judge Glenda Hatchett – “Say What You and Mean and Mean What You Say: 7 Simple Strategies to Help our Children Along the Path to Purpose and Possibility” presented by Brownstone Books at Akwaaba Mansion, 347 MacDonough Street.  Reading and signing.

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8:30am-4pm:  So you want to stte a non-profit organization:  Conference to help women find information and resources to start & develop all kinds of nonprofit agencies.   The Leadership Institute of African American female executives is sponsoring this FREE conference.  Contact: Violet Mitchell @ (718) 855-8099 for registration and information. 
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9am-5pm:  Annual Flea Market, presented by Brooklyn Community Chorus.  Rain date:  September 27.  Location:  Corner of Washington and Willoughby Aves.  For more information call (718) 857-9765 or (718) 953-8727.

10am:  Dr. Edwin Nichols, a prominent clinical psychologist and director of Nichols Associates, will speak at the Ninth Annual Commemoration of the MAAFA.  For more information contact St. Paul Community Maafa Resource Center at (718) 257-2884.

11am-5pm:  9th Annual Doll Show presented by Do Remember Me at Zawadi Gifts.  Unique Dolls by talented Doll Makers.  Lee Middleton Dolls & Daddy Longlegs Dolls.  Hand-crafted Dolls and Quilts.  519 Atlantic Avenue (3rd & 4th Aves.), Brooklyn, (718) 624-7822.

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X-plorers Club:  From a Mummy’s Tomb:  Canopic Jars.  Travel back in time to the tombs of Ancient Egypt.  Learn an Egyptian tale and make your own container inspired by canopic jars.  For children ages 8 and older.  Brooklyn Children’s Museum, 145 Brooklyn Ave., Bklyn, NY.

6am and noon:  The MAAFA Suite.   For more information contact St. Paul Community Maafa Resource Center at (718) 257-2884.
 
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6pm-8pm:  Tools for the Future:  A College Prep Seminar for Families, presented by The New York Times and Hunter College.  Join Hunter College directors and New York Times media reporter Jacques Steinberg for a panel discussion on how to get into college and how to pay for it.  Check-in time is 5:30p.m.  Admission is free. Advance registration is required.  To reserve seating at this seminar, reservations must be received by Sept. 15.  Please send your name, address, daytime phone number and the number of people in your party to:  NYTevents@aol.com.  You can also send the information by standard U.S. mail to: The New York Times/College Prep Seminar, Box 46505, Minneapolis, MN 55446-6505.  The event will be held at The Kate Playhouse, Hunter College, East 68th St., (bet. Lexington and Park Aves.), New York, NY.  For information only (no phone reservations) please call (212) 556-3507.
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7pm:  The MAAFA Suite.  For more information, contact St. Paul Community Maafa Resource Center at (718) 257-2884.

 9:15pm:  Gifted Singer, Songwriter, Composer Sylvia Patricia Barnes, a self-taught musician and Clinton Hill Resident, performs on Restaurant Row.  She will be accompanied by Yasuyuki Takagi (saxophone), Mten (percussion), and Nick Maj (guitar).  Cover charge: $10; food and drink minimum charge: $10.  Preshow dining will apply to your minimum.  For reservations call (212) 265-8133.  Reservations are a must.  Location:  346 West 46th St., New York, NY.

2pm-4pm:  Nubian Heritage Book-Signing, Blues from Down Deep by Gwynne Foster.  Nubian Heritage, 560 Fulton St., Downtown Bklyn.  For more information, call (718) 797-4400.

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9am-12:30pm:  Small Business Training Seminar, presented by Optimal Management Solutions and Akwaaba Caf‚.  Learn to use breakeven analysis to determine how much money your concept can make.  $49 per person ($69 day of seminar).  Seating is limited.  To register call (718) 856-6736 or visit www.optimalms.com.  Registration includes course materials and breakfast.  Akwaaba Caf‚, 393 Lewis Ave. (on the corner of Lewis Ave. and MacDonough St.).

Oct.2
6pm MEDGAR EVERS COLLEGE “LEGACY” AWARDS GALA & DINNER: Third Annual Fundraiser, benefitting the endowment fund, honors “Giant Killer” attorney-philanthropist Willie E. Gary; entrepreneur-philanthropists Russell Simmons and his brother Joseph “Rev. Run” Simmons; Washington Mutual’s Northeast sector community development head Donna Wilson and the popular television jurist Judge Joe Brown. Silent Auction, Networking, Music, Dancing and more, including Miss Melba Moore. Black Tie. For information, call 718-270-6971.