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Less is Moore

Marlon Rice
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Less is Moore

This past Tuesday night, the entire nation was tuned in to a special election taking place in the state of Alabama for a Senate seat. The race pitted Democrat Doug Jones against the Republican candidate Roy Moore. Usually, such an election in a southern state like Alabama would never get the attention of anyone in Brooklyn. With office Christmas parties abound, and with the season bringing us matured winter weather even though the calendar says that we are technically still in autumn, you would think that our focus would be more on coquito and Christmas shopping, and less on some election that doesn’t have anything remotely to do with our communities. But this wasn’t just any special election. This was the latest crossing of paths of the varying climates of our nation, a referendum on our current state of affairs, the meeting of the Trump Doctrine, New American Racism (which is just the same old racism just dressed differently) and the #metoo movement. And so, Tuesday night we all watched this race in Alabama, knowing full well that the results would represent the temperature of our nation, and whether or not we were still deathly sick or getting better.

On November 9th, the Washington Post reported on an encounter that Mr. Moore allegedly had with a Ms. Leigh Corfman. Ms. Corfman contends that when she was 14 years old she was involved in a sexual encounter with Mr. Moore. At the time he was 32 years old. She claims that she met Mr. Moore while he was working as an Assistant District Attorney. Her claim is that Mr. Moore wooed her in the courtroom and eventually took her out on two dates. On their last date he allegedly engaged with her sexually. After the Post report, another woman, Ms. Beverly Young Nelson, made a statement saying that she was the victim of unwanted sexual advances from Mr. Moore when she was 15 and 16 years old. Her claim is that she once accepted a ride home from Mr. Moore, and after driving for a time he stopped the car, groped her and made attempts to force her head into his crotch.

Since that report in the Post, at least 7 other women have come forward claiming that Mr. Moore was inappropriate with them at some point, their ages ranging from 16-28 at the time of the harassment. In this current climate of women speaking truth to power regarding unwanted advances and harassment, the Roy Moore story took on national legs as many prominent leaders on both sides of the aisle began calling for him to step down from the campaign. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan joined the voices calling for an end to Moore’s campaign. But Moore had one voice in his corner that leveled support and attention. Donald Trump immediately aligned with Moore, accepting his denials and supporting his run. Trump’s words compelled the nation to take sides, those who believe in equality and justice versus those who only believe in their own insecurities and stereotypes. What was missing in all of the rhetoric was the case for Doug Jones, Roy Moore’s opponent. Jones is an accomplished attorney. He prosecuted the remaining two Klansmen responsible for the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963 that killed four young girls. He was responsible for securing the indictment of the Atlanta Olympic Park Bomber. His record of service speaks for itself.

So, on Tuesday night we stood in a familiar place. An accomplished and qualified candidate versus a loudmouth whose allegations of wrongdoing rang louder than his qualifications. Sounds familiar? The state of Alabama went to the polls on Tuesday night, and their decision would reflect where we are headed as a nation.

The result? Doug Jones won. Trump’s blessing seems to be evolving into a “kiss of death”, and we as a nation are looking like we are getting better. With a little TLC and maybe an impeachment, we should be back to normal in no time.

Two-time Pulitzer Winner Lynn Nottage Honored at the New Billie Holiday Theatre

Fern Gillespie
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Two-time Pulitzer Winner Lynn Nottage Honored at the New Billie Holiday Theatre

By Fern Gillespie

Our Time Press was proud to be a co-sponsor of an intimate evening at Billie Holiday Theatre that honored Brooklyn’s historic two-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Lynn Nottage. A third generation Brooklynite, Nottage is the first woman playwright to earn two Pulitzer Prizes in theatre. Her first was the drama Ruined about the plight of women in the civil war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, which also earned OBIE, Lucille Lortel, New York Drama Critics’ Circle, Audelco, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards. This year, Sweat, about factory workers in a Pennsylvania steel-town, was awarded a Pulitzer.

It was a poignant program. Nottage’s Yale School of Drama classmates Yvonne Joyner Levette and Shay Wafer, Executive Director, 651 ARTS, recalled their budding friendships in the late 1980s as Black women grad students penning plays during the historic era of August Wilson and Dean Lloyd Richards at Yale. “Lynn gives you complete people,” said Levette.

Singer Carol Maillard of Sweet Honey In The Rock opened the salute with a song of empowerment. Dr. Indira Etwaroo, Executive Director, Restoration Art & The Billie Holiday Theatre spoke out about the importance of women’s voices in theater, especially the voices of women of color. She discussed 50in50: Writing Women Into Existence, a project curated by playwright and Lynn Nottage mentee Dominique Morisseau. Speakers also included Mandy Hackett, Associate Artistic Director, The Public Theater and BRIC Media Arts Board members Toni Yuille Williams who recruited Lynn for the BRIC Board, and Emily Harney, BRIC Deputy Director for Programming Initiatives,

There were readings of plays from different stages in Nottage’s career. Her first New York production Crumbs From The Table of Joy had a surprise introduction by veteran actor Joe Morton, Scandals’ Papa Pope, who directed this play for Nottage at Second Stage Theatre in 1995. A moving monologue was performed by Mandi Madsen. “Lynn went from fledging playwright to Pulitzer Prize playwright,” remarked Morton. A scene from award-winning Intimate Apparel, the tale of a Black seamstress during the early 20th century, was performed by Lynda Gravatt. The powerful Ruined monologue was performed by Quincy Tyler Bernstine. Her current critically acclaimed Broadway drama Sweat had a performance by Tony nominee Michele Wilson.

“Her plays deal with the business of being good, bad and ugly in communities dealing with tumultuous events.  Like all the greatest writers, she delves deeply in journey in the daily joys and pains of humanity. A legend in her own time with an incredibly beautiful mind,” pointed out Gordon Chambers, a Brown University friend and classmate, who is a Grammy winning songwriter (Anita Baker’s “I Apologize”) and the former entertainment editor of Essence Magazine. Chambers, who lives in Brooklyn, had a special salute in song.

Nottage is the recipient of a PEN/Laura Pels Master Playwright Award, Literature Award from The Academy of Arts and Letters, Columbia University Provost Grant, Doris Duke Artist Award,  Steinberg “Mimi” Distinguished Playwright Award, Nelson A. Rockefeller Award for Creativity, The Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Award, the inaugural Horton Foote Prize,Helen Hayes Award, the Lee Reynolds Award, and the Jewish World Watch iWitness Award. Her

other honors include the National Black Theatre Fest’s August Wilson Playwriting Award, a Guggenheim Grant, Lucille Lortel Fellowship and Visiting Research Fellowship at Princeton University and a MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship.

“Lynn has remained humble in spirit as I remember on campus in Brown University in the late 80’s.  I remember her always being soft-spoken, astute and possessing the powerful aura of a witness, an observer. A legend in her own time with an incredibly beautiful mind,” said Chambers. “She makes me incredibly proud.”

Balancing her career as a Columbia University professor and life as a mom, Nottage has a plethora of prolific projects exploring images of Black women in the works this year. She’s a producer and writer working with Spike Lee on the Netflix series of She’s Gotta Have It. The Secret Life of Bees, the famed film that starred Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson and Alicia Keys will have a musical adaption with the book by Nottage as part of the Powerhouse Theater summer season, which is presented by Vassar College and New York Stage and Film. Also, Nottage has an opera on Intimate Apparel in development.

As a child growing up in Bed Stuy, the Billie Holiday Theatre was her introduction to the power of Black theatre. Standing onstage and looking out into the audience of the newly renovated theatre, Nottage remarked: “I don’t think that I would be an artist if this stage didn’t exist.”

 

 

Hypocrites Trump & Moore Cannot Make America Great Again!

Lisa Durden
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Hypocrites Trump & Moore Cannot Make America Great Again!

By Lisa Durden

I never really paid the bible-thumping, right-winged, failed Chief Justice Roy Moore any mind until he opened his mouth and out came the most ignorant words in recent American history. In September, 2017, at Moore’s Florence, Alabama rally, this lone black attendee asked him a simple question: when was the last time he thought America was great? And with the utmost of ease, Roy Moore spewed, “I think it was great at the time when families were united — even though we had slavery — they cared for one another…. Our families were strong, our country had a direction,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

I’ve gotta tell ya, reading those hateful words spoken by Roy Moore really made my #BrainBleed! As I read every racist word, I had horrible visions of the Confederate flag dancing like a nasty, Christmas, fruitcake in my head. I processed his vile words as him missing the times in America when “Negros” were in their place. To Moore I say, correction: white American families were strong during slavery on the backs of our ancestors. Slavery was the biggest theft of labor in American history, which they are still profiting from today. So there was nothing caring about the slave master whipping us. There was nothing caring about the slave master hanging us. There was nothing caring about the slave master raping us. Clearly Roy Moore is delusional. He needs to lay on several couches because he’s really showing strong signs of mental illness.

But none of Roy Moore’s bigotry is surprising. Or at least it shouldn’t be. His mouth is reckless and his record on civil rights is frightening. The man had the nerve to call Native Americans and Asians Americans “reds and yellows” as if those are endearing nicknames. He poo-pooed the suggestion by black Alabama lawmakers to erect a monument of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. next to a monument of the Ten Commandments. When the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage, Moore flippantly likened it to the Supreme Court decision affirming segregation, saying, “I believe [gay marriage] is worse because it affects our entire system of morality and family values.”

I can go on because the list of bigotry is as long as walking a New York mile. However, I’ll stop right here so that I can point out more reasons why hypocrites More and Trump cannot make America great again. So, Roy “Mr. Morality” Moore is against gay marriage and abortion, but he thinks it’s ok to sexually violate teenagers. It’s been alleged that since the age of 30, “Mr. Morality” has been a child sexual predator. Although he denies it, Moore has been accused of molesting teens for years. I don’t know if the accusations are true, but I looked at Moore with a crooked eye when The Washington Post reported that in a thoroughly sourced and corroborated story, he allegedly molested a 14-year-old girl as an assistant district attorney and before yet another woman came forward to allege Moore groped and assaulted her when she was 16.

To make matters worse, when I heard that President Donald Trump, a.k.a. “Number 45,” announced his endorsement of “Misleader” Roy Moore as the Republican nominee for a United States Senate seat, I threw up in my mouth. But why would that be surprising?? After all, Trump is the mirror image of Moore. “Number 45” has also proven himself to be racist, sexist, homophobic and an alleged sex offender. As recent as Monday, December 11th, Brave New Films hosted a Facebook Live press conference where Trump accusers share their stories and call for an investigation into the president’s sexual misconduct. Hmmmm, “where there’s smoke, there’s fire. As my late mother always said, “birds of a feather flock together,” and “Mr. Morality” and “Number 45” are Old World Vultures.

Another unattractive attribute that Donald Trump shares with Roy Moore is his back peddling and hypocrisy. He shamelessly creates a racial divide by attempting to roll back the civil rights issues that are of importance to blacks and people of color, then had the brass balls to turn around and try to check U.S. Representative John Lewis for refusing to attend the opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum that took place last Saturday. The White House issued a statement saying it was “unfortunate” that Lewis and Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi “wouldn’t join the president in honoring the incredible sacrifice civil rights leaders made to right the injustices in our history,” adding that, “the movement was about removing barriers and unifying Americans of all backgrounds.” Actually I agree with “Number 45” about needing to remove barriers — and the first barrier that we should remove is him from the White House.

John Lewis tweeted, “President Trump’s attendance and his hurtful policies are an insult to the people portrayed in this civil rights museum. After President Trump departs, we encourage all Mississippians and Americans to visit this historic civil rights museum.” As usual, Trump is really off the rails, so I don’t blame Mr. Lewis for not wanting to align himself with two-faced Donald Trump by being a part of the museum opening and smiling with him for the cameras — that would be “Fake News!”

 

 

 

 

Colin Kaepernick, Our Time Press Man of the Year

Editor, Our Time Press
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Colin Kaepernick, Our Time Press Man of the Year

Quarterback Colin Kaepernick engaged and redirected the consciousness of sports when he knelt at the 49ers’ final 2016 game during the U.S. national anthem rather than sit as he had done previously. In protesting the nationwide series of unpunished police killings and harassment of people of color, he was insisting that the nation acknowledge how far from justice we are.

Since a year ago, he has scored his greatest touchdown off the field and within the hearts of communities throughout the nation and around the world by casting a light on the conversation that America needs to have. But his actions have cost him his career.

Because of Mr. Kaepernick’s immense courage in holding up the banner of truth to American big business and big politics, his actions in taking a stand in one of the most hostile of environments, his philanthropy at the grassroots level, his inspiration to all races and his determination to follow in the traditions of the greatest athletes of our recent past–football All-American Paul Robeson facing down the House Un-American Activities Committee; runners Tommy Smith and John Carlos protesting racial injustice with black-gloved fists raised and heads bowed at the 1968 Olympics and Muhammad Ali sacrificing his heavyweight champion title by being a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War — Colin Kaepernick is Our Time Press’ 2017 Man of the Year.

“This stand wasn’t for me. I’m seeing things happen to people who don’t have a platform to have their voices heard and affect change. I’m in a position where I can do that, and I’m going to do that for the people who can’t.”

View From Here

David Mark Greaves
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View From Here

 

The many dynamics causing the shrinking enrollment and triggering the difficult recommendation to close P.S. 25 will move the process forward by their own inertia if community pressure is not brought to bear to change the course. Given choices of public schools outside the district or even outside the system These dynamics are as close as a parent’s trust in the teacher and the down the street school, and as far away as billionaire public education assassin Betsy DeVos and the education aspect of the Republican tax plan.

According to the DOE School Quality Snapshot 2016-2017 of the overall dismal performance of city schools on State tests, PS 25 ranks higher than the city averages across the vast majority of categories. The performance on state tests in English shows 47% at P.S. 25 meeting state standards versus 29% for the district and 40% citywide. When the challenges facing the students are taken into consideration, the Comparison Group achieves only 26% of state standards. The same is true in math. 48% meeting state standards for PS 25 versus 27% for the district, 42% citywide and 28% by Comparison Group. The challenge is to double the enrollment, perhaps with an enthusiastic-current-parent-to-prospective-parent campaign of after-work buffets, coupled with a plan to bring the school averages up to 100% on State tests.

Citywide averages 40% on state education tests is not only a civic emergency, in this hyper-competitive world, with the highly-educated from around the country and the world coming to Brooklyn, it is an existential threat to the well-being of the black and brown communities occupying the bottom rungs of the education ladder.

The community has to raise its voice and be in the struggle here on the ground because the Republican tax plan is coming to take what resources there are. In the accompany essay, “Tax Incentives to Secede from Public Education” Richard D. Kahlenberg says of the tax plan’s relation to public education “The stakes are high. A 2011 report of the Center on Education policy estimated that complete elimination of the state and local tax deduction would deprive public schools of $17 billion—an amount greater than the entirety of Title I federal financing for public education. Michael Dannenberg of Democrats for Education Reform estimates that the House bill “would whack about $250 billion in support for public education over the next ten years.”

President Trump has place us in a war for the soul and future of the nation, and the schools are where the battle is fought door-to-door. As the late Bedford-Stuyvesant activist Janie Lee Green repeatedly said, “If you lose the schools you lose the community.” If we are to raise the standard and keep our local schools, we need that on-the-ground spirit now more than ever.

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