Community Board 3 chair Tremaine Wright yesterday held off Community Activist Karen Cherry to win the 56th Assembly District left vacant by the retirement of Assemblywoman Annette Robinson.
According to unofficial totals Wright received 59 percent or 3,679 votes to Cherry’s 41 percent or 2,577 votes.
“I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who dedicated time, energy, talent, and funds to this effort. You all built a movement and I am excited to continue to work with you. I must extend a special word of thanks to my church family, sorority, block association, Vanguard Independent Democratic Association family, BGR crew, my mom and, sisters and brothers,” said Wright.
“For the last 14 years our community has been served by Assemblywoman Annette M. Robinson. She has worked tirelessly to secure resources for our community. I am thankful for her service and her willingness to offer guidance and support to me along with a host of younger people looking to serve their communities. I am honored and humbled. I pray that our community continues to work together to protect and improve Crown Heights and Bedford Stuyvesant,” she added.
“I want to take a moment and pause and say thank you, because she has been a tremendous support and mentor to me during this process. She has worked to open doors for me,” Wright reportedly said.
Besides being chair and longtime member of CB 3, Wright helped found the Brooklyn Alliance for Safer Streets, and owned the Common Grounds coffee shop on Tompkins Avenue, which she closed last year to gear up for the assembly run.
While Wright is a member of the politically powerful and hard-working Vanguard Independent Democratic Association (VIDA) political club, Cherry is also no stranger to organized politics as she was a longtime aide to former Congressman Ed Towns and current works as a community liaison for Assemblyman Erik Dilan.
Assemblywoman Latrice Walker
Also, in Tuesday’s primary, Assemblywoman Latrice Walker cruised to unexpectedly easy re-election victory over term-limited City Councilwoman Darlene Mealy in the 55th Assembly district covering Brownsville and parts of East New York, East Flatbush and Canarsie.
According to the unofficial tally, Walker received 74 percent or 4,153 votes to Mealy’s 26 percent or 1,420 votes. Mealy did retain her unpaid Democratic district leadership position, however, as did Anthony Jones as the male Democratic District leader.
“I am grateful to the voters of the 55th Assembly District who re-elected me to represent them in Albany. Their overwhelming mandate is proof that my constituents want leadership that works,” said Walker.
“During my first term in office we have launched Solarize Brownsville, brought $700 million for a new and improved health care delivery system, fought for truly affordable housing, and increased the minimum wage to $15. This is only the beginning. In partnership with the residents of the 55th AD, I pledge to continue improving the quality of life for everyone in the district.”
State Senator Velmanette Montgomery
State Sen. Velmanette Montgomery also won handily in defeating challenger Michael Cox with a commanding 69 percent or 10,006 votes to 31 percent or 4,471 votes for Cox in the 25th Senatorial district race. The district includes Bedford-Stuyvesant, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Boerum Hill and Carroll Gardens.
State Sen. Roxanne Persaud also scored a decisive win over challenger Mercedes Narcisse , garnering nearly 76 percent or 9,986 votes to Narcisse’s 24 percent or 3,160 votes in the 19th Senatorial district. Persaud had the strong backing of Kings County Democratic Party Boss Frank Seddio, while Narcisse had the backing of Assemblyman Charles Barron and his wife, City Councilwoman Inez Barron.
The district includes Canarsie, East New York, Brownsville, Bergen Beach, Mill Basin and Gerritsen Beach.
Sharon Lash was standing on the 41st floor of 26 Federal Plaza when she felt a jolt. “I heard a ‘boom’! Then the building swayed,” she recalls. Lash, who is blind, heard someone scream, “It’s going into the Towers!” Then the second plane hit. “Get out of the building!” a man yelled. She and her service dog Haley crammed into an elevator that discharged them on the ground floor. “We were told to go straight to the first floor without stopping at our desks. I wanted to get my Braille machine, my Frank Sinatra CD’s and my sandwich,” she says, remembering what it felt like to be pushed forward into thousands of people heading uptown. “I didn’t know where I was and I was worried about my dog. She refused a drink of water but she just wanted to get home.” The air was filled with burning soot. The blind woman and her dog struggled to keep going. “A lawyer stopped to ask if I needed help. He said he had seen people jumping out of windows.”
What she remembers most about that day is a hollow, crashing sound of the world’s tallest buildings going down. It’s a sound that still echoes in her dreams.
What do you remember?
The imprint of September 11, 2001 left unforgettable impressions that changed each of us and all of us. In the collective psyche of our community, we measure our lives before and after that day.
For those of us who are old enough to remember the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 9/11/01 is a day stored in our minds in lucid detail.
Where were you?
What were you doing at the time?
What were your first impressions?
Now, looking back 15 years later, how did 9/11 change your life?
The Centers for Disease Control WTC Health Program reports that 8,942 members (6,809 responders and 2,133 survivors) are receiving services for mental health issues related to the September 11th attacks. But we can also look at the psychic imprint of 9/11 as a sacred wound.
Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, one of the founders of modern psychology, used the Greek term ketabasis to describe a soul wound that affects and changes us from the inside out. It forces us to grow in knowledge, experience and compassion. Some say this accelerated growth can ONLY happen after a catastrophic event like September 11th. Over the years, having worked with more than one thousand people affected by these events, I believe that the soul wound gives us five gifts. I call them the “Five Unbearable Gifts” because none of us wants them until we absolutely need them. But without them, we will remain stuck in shock, grief and heart-wrenching pain.
Those five gifts are: humility, patience, empathy, forgiveness and growth.
As a psychotherapist specializing in helping people with trauma and PTSD issues, the first five years after September 11, 2001 I was privileged to work with several different 9/11 populations. In my office across the street from St. Vincent’s Hospital, I treated hundreds of eyewitnesses who were struggling with flashbacks, nightmares and hypervigilance. (The most effective modality at the time was Eye Movement Integration ™, a technique similar to EMDR ™, which helps the brain to neutralize painful flashbacks so that events can be recalled without disturbing emotions.) At holistic health fairs at BMCC and YMCA’s around the city, we set up a triage table where I treated as many as 100 people a day with Eye Movement Integration ™.
I interviewed those for whom 9/11 was a catalyst for healing. Maurice Kougell had always dreamed of playing music with his brother Alexander. A professional cellist, Alex was always on the road. Over time, the brothers had become estranged. But 9/11 caused Alexander to stop flying to concerts and when Maurice called after some 20 years, he welcomed the opportunity to start playing chamber music with his brother on Fridays.
Lawyers reported that divorces were up. At the same time, the Vice President of Romance for match.com reported that membership in the New York area jumped 300 percent three weeks after the World Trade Center attacks. She told me that many single people felt that if the world was going to end, they wanted someone sitting on the couch with them as they watched it on TV. Professional organizers also reported a surge in business. People felt that if they were hit by a bus—or something catastrophic—they didn’t want a loved one to have to clean up their messes. A Washington Post-ABC News poll taken around that time showed that 55 percent of those surveyed believe that the events of Sept. 11th changed their lives in a lasting way, and 38 percent said the change was for the better.
Another New York Times assignment made me aware of the special needs of teenagers whose fathers were killed that day. For 9/11 Families, Shoulders To Cry On: (http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/31/nyregion/for-9-11-families-shoulders-to-cry-on.html), a story about a counseling center on Long Island that was dedicated to the needs of family members who had lost someone in the Towers. Dr. Tom Demaria, director of the WTC Family Center, hired me to direct a program for teens and young adults with parent loss. In this short documentary narrated by Dan Rather (and which I was privileged to script), you can see those five unbearable gifts in action:
After The Fall: The Rise of a 9/11 Community Center Part Two
“Dear God, please give the people who hurt us a heart.”
Those words, from a 9-year-old girl whose fireman dad was killed trying to rescue people in the first Tower, led to a children’s prayer wall near the entrance of the WTC Family Center. It never failed to affect me when I arrived at work each morning. As a single mom with a teenage daughter, I knew that reaching teenagers and young adults would not be easy. Dr. Demaria told me that three experts in adolescent bereavement had struck out before me. As I recall, he was hopeful but not encouraging about my prospects for success. Unlike adults who had lost a loved one on 9/11, teenagers were not going to sit in a circle and share their feelings with the group. Nor would they be willing to paint, draw or write letters to God.
No one was more surprised than I to discover that the keys to healing for these 30-plus adolescents and young adults would be found at Yankee and Shea Stadiums. But as I spent three baseball seasons, from 2003 to 2005, with the teens and young adults of 9/11, I began to wonder if there might be something magical in the nature of baseball that was allowing these young people who were emotionally closed off to open up to each other as friends who shared a tragedy.
Whenever we touch base, I like to ask these young men and women whose lives I was privileged to share, what it was about baseball that drew us together and gave them a new sense of hope.
Here are some of their insights. (We picked nine for obvious reasons.)
“Life, like baseball, is an unpredictable game.”
“In the game of life, as in baseball, injuries and hardships are inevitable.”
“Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes you get rained out.”
“You have to step up to the plate. Even when you don’t feel like it.”
“Loss doesn’t make you a loser. You can use your losses to get stronger.”
“You need to believe in yourself. Even when others don’t.”
“No matter how good you are, you can’t control everything.”
“Both baseball and life are team sports.”
“The spirit of baseball is a spirit of hope and renewal. There’s always another game. Another season. A new tomorrow.”
Or, as one of the boys summed up:
“You showed me that 9/11 was not an end. It’s a beginning.”
Since September 11, 2001, anniversaries of the destruction of the World Trade Center have been, in the words of Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, times “to remember and to reflect,” but he also noted that for thousands the mind is always within reach of that day. Everyday.
Autumn Parker holds her daughter, Sonia Counts, turning 2 next month, as they listen to stories of the child’s great uncle Vernon Richard, a firefighter who died during recovery efforts at Ground Zero, September 11, 2001. Photo: Bernice Green
And so it was last Tuesday, September 6, when BP Adams hosted the second annual day of 9/11 Remembrance Service – held five days before the actual 15th anniversary of the tragedy — with the city’s top brass, citywide leaders and local residents, at Borough Hall in Downtown Brooklyn. Adams said the event honors those who lost their lives on that tragic day; those –who contributed to the city’s vast and valorous recovery and rebuild efforts; those who participated in New York City’s largest rescue effort ever. And their families.
The poignant and humbling scene of some 150 people seated in the Rotunda with broadcast and print media quietly covering in the background, played against the backdrop of crisp flags inside, the parlor level lobby space overlooking monuments to freedom in the Borough Hall courtyard and nearby, a looming Brooklyn Bridge. Screen monitors’ live shot of Borough Hall’s cupola with the American flag waving reminded all that fifteen years ago from that high vantage the collapse of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers across the East River could be observed easily.
NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton speaks compassionately about Ground Zero. Photo: Bernice Green
NYPD Commissioner William J. Bratton was the keynote speaker for the September 6 program. Joining Commissioner Bratton was James P. O’Neill, NYPD Chief of Department, who succeeds Bratton later this year; Benjamin Tucker, NYPD’s First Deputy Commissioner; Daniel A. Nigro, FDNY Commissioner; and Col. Peter Sicoli, commander of the U.S. Army Garrison at Fort Hamilton. They faced victims’ family members, but it was evident through their poignant comments that “hit home,” these chieftains of law and safety were members of a solace-seeking family, as well.
Before Bratton spoke, two members of the seated families spoke about their respective last conversations with victims of September 11. Evelyn Zelmanowitz talked of the late Abe Zelmanowitz and the events that took place as he attempted to evacuate the Towers, and how “he would never desert a friend.”
Vernon A. Richard, II, son of the late firefighter Captain Vernon Richard, described the special bond he and his father enjoyed (“He taught me how to tie a tie, and what it means to be a man, a ‘big guy’.”)
Adams, who served in the New York City Police Department (NYPD) during 9/11, spoke of terrorism’s enduring impact on Brooklyn and New York City. He also spoke about finding peace in memories.
NYPD Commissioner Bratton, FDNY Commissioner Nigro, NYPD Chief O’Neill, all delivered moving remarks about associates, friends, staff, who were maimed or stricken while, or due to their work “searching for the living and the dead,” at the Towers’ Wall Street site.
(But) “We move forward,” he said speaking of New York City’s service departments. “We do what we must … (for the sake of) serving others. It is what we do.”
As he offered his condolences to families, he paid homage to NYPD and FDNY family members who lost their lives. He spoke of their “quiet heroism,” “resolute courage” and how the lives of all New Yorkers, “who everyday” the NYPD goes forth to protect “are worth fighting for.”
Commissioner Nigro also saluted the families and “the memory of the first-responders and rescue personnel and all those who died after 9/11, of illnesses caused by exposure to the toxins in the Ground Zero debris.”
Commissioner Tucker recounted how he and his wife left their residence, four blocks south of the Towers, on the morning of September 11. Everyone in the vicinity of Ground Zero looked the same, he said. “There was no time to see differences.”
Chief O’Neill said that every time he sees a clear sky, a police car going by or a fire truck racing to a rescue, it brings him back to September 11.
“When people answered the call of duty and went out without hesitation, it was the largest rescue effort in NYC history. Twenty-five thousand were evacuated,” he recalled, citing the heroic efforts to save lives. Chief O’Neill painted a real picture of the scene: some first responders killed in the terror attacks used their clothing in a desperate attempt to muffle victims’ flames. “Through piles of debris and acrid smoke, they were searching and digging,” he said, adding “these rescuers showed where ‘courage resides and character was forged.’
He also talked of how they found remnants of lives, including wedding rings. He remembered those who have illnesses – and those who have passed on — because of their intense recovery efforts. “These stories of the amazing men and women among us are part of New York City’s history, part of its greatness.”
One speaker acknowledged that the “hole” will never be closed completely, but he also offered hope in the form of the future when grandchildren will always know of the sacrifices of the men and women who pushed against the tide to go back into those buildings. “It’s about never leaving a man or woman behind,” he said.
Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo deconstructed the awesome complexity of mourning and celebrating at the same time. “This is a wakeful celebration,” she said, adding that “the importance of remembering is critical as it gives us energy to move on.
“Due to their connection to the birthing process, women understand the sacrifice and the pain and, therefore, the value of life perhaps more than anyone. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives so it is important to remember that what we have (life) is valuable.
“What a gift we have: (to be able to) enjoy the freedoms of this country. It’s important that we remember the individuals who died, and our responsibility (to them) to move forward.”
There was one person in the room who was not on the roster of speakers, and she did not have a family member at Ground Zero on that day. Her story – one of the “millions of stories that can be found in New York” – was born some seven years before 9/11.
In a corner of the Rotunda in the shadow of the marble stairs, Vida Toppin-Ebrahim listened, engrossed, tears welling.
The Panamanian immigrant mother of three lost one of her two sons, accountant Paul Toppin, in 1993. She explained to Our Time Press that “Paul died as he tried to protect a friend.” After he and the friend walked away, the perpetrator shot Mr. Toppin in the back.
A former long-time resident of Lafayette Avenue near Nostrand in Bedford Stuyvesant, Mrs. Ebrahim now lives in an assisted-living residency near the Barclay Center. She also is a member of the nearby Evelyn Douglin Senior Center.
She travels with a walker and uses public transportation to get to various Brooklyn senior programs, including Borough Hall workshops, such as crocheting.
Whenever she hears about events like BP Adams’ “Remembrance Service,” she drops what she’s doing to attend. “I come to be with the families and hold the mothers’ hands so they know they are not alone,” she told us. “I know how they feel. Holidays are not another day: especially Mother’s Day, Christmas, birthdays…”
“I know how a mother feels when a loved one goes out, you expect them back, but they never return. It never heals. Like the police commissioner said, there’s a hole. Twenty-three years ago, and it is like it happened yesterday.
The horror of it all plays over and over with Mrs. Toppin. She cries when she remembers the day the hole opened in her life: “After my son told him to ‘grow up,’ the killer shot him. The young man who shot my son was only 16! Only 16!” She feels sad for the mother of her son’s killer.
“And it all came back again with the murder of that student at the college. The same thing; he was helping a friend.”
In connection with the 9/11 Remembrance, Ms. Toppin told Our Time Press about a staff person at her senior center. “She lost a relative on September 11. They never found his body. At least, I could bury my Paul.”
In addition to BP Adams, Bratton, Tucker, O’Neill, Nigro and Cumbo, event participants included Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, FDNY chaplain; Dr. Rabbi Alvin Kass, Chief Chaplain, NYPD; and Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, FDNY chaplain. Abe Friedman, Borough Hall’s Director of Intergovernmental Affairs, offered the welcome. FDNY Chief of Department James E. Leonard, and United States Army Garrison (USAG) Fort Hamilton Commander Colonel Peter Sicoli also shared their thoughts and reflected on that fateful day.
During the morning event, moments of silence were observed for the respective times the South and North Towers collapsed. A flag above the Borough Hall Rotunda was lowered and a Remembrance Wreath placed.
Following the singing of God Bless America, and closing prayers, BP Adams’ guests – greeted by Deputy Borough President Diana Reyna — attended a reception in Borough Hall’s Community Room. A Remembrance Wreath, placed outside the building by Adams and victims’ family members, will stay in place through September 11.
The killing of St. John’s University student Tiarah Poyau and 17-year-old Tyreke Borel at the J’Ouvert Festival before the Labor Day parade, in the presence of 250 light towers, 45 cameras and an army of police officers, says that of the 250,000 revelers, there were some who just don’t care and are intent on mayhem. And we cannot allow their dysfunction to become a new normal, where a cultural celebration is taken over by the actions of a few. These gangsters and their wanna-bes aren’t going to be deterred by more light towers and marches against violence. If they can’t settle their beefs that night, the killing will happen someplace else. Stopping the violence during the J’Ouvert festivities will come from work that is done all year by community groups, mentors, city agencies and the police. Getting guns off the street and enabling constructive paths to manhood for young men who were not raised to walk them, will go a long way to making both the event and the community safer year-round.
Presidential Politics
It is hard to believe that this presidential election is being reported as either a landslide for Hillary or a nail-biter. The oily Donald Trump, who can speak directly to Black people only when he’s working from a script and not from his brain, says he wants to help Black people when court records and transcripts of his real estate record shows that’s not true at all. Aside from that, he is generally a coarse human being who loves adulation and will say anything to get it. The thought of Donald with presidential power would be a national nightmare come true
Then there is Hillary Clinton, telling the FBI “I can’t recall” 39 times under questioning about her e-mail practices. It was as though she had something to hide. We had thought her e-mail troubles were over when Bernie Sanders said “Enough with the e-mails!” and that it would be a leak of the Goldman Sachs speeches that would come back to haunt her. Whatever happens, whatever comes out, we have to put aside differences and cynicism and band together and carry Madam Secretary, and the very decent Tim Kaine, across the finish line.
Area Primary Races
Locally, we have Karen Cherry bringing her grass-roots mojo in a contest with Tremaine Wright and the Vanguard Independent Democratic Association (VIDA) machine for Assemblywoman Annette Robinson’s 56th AD seat. Michael Cox is facing longtime state Senator Velmanette Montgomery for the 18th District. Like all political contests, these will be won by the campaign with the superior organization or passion and by the truly fortunate, both.
Uptown joins downtown with the first-ever HARLEM FASHION WEEK, September 7-10, which is produced by Tandra Birkett and Yvonne Jewnell, mother/daughter team who own the fashion line Yvonne Jewnell New York, LLC. Harlem Fashion Week intersects with NYFW. For a calendar of events, visit harlemfw.com.
The West 120th Street Block Association (Lenox/Malcolm X to Seventh/Adam Clayton Powell) hosts its Harlem Block Party 2016 on September 10 from 11 am to 4 pm. Everyone is invited. The family-friendly festivities include music, grilled food, games, clowns, health and wellness products and lots more.
The 47th Annual African-American Day Parade in Harlem will be held on Sunday, September 11 at 1 pm. The parade route begins at 111 Street on Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard and ends at 136 Street on Malcolm X Boulevard. [Visit africanamericanparade.org]
FALL PREVIEW
The National Museum of African-American History & Culture opens on September 24 in Washington, D.C. Dedicated to the African-American experience, it is the newest addition to the Smithsonian Museum. The September issue of the Smithsonian magazine, themed BLACK IN AMERICA, ties in with the grand opening of the historic museum. Two stories, “The Road to Freedom”, about the Great Black Migration, and “Hell and High Water”, about Black American runaway slaves and maroons, will satisfy or whet appetites of history buffs.
BOOKS: People are talking about the new Amistad novel, “Another Brooklyn”, a coming-of-age story about four teenage women of color in 70s and 80s Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson, who has written more than 24 books including the best-selling memoir, “Brown Girl Dreaming”, which won a National Book Award. Look for “Another Brooklyn” on the NYT best-seller list soon.
Opening: Lotus Hawk’s “Prayers & Meditations: Guiding Prayers for Any Day” by educator/actress Harriette Mandeville, is a road map to effective prayers, affirmations and meditation and daily spiritual practices. It is a collection of prayers and reflections for guided conversations with God 24/7.
Colson Whitehead’s novel, “The Underground Railroad”, an imagining of a physical Underground Railroad with trains that transported enslaved Africans to a USA freedom land has been on the NY Times best-seller list for three weeks, and since 9/4 is positioned at the top of the hardcover list.
Edgar Ridley’s book, “The Golden Apple: Changing The Structure of Civilization –Volume 2, The Evidence of Symptomatic Behavior, calls for a new model in human behavior “from the destructive nature that symbolic thought has on civilization and to the need for a transition to symptomatic thought and behavior for mankind’s ultimate good”. He says that academic disciplines misrepresent the way symbols affect the neurological processes of the brain. The traditional belief that symptoms are inferior to symbols is erroneous and is the source of widespread misery and conflict the world over, from ancient times to the present. Ridley is an international management consultant and thought leader. His Golden Apple series is an interdisciplinary tool, valuable to social scientists and corporate titans alike.
“The Original Gangstas: The Untold Story of Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur and the Birth of West Coast Rap” by Ben Westhoff, who spent five years researching the subjects, HIP-HOP rap legends, which fills some of the holes in the good-but- flawed movie “Straight Out of Compton”, about the rise of NWA(Niggas With Attitude). First three names above were NWA members. Today, Dr. Dre is a billionaire and Ice Cube is a multi-multimillionaire. There are some shocking revelations in the book about Tupac’s demise. This book could be stocked in the business, African-American, arts and entertainment or social science sections of a bookstore.
THEATER: The National Black Theatre season’s moniker is the “ALCHEMY OF BLACK JOY”, which reflects the tone of the plays during its 2016/2017 season. The NBT kicks off its 48th season with a photo exhibit by Peter Cooper. The first play, SWEET, is written by Harrison David Rivers.
Vy Higginsen’s Mama Foundation begins its 2016/2017 season with the revival of two musicals, “ALIVE!” 55 + Kickin’, a joyful mellifluous noise about hope and triumph during the golden years, on October 8,15, 22 and 29, and “We Are”, the younger generation with Gospel Teens on October 29 and Nov. 2. [Visit mamafoundation.org]
TELEVISION: OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, presents the new dramatic series, QUEEN SUGAR, adapted from a novel by Natalie Baszile. The story centers on a death in the family which brings three disparate Buppie/Gen-X siblings home to Louisiana and their immediate plans about the family business, a sugar factory. Queen Sugar stars Dawn-Lyen Gardner, Timon Kyle Durrett and Rutina Wesley. [Tuesdays starting 9/6]
JOURNALISM: The NY Association of Black Journalists Scholarships and Awards Gala, honoring Rehema Ellis, NBC New; Robert Moore, NY Daily News; and Mark Crumpton, Bloomberg, will be held on September 27, 6-9 pm, at Studio 450 on West 31st Street in Manhattan. Scholarships will be presented to two graduates of the NYABJ’s First Take High School Journalism workshop and additional awards will be given to the best NY journalists in print, television, radio and online media. The gala dinner, considered by many as the Oscars of NY Black Journalists, will be hosted by David Ushery, NBC-4 NY Anchor, and Arthel Neville, Fox News Anchor. [Visit NYABJ.org]
PEOPLE
Vertamae Smart Grosvenor
RIP: Vertamae Smart Grosvenor, 79, who wrote the book VIBRATION COOKING, or Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl, died last Saturday. She was a tall, handsome, chocolate woman who defied description. When I interviewed her in the late 90s, she was enthused. “In the 60s, when most American women were burning their bras, I ran into the kitchen,” where by the way, she did outstanding work. A culinary anthropologist, she was the grande dame of low country South Carolinian cooking. That talent was the basis for VIBRATION COOKING, which was equal parts memoir, good recipes and her travel adventures and misadventures. Book was probably the first cookbook-cum-memoir. What a read! Vertamae became indistinguishable from Geechee/Gullah culture. She noted the similarities between Geechee church songs with those from Sierra Leone. The impatient multitasking Aries was a pioneer, breaking ground in the culinary arts, in print and radio journalism, and in acting. Truth to tell, she was a griot with wonderful stories, connecting African-Americans with Africa through multiple cultural correlations. She was good with the pots and she was great for “dishing”. Vertamae ran with American literati and glitterati and European royalty. What a life. Cannot wait to see who plays her in a biopix.
Harlem legend Dabney Montgomery, 93, has died. Born and raised in Selma, Alabama. Best known as one of the Tuskegee Airmen, he was stationed in southern Italy from 1943-1945 as a ground crewman. During the “Selma to Montgomery March”, he was part of Dr. Martin Luther King’s security group. During his post-WWII life, he relocated to NY, earned a college degree and married Amelia in 1971. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 2007. He worked at the NYC Housing Authority and was an indefatigable Harlem community resident who served as a member of Community Board 10 and at his church, the Mother AME Zion, where he mentored generations of parents and children. Mr. Montgomery will lie in state at Harlem’s Mother AME Zion Church on Thursday, September 8 from 4-7 pm. The funeral begins at 7 pm. He will be interred at the Calverton National Cemetery.
RIP: The Gideon Manasseh Memorial will be held on October 16, 3-7 pm at the Adam Clayton Powell State Office Building, 163 West 125th Street, arlemHHaHarlem.
A Harlem-based entrepreneur, Victoria Horsford can be reached at victoria.horsford@gmail.com.
