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City Councilman Demands Bed-Stuy Gets G & T And Special Education Programs

Stephen Witt
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Robert Cornegy calls DOE citing of current  programs  a civil rights issue

By Stephen Witt

Bedford-Stuyvesant City Councilman-elect Robert Cornegy said this week that he would like to meet immediately with Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio on getting Bedford-Stuyvesant both a Gifted and Talented public school program and a special education program for students with mental and physical special needs.

“It’s almost a civil rights issue where you’re saying how in Bedford-Stuyvesant, one of the last strongholds of African-American political and socioeconomic power, there is not  a Gifted and Talented program,” said Cornegy.

Cornegy’s comments came a week after Our Time Press reported that Bed-Stuy is the only school district in Brooklyn without a Gifted and Talented program for public school children in grades kindergarten to fourth grade.

Entrance to the city’s Department of Education’s (DOE) Gifted and Talented programs are based on verbal and nonverbal assessment tests given to children as young as four.

This year, there are 34 Gifted and Talented programs at schools in every Brooklyn district except District 16, which is made up mainly of Bed-Stuy.  District 20 schools, which are mainly made up of Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst, have 10 or slightly less than a third of the borough’s Gifted and Talented programs.

This includes the Brooklyn School of Inquiry, which is one of the city’s five magnet Gifted and Talented schools drawing children from across the borough and city. Seventy-five percent of the students attending this school are white and 13 percent Asian, six percent are black and six percent are Hispanic.

Department of Education (DOE) spokesperson Harry Hartfield said last week the reason Bed-Stuy didn’t have any Gifted and Talented programs were because they lacked the students that could pass the test.

“G&T programs are sited within districts based on the number of students who qualify for seats within that district. Because G&T programs are distinct programs within school buildings and occupy their own classrooms, we require a minimum number of students within a district to qualify in order to make the creation of a section practical,” said Hartfield in an e-mail. “If that can’t happen in a particular district, the DOE offers eligible applicants priority to one or more program options in neighboring districts.”

Hartfield did not return answers to several follow-up questions at press time for this story.

The fact that there are no Gifted and Talented programs in Bed-Stuy comes after reports this year about a huge racial disparity in the elite academic public high schools such as Stuyvesant High School – all of which require an entrance exam.

But Cornegy questioned the kinds of criteria in which a four-year-old is tested.

In some communities, a child that is rambunctious might be considered precocious, and in other communities these same children that are from different ethnic backgrounds are labeled ADHD and given medications to calm them down, he said.

“The idea we would evaluate children differently is an idea born out of a different America. All these methodologies are born out of an old America based on prejudice, but the new America has not adjusted the methodologies,” said Cornegy, adding when local children are deemed Gifted and Talented on the current tests they are farmed out of the community.

KWANZAA – A Season For Re-creating Community

Aminisha Black
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“The community is a body in which every individual is a cell.  No harmful or inappropriate cell is allowed to remain in the body.  One way or another it will be ejected.  One must learn how to function as a healthy cell in order to earn the privilege of staying in the body and keeping it alive.” – Malidoma Patrice  Some, “Of Water and the Spirit”

While Malidoma allows us to experience living and growing in a traditional African society, Maulana Karenga’s gift of Kwanzaa allows an outline for healing and re-creating African values. In Edwin J. Nichols’ “The Philosophical Aspects of Cultural Difference”, one can see the similarity or differences  between Euro-American  –  African/Afro-American/Hispanic/Native-American – Asian/Asian-American/Native American.  A family project – research Karenga and Nichols and look for any similarities observable today in Nichols’ grouping, i.e., what values are shared between African-Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans.

Africans knew that all things were interrelated.  That sense of integration brought cohesion and order to their lives.  The train in which we travel places little value on ethics and order, foolishly places a price tag on peace, reduces life to debate and offers material trinkets as a distraction so that we don’t notice that we are living in a nightmare and we are all endangered because of the separation, the insecurity, the fear and the brutality born of this lifestyle.  We owe our children a chance.  In looking for solutions to the problems facing our youth, all paths seem to lead to the need for an integrated community in which all individuals recognize their own self-worth and contribute to the entire community’s growth and development.  We owe our children community.  Your definition of community shapes your philosophy and your actions.

Community for some means shared beliefs or ideologies as in religions and politics.  For some it means shared heritage – the African-American community, or affiliations-organizations.  Unfortunately, those communities often establish boundaries that classify or exclude individuals and creates more fragmentation.  The community I envision is one which organizes itself to provide for the physical and emotional needs of all its residents.  In order for that community to emerge, we must cleanse ourselves of the attitudes of self-hate, self-centeredness and scarcity that is synonymous with Western culture.  No easy task.

Some Points in Creating Community – Every adult should become an advocate for a young person.  You may not have the personality to interact with young people.  Plan or contribute to an activity where others can.  It works to select the youth from your neighborhood – because relationships are formed among the adults as well.  Develop stress-free ways of supporting parents and children.

Parents appreciate genuine interest and concern about their children.   Problems often occur when people judge and make parents and children wrong.  No one likes to be attacked.  Sponsoring free or low-cost group activities are great.  Not all parents know how to coordinate such activities.  It’s a great investment.  Children remember all the things adults do to and for them.  The “brat” may change his/her ways when shown some positive attention.  Parents of adult children are valuable resources when they can be unbiased about their experience and have a productive relationship with their grown-up offspring.

Often, parents seem to think that when they have reared their children, they no longer have any obligation to the children of the neighborhood.  These individuals usually criticize the parents, comparing their actions to their own while parenting.  Children who grow up without nurturing will be the angry, hostile youth who mug, burglarize and kill.  Feeling a responsibility for the community creates a context for our individual families and motivates us to extend ourselves to others in the village, truly an African cultural tradition.  Parents, don’t let your child think s/he cannot be chastised by another adult.

On one hand, we have adults who are verbally, emotionally and physically abusive to children, which is not to be excused or tolerated.  On the other hand, we have parents who are ready to fight if an adult chastises their youngster.   Children are very smart and will use that parent to get away with all kinds of mischief.  Children and parents must learn to recognize authentic adults and children should know that adults are primarily concerned about their success.

Adults can make a difference for the children who live on our blocks by using the principles of Kwanzaa and recognizing neighbors who have contributed.  The Parents Notebook  will list opportunities in the coming issues.   In the meantime,  review  the Kwanzaa Principles and choose one you would like to see blossom and share it with us at parentsnotebook@yahoo.com.

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View From Here

David Mark Greaves
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By David Mark Greaves

The New York Times reported that Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio received 96% of the Black vote.   So he’s seen the love from the black community, and now we should see it coming back, not in “optics” but in fact.  As we understand it, that’s the way politics work.  It’s like a relationship:   “Don’t tell me you love me, show me you love me”.   And he has so many opportunities here, because ours is a community that has suffered regular public physical abuse by “stop-and-frisk” tactics, that’s been abused in the home by lack of support for the care and education of the children, and abused financially by policies which take money from our purses and wallets, such as the heightened contract requirements which decimated small African-American booksellers, and which are part of a system which leaves African-American-owned businesses with only slivers (1-2% / agency) of the meager slice (3.9%) that is the M/WBE portion of the city budget pie.   A piece of a piece is all we get.

With the foregoing as examples of things that need to change, the Black Farmers and Urban Gardeners Conference, held at Boys & Girls High School this past weekend, suggests one of the ways to get at them is by using the political, financial, self-empowering and racially reaffirming qualities and possibilities of the food cycle as a foundation to build on.

Malik Yakini, the Executive Director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, spoke about the Detroit Policy on Food Security his organization developed and had passed by the City Council.   It addresses the many health aspects of the food cycle, and points the way toward the community building possibilities as well, with this section addressing “Economic Injustice within the Food Systems”: “There exists two grocery stores owned and/or operated by African-Americans in Detroit. It is unknown whether any food wholesalers, farmers, distributors or food processing facilities providing food for the city of Detroit are owned, operated or even hire Detroiters, specifically African-Americans; or if any of the food products consumed in our community were developed by people from our community. Aside from cashiers, baggers, stock persons and a few butchers, Detroiters, specifically African-Americans, are absent from the food system. Our primary and predominant role is that of consumer.” From the City of Detroit Policy on Food Security “Creating a Food-Secure Detroit”.

I’d like to think there are more than two grocery stores owned by African-Americans in New York, and we know Golden Krust has contracts with the Department of Corrections, but the rest of the statement, and the policy as a whole, rings true for New York with major health and economic benefits for the city in general and the African-American community in particular.

The conference organizers said the theme was “collective responsibility and doing for self”, noting that a world of outside forces are constantly at work with distractions and misdirections, making it difficult to stop and think about self-development and racial cohesiveness.  Mr. Yakini asked, “What stops us from having collective impact”? and answers saying, “One of the things that keeps us from being successful is the internalized doubt.   Also, because we are oppressed as a people, we have needs to manifest power and we do it by joining gangs or churches.  Everybody wants to have their fiefdom, rather than focusing on solving the problems.  We have to focus more on the collective good.  What’s important is the work.   We have to look beyond the individual organizations”.

D’Artagnan Scorza, from Inglewood, California, spoke of being inspired by the legendary Brooklyn cultural institution The East and the work of Segun Shabaka and Jitu Weusi and of using gardens as a foundation for a holistic involvement of the community.   Serving over 12,000 children with the intent of helping them utilize their own agency and grounding the students in the continuum of their history. Developing them to become activists in their communities and involving them in strategies to change their realities.

“Any people seeking to be self-reliant and self-sufficient have to be able to feed themselves.  There is an interconnectedness and that has to be understood.

Mr. Yakini said that most of the work around food issues being done in the black community was being done by white people.  “Just because white people are in the food justice movement does not mean they’ve divested themselves of white supremacy and white privilege”, and there have to be conversations about that.

After the panel discussion, Hanifa Adjuman, the outreach director for the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, said that part of her mission is to develop young people into food warriors by teaching them urban gardening, nutrition and food justice.  “The biggest part is helping our children understand that there is dignity in this work.   What was taken from Africa was not just the physical assets but also the agricultural knowledge, the intellectual capacity as well.”

This is the kind of work being done all over the country by dedicated individuals that has to be encouraged and supported by our tax dollars if we are to rebuild our community.

IN MEMORIAM

Editor, Our Time Press
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Mrs. Barbara Elaine Johnson, 81, beloved mother of famed percussionist Bashiri Johnson, Passes

The mother of award winning Brooklyn-based musician and recording artist Bashiri Johnson, (percussionist for Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Sting, Sade, Madonna, among others notables) died on October 28th after a brief illness. She was 81. Barbara Elaine Johnson (nee Matthews) who lived in same family brownstone where her children grew up was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut on March 30, 1931 to Amanda Gurganus Matthews and James Matthews. Raised in New York, she spent part of her upbringing in Williamston, NC, and was baptized there. Later, Johnson became a lifelong member of First A.M.E. Zion Church in Brooklyn where her memorial was held.

“A mother’s love is organic love, the stuff that stars and universes are made of,” said the musician.    “My dear departed mother always blanketed me and the whole family with support, encouragement, confidence, esteem and endearment,” said the musician. “My mom taught me that giving in the service of others is the reward you reap in life’s wonders and blessings. Even through challenges and adversities my mom would always exhibit courage, grace and pragmatism.”

Among her accomplishments Barbara Johnson graduated from Hampton University with a degree in Nursing and obtained a master’s degree in Nursing from the State University of New York. She broke new ground as the first African American head nurse at Long Island College Hospital, and achieved the rank of assistant director of nursing at Greenpoint General, a private hospital in Brooklyn. At Harlem Hospital School of Nursing, and Mount Vernon Hospital School of Nursing, she was a member of the teaching staff. In addition, she contributed to adult education classes in NY and the Washington Irving HS Nursing Program. As a Visiting Nurse, Johnson attended to the musical legend Eubie Blake and the mother of noted performer Ben Vareen among her clients. She treated her patients with compassion, dignity and respect, and taught her students to do the same. Johnson retired in 1998 while working as a high school nursing teacher for the NYC Board of Education.

Mrs. Johnson loved to travel with family members especially her husband of 52 years Morris L. Johnson who preceded her in death. Together they enjoyed destinations such as Africa, Europe, and Hawaii; Caribbean cruises, oyster dinners in Ocean City and Virginia Beach, and scenic drives in the Poconos and back to her childhood Williamston. Johnson was an avid reader. She thoroughly enjoyed playing bridge, varied classes, and taking trips with her dear friends at the Brooklyn Senior Center.  In her younger years she enjoyed bowling, tennis, shopping and dancing. She was a Founding Sponsor of the MLK National Memorial Project Foundation, and contributed to numerous charities and foundations including March of Dimes, Disabled Veterans, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, NAACP, and both presidential campaigns of Barack Obama.

Barbara Johnson leaves behind son Bashiri Johnson and his wife Monifa, daughter Denise and son-in-law Kevin Ford, and son Michael P. Johnson.  In addition, as loving and generous “Madear” to grandchildren Danielle D. Ford, Antoinette M. Ford, Jelani Jah Johnson, and Maia  E. Johnson. Cousins, Mrs. Christine and CWO Joe Henry Bonds and their daughters Glenda and Gerelene and Danielle, also Theodore, Wendy and Lydia Williams and George White, as well as a host of friends and neighbors, former colleagues and students.

November Is Native American Heritage Month

Bernice Elizabeth Green
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November 16

4 pm: Hip-Hop History Workshop for Teens: B-Boy & B-Girl Dancing with Kwikstep and Rokafella. The Schomburg Center celebrates Hip-Hop History Month in November with four interactive workshops for teens that will explore the four elements of hip-hop: MCing, DJing, B-boy/girl Dancing, and Graffiti/Aerosol Art. Knowledge, the fifth element of hip-hop, is at the root of each session led by pioneers and practitioners of the culture.  Presented by Schomburg Education as part of the Schomburg’s Hip-Hop 4.0 Initiative. FREE! Registration required!

November 17

BEPAA Presents a Master Class: An Afternoon with Tom Burrell, author of “Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority”, John Henrik Clarke House, 286 Convent Avenue, New York, NY. Admission is Free. Call 347-907-0629

December 7

7:30p: Camille A. Brown’s Mr. TOLERANCE, Kumble Theatre. DeKalb Ave. and Flatbush.  $15 Students, Seniors. Tickets: ( 718) 488-1624

December 13

9p-3a: HATTIE CARTHAN COMMUNITY GARDEN: “CHRISTMAS DANCE” – 423 Nostrand Avenue.  Contact: Greg Matthews: 347-932-7157.  Reggie: 347-285-9774. Melvin: 347-792-0898.

Ongoing:

Thru November 24

Woodie King Jr’s New Federal Theatre kicks off its 44th season with the first play of “The Ed Bullins Project” – – In The Wine Time, directed by Mansoor Najee-ullah on Oct. 25th at Castillo Theater (543 West 42nd Street), continuing through November 24th. In The Wine Time will feature Richard Brundage, Angelique Chapman, Khadim Diop, Matthew Faroul, Lindsay Finnie, Harrison Lee, Catherine Peoples, Shirlene Victoria Quigley, Sandra Reaves-Phillips Kim Sullivan, Eddie Wardel, and Eboni Witcher. Tickets: www.newfederaltheatre.com or call 212-353-1176.

Thru December 15: Housewarming: Notions of Home from the Center of the Universe at BRIC Arts | Media House. This inaugural exhibition will act as a celebratory “housewarming” of BRIC’s new 40,000-square-foot multidisciplinary arts and media complex located at 647 Fulton Street in the Downtown Brooklyn Cultural District. The exhibition explores the concept of “home” from a number of broad vantage points. Eight of the 12 artists featured in the exhibition will present works commissioned by BRIC. Njideka Akunyili, Esperanza Mayobre, Keisha Scarville and Rafael Vargas Suarez are among the featured artists in the exhibition curated by Elizabeth Ferrer, curator and BRIC’s Director of Contemporary Art. Call for hours. Admission to BRIC’s gallery is free.  Call for hours (718) 855-7882.

Thru January 3, 2014: Noisy in the Next Room, Danny Simmons’ solo exhibition of new work at Restoration’s Skylight Gallery speaks to the heart and soul of human existence, providing a dramatic and compelling bridge between the past and now, we are asked to imagine a future where hope and revival are commonplace. His paintings operate on multiple levels of perception, employing commonplace practices of repetition and erasure, urging you to abandon the notion of up and down. The exhibit kicks off the 2013-2014 season of The Skylight Gallery. Hours: Wednesday – Friday, 11am- 6pm, Saturday, 1pm – 6pm. For information, call 718-636-6949.

Thru January 11, 2014: The Games We Played, a nostalgic revisit through art to the street and board games played by young people and families back in the day,  is an art exhibition at House of Art. While some games occupied the entire sidewalk, other games took up the whole street. There were also classic games played indoors when households still had family game night. This exhibition will showcase a diverse group of emerging-to-established artists with a multitude of genres featuring Guy Stanley Philoche, Jamel Shabazz, Dan Ericson, Charlotta Janssen, Leroy Campbell and others. 408 Marcus Garvey Blvd.

Thru January 14: Schomburg Collects WPA Artists 1935 – 1943. The exhibition highlights the work of visual, literary and performing black artists. It presents founder Arturo Schomburg’s commitment to establish and preserve a black art collection as well as the artists’ responses to America’s racial climate.  Schomburg Collects will feature works by Hale Woodruff, Augusta Savage, Beauford Delaney, James Van Der Zee, Richard Wright, Bob Blackburn, Addison Scurlock, Zora Neale Hurston. Call for hours. 515 Malcolm X. Blvd. @ 135th St. (212) 491-2200.

Thru March 9, 2014: Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey, Brooklyn Museum’s first museum survey of more than fifty works of the internationally renowned Nairobi-born, Brooklyn-based artist. Her first-ever animated video is shown as part of the artwork of collages, sketchbook samples, sculpture, a site-specific wall piece and immersive installations. 200 Eastern Parkway, call for hours and entry fees: 718-638-5000.

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