Events
November Is Native American Heritage Month
November 1
7:00p: Community Education Forum & Booksigning: Teaching Who We Are, For Our Children’s Future. Dr. Molefi Kete Asante is keynote speaker. Location: Sistas’ Place, 456 Nostrand Ave. @ Jefferson Ave. Dr. Asante will sign his African American History: A Journey of Liberation, a high school text used in more than 400 schools throughout North America. Hosts: December 12th Movement and Freedom Party. Information: 718-398-1766.
November 1-2
9a-3p: Project Safe Surrender: The Court and Defense Attorneys Will Be Available to Resolve Any Outstanding Summonses and Warrants including: Consumption of Alcohol in Public; Riding a Bicycle on the Sidewalk; Failure to Have a Dog License; Unlawful Possession of Marijuana; Failure to Comply with a Posted Sign in the Park. Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church, 212 Tompkins Ave., BK. Information: 718-250-3888, 718-388-3900, www.projectsafesurrender.org.
November 2
6:00p-9:00p: *** OPENING RECEPTION for THE GAMES WE PLAYED Exhibition at The House of Art Gallery. ***
HOA owner and exhibition curator Richard Beavers says, “Marbles, Double Dutch, ring-o-livio, hide-n-seek, scrabble, and stickball were our passions. We learned strategy, competition, cooperation and unity in our childhood community and family households. Our HOA artists offer their favorite childhood games in their artwork, but I wonder if those magical childhood moments can be resurrected in this push-button world of non-holistic interaction.” Special feature: Live Scrabble game in action. RSVP required: 347-663-8195. Website: http://hoagallery.com.
7:30p: “Party with a Purpose” – The Freedom Dance Committee invites one and all to eat, drink and dance THE 5TH ANNUAL FREEDOM DANCE takes place at Harlem’s historic National Black Theatre. This year’s Freedom Dance celebrates exiled Black Liberation Fighter – Assata Shakur. 2031 Fifth Avenue @ 126th St. in Harlem. More info: FreedomDancing5@gmail.com. Tickets: 917-415-5653
November 3
3:00p-5:00p: HOUSE of ART GALLERY: THE GAMES WE PLAYED Artists + Curator Talk. Curated by HOA gallery director, Richard Beavers, the event provides an opportunity for the community to connect with the exhibition’s artists. All are welcomed to join the discussion. Exhibition artists (attendance not confirmed) include: Guy Stanley Philoche, Jamel Shabazz, Dan Ericson, Charlotta Janssen, Leroy Campbell. RSVP mandatory. To request an individual showing please contact Kai Lawson at kai@hoagallery.com. 347 663-819
4:00pm- Opening Reception: 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. 1368 Fulton Street. 718-636-6949.
4:00p: Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium Celebrates 14th anniversary with A Tribute to Baba Jitu Weusi, Restoration, 1368 Fulton St., BK Tickets: available at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/455255 or call: 800.838.3006, ext. 1
November 5 – GENERAL ELECTION DAY!!! Central Brooklyn residents of color are pushing for your vote and/or support: Ken Thompson is running for DA; Freedom Party candidate Michael Gray is running for NYC Mayor; Eric Adams is seeking the Brooklyn Borough President’s office; Robert Cornegy for the 36th Council seat; Laurie Cumbo, 35th Council seat. Since she has no Republican opponent, Tish James is guaranteed to become the first black woman to hold citywide office as Public Advocate. Laurie Cumbo, with no opponent, is certain for the 35th Council seat. w
November 7
The 2013 Stars of New York Dance Honors Danny Simmons!
November 8,
Karen L. Smith, sister of the late Barbara Boyd-Smith returns home to Brooklyn to showcase her hot new jazz-influenced musical, “3 Divas 3” on stage at Stuyvesant Heights Christian Church located 69 MacDonough Street (near Tompkins Ave). Reservations and tickets may be made by calling (718) 5019416 or (215) 2198769.
November 9-10
2013 Black Farmers and Urban Gardeners Conference
“Power and Sovereignty”, Boys & Girls High School, 1700 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY. The Black Farmers and Urban Gardeners Conference connects growers, eaters and organizations across the country to nurture the health and well-being of Black America and the environment as a whole. Attendees explore issues of race, class, health and food through panel discussions, workshops, films and conversations. Resources are exchanged. Keynoters are: Monica White, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Environmental Justice in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Department of Community and Environmental Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison & President of the Board of Directors of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network; and Ben Burkett, President, National Family Farm Coalition. www.blackfarmersconf.org/
November 3
2:00p: Pre-Black Solidarity Day Celebration: Speakers Michael Hooper, Inez Barron, Bob Law, Salim Adofo, Cultural Presentations, Martial Arts & Performances by Capoeira Angola, Harlem Poet Laureate, George Edward Tait, The Afrikan Community Drummers, Children of the International Sankofa Academy, Empress Idama, Brother Wakili, Afrikan Vendors Market. Ft. Greene Senior Citizens Center, 966 Fulton St. For information contact Michael Hooper 718-773-0246. Free
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.
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 (opening night: Nov. 2): 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.
Native Americans of Manahatta – The Lenape
Once upon a time, Manhattan was a remote offshoot of North America with dense forests full of wildlife, open fields overgrown with rich grass, and bountiful harbors teeming with oysters, lobsters, and fish.
According to Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, tribes of Lenape Indians set up camp on this bountiful land, which they called Lenapehoking or, “where the Lenapes dwell,” more than sixty-five hundred years ago. They moved about frequently in groups of roughly 200 people at a time, hunting deer and wild turkeys, fishing, and foraging for nuts and berries.
Some fifty-five hundred years later, they had established more static communities thanks, in large part, to agricultural advancements. When Europeans arrived in 1524, approximately 15,000 Lenape Indians of various tribes lived in what is now New York City.
The Lenapes lived peacefully—in 1670, Daniel Denton scornfully wrote, “it is a great fight when seven or eight is slain.” The women of the matrilineal societies farmed beans, maize, squash, melons, and tobacco, cooked, raised the children, and tended to the communal longhouses while the men hunted and fished. Land ownership was a nonexistent concept in Lenapehoking. Mr. Burrows and Mr. Wallace tell us in their book that, “if the land ‘belonged’ to anyone, it belonged to the inhabitants collectively” and they “had no authority to dispose of it by sale, gift, or bequest.” Nevertheless, as legend goes, the Dutch bought “Manahatta” from the Lenapes for 60 guilders (often quoted as $24) in 1626.
-Excerpted from Tribes of New York by Mark Riffee
Note: Families and Parents, Visit: The National Museum of the American Indian in the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom HouseOne Bowling Green. New York, NY 10004. Phone: 212-514-3700
