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Calendar March 15, 2012

Anniversaries
Sunday, March 18
4:00p- The Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive to African People (CEMOTAP) Celebrates 25 Years. Black Spectrum Theater/177th St. & Baisley Blvd. 718-322-8454.Free Admission.

Arts

Friday, March 16
8:00pm & 10pm (two shows): CYNTHIA HOLIDAY QUINTET in concert at Jazz966 for Women’s Herstory Month. 966 Fulton Street (bet. Grand and St. James Pl.) 718.638.6910. sam_pinn@yahoo.com. www.jazz966.com

Theater talks at the Schomburg: Amanda Seales with Elon James White
7:00pm-9:00pm: Amanda Seales, a self-described “Renaissance Woman,” whose work spans art, music, and pop culture criticism, launches The Schomburg’s Theater Talks, a new series of conversations with those who bring the theater experience to life. Culture critic Elon James White will speak with Seales about her new one-woman show, Death of THE Diva, which takes a unique, approach to the portrayal of women in pop culture. FREE! To register, call (212) 491-2040.

BLACK WOMEN’S ARMY CORPS. Opening night for Court-Martial at Fort Devens by Jeffrey Sweet at the Castillo Theatre (543 West 42nd Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues), 7:30p. Performances run through April 1. Based on a true story, drama presented by Woodie King, Jr.’s New Federal Theatre, documents the strike of black WACs (Women’s Army Corps) stationed in Massachusetts during World War II. The women joined the Army to be trained as nurses, only to be relegated to cleaning toilets, mopping floors and doing laundry. When they are court-martialed for refusing to follow orders during wartime, they fight a pioneering battle for racial equality in the segregated U.S. military. The WAC’s court struggle was covered extensively in the African-American newspapers during the 1940’s. Mary Beth Easley directs a cast that features Alia Shakira Chapman, Evander Duck, Gillian Glasco, Nambi E. Kelley, Frank Mayers, Emma O’Donnell, Bill Tatum, Keona Welch, and Eboni Witcher.
www.castillo.org/current-season

Monday, March 19

SCHOLARSHIP OPPTY!!!Attention: Students Graduating from High School this year. The New York Metropolitan Area Chapter of the American Association of Blacks in Energy (AABE) has extended the deadline to today for scholarship applications. Visit www.aabe.org

7:00pm- Broadway’s A Streetcar Named Desire: A Conversation with the Cast and Artistic Team, presented by The Greene Space. Brian McKnight will host conversation with: two-time Golden Globe nominee Blair Underwood, in his Broadway debut as Stanley, Daphne Rubin-Vega (Rent) as Stella, Wood Harris (“The Wire”) as Mitch, Director Emily Mann (Artistic Director of Princeton’s esteemed McCarter Theatre) and the play’s executive producers Stephen Byrd and Alia Jones of Front Row Productions. Venue: The Greene Space, 44 Charlton St. (nr. Varick) in Manhattan. Tickets: $15. 866-811-4111

7:00pm-9:00pm: Women’s Jazz Festival: Celebrate Great Women of Jazz and Blues at the Schomburg. A Gathering of some of New York’s Best come together to give praise to those who lead the way. Featuring: Tamar Kali, vocalist; Christelle Durandy, vocalist; Imani Uzuri, vocalist; Josette Newsam Marchak, vocalist; Karma Mayet Johnson, vocalist; Mayra Casales, percussionist; Liza Jessie Peterson, poet, author and peformer; Michelle Dorrance, dancer; and Allison Miller, drums and band leader. $20 Members; $25 Non-Members – For ticket charge, call 1-888-718-4253 or 212-491-2206; visit ShowClix.com.

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Friday, March 23 – April 15
Opening: 8:oopm: Journalist/Playwright Betty Dopson’s SHARED SECRETS of ELDER SISTERS
, a play about the gripping confessions of seven sisters born in the early 1900’s who fought battles against racism, disrespect, sexism and poverty and won because of the choices they made. Stars: Dr. Adelaide Sanford; Nana Camille Yarbrough; Nana Betty Dopson. Runs on weekends: Fridays and Saturday eves, 8:00pm and Sunday matinees, 4:00pm. Black Spectrum Theater, 177th St. & Baisley Blvd. (Inside Roy Wilkins Park) Jamaica, NY. Tickets, Info: 718-723-1800

Monday, March 26
7:00pm-9:00pm: Celebrate Bernice Johnson Reagon Songbook at the Schomburg’s annual Women’s Jazz Festival. Tonight, $20 Members; $25 Non-Members – For ticket charge, call 1-888-718-4253 or 212-491-2206; visit ShowClix.com.

Wednesday, March 28:7:30pm: Premiere of Nia Productions’ “Marry Me!,” a romantic comedy written by Kuba and featuring Regine Mont-Louis, Larry Greenbush, Liz Peterson, Gary Lawson and Flor Bromley, tells the story of a young attractive female Haitian immigrant who is having an affair with a married older man, and then she is about to be deported. Nia theme line: Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who wants to live in an institution? Roy Arias Theatre, 300 W. 43 St., NYC, nr. 8th. Runs through Sunday, April 8. L. Earl Ford is the director. Evria Dechane Atwell, the assistant director. Tickets: $30. Students and seniors, $20, all shows. Special group discounts. Information, reservations: 718-346-6591.

Thursday, March 29-Sunday, April 1:
The Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College
(CUNY) will host the Eleventh National Black Writers Conference (NBWC) on the college campus at 1650 Bedford Ave., Brooklyn. Centered around the theme “The Impact of Migration, Popular Culture, and the Natural Environment in the Literature of Black Writers,” the 2012 Conference will honor literary and cultural icons Kenyan-born writer Ngig) wa Thiong’o; poet, novelist, essayist, publisher Ishmael Reed; poet Nikki Giovanni; and scholar Dr. Howard Dodson, the new Director of the Howard University Libraries and its Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. Hailed by best-selling author Walter Mosley as the most significant gathering of Black writers in the country,” the NBWC is the only gathering of its kind in North America. “Black writers and artists are natural cultural explorers and investigators,” said Dr. Brenda M. Greene, Director of the National Black Writers Conference and Executive Director of the Center for Black Literature. Dr. Myrlie Evers-Williams, Honorary Chair of the Conference, reminds us that “Perhaps one of the most powerful things that we have as human beings is not only the spoken word, but the written word that lasts forever.”

This year’s conference highlights: a poetry presentation by South African Poet Laureate Keorapetse Kgositsile; a conversation with author and broadcaster Tavis Smiley; and a roundtable discussion and critical response to Manning Marable’s Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention with Haki Madhubuti, Herb Boyd, Ron Daniels, and Michael Simanga. Also, one day will be devoted to film screenings by Black filmmakers. For information, details: call 718-804-8883 or visit the Conference Web site at www.nationalblackwritersconference.org.

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Friday, March 30
PHENOMENAL WOMEN in ENTERTAINMENT Awards and Brunch
at Von King Park Cultural Arts Center, 670 Lafayette Ave. Marjorie Moon, Executive/Producer, Billie Holiday Theatre; Ellen Holly, first African-American daytime television star One Life to Live; television, film and stage star Kim Brockington (Felicia Boudreau on The Guiding Light), actress/arts educator Peggy Alston of Restoration’s Youth Arts Academy; vocalists/community advocates Tulivu-Donna Cumberbatch and Mari Toussaint; dancer Cheryl Todmann; Brooklyn Community Church choir director Michelle White, actress Deborah Britt of Von King Park, actress Vivian Jett of Brownsville Recreation Center, flautist Jennine Carella are among this year’s Von King Park Cultural Arts Center’s March “Phenomenal Women” honorees. The annual event, founded, directed and executive produced by Von King longtime culinary instructor Charlotte Renee Mial, has celebrated some 100 women since its inception in 2008. This year’s event, produced by Bernice Elizabeth Green, also presents a lobby display saluting ancestors Dr. Josephine English, founder of The Paul Robeson Theatre; actress Gloria Lowery Tyrell (Harriet Tubman); actress/vocalist Whitney Houston and playwright Zora Neale Hurston. Event is invitation-only.

PHYLLIS YVONNE STICKNEY: Back to Brooklyn with Phyllis Yvonne Stickney’s comedy kick-off at Brown Sugar Supper Club, 433 Marcus Garvey Blvd. Two Shows at 7:30p and 10p. Ticket information: Victoria-347-658-8459. A presentation of Lauren P. Raysor and Victoria. Visit: www.phyllisyvonnestickney.com.

Community GreeningSponsored by Magnolia Tree Earth Center
of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Inc.
Friday, March 16
(10am-4pm) Greening from the Ground Up Conference, Pratt Institute-Higgins Hall/Brooklyn, is joint effort of the Brooklyn Community Foundation and the Brooklyn Greens partners that it supports – Pratt Center for Community Development, Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, Cypress Hills LDC, El Puente and LISC New York City’s Green and Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative with additional support from State Farm. Workshops include: Growing Urban Agriculture; Healthy, High-Efficiency Homes: How Retrofits Meet Community Development Goals; Engaging Young People in Environmental Justice and Public Health; Green By Design: Arts, Culture and Sustainability; Greening for Community Safety; and Built-In Health: The Built Environment and Public Health. Details:greeningfromthegroundup.eventbrite.com.

Sunday, March 18
11a-4p: Changing Stories of Our Lives at the Magnolia Tree Earth Center, 677 Lafayette Avenue.
GG to Bedford-Nostrand. Facilitated by: Bedford Stuyvesant women security founder/Urban Farmer Yonnette Fleming. CHANGING THE STORIES OF OUR LIVES. Suggested donation: $5, includes healthy snacks and beverage.
What are the stories that we women had been told about ourselves? In a culture where women’s contributions are often ignored , where women are expected to “suck up” toxic emotions and where our anger is written off as hysteria, many women have unconsciously bought into these oppressive ways of understanding themselves. Join us as we go inward to uncover those stories, return them to their sources of untruth and create new stories of change. Please bring the pictures and stories of powerful women who have set the template for our civilization and a blanket for our journey. This journey will end in a symbolic burning of the stories and harmful words that prevent us from living to our highest potential and an intentional circle where we will create new stories that serve us on our journey.
SUPPORTERS: Hattie Carthan Community Market & JUST FOOD.

Tuesday, March 20
3pm-5pm: Health organizations in East New York and Brownsville
, where two of three adults are overweight or obese, will host a COMMUNITY WORKSHOP ON CREATING HEALTHIER FOOD PLACES w/ LOCAL GROCERS & BODGEAS. “These neighborhoods are characterized by a food retail environment dominated by small- corner grocery stores (bodegas) with limited fresh produce, low-fat dairy products and other healthier food options,” according to the release. “To address these problems, local organizations and city agencies have been working with small stores to make healthier food available and invite community members to learn how to support community healthy-food-conscious stores.” Sponsors: NYC Dept of Health and Mental Hygiene, Brooklyn District Public Health Office, Brownsville Partnership and others. Where: East New York Diagnostic and Treatment Center, 2094 Pitkin Ave. For more information, visit: creatinghealthyplace@health.nyc.gov.

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Health
Wednesday, March 28:
Harriet Washington
7:00pm-8:30pm: Talks at the Schomburg: The Intersection of Health Care, History and Justice

Join Columbia Sociology Professor Alondra Nelson, who holds an appointment at Columbia’s Institute for Research on Women and Gender, Jonathan Metzl, MD/PhD (director of Vanderbilt University’s Center for Medicine, Health and Society), and medical ethicist Harriet Washington (author, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present) for a conversation on race and health in America. These three noted experts on health care and distinguished authors will discuss how access to quality health care—or in far too many cases, any health care at all—often falls along racial lines and is an issue that activists, beginning with the Black Panthers, have been fighting for decades.$15 for non-members; $10 for members, Friends and students – For ticket charge, call 1-888-71-Tickets
or visit ShowClix.com

Housing
FORECLOSURES
Monday, March 19

9:00a CONGRESSIONAL HEARING in Brooklyn Borough Hall courtroom: Today, Rep. Ed Towns (NY-10), former chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will host a hearing investigating how Brooklyn will be affected by the National Mortgage Settlement, in Borough Hall’s Centennial Courtroom, 209 Joralemon St., 2nd Fl., Brooklyn.

Saturday, March 24
10:00a – NACA brings its “Save The Dream Workshop” to Brooklyn, borough with largest number of pre-foreclosure notices and highest number of foreclosures. Bedford Stuyvesant Multi Services Calendar, 1958 Fulton Ave.. A train to Ralph Ave. #25 bus to Ralph Ave; #47 bus to Ralph Ave./Fulton St. Register on line at www.naca.com

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