The Children’s Defense Fund’s New York chapter is holding a one-day summit in Central Brooklyn called “Connecting the Neighborhood Dots: Promoting Solutions to Dismantle the Pipeline to Prison.” Hosted by CUNY’s Medgar Evers College in partnership with the Casey Family Programs, the day has been scheduled full of panel discussions and presentations by leaders in the children’s advocacy and juvenile justice organizations.
I will be chronicling the start of the conference and the back-to-back morning sessions that focus on the disproportionate impact of prison and the criminal justice system on specific communities in New York City, mainly in the Bronx and Central Brooklyn, and how community-based strategies can promote healthy children, families and neighborhoods.
Caridad De La Luz is not technically a witch. The thirty-one year old Latina performer from the Bronx blends a rich mix of poetry, hip-hop, drama, and comedy to become La Bruja.
She describes her talent as inherent and remembers first performing in her grandmother’s living room for family members. Spanish, Salsa, and Cuban records played in her home and formed her musical foundation. La Bruja says her family continues to be apart of her audience today.
In the clip La Bruja explains why she calls herself a witch. And hear one star character from her act, abuelita, based on her own grandmother.
La Bruja says she first discovered her voice through poetry and open mic performances at the Nuyorican Poet’s Café on the Lower East Side.
Once she a captured a following, La Bruja says she introduced her audience to her hip-hop and eventually merged into acting.
Besides the accolades and albums, one of her proudest roles she says is being a mother of two.
In her work and performances, La Bruja both makes fun of and aims to break the stereotypes of Latinas.
“One of the challenges is the perception that Latinas are, spicy, caliente, sexual creatures, not that I am not that,” she jokes. “But that is not all that I am. It’s a challenge to have people accept and understand that there is a mind and a heart here, not just a body.”
La Bruja also considers herself an activist and started a foundation called Latinas 4 Life. She works with schools and reaches out to young people who she believes need to hear positive messages.
“A lot of people think that they can’t do these types of things, ” she says. People say my poem wouldn’t be good enough or I am not a writer, but chances are if you just did it, you are, so I hope to inspire and make people feel they can do it too.”
In the spring of 2009, La Bruja approaches her thirteenth year as a performer.
She explains, “I went this whole way around before becoming La Bruja, I worked at Bloomingdales, I was a secretary, I was doing all these things, not following my passion, I was miserable, and no one told me it was ok to go for it.”
At the end of the night she says her goal is for the audience to feel connected and that they are not alone.
Listen to La Bruja and the audience from a performance at Cemi Underground.
I can tell you one thing, there aren’t too many people crying in the south Bronx over the Yankees losing season. Since the day I set foot in my district, I have spoken to several people who inevitably direct their conversation over to a shared hatred of this team. The Yankees are like the neighborhood bully. Big, dominating, loaded with cash, and able to do whatever the hell they want. Take over a local park and plant a big new fancy stadium….check. Bully local food merchants, tell them to step away from their turf…check. Hike up ticket prices so none of the little guys can come in and play…check.
Fauzia Rahman, a local food vendor, makes some of the best jerk chicken I have ever tasted. She cooks it on the spot at her food cart on the corner of Sheridan Avenue and 161st in the Bronx where she’s been stationed since 1996. Fauzia told me today that a few years ago she was bullied by police to move her cart further away from the old Yankee Stadium. She kept asking them why. To which the cops supplied no answer. Well I have come to the conclusion this happened because her cooking skills outmatch the over priced hotdogs and pretzels sold a few blocks away. Like so many other people I have spoken to over the past couple weeks she resented the fact that the new Yankee Stadium has taken away much needed park land. Built right on top of Macomb’s Dam Park, the new stadium has taken the place of tennis courts and a running track.
As I was walking back towards the subway I happened to over hear a converstation between three high school students. My ears perked when I heard, “Man I hate the Yankees.” Then the other girl replied, “Yeah now we can’t play tennis.” Hmmmm……. this sounds spicy. I didn’t want to appear like a nosy pervert leering over them, so I said,”Hi I’m a writer, tell me why do you hate the Yankees so much?” The girls had just gotten out of school and their social studies teacher, Mr. Murphy, had them thinking. “Well our tax payer money is going into building the stadium, but it takes it out of education.” I apologize for my poor reporting kids, I will verify this, but I heard this info today, I’m on a roll, and the blog is due tomorrow. What I do know is that YES the Yankees association has dipped into public funds to roll ahead with construction. Antoinette (a.k.a Candace), Jennifer and Shadyea, said that today they had to leave their textbooks at South Bronx Prep school because there aren’t enough to go around. It’s pretty amazing that there isn’t enough money to fund the purchase of more textbooks for local schools and yet there was more than enough to construct a whole new ball park. I also found this following article written by Juan Gonzalez of the NY Daily News particularly interesting. He goes on to explain that in 2007 the city assesed that the land under the new Yankee Stadium was valued at 10 times the market value of the adjacent land in this South Bronx neighborhood. The article reveals the disparities between land values of the old stadium and the new, even though they’re only a few blocks apart.
Now that the stadium is due to open in April of next year, the Yankees association better take the time to give back to the community that has hosted their team for the past century.
Now that the gates have officially closed at Yankee Stadium, fans may be craving a little nostalgia from the good old days of baseball.Julia Ruth Stevens, who threw the last “first” pitch at Yankee Stadium Sunday night in the house her father built, might just have the remedy.
Although she admits to being a Red Sox fan, Ruth Stevens published a book in 2008 filled with photographs and memories of the Babe, especially his time spent in pinstripes. The book titled Babe Ruth:Remembering the Bambino in Stories, Photos & Memorabilia is a pricey $35.00, but captures why this one man from Baltimore became a worldwide legend.Sure she mentions all of the records he set, broke and how he is still considered the greatest player ever to swing a bat, but she also writes about his humble beginnings and how he was simply a great dad.
One chapter in the book, Ruth Stevens describes her father’s special breakfast we would fix, just for her.She describes how the Babe would wake her up early in the morning before he would go hunting or fishing. He would butter bread and fry an egg in a whole, cut in the middle of the bread, and top it off with a slice bologna.
Ruth Stevens really balances the legend of her father and showing how he was just an ordinary man who had a great passion.Considering the state of baseball today, with the million dollar salaries, steroid use or human growth hormone, expensive ticket prices, and “misremembering” clubhouse conversations, it is refreshing to look back on why baseball is an American pastime.
Although I am not a Yankee’s fan, I can remember the first time I went to a game at the Stadium.My older brother and I had tickets in the bleachers.We sat in the furthest row from home plate, and in the furthest section of right field.We had the worst possible seats in Ruth’s house.There was not one person behind us and we both just laughed about it and looked around and saw the perfect view of all the devoted fans in the entire stadium.My brother gave me nudge and told me to shut up, so he could have a “moment” at Yankee Stadium.
Although the Bronx stopped burning years ago, the community didn’t magically recover overnight. A 2005 NBC report explains how the South Bronx continues to “rise out of the ashes.”
I’m curious if/how my own Bronx beat (CD 6) is really still dealing with any destruction and rebuilding directly related to the fires, after all these years…or is the burning Bronx an old stereotype that just won’t die? Has anyone else with CDs in the area explored this at all?
