BROOKLYN, NY – SEP 1:  Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio led over 1,000,000 revelers in Brooklyn’s Carnival parade. Overall, the Labor Day Weekend of carnival events were peaceful. Thousands of visitors from Canada and other states came to Brooklyn for the annual event which originated in Harlem, NY in the 1940s.

With New York State primary scheduled for September 9, the carnival was the perfect place for people seeking public office and those seeking re-election such as Governor Cuomo.

This year the WIADCA attempted to charge the small Caribbean-American media houses to cover the carnival.

 

Brooklyn, NY – July 11 – Dr. Keith Rowley, Opposition Leader in Trinidad & Tobago’s Parliament and Political Leader of the People’s National Movement (PNM), held a town hall meeting this evening at Medgar Evers College, Brooklyn, NY.

Dr. Rowley spoke about a variety of problems and challenges facing Trinidad & Tobago. He said a PNM Government under his leadership will do a better job in decreasing crimes, enhancing education and the economy than the present government.

Rowley also spoke about regional issues and how he will strengthen the regional body known as the Caribbean Community (Caricom).

The meeting was primarily attended by PNM supporters in Brooklyn as well as by other nationals of Trinidad & Tobago many of whom are not affiliated with political parties in Trinidad & Tobago but came out of curiosity to hear and see a future prime minister of their beloved nation.

Dr. Rowley answered posed to him at random. Most of the questions to him were about the deteriorating crime rate in the twin-island nation.

Tomorrow, Saturday, July 14, Dr. Rowley will be in the Borough of Queens where he will hold a similar meeting.

 

 

Pat Boothe
EVERYBODY’S Magazine Editor
Passed On

I regret to announce the passing of Patricia Boothe, EVERYBODY’S Magazine editor. Pat suffered from a heart problem most of her life and succumb to it last Friday at New York University Hospital after a brief illness. She leaves behind her son Leon, her mother Mrs. Boothe, a sister Maxeen. They reside in New York and her brother and other relatives in Jamaica. She was only in her mid 50s.
Pat was very dedicated to me and primarily responsible for the editorial growth of the magazine especially during the decades of the 1980s and 1990s. She preferred to be a behind-the-scene person and shunned the limelight. She declined to do interviews with personalities. She took delight in arranging for me and others to do them.
She could have easily interviewed Bob Marley, members of Third World, Steele Pulse, Michael Manley, Maurice Bishop and other groups and personalities. Instead she took delight in transcribing the interviews and editing them for publication.
Due to the decline of the magazine industry and Pat failing health, I tried to give Pat less assignments but she never lost interest and asked to do last minute copy editing.
In 1987, the 10th anniversary of EVERYBODY’S, Pat made a massive montage of almost every photograph that appeared in the magazine. Today most visitors to the magazine are attracted by it. You can say the history of the Caribbean between1977-1987is in the montage from Janelle Penny Commissiong of Trinidad & Tobago becoming Miss Universe, Mary Eugenia Charles of Dominica becoming the first female prime minister in the region to Eric Gairy at his hotel suite in New York City upon learning his Grenada Government was overthrown to President Ronald Reagan visit to Jamaica and Barbados.
Although she was not involved in the planning and implementing the magazine’s cultural events including plays and concerts, Pat attended almost each program and encouraged friends to purchase tickets.
I am shattered over Pat’s passing. She inspired me and without her EVERYBODY’S would have folded years ago.
Herman Hall, Publisher, EVERYBODY’S, the Caribbean-American magazine.

St. John’s, Antigua & Barbuda: The Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) led by Gaston Browne has regained power after 10 years as the opposition party in the nation’s parliament. Over 90% of the country’s eligible voters participated in the June 12 national elections. Around 11pm, Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer of the United Progressive Party (UPP) who governed for ten years called Opposition Leader Browne to congratulate him for his party winning 14 of the 17 parliamentary seats.

Prime Minister Spencer then addressed the nation by officially  conceding defeat and thanking the people of Antigua and Barbuda for conducting a fair and free election. “I wish to say to the people of Antigua & Barbuda that the democratic process in our nation is alive. The electorate of this country made a statement … They made a choice and of course, I have to accept.”

The outgoing prime minister also told the nation that he had already called the incoming prime minister.  “I congratulated him and told him I look forward to the ABLP governing this country in the interest of Antigua & Barbuda and that they can be assured of my support in the discharge of their responsibilities when I am satisfied that they are acting in the best interest of the people of this nation.”

Prime Minister Designate Gaston Browne will be sworn-in later today  by the Governor-General as the nation’s fourth prime minister.

New York – April 17:  Basil Paterson, a famous African-American who was born in NY in 1927 of a Grenadian father and a Jamaican mother, died at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. The Paterson ancestral home is still on Carriacou, Grenada. Paterson, one of the most active politicians in New York City, maintained contacts with family members on the island of Carriacou and those living on the mainland of Grenada and Brooklyn, NY.

When his son, David Paterson,  became Governor of NY State in 2008, the first and only African-American to be the chief executive of NY, Basil Paterson told EVERYBODY’S that it would be nice for the then Grenada Government to invite father and son to officially visit Grenada and motivate the young people.  Basil Paterson suggestion was communicated to the then Grenada Government but nothing came out of it.

State Senator Basil Paterson was the first African-American on the National Democratic Party Committee. He was appointed by the Democratic Party presidential candidate George McGovern. He sought the governorship of New York State and was edged out in the Democratic Primary. He later became the first African-American to become Secretary of State in NY.

Paterson was a leader of civil rights and active politician in New York City.  He was part of the City’s famous four Black politicians in Harlem known as the Gang of 4 – Percy Sutton, Manhattan Borough President and co-founder of WBLS/WLIB, David Dinkins who later became mayor of New York City and Congressman Charles Rangel.

Basil Paterson was a World War II veteran.  Paterson is a graduate of De Witt Clinton High School in the Bronx, St. John’s and Columbia Universities.

At his Brooklyn home, Dr. Lamuel Stanislaus who is  from Petite Martinique, Grenada said, “I am saddened about the passing of my dear friend, Hon. Basil Paterson. He was the son of a Grenadian father who I knew very well. I am proud of Basil’s family and his son, David, a former governor of New York.  I extend my deepest sympathy to his family.”

The publisher of EVERYBODY’S thank the late Basil Paterson for his support of this magazine and his willingness to chat with him about early West Indian immigrants, his love of Grenada and about his mother who was a secretary of Marcus Garvey.

Many national personalities from Bill and Hillary Clinton to Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo are expected to attend the funeral.

Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott was recently presented the W.E.B. DuBois Award at the Black Writers’ Conference held at Medgar Evers College, City University of New York. He was introduced by Professor Mervyn Taylor. Excerpts from Poet Mervyn Taylor’s intro.

 “Port of Spain or Castries, No Greeting Is Casual

     No matter how busy, they stop to talk, to friends, strangers, to anyone who happens to catch the eye. There is so much crime today, they are a bit more wary, but they find time to discuss good fortune, to ask about yours. Sometimes they tell the whole story, even the part about a daughter’s disgrace, about a son for whom they have no money for lawyer, about one who is on the verge of getting into college.

    I ran into a store to shelter the rain, and a woman asked me if it was raining. I saw the drops on your shirt, she said, and I wasn’t sure if it was rain, or a pattern on the material. See? It looks like a pattern.    And she turned to others around and they confirmed, yes, it look like a pattern, but is really rain. Further down the road my mind would be taken up by sight of the security guard in front of a jewelry store, by the size of the bore of his rifle. And later by the cloud over the city, the stifling smell of yellow fumes coming from an area near the city dump, where bad boys from gangs were staging some kind of standoff.

     And in the taxi on the way home, the driver pointed out a man who he said played the most beautiful chords on the church organ on Sunday, but who the rest of the week drank heavily, till one of his daughters had to find him wherever he was and bring him home. And I remember my neighbors asking, how is your father, and that thumb cut off by the train, how are the goats he has decided to mind?

     And I looked at my shirt from which the pattern had disappeared and it occurred to me that this is where poetry begins, in an observation captured before it disappears for good, given with the honesty of a woman wondering if it was raining in truth, a witness. That someone will call out, like the passenger on the bus in Walcott’s Light of The World to remind us that we left something behind, mister, your cigarettes, while we wish they were calling us back for something more.

     This, more than ambition, is what makes a man close the door to his room, even as the world outside calls to say how good he is, sends tickets to bring him across the globe to receive prizes, the Nobel included. It sends him back to a window from which he can see his father show a young boy a line of women climbing the hills for anthracite, the pattern and weave and rhythm of their walk as they crisscross, how his verse should be true like that, like the weight balanced ever so lightly on their heads; close the door to what he says is “the hardest prison ever”, the prison of verse, as his friends have also testified, like Brodsky out of Russia, saying the world is hard all over, might as well try the States, the line in the poem Forest of Europe speaking of poetry as “the bread that will last after all systems have failed”. It is what makes him close the door and assume the position of prayer, whatever that is, standing, kneeling, sitting, and begin the next line, the next stanza, about a man like an egret, standing still in thought.

     For it is never finished; this work is never done, because the light of the world will slant differently on a different morning, and who is to see it, who is to find the right metaphor, who is to listen to the voice in the community observe that it must be raining, I can tell by the pattern on your shirt, it’s new, like a new Caribbean, a new America, for ourselves and for those, as Stephen Vincent Benet said, who are to come.

     To you, Derek Walcott, for time spent in the service of verse, for the miracle of achieving ordinary speech, in thousands of poems that are simply, prayers, for the next poem, and the one after that, this award- The W.E.B. DuBois Award, presented on behalf of Medgar Evers College, CUNY, at this 10^th anniversary of the Black Writers’ Conference, 2014.”

Mervyn Taylor is a Trinidad-born poet who divides his time between Brooklyn and his native island. He has taught at The New School and in the New York City public school system, and is the author of five books of poetry, namely, An Island of His Own (1992), The Goat (1999), Gone Away (2006), No Back Door (2010), and The Waving Gallery (2014). He can be heard on an audio collection, Road Clear, accompanied by bassist David Williams.

     First Lady Chirlane McCray recently delivered remarks to the Women’s Initiatives Networking, a diverse forum of New York City-based women’s groups organized by the New York Coalition of One Hundred Black Women.

    I really wanted to come tonight because I have this question that I’ve been wondering about for some time.

    And that question is: Who exactly are the 100 Black Women?

     Such a powerful name! And you all have been such a mystery to me. I’m not talking about your names on paper of course. And not your professional affiliations. And what you’ve achieved.

     I’ve just wondered, what exactly does it feel like to be in a room with you all?

     Well, I can say it’s feeling pretty good…  I like the company.

     And I feel so lucky to be alive and standing here with you.

     I love the way you have come together to support one another and do the kind of work that you’re doing for our young people.

    You know people ask me how I can live this crazy political life.  Giving up so much of our privacy, living in a fishbowl. The pace. With no two days ever alike. Traveling from the Bronx to Staten Island to Queens, Manhattan and Brooklyn, and then doing it all over again.

    And I have to tell people that everything I’ve been through in my life has helped to prepare me for this moment.

     I’m sure most of you follow the news pretty closely, so you’ve probably come across an article or two about me.

    But you’re also savvy enough to realize that what you read in the newspaper is only one part of my story.

    So let me tell you just a little more – of my version of my story – in condensed form.

    Because there is definitely something interesting, some spirited blood flowing through my veins.

    I’m the granddaughter of immigrants. My maternal great grandmother, my maternal grandfather AND my maternal grandmother all traveled from Barbados to the United States.

    The farthest back I can trace is my great grandmother, Louisa Parris Edwards. And let me tell you, that woman had a lot of gumption. The short story is that she was a widow, working on a mail ship that traveled between the islands in the Caribbean. A wealthy family took a liking to her and invited her to work for their family. In Claremont, New Hampshire.

    She could not have known how COLD it was. Right? Anyway, she accepted the offer. And one by one she brought her children over and eventually bought the house my mother was born in. Then Louisa, after raising her family in Claremont, packed her bags and moved to Harlem. And there, she joined the Marcus Garvey Back to Africa movement.

    She invested in the Black Star Line and the Parent Body of the Universal Negro Improvement Association Construction Loans. AND she invested in the Negro Factories Corporation. And I know that when she died, she had one of the biggest funerals ever held in Harlem. That’s the activist blood I have flowing through my veins!

    My parents had a mixed marriage. Her folks came to this country from Barbados and my father’s parents came from the south. And they brought me up in Springfield and Longmeadow, Massachusetts, which was about a million miles away, culturally, from Harlem.

     I was always the only black student in my class, and there was a stretch when I was the only black student in the entire school.

     It was tough – emotionally and psychologically. I was teased, I was chased, and yes, I even was spit at. But I was the first girl in my family to go to college.

     So for me the real mystery is, how my parents managed to achieve what they did? And my grandparents? How did they all do it? This is something I spend a lot of time thinking about these days.

    So when people ask me, how can I DO what I’m doing, I tell them that, everything I have experienced has helped to prepare me. And I had help.

     I had afterschool and weekend programs — at the Girl’s Club, West African and jazz dance and theatre at the Dunbar Community Center, youth group at St Peter’s Episcopal Church, the YMCA.  I had piano lessons, swimming lessons and swim team. And every week we’d go to the library and I’d find refuge in the tall stacks of books. I would check out as many of them as my little arms could carry.

    And there were adults who encouraged me. Not just one. And no ONE in particular. But they were there and I drew strength from them.

    Once I started writing, poetry, in high school, the writing was my skill and it sustained me. It was my therapy and my outlet.

    At Wellesley, where I went to college, I teamed up with some other students to launch Brown Sister, a publication celebrating the voices of women of color. And I had professors there who encouraged me.

     And then I moved to New York City — in 1977, with two possible job contacts, a place to stay and about 35 dollars in my pocket.

    My first job was with Redbook magazine. My first freelance assignments were with Essence magazine. It was challenging to be in that industry, when so many people were still claiming that Black people did not read. And there were so few people of color in NY publishing houses.

    Outside of Essence and Black Enterprise magazines, there were only a handful.

    But when I started an organization called Black Women in Publishing, the editor in chief at Redbook made sure we had a space for our first meetings. He encouraged me.

    But it was not ALL easy. When I finally decided to leave publishing and work full-time as a writer, I learned first-hand the challenges of being a single artist without a lovely benefits package!

    Those were the years when I learned what it was like to live in a building with drafty windows and not enough heat.

    Those were the years I learned how to get by with second-rate medical care because I couldn’t afford a good doctor. And I learned what happens when you land in a hospital with a newly diagnosed, severe chronic disease and you have no health insurance.

    And thanks to a job, I took as a substitute teacher, those where the years when I gained a fuller appreciation for why my parents sacrificed so much for my education.

    I eventually landed a position in the Dinkins administration, as a press person. And that’s where I met my very tall and very handsome and very smart husband. The spot where we met is just a few yards from where his office is now.

    And we were married nearly 20 years ago. We celebrate our anniversary is in May and we have the two fabulous children you’ve heard about – Chiara and Dante.

    Since then I’ve worked in communications and as a speechwriter — in government and politics and healthcare. But I’ve never forgotten the lessons I learned during my youth.

     I know that government has a powerful role to play in the lives of everyday people. And has powerful tools to help protect people and keep the doors of opportunity open.

    I’m so proud to be a part of the de Blasio administration. And I have to say that I did not go door to door to door, hand out flyers in subways, go to bed late and get up early — campaigning side by side with my husband so I that could sit back and put my feet up!

    After all these years together, I know how committed he is to using those tools of government to lift up all New Yorkers.

    Today Mayor Bill signed the paid sick bill legislation, which means a half million more New Yorkers have the right to take a sick day without losing their job. Or care for a child or parent who is ill. Which makes for a healthier workplace and city if someone with the flu is not serving your food!

    I’m also proud to be part of the movement to bring universal pre-kindergarten and after-school programs for our middle school students

    We are working day and night to provide every young person in New York City with full-day pre-kindergarten when they’re young… and high-quality after school programs when they’re in middle school.

    I could rattle off a bunch of statistics proving that early education is one of the best investments we can make in our children, but instead I’m going to tell you one little story.

    A few weeks ago, I visited a model pre-K classroom in Brownsville, Brooklyn.

     It was Choice Time, so all the 4-year-olds were clustered in different centers, working on different aspects of construction.

    Some were building with blocks. Some were measuring and hammering, and drilling – using adult-sized tools!

    And some had just finished building a castle. And this one teeny-tiny gal with pigtails and a squeaky voice grabbed my hand to show me the drawbridge and other parts of their castle.

    I was impressed with all the detail, but I was even more impressed with how articulate she was.

    A few minutes later, right before story time, she plopped herself down in the front row, looked into my eyes with great seriousness and said, “I’m paying attention.  I’m engaged.”

    I just laughed. I was so tickled with her AND the other children in the class.

    Her vocabulary was bigger than she was.  And her intelligence… off the charts.

     But just imagine. What if she – like some 50,000 of her peers in New York City – didn’t have access to pre-K?

    There’s a good chance she’d spend most of her time at home, perhaps sitting in front of the TV.   Which would be such a waste.

     So if you haven’t already, I urge you to join the UPK-NYC movement. Please help us make New York City history by making sure all of our children have pre-kindergarten and all of our middle school students have access to high quality, after school programs.

    And… just in case you think I’m not busy enough, I want to remind you that I also serve as Chair of the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City.

     My team is just getting started, but already tackling some of the toughest problems facing us today. To give you a sense of the Mayor’s Fund broad scope of concerns, there were two projects that were in the news last week.

    Last Wednesday was the opening of the city’s fourth Family Justice Center, in Lower Manhattan.  which provides crucial support to the victims of domestic violence.

    Then, on Sunday, I was in East Harlem to announce a relief effort to help victims of the tragic building collapse put their lives back together. And I am so grateful for all the donations we have received. If there is one thing New Yorkers can count on when tragedy strikes, it’s other New Yorkers.

    Because there is so much I want to share with you. So, I invite you to check out my blog on tumblr. It’s flonyc.tumblr.com. The letters stand for First Lady of New York City and I call it FLOW-NICE. The blog one of the ways I share my thoughts, what I’m doing around the city and the people I am meeting. With poetry, pictures, video and stories. It’s interactive you can share your stories on it too!

    Think of it as one of the ways we can continue getting acquainted.

     And I do want to get to know you better and work with you. So please, consider this the beginning of a long conversation we get to have over the next four to eight years.

     I know we share the same dreams for our young people and if history has proven anything, it’s that nothing – and I mean nothing – can stop us when we unite behind a common goal.

    Together, we can help get our young people and our city where it needs to be.