Event Alert - Event Alert - Event Alert

By Gloria Dulan-Wilson

I hope all of you had a wonderful and memorable Memorial Day Holiday. I certainly did. I did my favorite thing to do on such a week end, while others are getting away from New York, I'm getting in to New York. And that's exactly what I did. And I had a blast. As always I went to Dance Africa which is held annually at BAM. If I miss that, I feel as though I have missed the whole beginning of Summer.

In addition to running into wonderful friends that I hadn't seen in quite some time: Woodie King, Jr., Ebony Jo Ann, Rome Neal, Eric Frasier, Karma Stanley, artist Charlotte Ka; Zainab Wai-Lansana (from Sierra Leone),I also had the opportunity to pay homage to a few friends that we won't see any more on this side of the planet: Sister Makeda Searson, who always had a booth at Dance Africa every year without fail. We lost her at the beginning of the year, but many of the merchants who usually had booths next to her had not been notified of her passing. We spent some time reminiscing on what a special sister she was.

But it's impossible to go through that event and not find out about even more events coming up. So, in the interest of keeping you up to date, I'm calling an event alert right now. Hope you can avail yourselves of some of these programs. There are, of course, some overlapping dates. You know how we do. We wouldn't be New Yorkers if we didn't have 25 things going on at the same time. But it makes it possible for you to pick and choose -- or go to all of them, or not -- any way you choose. Just go out and enjoy
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Friday, June 4 2010 1:00 - 3:00 Senior Outreach and Information Forum sponsored by
Assemblymember Annette M. Robinson and State Senator Velmanette Montgomery
First AME Zion Church
480 Tompkins Ave Brooklyn, NY (718) 399-7651
Will include estate planning; Wills & Estates; Scam prevention;
Weatherization; and Update on Medicare


FRIDAY, JUNE 4 at 5:30PM
AFRICAN VOICES HONORS WOODIE KING, JR. & OTHERS
At Con Edison Auditorium (4 Irving Place @14th and Union Square, NYC)
Ellie Charles Awards Honoree Bios
Herb Boyd is an awarding winning author and journalist who has published nineteen books and countless articles for national magazines and newspapers. Brotherman—The Odyssey of Black Men in America—An Anthology (One World/Ballantine, 1995), co-edited with Robert Allen of the Black Scholar journal, won the American Book Award for nonfiction. In 1999, Boyd won three first place awards from the New York Association of Black Journalists for his articles published in the Amsterdam News. Among his most popular books are Black Panthers for Beginners (Writers & Readers, 1995); Autobiography of a People—Three Centuries of African American History Told By Those Who Lived It (Doubleday, 2000); Race and Resistance—African Americans in the 21st Century (South End Press, 2002); The Harlem Reader (Crown Publishers, 2003); We Shall Overcome—A History of the Civil Rights Movement (Sourcebooks, 2004); and Pound for Pound—The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson (Amistad, 2005).

In 2006, Boyd worked with world music composer Yusef Lateef on his autobiography The Gentle Giant which was published by Morton Books of New Jersey. His book, Baldwin’s Harlem, a biography of the writer James Baldwin was published by Atria Books (Simon & Schuster) in January, 2008. In 2010, he collaborated with Simeon Wright, the first cousin of Emmett Till, on his memoir Simeon’s Story—An Eyewitness Account of the Kidnapping of Emmett Till, Lawrence Hill, Chicago. He is also working with filmmakers Keith Beauchamp and Eddie Harris on several documentary projects.

Woodie King, Jr. is a founder and Producing Director of New Federal Theatre in New York City. New Federal Theatre has presented over 200 productions in its 39 year history. His directional credits are extensive and include work in film as well as theater. He directed at Cleveland Playhouse, Stage West, Virginia Museum Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse, Northlight Theatre, New Federal Theatre, The Ensemble Studio, Arena Stage, GeVa Theatre, American Place Theatre, Jomandi Theatre, Center Stage of Baltimore, Indiana Repertory Company, Studio Arena in Buffalo, New York Shakespeare Festival, Billie Holiday Theatre, St. Louis Black Repertory Theatre, and Crossroads Theatre Company. In 1985, he was nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award for Boseman and Lena and in 1987/88 season he won a NAACP Image Award for directing Checkmates at Inner City Cultural Center (Los Angeles). In 1988, he directed Checkmates on Broadway. In 1987, he directed Charles Dutton in Splendid Mummer at American Place Theatre; in 1990, God’s Trombones at the Ford’s Theatre, and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone at Detroit Rep. In 1991/92; he directed A Raisin in the Sun and The Member of the Wedding, both at GeVa. He directed Good Black Don’t Crack and Love And Marriage and New York City at Billie Holiday Theatre in Brooklyn and produced and directed Robert Johnson: Trick The Devil for which he won AUDELCO Awards as Best Director and Best Play of the Year in 1993 and A Raisin in the Sun, starring Esther Rolle and Kenny Leon, at The Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. He directed Angels in America: Millennium Approaches at Ohio State University in 2006 and also directed The Piano Lesson at Tennessee Repertory Theatre in Nashville. Woodie King Jr. was a visiting professor at Oberlin College, Florida State University, and Ohio State University in addition to directing at these universities, he has taught at Yale, Penn State, North Carolina A&T, Columbia, NYU, Hunter, and Brooklyn College. Mr. King is a Graduate of Will-0-Way School of Theatre in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; Lehman College in New York; and received his MFA in directing at Brooklyn College. He is currently a visiting professor at Sarah Lawrence College where last season he directed Lynn Nottage’s Crumbs from the Table of Joy. Last season he also directed Derek Walcott’s The Odyssey at SUNY Purchase. Mr. King is the recipient of an Obie Award for Sustained Achievement, a TCG Peter Zeisler Award, AEA’s Paul Robeson Award, AEA’s Rosetta LeNoire Award; an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Wayne State University, a Doctorate of Fine Arts from the College of Wooster; and Honorary Doctorates from Lehman College and John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Sonny Fortune, the great alto saxophonist, flutist and composer, is also a riveting improvisor who can play inside or out with a logic and passion that never loses the listener. Manhattan's now-defunct Jazz club Sweet Rhythm went out with a bang by hosting Sonny's first-ever live recording, featuring his current quartet of http://www.michaelcochrane.com/"Michael Cochrane, http://davidhappywilliams.com/home.html David Williams, and http://www.stevejohnsjazz.com/ Steve Johns. Sonny's had major media attention, with features on 48 Hours and CBS Sunday Morning, and in his monthly Jazz Times article, Nat Hentoff stated that Sonny "ought to be a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master." Sonny's at the peak of his powers, so book him now.

In the new Millennium, Fortune has continued to tour as a leader both in the U.S. and abroad. In 2003 Sonny released the first CD, Continuum, on his own label, Sound Reason. In addition to acquiring the rights to his Blue Note CD’s from the 1990’s, and re-releasing them on Sound Reason in 2005 as the Trilogy Collection, Sonny recorded You and the Night and the Music for 18th & Vine, a 2007 CD which spent 3 weeks at #2 and 3 months in the Top Twenty on the JazzWeek chart measuring radio airplay. In 2010 Sound Reason released Fortune’s first-ever live recording, Last Night at Sweet Rhythm, with his current quartet featuring Michael Cochrane on piano, David Williams on bass, and Steve Johns on drums. Sonny’s impressive body of work has led Nat Hentoff to state, in his monthly article for JazzTimes, that Sonny “ought to be a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master.”

Betty Dopson is a known community activist, journalist and organizer. She is perhaps best known as the award winning former public relations director of Harlem Hospital Center where she served for over 15 years and for her organization, CEMOTAP, Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive to African People. For the past 23 years CEMOTAP, an all African media watch organization which she co-founded in 1987, has defended the image, heritage and history of African people through social and grassroots activism.

Dopson won national acclaim while at Harlem Hospital by founding an annual event called Harlem Babies Day. The event invited individuals from around the world who were born in the hospital, to return for a day of celebration. The annual event brought favorable international press and financial support to the municipal hospital. The Babies Day celebration is now being replicated by hospitals across the nation.

Her second retirement was three years ago after serving for 13 years as Director of the Southern Queens Park Association Beacon School located in Southeast Queens. She refers to it as her dream job where she worked with children and adults offering after school courses, GED Prep, Computer basics, Music instruction, Social work assistance, ESL, Homework Help and sports activities for students.

She has given essential service to community organizations such as The Board for the Education of People of African Ancestry; The Needles Eye, a drug treatment program located in Youngstown, Ohio; and WISOMMM, Women in Support of the Million Man March as well as the Dr. Adelaide Sanford Charter School, both located in Newark, New Jersey.

About the Ellie Charles Artists Awards

Each year, African Voices presents the Ellie Charles Artists Awards to honor artists, community activists and other educators for their contributions to society. The award is named in honor of our first chairperson Eleanor “Ellie” Charles who dedicated her life to supporting the arts, education and young people. In 1998, legendary photographer Gordon Parks became the first artist to receive African Voices’ prestigious artist award. Past honorees are Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, poet/activist Sonia Sanchez, actress/activist Ruby Dee, poet/book publisher Jessica Care Moore, radio personality/poet Imhotep Gary Byrd, Harlem Arts Alliance founder Voza Rivers and award-winning authors Walter Mosley, Wole Soyinka, Amiri Baraka and actress Phyllis Yvonne Stickney.
Buy Tickets for the Event!


Friday, June 4, 2010 from 5:30 PM - 9:00 PM
2010 CARIBBEAN AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH CELEBRATION
The 44th Anniversary of Guyana’s Independence
Council Chambers, City Hall
New York, New York

THE EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

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Saturday • JUNE 5 • 7:30PM
Sunday • JUNE 6 • 3PM

Something Positive in Concert

The Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus

Flatbush Ave at Willoughby Ave

This annual tribute to the company’s founder, Cheryl Byron will feature her signature work Ancestral Chant, an exciting new installment to Sweet Nina Suite honoring Nina Simone by Michael Manswell, the spectacular Carnival Tapestry by Sonny Salina and newly minted works by the company’s Sade Small & Danielle Cassimir. Something Positive is a community-based, performing arts and education organization dedicated to the art and culture of the African Diaspora and its cross-cultural influences. Tickets: $25

Saturday June 5, 2010 @ 9:00PM
ROME NEAL'S BANANA PUDDIN' JAZZ 7TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
NYUORICAN POET'S CAFE
238 East 3rd St., (bet. Ave. B & C) F Train to 2nd Ave)
RSVP (212) 780-9386 email: romekyn@earthlink.net
special guests: Onaje Allen Gumbs, TS Monk, Grady Tate, TCIII, Charli Persip, Danny Mixon, Lou Myers, Adam Wade, Gerald Hayes, Cynthia Scott, Tulivu Donna Cumberbatch, Martha Redbone, Patience Higgins, Eric Frazier, Dwight West, Stanley Banks, Aaron James, Danny Holgate, Cobi Narita, Kaz Ooka, among others.
Be There to Celebrate 7 Years of Musical Excellence!!!
and remember
COMPLIMENTARY HOME MADE BANANA PUDDIN' FOR ALL!!!

Sunday, June 6 (3:00 pm & 7:00 pm) LENA! The Story of A Black Cinderella
Lafayette Grill and Bar, 54 Franklin St., (bet. Broadway & Lafayette)
Dinner and a Show and a wonderful tribute to our dear departed diva Ms. Lena Horne, has its World Premiere, Sunday June 6. Nickolas Long - writer, producer/director, has brought together a stellar cast. You will love it (and wait until you see Ethel Waters!)


Tuesday, June 8 7PM Caribbean Cultural Theater Poets & Passion
St. Francis College - Callahan Center
Thomas Glave: US JAMAICA
Mervyn Taylor : Trinidad & Tobago
182 Remsen Street (Court & Clinton Streets), Brooklyn, NY 11201

THURSDAY, JUNE 10 AT 5:30 PM
COUNCILMEMBER MATHIEU EUGENE CORDIALLY INVITES YOU TO

COUNCIL CHAMBERS, CITY HALL
TAKE THE 4/5/6 TRAIN TO BROOKLYN BRIDGE STOP
OR 2/3 TRAIN TO PARK PLACE STOP

THE EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. TO RSVP (718) 287-8762


Saturday, June 19 at Frederick P. Rose Hall: PAN JAZZ @ 7:00 PM.

Lincoln Center, Broadway & 60th Street, Manhattan
Ticket prices for Pan Jazz 2010 “Folklore Tales of the Caribbean” start at $45.
Tickets may be purchased at Jazz at Lincoln Center (212-721-6500) or online at: www.panjazz.com. Pan Jazz 2010 is a production of Abstract Entertainment Inc.
The steel pan talent being featured will this year highlight the next generation of dynamos of the instrument, including Leon Foster Thomas, Andre White and Freddie Harris Jr. Thomas, White and Harris have all served serious notice that they are ready to assume a place in the front ranks of pan soloists, White having also already notched his first Panorama win as arranger in the 2008 Brooklyn Panorama. Complementing musicians include the versatile horn player Etienne Charles (who is no stranger to the Pan Jazz stage), bassist Benjamin Williams, drummer Brennen Temple and saxophonist Jacques Schwarz-Bart.
Preceding the show will be a “Taste of the Caribbean Festival,” from 4:30 to 6:30 PM in the Jazz at Lincoln Center Atrium. A smorgasbord of Caribbean food and drink, as well as live entertainment, will be served up to Pan Jazz ticket holders.
Sponsors for this pre-show bonus feature are Tropical Paradise Restaurant, Sugarcane, Negril Village, Spoonbread and Allan’s Bakery and more.

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THURSDAY, JUNE 22 AT 5:30 PM

NY CITY COMPTROLLER JOHN C. LIU

Surrogate Court House
31 CHAMBERS ST, NY NY
TAKE THE 4/5/6 TRAIN TO BROOKLYN BRIDGE STOP
OR 2/3 TRAIN TO PARK PLACE STOP
THE EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. TO RSVP (212) 669-3450

Wednesday June 30th 2010 @ 10:00am – 7:00pm
Brooklyn Borough Hall
All Day Cultural Presentation and Symposium
Caribbean American Heritage Month

THE EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

SUNDAY, June 8, 2010

STREETBALL

7PM, Tuesday, June 8 at National Black Theatre
(2031 Fifth Avenue (b/w 125 & 126th Sts.)
$12 in advance / $15 at the door
(member discount applies)
Directed by Demetrius Wren, STREETBALL is a fast-paced documentary that tells the stories of South Africa's 2008 Homeless World Cup team. The Homeless World Cup is an annual soccer tournament that draws teams from over 56 countries-comprised of the homeless and excluded. The South African squad consists of disenfranchised citizens, many of whom are ex-convicts, former gangsters, orphans and recovering drug addicts who band together to represent their country, proving that no one is beyond redemption.

This evening will feature live music, cocktails, food from MADIBA and a special Q&A with director Demetrius Wren and athletes from South Africa's Homeless World Cup team via SKYPE!

Food Sponsor
Quiznos Coupon
Strategic Partners in South Africa
BlackAge Media, Cross Path Culture and G-Ozone

NOTE: Wedesnsday, June 16: Join ImageNation as we celebrate the World Cup in South Africa and South African Youth Day with a special screening of STREETBALL

Friday, June 18 | 7 - 11pm: A Summer Night to Remember! Dwyer Cultural Center
An Afro-Cuban Jazz + Dance Party Not to be Missed!

Tickets: $15 | Includes complimentary glass of wine
To Purchase Tickets click here or call 212.222.3060
* Advance Purchase Recommended. Capacity limited.

Dwyer Cultural Center
258 St. Nicholas Avenue at W. 123rd Street
between Frederick Douglass Blvd & St. Nicholas Ave
212.222.3060 | info@dwyercc.org

Saturday, June 19, MEN'S HEALTH FAIR: In Celebration of National Men's Health Week
sponsored by Assemblywoman Annette M. Robinson
Restoration Plaza Amphitheatre,
1368 Fulton St., Brooklyn, NY
10:00am- 2:00pm
Show your support by wearing Blue

June 20, 1010 REAL MEN COOK Father's Day 2 - 6PM
MiniSINK TOWNHOUSE 142nd Street & Malcolm X Blvd (a/k/a Lenox Ave.)

Celebrating Fatherhood, Family and Community and support REAL MEN by purchasing a ticket for you, your father, your family, the fathers in your life.
REAL MEN COOK takes place on Father's Day, Sunday, June 20 from 2 - 6pm at Minisink Townhouse, 646 Malcolm X Blvd. (aka Lenox Avenue) at 142nd Street.

Real Men Cook has become a tradition as the largest and longest-running national Father's Day celebration of its kind. It is an annual event that honors fathers and the positive accomplishments of men in the community, past and present. It also provides a broad look at "real men" even beyond fathers to coaches, teachers and others with or without children, who care.

Please help raise funds for NYC Mission Society which has been serving families and children in NYC for nearly 200 years.

Saturdays: June 5, 12, 19, 26 4-DAY DV/DVD PRODUCTION INTENSIVE WORKSHOP
from KARMA STONZ PRODUCTIONS
GLOBAL ALLIANCE TELEVISION (718) 469-4379
email: karmastonz@aol.com
1115 Nostrand Ave, Bkln NY (#44 to Empire Blvd; #2/5 to Sterling St)
1:00 - 4:00 PM
Learn to Write,Direct, Shoot and Edit and Produce Your Own You Tube Show
Create a Music Video
Create a protfolio for yourself
Create Your Own Short Movie or Documentary
*Each participant provides own equipment

Tuesday June 1, 8, 15, 22 & 29 NUTTIN' BUT THE BLUES OPEN MIC AT THE SUGAR BAR
HOSTED BY NICK ASHFORD AND FEATURING EBONY JO ANN & THE BACK ALLY PLAYERS
8:00 PM; ADM. $10.00 2-DRINK MINIMUM,
254 W. 72ND ST. (212) 579-0222

Two Steps Down Every Second Sunday from 5 - 9 pm
Hosted by Jazz Vocalist Steve Cromity
240 Dekalb Ave., bet. Vanderbilt & Clermont
(718) 399-2020

NATIONAL BLACK THEATRE
Fertile Ground
BA's Communication Arts Program Showcasing New Talent
2nd Thursday of Each Month (June 10th & July 8th)
Backed up by NBT's House Band
(212) 722-3800