An usher waits to greet parishioners at the rededication service for the newly renovated sanctuary at Brown Memorial Baptist Church in Clinton Hill. (Vikram Patel / The Brooklyn Ink)

In 1916, seven members of Berean Baptist Church, one of the oldest and most historic churches in Brooklyn, scraped together everything they had and set out to build their own church.  It was an ambitious task, but after “much prayer and consultation” they purchased a small storefront on the corner of Fulton Street and Troy Avenue, and Brown Memorial Baptist Church was born.

Today, nearly a century after its founding, the church—newly renovated— is still going strong, boasting more than 900 members.  On February 4, 2012, hundreds of parishioners marched down Washington Avenue in Clinton Hill to celebrate the reopening of the sanctuary after years of renovations.

The current pastor, Rev. Clinton Miller, who assumed leadership of the church a decade ago, knew he had no choice but to begin major renovations of the interior and the exterior of the building.

“Little pieces of plaster had started to fall from the ceiling,” he said in a telephone interview.

The church promptly installed a temporary scaffolding to shelter parishioners from the crumbling ceiling and began a major fundraising campaign.  In 2002, it raised $900,000 – $200,000 in grants from the New York State Historic Preservation Office and $700,000 in individual donations – to restore the façade, roof and pinnacles of the building, which was built in 1860.

“He’s really resurrected this church,” Louis Maffei, director of performing arts at Bishop Loughlin High School, said of Rev. Miller’s efforts. “It’s gorgeous inside.”  Forty students from the Bishop Loughlin band, which provided music for the ceremony, joined Maffei at the rededication ceremony.

Litishia Smith, 39, a parishioner and coordinator for the church, said the renovations are important because they’ve “brought more of a sense of community to the church.”  Smith, who’s been a member of the church since she was 11, said the restorations have allowed parishioners to take more pride in the church, and have “made them more focused on how they honor God.”

Marjona Jones, 35, who was baptized at the rededication, said a great camaraderie exists among everybody at the church.

“People really love one another there,” she said.

It’s no coincidence that the rededication comes during Black History Month, when many celebrate the achievements of institutions like Brown. From slavery to the Civil Rights Movement, churches have played an integral role in the African American community by giving spiritual and social support to the disenfranchised.

“Since the Great Migration from the South, the church was always there to revive people,” Rev. Miller said.  “It was not only a place to worship God, but it provided a social network for people that were new to Brooklyn.”

According to the U.S. National Park Service, which maintains the National Register of Historic Places, the black church also served as “a community ‘bulletin board,’ a credit union, a ‘people’s court’ to solve disputes, a support group, and a center of political activism.”

Churches like Brown continue this legacy by providing not only spiritual fulfillment for its members, but also tangible services, including weekly HIV testing and legal services – among other social programs – for its members.

“It’s still a place for politics. It’s still a place for community organizing. It’s still a place for literacy in the African American community,” said Horace Ballard, a former associate guest curator at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music.  “The church gives a sense of shared past.”

Continuing a legacy is not an easy task, and Rev. Miller admits that the church has a lot of work left in terms of community development, but he remains optimistic in a time of limited resources.  One of his primary goals now is to make the church a central pillar of the community.

“Churches that become irrelevant die,” he said.

Image courtesy of Etsy.com

For many New Yorkers a crowded subway car would be the last place to look for romance. But the New York Transit Museum has a different opinion and plans to celebrate finding love on mass transportation with a “Missed Connection,” its second annual Love-in-Transit party on Valentine’s Day.

Inspired by the popular Craigslist forum “Missed Connections,” where users post about brief encounters with strangers hoping to reconnect, the event will feature work based on these stories from different artists, writers and musicians.  Although the museum won’t replicate the experience of sharing a look across a crowded F train, Marcia Ely, of the New York Transit Museum, said the party will celebrate mass transit’s unique ability to bring people together.

“This night is really about being a New Yorker [and] really what happens in that space that we all know so well,” said Ely. “[It’s] kind of public and full of all sorts of people.  That’s the subject of our museum.”

To help with the festivities, the museum, located in downtown Brooklyn, has brought in illustrator Sophie Blackall. The Brooklyn-based artist will show work from her acclaimed book, “Missed Connections: Love, Lost & Found,” which features Blackall’s interpretations of “Missed Connection” posts.

Illustrating posts with titles such as “Girl on the Golden Swan Bike” or “Owl Lady in the Red Dress,” Blackall portrays these chance meetings as whimsical and colorful, where even two lonely coats can have a moment on the train.

Image from Missed Connections: Love, Lost & Found

Originally an illustrator of children’s books, Blackall said she found the Craigslist forum thanks to her own missed connection with a handsome stranger on the subway.

“He mouthed ‘Missed Connections’ at me through the [subway] window,” recalled Blackall. “So I went and looked and saw what it was and was completely sucked into it.”

While she never reconnected with her mystery man, Blackall started a blog featuring her “Missed Connection” illustrations and drew in new fans. Some readers even sent her their own stories hoping she would illustrate them. Eventually Blackall’s work culminated in a book, which was released last fall.

While Blackall originally hails from Australia, she finds that it’s New York City as much as Craigslist that provides her with a wealth of material.

“It’s the perfect city for this to happen,” said Blackall. “We’re always finding ourselves crashed together.” But she admitted that not all the stories she finds are appropriate for illustration.   

“For every kind of charming delightful [post], there are 18 [posts about] used boxer shorts,” said Blackall.

Since many of her “Missed Connection” illustrations were set in the world of mass transit, Blackall was one of two artists asked by the MTA Arts in Transit program to create a poster for the subways in 2012. The image shows an impossibly long subway car populated with a variety of New Yorkers, each having his or her very own missed connection.

Image by Sophie Blackall for MTA Arts for Transit © 2011

“All those years of watching and recording, it paid off in one big picture,” said Blackall. The poster will be displayed in many subway cars throughout the year.

Since the Love-in-Transit party at the museum will only have stationary subway cars, Blackall is hopeful people will make a few actual connections. “It’s a fun idea to meet up there and not really go anywhere,” said Blackall. “You can explore old subway cars.” 

The Love-in-Transit party will run from 6 to 8 p.m. on Valentine’s Day. In addition to Blackall, the event will feature New York Times reporter Alan Feuer, who will read poems based on “Missed Connections.” The music will be provided by MTA Arts in Transit band, You Bred Raptors?

Describing the music as a cross between classical and heavy metal, the drummer of You Bred Raptors?, Zach Schmidlin said playing at an event with a “Missed Connections” theme brings him full circle from his single days.

“I was convinced every girl on the train was my wife,” said Schmidlin, on his own missed connections. “I definitely thought what if.”

Read more at Reuters

Filmmaker Dominga Martin poses for the camera (Frank Ishman)

Just in time for Black History month, black and white and colored photographs of African American women are canvassed across the white washed walls of the 2,000-square foot Skylight Gallery in Bedford Stuyvesant.  The exhibition entitled Her Word as Witness: Portraits of Women Writers of the African Diaspora, features 35 portraits of African-American women who are considered among the most influential writers of this era.

“Black women have not always been revered,” said filmmaker Dominga Martin, who is featured in the exhibit. “We have been shunned by society and are still trying to make our presence known.”

Inspired by women of color who have impacted her life as an artist, Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, a Brooklyn-based photographer who has been working on the project since 2008, focused on the literacy of women writers, including Sonia Sanchez, Demetria Lucas, and Martin. The show, which opened in December, is the photographer’s third solo exhibit.

Martin, an award winning writer, producer, director and co-founder of CrèmeMagazine.com, says she found her voice when she was 16-years-old.

“I remember raising my hand saying I don’t know how to write,” she said.  It wasn’t until she attended a historically Black college, Clark Atlanta University, that she considered pursuing writing as a career.

Since then she has directed two short films, appeared in the Roxbury film festival, created a music video with R&B artists Floacist and Musiq Soulchild, and has also freelanced for magazines including VIBE and UPSCALE, Men’s Fitness online and Blackfilm.com.

As a writer, one of the main goals of Martin’s work is to inspire younger generations.  “I want young kids, especially young Black kids in the hood to know that their voice is important and they matter,” she said, adding that she feels honored to be featured in the gallery during Black History month.

Che Baraka a curator who has worked at the Skylight Gallery for 30 years, believes that young people today are more focused on pop culture than Black history.  “It’s important for them to understand how rich the Black culture really is,” he said.  “More and more women are shedding layers to African-American history.”

This exhibit certainly fits that notion by putting women, who often go unnoticed, in the spotlight, according to gallery manager Jackie Woods. “As women, we are not portrayed as frequently as men are when it comes to our history,” she said.  Woods believes this exhibit allows African-American women to appreciate their differences and embrace their Blackness.  Gallery visitors seem to appreciate the sentiment.

“It’s really an eye opener that there are so many Black women in New York who have made great strides,” said Shelly Woodward, a resident of Bedford Stuyvesant as she walked through the exhibit.

The exhibition will be showcased at Restoration Plaza’s Skylight Gallery until March 31. It is scheduled to travel to other venues in New York City and throughout the United States in coming months.

Read more at the New York Daily News. 

Read more at NY1.

With her salon located in an area with approximately 15.3 percent unemployment, Deivin Jemmott helps unemployed women with free hair styling to make them feel more confident about how they look. Produced by Khadijah Carter and Gillian Mohney

Reed's mother, left, and aunt, right, speaking to press outside the Bronx Supreme Court before his release. (Rebecca Ellis / The Bronx Ink)

“You gotta clap when he comes out, clap!,” the crowd of 50 to 60 people chanted, gathered outside the corrections entrance on the side of the Bronx Supreme Court Criminal Division on Tuesday morning.

The group was waiting for Jateik Reed, 19, who was released on bail, after he had been picked up in the 42^nd Precinct on marijuana and cocaine possession charges on Jan. 26. Neighbors and witnesses said they saw four cops beat him with batons. Jateik denies he had any drugs on him.

“He was beaten in a most unfathomable fashion,” said Gidion Oliver, Jateik’s defense attorney from the Legal Aid Society, speaking to reporters after the court adjourned.

The police, however, say Reed resisted arrest. The prosecution indicated that the teen has outstanding robbery and assault charges and petitioned the court to increase his bail by another $30,000. Oliver and his client denied the charges, maintaining that they were tacked on the day after Jateik was beaten. The judge struck down the application for an increase and kept Jateik’s bail at $10,000 cash or $30,000 bond. An anonymous donor footed the $10,001.00 bill for Jateik’s release.

The crowd patiently waited until about 2 p.m., when Jateik’s attorney told Jateik’s father to pull his car around the back and get ready for a homecoming.   “I am so happy you don’t even know!,” Jateik’s mother, Schuan Reed, exclaimed outside the exit.

Jateik Reed waves at his supporters as he gets in his father's SUV after he is released (Rebecca Ellis / The Bronx Ink).

The excitement about Jateik’s release has not clouded the somber reality that young people like Jateik face in the context of escalating tensions between the police and working class neighborhoods of color in New York City.  While the NYPD cites the need to step up intervention and surveillance of communities like the 47^th Precinct of the Bronx to curb  violence, youth like Jateik live in a“target area” for the NYPD’s Stop and Frisk policy, where officers can randomly stop people based on suspicion of carrying drugs or weapons.

“His four-year-old brother cries for him,” said Jateik’s mother. She said she tried to keep the harsh reality from this youngest son, Jayaire, but that he could still sense what was going on. “Kids still know what’s going on. They feel the tension,” she said.

After Jateik was arrested and witnesses saw the officers continuing to beat him in the van, his mother, worried for her son’s safety, took Jayeire and Jateik’s other brother Jashawn, 17, to the 42^nd  Precinct to speak to the captain.  She says she and and Jashawn were harassed by officers, and they were not allowed to speak to the captain.   The precinct has not yet replied to comment on this incident.

Jateik’s mother says she’s been so shaken that she had to turn off the videos of her son’s beating that were posted on youtube.  “I couldn’t watch the rest of it,” she said.

When Schuan went to visit him at Riker’s Island correctional facility, Jateik told his mother that he has had nightmares that the officers will come back to kill him. They hugged goodbye after visiting time was up. “He wouldn’t let me go,” she said.

At Jateik’s arraignment on Feb. 1, his mother cried when she saw his injuries. He had four stitches in his arm and in the head, and his back was black and blue. Schuan was also concerned that Jateik had not received proper medical care while in custody.

On the same day, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly put the four cops on desk duty and initiated an Internal Affairs Bureau investigation. Melvin Hernandez, assistant to the public information at the district attorney’s office, confirmed the internal police investigation of the beating but would not comment further. The NYPD’s Department of Public Information has not yet replied to requests for any further comments as to how they are proceeding with the investigation.

Meanwhile, the courtroom, filled to capacity, was packed on Tuesday with family, supporters, and clergy members. Both Jateik’s aunt, Latifah Reed, and father, Bernard Walker, are Baptist ministers. Patrician Edwards, a minister at the Gosemite Baptist Church on Prospect Avenue, said that Jateik came to church regularly and sang with his brother in the choir.

Walker explained that Jateik was on the way to meet him in order to register for an alternative school the day he was arrested. Both of Jateik’s parents are concerned that this arrest may hinder his enrollment, and hope that the school will understand the circumstances.   While Walker knows his son isn’t perfect, he insisted that Jateik wanted to turn his life around. “He wants to get out of the community,” Walker said, meaning out of a rough neighborhood. “When he gets out, I want to keep him away from bad influences. I want to make sure he gets back and forth to court and get him back in school.”

His mother said that while Jateik may have been in trouble before, he is innocent of the robbery and assault charges, citing that he has an alibi for the day the crimes occurred.   “Even if he did do these other crimes, which I know he didn’t, that does not justify the beating he received,” Jateik’s mother said. “The police need to be retrained.”

As to whether this unfortunate situation has inspired her to become more active in the community, Jateik’s mother said yes, definitely.   “I’ve heard of these things going on in our community all the time. I’m just sorry that it took this to happen to see what’s what. I’ll be out there,” she said. “I only pray that the truth comes out.”

Jateik Reed hugs his mother before he gets in the car after he is released. (Rebecca Ellis / The Bronx Ink)

As the hour of Jateik’s release approached, his mother and aunt choked up, speaking to a small group of community members and clergy surrounding them.

“When he gets out, I’m going to feed him! Doctor him up. He can have anything he wants. I’ll take him out,” his mother said.

Jateik came out of the side door in a flash of orange, still in his orange prison suit. Cameras snapped, and in an instant, Jateik was in the SUV, reunited with his family, hugging his mother. He reappeared briefly to thank everyone for their support. After a number of flashes went off to capture the moment, a man stepped up to the car and said to Jateik, “Now get your rest. You still have a lot to do. The struggle ain’t over.”

In fact, the release is just the beginning of Jateik’s journey into the legal system.  Jateik is due to reappear in court on Feb. 24 for the robbery and on March 17 for assault. “I hope justice prevails,” his mother said.