East 12th Street
Category Archives: New York
Entrance to the Neighborhood Pool
An Artist Mother
When you are no longer grieving a loved one, it becomes your job to celebrate the life that has gone away from you. You are joyful about it because joy must be paramount to your life.
Most of all, death has a lesser sting when you celebrate it and I mean, celebrate. Celebrating the death of a love one feels good.
It’s not like celebrating one’s birthday or an holiday because it has a life of its own.
This is what happens every December. The month my dear Mother passed away- and the month she was born.
This time I celebrated her by doing what I was supposed to do- I went to class.
My professor sent the class a message on Canvas: today we will have a Special Guest. I thought,
I was planning on attending another event and skipping class altogether. However, in the past, the special guests proved to be indeed special.
I met a curator and a comedian who both lauded the class with stories of how they got their foot in the door and their careers running.
This guest, Canvas said, was the artist who published the comic strip, Being An Artist and Mother, named Lauren Weinstein.
I looked at her art and was moved. It was work we had already seen in the halls of Columbia.
Let me go see art and listen to an artist who highlights motherhood in her work. I thought while leaving my home.
After sharing that she dressed up to see us- to which we rubbernecked to scan her outfit- she pulled up her art on the screen.
When I became a mother, my art processing changed. I saw stories that needed to be told.
Motherhood opened up a new world to me of cartooning…
I love what I do and I love how I do it.
She showed us how she used her IPad and the significance of ProCreate and shared with us a graphic novel she was working on for 10 years.
Afterwards she asked us for our feedback about her work which I found most humbling considering her success.
I raised my hand and asked about the Black character and this led to a honest conversation about race and how to paint stories without being offensive to people or killing the authenticity of the story.
My friend, Paige, asked her what were some subjects she would stay away from when creating art which got the ‘that’s a good question’ comment from all over the room. This changed the conversation into a discussion about family and our duty to try and show family in good standing at all times. I listened to Professor Blake and Weinstein share how they protect their children from being exploited in their line of work. I thought:
Funny, that’s how mothers are. They have a strong sense of protection over their children. And even in the physical absence of a mother, I can still sense it. That protection itself becomes a part of your nature after a while.
Their rules to life itself begins to protect you.
My professor, Emily Blake, eventually started her lecture. She asked us to take out our projects we were working on.
Weinstein, who stayed for class, traveled to and fro and giving feedback on students’ work and ideas. Quite naturally after showing my work to my friends, we sat there giggling and speaking about anything from art to naming a baby.
Nah, babies need names not adjectives! I laughed. Can you imagine a baby named Resistance? I asked.
I actually like that name! That’s cool. Then we can shorten it to Res.
It was at the very end of class, when Lauren Weinstein made her way to our corner. She inquired about our work and even though everyone was packing up to go home, she sat next to me and asked me about my project.
My two friends who said they would wait for me left when they realized like me- this artist was truly interested in what I was thinking and doing.
I showed her my work and she inquired about the time period and gave me the idea to research the Liberator newspapers.
Look at the layout and read the ads or essays to see how your work should be laid down.
This was particularly useful for me as a writer and artist because it was the format that I had trouble with.
While looking at the images she laughed, I am from Boston and I know exactly where this is!
Her questions about the timeline made me think of how the work would be seen.
You’re integrating your students into the project…Your main focus is to show Black culture in Boston at the time and how schools got integrated.
She pulled out one of my student’s pieces from the pile and commented on it, making me change my mind of how I was planning to grade and present it:
I love this- this is like a map that this kid drew that gives you a sense …like this is the south…this is a plantation the student drew. I love this map.
Originally I thought, I’ll limit the pictures of plantations because enslavement in the north looked different from the south – or did it really look different? – but she highlighted that it was something about the kid’s thinking process and it shows through the map. The kid sees a plantation. This made me think of my over all goal which is to show how the scholars grasp this lesson on race and enslavement in the north during the early 17th Century.
Just like an artist, she left me with sound advice, keep the kids authentic voice in your project each step. You can even reread that childhood book- ( I can’t read it because I can’t remember it- I only remember the art. No matter how hard I try to remember the title or author….) for inspiration.
Just like a mother, she took time with me and listened to my ideas.
Of course I appreciated it but like all children there is always a part we forget. I can’t remember that book. Only the cat and maps!
I arrived home thinking of my Mom and spent the night searching the internet for the Liberator and the cat map book. Or was it a dog?!
76th National Book Awards
The event happened on a cold Tuesday night.
I took the wrong train and got off on the right stop. I walked into the auditorium after stopping by the table shifted book store.
I now carried 3 hardcover books plus the books I had in my bag to read on the train. I stood at the back of the auditorium and kept my bags and coat ready to make an exit at the end of the event.
But if course, I didn’t leave immediately.
Each author that shared, must have picked the best part of their book because I wanted to buy more. And I did!
I picked up two books from Young People’s Literature:
Ibi Zoboi’s (S)kin, and Amber McBride’s The Leaving Room.
After listening to Patricia Smith talk about her father and Mississippi, I just had to purchase her book of poetry, The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems. Her storytelling was sweet with sadness.
The nonfiction genre was difficult to pick from. I knew I wanted something but went back and forth between Jordan Thomas When it all Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World and Claudia Rowe’s Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care. After listening to the finalists I decided that I wanted to hear more of the voice of Yiyun Li in Things in Nature Merely Grow. Her voice was pure grief but the writing technique sounded new.
Lastly for fiction, I bought A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar.
JP
Kevin, the Cake Man, at the Farmers Market
As I walked back to the Mapes Community Garden from the Farmers Market on Tremont, I thought of how Kevin ended our conversation:
Maybe those offers weren’t for me because I turned them down. Making cake isn’t about the money even though the money is nice. It’s about the joy.
Kevin who started baking in his early twenties, stood under the blue tent he shared with La Familia Verde Farmers. Unlike the farmers who were selling fresh fruit and vegetables, the now 64 year old was selling cake and other pastries to the bustling East Tremont community.
Kevin, who is related to Ms. Karen Washington, (the think tank behind community gardens in New York City), supported La Familia Verde Farmers Market from the very beginning. He linked up with Ms. Washington’s team bringing a different product to their farmers market.
Everyone who visits the market can easily see that the entire team of people who run the market, work together for two purposes: to bring joy and better food options to the people of East Tremont.
The Tuesday I stopped by was a perfect market day. The sun was high in the sky and the temperature was just right. The market was busy with shoppers.
I first stopped at Pastor David and Sister Veronica’s table, a husband and wife team whose farm is located in upstate New York. Their booth, I think, is the most popular because it has the most produce from black seeded watermelon to garlic. A young man who resembled Pastor David wore a happy smile while giving me a black plastic bag to collect my items. He confirmed my guess that he was Pastor David’s brother, Paul. Next to him was a young lady who wore a Mary Mitchell tee shirt as well as the other young people working the booth.
While speaking with Paul, I heard a lot of commotion and looked up to see Louis, a member of La Familia, hurrying past me. Teens wearing “The Bronx is Blooming” tee-shirts, walked excitedly behind Louis declaring how they were going to spend their health bucks (money from the government that locals can spend only on produce from the farm). They formed a line in front of Louis looking down at the red juicy watermelon.
The group of teens had left the council member’s office table that shared recipes and tastings with the community. For each visit to their booth, the community is promised health bucks to spend at the market- along with a light treat.
Brother Paul who was weighing my peaches, stopped what he was doing to supply Louis with a huge watermelon. Louis then cut the fruit up in slices. Everyone in close proximity, watched the cutting. All wondering the same thing- should I buy a slice of watermelon. The line grew longer.
Brother Paul returned to me and rung me up.
I walked the opposite direction from the Watermelon line. It looked tempting but there was no way I was going to lug watermelon home.
Instead, I visited the nearby booths and said hi to community activist associated with the Mary Mitchell Center, Ms. Alayna and Yaya. They help to run the market smoothly by working with willing and able bodied, young people who assist with everything from packing bags to manual labor. Next to them sat Victoria and Nicole keeping tabs on the financial system for the garden. Gardeners and customers were visiting them for change of big bills.
After Ms. Alayna and Yaya hugged me they asked about my family, but kept their eyes on the young people at La Familia Verde’s tent. This made me also turn my attention to the blue tent in the middle of the entrance to Gladwin Park. The young people were working in joy!
Rashaun was pulling boxes from a nearby truck while Andy, Ethan, and Anton were selling produce from the garden- which was going super fast! The line created in front of them consisted of older Spanish speaking women. I secretly consider this tent the sofrito tent because not only are all the main ingredients sold there ( tomatoes, cilantro, parsley and culantro) but I am willing to make a guess that everyone who pull up there know how to make it better than the jars sold at Price Choice. The young people moved quick packing sofrito ingredients as well collard greens, corn, tomatillos, and callaloo in black plastic bags. They knew their herbs and vegetables and were answering questions about the benefits while listening with patience as the older folks made bargains for the produce.
When I approached the tent, I saw some more familiar faces. Young people who I taught a couple of years ago, proudly spoke of their college applications. Ms. Victoria, an original farmer of La Familia Verde hugged me while speaking Spanish, making me laugh and believe for a short time that I really did speak Spanish!
Finally, I stopped at Kevin’s booth, the one who can settle a sweet tooth.
I am a firm believer in saving the best for last, and I think a slice of freshly baked cake can be the best at any farmers market! I was very happy to see him. This was my first stop at the market since the summer began. We stood in the cool breeze speaking about our families and catching up on news.
While we were talking, he had many customers. One lady from the Dominican Republic stopped by with her young daughter and asked Kevin how he was doing. When she heard that he had a death in his family, she told him of her mother passing away and her step-father hospitalization. I took note of how they both spoke with endearments. They were genuinely interested in the health and well being of one another. Kevin remembered her from last summer as well as her stories about her aging parents.
After comforting each other, she reached into her bag and bought cake.
His next visit was from a gentlemen who seemed to be high. He inquired about the price of the cake. When he was told it was $3.00, he told Kevin he only had $2.00; to which Kevin took the $2.00.
Another young man ran to the table. He seemed to be in a rush. After making his purchase, he quickly told Kevin he should sell his cake for $6.00 before jogging back to his car.
Kevin, I asked him, why don’t you increase the price on your product?
Kevin, a retired financial analyst, however, spoke about his true mission and the community he’s serving. Selling my cake for $6.00 would not be beneficial for the East Tremont Community, who will buy it?
I wanted to point out that the last customer suggested it but then thought about the first two.
I am here because of the community. I retired from Wall Street and now I want to do something that I love. I’ve met a lot of people who offered me positions but I like it here.
When Kevin started off, he baked from the box. He did it so well, many assumed he was baking from scratch. As a matter of fact, because so many people were saying it was from scratch, he rose to their standards. Now all of the pastries are made from scratch. He can bake anything from scratch- a birthday cake, Jewish rugelach (my favorite!) and even a three tier wedding cake!
Over time and through word of mouth, Kevin became popular and restaurant owners to movie stars asked him to join their team. However, he turned each one down. Making his purpose clear- he wanted to serve the East Tremont Community.
How much you make out here on any given day? I asked him now knowing about the different offers he turned down.
I don’t know, he said. I never really tallied it because I don’t charge the actual price for my cake. Most places charge a slice of cake for six dollars, and I’m so much lower than that. I did that primarily because of the neighborhood, so it could be affordable for people. I am mindful of the fact that I also have to make a profit putting in the amount of time… [but] as long as I make some sort of profit I am okay. In terms of what I bring in, it varies because every week it’s not the same.
I am not a people’s person, but serving East Tremont has taught me a lot! I learned how to deal with different personalities. I learned how to take rejection, and I learned how to horn my Spanish skills.
It’s true that the taste of his pastries makes Kevin special; but his dedication to the East Tremont Community makes him purposeful. It takes a certain strength to continue to service the people of the Bronx- of East Tremont. One CUNY Historian called the Bronx a stepping stone. It’s a place where people find their footing to bring their business to Brooklyn or Manhattan she explained. This, in many cases is true. Which makes people like Kevin and the entire La Familia Verde team something special.
Every Tuesday Kevin travels a hour from the north Bronx into East Tremont, and sets up his station right in entrance of the park. He sees first hand the dangers and sadness of Tremont Avenue.
It’s interesting, he said, to serve this community because there are a lot of people who like to eat healthy. It’s easy to assume that the diet here is all bad because of what I see, but there are people who come to the market every Tuesday and shop for healthy food. Some days you get a little frustrated because you see a lot of bad things. It makes you discouraged. There is a lot of stuff to see in this neighborhood. It is very neglected. There are those days when I would say, I’m not coming back here because of the negative things I see. But then I meet very positive people who may not have a lot of money, but they come with a good spirit. I think that’s what a Farmers Market does. It tends to bring the best out of people. That’s what I learned from being out here.
Buying Plants
Welcoming Mrs. Lesa Cline-Ransome
The most fulfilling day of the school year -this year- was welcoming children’s author and historian, Mrs. Lesa Cline- Ransome into our school on June 10th.
Last year the fourth graders read Finding Langston, a middle grade novel by Mrs. Lesa Cline- Ransome. They learned about the Harlem Renaissance and how it actually didn’t only exist in Harlem but in other Black cities like Chicago. They learned of writers like Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks. With Finding Langston alone, they spoke of many civil right issues, such as the housing issues that many Blacks faced then (a lot of them were able to relate to being homeless or not having a place to call your own). They also spoke of the right to a decent education and clean food. When speaking of rights, I exposed them to the 10 point system by the Black Panther Party and asked them if the rights that were asked for by the Party in the 70’s different from the rights we were asking for today. They also expanded their reading and writing skills. As their teacher I witnessed their level of comprehension increase significantly!
Below are mini paper colleges they did after studying the book’s cover. We spoke about different art mediums artist use. (By the way, I created my own reading packet which I will soon load on Teachers Pay Teachers).
Finding Langston‘s main plot is of a little boy who exists during the Great Migration. His family travels north for better opportunity- from a loving home in the south. The fourth graders learned that the Great Migration spanned well into their grandparent’s and parent’s generation. Their eyes grew wide when they realized how much this book was so closely related to the past yet to their present.
After we read the book, there was a celebration!
The theme of the party was the Chicago Renaissance. Each student came in as a character from that era. I was the librarian who welcomed prominent writers in to the library built for Blacks. All day my students called me Ms. Vivian (after Vivian Harsh).
The following are the realistic characters my students dressed up as. From the left: Mrs. George Cleveland Hall (Dr. George Cleveland Hall’s wife), Lorraine Hansberry, Ms. Augusta Savage, Ms. Elizabeth Catlett (this character was so popular that this year they all mention an interested in visiting the Elizabeth Catlett show at the Brooklyn Museum…one of them went with me on a random Saturday outside of school), Ms. Katherine Mary Dunham (this character was the one the girls fought over- because who doesn’t want to be a dancer?!), Ms. Margaret Walker, Me (as Ms. Vivian Harsh) , Ms. Gwendolyn Brooks, the little boy in the hat was Mr. Langston Hughes, and the little boy at the far end was Mr. Useni E. Perkins (poet of Hey Black Child). The day of the party they came in full character… so full that I had to remind them that I was Vivian Harsh- with an emphasis on harsh. In high spirits, they traveled to classes and asked students and teachers to guess who they were after putting on short skits. My principal confessed that she didn’t know all of them. Her face lit up when the little girl said yes, you’re correct, I am Katherine Mary Dunham.
The following year when I had them for fifth grade, I started the year with the book’s sequel, Leaving Lymon. With this book, they now spoke about family relationships, detention centers, food lines, and factories in America. They completed a food and race relations project for their work to be shown in a gallery in New York (will share the show soon). They learned about Blacks living in Milwaukee who faced harsh working conditions.
In Leaving Lymon, the reader meets Langston’s bully, Lymon, and finds out why he is a bully. This book teaches compassion for both the victim and the bully. Fifth grade used the lessons during the school year. They had disagreements and once there was even a fight but the core lessons of humanity and self respect was taught and even in very tough times apologies were made and friendships rekindled.
Right here, I want to mention the beauty of these two novels and how apropos it was for them to read it at the appointed time. During the school year, we as a community experienced a death and it was so unexpected. However, my class was already talking about social- emotional skills and self respect. I want to say it was because of the readings they were greatly comforted.
In February of 2024, some of my students joined the program (that I run outside of school) Soap Recipe, on a Black History Celebration trip to Philadelphia, PA. There, they met Mrs. Lesa Cline- Ransome at the African American Children’s book fair. And, oh, what a meeting! For a teacher whose joy it is to find ways for children to connect the past to the present and realize how valuable their history is- I felt loved when my students found Mrs. Lesa Cline- Ransome (on their own) in a gigantic overcrowded gymnasium. They recited Langston Hughes’ One Way Ticket to her between smiles and shrieks. Everyone there witnessed how learning, reading, and writing have the power to transform a human. Everyone was touched at how my students laureled Mrs. Cline-Ransome and in turn honored their educated selves.
One day I was at my computer reading my emails and saw that Mrs. Cline- Ransome was going to attend a book event with the Center for Black Literature in Brooklyn. I told my now fifth graders I was going to be absent because I was going to an event to meet Mrs. Cline-Ransome. I then asked them what they thought about inviting her to the school.
Will she really come?
I don’t know. But is it that hard to write a letter and ask?
With this question, they stopped to do what they did best- argue- about writing the author.
If she doesn’t come it will be a waste of time.
But if she does come, it won’t.
Ms. Hurley, is she your friend?
Of course She’s Ms. Hurley’s friend! She’s going to meet her!
I did what I did best- I quietly waited until they were done arguing, then told them to start writing. I was surprised by the content of their letters. They didn’t even need two days to write her. They put forth their best penmanship and diction. I didn’t have to tell them to use their raggedy dictionaries that they vowed to keep neat in September but by May were a mess. Each writer got up and got their dictionaries.
When I arrived in Brooklyn, I gave her the letters at the end of her workshop and she gave me 12 signed bookmarks for my students.
The author never forgot that moment in Philly, and said so when she responded to their new request to come and visit their school. She returned their sheer passion and joy with an excited yes! Even though she was in Europe when she decided, yes, she’ll come- she emailed me her interest in meeting my students.
Before she came, the students went into preparation mode with tenacious energy. Needless to say, it was challenging. It was nearing the end of the school year and there were so many trips, events, and parties happening. In the beginning of the preparation, they argued and fought over who would do what until some of them wished they never wrote her. That wish turned into another argument (that I got involved with). But as time got close, the dedicated fifth graders (with some help from the nearby fourth graders) worked on mini skits, Bottle projects, and a huge classroom banner while their schoolmates read books by the author, wrote papers and drew images to honor her arrival.
When she came, my students were walking to the sanctuary. I double checked my email and saw that she was outside. I told the students and they rushed to the front of the building! All twelve of them were surprised that she actually came.
There are very few moments when I can say they stopped talking this year, and this was one of the them. When they saw her step out of the car they all got quiet.
That’s really her! I heard one student whisper.
They did not even run to open the door! They stood on stairs, gawking. Some were pointing while others stood with their hands over their mouths.
I told two students to go down and let her in- to which when they did like robots. Then, they continued to stand there and gape. She broke the silence by saying- Ahhh, …can I take a picture of all of you?! I, of course couldn’t stop smiling.
That morning, I ordered over one hundred dollars worth of KFC for the class as a surprise. After the two hour talk and book signing, they returned to a classroom that smelled of KFC. They ate with the author and put on their shows, read their poetry, shared their art and brought up their favorite topic – Ms. Hurley doesn’t know how to spell Tick- Tock correctly.
To add to all the excitement of the day, Mrs. Lesa Cline-Ransome’s husband, James Ransome, came and spent some time with us at the very end! What can get better than that?!
By her departure, they were back to themselves, doing what 11 and 12 year olds do best- show off (this is after arguing of course).
Before I end this post, I want to mention one question I heard one of my students asked her during her lecture. She wanted to know why Mrs. Cline-Ransome includes the father (as a character) in all her books. My student struggled to ask the question because she asked the question from a very vulnerable place. While reading the books and talking about relationships with my students, I didn’t realize that because most of them were in house-holds without their fathers, reading her books gave them a sort of insight into a world in which the father existed everyday- and this world, they learned, was a very possible world.
Thank You, Mrs. Lesa Cline-Ransome
Don’t Do NYC Dirty
Amy Sherald and the Boys
You must be logged in to post a comment.