Crown Heights "Stop Shooting, Start Living" Talent Show this Saturday

The Crown Heights Community Mediation Center is hosting the "Stop Shooting, Start Living" Talent  Show this Saturday March 28th from 3:30pm - 5:30p

|

From the CHCMC website:

It's a chance to showcase singers, rappers, dancers, drummers, poets, actors, and many more talented members of Crown Heights and Bed-Stuy, all united to stand against violence. In addition to great entertainment, members of the S.O.S. team lead the audience in anti-violence cheers and raffle off prizes from local businesses and restaurants throughout the event. View a video of the 2014 Talent Show here.

Doors open at 2:30 and the show begins at 3:30. Admission to the Talent Show is free. To pick up tickets in advance, please contact Jazzi Zzaman at zzamanj@crownheights.org or call or call 917-244-7185

For any unfamiliar the Crown Heights Community Mediation Center has been a neighborhood institution and ally for nearly two decades. Throughout the year they work with the community to produce opportunities for adults and children to build positivity in Crown Heights and neighboring Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Below is one such example the "Arts to End Violence" Contest.

Check their site for more details http://crownheights.org

Arts to End Violence 2015: Call for Submissions and Partnership

The Crown Heights Community Mediation Center requests that you join us in our efforts to stop shootings and killings in Brooklyn and beyond.  In 2015, we encourage you to dedicate some classroom time towards discussion of gun violence and the creation of art that explores the epidemic that is destroying so many lives.  For those of you who are adult artists- please consider submitting a piece for our gallery exhibit. 

CHCMC is pleased to announce our fifth annual Arts to End Violence contest. Artists, merchants, schools, clergy, youth, and neighbors are all collaborating and organizing to make gun violence unacceptable in our city, instead of a regular and “normal” event. Each year Arts to End Violence hosts a series of inspiring and educational events, including a gallery exhibition to display antiviolence art from adults and youth and a block party where children can create their own art and celebrate each other’s talents.

We are seeking the help of local artists, schools, and art-related organizations to maximize our impact on the community. You can get involved in the following ways:

· Invite our staff to facilitate a workshop/presentation at your school focusing on anti-gun violence

· Submit your art or your students’ art into our contest (submissions of all ages are welcomed)

· Attend the Arts to End Violence events (Calendar below)

· Display winning artwork at your site

Submissions of 2-D artwork including prints, photography, paintings, drawing and collages will be considered. Click here to see submissions from previous years. Submissions can include art made specifically for this contest or previous works that connect to the theme. All submissions should be accompanied by an artist statement.

Crown Heights, a tale of two cities at least

Thanks to Facebook I've learned of an episode of gunfire in Crown Heights on Crown St. near Utica Avenue which makes it the Eastern side of Crown Heights to some or as long term residents would recognize the part of Crown Heights furthest from the warm glow of the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens.

Yesterday I learned from reading the IloveFranklinAve blog of a shooting that wounded a man on Franklin Ave & St Johns Place.

Two shootings in one area in less than a week may very well provoke the worn conversation among new comers of whether Crown Heights is "going back" to something dangerous and negative. I hate that conversation. it's simplistic, reactionary not supported by facts and I hate the what it implies and what the conversation omits, namely that for some crown heights residents hard times never ended.

Crown Heights is a large area. It measures two miles long by a mile. Part of it is seeing a boom of new activity shops that were redundant are having their rents raised by their owners in the hopes of attracting the next artisanally prepared cash cow. Vacant spaces are being cleaned up for the same in the areas around Franklin, Bedford & Nostrand Avenues. Personally I think the new consumer options are great and the process by which their made unfortunate and sometimes unfair.

This past weekend while enjoying the sun and sounds of teens playing in Brower Park on Brooklyn Avenue near Prospect Place I noticed across the street on the wall of a school annex a mural created in 2009 by high school students and the non-profit Groundswell dedicated to the problem of gun-violence. Gun violence never stopped being a problem for many in Crown Heights.

Despite all the fuss about things of relative little consequence like bike parking spaces, there are people in Crown Heights who are working class, and spend much of their time trying to make ends meet in a section of the neighborhood that doesn't get the New York Times and New York Magazine coverage so generously bestowed on the Crown Heights just one mile west.  

Meanwhile on commercial strips like Kingston and Utica Avenues (between St. Johns & Atlantic) there is nearly the opposite situation with some addresses looking ready to collapse under the weight of time and disregard.

It's nearly a tale of two cities. Go ahead, google "Crown Heights Shooting" see which comes up first and which has more listings. The Franklin Ave shooting barely comes up. I doubt that's the story anyone wants to tell of gentrified Franklin Ave. The story of the shooting near Utica Ave is hard to miss.

You have one Crown Heights where owners decide to unleash building improvements and investment spurring increases in city services, police protection, beautification, bike racks and the other where many commercial and rental owners haven't made investment possibly because they're waiting for a community different from the current one, to take root. This is a big part of why it's destructive and simplistic to sub-divide Brooklyn neighborhoods as has been commonly done and at a hyper rate for the last ten years. Once there was Crown Heights. Now there is Prospect Heights, Crown Heights and there appears to be attempts at making distinctions between West & East Crown Heights. Before I drag out my soap box to shout about the past when a resident didn't need geographical distinctions to the name of their neighborhood, because they knew their neighborhood, I'll bring up what I think the bigger issue is. Changing the name of the "improved" part of a neighborhood only increases the likelihood that the "unimproved" part of the neighborhood won't get better.

Imagine braking your leg and rather than give aid to it, you cut it off. That's what happens if points East of Kingston Avenue (to pick a street) become unhinged from Washington, Classon & media daring Franklin Avenues. Separating one part of Crown Heights from the other means separating the stories that are told of those places, and those stories become the public realities. So shooting on Franklin get's a certain type of media attention if for no other reason than it's contrary to the expectations now existing (and reported) for Franklin Avenue. While a shooting near Utica is reported as the same old song.

The conversation I've heard after almost every violent crime is committed in this neighborhood of over 150,000 people is "Is it going back?!?" The reality is there are a lot of people who never got to go forward.

Crown Heights will have occasional violent episodes, just like most New York City does. Those tragedies when they occur will less a harbinger of new comer doom than a sign that long term residents are still struggling in crisis.

1 Shot on Franklin Av

Yesterday afternoon in the midst of a beautiful summer's day there was that most unfortunate activity on Franklin Avenue. According to eyewitnesses a verbal altercation between two young (possibly teenaged) males turned lethal as one male pulled a handgun out and began firing at the other. Eyewitness report one shot fired followed rapidly by two more. The intended target was shot once in the leg. He was said to bleed profusely and was taken away by ambulance. Police arrived shortly after, and again according to eyewitnesses a suspect was apprehended within hours.

I was showing my cousin how the neighborhood changed when I ran into people who told me what happened.

In my mind of course this is arguable the worst aspect of crime taken place in the area, my sources indicate the shooter was erratic, which may account for him shooting three times at nearly point blank range and missing twice. Not that I am wanting professional marksmen to be committing gun crimes, but the only thing worse than criminal behavior to me anyway is wild unfocused criminal behavior.

The shooting took place on Franklin between Anyone passing by could have gotten shot. Which brings up my next thought, as much as people want to talk, or imagine, what the "bad ol' days" were like, let me tell you, people did not pull out guns at 2pm in the middle of a crowded street. Granted there were those crack days where anything goes and a drive by would happen, but and understand I am not condoning anything merely stunned by the lack of logic, those idiots doing drive bys had an escape planned. Apparently the shooter had so little awareness of what his actions would lead to that he then ran, down Franklin Av, past dozens of people. More baffling to me is Franklin Av is heavily policed these days. Since the shootings that happened a few months back (this brings the total of shootings on ten block strip of Franklin Ave this year to at least three) and an increase in robberies (which I personally experienced in May) local Police authorities and representatives have saw to an increase in foot patrols that is visible on and around Franklin av, day and night.

Again I'm not really seeking logic from the type of individual who would pull a gun in broad day light as a means of winning a verbal disagreement, but it just increases the concern factor. As I have written my belief is personal vigilance lowers the risk of being caught up in a crime/violence situation. But random ignorance is a lot harder to protect against. Stray bullets even harder.

A friend was attempting to walk down the street when it happened and he had to duck for cover. Thank goodness for his quick reactions but who wants to be dodging bullets in their neighborhood?

Show you care, just by being there - Street Co-naming in Crown Heights

The Anti-Gun Violence Mural "Piece Out, Peace In" created by Groundswell Mural Project,
from a photo in July while it was in progress

This past summer I had the opportunity to witness a beautiful combination of artistic effort, civic pride and youth-energized dedication. The effort provided by community leaders and groups and acted on by the Groundswell Mural Project, went into creating an Anti-Gun Violence mural on Brooklyn Avenue between Prospect and Park Places in Crown Heights. I won't go into a lot of stats about crime and gun violence, but I was struck by a comment from a community organizer who works against gun violence at the mural dedication, she remarked it's a wider problem than people think, that despite the efforts of many there are "illegal guns on every block and almost every apartment building in this neighborhood". I can't prove that but imagine if it's true... What is true is that the mural began design and was completed in about seven weeks and during that time there were approximately 2 shootings per week in Crown Heights.


The finished mural designed was dedicated last month in Crown Heights on Brooklyn Ave across from the Children's Museum

Another person who contributed to the mural and works in the community against the tragedy of gun violence is Robin Lyed, who came to this cause after losing her son, Benny who was needlessly murdered in front of his home by an unknown gunman. Benny by all accounts was a self motivated community active 19 year who mentored others, was a proven leader and looked forward to an ambitious future.


Benny A. Lyde victim of an unknown gunman will be honored on Saturday 9/19
when his name is added to Lincoln Place btwn Brooklyn and New York Avenues

Tomorrow, Saturday on Lincoln Place between New York and Brooklyn Avenues at 1:00 PM, the street where Benny lived and was killed will have his name added to it in his honor, and to demonstrate that good remains despite those who try to disrupt and destroy.

There will be a public ceremony and if you're able and you're interested in improving the community, come out and lend your strength and support.

details below (provided by Tish James' office)

Co-Naming of Lincoln Place for Benny A. Lyde, and celebration in his honor this Saturday September 19th at 1 pm

The community will remember and celebrate the life of Benny A. Lyde (known as Mr. Benny to many), by unveiling a new street sign at Lincoln Place between New York and Brooklyn Avenues in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The street will be co-named Benny A. Lyde Place. The co-naming ceremony is set to begin at 1:00 PM.

Numerous residents and public officials are expected to attend the co-naming event including: Robin Lyde; District Attorney Charles Hynes; Borough President Marty Markowitz; Council Member Letitia James; Council Member Al Vann; Council Member David Yassky; State Senator Eric Adams; Assemblyman Karim Camara; 43rd District Leader Jesse Hamilton; James Caldwell, 77 Precinct Community Council; Fred Monderson, CB 8; and Shalawn Langhorne, Community Counseling and Mediation (CCM).

“Benny Lyde is remembered as a young, bright jewel within the community. During his life, he set an excellent example of discipline and hard work for his contemporaries, as well as was extremely committed to his community and family. Benny touched many lives during his 21 years and is greatly missed,” said Council Member James.

The life of Benny A. Lyde was cut short September 2, 2006 by the hands of gun violence, but his contributions will last forever. Please read the articles at the links below to learn more about this incredible young man.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/03/nyregion/03kid.html

http://www.nydailynews.com

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Benny-Antoine-Lyde/90367352279

What: Co-naming of Lincoln Place to Benny A. Lyde Place, in honor of the late Benny Lyde

When: September 19, 2009
Where: Lincoln Place between New York and Brooklyn Avenues in Crown Heights, Brooklyn
Time: 1:00 PM
Please contact Alfred Chiodo at (718) 260-9191 if you would like more information.