Congratulations to Colin Kaepernick for Winning an NEA Award!

From the Zinn Education Project:

Colin Kaepernick Wins NEA Award

The Zinn Education Project congratulates Colin Kaepernick, whose Know Your Rights Camp just received the National Education Association’s highest honor, the 2018 President’s Award for Human and Civil Rights “for his work to fight racial oppression through education and social justice activism.”

 

We are pleased the Zinn Education Project was able to play a role in supporting Kaepernick’s efforts. In response to a request from Kaepernick, we sent 250 copies of Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States for student participants in the Know Your Rights Camp in New Orleans earlier this year.

 

In requesting our support, Kaepernick wrote:

 

Just wanted to say hello and tell you how much I appreciate the work you do with Zinn Education Project. I think it’s amazing, and extremely important, especially in times like today to be able to help people understand the history and how it applies to what we are going through currently. I have a youth camp called Know Your Rights where we empower children and teach them about finance, health, education, their legal rights, and history. I believe it would be extremely impactful to share the knowledge contained in A People’s History of the United States. I normally arm the kids with information and books that they can learn from and use in their everyday lives when they leave the camps. —-Colin

OUR 10-POINT SYSTEM

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE FREE.

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE HEALTHY.

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE BRILLIANT.

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE SAFE.

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE LOVED.

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE COURAGEOUS.

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE ALIVE.

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE TRUSTED.

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE EDUCATED.

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW YOUR RIGHTS.

 

Read MoreCongratulations to Colin Kaepernick for Winning an NEA Award!
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The Tenement Gardeners of the New Forsyth Conservancy Looking for More Volunteers

The Tenement Gardeners of the New Forsyth Conservancy are looking for more volunteers assist with the first park renewal project of 2018, and we need your help.

This project is different from our routine weekly maintenance. It is a focused project with a lasting impact, and we can’t do it without additional support. Our objective is to rebuild and paint the three gates at the entrance to each of our three plots in Sara D Roosevelt Park. As you can see, some of them really need love and tender care.

Participation in this project will put you in direct contact with the history of park activism of the 1980’s. It is also a great way to be a part of the Lower East Side community dialogue- not to mention a powerful way to make connections to, say, the walking tours. These gates are at the intersection of class, race, city  bureaucracies and grass roots activism. Come see for yourself and be a part of a positive change in the neighborhood.

We will meet at 6pm on Thursday July 12th at the garden in Sara Roosevelt Park on Delancey Street (south) between Forsyth and Chrystie three front plots.

Please call Sarah Tomasewski or me, and we’ll give you directions to the site.

Again, we really need help to see this project through. Indeed, the New Forsyth Conservancy could use some sustained volunteer power, so… Join on!

 

Jason Eisner

Tel: 646-518-3009

www.tenement.org

Read MoreThe Tenement Gardeners of the New Forsyth Conservancy Looking for More Volunteers
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Sunday’s Bike Helmet Giveaway in Sara Roosevelt’s “The Pit”

Photos from Department of Transportation:

From Twitter of CM Chin:

“Sending a huge thank you from our team and Team to everyone who joined us for yesterday’s Bike Helmet Giveaway at SDR! In only a few hours, we distributed 621 Vision Zero helmets to residents, including 183 kids… many of whom were getting their 1st ever helmet!”

Coalition: Appreciate bringing resources to our troubled Park.

 

Read MoreSunday’s Bike Helmet Giveaway in Sara Roosevelt’s “The Pit”
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Shakespeare in the Parking Lot in SDR Park? At Stanton Street?

We’ve heard the “Shakespeare in the Parking Lot” Crowd are looking for a new ‘home’.

The Stanton Street Area could sure use some positive activity!

Parks Department is saying one night only. Really? Do we have a better offer??

 

 

Shakespeare in the Parking Lot’s ‘Track Record’: 

– on  the  Lower  East  Side  fro  23 years, this will be their 24th year.

– offered Shakespeare for FREE for 23 years on the Lower East Side (Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays from early July to mid August)

– a 501(c) 3 organization

– received grants from both NYSCA and DCA 

– the idea is offer the production FREE of charge to the  Lower  East  Side.

– July 12-28 are  the  dates  our  current  cast of  HAMLET was scheduled to perform.

– from approximately  6pm -10pm. 

– able  team  of  interns  working  with the company through the DOE’s Work Based Learning (WBL) program. Their 15th year in the WBL program.

Employing our youth!

 

 

Read MoreShakespeare in the Parking Lot in SDR Park? At Stanton Street?
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Keeping Up with the Trash: New Forsyth Conservancy/Audubon/Betty Hubbard Gardens & Stanton/Houston/Forsyth Areas & (Of Course!) Cars in the Park

New Forsyth Gardens:

First, thanks to intrepid Tenement Museum Staffers and all our volunteers and Park’s staff who try to keep up with the mess!

 

In Forsyth Conservancy Gardens:

Garbage cans needed.

Garbage removal needed.

Disinfectant needed.

Brighter lighting needed in the Evening needed.

Removal of crumbling low walls needed.

Open the Broome Street Restrooms Again.

 

Audubon and Betty Hubbard and Stanton/Houston/Forsyth:

Trash Removal needed

 

 

Trash alongside Forsyth at Houston

Trash Removal Needed:

 

Cars and Trucks in the Park at Stanton: (Not even Parks cars/trucks!)

Remove them!

Read MoreKeeping Up with the Trash: New Forsyth Conservancy/Audubon/Betty Hubbard Gardens & Stanton/Houston/Forsyth Areas & (Of Course!) Cars in the Park
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Men in Sheds

Interesting idea for men to gather and support one another while building useful things.

YouTube video here

Website here.

“They’re community spaces for men to connect, converse and create. The activities are often similar to those of garden sheds, but for groups of men to enjoy together. They help reduce loneliness and isolation, but most importantly, they’re fun.”

One purpose:

  • Talking about the social and health benefits of Men’s Sheds in reducing isolation and empowering local communities. We do this through various communication channels, including public events, online and in the media.

And yes, we can have all kinds of “Sheds” for everyone who wants to belong to such a network!

Read MoreMen in Sheds
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“End the Verrazano Bridge loophole that chokes lower Manhattan with excess traffic”

NY Daily News:

“A one-way toll to nowhere: End the Verrazano Bridge loophole that chokes lower Manhattan with excess traffic”

“…we can pick some low-hanging fruit right away in order to reduce traffic and enhance pedestrian safety in Lower Manhattan: End the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge’s one-way toll, which right now only charges drivers going from Brooklyn to Staten Island.

As crazy as it sounds, the status quo gives drivers lucrative incentives to go miles out of their way onto some of Manhattan’s busiest local streets. Truckers can avoid $92 in Verrazano tolls, and other drivers as much as $17, by taking a detour through Manhattan.”

Read More“End the Verrazano Bridge loophole that chokes lower Manhattan with excess traffic”
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Garden Poem

 

Slowly the quilt grows. 

We bring our sacred intentions

Toward a better here and now

For our children, our neighbors, our friends and ourselves;

Peony roots from a mother’s garden, a child’s sculpture

A great band, a real-live chicken

Sometimes just flowers.

We bring ferns from the mountains, coffee from the corner

The family turtle, a perfect rose, the Daily News.

We bring our children here, sacred, raucous, irreverent, destructive;

But also our most  committed stewards;

We bring our friends and their friends, a cousin from New Zealand, from Israel, from Cincinnati; 3 guys from up the block with broad smiles and broader shoulders;

We bring more hot dogs, more daffodils, more visitors more might-come-in-handy

than anyone could ever eat, plant, talk to or use, and yet we do

And the quilt grows.

 

– Kate Fitzgerald (M’Finda Kalunga Community Gardener)

 

Read MoreGarden Poem
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