by Miss Poppy Dixon
Activism
Christopher Rose Community Empowerment Campaign Visits P.S. 119
Sharon Rose (mother), Darryl Matthis (family friend) & Xamayla Rose (sister) in our library raising awareness about the insidiousness of gang influence on urban youth.
Mrs. Rose receiving flowers made by our students.
© Frank H. Jump
Creative Writing teacher Gen Berretta invited the Christopher Rose Community Empowerment Campaign to our school, P.S. 119 The Amersfort School of Social Awareness on Avenue K in Brooklyn. If you don’t remember, Christopher Rose was the young boy who was killed for his iPod in 2005 on Farragut Road in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. Since, his mother Sharon Rose and family have created an organization in Christopher’s memory to foster community activism and raise awareness against gang influence on our youth.
The Christopher Rose Community Empowerment Campaign will aim to mobilize community stakeholders and others for support and involvement in activities to increase community awareness of the following:
• The factors that contribute to youth violence
• Occurrences of violence
• The impact of violence
• Strategies for preventing delinquency of adolescents that leads to youth gang involvement and community violence
This poem was read by one of our students:
What color should I die for?
Blue?
Red?
or
Gold?
How old do I grow before my love of the color grows cold?
Help me choose a symbol my friend can die for.
The star?
A Hat?
Or
a hand sign?
It all makes sense?
Who wouldn’t die for a color or symbol?
I would……wouldn’t I?
You can…won’t you?
My baby brother should….. shouldn’t he?
Are these symbols that hold us together, the meaning of life?
Is a color as important as Freedom or a symbol and hand sign as virtuous as Love.
Stop!
What madness have we created.
We fight and die for issues of no meaning.
Gang Life has no future.
No Profit.
No virtue.
No worthy goals.
I choose a life with a future.
I reject mindless commitments to meaningless issues
and conflicts that gang life offers me.
Why should I serve or follow these men who create conflict and hate to the point that it spirals out of control.
Yesterday you were my friend and today you are my enemy because they say you are.
Rubbish!
I will choose my friends, my future, my destiny.
Yes I would die for Freedom.
No I won’t die for your special color,
symbol, hand sign, or street corner.
What kind of brotherhood would ask me to do such a thing?
I reject Gang Life and choose…
Life!
DTL – Gang Intervention.org
Braking the Cycle – Bed-Stuy Blog – March Against Domestic Violence – On Verbal Abuse
Past August Brooklyn AIDS Awareness event further illustrates urgency of this issue in our community.
One of the most sobering illustrations of the disparities in health can be seen when you compare the rates of HIV/AIDS in Central Brooklyn to the rates across the city. In Central Brooklyn (which includes Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, Prospect Heights and Brownsville) the proportion of people living with HIV/AIDS is twice the rate of Brooklyn overall and 60% higher than the overall New York City rate. To read more about these health disparities click here.
Check out the latest on Domestic Violence on Bed-Stuy Blog
The Devastating Effects of Verbal Abuse
Juvenile Protective Agency ad campaign
What this ad doesn’t say is “faggot” which is the most used word to demean a boy.
Imagine Flatbush 2030 – With Current AIDS & Demographic Trends Continuing
Are people that tired of listening to and reporting about AIDS? I know it’s a drag to keep bringing it up but…
I’m wondering if I hadn’t gone to last night’s meeting of Imagine Flatbush 2030 – if anyone else would have brought up the issue of AIDS. I did get to meet Gretchen Maneval (Director of Brooklyn College’s Center for the Study of Brooklyn), who seemed equally concerned, after insisting on addressing my concerns with the larger group. If the current demographic trends (increasing Caribbean, African, South-east Asian, Asian, Arabic-Speaking & Eastern European immigrants from lower income brackets) continue, with the existing lack of proper and adequate AIDS related services and education in Greater Flatbush and the NYC Metro Area (as an educator, I’ve personally witnessed too many parents from these cultures choosing to have their children “Opt Out” of an already lackluster NYC AIDS Education & Prevention Curriculum), we could see the rate of HIV infection surpassing those of Sub-Saharan Africa in less than a decade. The rate of HIV infection among the Orthodox Jewish community is also the City’s best kept secret. LGBTQ adolescents are totally ignored in this “new” NYC HIV/AIDS High School curriculum. Not even a mention.
Should I mention that the level of homophobia in this community is palpable?
Yes, I would love a cultural center in Flatbush so artists, like myself, would not have to export their talents. Of course, affordable and safe housing has always been one of the quality of life issues I’ve found relevant to sustainability. Sure, I would rather go to a family-owned restaurant (define family) than a Chili’s for dinner. Yes I would gladly participate and help organize local cultural events like a Junction Unction, but if half of the neighborhood is dying due to ignorance and City agency ineffacacies, hindsight in 2020 will be too late. Haven’t we learned from our NYC HIV/AIDS & long-term surviving activist communities (ACT-UP, Brooklyn AIDS Task Force, etc.) that education is the key to prevention? Abstinence is a pipedream (we know how well that has prevented under-aged pregnancies in our area). Informed decisions about safer-sex behaviours is the key to a healthier tomorrow. Oh yeah… and cycling to work and home-grown terrace tomatoes and basil.
© Estate of Keith Haring
This image was altered for the faint of heart.
AIDS Complacency = DEATH
Why Should Being Gay Be A Crime? – Doug Ireland
Idaho rejects sexual orientation protection
International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO)
Read Doug Ireland’s article about French activist Louis-Georges Tin’s UN resolution to decriminalize homosexuality in 75 countries.
