Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Pratt Area Community Council Events

please click here to view all our upcoming events

Pratt Area Community Council
invites you to our first
Homeowner / Homebuyer Night of 2010

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
6:00pm - 9:00pm

First Baptist Church of Crown Heights
450 Eastern Parkway
at the SW corner of Rogers
Brooklyn, New York, 11225

Featuring Workshops on:
Affordable homes · grants for purchase and closing costs · financial preparedness home buyer workshops ·
foreclosure prevention · tax exemptions · repairs · loans · weatherization· minor home maintenance repairs · reverse mortgages · senior tenant programs · financial literacy for adults · Fireproof Your Home by NYFD · FHA 203K Loans · Plus, experts from local financial institutions and government programs will be on hand to assist you!

This is a free event - refreshments will be served

For More Info: 718-783-3549
Charrisse Smith Ext. 15 or
Divinity Pittman Ext. 11

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Personal Freedom

From NYCLU
We don't give up our personal freedoms or our values when we choose to fly by plane.

That may sound like common sense to you and me—but for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), it's up for debate.

In recent weeks, the TSA has subjected everyone born in—or just passing through—14 different countries to intense, personal airport screenings. They call it "national profiling," but it's really just racial profiling—a dangerous policy that violates our rights and diverts resources away from real threats.

No government official should have the power to target and harass you just for being born in or flying from a certain country.

Stand with the ACLU in calling on Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to rein in the TSA and reject the policy of racial profiling.

The TSA is responsible for protecting us when we travel. But that shouldn't give them carte blanche to abuse and mistreat us for the language we speak or the country in which we were born.

Instead of profiling, we should focus on targeted investigations based on evidence and individualized suspicion. A person's behavior, rather than his or her ethnic or religious background, is a better indicator of criminal or terrorist activity and is more in line with closely held American values of fairness and justice.

This overbroad policy of racial profiling not only violates our rights and values, it also wastes valuable resources and diverts attention from real threats. Please speak out now against these abuses of power that make us less safe—and less free.

Tell Secretary Napolitano to end this misguided and wasteful policy.



Let's win this fight,

Monday, February 15, 2010

We are the world

This is the official video for we are the world for Haiti.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

NSA + Google= Bad Idea

From ACLU
Google and the NSA. It is hard to imagine a more potent—or frightening—combination when it comes to the collection and safety of Americans' private information.

But just such an alliance is underway. As reported by the Washington Post, Google—the world’s largest search engine company with access to intimate details of our lives—is negotiating an electronic surveillance deal with the National Security Agency (NSA)—the world’s largest spying network.

The implications of this deal are very troubling. The NSA—a component of the Department of Defense—is an intelligence collection agency with few effective checks against abuse and no public oversight of its activities. In the last decade, the NSA’s vast dragnet of suspicionless surveillance has targeted everyday Americans, in violation of the law and the Constitution.

Speak out and stop this dangerous partnership before it’s finalized. Tell Google CEO Eric Schmidt that you strongly object to any deal with the NSA.

We don’t want the NSA anywhere near all the sensitive information Google has about our lives.

The specific terms of the proposed deal are very unsettling. Google announced that they're asking the NSA to find "vulnerabilities."

What assurances do we have that a spy organization like the NSA would fix the holes they find and won’t instead use them to tap into our personal data? Cybersecurity for the American people should not be handed over to a military spy agency that has a history of secretly exploiting vulnerabilities, not fixing them.

Google needs to know that you do not want this deal to go through. Send a message to CEO Eric Schmidt that Google shouldn't be exposing its security vulnerabilities to a military spy organization like the NSA. Send a message to Google and speak out against a deal with the NSA.

Please act today before this dangerous collaboration goes a single step further.

Monday, February 8, 2010

NYPD Prospect Park sodomy case continues

A doctor delivered graphic testimony in the NYPD sodomy case Tuesday, saying alleged victim Michael Mineo suffered excruciating tears he couldn't have caused himself.

Dr. Syed Ahmed said the injuries described in a medical report were consistent with being rammed by a police baton.

"It looks like he had anal lacerations," said Ahmed, who didn't examine Mineo but was the supervisor when he checked into Brookdale University Hospital.

He said Mineo, 25, complained of "pain of a maximum intensity" after his Oct. 15, 2008, confrontation with police at the Prospect Park subway station.

Read more:

Free Event on Haiti's Future

What: HAITI’S FUTURE: NEW YORK CITY SPEAKS

When: Friday, February 12, 7pm

Where: The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space

44 Charlton Street (at Charlton Street)

New York, NY 10014

Tickets: http://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/7938595

Event is free, but RSVPs are mandatory due to limited seating

WNYC’s Jerome L. Greene Performance Space Presents

The NEXT New York Conversation

Haiti’s Future: New York City Speaks

A Special Summit of New York Voices


Co-Moderated by Journalist and Author FARAI CHIDEYA and

GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE, Editor, Haitian Times

With Opening Remarks by Manhattan Borough President

SCOTT STRINGER


Friday, February 12th 7-9pm

at WNYC’s The Greene Space

with a Post-Summit Reception and Concert



Free and Open to the Public

Live Videocast at www.wnyc.org/thegreenespace


(February 5, 2010, New York, NY) – New York City is home to the second-largest Haitian / Haitian-American population in the U.S. When the devastating earthquake struck Haiti on January 12th, its impact was felt deeply by New Yorkers.


On Friday, February 12th, one month to the day, WNYC’s Jerome L. Greene Performance Space will present HAITI’S FUTURE: NEW YORK CITY SPEAKS, a platform for key voices in New York to convene and explore many of the wide-ranging consequences of the tragedy.


Farai Chideya, multimedia journalist and contributor to WNYC and PRI’s The Takeaway, and Garry Pierre-Pierre, Editor and Publisher, Haitian Times, will moderate a panel of elected officials, economic and media experts, community activists, and everyday Haitian-Americans in a discussion of the earthquake’s impact from Haiti to NYC to the world. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer will provide opening remarks, and Deputy Manhattan Borough President Rose Pierre-Louis, the highest-ranking Haitian-American politician in New York City, will serve as a panelist.


The event will begin at 7pm and includes a post-reception. It will be available as a live videocast at www.wnyc.org/thegreenespace and www.WriteTalkListen.com.

Topics and panelists include:

* Haiti: past and present: Rose Pierre-Louis, Ezili Dantò and Bazelais Jean-Baptist
* Haiti and how the media tells the story: Joel Dreyfuss
* Economic infrastructure in Haiti: Ryan Charles Mack
* Social media during times of catastrophe: Soraya Darabi
* Social and community organizing – a global perspective: April R. Silver
* Haiti’s children and their future: Christopher C. Stout

WNYC’s award-winning reporter Marianne McCune, who has led the station’s Haiti coverage, will share some of her reporting from the last month and follow up with people who have been directly affected by the earthquake.


The panel will be followed by a reception with artists performing Expressions of Hope: Marlin Mayala, a.k.a. Mr. Reo, a New York-based rapper and musician with deep roots in Haitian music; Haitian-American composer and violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) (via video); jazz/hip-hop cellist Dana Leong; and neo-soul artist Maya Azucena. Comedian Leighann Lord will serve as emcee.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Jim Crow Policing

NY Times Op-Ed compares police practice in NYC to Jim Crow.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Target First Saturdays

First Saturdays is this Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum. This Months theme is black History Month. Some of the Highlights:
Music
5–7 p.m.
The Igmar Thomas Group, presented by Revive Da Live, plays a fusion of jazz and hip-hop.

Hands-On Art
6:30–8:30 p.m.
Create your own wearable art inspired by Nick Cave’s Soundsuit, one of the highlights of the installation Extended Family: Contemporary Connections. Free timed tickets (380) available at the Visitor Center at 5:30 p.m.

Film
7 p.m.
In honor of the people and spirit of Haiti, the Museum presents an exclusive screening of The Other Side of the Water (Jeremy Robins and Magali Damas, 2008, 61 min.), a documentary featuring a Haitian rara band that reinvents ancient music from the hills of Haiti on the streets of Brooklyn. Director Jeremy Robins and co-producer Magali Damas introduce the film and host a Q&A after. Free tickets (340) available at the Visitor Center at 6 p.m.

Dance Party
9–11 p.m.
DJ Ian Friday, resident DJ of Libation at the Sullivan Room, hosts a Mardi Gras dance party.

Music
9:30–10:30 p.m.
Dja-rara, New York's premier Haitian rara group featured in the documentary film The Other Side of the Water, performs.

Source

Bill Clinton Expanded role

Former president Bill Clinton, accepting an expanded leadership role in Haiti today (wednesday)Clinton, who was already serving as a special envoy to the country, will now serve as the united nations' head of relief and reconstruction efforts in Haiti.He agreed to secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon's request earlier to coordinate the recovery process.In his expanded role Clinton will coordinate the work of u-n agencies, government donors, private investors, and non-governmental organizations.Source

WHO CARES?

From NYCLU
We do. And we know you do, too.

America’s broken immigration system has led to a civil rights crisis:

* Immigrant homes are routinely raided
* Hundreds of thousands of people are imprisoned, some indefinitely and without access to medical care
* Thousands are deported away from their families without a fair day in court
* And now New York Senator Charles Schumer is proposing that all U.S. workers carry a biometric identity card as a way to clamp down on undocumented immigration

Immigration Reform in New York: Who Cares?

That's why it's so important that you contact Senator Schumer, Senator Gillibrand and your Congressional representative now.

Tell them to support comprehensive immigration reform that protects everyone’s rights and liberties this year.
Take Action Now

This is a crisis in every sense.

Year after year, Congress has let the politics of fear stop it from addressing this dire situation. And the window for reform is quickly closing yet again.
The stakes are too high to let that happen.

Visit the NYCLU’s brand new immigration reform website to find out how you can get involved online or join a local NYCLU Activist Task Force. Join with us and our allies across the state to defend civil liberties and put an end to this crisis once and for all.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Prospect Park

Celebrate Presidents’ Day and the Winter School Break at Prospect Park
February 15 - 21

Brooklyn, N.Y – There’s plenty to do at Prospect Park during the Presidents’ Day weekend and school break. Highlights from the Park’s calendar of events include:

February 15 -21: “Coming In From the Cold” activities at the 18th Century Lefferts Historic House. Participate in traditional winter activities: learn how to make your very own Nine-Man Morris playing board. Help us make the Game of Graces for the spring by sharpening dowels and creating beribboned hoops. 12 – 4 p.m. each day. FREE.

February 15 -21: Film Festival at the Prospect Park Audubon Center, featuring the Discovery Channel’s award-winning series “Planet Earth.” This extraordinary work of nature filmmaking took over ten years to make. It includes “never-before-seen animal behaviors and startling views of locations” and rare footage of snow leopards and elusive birds of prey. Also being screened is "Clever Monkeys," part of the PBS "Nature Series. At the Center’s Con Edison Discover Nature Theater. 12 – 4:00 p.m. each day. FREE.

Enjoy skating at Brooklyn’s only outdoor ice skating Rink. The Wollman Rink is a great place for winter fun. Take lessons, throw a skating party, take a leisurely spin around the ice, and enjoy a snack and a hot chocolate. See www.prospectpark.org for hours and directions, or call (718) 287-6431.

The Prospect Park Tennis Center is open for play 7 a.m. – 11 p.m. every day. For information call the Tennis Center at (718) 436-2500. Take a lesson, join a league, and find out about upcoming programs when the bubbles come down in the spring.

Don’t forget the call of the wild! The Prospect Park Zoo is open daily 10 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Visit nearly 400 animals! Admission is $7 for adults, $4 seniors, $3 children age 3 – 12. Free for kids under 3. See www.prospectparkzoo.com for more info.

For more information on Prospect Park events, programs, membership and volunteering, call the Park Hotline at (718) 965-8999 or visit www.prospectpark.org