During one sweltering summer day in Brooklyn, a group of musicians formed a circle in Prospect Park to continue a tradition that has been taking place on Sundays for 55 years.
At a space named Congo Square in honor of the antebellum site in New Orleans where former enslaved Africans gathered for cultural expression and entertainment, drummers began to beat on their African styled Congo drums.
Friends, supporters and family gathered to congratulate Israel “Izzy” Abanikanda, a former member of Brooklyn United Football who was recently drafted by the New York Jets.
“Everybody jumped for joy as Izzy’s name was called and people started to hug him,'' said Adam Howard Jr. who attended the draft celebration for Abanikanda on April 29 at Lincoln High School. The two have been best friends since age 10.
As Black History Month comes to an end, I must pay homage to an influential Black leader who recently passed away. That person is the late, Reverend Dr. Calvin O. Butts III of Abyssinia Baptist Church, which is my home church. He died on October 28. 2022 after losing his battle to cancer.
Renown drummer and composer, the late, great Max Roach, was feted by Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium and Concord Baptist Church of Christ on what would have been this jazz giant’s 99th birthday; and launched a series of events coming in 2023 leading to Roach’s centennial birthday.
African drums could be heard loudly on Monday to celebrate the dedication of a Central Park gate for the group of men known as The Exonerated Five.
Mongo Santamaria, Ray Baretto, Candido all Latin artists who’ve lead their bands into “A” rooms (i.e., Blue Note, Village Gate, Carnegie Hall) throughout New York City by use of the percussion, trap drum, notwithstanding.
In February 2023, the Cultural Museum of African Art Eric Edwards Collection (CMAAEEC,) the largest collection of African Art in New York State, will be open to visitors at Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation.
With our nation still grieving from the deaths of 10 African Americans who were senselessly murdered while shopping in a Buffalo supermarket on a warm day in May amongst other tragic mass killings, Congress recently passed “The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.”
