Lehman Center for the Performing Arts Reaches 35-Year Milestone

Eva Bornstein is proud of Latino events that have made Lehman Center, case de la salsa, home of salsa, in the Bronx

With its 35th season under way, Lehman Center for the Performing Arts continues its tune as a cultural showcase, largely catapulted by Eva Bornstein, its longtime executive director.
The creation of Lehman Center was a dream of Lehman College’s first president, Leonard Lief, who wanted a professional performance arts center for the college. A performance by the New York Philharmonic ushered in the music house on Bedford Park Boulevard in 1980.
This is Bornstein’s 11th year with Lehman Center. Before taking the reins, she managed theaters in New Jersey, Chicago and Toronto. When she arrived, her biggest challenge was to shore up declining attendance at the Center. Indeed, presenting top-notch performances can be costly for a borough deemed the poorest across the city.
But Bornstein set out to explore the borough’s neighborhoods to learn firsthand what rhythmic tunes make Bronxites bob their heads.  Hearing the salsa music from passing cars and stores gave her an idea that was both obvious and groundbreaking for the borough. “Everyone knows that we have a large Puerto Rican community,” said Bornstein, from her office inside Lehman Center, “so we started Latino events. We are Casa de la Salsa (House of Salsa).”
She’s used her ear and intuition to lure Latin performers, a move driven by artistic appetites and business acumen–the Bronx, with a large Latino population, will likely buy a ticket to these performances. It worked last month when the popular contemporary Afro-Cuban group, Los Van Van, performed to a packed house.  “The entire audience of 1800 all stood up and danced much to the dismay of our security,” said Bornstein. “It was like a happening in the Bronx.”
Past Latin performers at Lehman Center have also included salsa legends El Gran Combo orchestra, Ruben Blades and Gilberto Santa Rosa.
Bornstein said other venues such as New Jersey Performing Arts Center and Tribeca Performing Arts Center began to take notice of her winning strategy of bringing Latin artists at family friendly prices. “Several other theaters looked at our success and are doing similar events,” she said. “The main venues are realizing there is a Latino population.”
Over the years, Bornstein broadened the Center’s appeal by scheduling such accomplished artists such as Smokey Robinson, Patti LaBelle, Johnny Mathis, Jose Feliciano, B.B. King, and Michael Bolton. “That was really out of the box,” she said of Bolton’s appearance. Non-musical attractions included a one-night performance by comedian Jerry Seinfeld.
Bornstein was introduced to the arts as a child when her parents took her to the ballet and classical concerts in her native city of Krakow, Poland, then under communist rule. The experience also shaped a strong belief in the importance of the arts for children, which she feels “shape and enhance our senses and our spiritual being.” It’s one reason she’s kept children in mind when booking the Russian National Ballet Theater to perform Swan Lake, and National Circus and Acrobats of The People’s Republic of China. “I’m very happy to see more and more children under the age of 10 attending performances,” she said.
This year’s offerings include big Latin bands, The Machito Orchestra and The Mambo Legends Orchestra performing hits from the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s, and a concert featuring Ex Gran Combo legend, Charlie Aponte, Jose Alberto, “El Canario” and Domingo Quinones. Lehman Center will once again host Parranda Navidena, Doo Wop: Rock & Roll is Here to Stay and Forever Freestyle.
A new event in the Center’s lineup is the first performance by The Orchestra Now, comprised of young musicians who hail from New York’s most prestigious music schools. “I like their entrepreneurial spirit,” said Bornstein.  “It is very exciting to host an inaugural concert.”
Other upcoming international acts include performances by Ballet Folklorico de Mexico,  Compañia Flamenca, The Royal Marine Band of Scotland and Bollywood Masala Orchestra and Dancers of India.
Additional events will be added throughout the year and Bornstein recommends checking the website regularly to stay in the know.  “Our vision is to sustain Lehman Center as the major cultural institution in the borough,” she said. “Our ambition is to become a mini Lincoln Center in the Bronx.”

After Fix, Smoother Strides on Bainbridge Ave.

Broken sidewalk finally repaired in front of 2945 Bainbridge Avenue

After reports of numerous falls on the broken sidewalk in front of 2845 Bainbridge Ave., including one of an elderly woman who died there last year, Steven Bussell, vice president of the 52nd Precinct Community Council, was hitting brick walls in his attempts to get the sidewalk repaired. But a call to a local lawmaker kicked the project into gear.
The sidewalk had been uprooted by two large trees in front of the property. “Half the people would walk in the street to walk around the trees,” said Bussell.
A 42-year resident of the neighborhood, Bussell has been on the Five-Two Council for 18 years, having worked with various agencies to resolve the problem.  “It would never get done because they said they didn’t have the money. It was put on the back burner,” he said. “Then I thought, ‘let’s try [Councilman] Ritchie Torres.’”
Juan Antigua, Torres’ Deputy Chief of Staff, knew first-hand about the hazardous situation, living near the uprooted sidewalk. “Our local constituent was fed up and contacted our office,” said Antigua. “The councilman took it into his own hands.”
Torres reached out to DOT as well as the Department of Parks to determine the status of the repair request and was told it was on a list. After further inquiries, the request was moved up. Five weeks after contacting Torres’ office, Bussell received word from a neighbor in the last week of August that the sidewalk was being repaired.
Repairing sidewalks damaged by uprooted trees is a complex procedure. According to city law, home and property owners are responsible for repair and maintenance of sidewalks abutting their property. However, it is illegal to remove a city-owned tree. Property owners must first obtain a Tree Work Permit via 311. The Department of Parks’ Borough Forestry Office then reviews all proposed site work and designs a plan that meets the Tree Protection Protocol for all affected city trees. Repairs are made based on the severity of damage and the availability of funding. If a homeowner wants to repair the sidewalk themselves, they must schedule a Sidewalk Design Consultation with the Parks Department, who will guide the contractor on how to proceed.  A DOT permit costing $15 is also required to perform the sidewalk repair.
Miguel Rodriguez has lived at 2845 Bainbridge Ave. for a decade and saw someone trip at least once a week in the past few years. “Most of the newly planted trees are going to experience this,” he said of the trees planted throughout the city this past winter through the Million Trees NYC initiative of the Parks Department and the New York Restoration Project. “The city is going to have to invest if they don’t want to have this issue.”
But Bussell was relieved to finally see action taken. “I’m so excited to finally see something go right after working on it for so long,” he said.

Bringing Healthy Food to Norwood

Damon Little picks up his weekly share of produce from the Norwood Bedford Food Cooperative CSA.

Every Thursday during the summer and fall, a truck journeys from Norwich Meadows Farm north of Binghamton to the Bainbridge Community Garden at 2980 Bainbridge Ave. There, members of the Norwood/Bedford Food Cooperative Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) begin unloading the cargo of produce picked just that morning. Bins fill to the brim with zucchini, red and green lettuces, cauliflower, peas, fennel, onions, garlic and black radishes.
For the past 13 years, Zaid and Haifa Kurdieh, owners of Norwich Meadows Farm, have partnered with the Norwood/Bedford Food Cooperative CSA to bring locally grown, organic food to Norwood. They were connected to Norwich Meadows Farm through Just Food, a New York City based non-profit that works to connect communities with local, fresh food, part the city’s ongoing efforts to offer more fresh fruit to Norwood and Bedford Park.
As the summer progresses, the truck will deliver crops that include cabbage, peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, string beans, melons, sweet potatoes and more.
“The idea of a CSA is to connect people in a community that doesn’t have a lot of farms nearby to farmers growing near the area,” explained Nick Napolitano, a member since 2005 and unofficial CSA spokesperson. “It eliminates the middle person of grocery stores or supermarkets.”
Unlike a farmers market, where a consumer buys the farmer’s produce, a CSA member shares the risk with the farmers by paying $340, working as an advance to buy seeds and all the materials needed to bring the crop to market. In exchange, farmers agree to offer members 22 weeks worth of food.
The Kurdiehs hail from Pakistan. Zaid taught agriculture at Cornell University, later becoming a full-time organic farmer. He utilizes cutting edge techniques such as growing his crops in food tunnels instead of greenhouses to keep pests off the plants.
There are 39 households in the Norwood/Bedford Food Cooperative CSA this year. The Kurdiehs work with other CSAs and numerous restaurants throughout the city, as well as the Union Square and Thompson Square farmers markets. They also partner with other organic farmers to offer a fruit share and orders of dairy products, eggs and beef.
“We get an incredible amount of food and the taste is amazing,” said Napolitano. “We probably had about 15 pounds of vegetables last week.”
Damon Little joined the CSA in 2006. “I like the variety. There are some things that I wouldn’t buy on my own,” he said. “It gets me to try new things, which is nice.”
Cheryll Jarrett lives in nearby Wakefield and feels the weekly bus trip for the past three years is well worth it. “He has a great selection,” she said. “I’ve participated in other CSAs. You don’t get the variety.”
The Bainbridge Community Garden is one of two sites that participates in The New York Botanical Garden NYC Compost Project. People can bring their food scraps Thursday evening which are processed on the spot for use as nutrients in the community garden.
The CSA is one of several efforts to bring fresh produce into the area. The non-profit GrowNYC sponsors the farmers market at Poe Park in Fordham on Tuesdays; The New York Botanical Garden on Wednesday. Thursdays, the Norwood Youth Market, partnered with Montefiore Medical Center, can be found on East Gun Hill Road and DeKalb avenues There are also green markets and green produce carts throughout the Norwood area where you can find fresh produce on a daily basis. “I haven’t seen a lot of produce growth in the bodegas,” said Napolitano. “I think the green carts are more visible and have had a noticeable impact.”
Napolitano also noted the area restaurants that add variety in eating options. “As new immigrant groups come in and get established they start opening up restaurants and serving food that is desirable and culturally connected to them,” he said. He cited the various ethnic eateries–Dominican, Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi restaurants, taco shops and bodegas along on 204^th Street and Bainbridge Avenue, a Salvadoran restaurant on 205^th Street. “That’s a great thing for all of us. That’s part of our vibrancy.”

Just a Quiet Saturday Night

         “Where’s my top?” I asked lazily.  A chill was starting to seep into me despite being under the covers.

          Eddie fished around for it. “Here it is,” he said and handed it to me. I pulled on the flannel shirt.  We resumed our cuddling, his right hand resting on my abdomen. The sound of a distant dog barking drifted in through the window of our yellow bedroom.     

            “Hon, get the TV,” I said to Eddie.  He sprang out of bed and walked the few feet to the living room. The TV was positioned on the side of the room that featured a wallpapered tropical scene. After cleaning and painting our apartment before moving in, we were no longer offended by the mural. It helped to fill the nearly empty room.

We were blissful newlyweds, married a few short months.  Our apartment building on Taylor Avenue, near the Bronx River Expressway, was in a row of dreary, pre-War apartment buildings. The brick wall of the next building was our view from the living room.  Our bedroom faced the rear of another building.

Eddie unplugged our little black and white set and wheeled the cart into our bedroom. He positioned it right in front of the bed of the tiny room. I loved looking at Eddie’s tall, lanky frame. He turned on the set and got back into bed.

“Who’s on Saturday Night Live?” I asked.  He leafed through the TV Guide on his night stand.  “It’s James Brown,” he answered.  “Oh great,” I said snuggling into him.

We watched the last 15 minutes of news before the show started.  A skit with Dana Carvey and host Jamie Lee Curtis opened the show. Then the familiar jazzy theme started and Don Pardo announced “It’s Saturday Night Live with musical guest James Brown” over a wailing clarinet.

It was Saturday, sweet Saturday.  No work the next day to worry about. We could be lazy for another day.

Upstairs the new baby started to cry and I groaned.  In the two months since moving into the building, I had passed our very pregnant upstairs neighbor in the entry hallway a few times.   Our eyes would meet briefly but no greeting was exchanged. I felt badly about that.

In the past week, sleep had been difficult for the new mom and me; the baby would wake us up at regular intervals.   Eddie was undisturbed. He could sleep through anything. 

I could hear the woman get up out of her bed above us and walk toward the kitchen, the baby wailing away.  After a few minutes I heard her walk back and the baby stopped crying.

 Eddie and I enjoyed watching the program for the next few minutes. Then the crying started up again.  I swore to myself that it would be several years before I had to deal with crying babies.

In the midst of the crying, I heard an apartment door fly open in the hallway and a man’s voice bellowing, “Shut that damn baby up!”  My eyes opened wide as I looked at Eddie.  I jumped out of the bed and ran past our tropical beach to the front door and looked out of the peephole. Our retired neighbor from across the hall was storming down the stairs from the next floor. He slammed his door.

I scurried back to our room shocked at his outburst yet laughing. More commotion soon ensued. 

The superintendent came up from his basement apartment and began pounding on the man’s door. He and his wife were Irish and had nine children.

Our neighbor across the hall refused to oblige.  Again I ran to the front door. From the comments, I had the impression the new mom had called the superintendent to complain about our neighbor’s outburst. Eddie was uninterested.  He just wanted to enjoy Saturday Night Live. He sat up in the bed, arms folded behind his head.

“There’s no need for that Frank,” yelled the super.  His wife and several of the children were behind him.

“What did Frank do?” asked one of the younger children.  “He said something bad about the baby,” said another.

The super gave up and walked away. “What an asshole,” he shouted.

Suddenly Frank’s door swung open and he stepped out into the hallway.

 “Call the fucken cops, why don’t you!” he demanded.

 “Oh what’s the matter with you?” demanded the super’s wife.  “Are you sick or somethin? That’s a new baby!”

“Call the fucken cops!” Frank raged and went back to his apartment slamming the door again.

I walked back to the bedroom appalled.  “Oh my God! I can’t believe that man! Who would do such a thing?”

“Frank would,” said Eddie.

We watched the rest of Saturday Night Live. Parodying Fred Rogers from Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, Eddie Murphy welcomed his neighbors to Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood, an urban and grittier version of the beloved children’s program.

“Today boys and girls, I made a new friend,” he said in a syrupy tone as he changed into canvas sneakers, the way the real Mr. Rogers did. The audience laughed.

There was pounding on the door of the Robinson home. “Open up Robinson,” yelled a man. “I know you’ve been with Juanita. I’m gonna kill you!”

Eddie Murphy’s eyes and mouth opened wide in mock surprise.  “Boys and girls, Mr. Robinson is going for a little jog,” he said approaching a window and opening it to step out while the pounding and yelling continued. 

“We’re living in his neighborhood,” said Eddie dryly. I turned to look at him and laughed.  

Chicken keeping in New York City?

Chicken trainer, Lily Kesselman, shows workshop participants how to build a chicken tractor.

Chicken Keeping Workshops Come to the Bronx

Chicken keeping in the city? While it started out as a bucolic activity a few years ago,  chicken keeping has evolved into a serious niche in the sustainable food and urban agriculture movement. “I think it’s because people want to know where their food comes from,” said Greg Anderson, Urban Agriculture Manager for Just Food.   

Just Food supports community run farmers markets and its City Chicken Institute has sponsored over 21 chicken coop building projects in community gardens and a few schools throughout the city. They also offer monthly workshops for individuals interested in chicken keeping at Imani Community Garden in Crown Heights Brooklyn and, starting this year, at Paradise on Earth Community Garden on Fox Street in the Bronx.

The organization also has a City Chicken Meetup group with over 800 members and has discussions on chicken care such as problems and illnesses, coop design and where to find food.

“People are finding out that the way commercial institutions produce food is counter to their own beliefs and value systems,” said Anderson. “They want a bit more control over their food which I think is very similar to the popularity of farmers markets and green markets now.  People want that connection to their food.”

The organization decided to add workshops at the Bronx location because of the growing numbers of people attending their Brooklyn workshops.  Anderson said people have come from New Jersey and Connecticut to not only be educated on chicken raising, but also learn how to change the city ordinances of where they live to keep chickens. In New York City chickens are classified as pets and it is legal to keep them.  But don’t think about getting the hens a male companion. Keeping roosters is illegal due to their crowing.

Lily Kesselman, led the recent workshop in the Bronx and has been conducting chicken training for the last two years. Kesselman learned urban agriculture and animal husbandry from Just Food’s Farm School.  She filed for a grant to build a coop in Brook Park Community  Garden and then built one in her backyard.

“Just like I don’t think you have to be a vet to have a pet, I don’t think you have to be a farmer necessarily to have chickens,” said Kesselman.  She said chickens bring many benefits to a community garden and backyard including aerating soil, pulling weeds and eating food scraps that would normally go into the trash.  “I just think having chickens is really do able, and the eggs are far superior than what you’d buy at a grocery store.”

There’s also the question of how to deal with a chicken when it reaches the end of its egg laying cycle. Anderson said his organization only advocates keeping chickens for their eggs.  “After they stop laying, we can help people find places to send the chickens to.” He noted there are several farm sanctuaries upstate, on Long Island and even a few in Manhattan. But Anderson understands that people have different views about eating the chickens.

“Some people understand that after the chicken stops laying and before old age sets in that they may cull that chicken and eat it.”  Culling is the process of slaughtering the chicken for food.  “Some people view it as humane and others view it as inhumane.  That’s something we leave up to the individual.”

Future chicken keepers also need to know about urban predators.  “A lot of people move to the city and think there are no more prey animals. They let their chickens run around in their yard and they see a hawk come down and grab a chicken. Or they don’t lock their chickens up at night in a safe place and they come back and a raccoon has killed off their chicken,” said Anderson.

Michael Masefield learned about chicken predators the hard way. A former Staten Islander, Masefield has lived in the Bronx for the last ten years and was drawn to chicken keeping because he wanted something less urban in his urban environment. He came to the Bronx workshop to learn how to build a chicken tractor which allows a chicken to free range while being protected. “My chicken got attacked in the yard by a hawk and I wanted to build something to protect them,” he said. 

“Anyone who is looking to become a chicken keeper, educate yourself about the different breeds and what type of things this chicken will need to have a comfortable life,” said Anderson.

Workshops are offered through October in Brooklyn’s Imani Community Garden in Crown Heights on the second Thursday of the month and on the last Wednesday of the month in Paradise on Earth Community Garden on Fox Street in the Bronx.

 

 

From Memoir to Fiction: Maria Andreu Talks About The Secret Side of Empty

I wrote this piece for the June, 2015 edition of Voice of Youth Advocates Magazine.

In the midst of heated political debate about social issues, it’s the stories of people who live the experience that touches us in a way that facts and rhetoric cannot.  Maria Andreu’s book, The Secret Side of Empty has brought the debate over immigration reform to young readers’ attention. The book tells the story of M.T., a straight A student, whose blonde hair and fair complexion help hide her undocumented status. It’s a story that Andreu says was “born out of my deepest, ugliest secret” of being undocumented.

“It feels amazing and humbling,” said Andreu of the critical acclaim her first book has received, including being named to top Latino author lists by ALA’s Young Adult Library Services Association, School Library Journal and Latino Stories.  

The book began as a memoir and then evolved into fiction.  It was a lesson, she said, in “letting a story tell you where it wants to go.” That direction was taking her own experience of being undocumented and showing how it impacts a child. “There is a lot of political debate about it and what the impact of it is. I wanted to show the human side of it,” she said.

Her parents were Argentinians who immigrated to New Jersey.  “They wanted to come to America, the promised land, with a plan of saving and working very hard and then going back home as so many people do, but life got complicated,” she said.

As early as four and five years old, Andreu began to hear conversations in the kitchen between her parents about activities they were not able to do and people being swept up in immigration raids. A trip to Argentina to attend the funeral of her grandfather, set her and her mother on a two-year odyssey to get back home to the United States and reinforced an identity of being different. “I felt out of place,” she recalled. Andreu attended first grade and part of second grade in Argentina.  Her father continued working at a restaurant in New Jersey.  “The kids were a little mean because I didn’t talk exactly the way they did. It very much had a quality of being on hold.”

The only way Andreu and her mother could get back home was through using a coyote (a person who smuggles Latin Americans across the U.S. border for a high fee). They travelled to Mexico to begin the journey back to the United States. Andreu remembers being in a shack in a remote location with nothing nearby but an outhouse. They depended on the coyote to bring them food.  Sometimes, he would take her and her mother for a walk. On one such walk, the coyote pointed off into the distance and told them they were seeing the United States. “That doesn’t sound right, because where is the imaginary line?” she thought. “It blew my mind to think that something about me made it so I wasn’t able or allowed to cross the imaginary line.”

Once safely home, Andreu finished her grammar school education at St. Joseph School in New Jersey and attended Holy Rosary, a girl’s high school. The feelings of confusion and embarrassment over her status intensified.  “I watched American TV and had friends, but there wasn’t the Internet and it was hard to communicate with others about things.  I didn’t talk to anyone about it.” As she got older, she saw her friends get jobs and driver’s licenses and began to feel her life narrowing.

As a high school senior, she was unable to attend her school’s National Honor Society trip to Europe.  She had to feign indifference when a teacher offered to obtain funding for her to go.  “I don’t know if she had a sense of my immigration status, but she knew we were poor,” she said.  “She pulled me aside and said, ‘Just say the word and I will find the money for you to go.’ I was so embarrassed. I thought she was seeing something so ugly about me. I was just like, it doesn’t matter, I don’t really want to go.”

After that, Andreu said she was in a dark place and didn’t see what the future could hold.  But when she was 18, she learned about the new law signed by President Reagan that granted amnesty to undocumented individuals who entered the country before 1982.  Not having to live with the fear of deportation was transformative, she said and she began her path to citizenship.

“For a long time I lamented that I had grown up this way,” she said. “Now I realize the resilience, strength and insights it gave me. “

Andreu enjoys connecting with young readers through her book and also in person. Speaking at Atlas DIY, an organization in Brooklyn, New York that advocates for undocumented youth, was particularly poignant. “I didn’t have any help to offer them but seeing their eyes light up and thinking someone felt what I feel, was very emotional,” she said. “It was the only experience where they cried and I cried.”

Andreu is also passionate about sharing her book with people who are outside of the immigration reform debate. “Obviously I want to touch people who understand the experience but I also want to touch people who have never thought about it before who say to me, ‘I never knew.’ I love that. It makes me so excited.”