Two LGBT Groups Interested In Acquiring Harlem Church

According to an article in  the Gay City News ("Sending a Message to the Hate Pastor of Harlem," February 18-March 2, 2016), homophobic pastor James David Manning's  Harlem-based ATLAH Church "has unpaid debts in excess of $1 million, including water and sewage charges owed to the city, in addition to overdue taxes and other liabilities."

The church is now in foreclosure and will be auctioned on February 24. The Ali Forney Center, an organization catering to homeless LGBT youth and the Rivers of Living Water Ministry, an LGBT church, are both interested in acquiring the property at the auction and have raised funds toward that goal.

Gay City News noted that Pastor Manning claimed that his church is tax-exempt, however he was unable to provide proof. "That particular status," reported GCN, "is reserved only for churches that use their space exclusively for public worship--Manning has mentioned that his church provides additional services as well, outside of prayer."

The ATLAH Church's messages of hate are so troubling that the church next door, Greater Bethel AME Church, has posted a sign above the door that says, "THIS CHURCH IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH THE CHURCH ON THE CORNER. WE SUPPORT PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA."

Pastor Manning is right when he said that payback is a bitch.

A Book For Foodies

I recently found a hardcover book entitled Holiday Book of Food and Drink (Hermitage House, 1952), a collection of articles that were originally published in Holiday magazine in the 1940s and 1950s. While browsing through the book's 22 chapters, I found articles on such food items as coffee, pasta, beer, cheeses, and ice cream. A few of the contributors to this anthology are familiar names to me--Budd Schulberg, Roger Angell, and Elizabeth Janeway.

The book contains a few recipes, food history, and food facts. Although I'm sure some of the information is outdated that shouldn't be a huge barrier to enjoying what the writers have to say or make it insignificant from an historical standpoint.

I'm looking forward to reading the book from cover to cover and writing a review of it for this blog.

The Goals Of The Minority Task Force On AIDS, 1988

The following is an excerpt from a lengthy interview I did  in 1988 with the late Craig G. Harris, who was the executive director of the Minority Task Force on AIDS. At the time the organization was located on St. Nicholas Avenue at 115th Street in Harlem.The interview took place in his office. The sound quality of the tape was not very good due to outside noise from a barking dog and a jackhammer. Here is what I was able to transcribe:

Craig G. Harris: "We are outgrowing our space and  that's a very good feeling. What that indicates is that we are going to increase staff. We'll soon be adding clerical staff, support staff. Up until this point, support staff has been volunteers. We're in the process of seeking alternative space in Central Harlem. We'll be expanding the Wednesday night dinner program. We'll be doing a lot of staff development that entails professional training for the entire staff including myself. We're going to assist the churches in functioning as communications links and support systems."

Note: MTFA's former space, located in a low-income co-op building, is now a venue for parties and other community events.

There Are Many Gay Lifestyles

People should stop using the term "gay lifestyle" because like their heterosexual counterparts, gays and lesbians do not live cookie-cutter lives.

Lifestyle is about socio-economics, not sexuality. The many lifestyles of gays and lesbians of means are vastly different from the many lifestyles of gays and lesbians who are not so financially blessed.

People who use the term"gay lifestyle" do so as a way to deride and demonize a beleaguered, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multiracial community.

R.I.P. Natalie Cole

I own two CDs by the recently deceased Natalie Cole (1950-2015). My favorite of the two is Ask a Woman Who Knows (Verve). This CD would be among my desert island discs, those recordings I would want to bring with me if I was stranded on a desert island.

It is one of the few CDs I own that I would play from beginning to end because all 13 tracks are gems. The songs I particularly like are "So Many Stars," "The Music That Makes Me Dance," "Soon," "Tell Me All About It,"and "My Baby Just Cares for Me," which is on the final track. Her performance of this particular song is a real showstopper.

Now she has joined her father, Nat King Cole, in Heaven to perform eternal duets.

Epyllion

(Note in a travel guide: "Here in Naxos, the village, as is true of all the [Greek] islands, is to be found atop the highest mountain peak.")

Why did they come here, here to this barren, unyielding mountain top? The cliffs are so steep. How did they get here? Which leader of which seafaring tribe called out: "Here we shall settle. Disembark. Bring your tools. Climb the mountain after me. Here shall we be safe from pirates from the shore below. Here shall we build our lives and bear our children"?

                                                                 ---Velma Jean Robinson Reeb

Reeb, a former resident of Manhattan's Upper West Side, now resides in Portland, Oregon. For a brief time, she and her son lived in Greece.



Merry Christmas to all the readers of this blog!

Alex Haley's Proposed Musical

In Alex Haley and the Books That Changed A Nation (St. Martin's Press, 2015), Robert J. Norrell has written that during the time Haley (1921-1992) was preparing The Autobiography of Malcolm X for publication, he "had an idea for a musical about black life, which he called 'The Way.' In 1961," continued Norrell,"Haley had gotten to know Lena Horne, who had starred in Cabin in the Sky, and Haley's musical bore some similarities to that film. Haley's musical would be set in a cosmetics factory run  by a black executive who was surrounded by several stereotyped characters, including a hipster, a white racist, and a black racist. Alternating black and white choruses would sing 'Camptown Races,' with the black group performing spirituals in black dialect. [Paul] Reynolds [Haley's literary agent] called the idea 'very, very interesting.'"

How long before some Broadway producer will learn of Haley's proposed musical and want to put it on the stage? And what will the public and the critics say about it once that happens? Will black audiences see it as an embarrassing minstrel show or a hard-hitting and insightful lampooning of race relations in America? Stay tuned.