Brooklyn Block Party: Good Times Meet Tragedy

It’s important to keep your ear to the ground. I have the good fortune of seeing many young people on my block grow up and develop into talented young adults. Some even have children, and it’s wonderful to see them blossom as the next generation of community advocates who are mobilizing communities for positive change.

If you’re a young city-dweller, you eagerly await block parties, which are literally a rite of passage. When collecting donations for our recent block party extravaganza, here in Bed-Stuy, a neighbor shared that a young man she knew was recently killed – I repeat killed during an exchange at a block party in a nearby neighborhood.

Devastating doesn’t begin to explain it. The young man was the boyfriend of a young woman she knew.

Understand that everything doesn’t make the news, but it’s worth noting. Lives cannot continue to be senselessly lost. Whether New York or Chicago, we simply must take back our neighborhoods.

What I’m most proud of is that this young mother, in her 20s, and I went on to have an extensive conversation about values and the importance of raising kids right.
Her parents did such a wonderful job!