A Walk Through Fort Greene Starring Chris Rock & Spike Lee (Trailer)
In my efforts to bring you everything dope that is relative to Brooklyn & Hip Hop, here is the trailer for the upcoming documentary, A Walk Through Fort Green which chronicles the 1980’s diaspora that turned the tree lined brownstone section of BK into a small modern day Renaissance Harlem via a melting pot of Black avant-garde artists. Directed by Diane Paragas & journalist/filmmaker Nelson George who also narrates the project, the documentary features Fort Greene residents both past and present such as Chris Rock, Spike Lee, actress Rosie Perez, Hip Hop journalist & tv personalty Toure, Hip Hop journalist/writer & Real World alum Kevin Powell, poet & actor Saul Williams of Slam fame, musician Vernon Reid of Living Colour, award winning poet & playwright Carl Hancock Rux, photographer Lorna Simpson, playwright & actress Alva Rogers, and producer Bill Stephany of PE’s Bomb Squad amongst others. Though not by their art, many of the lesser known faces seen in the trailer are familiar to me as locals of Brooklyn’s eclectic capital from both my younger days of runnin through “The Fort” be it while shopping at Fulton Street Mall (still do), beefin with Deceps at Brooklyn Tech, playin in bball tournies in Fort Greene Park, going to free concerts in Fort Greene Park, seein BIG & Chico posted up e-day on the neighboring corner of Fulton & St. James before the fame, buying Malcolm X hats & Black College hoodies (remember those?) at Spike Lee’s now defunct Spike’s Joint, breezin through Spike’s annual block party to present day dining at Night Of The Cookers and Habana Outpost or just checkin out the always poppin scene and cesspool of the most beautiful women Brooklyn has to offer on any given Friday & Saturday night on Fulton & South Portland. Anyway lookin forward to this, as you should. One. – ICE
Hmmmmm… Thanks for the heads up, ICE. A great ** idea ** but truth be told, Nelson George– once a fine young journalist– is usually pretty much a LOAD nowadays– easily one of the worst American novelists, of any ethnicity, for starters.
Likewise, while props to the ’80s, it’s time people stepped up their history games and dug deeper into the, you know, THREE HUNDRED YEARS of black Kings County. I won’t even get started in black BK of the ’40s and ’50s– when its population starts to eclipse that of Harlem– of which Jackie was but tip of iceberg.
Also, where’s the jazz at? Maybe deeper in the movie but Betty Carter (RIP), Lester Bowie (RIP), Cecil Taylor, and, a little deeper into Bed-Stuy, Randy Weston, were/are giants.
TRUTH: Spike doesn’t know half as much as jazz as he wants ya’ll to think and also, wtf with that Yankee stannery?
I guess that’s what happens when you move to Manhattan so your child doesn’t have to go to school with black kids.
BEAUTIFUL excerpt from Cecil Taylor documentary–
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oiJMXAgZR0
See my alma mater, Brooklyn Tech out the window!!
Anyway, fingers crossed this is the quality the subject deserves, I won’t be in the least bit surprised if it’s not.
I have to agree with Ishmael, not on the Nelson George comment as I am not all too familiar with his work, but on the black presence in BK.
For the director to accurately represent what took place in the Fort, in terms of the “black artist renaissance” of the 1980s, this film must include the Stuy as a major component to this renaissance. As a kid, everyone lumped the Fort, the Stuy and the ending part of the Bush into one area. Thats where everyone went to shop and hang out: The Bush, The Stuy and The Fort.
And to answer Nelsons question as to the reason for the end of their renaissance: black people left. lol!
Fort Greene and Clinton Hill wasnt all peachy kean like represented in this trailer. Man, my friend went to Fort Greene with a pair of Jordans and came home in socks. There were rough pockets in the Fort. Just listen to Rakims “I what to know whats on your mind” as proof, “…a familiar scene/leading my friend through Fort Greene/where girls are real.” Their renaissance’s end may be partly due to the black exodus. In most cases, a lack of numbers in an area, whether on the top or bottom, more the bottom, will lead to a total departure from the areas original makeup. Any area needs the bottom end of the economic spectrum to stay alive and thriving. Bottom line: well-to-do blacks need less well-to-do blacks to exist. Its a numbers game, baby. No matter the race, you need numbers.
Shit, I paid $40 for that X hat. lol. Once all the other blacks left, there was no one their to purchase those overpriced hats, causing him to go out of business. lol
“Anyway, fingers crossed this is the quality the subject deserves, I won’t be in the least bit surprised if it’s not.”
Ishmael saw the nail, then he hit it on the head.
When people wax poetic about any subject they are passionate about, 9/10 they are going to throw a heaping pile of bullshit into the story, just so the narrative sounds fly.
Brooklyn is a shell of itself because of GREED. When a typical new yorker can’t make enough to live in same neighborhoods he/she works, exodus happens. In move Chris and Megan from Iowa and Wisconsin, totally funded by their parents. They will pay $2500 for roach/rat apt. the size of a outhouse. What realtor wouldn’t jump at that opp? lolz
Yeesh, the whiny hate up in here. Nelson George usually writes a fiction and non fiction book EVERY YEAR. Several of those books (WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO?, THE DEATH OF RHYTHM AND BLUES, HIP HOP AMERICA) are certified classics.
He was a key financial backer for SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT, wrote and directed an amazing film for HBO called LIFE SUPPORT with Queen Latifah, and is making this movie out of his own pocket because it needs to be done.
And what are you doing?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Nelson George street team?
Word?!
Dude ** was ** promising, and did some good things. Most of that promise was used up a L-O-N-G time ago and if dude is happy fronting as a multi-media biz “player,” good for him.
I challenge Nelson George on 300+ years of Black Kings County history, and jazz, also. That’s what I’m doing.
And yeah, Nelson is a HORRIBLE fiction writer; forget Black History Month giants like James Baldwin, Chester Himes and Zora Neale Hurston, to pretend Nelson is any better than, say, a journalist-novelist like Mike Lupica (!!) is absurd.
Also, it’s not MY favorite style (too straight) but Paule Marshall’s 1959 novel, “Brown Girl, Brownstones” is an interesting look at BK pride, West Indian style, of the of the 1930s and 1940s.
And you’re elevating our game how?
Finally, if Nelson wants to spread his money around, he should see what GENIUS Charles Burnett (“Killer of Sheep,” “To Sleep With Anger”) might need or want these days.
Thanks for kudos from my fellow commenters, glad to keep a dialogue going.
Ether from Ishmael Washington?
Deservedly so. George is a tool. I say this after trying to introduce myself to him at the Sundance Film Festival and being summarily dismissed (can a nigga get a tabledance?). I later sat on a panel with him to speak about ‘Do The Right Thing’ and I had to school him on the fact that Spike had the Jackie Robinson jersey he was wearing customized from an LA Dodgers joint(why? because Sand-Knit wasn’t making throwback jerseys in 1989).
Anyhoo…
Educated Af-Ams are the first wave of gentrifiers. We bring our white friends to the ‘hood and they like it too so they buy in.
“Educated Af-Ams are the first wave of gentrifiers. We bring our white friends to the ‘hood and they like it too so they buy in.”
Correct, sir. The reason they are makin movies and talk all past-timey is because the very neighborhoods they came from included the very people who allowed the exodus to occur.
I hope he has a scene of this type of dialogue in the movie.
interesting to say the least
Dp and Grand are so on point!
I say this because I saw it happen with my own two eyes.
For Grands statement:
Brooklyn is a shell of itself because of GREED. When a typical new yorker can’t make enough to live in same neighborhoods he/she works, exodus happens. In move Chris and Megan from Iowa and Wisconsin, totally funded by their parents. They will pay $2500 for roach/rat apt. the size of a outhouse. What realtor wouldn’t jump at that opp? lolz
I saw this in my cousins neighborhood. One day, we see a white girl walking down the block, a very unlikely occurence, to say the least, or at least up to that point in our lives. We pondered on one question: Why is this white girl in our neighborhood? Not because we were anti-white, but because, it was an unprecedented occurence. Yes, you may catch a white dude we all know who loves hip hop culture and attends school with one of our people, but not a white girl. lol. So, we saw her move in, and then a few more, next thing you know, one building was predominantly white, suddenly. A building we all ventured to in our neverending pussy hunt (ie the building had a large concentration of big booty girls).
But what these realtors dont understand, is what melle mel said in the “Message”, “She went to the city and got oh so suddity/She got pimp cause she couldnt make it on her own.” People really dont pay attention to lyrics. And the meaning behind this lyric is that most people cannot hack it in New York City, a la the old adage “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.” Many of these out of towners will flee, sooner or later, just like in the 80s, especially with our current economy. Mommy and Daddy in Buttfucc, Utah cannot fund your lifestyle forever, especially since they can no longer pull of the equity in their overvalued real estate. And that mid-level job in the city laidoff half of his staff or reduced their pay. lol. So, they will leave eventually, and the rent will deflate to normal levels, of course in accordance with inflation. The exact, same thing is happening in the SF Bay Area, a place the hardest in this recession. Rent is returning to normal levels and the out of towners are fleeing.
And for Dps comment:
Educated Af-Ams are the first wave of gentrifiers. We bring our white friends to the ‘hood and they like it too so they buy in.
So, very, very true. I saw my Ivy League friends move into Bed Stuy, where second generation African-American property owners were more than happy to offer tenancy to these highly educated, young African-American, most of whom reminded them of themselves in some instances. So, they opened their door to the educated AA, and then, suddenly Mary-Ann, who is so sweet and nice needs a place to rent, on the cheap mind you, for a semester or two, but winds becoming a permanent fixture in the community. And do not be mistaken, Mary-Ann is cool as hell, in fact, she loves A Tribe Called Quest more than you. lol. And she can recite a Rakim verse better than you. lol. But, with her comes the opening of pandoras box. She graduates from NYU. Turns around and offers to buy the house from her landlord at a 12% mark-up in value. The landlord is happy as hell, because now he or she can buy that mini-mansion with a pool down south with a small fraction of the sales proceeds. After that landlord leaves, more follow, with more attractive offers from middlemen real estate firms looking to “revitalize” the area landlords jump at every offer (My uncle was one of the only long time homeowners to stay in Fort Greene after the 90s). These middlemen real estate firms know which corporation (ie starbucks, target, etc.) is looking to open new stores in this newly “revitalized” area, and they, not intentionally but by happenstance, work in accordance with these new developments. Its called market analysis.
This took place in every major city. So, Brooklyn isnt the only place to experience such a shift, its just the market place working in unison with human behavior.
“She went to the city and got oh so suddity”
Your comments are on point, but Melle Mel actually says “she got social security.” He says it fast so it’s a little hard to catch.
[...] (props to Combat Jack) [...]
All yall droppin heavy science on the demise of brooklyn as we knew it.
The reason that bklyn has become bland as a cheap steak is the same reason there STILL is a creator 9 yrs. later at WTC plaza. Like Grand said, Greed. Tourists line up to see the hole where the towers used to be and the city has set up tourist buses to include it as it’s main stop. Tourist spendin money is new york only real source of income these days.
yeah Will, San Fran is feelin it for real. economy has that town bodied. And don’t even venture over the bridge to oakland.
Anyone remember this little nugget in NYC history?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benign_neglect
80s and early 90s fort greene was crazy. word to mad murder ave and clinton hills!!!
ICE come back man…get the blog back up…..man I am a down south brother that love the insight you give on your blog.COME BACK MY BROTHA…..WHO DAT!!
Looking forward to this. Those were the good ol days
That is really interesting. It provided me a few ideas and I’ll be placing them on my web site eventually. I’m bookmarking your blog and I’ll be back again. Thanks again!