In the Brooklyn Rail this month, NORMAN KELLEY interviews David Dyson, a veteran social justice activist and pastor of Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Fort Greene. Kelley is the author of The Head Negro in Charge Syndrome: The Dead End of Black Politics.

Kelley: …some of the alliances that you and the church have with ACORN and Reverend [Herbert] Daughtry, who have signed onto this project, are now threatened, which is distressing. Would you say that Ratner is playing the race card?

Dyson: Yes, and it’s very depressing. This project has actually split lifelong partners in the progressive movement. We feel that Reverend Daughtry and ACORN have been brought in by Ratner not as advocates for the community but as private business partners in the deal. We’re trying to prevent the misuse of eminent domain, trying to increase the number of affordable housing units, trying to decrease the number of high-rise luxury office buildings. Those are the kinds of issues that a community group should have, but the Reverend Daughtry—who’s also an old friend—and our friends at ACORN are trying to cut a personal deal so that they can be brokers over whatever little piece or crumb of this pie falls from Ratner’s table. Ratner has been to Brooklyn what Karl Rove was to Ohio and Florida—brilliantly able to play on people’s worst instincts in order to get what he wants in a way that he wants it.”

Thanks to No Land Grab for the find. [PHOTO: Brian Molyneaux.]

Amy G. writes on the Self Indulgence Blah-g: “Well, if you’re looking for a PH real estate deal, this may be it. Hard to tell where on Sterling this is, though. I’ll be at the open house! See you there.”

Corcoran.com: “Bright spacious three bedroom on great prime Prospect Heights block. Pre-war detail, hardwood floors, washer/dryer, elevator building. Near public transportation, Prospect Park, Brooklyn Botanic Garden and Brooklyn Museum. No underlying mortgage! First scheduled showing will be Sunday, May 1,2005.”

“Another subversive love poem was sparked by Mr. Mehigan’s observation of an umbrella salesman outside a Q train station in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.”

Excerpt:

“Steadfastly, though the rush-hour crowd star thinning,
he stares into this morning so like evening
because he seeks the one he knows will come
one always just about to turn the corner,
blushing, and misty-faced, and misty-haired
skirting the storefronts, beautifully bereft,
who has left home this morning unprepared.” (Full Poem…)

“Until he gave up alcohol in 1999, Mr. Mehigan spent much of his time in what he called a “fog of drinking,” sometimes waking up with blisters on his chest after falling drunkenly asleep at night while smoking. It was the drinking that helped get him fired from the press.”

“‘I was already wasted and had gotten in a fight with a friend about Walt Whitman,’ he said, recalling the night in question. ‘Then I went upstairs and immediately got in a fight with my girlfriend.’ After taking the subway to Chelsea and consuming a 40-ounce bottle of Budweiser and several Bud tall boys, Mr. Mehigan let himself into the empty offices of the publisher at 3:30 a.m. and passed out at his desk while hunting for nocturnal entertainment on the Internet.”
Links:
The Poetry of Joshua Meshigan [New York Times]
Finding the Verse in Adversity [New York Times via Ohio University Press]

“Legal Eagles. Fly or Die!”

Taken on Washington Ave. near Lincoln, next to the liquor store. I can barely make out the e-mail–I think it’s ElsieLawMusic@hotmail.com? I sent out a request for a review copy last week but got no reply.