MotherSister Brooklyn

4W Circle may be gone and bars in the spirit of Cellars may be giving way to the likes of The Hideout, but signs that black bohemia might be hanging on in Fort Greene/Clinton Hill appeared in the form of this Colson Whitehead review of Brooklyn Was Mine and this Erykah Badu interview (complete with snapshot of the rent-controlled 1-bedroom she’s held on to since she moved here c. 1996). Add to that one of the ex-Hub’s twice-yearly Joie Lee sightings on my block, and hope springs eternal.

Photo of Ms. Badu modeling a Jacob’s Eye purse from Jacob’s Etsy shop.

The bitter winter cold makes me think of my two-year lost weekend in Southern California, and thoughts of SoCal plus watching The Scamp toss his lithe body around into yoga poses makes me think of surfing. Which I never attempted, to my regret; I opted to live vicariously through my then-boyfriend, a dedicated surfer practically since he could walk. It was a boys’ club and an exhilaratingly fun one, though I longed to meet other women who weren’t part of the beached girlfriends brigade.

That’s why Andrea Kabwasa is an inspiration. The California-born, Europe- and Africa-raised Kabwasa is a diplomat’s daughter and special-education teacher who first stood up on a surfboard at the age of 32. She’s been a dedicated surfer since (her 40th birthday is next August), and the first black woman to surf longboard competitively; she’s even building her own surfboard now. She teaches free surf clinics with the Black Surfing Assocation – “I’ve taught a lot of moms, which is so cool,” she says – and she’s an ambassador to the easily intimidated (like me), noting that she hadn’t been swimming for 10 years when she started (“You don’t need to be an excellent swimmer,” she says encouragingly).

My complete chat with Andrea is after the jump.
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As utterly disenchanted as I’ve become with national politics, I am more engaged with my local representatives, and I’ve been particularly impressed with Tish James, who has been on the front lines of community issues large (such as the Atlantic Yards development) and relatively small (saving the Broken Angel’s owners from eviction). Re-elected two years ago by nearly 90% of the voters, Councilwoman James’ dedicated advocacy is clearly appreciated by her Fort Greene/Clinton Hill constituency. Vibrant and funny, the Howard-educated lawyer and activist was excitedly anticipating the press conference announcing the preservation of 227 Duffield on the morning she indulged me for a MotherSister Minute.

LIVING HERE SINCE:  For 8 years. I’m a transplant from Park Slope.

WHY FORT GREENE/CLINTON HILL:  I came over because my mother was in Park Slope, and I wanted to get away from her. [laughing] It was post-college.

FAVORITE PLACE IN THE AREA:  Choice [Market].

COFFEE SHOP:  Connecticut Muffin and Pillow Cafe — love Pillow.

TIPS OR SUGGESTIONS ABOUT THE NEIGHBORHOOD:  Spend your money here. Come to precinct meetings, community council meetings. Know your elected officials. And shop locally for the holidays!

Letitia James’ office is at 67 Hanson Place (tel. 718/260-9191).

It’s all well and good that Dear Abby has clarified her position on gay, lesbian, and bisexual people’s rights to love and commit to whomever they want, but I think the future of advice-giving rests with Dear Tionna, Gawker’s new Brooklyn-born advice columnist. Today’s nugget: “Jobs Treat Their Employees A Certain Way Because They Don’t Need You.”

Enough with your $150/hour therapist. Get more life guidance — including “Most women say they will take love over success but bump that” and “Stop the hate and get the cake”– here and in her self-published book.

Grace Tappin projects a serenity that serves as a walking advertisement for her studio, Move With Grace, which offers a full menu of yoga (hatha, vinyasa, and kundalini), dance, and fitness classes. Tappin, a Brooklyn native and a dancer who studied with the Joffrey Ballet, began her yoga practice while attending Cornell University; opening a multipurpose studio with a comfortable community feel seemed to be a natural step. Pratt and St. Joe’s students particularly love the late-night sessions, but regular patrons from as far as New Jersey are also clearly drawn to the studio’s energy. “That’s the great thing about a dance studio,” Grace says. “People will travel far if they really love the classes.” Kum Kau’s foot traffic has also helped boost its profile among residents of nearby areas. The studio is a genuine labor of love that “doesn’t feel like work at all,” she says. “I’ve met so many interesting people in the neighborhood.” Grace continues to help out at her sister’s shop, which is where I caught up with her for a MotherSister Minute.

OPENED:  January 8.

WHY FORT GREENE/CLINTON HILL:  My sister has been in the neighborhood for over 3 years. It’s very diverse, and there’s a lot of growth here. I saw the opportunity to be part of that.

MOST POPULAR CLASS:  Belly dancing. We have mother-daughter combos coming in.

MIKE’S COFFEE SHOP OR PRATT COFFEE SHOP:  I usually go to John’s, on the corner of Hall [and Myrtle]. But of those two, I prefer Pratt.

ADVICE OR TIPS ABOUT THE NEIGHBORHOOD: Look out for all the improvements thanks to MARP. Myrtle Avenue will be a beautiful place — aside from the large buildings that upset some people [laughs].

Move With Grace Studio is at 469 Myrtle Avenue between Washington Avenue and Hall Street (718/230-0013). Check the website for the class schedule.

The US Open is in full swing at Flushing Meadows this week, and I want to know: What is it about the Williams sisters that brings out latent racism in spades? People who intensely dislike them cite laughably superficial reasons, like their on-court vocalizations (hello, Monica Seles?) or their perceived arrogance (they’ve earned the right to be confident — they’re champions), or “thug tennis” style (yes, people actually use that term). The photographer Hub — who would drop me like a hot potato if Serena showed up at the door with her tennis racket, asking if he could come out to play and reminding him to bring his balls — is especially incensed at the media’s tendency to depict them as animalistic; note how frequently a photo of Venus or Serena appears with their faces contorted and muscles bulging in the heat of a matchpoint battle to illustrate their wins, while the Maria Sharapovas are shown glowing beautifully and triumphantly hoisting their silver trophies. Sometimes the media isn’t even that subtle: Here’s a typically ugly Daily Mail takedown of Serena’s physique; what the writer calls “broad-shouldered” and “thunder thighs” are, as the comments below the article note, rather enviable to many women (and lust-enhancing to many men).

That black men and women have had a hard slog in the tennis world isn’t news, but that it continues to be so stubbornly snotty is exasperating. My godparents were full-on tennis devotees in the ’70s and ’80s; when they weren’t down at the local courts, they were watching Lendl, McEnroe, Noah, and Navratilova on TV. I took tennis lessons (not that they did me much good) like half of the other kids in my neighborhood. The neighborhood in question, though, was a middle-class black enclave; it was only when we didn’t live in the Old Country that I realized that tennis was some rarefied sport, like golf and hockey and polo, that some people were a little more welcome to play than others. The Hub dreams of making The Scamp into a tennis pro, but that may be a long shot (besides, who’s to say his future isn’t in cricket or soccer or ballroom dancing)?

Luckily, neither Venus nor Serena lets any of this get them down, at least not publicly. They refuse to apologize for their outside interests in fashion or interior design or simply enjoying their lives, keeping tennis in perspective as just one thing that they do stunningly well. Other players on the tour may find it boring, but the MotherSister Posse will be rooting for yet another all-Williams final semifinal.

The first time I purchased hair milk from Karen’s Body Beautiful, the helpful saleswoman (who turned out to be Karen’s sister Grace, proprietor of Move With Grace studio) assured me that I would love it. She was right: Karen’s hair milk de-frizzes my kinks without making my hair feel weighed down with product (it’s light enough that I also use it on The Scamp’s finer crunchy curls), and it comes in a variety of great scents. (I’ve worked my way through White Tea, Rose, and Red Currant since this spring.) Karen Tappin Saunderson, the brand’s namesake, started her first business — a care-package delivery service — when she was only 17 years old, but she was working as a schoolteacher (history and economics) when, 4 years ago, she and her husband began making chemical-free versions of the products they were including in their spa baskets. The line was a hit, and a store was born. The couple has recently delivered another big success: Their 2-week-old daughter slept peacefully nearby as I picked up some Sweet Pea-scented conditioner and hair milk and spoke with Karen for a MotherSister Minute.

OPENED: In February 2004.

WHY FORT GREENE/CLINTON HILL: We felt this neighborhood had our demographic, that the people who live here would appreciate the products we make.

BESTSELLING ITEM: Our body scrubs. (Most popular fragrance? “White Tea.”)

MIKE’S COFFEE SHOP OR PRATT COFFEE SHOP: I prefer Pillow Cafe.

TIPS OR SUGGESTIONS ABOUT THE NEIGHBORHOOD: It’s very neighborhoody. People are very friendly and concerned about where they live.

Karen’s Body Beautiful is at 436 Myrtle Ave., between Clinton and Waverly (tel. 718/797-4808). Open Sunday through Friday from noon to 8pm, Saturday from 10am to 8pm.

So in spite of the fact that it’s August and few people are answering their phones or replying to emails — even if they are in their offices — I’ve been juggling four different projects, a nap-striking Scamp, and physical therapy for my wrist (tenosynovitis, y’all — avoid at all costs), which is why I’ve been pokey with the posts for the past couple of weeks. But the MotherSister Posse is about to bail out of Brooklyn to spend a few days on a beach in Rhode Island, and this has me thinking about how and where black folks vacation.

When I was on staff as a travel guidebook editor, one of my obligatory biannual proposals was for a modest series of city guidebooks for black travelers. Such proposals require hard numbers pointing to proven successes; squishy intangibles and gut feelings don’t make a P&L work. But as Dale Grenier puts it in “Homegirl on the Range,” an essay published in Go Girl! The Black Woman’s Book of Travel & Adventure: “White travelers will never understand the complex dynamics that affect the travel experiences of their black brothers and sisters. Why? Because most white people can move about this land freely without anyone batting an eye or questioning (with a look, an action, or a remark) their right to be in any place at any time.” (Rebecca Solnit also touches on the challenges that blacks, women, and other groups have faced in roaming freely in her excellent book, Wanderlust: A History of Walking.) There are a few magazines and websites, but many black travelers I know still work their personal networks in deciding where to vacation and what to see and do while they’re visiting (even if they buy a guidebook as well). It’ll be interesting to see if any mainstream travel guidebook publisher ever ventures to capture this market.

There have been middle-class black vacation resorts like Idlewild, and, for the wealthy, there’s still Martha’s Vineyard and Sag Harbor, but I don’t really know of any beyond that. Movies like Matty Rich’s The Inkwell and books like Dorothy West’s The Wedding, Toni Morrison’s Love, and Jill Nelson’s Finding Martha’s Vineyard all offer windows into these havens, but I’m still waiting for a more contemporary, youthful take on existing communities. Would we buy a vacation home in one (real estate prices willing) and go there every year? I don’t know; I like keeping our options open. In the end, when deciding where to go this summer, we did what millions of other people do these days: started researching online and, on the basis of some alluring photographs, forked over some cash for a promise of a week’s respite in a cottage with a garden on a private beach, where The Scamp could run around naked underneath his superhero cape. There’s always the uncertainty of being a stranger in a strange land wherever you go, but I’m thinking the sand and the sun and the ocean will pay us no never mind.

A week ago, The Hub arrived home with a CD in his hands. This was interesting for two reasons: (1) The Hub, bleeding edge guy that he is, almost never handles CDs anymore; and (2) the recording, New Voice, was the debut release of our songbird neighbor, Kendra Ross. We’ve seen Kendra around, and she is — as one of our building guards puts it — always “friendly, quiet, [and] keeps it movin’.” Which is why the same guard was shocked to see how Kendra turned out the Highline Ballroom last week during her CD release party — “L’il Kendra was up there shakin’ her hips!” — and we were totally impressed with her pipes. The Hub’s favorite track seems to be “New Voice,” while I’ve been groovin’ on “I’m So OK” (she takes it to church for a minute), “Can I Keep It?” (featuring Talib Kweli), and “Man You Love Blues,” three tracks that really show off her range. She is understandably busy in the flurry of her record’s release, but I caught up with Kendra for a MotherSister Minute.

LIVING HERE SINCE: I moved to Clinton Hill the summer of 1994, right before my sophomore year at NYU. I started out on Clinton and Gates then moved to [our building] in August 1995.

WHY FORT GREENE/CLINTON HILL: My roommate at the time and I chose Clinton Hill because it had a little bit of everything. It was homey and residential yet edgy and artsy, and overall it was a nice mix of ghetto and bourgeois…what we call “boughetto”!

FAVORITE PLACE IN THE AREA: That’s hard….I love Joloff (the West African restaurant at St. James Place and Fulton Street) because that family has been feeding me forever…and always with a smile on their faces! Mike’s [Coffee Shop] is of course a weekend breakfast staple for me, but I love the new spot Soule — the shrimp roti is to die for! I also love my church, Brown Memorial. Oh! and this place isn’t technically considered Clinton Hill — more like Prospect Heights — but you’ve got to try Cheryl’s [Global Soul] at Underhill and St. John’s Place. Very cool!

MIKE’S COFFEE SHOP OR PRATT COFFEE SHOP: A resounding MIKE’S!

TIPS OR SUGGESTIONS ABOUT THE NEIGHBORHOOD: Once you are blessed enough to get a nice place here, don’t let anyone displace you! I really hate that a lot of my friends have had to move further into Brooklyn because of the crazy rent hikes and landlord pressure. It’s such a beautiful community. No matter where I am in life, I want to have a place in this ‘hood.

Kendra Ross’s New Voice is available now via her website. You can also find cuts enhanced by her voice (quite unforgettably on “Won’t You Stay” with Talib Kweli, as well as the ROOFTOP compilation) on iTunes.

I’ve had two deadlines in my cross-hairs, hence the less personal postings. A few random bits:

* I’m a sucker for a rambling rose. Stevie Nicks, my aunt Jerdine (3 husbands, 5 boys, and countless jobs later), Sula (the Toni Morrison character), any woman who has lived it and lived it well. I’ll sit and listen to the details of their lives any day of the week. So of course I found this New York Times article on writer and Fort Greene resident Susanna Moore engrossing. I just wish they’d shown more of her apartment!

* Two local musts for the hot, hot summer: The cucumber lime juice at Urban Spring on DeKalb Avenue, and the fatoosh salad at Zaytoons on Myrtle Avenue.

* I have very little time to read, and yet I have subscriptions to the New Yorker, Granta, Wax Poetics, and The Economist. (Yeah, I’m crazy.) But I’ve been putting them aside to read Shirley Chisholm’s Unbought & Unbossed, the true story of a Brooklyn-raised Barbadian woman’s political ascent. Chisholm, who died in 2005, was plainspoken and hard-headed and had the stones to run for president in 1972 (I’ll have to pick up a copy of The Good Fight, too) — and 35 years later, that’s still a stunning thing. (Which says a lot about how far we haven’t come.) If you have a chance, check out Shola Lynch’s documentary about Chisholm or dig up a copy of the books.

I’ve been a fan of Stockholm-based illustrator Stina Persson’s work for some time now; somehow she makes even a cup of coffee look evanescent. I notice she has a “Products” page under construction on her website, and I’m pretty sure I’ll buy anything she sells with this image on it.

Gallery Hanahou is hosting a solo exhibit of Persson’s work until July 6, and I highly recommend catching it while you can. The show, “Immacolata and Her Friends,” features provocative images of Sicilian women, and it’s full of the dark, edgy beauty that characterizes Persson’s depictions of women. I couldn’t resist snapping up Assunta, below. What I especially love about this illustration — besides her defiant strength and razor-sharp sexuality — is that she could be any and every woman, ethnically speaking.

I can’t wait to see what Gallery Hanahou presents next. Kana Togashi (a Fort Greene girl) says their next show, “Summer Sanctuary,” is a group exhibit that opens on July 19. Details TK — watch this space.

…you’re in the right place.

And if you don’t get it, there’s a film you need to see. Stat.