Page 253 - Demo

Fort Greene Outreach Is %u2018Amazing%u2019 In New FilmBY TRACY GARRITYT w n - v p a r n ld T i f f n n v C o n n e r d a s h e s d o w nCambridge Street landing in several puddles before pulling up short at the hands of Tamika S. Walton, her cousin. Tiffany turns in her red dress, wiggles in the rain and stares wonderingly at lacy white socks now polka-dotted with mud. It is a scene typical to the Fort Greene streets, but one not often reported. Too often the Fort Greene news is bad. Teenagers murdered, four children perish in a fire. But there is hope in Fort Greene, and that is why 66 Fort Greene residents pulled together to serve as extras in the movie %u201cAmazing Grace.%u201d%u201c They are our future,%u201d says Mary Cooper, Tiffany%u2019s grandmother and coordinator of the extras. %u201cYou hear too many bad things about Fort Greene. You hear about the problems. We wanted our children to have the hope for the future. They can look up there at the movie, and see that there are good things that happen here.%u201d%u201c Amazing Grace,%u201d an ABC Afterschool special that airs November 19th as the 100th production of the children%u2019s series, is not actually about Fort Greene. The story of a family of gospel singers discovered on a local talent search show, is a story of Any City U.S.A. But the theme of hope, of contribution no matter how small, embodies the spirit that is this neighborhood. %u201cAll I can say is that we did it for the children. And plenty of them were in it. We didn%u2019t just do this to be in a movie, we did this to show that people canwnrlr tnopthpr %u201dTAPED ON CAMBRIDGE PLACEThe 66 extras, primarily culled from the Fort Greene Community Outreach Center, of which Mary Cooper is director, appear primarily in one scene of the movie, taped at 105 Cambridge Place. The stars leave their home to enter a limousine that will whisk them off to a recording studio where a contract waits to be signed. The studio sends the limo to a neighborhood foreign to such sights. Well-wishing neighbors crowd around the car as the family files in. That crowd, some sitting on stoops, some following the car on bikes, some waving and calling to the cast, is now sitting in Cooper%u2019s office at the Masonic Temple in Fort Greene, talking about the experience of it all.%u201c We did a lot of moving around,%u201d says Rose Bostic. %u201cSit here, stand over there. They never knew where they wanted us, so we kept moving around. They had to have it perfect.%u201d%u201cIt wasn%u2019t that hard,%u201d adds Roy Gordon. %u201c All we had to to do was wave good-bye.%u201d He waves to make his point. %u201cBye. That%u2019s all. And then we had to go to the television station.%u201d Several additional crowd shots were filmed at the Manhattan Community College Television station, where the %u201cfamily%u201d performed gospel for the cameras and the residents of Fort Greene.%u201cThey may have gotten some other people in there, but I think it was mostly us,%u201d says Cooper. %u201cThere were a lot of us.%u201d The audience was treated to several spirituals sung by Della Reese who stars in the film with Tempest Bledsoe (Vanesssa on the Cosby Show). %u201cThe music was inspiring,%u201d says Adele Hester, president of Community Outreach.MUSIC UPLIFTINGThe music is indeed uplifting and serves as counterpoint to a plot that puts Grace (Tempest Bledsoe) at odds with her singing family because she cannot carry a tune. While Grace can lip synch with her family on stage, her one-note voice is discovered in the recording studio, and she leaves the group in despair.Grace does have perfect pitch, and in her mind that only adds insult to injury. Aunt Faith (Della Reese) assures her it is a gift. \Actors (left to right) Mary Cooper, TiffanyCooper, Adele Hester, Brenda Taylor, IndiaCooper, Tamika S. W alton, Tyrone Cooperand his mother Sandra Cooper. Below, T iffany poses with Adele Hester.(Phoenix/Garrity Photo)As the plot resolves itself, the theme of hope, mil acles anu daring to dream are pulled together through the music the family chooses to sing. Those same themes have pulled Fort Greene together, says Cooper, who operates the Community Outreach classes with no public funding.%u201cWe get by through fundraising,%u201d she says. %u201cAnd through the kindness of people. You have to learn to rely on other people. I can make some calls, and this community responds. We%u2019re all volunteers, but we get a lot accomplished because we believe that we can. And we want to give that gift to our children.%u201dShe says the movie is just one part of educating the children of Fort Greene. %u201cWe cannot lose sight of the hope of the future,%u201d says Cooper. %u201cAnd that is our children.%u201d CHOSEN TO MAKE LIFE BETTER The men and women sitting around the table at the Community Outreach class have chosen to make life better for themselves. Rose Bostic went to the classes (various educational offerings, including GED and basic reading and math skills) and graduated to become a member of the Board. Roy Gordon, Claudia Clare, Eloise Townsend and Sheila Beckles are all working to put their best foot forward, and the movie is just the beginning for them.%u201cDella was just great,%u201d says Cooper. %u201cAfter she finished singing, little India (Cooper) went up on stage and gave her a kiss. She was just so moved by the message that she went onto the stage. That%u2019s why we did it.%u201d%u201c Another girl, oh, she must have been nine or ten, went up to Della and asked for an autorgraph. Della was leaving, but she stopped to talk to the girls. %u201cThis is my future,%u201d she said. The whole picture is geared to how children can begin building the future,%u201d says Hester.%u201cThey still have their lives to live. This experience will give them that foundation,%u201d says Cooper.%u201c Amazing Grace%u201d will be aired on November 19 at 4pm on Channel 7. It is an ABC entertainment production, produced by Berner Schlamme Productions. Thomas Schlamme is the director and Fred Berner the director. The film is written by Jerry Blatt from a story by Dolores Morris and Jerry Blatt. Harold Wheeler composed the original music.Boerum Place Project Plans Unveiled At CB6 MeetingBY LIZ KOCHThe developers of the proposed downtown Brooklyn Livingston Plaza office building came to downtown Brooklyn on November 5 to present details of the development they are planning for the now%u2019-vacant lot on Boerum Place and outline the goals of their project.Livingston Plaza, a $65 million joint proposal by Cohen Brothers Realty and StarretHousing Corporation, was chosen by the City%u2019s Public Development Corporation a year and a haif ago after the agency issued a Request for Proposals 1R FP) for the 60,000 sq. ft. lot that at different points in its history was considered as the site for a court house and prison. The proposed Murphy Johndesigned structure is a 12-story glass and masonry office building which will face Boerum Place and cover the entire block bounded by Boerum and Livingston, Smith and Schermerhorn Sts.Charles Cohen, president of Cohen Brothers, said on Nov. 5 that no major tenant had been contracted for the 500,000 sq. ft. of office space, but that serious negotiations were underway with several large firms. The developer is also currently negotiating with YMCA of Greater New York to include a major fitness center of roughly 60,000 sq. ft. in one of the sub-levels of the project.The Central Brooklyn YMCA once headquartered at 55 Hanson Place in Ft. Greene, is now squeezed into a single room in Brooklyn Heights and has long been seeking space to expand its facilities. The proposed building would meet their space and upgrading needs. According to PDC%u2019s Lee Silberstein, negotiations for the Central Brooklyn YMCA to move into the space are underway.The building is expected to have roughly 10,000 users, but unlike other office developments planned in downtownBrooklyn, Livingston Plaza is designed to provide both back office space and executive offices. %u201cThere will be back office space, but the windows allow for executive offices as well as law firms from Court St..%u201d Cohen said.The building, surrounded by a landscaped plaza with trees and benches, will have its main entrance facing west down Boerum Place. A long corridor leading to the opposite end of the building and opening on Smith St., will connect the main entrance with a second entrance. The inside corridor will be lined with stores that are accessible from both inside and outside the building, according to architect James Goettsch. The SchermerhornSt. side of the building will be used for a loading dock and the entrance to the 225-car helow-grade parking lot. Stores will open onto the Livingston St. side of the development.Addressing the issue of retail merchants, Cohen said they were seeking retailers for the 25,000 sq. ft. of proposed space who would serve as a naturai extension of the nearby Fulton St. %u201cRight now we are talking with large users. Furniture tenants and fashion shops, people iike that.%u201d he said. He added, however, that smaller tenants were also considered for the retail space, which he described as \stressed that the primary focus now was on finding office tenants.%u201c It is the office tenants who will create a general tone for development,%u201d Cohen said.The 12-story building is currently in its preULURP stages with certification of the Draft Environmental impact Statement expected in a few weeks, according to PDC%u2019s Hardy Adasco who also attended the meeting. The City Review Process involving public hearings and votes by: the downtown Community Board Two. in whose district the project is located; the City Planning Commission; and the Board of Estunate. which gives final approval to the project, expected to be underway by spring. PDC has focused on the Livingston Plaza project as a particularly successful City venture due to its complete private financing. Groundbreaking is estimated for the enu of 1987.%u201cThere will not be additional costs for infrastructure or subway improvements,%u201d Adasco pointed out.The building does qualify for a 23-year real estate tax abatement as well as a 37-percent reduction in Con Edison electric rates and a 30 percent reduction in commercial occupancy taxes.The development is expected to provide 1,700 jobs, with lease payments of $24.8 million and taxes of $65 million over the first 20 years of operation.The Nov. 5 presentation was made before a meeting of the Budget and Economic Development Committee of Community Board Six, which agreed to meet again to discuss the plan which will be built in Community Board Two area, but is on the periphery of Community Board Six. The presentation has already been made to the Planning and I and Use Committee of Board Two.This view of Livingston Plaza, a proposed tw elve story office and retail development,opens onto Boerum Place and Livingston St. An inside arcade leading directly through thebuilding and lined with retail shops will open at a second entrance on Smith St.November 13,1986, THE PHOENIX, Page 5