The happening 'hood - Brooklyn: The New Black Mecca

Living in Brooklyn's Fort Greene-Clinton Hill neighborhood means being in the embrace of all the energy, warmth and creativity of the Black diaspora. Here African-American, Caribbean and African influences unite and inspire a community of folks who maintain beautiful Afrocentric homes on peaceful tree-lined streets, who build businesses that consciously support Black suppliers and artisans and who come together at neighborhood restaurants like the Greene Avenue Grill and Two Steps Down or at author readings at nearby Nkiru Books or at artist openings, with jazz, at Spiral Gallery. These are some of the places I visit for good food and drink, for excellent shopping and stimulating conversation--or for the warm welcome extended at shops such as V. J. Jones and Status (which has fab-u-lous one-of-a-kind hats, jewelry and wardrobe pieces, some of them made right there in the shop).

A CULTURAL RENAISSANCE

When I first moved here, the neighborhood still had a lot of rough edges--nowhere to buy African-inspired fashions, only the faintest talk of a renaissance to come, and no young-gifted-and-Black names to drop. It has become a mecca of sorts for Black artists and entrepreneurs. A number of renowned musicians and artists, including vocalists Betty Carter and Noel Pointer, pianist Geri Allen and photographer Roy DeCarava, have lived here for years, but it was Spike Lee and his 40 Acres and A Mule Filmworks that really put us on the map. The filmmaker's shop, Spike's Joint, which sells T-shirts, postcards and Spike film memorabilia, draws visitors from around the country. Speaking of Spike, his pop, Bill Lee, his sister, Joie, cinematographer (and filmmaker in his own right with the upcoming Juice) Ernest Dickerson, actors Wesley Snipes and Larry Fishburne and other well-known and quietly treasured artists are among the Fort Greene-Clinton Hill residents you're likely to run into at many of the places I've mentioned.

We've got a few other neighborhood places well known beyond our borders: The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is one. I'm there often for a wide variety of dance and music concerts. Each spring, calypso and gospel jamming. The first salsa, calypso and gospel jamming. The first weekend of every June I'm onstage as an "elder" for The Dance Africa Festival, a week of celebrating dance from the continent. Of course, my title is honorific, bestowed by the festival's director, Chuck Davis.

If you once lived in the borough and left (poor thing!), there's a Welcome Back to Brooklyn celebration each June at the Graceful, colossal arch of Grand Army Plaza. The Plaza is really a gateway for other great places to hang out--the Brooklyn Museum (which has the third-largest Egyptian collection in the United States), Prospect Park (Brooklyn's largest) and the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, for instance. Back in the 'hood, there's the Simmons Collection/African Arts Museum on Fulton Street, of which I am a fan and a member, and Sheila's Restaurant on DeKalb Avenue, a wonderful place for a dinner set with local musicians. And Fort Greene Park is particularly gret for Sunday sunning and jogger-watching.

NEIGHBORHOOD BEST BETS

Also pleasing to my eye and ear are jazz concerts and vespers at Cadman Memorial Church on Clinton and Lafayette; just sitting and watching Manhattan on the promenade in Brooklyn Heights; going to Club Illusions on Empire Boulevard for reggae, calypso and house music; and more of the same at Tilden Hall on New York Avenue. My friend Brenda Fryson, a lifelong Brooklynite, recommended Auggie's Brownstone Inn on Fulton Street near Albany Avenue, a laid-back Bed-Stuy hangout that's reputedly the oldest Black-owned bar in the borough. Fryson says, "It's got the best music in town" and a record collection from the thirties, forties and fifties "that's out of sight." Next year, the "I Love New York" campaign will spotlight Brooklyn. And there are regular tours of the borough's hot spots by Gray Sightseeing. I'm not saying we have it all, but you have to agree we've got a lot!

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