She’s an extraordinary woman. In 2003 I was deployed to Iraq, and basically for those fourteen months she held the household together and she kept strong while I was away. Even with me coming back from Iraq with all the issues I was having with PTSD and the pther physical things that were going on with me, she stood by my side. She travels over an hour each way to work., puts in ten to twelve hours and does a great job with the kids. She’s still with me today; we’ve been together for about a good fifteen years now, and she’s just and extraordinary woman.
Henry Gomez honors his wife Deirdre Gomez at this year’s Red Hook Fest!
Pictured: Barbara Veloz at this year’s Red Hook Fest. She honors Iris Berman.
I would like to honor Iris Berman, who passed away a couple of days ago. She was a client of mine. She struggled with mental illness and lung cancer. She was one of my favorite clients. It’s a struggle when you live with mental illness to be accepted in society, but she was a very intelligent woman. She loved and wrote poetry and also loved photography. I just wanted her to know that I did love her and I was glad to give her a hug a couple of weeks ago not knowing that was the last time I would see her.
Julia honors her grandmother Lore at Red Hook Fest this year!
Her plan is to be the smartest person in the cemetery. So in the past ten years since she’s turned 72 she’s been studying six days a week at various programs, universities, colleges. She left Germany when she was ten, never finished high school, never went to college and knows more than pretty much anyone and has just been an amazing influence on my life and my cousins and my parents. She also had a Bat Mitzvah at 82! She’s just one of the strongest people ever. She’s almost 85 and travels around the world and does homework every night!
Zoe Flowers is a NYC-based poet who attended a Women’s Work(shop) at home made, facilitated by Mahogany L. Browne. She wrote this poem:
Driftwood
Tell me how you allowed yourself to sink into oblivion to slip away into mythology
Like the mermaid
Rule number four of “ How to Catch More and Bigger Fish” is “To use small, sharp hooks -they work just as well as the big ones – sometimes better.”
What lead you into the deep water that day?
Tell me it wasn’t love alone
I need to believe that you fought like hell
That you didn’t allow the venom of his words to fill your nostrils as you gasped for air
That you pushed against the waves of his silences and the fury of his indifference
Surely, it wasn’t your intention to leave bits of yourself scattered about
Tell me that it wasn’t your plan to have me scouring the shoreline
I return to the scene of the crime
And find
your sanity – anchored to the dock
As if awaiting your return
Your emotions – tucked neatly under a rock
For safe keeping
Your heart still beating
Lay beside a pack of beached whales
As if by design
Who but me would pick it up?
I hold it to my ear
And wait
Once
You were the ruler
Like Oya
You brought the ruckus wherever you went
And I followed
Sniffing the air
Hungry
Trying to catch your scent
But you were always one step ahead
Only leaving a trail of sea glass for me to follow
I mimicked your patterns
Retraced your steps
tiny toes sinking into damp footprints
Too big
Too loud
Too important
Too much woman
Tell me you swam against the tide before going under
That you didn’t give up
And go down
Willingly
We thought this screen-grab made a fitting postscript to our earlier entry with Sydney King. We cross-posted the photo on Facebook, and what followed was an outpouring of love and gratitude for a great teacher and amazing woman.
© Red Hook Youth Photographer Latyce Pendleton
Pictured: Jackie Spann.
Jackie runs the Red Hook Recreation Center and usually doesn’t pose for pictures, but was impressed with Latyce’s interest level. The Rec Center is a place where people can go to work out, participate in after-school activities and play sports, and even go swimming in the Red Hook Pool. Jackie helps to keep everything running at this neighborhood institution.
kamau ware, 5/22/12
Sydney King is a passionate teacher and friend of the students at South Brooklyn Community High School. She’s been teaching there for 10 years and it shows in her rapport with the students. She was a bit shy about posing for this portrait but she granted me a shot. In the background is the word “Anonymous”, the title of a short film her class is working on.
Mary Anne Massaro, 5/18/12
Whenever I think about an inspiring woman, I think of the woman in the mirror. I grew up in Red hook, Brooklyn during the roughest of times. I made it through and have been an RN over 20 years now. I have a passion for writing and write regularly for the Red Hook Star Revue.
Soul Steps’ Maxine Lyle (In a pre-Red Hook Fest workshop @ PS 15/The Beacon)
Maxine started stepping at the age of seven in her hometown of Newark, NJ. She now performs, choreographs, and offers step instruction to youth and adults throughout the Northeast. Soul Steps has performed at prestigious venues like Mass MoCa and appeared on television with MTV. They’ll be performing as one of the featured acts at the 19th Annual Red Hook Fest.
© Red Hook Youth Photographer Brett Felix
The three women in the photo all work at Brooklyn Slate. One of the two founder/owners of Brooklyn Slate is a woman named Kristy Hadeka, who helped to start the company when she was still a graduate student at Parsons School for Design.
