PORTRAITS – The 5 Wards of Newark http://thefivewards.com Thu, 09 Feb 2017 21:39:30 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.3 http://thefivewards.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/cropped-H-1-32x32.jpg PORTRAITS – The 5 Wards of Newark http://thefivewards.com 32 32 South Ward: Omar http://thefivewards.com/2017/01/05/south-ward-portraits-umar-murray/ http://thefivewards.com/2017/01/05/south-ward-portraits-umar-murray/#respond Thu, 05 Jan 2017 05:50:00 +0000 http://thefivewards.com/?p=49090
Image by Akintola Hanif

South Ward: Omar

In 2011, I started off selling $1 bottles of oil for women and men and I came up with this gimmick, something concerning hygiene, something universal. I thought of the slogan “smell good, look good” and started putting that in people’s ear.  It worked.  The first day,  I sold 700 bottles.

The South Ward has been my  home base since 2015. It’s residential, it’s a community. People have more time to stop. The people have welcomed me with open arms because they respect my business tactics. It’s not all about getting a dollar, it’s about reaching out, bringing solutions instead of more problems.

The crime here only takes place where there are a few bad apples. By God’s mercy, I haven’t witnessed anything. But people tell me this or that happened on the block, and the person who died may be somebody that purchased something from me, or their family and friends, and that affects me. There was a young fellow who passed, he always used to buy scarves from me. He would never walk past without buying a scarf. He would give some to his moms. Last summer, he got murdered. His moms told me he was buried in one of the scarves.

Crime definitely affects the businessman. People don’t want to come out anymore. One guy asked me, do you ever get scared? I told him, being amongst your people you can tell when things are about to occur, you can see an accident waiting to happen. That doesn’t mean the fear isn’t there, it’s just knowing your people. I understand my people and what they go through daily—from the young mothers, to the fathers, the drug addicts, the gang violence and prostitution, to the businessman who’s striving just to keep his lights on.  If you hire the people that you’re amongst, your job will be easier. Don’t go five cities away to hire people that have no idea of the history of Newark, that have no idea who they’re dealing with.

With Newark the question is, who’s going to have the guts to come here with their investors and really rub shoulders with the city? I want them to grab the youth. Start at 15 and give them training so they can feel like somebody instead of feeling like they’re stuck. I would like for these businesses to come in and spread the wealth. Don’t come in and just take over.

Omar Murray, Owner, Mr. Smell Good, Look Good, Lyons Avenue

as told to Deja Jones

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South Ward: Isaiah http://thefivewards.com/2017/01/02/south-ward-isiah/ http://thefivewards.com/2017/01/02/south-ward-isiah/#respond Mon, 02 Jan 2017 11:50:00 +0000 http://thefivewards.com/?p=49314
Photo by Akintola Hanif

South Ward: Isaiah

When I was growing up my dad lived on Foster Street at the mouth of Weequahic Park. It was a block that always had a lot of working class families, a building for seniors and other units with a big mix of people. The park was the place where everyone gathered but you didn’t see these stark differences between them anymore. There was all sorts of people that would use it coming from all different places, all different types —  the baseball types, families that would congregate, Pop Warner football teams.

In middle school I joined the Junior Rangers program. We learned to identify trees and shrubbery. We learned about the species of birds that visited the park. The first time I saw a cardinal was in the park. In East Orange where I lived,  we had a football team called the Cardinals and I always wondered why a football team was named that since we we don’t see those around here. When we saw it, I remember thinking, “That’s a pretty odd-looking bird.’’

I learned about pollution when I was a Junior Ranger, how the planes from the airport affected bird migration patterns. Let’s not get started on the lake, which can’t be used for any recreation because of the amount of pollutants.  You can fish but you can’t eat those fish, you’re supposed to throw them back. When you think about an 80-acre lake, if it was somewhere else — the amount of regulations against pollution that are imposed in California versus the laws in Newark — if  you were managing that lake in any other city, things wouldn’t be this way.

As a kid, you see the park as a place where they are fun and games but as you get older, you see that folks can have career paths because of it. They can go into business, or engineering or fitness.  My proximity to the park as a child  allowed me to realize that almost all those careers can not only be launched at a park but sustained. Central Park is one of the best examples—there are museums and restaurants, people who work there are as rangers or have other jobs there.  You can essentially help support a community by running a successful independent park.

One thing  thing I would like to see grow is an interest in making connections, turning it into a technology park with public wi-fi  so people can gather in these spaces, can entertain themselves and do business, connect with people where they are. But just sitting in the park, looking at the playground, at all the different people using it, it’s a joy.

Isaiah Little, President, Weequahic Park Association

as told to Carrie Stetler

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South Ward: Antoinette http://thefivewards.com/2016/12/30/south-ward-portraits-antoinette/ http://thefivewards.com/2016/12/30/south-ward-portraits-antoinette/#respond Fri, 30 Dec 2016 06:08:16 +0000 http://thefivewards.com/?p=49098
Photo by Akintola Hanif

South Ward: Antoinette

I went to Weequahic High School from 1966 to 1970. When I came here, it was 80 percent Jewish. When I left, there was maybe one or two white kids. That was how fast things changed.

I think the school system was totally unprepared for us. We basically just had to figure out how to fit in.  I don’t want to say we were invaders, but we didn’t belong and there wasn’t an open-armed willingness to let us in. There were excellent teachers who taught us and loved us the same way they loved the other students, and there were some who were absolutely racist– some overtly, some covertly. I remember being seated near the back of the class and never being called on when my hand was up, but only when my hand was down, which obviously meant that I didn’t know the answers. And then getting C’s and D’s on tests when that had never happened before. I remember beginning to think that maybe I was a bad student and everyone had lied to me in elementary school and maybe I wasn’t smart. The saving grace was that wasn’t pervasive in the school culture, it was just a few classes.

Something happened during that time that a lot of people don’t talk about – the real estate industry. They swarmed in and did a scare tactic on a lot of the Jewish people here. Some got scared because of the political climate,  and also the drugs. So these houses were sold for a lot more to black families than they actually were worth. I’m not saying that leaving was the right or wrong thing to do, but it did have a big impact on the school and the community. Things would definitely be different if it were integrated.

After the riots, Newark became one of the main heroin drops in the country and you started to hear more about the epidemic and how it reached the lower and middle classes. It was horrible. When I was coming up, a lot of guys I went to high school with got caught up in it and are dead. There were outdoor shooting galleries, where people you could see it lined up on the streets. It doesn’t take a lot to put the dots together: There was a whole generation of addicts created at that time and an opportunity for the young guys to get involved in the drug trade.

I came back to buy a house here because I felt comfortable, and this was the neighborhood I wanted to invest in.  There are people who have lived here since the 1960’s, since Black people were able to start buying house in this neighborhood, so the sense of community still exists. My block is mainly homeowners. People take pride because we own the property. We keep our lawns and houses nice. Every spring you see people landscaping, that sense of stability is still here. On the other hand this is also basically a poverty-stricken community. If you walk up a few blocks you’ll see that there is a lot of gang and drug activity that goes on here. Sometimes it’s very visible.

Antoinette Baskerville-Richardson, Weequahic, Newark Board of Education, Chair

as told to Deja Jones

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South Ward: James http://thefivewards.com/2016/12/26/south-ward-james/ http://thefivewards.com/2016/12/26/south-ward-james/#respond Mon, 26 Dec 2016 17:39:50 +0000 http://thefivewards.com/?p=49252
Image by Akintola Hanif

South Ward: James

I came to this country from Ghana in 1978 when I was 20.  I was a nuclear medicine technician but I always wanted to open up a business for my people.  This was a vacant building  when I found it in 2004.  I built everything here myself—the sheetrock, I fixed the roof, everything.

The big reason people come here is because our food is fresh. We are not canned or packaged. Everything is fresh-cooked and I smoke my own fish. It’s not just Ghanaians who like it here, also Nigerians and Togolese. They come here for the food but it allows them to socialize. They come to find jobs and help each other get their footing when they first come to this country. A lot of them are not well-educated. This empowers them.

The strengths of the Ghanaian community here are that everyone is your family and the commitment they have. When Ghanaians say they’re going to do something, they do it. We  dream big. In this country, there’s not much you can’t do if you work hard.  People say Americans are the devil, but they are the most caring people. This is a beautiful country, a great country.

But I’d like to do more to help the community back in Africa. I’d like to bring more African products here to help the economy there. People send money home but that way you can help create jobs and help laborers. So the Ghanaian Way is both, helping Africans here and helping them back in Africa.

James  Ken Kwofie, owner Ghanaian Way Restaurant and Grocery

as told to Carrie Stetler

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South Ward: Aliyah http://thefivewards.com/2016/12/21/south-ward-portraits-aliyah/ http://thefivewards.com/2016/12/21/south-ward-portraits-aliyah/#respond Wed, 21 Dec 2016 04:17:56 +0000 http://thefivewards.com/?p=49227
Image by Akintola Hanif

South Ward: Aliyah

Growing up, everyone knew me and I didn’t have problems with people or my peers, period, because I was respected already. In school it was ok because I wasn’t the only gay girl. I played basketball from my elementary years and it used to be me and a ton of boys at the basketball yard.

It was fun growing up back then— that’s when things were safer. We used to run around playing manhunt till one in the morning. There weren’t any police asking why we were outside, no one was getting robbed, none of that that crazy stuff. We used to ride bikes. Kids don’t ride bikes like that anymore.

I went to Malcolm X Shabazz High School and played basketball there. By my junior year I knew I had to get myself together and stay away from certain people. I live in the South Ward, so I’m already somewhere that’s affiliated with smoking, partying—all that stuff’s around me. I see a lot of stuff, like people getting shot, and I try to stay away from it.

People are always saying “Newark is bad, Newark is bad.” But at community college, having me on the team was an asset. My high school coach told me that the way I play, and the attitude I bring to the game — it’s hard. “She’s aggressive, she’s not scared,” and that’s how I feel like I am, being from Newark.

Newark can either make you or break you. You let the people around you or your city control you and you’ll become like them. There’s a lot of successful people out of Newark, but that becomes your story, “You’re from Newark.” But you get respect ’cause it’s not easy out here. So that’s a compliment.

Aliyah Muhammad, Osbourne Terrace & Eckhert Avenue
As told to Atoosa Moinzadeh

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