Author: Sylvia Wong Lewis

BBC Radio Academy Award-Gold!

Posted on by Sylvia Wong Lewis

I am honored to announce that the BBC Radio program featuring my interview and storytelling among others, recently received the prestigious BBC Radio Academy Award-Gold Award for “Strange Fruit,” produced by Maggie Ayre.

Congratulations to the amazing producer Maggie Ayre and the awesome storytellers on the show. After reading my story on the Coming to the Table website about my Uncle Warren’s lynching, BBC Radio producer Maggie Ayre invited me to join her Soul Music program. The show also included Emmett Till’s cousin, Simeon Wright; Robert Meeropol, the adopted son of Jewish teacher Abel Meeropol, author of the poem/song; and April Shipp, a Detroit quilt maker who created a “Strange Fruit” quilt. Each of us engaged about the song, “Strange Fruit” and shared our own personal story.

radio
What kind of radio do you listen to?

What the judges said about  “Strange Fruit”:

“Using a simple format with moving interviews, this was immensely powerful storytelling through and about music. It allowed the lyrics to breathe, resulting in an impactful and brilliant show. This was ‘stop and listen’ radio.”

Here’s the link to BBC Radio Academy Award announcement: http://www.radioacademyawards.org/winners/index.cfm?winners_year=2014&winners_award_group_id=4&winners_award_category_id=21

“Strange Fruit” Headed to the Theater Stage: In addition, this amazing radio program inspired a theater production in England. Anyone want to join me for a trip to the UK this summer? I was only given bare details at press time. I received word second-hand from the producer that he is going ahead on July 10th at the Wirral Festival of Firsts. For updates, go to:  http://www.festivaloffirsts.com/home/4582210171.

To hear the original BBC broadcast, check out a past blog post by clicking here.

 

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Caribbean Mother’s Day

Posted on by Sylvia Wong Lewis

Caribbean Mother’s Day: I always marvel at mothers like my maternal grandmother Violet Chan Keong, who arrived in Harlem from Trinidad. She was newly divorced and travelling with three small children, including my mother. She left behind three older children.

Aunt Sybil, Agnes, Elaine in Trinidad
It took over a decade before my Trinidadian maternal Aunts Sybil, Agnes, and Elaine were reunited with their mother and siblings in NYC.

It would take more than a decade before they would reunite. Once settled in Harlem, my grandmother worked day, night, and weekends taking care of other people’s children and cleaning other people’s homes. She was very resourceful. Grandma came here to work.  Her side businesses included work as a seamstress, tailor, caterer and special events planner, especially Caribbean weddings. She taught me how to cook, clean, garden, sew, knit, crochet, manage events and read palms.

Like thousands of Caribbean mothers, Grandma Violet was motivated by the American dream. She saved every penny so she could send for her children and provide for the ones living with her. She did not worry about her daughters back home because they lived with our extended Caribbean family. Grandmother belonged to a unique network of tough West Indian mothers who learned by trial and error how to hold everything together in their cold new world.

Grandmother participated in a sou-sou, an old-fashioned Caribbean savings cooperative similar to a lottery.  A group of people deposited an equal amount of money for a period of time (monthly or bi-weekly) with a trusted banker in the circle. After that time was up, each person in the circle got a turn to keep the full pot.

Grandmother’s sou-sou and her extra jobs provided for all of the family’s needs—a new home, trips back to Trinidad and raising the children who lived with her.  Her generation did not believe in banks, loans or credit cards. Everything was about sacrifice and integrity! There were lots of letters and barrels sent back and forth between Trinidad, “BG”-British Guyana and New York. Articles such as clothing, fabric, sewing supplies, toiletries, books, magazines and traditional food and religious items were shipped on a regular basis. My elders shared everything in their tight-knit Caribbean community, especially precious news, letters and photos from back home. I inherited quite a collection of exotic postal stamps, news clips and photos from that time.

Most importantly, I learned about my family’s cultural history —from our mother and grandmother’s stories. With each barrel sent and each new arrival from the old country, there were stories, photos and new chapters about Trinidad and Guyana’s independence. I was a teen when my Aunt Elaine, my mother’s oldest sister, arrived in NY. I was given her name as my middle name. Aunt Elaine’s son William lived with us in Brooklyn while he attended Howard University. I can recall the scene. There they were, sisters meeting for the first time–laughing and crying tears of joy. Circumstances, family drama, post-colonial politics and immigration laws were some of the reasons for this belated reunion. So, on Mother’s Day, I give a special salute to Caribbean mothers everywhere for your courage and sacrifices to start a new life. Check out how Mother’s Day is celebrated around the world: http://time.com/94286/mothers-day-2014-world/

 

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Genealogy Vacation Tips

Posted on by Sylvia Wong Lewis
Review archival photos and artifacts before taking your genealogy vacation.
Review archival photos and artifacts before taking your genealogy vacation.

I love to combine vacations with genealogy research trips. I experience deja vu and can almost feel my ancestor’s spirits guiding me. To walk the same streets, eat the same foods and hear traditional music and language of my ancestors can be quite emotional. I sometimes feel pure joy and incredible sadness. But overall, a genealogy vacation can be exciting and rewarding for the whole family.

 

This year, my itinerary will include the Caribbean, Mississippi and Louisiana and England. Using oral histories, family stories, inherited photos and artifacts, I will dig for more stories. I planned months in advance. I also set appointments and allotted time to improvise or change plans.

 

Right now, I am finalizing a trip to New Orleans and Ocean Springs, Mississippi. My current research project is about family recipes—especially gumbo. There is a community of “gumbo people” that I hope to meet. I learned that you could do a lot of cooking, eating and tasting in a few days if you make a good plan.

 

My genealogy trip will also include family gravesites, churches and neighborhood landmarks. Colleagues have already made introductions for site visits and events. Most importantly, I did my homework and developed a few checklists.

My Top 5 Genealogy Vacation Tips:

  1. -Choose your research project: a specific family, individual or tradition.
  2. -Know where you are going. Call your relatives or their neighbors to plan a visit. Check the web for the church, courthouse, and libraries to confirm a time, location, and direction. Official buildings can close for repair without notice!
  3. -Learn what sources and events are available. Some original source records require prior reservations. Events can change venue and details. The drama of your ancestors’ lives is documented in a variety of newspapers, court, land transfer, tax, voting, school, health records and more. If your ancestor lived near a county line, you might find records in two different counties. Click here for a link to tips for onsite genealogy research.
  4. -Map out your strategy. Get familiar with the area using various maps like highway or Google maps. Small and large-scale topographic maps can help greatly with logistics.
  5. -Packing Tips: I pack as light as possible— notebook, pedigree charts or family group record, pencils (many repositories don’t allow pens!) camera, tripod, portable scanner, mobile phone, batteries, memory cards, magnifying glass, tape measure, white archival gloves, comfortable clothes and shoes.

Do you combine vacation and genealogy trips? What are your tips?

 

Diverse chefs aspire

Posted on by Sylvia Wong Lewis

Diverse chefs aspire – The pressure of a four-star kitchen was recreated as 21 multicultural NYC public high school student finalists faced off in a cooking challenge. The diverse, young aspiring chefs were participating in “Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP) New York-Cooking Competition for Scholarships.” Teachers, families, sponsors, C-CAP alums and staff and mentors  were present to cheer them on. They all believe that supporting the students’ chef school education is key to their success. (C-CAP operates in several states around the nation.)

Hosted by ICE (Institute of Culinary Education), a two-course French meal featuring Hunter’s Chicken with Tourne Potatoes and Dessert Crepes with Pastry Cream and Chocolate Sauce, was prepared under the scrutiny of a team of judges. Besides taste and presentation, the students were judged on speed, sanitation, safety, organization, timing, workflow, technique and skills.

Pep Talk

After a pep talk by Richard Grausman, C-CAP founder, Susan Robbins, C-CAP president, and some of the judges, the students got to work in three kitchens crowded with judges and media.

“Work with your heart and don’t be afraid,” said Robbins. “Taste your food, and go light with the salt,” said Grausman. “If you cut yourself, raise your hand and label your plate with a number so that we know who you are,” said another judge.

All-Star Chef Judges

“I look for a rhythm, a flow like a dance in the kitchen. This group is very confident,” said Thiago Silva, C-CAP alum, judge and executive pastry chef, EMM Group, The General.

“I wish I could take each one of them back to my restaurant. It’s obvious that they are very skilled already,” said Maria Loi, executive chef at Loi Restaurant.

“I told them to cook like you are cooking for your mother,” said JJ Johnson, chef de cuisine, The Cecil and Mintons. “I could see that they were nervous in the beginning. But, as prep moved to cooking, their confidence was there,” Johnson added.

“Nervousness is expected. This is their first time in this kitchen. They got into their zone pretty quick. I saw a few mess-ups and they recovered very well. My job is to remind them to stay calm, watch the timeline and replace potatoes if they got rotten ones,” said Rebecca Rios, the kitchen manager and C-CAP alum.

All competitors will be invited to a final awards event on April 11 at the Pierre Hotel where the results of this competition will be revealed and $500K in scholarships will be presented, according to a C-CAP spokesperson.

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‘Promises Kept’ a Toolkit for Raising Black Boys

Posted on by Sylvia Wong Lewis

Promises Kept-Raising Black Boys to Succeed in School and In Life is the companion book to the documentary American Promise Project that explores black male achievement gaps. When two black boys get accepted to New York’s prestigious Dalton School, we witness the promises and problems of thriving and surviving in an elite school. It became very clear that no matter how wealthy or poor you are, if you have a black son, you will see gaps in almost every area of his life from school test scores to his emotional, social and physical wellbeing. This book is essentially a toolkit on how to raise your black boys for success with provocative chapters like: “You Brought Him into this World, Don’t Let Other folks Take Him Out: How to Discipline Our Sons for Best Results” and “Protect Him From Time Bandits: How to Teach Our Sons to Manage Their Time.”

Why do achievement gaps happen to our boys? These are some of the questions asked and answered by the film and book. Written and produced by an Ivy League-educated black parent team Joe Brewster, MD (Harvard), and Michele Stephenson (Columbia) with Hilary Beard, this book provides strategies and lessons learned.

The documentary filmed two boys–the couple’s son and his best friend– from grade school to Dalton, home, the Clinton-Hill/Fort Green Brooklyn community and various activities. Some viewers scoffed at the parents for treating the children as an experiment for their film. But what emerged was a raw portrait of life inside of two very engaged black families and their efforts to instill the light of learning.  As we witness these little boys become young men, we can see that despite everyone’s best efforts, their potential for success is constantly eroded by forces all around them. Thankfully, today, the boys are both college sophomores.

I commend this book for the quality of its research, analysis and accessible writing. This is the first “how to” book on raising black boys that I ever read. I suspect that some parents and caretakers will wish they had read it before raising their grown sons. Not many parents can film their children’s daily lives to create a documentary. But these parents did.  They did us a favor. This was another wake-up call!  Teachers, we must not give up on black students! Black parents and community, we must continue our vigilance! If we take a pass on our son’s education, the most likely place for black boys with no grounding in family, education or positive community, is the penal system, according to most experts. Click here for book excerpt.

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