Sunday morning....

feeling much better---an offer to work on Tuesday at Friends turned out to be a false alarm (as of now) but it grounded me anyway. Yesterday, after my session (pretty fulfilling) took the train to Brooklyn an headed for Jack. Its open house was part of a street festival---when I arrived there was a performance by an afro-Amreican performing group that was very dynamic. Afterwards, the leader thanked the Jack artistic staff for giving them their space to create rent free, and also I assume, some performance time. This is what a not for profit should do--whether theater or not---empower the community---reach out and create something that is not already there. How many theaters operating now under a not for profit umbrella can say that? Lots of entitlement there. Later I said hello to Alec,  Jack's artistic director, and told him how much I was looking forward to the new theater's first presentation, a play by my friend Amina. Her work and imaginative vision seems to be sprawling out---so looking forward to her latest play, about two weeks from today.
  When the activities died down, I decided to walk a bit in the neighborhood---Jack would have been considered part of Bed-Stuy up to about 10 years ago, now it is more like the outer reaches of Clinton Hill. So much has changed in that area in the past 10 years---Fulton Street, the main drag, is loaded with new high and mid rises. Anyway, I walked north on Cambridge Place a few blocks, came to the beginning of Quincy Street, then moved around the corner and one block north the beginning of Lexington Avenue. These avenues and where they begin---they arrive out of the streets of Fort Greene and Cinton Hill---fascinate me. First time for me to look at those streets. Both are lined with some nice brownstones, but with some new luxury buildings as well---they are everywhere in the Bed-Stuy-Clinton Hill area. The streets were kind of empty, but the majority of people that I crossed paths with were white. At Grand Avenue, where Lexington begins, I moved to Gates, then followed Gates back to the Gotham market---my "home away from home"
  Then it was just a question of would I go to one of two movie choices at BAM, or just sit it out. I decided on the latter---stayed in the very convenient fiction center and read for about 45 minutes, then, feeling physically very tired, returned home.
  Today, after this off to Bushwick--will watch some football at Cobra, then not sure about the rest of the day. My friend Eric bartends at Clem's a bar in Williamsburg, but his shift does not begin until 9. Can I remain in Brooklyn that long? Return to Manhattan and then come back? We will see.