“Park-Hill used to be dangerous for us the African migrants. African Americans refused to welcome us. Some of us were harassed and arrested. Over 45 of our colleagues who retaliated were charged to court and some were deported” Freeman said. 

Freeman recalled how he was chased one night by a street gang for refusing to greet them. 

“In the process, I lost my $50 in my possession,” he said.  

Years down the line, tension has lessened between the two communities in Staten island because the African migrant’s community here grew to over 50,000 and a realization that what drove them apart should bind them together.

Alex Moore is the CEO of 1847 night club on Bay street in Staten Island. Its name is derived from July 26, 1847 when an African American from Virginia, Joseph Jenkins Roberts declared the colony of Liberia as an independent republic. It’s a key meeting point for members of both communities on Staten Island.

“We play both African and hip-hop music because we serve the two parties. We screen football, African movies and even serve both African and American dishes. This shows we are one and the same,”Moore said.  

Abraham Tucker is the president of the Liberian community in Staten Island. With black people facing  racism and police brutality, Tucker said  there is a need for both communities to work together. 

“What affects one, affects the other,” he said.  “The racists and the police are not targeting African Americans alone, they are targeting blacks.”

Al Peters  is an African American activist who operates a studio for arts and culture. He blamed Western education as the factor that divides what he called ‘Continent African born’ and ‘American born Africans’. 

“When Black history is taught in schools, they make it sound like, the existence of Black people started from slavery,” he said. “No, it didn’t. It started way back when we were Kings and Queens in our villages. Until the slave masters destroyed that peaceful life.”

Peters  said that some African Americans viewed the arrival of African migrants in the U.S. as a threat because they believe they will take their jobs from them. Cultural differences he believes also played a part. 

“But all that is as a result of the slavery mentality of the mind placed in our brothers by the colonial powers,” he said. “The same who are still killing black people, the oppressors. This is now the right time to work together and fight for justice,” he said.

Peters said he uses his studio and art  to inform both communities about peace, freedom and love for one another.

“These days, we attend parties, night clubs and chill as a family together which was unheard of in the past” he said.

Over the years, music, sports and intermarriages have played a part in improving the relationship between the two communities. 

The Lutheran church in Staten Island attracts worshippers from both the African and African American community.

“We even organized intermarriages between both communities,” said Zizi Kendakai, the  assistant pastor of the church.  “When we arrived here, the community was hostile. But prayers and the choir music got them attracted to this church and we are now united as one family.”

“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together”, he said quoting from Psalms 133 of the Bible. 

 These words would lead to everlasting peace between the communities if they live by them, he said.

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Just before 9 a.m. on the 16th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, George Gagnon and Joseph A. Rodriguez stood close on the corner of West Broadway and Vesey Street, heads together, talking like old friends.

Rodriguez adjusted his black Desert Storm Veteran cap. This morning was his first time visiting the site of the attacks on the anniversary. It was Gagnon’s 16th. He had gone every year without fail, through emphysema, a triple bypass, 18 artery stints and most recently, a heart surgery just two weeks before this year’s visit to Ground Zero.

But the pair weren’t old friends. They had met just minutes before.

“It was the day, the moment,” Rodriguez said about what brought them together. The two found common ground instantly. Both are war veterans — Rodriguez from the Persian Gulf, and Gagnon from Vietnam — and both showed up 16 years ago in the wake of the attacks’ devastation to help in any way they could.

Gagnon was an iron worker at the time, though he’s retired now. He recounted a story he had just told Rodriguez about cutting through steel to help pull people, living and deceased, from the rubble. One body, he said, was pinned down by a beam, her wedding band still on her finger.

“We spent three hours just getting that steel off so not to disturb the body,” Gannon said. “It was just doing what you had to do.”

Rodriguez nodded. The two stood close. An onlooker would not have known that, even an hour before, neither had known the other existed.

Rodriguez remembers the day vividly. He had planned on attending a job interview in one of the towers that day, realizing only while he was getting dressed, after seeing what his father was watching on TV, that he’d be heading downtown for a different reason.

“I’m watching the TV, saying, ‘Dad, what movie are you watching?’ He goes, ‘Son, that’s not a movie. Look at the TV clearly. At the left corner it says, ‘live.’’”

Rodriguez lent his help for days, stopping only after he rushed to the Veterans’ Affairs hospital and discovered he had double pneumonia. He never followed up on his job lead, deciding it wasn’t meant to be. It was for a government job, he said.

“The CIA!” Gagnon joked.

Rodriguez would discover another personal connection to the attacks, months later. He was having breakfast at a diner near his home in the Bronx when he opened a newspaper and saw a memorial for a good friend from high school — Officer Jerome Dominguez, one of the 60 police officers who lost their lives that day.

“I just broke down like a baby,” he said. “That’s the reason why I’m here today, to honor him.”

Gagnon identified with Rodriguez’s feeling of loss, having lost friends in Vietnam, and with Rodriguez’s reasons for visiting the site of the attacks.

“I think it’s our duty as Americans to come down here,” he said. There are only two places Gagnon makes it a point to go to every year: Washington D.C. over Memorial Day weekend, and Ground Zero on September 11.

The somber mood broke when Gagnon pulled out a black flip phone. Rodriguez, over a decade younger but a head taller, began dictating his phone number.

“We gotta go drinking one day,” Rodriguez said. Gagnon agreed. But first, Rodriguez wants to reflect — to honor the dead, the living, and the life he’s spent the last decade and a half making for himself.

“I guess that’s the sweetest revenge you can give to anybody who brings terror to us, is to live your American dream, live your American rights and just live.”

As for their new friendship, Rodriguez said, it’s “to be continued.”

The post New friendships forged from the aftermath of 9/11 — 16 years later appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

On top of the steps of the New York Public Library a group emerged through the darkness of the cold, rainy morning wearing brightly colored athletic gear. It was half past six on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and it was time to work out.

More than 30 people woke up before dawn to take part in a boot camp class run by The Rise. The organization runs free outdoor group fitness classes throughout New York City, adding their name to the many crossfit type programs emerging across the city and the nation. These classes offer quick, high intensity workouts that both double as a means to get into shape and an environment to form new friendships.

“I would say that a lot of people would show up initially because they probably think they’re going to get a good workout,” said Dave Johnson, one of the leaders of The Rise. “They end up staying for the friendships, for the social scene, and then they end up getting fit over time, it’s a byproduct of hanging out with your friends.”

Johnson, 33, started The Rise a little over two years ago with friends Anthony Burdi and Joseph Mullins as a way to work out with one another and hold each other accountable. What started as a way for three friends to stay in shape has grown to 30 plus people gathering at least three times a week to motivate one another to be the best they can be. Social media has helped the group increase in numbers, but Johnson admits that the key to becoming more popular has been simply showing up.

“It was just the three of us, with other people here and there for a while,” said Johnson, a native of Colorado. “Then word started spreading that we were doing this… and eventually people found out that we were serious, that we were going to be there rain or shine, we were going to be there every Monday, Wednesday, Friday.”

Similar to other bootcamp or crossfit related classes, The Rise workouts vary each session but usually include staple exercises such as pushups, crunches, burpees and other body weight moves that work multiple muscle groups. The Rise is unique in that outside training equipment is never used during a session, as it is common to see resistance bands or TRX ropes integrated into the routine of other bootcamp classes. According to Johnson, the abundance of group training classes is part of an emerging fitness movement that is seeing more and more people turn away from traditional exercising that does not involve a social aspect to it. Whether it is the inclusive environment or the fast paced regiment, these types of workouts are proving to be effective.

“I don’t know if I have been in better shape in my life, so I think the results speak for themselves,” said Johnson, who has been involved with free fitness groups for almost eight years. “It’s partly that, but it’s also the community. People pushing each other, and having other people to see. That guy is not quitting, I don’t want to quit.”

The Rise co-leader Joseph Mullins having some fun in the rain while holding his plank. Photo Credit: Ben Shapiro

There are many other similar classes being taught throughout New York City, but most are led by full time physical trainers and therefore cost a fee. The leaders of The Rise are workout enthusiasts that feed off the camaraderie and energy of training with other people. The trio, led by Johnson who is studying to become an economics professor, enjoys positively impacting the lives of others. All they require to take part in a class is an early wakeup and an optimistic attitude. Also, just like many of the people that join The Rise, they enjoy making new friends as well.

“There are no better people to be friends with than the people you are working out with,” said Johnson. “My best friends are here, and I’ve made them through this group.”

The community factor helps push people during these workouts, but it also is the reason they are drawn to them in the first place. The Big Apple can be lonely at times, and especially for people who are new to the city. Group fitness classes contain members who immediately share a common interest and hobby to bond over.

Arie Smith, 24, has been a regular with The Rise for almost a year now, and a native of Great Neck, Long Island, Smith said he understands the social value the class brings to certain individuals.

“I grew up in New York, but I think for a lot of people who have just moved here, or are even here from another country, this is like their main social group,” said Smith, who works as a software developer in Manhattan. “I mean, I’ve met a ton of friends here, we have outings and stuff. I don’t know, I think it’s an amazing place to meet people.”

One of those people not originally from the area is Danielle Brining, who has made The Rise a regular part of her weekly schedule. Brining, 25, is originally from Bermuda, and is now at medical school in Texas, but she has been on assignment to do research in New York for the past six months. Not knowing many people in the city, Brining needed a way to make new friends, and found the program on a website promoting free activities taking place in New York. Despite not previously enjoying early morning workouts, she found The Rise’s positive energy and unity contagious, and has been going back ever since.

“I have never been a morning workout person before, but once I started coming here, everyone was so awesome, I thought they would hold me accountable, but it’s not accountability, it’s that you want to see them,” said Brining, who hopes to return to New York City for her residency. “They are just great people, we hang out together, we had like a friendsgiving. It just kind of keeps me coming in the morning even though I am the opposite of a morning person.”

Aside from the social aspect, Brining is one of many former college and high school athletes that participate in these types of workouts. Brining played rugby in college and missed the structured workouts and gameplay that college athletics provides. She compared the jovial atmosphere of group fitness to that of being part of a team, where she doesn’t feel as if she is working out until she experiences soreness the following morning.

“I always had leagues in college and stuff, but once you get out of college, you don’t really have groups that are as easy to can get involved in,” said Brining. “I have tried them at gyms but when you don’t know anyone at the gym… but here everyone is so awesome, and with the high fives and everything, it doesn’t feel like a workout.”

While former athletes look to group fitness classes for the structured training and sense of teamwork it provides, workout classes such as The Rise serve non-athletes wanting to fill physical and emotional needs as well. Tiffany Judkins has been attending The Rise workout classes since the summer of 2013 after previously not prioritizing physical fitness. Judkins wanted to get into shape, but more importantly needed something to commit to, and people she could count on. After going through what she described as traumatic experiences, Judkins, 33, found the perfect escape.

“I was looking for something that would help me refocus my life on something positive. To commit to it, not look back, to not second guess myself,” said Judkins, who has lived in Manhattan for nine years. “Before this group I had a big life transition, I was looking for something to fill that space, and this community helped me grow from that. If I miss a workout, I miss my friends.”

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