“That's my baby,” Taylor…
By Jennifer Warren
Lynn Taylor watched her 7-year-old daughter Chyna with rapture as the child, dressed in a sun-kissed oriental wrap, shimmied across the stage of Long Island City's Jacob Riis Settlement House with her dance troupe Saturday.
“That's my baby,” Taylor called out proudly from the audience with a camcorder in hand.
The girls, led by their teacher, Shirley Gray, draped twine from their wrists as their little limbs skipped, thumped, and pretended to harvest invisible crops through an array of traditional African dance moves.
The dancers were just one of the many groups to attend the Riis center’s annual Black Expo, which was organized as a kick-off event to celebrate Black History Month. Lining the room, were tables piled with handmade arts and crafts, home-baked cakes and pies, and raffle prizes.
Taking the podium, John D. Smith Sr., president of the Riis Center’s senior citizen group, held a bust of Harriet Tubman before him and told the audience that one day soon there may be a national holiday in honor of Tubman.
“Look, we have a lot to be proud of. Don’t let this month go by and just forget about it,” he said. Smith said it was important for the old to learn from the young in addition to the young from the old, and the center, which draws people of all ages, should be the place for that.
In addition to performers such as the Jacob Riis Dancers, other groups which train at the Riis Center throughout the year showcased their skills. The Senior Shakers, a group of senior citizen women who exercise twice a week at the center, danced before the crowd of 200 people.
With sweat still glistening from her brow, Marion Jeffries, who began the Shakers four years ago, said she and the other women look forward to their exercise class, as a way to get them out of the apartment.
“We’re old people. We’re grandmothers. I have great grands,” said the 68-year-old who then pointed to the youngest Senior Shaker, who at 66 was deemed “the baby.”
Also taking the stage in a display of martial arts, members of the Jacob Riis Settlement Kung-Fu club tripped and sparred with one another before a cheering audience until they inadvertently brought down the stage decorations.
The day was a celebration of all that the center had nurtured. The center was originally founded in 1888 in the Lower East Side on Henry Street where it offered sewing classes, mother’s clubs, health care, and a penny provident bank to women in the area. In the ‘40s the settlement house began to tailor its services to residents of public housing developments in Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. In 1950, when the original Henry Street building was sold, the organization moved all of its operations to the Queensbridge Houses in Long Island City.
Touring the rooms of the facility, from its computer center to its arts and crafts room, to its informal, couch-lined reading room, Dennis Brown, the center’s associate director, said they tried to bring all kinds of talents settlement house.
“You have your psychologists, your artists, your athletes. We believe all students are gifted, we just have to tap into their potential,” Brown said.
Reach reporter Jennifer Warren by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 155.
