RED BANK: FAMILIES PACK DRAG READING
With supporters standing on the porch outside, drag queen Harmonica Sunbeam, above, entertained about two dozen families who packed a children’s story time at the Red Bank Public Library Monday evening.
With supporters standing on the porch outside, drag queen Harmonica Sunbeam, above, entertained about two dozen families who packed a children’s story time at the Red Bank Public Library Monday evening.
Red Bank’s third LGBTQ Pride in the Park event drew hundreds of colorfully clothed celebrants to Riverside Gardens Park Sunday.
Organized by the borough’s Parks and Rec department, the gathering featured health information booths, juggling lessons, hula-hooping and dancing. Check out additional photos below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Fortune Center Executive Director Gilda Rogers in the newly designated Parker Family Legacy Room. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A new, permanent exhibit opening this month at the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center in Red Bank pays tribute to three African-American men of medicine who played vital roles in the community.
The unveiling also marks another milestone for the three-year-old center, housed in the onetime home of an influential journalist and civil rights advocate.
Press release by the the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center
The New Jersey Social Justice Remembrance Coalition (NJSJRC) is ready to display the soil that was collected from the site where the only recorded lynching in Eatontown, New Jersey, of Samuel “Mingo” Jack Johnson, took place in 1886.
Press release by the the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center
On January 24, 2022, HBO Max will start streaming a new series,“The Gilded
Age.” The show will feature the character of T. Thomas Fortune, played by actor Sullivan Jones.
It takes place in New York in 1882 during the American Gilded Age, a time of economic change and conflict between the old world and the new world.
Mayor Pasquale Menna and Monmouth County Acting Prosecutor Lori Linskey at Red Bank’s National Night Out in August. Below, the decal to be displayed under the Safe Spaces program. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Red Bank businesses will soon be able to proclaim their spaces as havens for individuals targeted in bias crimes.
Under a new program unveiled Wednesday by Monmouth County Acting Prosecutor Lori Linskey and local law enforcement officials, the borough will begin offering businesses and institutions decals that designate their workplaces as places of temporary refuge to anyone threatened with a hate crime.
About 1,000 women, men and children marched and rallied for women’s reproductive rights in downtown Red Bank Saturday.
In conjunction with hundreds of similar events nationwide, the Red Bank gathering, organized by the Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey and the League of Women Voters of New Jersey, focused on abortion rights as the Supreme Court begins a new term Monday with pivotal cases on the docket.
Chanting “Ruth sent us” and “my body, my choice,” participants marched from the train station to Broad Street and then gathered in Riverside Gardens Park, where speakers, including borough Councilwoman Kate Triggiano, called for the election of women’s rights supporters.
Check out redbankgreen’s photos, below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Press release by the the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center
On the heels of Juneteenth, the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center announces its partnership with Monmouth Medical Center, a part of RWJ Barnabas Health, as the exclusive sponsor of the Parker Family Legacy Room – a permanent exhibit of the history of the family of prominent Red Bank black doctors, who served their community for over 80 years.
Juneteenth marchers on Shrewsbury Avenue, above, and Drs. James Parker Boulevard, below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bankers commemorated the new federal and New Jersey state holiday of Juneteenth with a march Saturday.
The hike on a humid last day of spring was bookended by gatherings at Pilgrim Baptist Church on Shrewsbury Avenue and the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center on Drs. James Parker Boulevard.
Vivid color brightened up Red Bank’s Riverside Gardens Park under gray skies for the second LGBTQ Pride event Saturday.
Organized by the borough’s Parks and Rec department, the gathering featured line dancing, hula-hooping, juggling and tons of love. Check out additional photos below. (Photos by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge.)
For the second time in three years, Red Bank’s Parks & Rec department hosts a free Pride event in Riverside Gardens Park Saturday, featuring a DJ, family activities and more in celebration of LGBTQ pride. Check out details here.
As in 2019, the colorful logo on the park lawn was created by the public utilities department. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Councilman Michael Ballard during a council meeting in May, 2020. (Photo from Zoom. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Councilman Michael Ballard spoke with anguish Wednesday night about the police killing of a Minnesota man earlier this week.
Marchers took to the streets of Red Bank in June, 2018 to protest the Trump Administration’s border policies. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A virtual parade of speakers, some near tears, pressed the Red Bank council Wednesday night to support a host of protections for undocumented immigrants.
“It is never symbolic to acknowledge the humanity of any one person,” said a young woman who identified herself as Carla, Red Bank Regional senior and officer of the school’s Dreamers organization. “Doing so is, in fact, the most radical of acts,” she said.
Reverend Henry P. Davis speaks at a ceremony honoring William ‘Count’ Basie at the Red Bank train station in 2009. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Reverend Henry P. Davis, past president president of the Greater Red Bank Area NAACP, died early Monday, according to a Facebook post by Mayor Pasquale Menna.
Protesters march down Broad Street, above, and observe a moment of silence on Newman Springs Road, below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Angry but peaceful, hundreds of protesters marched through Red Bank Tuesday afternoon.
With temperatures nearing 90 degrees, a “Justice for George Floyd” march and rally at Count Basie Fields coincided with the Houston funeral of the man killed by Minneapolis police May 25.
Check out redbankgreen’s photos from the event below.
Hundreds marched through town to protest a racist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
A “Justice for George” march and rally to protest the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis is slated to be held in Red Bank Tuesday afternoon.
According to police Chief Darren McConnell, the event is being organized by Calvary Baptist Church of Red Bank and an organization called Count the Children.
One year after adding the colors of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) rainbow flag to a crosswalk at Broad and Monmouth streets, Red Bank’s DPU gave the intersection a freshening Wednesday to mark National Pride Month. (Photo by Allan Bass. Click to enlarge.)
Gilda Rogers, right, led saxophonist Branford Marsalis on a tour of the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center in Red Bank Wednesday afternoon.
Images of William ‘Count’ Basie on display at the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center last week. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center, built to honor a pioneering African-American journalist with Red Bank ties, plans to spotlight the borough-born musical giant William ‘Count’ Basie through 2020.
The occasion is the 85th anniversary of the formation of the Count Basie Orchestra, which is still touring 36 years after its founder’s death.
Two members of the Red Bank council have been named to Insider NJ’s second annual “Out 100 Power List‘ of LBGT leaders in New Jersey.