NEW LEADER: Canarsie civic gurus
elected Gardy Brazela to be Community
Board 18’s new chairman,
the fi rst Caribbean-American to
take the position. Gardy Brazela
of two decades, Saul
Needle, who stepped down and
into the position of CB18’s vice
chairman.
But the new chairman
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
A local community board
headed for decades by white
men is now helmed by a black
Caribbean-American, who assumed
his role as the panel’s
chairman last month after its
members elected him to the
unpaid position in December.
Gardy Brazela took the
helm of Community Board 18
after two decades as a member
of the panel — whose district
includes the neighborhoods
of Bergen Beach, Canarsie,
Flatlands, Georgetown, Marine
Park, Mill Basin, and
Mill Island — and said he
plans to hit the ground running.
“I was honored that they
chose me. It’s a lot of responsibility,
and the community
expects change from me, and
now I have to deliver,” Brazela
said.
Brazela, who led CB18’s
Safety Commission for roughly
two years during his tenure
on the panel, succeeds his predecessor
won’t be able to serve for
nearly as long as his immediate
predecessor, because
voters last November elected
to set term limits for all residents
on the city’s community
boards, most of whom can now
only serve four consecutive
two-year stints.
Other past CB18 chairmen
include Brooklyn Democratic
Party boss Frank Seddio, and
convicted felon and disgraced
former state Sen. Carl Kruger.
The Haitian-born Brazela
came with his family to
Kings County as a 12-year-old,
fi rst settling in East Flatbush
before moving to Canarsie,
where he now lives.
The 53-year-old — who by
day works as a vocational
counselor at a Manhattan rehab
center — began his civic
career back in 1993, when he
founded the Canarsie-based
neighborhood group Friends
United Block Association,
which he still oversees.
And in addition to his position
Ready to
serve
Democratic state Sen. Andrew
Gounardes, far left, celebrated
the start of his new term at a
Jan. 27 local inauguration ceremony
at his alma mater, Fort
Hamilton High School, where
former Bay Ridge Councilman
Vincent Gentile, far right, administered
the oath of offi ce
to the freshman pol. The event
was a family affair, with Gounardes’s
parents, siblings, and
girlfriend joining in the festivities,
and featured remarks by a
slew of Democratic offi cials, as
well as performances by local
arts-and-culture organizations.
For more from the ceremony,
see page 27.
Photo by Trey Pentecost
currently serves as the president
and as a member of the Canarsie
Needle placed his full confi
dence in his successor, noting
his years of experience on
the board.
“He’s competent, and
sometimes it’s time to hand
the mantle over to somebody
else,” the former CB18 chairman
said.
And the board’s longtime
district manager said she
looks forward to having fresh
blood at its helm, even though
she’ll miss working side by
side with Needle.
“It’s mixed emotions because
team,” said Dottie Turano.
“But to be quite honest, I’m
thrilled. Gardy is full of enthusiasm.
and ideas and I look forward
to working with him.”
INSIDE
Hometown heroes
Local creator brings super-stories to Black Comix Fest
By Kevin Duggan He’s written about black powers.
A Bay Ridge comic book creator
will bring his graphic novels
about a superpowered New York City cop
to the Black Comix Expo at the Brooklyn
Academy of Music on Feb. 10. The writer
and illustrator of “Nowhere Man,” who
will join about 20 other artists at the daylong
celebration of comics creators of
color, said he invented the heroic character
because he wanted to read about someone
he could identify with.
“When you look at successful characters
in comic books, it’s often someone the
author can relate to,” said Jerome Walford,
who founded Forward Comix in 2010.
Walford was a big fan of comic books
growing up, but felt like the classics that
inspired him, including Alan Moore’s
“Watchmen” and the Batman story “The
Killing Joke,” did not represent his experience.
Kapow!: Bay Ridgite Jerome Walford (inset) edited the anthology
“Gwan,” and wrote and drew the comic “Nowhere Man,”
about a superpowered cop (above). Photo by Kevin Duggan
In high school, he invented the
character who developed into the star of
“Nowhere Man” — Jack Maguire, a black
police detective who discovers futuristic
technology that lets him walk through
walls, create blasts of energy, and hack
communications, among other abilities.
But the state sees the super-cop as a threat,
and unleashes a paramilitary force to hunt
him down, racially profiling and harassing
black men in his neighborhood.
Walford said that his protagonist
reflects the black experience in modernday
New York.
“In the context of relations between
the African-American community and
law enforcement, I wanted to create a
character that would walk both lines and
‘Nowhere Man’ came about organically,”
he said. “We have this scene where the
chasers go into the communities and use
aggressive tactics to try and hunt down
Jack. We see interactions, and we begin
to realize that this looks very current and
very relatable.”
Walford, who immigrated with his family
from Jamaica during the 1980s, also
created the “Gwan Anthology” in 2016 to
publish the stories of immigrant comics
creators.
Writers and readers from non-white
backgrounds have increasingly been able
to find their own stories reflected in
comics, a trend amplified in recent years
by the release of the blockbuster movie
“Black Panther” and Netflix’s “Luke
Cage,” according to one of the organizers
of the Black Comix Expo.
“Comics play a big part, because for some
readers they are the first visual representations
of some of these ideas,” said Deirdre
Hollman, the founder of the Black Comics
Collective, which co-hosts the event.
Another recent factor, she said, has been
the growth of the Afrofuturism movement,
which envisions a future distinctly shaped
by black culture and tradition.
“It’s an affirmation that not only do
black people survive in the future but they
bring with them the cultural traditions that
have sustained them throughout time,”
said Hollman.
In addition to the comics creators, the
Expo will feature several events inspired
by Afrofuturism, including a virtual reality
experience that puts visitors in the
body of a black woman, and a panel discussion
on black women in science fiction
and fantasy. The event will also include
a superhero cosplay contest and an art
workshop for kids.
Black Comix Festival at BAM Peter
Jay Sharp Building 30 Lafayette Ave.,
at St. Felix Street in Fort Greene, (718)
636–4100, www.bam.org. Feb. 10; 11
am–5 pm. Free.
Your entertainment
guide Page 51
Police Blotter ..........................8
Standing O ............................34
Letters ....................................38
The Right View ....................40
Health ...................................... 41
HOW TO REACH US
COURIER L 2 IFE, FEB. 1–7, 2019 M B G
atop CB18, Brazela also
of the local 69th Precinct’s
Community Council,
Lions community organization.
Saul and I were a good
He’s full of energy
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A new day for Community Board 18
Panel’s fi rst black, Caribbean-American chairman takes the reins
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