Associates and comrades from the People’s Republic of Brooklyn are hosting an all-day event this Monday, Oct. 24, 2016, commemorating the life and legacy of one of Brooklyn’s finest, Sonny Abubadika Carson.
In 2002, as Carson lay comatose at the Manhattan Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center, Oct. 24 was designated “Sonny Abubadika Carson Day” by his comrades. Then Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz also made it official with the government after presenting the Brooklyn community with an official proclamation from the city of New York.
Carson was honored because of his everlasting empowering efforts.
“He would bust through the crowd and come talk to us, the children,” recalled Queen of Queens, who said Sonny gave her that attribute when she was a third-grader in Brownsville. “You know how big that made us feel? He would bend down low and talk to us on our level.”
She added how he foresaw the gentrification that has been displacing many urban residents recently.
“He told us not to shop where we couldn’t work,” she said. “Sonny laid down a legacy here for us and now somebody’s trying to steal it from us, I’m not having it, not on my watch, not in my lifetime, not now, not ever, because he paid too great a price for us to have this.”
Carson’s comrade, Ali Lamont Jr., added, “Sonny loved his people and lived for his to bring about better change in our community.”
Queen concluded, “Everything he sacrificed for us we have to give it back to him and show him that we appreciate him because he’s not dead. He will never die because the bible says that love is stronger than death. We have a world that he created. We just have to live in it.”
“We remember Abubadika as our general who kept the fighting the streets for justice for our community,” said Caleef Cousar, member of Carson’s Committee to Honor Black Heroes. “But he was also an impressive strategist, and he understood the necessity of working with and applying pressure to the system to gain the greatest benefits for the people. Those in power had a heathy fear and regard for Sonny. As they should. We stand in his wake.”
The event is Monday, Oct. 24, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., at 305 Decatur St., Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.
