'If you don't grow something, you're not assisting'
By Laura Silver - NY Daily News
By Laura Silver - NY Daily News
The Weeksville Heritage Center tells the story of the first free black settlement in Brooklyn. But for its coordinator, David Amman, the historic site in Weeksville is also a place to sow seeds and nurture traditions from his native Trinidad. Amman grew up looking after tomato plants and heads of lettuce - skills he had no choice but to learn.
"From elementary school, at least one time a week," Amman remembers, "you spent a whole evening in the garden."
These days, he works the three-quarter-acre garden at the Center on Bergen St. between Rochester and Buffalo Aves.
When he started working there in 2005, Amman planted six vegetable beds. He now oversees 27 growing areas that produce a cornucopia of crops including shallots, eggplant and string beans.
"The most important thing for a man on Earth is food," says Amman, wearing a fleece sweatshirt to ward off a chill of an early spring afternoon. "If you don't grow something, you're not assisting."
Only six years ago Amman was a community development officer for Trinidad and Tobago's National Housing Authority. In 2002, a change in government left Amman unemployed.
He had visited his eldest daughter in New York once before and never planned to move to the city, but prospects for a job looked brighter here.
He was originally hired to oversee the landscaping of the center's outdoor areas and to maintain the mechanical systems of the four historic Hunterfly houses that remain from the historic African-American settlement.
Amman's job does not end when his 10-hour workday is over. He has also volunteered to teach chess to neighborhood youths and adults at the center over the weekend.
The village of Weeks-ville was founded in 1838 when African-American James Weeks purchased a modest plot of land 11 years after slavery was abolished in New York.
The area spanned current-day Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights. Weeksville became a self-sufficient black community home to African-American professionals from all over the East Coast.
By 1900, the community swelled to 500 families and had its own school, churches and old-age home. Today, the center offers tours of the site, hosts a range of cultural events and is preparing to break ground on a new building that will house classrooms and an exhibition space as a complement to the historic houses on the western edge of the property.
For Amman, it will be another opportunity to contribute to the community. He envisions leading workshops in the guitar and cuatro.
"From elementary school, at least one time a week," Amman remembers, "you spent a whole evening in the garden."
These days, he works the three-quarter-acre garden at the Center on Bergen St. between Rochester and Buffalo Aves.
When he started working there in 2005, Amman planted six vegetable beds. He now oversees 27 growing areas that produce a cornucopia of crops including shallots, eggplant and string beans.
"The most important thing for a man on Earth is food," says Amman, wearing a fleece sweatshirt to ward off a chill of an early spring afternoon. "If you don't grow something, you're not assisting."
Only six years ago Amman was a community development officer for Trinidad and Tobago's National Housing Authority. In 2002, a change in government left Amman unemployed.
He had visited his eldest daughter in New York once before and never planned to move to the city, but prospects for a job looked brighter here.
He was originally hired to oversee the landscaping of the center's outdoor areas and to maintain the mechanical systems of the four historic Hunterfly houses that remain from the historic African-American settlement.
Amman's job does not end when his 10-hour workday is over. He has also volunteered to teach chess to neighborhood youths and adults at the center over the weekend.
The village of Weeks-ville was founded in 1838 when African-American James Weeks purchased a modest plot of land 11 years after slavery was abolished in New York.
The area spanned current-day Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights. Weeksville became a self-sufficient black community home to African-American professionals from all over the East Coast.
By 1900, the community swelled to 500 families and had its own school, churches and old-age home. Today, the center offers tours of the site, hosts a range of cultural events and is preparing to break ground on a new building that will house classrooms and an exhibition space as a complement to the historic houses on the western edge of the property.
For Amman, it will be another opportunity to contribute to the community. He envisions leading workshops in the guitar and cuatro.
"The goal of life is not just - as some people think - to procreate," says Amman, who has six grown children. "We have to give back."
Last year, under pressure from his colleagues, Amman agreed to plant a pumpkin patch, which took over the garden and produced several 40 pounders.
Amman chopped the giant pumpkins into pieces and sold them, along with other fruits of his labors, at the Saturday produce market on the grounds of the center, and invited local teenagers to help sell. The market's slated to return later this month.
Amman has also used the garden to introduce young people from nearby elementary schools to basic agricultural practices like planting seeds and removing weeds.
He's the only male member of the center's 13-person staff, and according to Executive Director Pamela Green, an integral part of the historic site.
"He is more than likely the first person you might encounter," says Green. "If you come for a concert, he is someone you will see. He is helping to put the tent up, get the audio set up... He's sort of everywhere."
I n his free time, Amman heads for the water. An avid fisherman, he misses the boat he left in Trinidad, but still angles to get in a day with a rod and reel in New York. He sees catching - or growing - his food as a way to interact with the natural world and save money.
"If you have to be paying $3 for a pound of tomatoes, you should grow them. Everyone should be growing their own tomatoes," says Amman, wearing a gray pony-tail under a brown baseball cap, "even if they have to put in a pot outside their window."
He doesn't mind sharing his green thumb with Weeksville's neighbors.
"One fellow, last year, he spent $6 buying seeds," says Amman. "The first reaping, he had $15 because he sold some of the crops."
Teaching others is a way to pay homage to his agrarian roots. Amman was born at his parents' home in Sangre Grande, Trinidad, into an ethnically diverse family.
"My grandfather was Chinese and he got married to a mixed Carib-Arawak woman of South American ancestry," he says.
As part of his job, he lives on the grounds of the center, with frequent visits to his wife of "about 40 years," Cynthia, in Canarsie. Their four daughters are also in New York. Amman's two sons make a living as fishermen in Tobago.
Invoking a popular song by calypso giants David Rudder and Carl Jacobs, he insists, "I'm a Trini to the marrow of the bone."
And, what exactly does that mean? "A Trini sees life as a stage where you can go onto to perform, as a carnival. Life is a means for being happy."
Amman may be a devotee of the happy-go-lucky life, but he exerts great care in his work and his leisure time.
"This world is too small for us to re-main and not leave a mark," he says. "It's living with - and for - others."
Do you know an immigrant New Yorker who achieved his or her dream in our great city? E-mail Maite Junco at BigTown@nydailynews.com
Last year, under pressure from his colleagues, Amman agreed to plant a pumpkin patch, which took over the garden and produced several 40 pounders.
Amman chopped the giant pumpkins into pieces and sold them, along with other fruits of his labors, at the Saturday produce market on the grounds of the center, and invited local teenagers to help sell. The market's slated to return later this month.
Amman has also used the garden to introduce young people from nearby elementary schools to basic agricultural practices like planting seeds and removing weeds.
He's the only male member of the center's 13-person staff, and according to Executive Director Pamela Green, an integral part of the historic site.
"He is more than likely the first person you might encounter," says Green. "If you come for a concert, he is someone you will see. He is helping to put the tent up, get the audio set up... He's sort of everywhere."
I n his free time, Amman heads for the water. An avid fisherman, he misses the boat he left in Trinidad, but still angles to get in a day with a rod and reel in New York. He sees catching - or growing - his food as a way to interact with the natural world and save money.
"If you have to be paying $3 for a pound of tomatoes, you should grow them. Everyone should be growing their own tomatoes," says Amman, wearing a gray pony-tail under a brown baseball cap, "even if they have to put in a pot outside their window."
He doesn't mind sharing his green thumb with Weeksville's neighbors.
"One fellow, last year, he spent $6 buying seeds," says Amman. "The first reaping, he had $15 because he sold some of the crops."
Teaching others is a way to pay homage to his agrarian roots. Amman was born at his parents' home in Sangre Grande, Trinidad, into an ethnically diverse family.
"My grandfather was Chinese and he got married to a mixed Carib-Arawak woman of South American ancestry," he says.
As part of his job, he lives on the grounds of the center, with frequent visits to his wife of "about 40 years," Cynthia, in Canarsie. Their four daughters are also in New York. Amman's two sons make a living as fishermen in Tobago.
Invoking a popular song by calypso giants David Rudder and Carl Jacobs, he insists, "I'm a Trini to the marrow of the bone."
And, what exactly does that mean? "A Trini sees life as a stage where you can go onto to perform, as a carnival. Life is a means for being happy."
Amman may be a devotee of the happy-go-lucky life, but he exerts great care in his work and his leisure time.
"This world is too small for us to re-main and not leave a mark," he says. "It's living with - and for - others."
Do you know an immigrant New Yorker who achieved his or her dream in our great city? E-mail Maite Junco at BigTown@nydailynews.com
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