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RED BANK: ‘FORTUNE TELLERS’ GET READY

Students in the program learn the history of the Black Press in America. (Photo by T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center. Click to enlarge.)

Press release from the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center

The T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center will open a new exhibit, “The Black Press: Stewards of Democracy,” on October 7, 2023. The opening of the new exhibit will coincide with the 167th birthday celebration of T. Thomas Fortune on October 3.

In conjunction with the exhibit, the Cultural Center has created the Fortune Tellers Docent Training Program and is currently working with a select group of high school and college students who will become tour guides for the upcoming exhibit.

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RED BANK: FAMILY-FRIENDLY DRAG EVENT SET

The Pride flag flying at Red Bank borough hall earlier this month. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

While other locales have their knickers in a twist over LGBTQ issues, Red Bank is going all-in with a “family friendly” drag queen event in celebration of Pride month.

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RED BANK: BASIE AWARDS DRAW PACKED HOUSE

A selection from Middletown High School North’s awards-dominating production of Les Miserables, performed onstage at the Count Basie Center Wednesday night.

Press release from the Count Basie Center for the Arts

The 18th annual Basie Awards, honoring excellence and achievement in Monmouth County high school theatre, drew a capacity crowd to  historic Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank Wednesday night.

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RED BANK: LYNCH SCHOLARSHIP FUNDED

Lynch scholar David ‘Louie’ Connolly, center, with Monsignor Joseph Rosie and RBC President Bob Abatemarco. Below, Ann Marie and Dennis Lynch.  (Click to enlarge.)

Press release

Red Bank Catholic (RBC) is honored to announce the endowment of the Dennis P. Lynch ’59 Merit Scholarship. The scholarship has been generously donated by the Lynch Family, in memory of Dennis’s exemplary character and love of his alma mater.

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LITTLE SILVER: ‘SOURCE’ IMPERILED AGAIN


this just in redbankgreenTwo years after avoiding budget cuts that threatened its existence, the school-based youth services program at Red Bank Regional High known as The Source is again facing “devastating” cuts, Superintendent Lou Moore told the school community Thursday.

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RED BANK: ‘HAIR’ AUDITIONS SLATED

Press release from Phoenix Productions

Phoenix Productions, the community theatre company of the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, has announced auditions for its autumn production of ‘HAIR,’ to be presented at the Basie Center’s Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre Friday, September 23 through Sunday, September 25.

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RED BANK: SLURS HURLED AT EVENT ATTENDEES

A handful of protesters shouted “pedophile” and other slurs at Red Bank Public Library patrons as they arrived for a childrens’ “Drag Queen Story Hour” event Wednesday morning, library Director Elenyi Glykis told redbankgreen.

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RED BANK: ASSAULT ALLEGED, BUT NOT BIAS

By JOHN T. WARD

hot topic red bank njThree men have been charged with assaulting a 16-year-old Red Bank athlete in what he claimed was a racially motivated attack outside a party in Oceanport last month.

Police, however, made no allegation of racial bias in complaints filed June 10 and obtained by redbankgreen Friday.

Among those charged were two Red Bank Catholic High School football players, including Alex Brown, the quarterback who made national headlines for his onfield performance just a day after his mother died last November.

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RED BANK: TEEN ALLEGES RACIAL ATTACK

Raymond  Jackson suffered a bone fracture above his eye that will require surgery, his father said. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

hot topic red bank njA 16-year-old Red Bank athlete was badly beaten in a racially charged attack in Oceanport Saturday night, he told redbankgreen.

Police, however, say they have found no racial motivation in the alleged assault, which remains under investigation.

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RED BANK: PHOENIX TO ‘ROCK’ AUDITIONS

Press release from Phoenix Productions

Phoenix Productions, the community theatre company of the Count Basie Center for the Arts, has announced auditions for its summer production of ‘School Of Rock – The Musical,’ being presented at the Count Basie Center for the Arts Friday, July 22 through Sunday, July 24.

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RBR: STUDENTS BOOST BRIDGE OF BOOKS

National Honor Society members read to young students and gave each a care packages of books. (Click to enlarge.)

Members of the National Honor Society at Red Bank Regional High School recently completed a drive to provide Read Across America care packages to students at Red Bank borough preschools.

The project was “amazing,” said TJ Eyerman, a senior who serves as NHS president. But it also underscored the needs of the Rumson-based Bridge of Books Foundation, he said.

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RED BANK: SCOUTS HELP RETIRE FLAGS

The members of Tower Hill Boy Scout Troop 67 of Red Bank were honored to visit Red Bank Elks Club #233 Sunday to provide service in a flag-folding ceremony.

Throughout the year, older United States flags that have become worn, dirtied or damaged are dropped off at the Elks Club.

These flags having flown with pride were honorably folded by both Elks and Scouts to be retired.

More than 100 flags were folded. (Photos courtesy of Troop 67. Click to enlarge.)

RED BANK: KEEPING FORTUNE’S VOICE ALIVE

Suubi Mondesir with Fortune Foundation co-chair Gilda Rogers last month. Below, Mondesir, second from right, on a 2016 tour of the Fortune house led by builder Roger Mumford. (Photos by Chris Ern, above, and John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By CHRIS ERN

In the summer of 2016, Suubi Mondesir was a rising junior at Red Bank Regional High School when she participated in a tour of a crumbling Red Bank house.

At the time, preservationists envisioned the building on Drs. James Parker Boulevard as a cultural center in honor of its onetime owner, the civil rights journalist T. Thomas Fortune, and Mondesir was present as a participant in the Hugh N. Boyd Journalism Diversity Workshop at Rutgers University.

Flash forward to 2021: The house has been fully restored as the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center, and Suubi (pronounced SOO-vee) manages its media outreach efforts as an intern. But it’s not just a job. Her work at the center aligns with a personal passion for social justice, inspired by Fortune’s work in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, she told redbankgreen in an interview last month.

“What he did is what I am hoping to do as well: to inspire people with my writing, and to speak truth to power,” Mondesir said.

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FAIR HAVEN: THREE EAGLE SCOUTS CITED

Alexander In Ho Pane, John Franklin Cadamuro and Roman Devlin, with Fair Haven Mayor Ben Lucarelli, were cited by the borough council Monday night for recent work leading to their designation as Eagle Scouts.

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RED BANK: BASIE TOUR & MORE ON AN APP

An app-in-development reported on by redbankgreen last September is now available, offering users its first history tour of Red Bank.

The tour spotlights significant places in the early life of William ‘Count’ Basie, the world-renowned bandleader who grew up in a Mechanic Street house on the site of the one shown above.

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LITTLE SILVER: ANOTHER REVERSAL FOR RBR

Fewer than 240 of the 653 students who might have attended classes did so Tuesday Moore said. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

hot topic red bank njWhipsawed students, parents and teachers at Red Bank Regional High are in for another schedule change starting Thursday.

With COVID-19 cases rising and absenteeism high, the Little Silver school will again suspend in-school instruction at least through December 11, Superintendent Lou Moore announced Wednesday.

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LITTLE SILVER: RBR EYES TUESDAY RESTART

this just in redbankgreenAfter a month away, students and teachers are to begin their return to Red Bank Regional High for in-person classes Tuesday, Superintendent Lou Moore said Monday night.

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LITTLE SILVER: LAST-MINUTE CHANGE FOR RBR

this just in redbankgreenUpending plans at the last minute, Red Bank Regional High will not reopen for in-person classes Monday, according to an announcement made shortly before dawn.

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LITTLE SILVER: IT’S BACK TO SCHOOL FOR RBR

The Red Bank Regional building has been idle since November 2. (Photo by  John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

this just in redbankgreenAfter four weeks of all-remote instruction, Red Bank Regional High plans to resume in-person classes Monday, Superintendent Lou Moore said in an announcement Wednesday.

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