66°F clear sky

RED BANK: LIBRARY TO MARK A CENTENNIAL

The library has been based in the former West Front Street home of Sigmund and Bertha Eisner since 1937. Below, the 1880 catalogue of the original Red Bank Mutual Library, started in a Broad Street clothing store, listed only 144 books. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

For years before it was given a magnificent home overlooking the Navesink River, and decades before it was “public,” Red Bank’s library was a hand-to-mouth membership operation kept alive by scrappy volunteers.

That changed 100 years ago next month, when borough voters approved a referendum to make the institution both a publicly owned asset and free to users. In the process, the town joined a wave in which access to information was being “democratized,” said Barbara Pickell, local history librarian and reference department head.

On November 10, the foundation that helps fund the library will kick off a yearlong celebration of the milestone with a reception.

More →

RED BANK: NURTURING FORTUNE’S LEGACY

T. Thomas Fortune, below, and the cultural center dedicated to him in his onetime Red Bank home, above. (Above photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

With an exhibit examining the history of America’s Black press opening October 28 at Red Bank’s T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center, redbankgreen presents this feature story, written for CivicStory, about the center’s namesake.

By DEBORAH YAFFE

When the Black newspaper editor and civil-rights activist T. Thomas Fortune moved to Red Bank in the summer of 1901, his arrival was front-page news. “Mr. Fortune is one of the most noted colored men of the country,” the Red Bank Register reported.

But a century later, the elegant Red Bank home that Fortune’s family called Maple Hall stood vandalized and derelict, its brick foundation crumbling, its windows boarded up. Still, the once-grand old place caught Gilda Rogers’ eye whenever she passed by. “That home probably was something really special in its heyday,” she would think.

She wasn’t wrong.

More →

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.

More →

RED BANK: ARTS CHAMPION TOM CHESEK DIES

Tom Chesek in Asbury Park in 2013. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Tom Chesek, an arts-and-entertainment writer who for decades trained a spotlight on otherwise unheralded musicians, playwrights, visual artists and other creators on the Greater Red Bank Green, died at home in Asbury Park Tuesday night. He was 64 years old.

Among countless freelance gigs, he was a longtime writer for redbankgreen.

More →

REDBANKGREEN’S NEW PARTNER: 83 YEARS TO GO

By KENNY KATZGRAU

Dear Red Bank and the Greater Green,

If it’s any indication of the sincerity of what you’re about to read, I’ve significantly suppressed that initial pop-up on our website. Subscribers are exceptionally important to redbankgreen, but I also know that as a long-time subscriber myself, it was kind of annoying to ask on every page load.

My name is Kenny Katzgrau — resident of South Street since 2011, and wannabe resident since my first parentally-unauthorized bike ride to Broad Street in middle school: a hair-raising adventure down Newman Springs Road.

More →

RED BANK: TWO NEWSLETTERS LAUNCHED

A screen grab from the first edition of the borough’s new newsletter. (Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

With the recent launch of newsletters, Red Bank residents have two additional ways to keep abreast of civic events and downtown goings-on.

More →

RED BANK: A LENS ON A LITTLE SHAKESPEARE

A scene from the Little Shakespeare staging of ‘Much Ado About Nothing.’ (Photo by Steve Rogers. Click to enlarge.)

Press release from ‘Here’s the Story

A Little Shakespeare” at the Two River Theater in Red Bank introduces the work of the Bard to young actors. The program produces one of his plays with a full cast and crew of teens directed by a seasoned professional.

The result is anything but unripened. The process and production is extensive, inspiring and life-changing for the participants and the audiences for the play.

Led by video documentarian Steve Rogers, ‘Here’s the Story‘ explores the programs’s creation of ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ in a film to be premiered by NJ PBS August 10.

More →

RED BANK: FORTUNE TO HONOR PARKERS

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.

More →

RED BANK: POLICE ACCOUNT DISPUTED

By JOHN T. WARD

Collectible toy dealer Robert Bruce was not living in the storage unit where he was found dead Friday, as reported by police and the media, family members contend.

The owner of the storage facility supported the family’s contention.

More →

RED BANK: MAN FOUND DEAD IN STORAGE UNIT

Robert Bruce on Broad Street during taping of the ‘Comic Book Men’ series in 2014. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

A Red Bank man was found dead in a storage facility Friday evening, police said.

Robert Bruce was known to fans of the Kevin Smith reality show ‘Comic Book Men‘ as a dealer of rare toys and other pop culture artifacts.

More →

RED BANK: FORTUNE TO HOST VIEWING PARTY

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.

More →

RED BANK: PHOTO CONTEST WINNERS

James Donachy’s black-and-white image of the Red Bank train station was the overall winner in the second annual ‘Red Bank Always Beautiful Photo Contest,’ the borough library announced Tuesday.

More →

RED BANK: GRANT BOOSTS LIBRARY WIFI

Scenes from the recent installation of enhanced wifi at the library. (Click to enlarge.)

Press release from the Red Bank Public Library

The Red Bank Public Library has been selected as one of 27 libraries and was recently awarded $10,000 of grant funding by The NJ State Library to
support the CARES ACT Mini-Grant for Public Libraries.

The grant award supplemented the cost of an improved WiFi system that is now strong enough to provide service to anyone on the library grounds, inside or outside the building.

More →

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.

More →

LITTLE SILVER: O’SCANLON DEMANDS APOLOGY

State Senator Declan O’Scanlon in Red Bank in May. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

HOT-TOPIC_03New Jersey state Senator Declan O’Scanlon accused Twitter of “Orwellian” behavior after the social media giant banned him over a three-week-old tweet Saturday.

More →

RED BANK: FOOD WRITER SUSAN ERICSON DIES

Susan Ericson, notepad in hand, at New Corner Pizza in Red Bank in 2014. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Food writer Susan Ericson of Red Bank died Friday at home under hospice care after a lengthy illness. She was 66 years old.

More →

RED BANK: LIBRARY REOPENS, WITH LIMITS

Make an appointment, show up and ring the doorbell for admission. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

Easing its way out of the pandemic of 2020-2021, the Red Bank Public Library began allowing visitors into the West Front Street institution for the first time in more than a year Monday.

The new reality, however, requires appointments, masks, limits on usage and self-checkouts, among other limitations.

More →

RED BANK: LIBRARY NIXES LATE FINES

Late getting that book or DVD back to the Red Bank Public Library? Not to worry. Fines for overdue materials are now a relic of the past.

More →

SANDY HOOK: SPRINGSTEEN BUSTED FOR DWI

Bruce Springsteen outside the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank in 2014. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

hot topic red bank njCould Bruce Springsteen be in need of a presidential pardon soon?

The rock star was arrested for DWI and other charges at Sandy Hook in November, federal officials confirmed Wednesday.

More →

RED BANK: JOURNALIST JOHN F. BURTON DIES

John F. Burton at the Red Bank Mayor’s Ball in 2015. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

John F. Burton, a longtime chronicler of Red Bank-area people, government and more, died Sunday.

The senior reporter for the weekly Two River Times had battled illness for the past three years.

More →

RED BANK: RAPES UP, OVERALL CRIME DOWN

An increase in violent crime in 2020 mirrors a national trend, said Chief Darren McConnell. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Red Bank’s crime rates continued a long trend of gradual decline in 2020, police Chief Darren McConnell tells redbankgreen.

One glaring exception: an increase in reported rapes.

More →