One Brooklyn
May 9, 2020
Brooklyn, NY – Yesterday, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams hosted the first virtual “Breaking Bread, Building Bonds” dinner amid rising social tensions stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. The initiative is part of his goal to hold 100 dinners across the city, each with 10 everyday people from various ethnicities, faiths, and identities, in order to empower average constituents to become ambassadors from their respective communities, promoting intersectional unity and understanding. The conversation was facilitated by The People’s Supper, a nationwide project with which his office has partnered, which is dedicated to promoting intersectional dialogue around difficult subjects and experiences.
This virtual dinner, the 18th overall gathering that Borough President Adams has helped convene since the launch of the initiative, comes as hate-motivated crimes against Asian-Americans in New York and throughout the country are on the rise. In addition, recent concerns about disparate racial and ethnic enforcement of social distancing have heightened frustrations in a number of communities throughout the five boroughs. Borough President Adams, who has called for the City to adopt a more wide-ranging communication strategy on coronavirus that reflects the diversity of the city, encouraged the virtual dinner’s participants to speak to their respective communities about the importance of social distancing, wearing a face covering when in public, and other basic steps New Yorkers can take to protect themselves and their families from the coronavirus.
“From the beginning of this crisis, I have emphasized the need for communicating to all New Yorkers in a language they understand, rather than speaking in an echo chamber. Our ‘Breaking Bread, Building Bonds’ dinners celebrate the immense diversity of our city while seeking to forge common understanding among people of all identities – and today’s virtual dinner, despite taking place in a different format than previous gatherings, is no exception. As we adjust to a new normal, we must undertake a citywide”re-culturing” to ensure everyone knows how to keep themselves safe and healthy. We can only do that by engaging people of all cultures and backgrounds in this effort,” said Brooklyn Borough President Adams.
“We know from science and research that a community’s resilience rests on the strength of our social networks, and both our bonding and bridging ties. At a moment in which our protecting ourselves and each other demands we keep a physical distance, we’re thrilled to join President Adams and residents of the Brooklyn Borough in deepening our connections to one another,” said Community Director of the People’s Supper K Scarry.
“At New York Peace Institute, we understand the truly transformative power of conversation, especially when people are in conflict. This is why we are part of the “Breaking Bread, Building Bonds” initiative and why we have continued to provide free mediation and conflict coaching to New Yorkers remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Regardless of your race or economic status, everyone can use our services and we are here to help anyone have a complicated conversation. Sometimes having a neutral person there can make having a tough conversation easier,” said New York Peace Institute mediator and Manager of Training & Business Development Ayanna Behin.
“CPC has been urging New Yorkers to remember that COVID-19 is a public health issue, not a racial, ethnic, or immigrant issue, yet we’ve seen the disproportionate impact of bias on Asian Americans and now social distancing enforcement on Black and Brown New Yorkers. CPC Project Reach and CPC Brooklyn Community Center have often partnered with the Brooklyn Borough President to serve Brooklyn residents, and we are grateful to collaborate on this important conversation,” said President and CEO of the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) Wayne Ho.
“Even before COVID-19, Brooklyn was in desperate need of Brooklyn BP’s Adams’ Breaking Bread program,” said Outreach Worker from VOCAL-NY Jeffery Foster. “I know this more than most since my life has taken me to the darkest places of homeless and prison, to providing life saving services to people in the same situation I was in.”
The link to the full recording is available here.
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