I wanted to quickly post on
Brick City, a five-night documentary series that started last night on the Sundance channel. (I caught the last twenty minutes of it). I had read
glowing reviews of it over the weekend, and so I’m DVR-ing the remaining four nights. And from what I’ve seen and read, I would really recommend it. It focuses on Newark, New Jersey, and its mayor, Cory Booker, as well as a number of citizens: Jayda and Creep, a couple who are also a Blood and a Crip respectively; Ras Baraka, principal of Newark’s Central High School; and Police Director Gary McCarthy.
I also tried to
search for some background materials in our Library that relate to the history of Newark. You can find (among others)
mystery novels,
government documents,
history books, and
a 2008 New Yorker piece by Peter Boyer on Cory Booker (His piece is from February 4, 2008 and is titled “The Color of Politics”).