Brooklyn, NY — Community advocate and businessman Anthony Herbert will speak on “Obtaining the Power to Move Forward,” at New York City College of Technology (City Tech), Atrium Amphitheater, 300 Jay Street, Downtown Brooklyn, on Monday, November 5, 2012, 11:30 a.m. The public is invited to this free event, part of the College’s celebration of Black Solidarity Day, which this year has the theme “The Move Forward: Exercising Power in the 21st Century.” Additional information: Hazel Gibbs, Department of African American Studies, at 718.260.5205 or hgibbs@citytech.cuny.edu.
Herbert
City Tech’s Black Solidarity Day, which runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., also will include a performance by the City Tech Community Choir prior to Mr. Herbert’s talk. A presentation of timely and politically potent dramatic excerpts by students enrolled in the College’s Black Theater courses and their instructors also will take place before his talk. The event will be capped by a closing reception.
Mr. Herbert will deliver a lecture on how important a single vote is in our society today. He will take audience members through the process of what happens when they don’t vote and leave the voting up to those who have no interest in their community — thus short-changing the community of resources and funding.
According to Dr. Marta Effinger-Crichlow, chairperson of the Department of African American Studies, City Tech’s annual Black Solidarity Day event is “an opportunity to remind voters about the rights of citizenship and to vote on Election Day.”
Anthony Herbert
Anthony “Tony” Herbert, Sr., is a community advocate and business owner with a broad range of corporate, community, political and business leadership experience. Currently, he holds the position of vocational/educational specialist with a homeless woman’s shelter for the mentally ill in Brownsville, Brooklyn.
Along with a steering committee of 30 grass roots community residents that he organized in 2010, Herbert recently launched The Save Our Community Initiative under the banner of his community-based organization The Urban Community Council. The initiative is a response to the gun and gang violence being committed in Brooklyn and in urban communities throughout the country that is taking the lives of young people.
In 1996, Herbert, along with several business associates, formed the Professionals Network Organization to give young upwardly mobile multi-cultural professionals access to resources and information to help them realize the American Dream.
Herbert is an executive committee chair of the NAACP-NYCHA branch chapter, advisory board member of City Challenge, board member of the International Dream Team Christian Association, member of The NYPD Brooklyn Clergy Task Force and a member in good standing of the MW Enoch Masonic Grand Lodge.
Herbert has served as a business concierge with North Fork Bank and a vice president of government affairs for a multicultural marketing and advertising firm. He has worked for the Wall Street investment banking firm Bridgepoint Capital, where he was the senior vice president of government relations and small business development. With more than 15 years of government work experience, he has held the position of statewide director of community relations on the New York State (NYS) Senate Minority Reapportionment Task Force for former NYS Senate Minority Counsel Leader Martin Connor.
As a special assistant to New York City Councilwoman Priscilla Wooten, he acquired his skill set as a community advocate, fighting for the rights of district residents to gain access to municipal services. In addition he has worked as a special assistant to Congressman Edolphus Towns and performed ombudsman services for him in the Fort Greene and Clinton Hill sections of the 10th Congressional District.
Herbert resides in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn on the border of Ocean Hill. He attended public school in both the Fort Greene and Clinton Hills neighborhoods. His interest in public affairs began during his youth. Raised in a single parent home by his mother, who was a school aide for over 30 years, he learned from her the core values of family, hard work and being of service to others.
Having experienced homelessness firsthand while he and his family were subjected to living as squatters in an abandoned building, Herbert began his community advocacy as a member of the Crown Heights and Clinton Hill Lions Club youth divisions at age 15. His personal experience with homelessness helped form his commitment to service to others.
Black Solidarity Day at City Tech is sponsored by City Tech’s Department of African American Studies, Office of Student Life and Development, Office of the Vice President for Enrollment and Student Affairs, Black Male Initiative, Coalition of Black Faculty and Staff, Black Students’ Union, Black Women’s Networking Committee and the City Tech Foundation.
New York City College of Technology (City Tech) of The City University of New York (CUNY) is the largest public college of technology in New York State. Located at 300 Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn, the College enrolls more than 16,000 students in 62 baccalaureate, associate and specialized certificate programs.