We are not immune to the problem of deteriorating membership that has affected all churches in America. In our community we encourage support with our sister churches, Calvary Baptist, Visitation, and Red Hook Tabernacle, all of which have served Red Hook for many decades. Our two current initiatives include The Sister Helen Lee
Sister Lee Music Program
The Sister Helen Lee Program was started in honor of New Brown’s organist Sister Helen Lee, one of the most gifted organists in New York City, who served our modest church faithfully for more than half a century. It is not an after school program. It is a training program.
Why traditional gospel music?
Churches cannot survive without traditional spiritual music. Music fads (Rock and Roll, Praise and Worship) come and go. We enjoy them. Some of the music is fabulous and draws young people. However, what brought us through trials and tribulation, including slavery, are the traditional songs: “Negro” spirituals, chants, ring dances, and songs from 40’s and 50’s, considered “traditional” gospel. To lose this music is to lose a part of the church.
The Sister Lee Program, launched in 2012, currently services 15 children from the Red Hook Houses. We train them in piano, harmony, theory, and “traditional” spiritual improvisational forms. All children begin instruction on drums. Most graduate to piano and later will commence organ. Our top student is currently a pianist in the Lincoln Center Middle School Jazz Program.
Goals of the Sister Lee Program:
1. Academic Study: To use music as a furtherance for study in school. Numerous studies have shown that children trained in music have better memory retention, discipline, motor skills and learning capability.
2. Economic viability: There is a critical need for trained church organists. We are training our children to serve the church. It is also a job opportunity.
3. Faith: To entice our young people into the fold of the church, to experience the traditions of hard work and dedication, while experiencing the magic of what faith in God can produce.
4. Tradition: “Gospel” music is popular around the world and an increasing subject of academic study in conservatories everywhere. Yet it is disappearing from the very place where it began. We must train our young people in this unique art form before it vanishes into pop culture.
5. Membership: Young people fresh ideas to church — praise dance, praise and worship, spoken word. We embrace these wonderful ideas, by teaching the traditional material which to enhance the new sounds.
Our program services 15 children and we currently we have a waiting list, as we only have three teachers. It is offered free to any 8 to 12 year old from the Red Hook Houses. View our video below to see our program and our top student, Helen Peguro, in concert with the Lincoln Center Middle School Jazz Academy.
We are thankful to Stacia and David Blake, their sister Monica, and their beloved parents Sylvia and Mark Foster, for their contribution to The Sister Lee Music Program last year. Their memory lives in the songs of our children. In addition we thank Ivana Folle, head of the Bogliasco Foundation of Genova, Italy, who has showered her generosity on our children since the very inception of our program.
Black Lives Matter
We love Red Hook. We have been here more than six decades. We have watched our neighborhood grow, change, deteriorate, lose ground, gain ground, prosper, and now prosper even more. We are delighted with many of the changes and our new neighbors, many of whom are our friends and always welcome. We love visitors! However, we are also cognizant that Black Lives Matter – to God, and to us. That said, we have an excellent relationship with our local police, fire department and city workers, some of whom live in our community. We claim them as our own, and always look forward to working with them to maintain the reason, discourse and communication that is so necessary for our community to function well.
