From Racial Strife, Youths Find Harmony
by George Corchia
In September of 1979, a racial incident rocked John Dewey High School and the Bensonhurst community, leaving many individuals with physical and emotional scars.
In June of 1987, several of the Dewey alumni who were involved in the incident returned to their alma mater at 50 Avenue X to witness a dramatization of the incident performed by two dozen of the school's current students- and to plead for peace and tolerance.
This unique event was part of Dewey's annual Brotherhood Day, which was sponsored by the school's innovative Council for Unity, a multi-ethnic student organization dedicated to promoting intra-cultural relations and services.
The emotional play "A Lifting of Hands" was written and directed by English teacher Robert DeSena, a man who has worked tirelessly to bring racial harmony to the Brooklyn school community after the incident eight years ago. The realistic dramatization, with its sometimes painful honesty about those turbulent days, was performed for hundreds of current Dewey students, as well as the alumni who returned to the halls of the high school.
In the play, simmering racial tensions between a group of blacks and Italians comes to a head at a neighborhood hang-out. During a confrontation between the two groups, a melee breaks out in which an Italian youths collarbone is broken. At the pleading of DeSena, leaders form the black and Italian groups, as well as a Puerto Rican group, are called together to see if they can form an intercultural council in which they can air their differences peacefully to every any future incidents.
All of the students reluctantly agree to join the alliance except for the leader of the Italian group, Nicky Chiappetta (played by John DeRose). In the emotional climax of play, the leader of the black group, Nelson "Chill" Ennis (played by Kevin Alexis), approaches Chiappetta, who cocks his fist as if preparing to fight. But instead, Ennis extends his hand, and the two shake hands and then embrace.
One member of the audience who watched the drama intently was the real Nicky Chiappetta, who is now the president of the Council for Unity.
"The incident - how it started and what happened-are factual [in the play]," Chiappetta said. "We all grew up a lot since our first days at Dewey. We learned to be true to ourselves. If you're true to yourself, you can't hate anybody based solely on what race or religion they are."
"At first, we didn't like each other," Chiappetta said of Ennis. "We learned to respect each other first, and now we're very good friends."
Immediately after the dramatization, Chiappetta, Ennis, and other Dewey alumni including Robert Marchese, William Velez, Jr., Barri Moody, and Scott Frostbaum, took the stage to explain the need for tolerance, understanding, and dialogue between ethnic groups.
"You should judge a person by his actions, not by if he's blue, red, black or white," said Ennis, who now serves on Board of Directors for the Council for Unity.
As he pointed to his head and his heart he told Dewey students, "It's what's up here and in here that count."
Before Ennis was through with his address, he said, "This one is for the record," and walked over to Chiappetta and embraced him. The Dewey student body gave them a two-minute standing ovation.
Afterward, Ennis said that watching the play "brought back some great memories, and it brought back some painful memories, too."
"I couldn't get over how well Kevin (Alexis) portrayed me0 he had me down to a T- his attitude, the way he stood there with his arms folded, everything," Ennis said. He added that he wasn't consulted in the direction of the play, which was just as well, he says, because, "Bob DeSena knows me as well as I know myself."
A member of the Army Reserves, Ennis was supposed to report to Maryland on the day of the play but said, "There was no way I was going to miss this."
Ennis actually had some help in getting out of his military obligation from Bob DeSena who wrote to his commander requesting that Ennis be allowed to come home to Brooklyn for the special event.
The recent production of "A Lifting of Hands" was the second time the play was performed at the school. DeSena explained that he felt it was a good idea to reprise the play, explaining, "After the Howard Beach incident, the people all over the city are very pessimistic about kids from different backgrounds being able to coexist. We thought that it was appropriate to reprise the play, which completely dispels that notion."
DeSena and William Fugazy, honorary chairman of the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations, are currently discussing with officials from the Board of Education about the possibility of having "A Lifting of Hands" incorporated into curriculum of every high school in the city.
Under the direction of DeSena, the Council for Unity sponsors six cultural programs every school year, including a Puerto Rican Discovery Day, an Asian Fair, a Black History program, an ecumenical seder, an Italian American Day, and a Brotherhood Day. The group is a also heavily involved in various community services, and features a program in which the students either escort senior citizens to stores or do their shopping for them. The Council for Unity has also done environmental work in the community,
Nicky Chiappetta, who was there since the beginning said of the Council's achievements, "It's nice to know that something bad turned into something good."
The cast of "A Lifting of Hands" consisted of John DeRose, Gennaro Brigante, Joe Frisella, Sal Nuccioo, Robert Chiappetta, Damalis Alverez, Diane Ruiz, Joann Perou, Frances Ortiz, Danny Santiago, Alex Ruiz, Ivan Roman, Steve Santiago, Donnell Brunson, Kevin Alexis, Mike Almond, Rocco Ferraro, Jim Sarno, Joe Lambro, Leonard Johnson, Josephine Cingolani, David Sherman, Ling Wong, Alex Vastro and Conway Glittens.
The program concluded with a musical salute to brotherhood, as cast members joined hearts and voices for renditions of "Imagine," "You're a Friend of Mine" and "The Greatest Love of All."
