Celebrating Women’s History Month: Meet Lisa Kenner
For almost three decades, Lisa Kenner, longtime resident, community advocate, and President of the Van Dyke Houses Resident Association in Brownsville, has been making her voice heard.
Born and raised in the Van Dyke Houses, Ms. Kenner has been President for 20 years and is also currently a Board Member of Brownsville Medical Services, a Stakeholder in the NeON (Neighborhood Opportunity Network) initiative, and leading efforts to have a boxing gym built at her development.
A former District Leader for New York’s 55th State Assembly district, Ms. Kenner is a firm believer in the power of showing up for your community, attending meetings, and making one’s voice heard. Meaningful change, she points out, can only happen by engaging your community.
She mentions a 94-year-old Van Dyke resident who still comes to resident association meetings with her pen and pad. “If the weather’s not bad, she’s coming – that’s my inspiration,” Ms. Kenner notes.
Ms. Kenner remembers first becoming involved in her community when, as a child, she got her mother to accompany her to meetings so she could sign up for activities including dance classes which once led to Ms. Kenner and her peers performing at The Apollo Theatre in Harlem.
When she was 25 and studying for her BS in public administration at Medgar Evers College, Ms. Kenner began taking a more active role in her community by attending Van Dyke Resident Association meetings.
Asked to run for President, she turned it down because she was still in school. Later, she served as Vice President for two years. Several years after that, she accepted the nomination for President.
Her approach to fostering community spirit is democratic — she wants everyone involved. One of the most recent initiatives Ms. Kenner helped establish, and of which she is deeply proud, is the afterschool flag football team. Every Tuesday and Thursday at 4 p.m. (and Saturdays at noon), more than 20 children, ages 8 to 14, turn up at the flag football court for two hours of practice.
Known as the Wise Guys, the kids are coached by a group of middle-aged men who were born and raised in Van Dyke and whom Ms. Kenner describes as “decent human beings who stepped up.”
One of the coaches lives in Pennsylvania and makes the trip to Brownsville each week to volunteer. “To come out every Saturday, you got to have a passion,” Ms. Kenner noted. Recently, the team held a Thanksgiving Turkey Bowl at Betsy Head Park.
Ms. Kenner stresses the importance of the positive role the coaches play in the boys’ lives. “Some may not have men in their life,” Ms. Kenner points out. “Boys need somebody to look up to, somebody that really cares.” At the end of each huddle, Ms. Kenner explained, the Wise Guys put their hands together and shout ‘We’re family!’
The flag football team not only engages kids and fosters community spirit — it also helped breathe some life back into the community after COVID. “Just to hear kids’ laughter again,” Ms. Kenner explained. “You didn’t hear that for a while.”
Ms. Kenner is currently trying to involve the mothers of these kids in the hopes of creating the next generation of residents committed to the Van Dyke community. “I just want to encourage parents to get their kids into good things.”
“I’m going to be old,” she said. “You want to pass it on. I want to take the baton and throw it!”
Whether it’s to engage the community in city initiatives that will impact them, or just about an upcoming event their kids can get involved in, Ms. Kenner relies on the tried-and-true tactics of talking to residents and distributing information. “You have to explain to them why.”
“Like I tell people: This is your home; if you don’t take care of it, who’s going to take care of it?”
For the past seven years, Ms. Kenner and other residents host an annual walk to raise awareness about breast cancer and domestic violence, walking from Van Dyke to Betsy Head Park. This past October, when the weather was inclement, they decided to walk around the community center instead.
“I just want to make people aware,” Ms. Kenner said. “Cancer can come anywhere.”
“I’m going to be 65 and I’m going to celebrate that,” she said. “I have a lot of friends who didn’t make 65 — they didn’t even make 25. It’s one thing that really pushed me — I think I owe it to them. We had a good childhood, and you want these kids to have a good childhood.”
Ms. Kenner has also been an active Stakeholder in the local NeON chapter, which offers high school equivalency classes, employment preparation, mentoring, healthcare, literacy programs, as well as arts and sports programming.
Ms. Kenner, who actively encourages residents to sign their children up and take advantage of the opportunities available to them, spoke glowingly of the fact that NeON provides local families the opportunity to attend events around the city, including at places like Carnegie Hall. Most recently, local children enjoyed a three-month long workshop, during which they learned how to draw cartoons.
Although no longer involved in politics, Ms. Kenner still makes time each February to take kids from Van Dyke to the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic, and Asian Legislative Caucus in Albany. During the group trip, the kids learn about politics, attend workshops, and meet various groups and representatives.
Now, after decades of service to her community, Ms. Kenner still has many ambitions for it and for fostering the next generation of committed residents. She wants to remind people that there are many ways to get involved.
“Everybody got their own forte.”