Roving camera man and friend of Atlantic City Weekly Charlie Pinkett shot and produced this video piece at the “Celebrating the Northside” event, held Feb. 10 at the All Wars Memorial Building in Atlantic City:

Click on image for video, courtesy Charlie Pinkett.

The event included Boardwalk Empire and The Northside author Nelson Johnson, in addition to Ralph Hunter, founder and president of the African-American Heritage Museum of Southern New Jersey.

The Black History Month event was “designed to bring people together to celebrate the historic role of the Northside community  to share stories and be inspired.” Among the sights and sounds at the event were pieces by local artist Tyrone L. Hart  — whose art graces the cover of the newly published Northside book, a follow-up to author Nelson Johnson’s Boardwalk Empire — as well as local educator. community leader and musician Eddie Morgan and his Jazz Ensemble, and a history of the Northside presentation given by Hunter.

Bianca Dennis, an Atlantic City High School senior and Boys and Girls Club Champions of Youth member who will attend Columbia University in the fall, also gave a special reading.

According to the event organizers, “In The Northside, author Nelson Johnson brings the untold story of Atlantic City’s black community vividly to life, from the arrival of the first African Americans to Absecon Island in the early 19th century through the glory days of the ‘World’s Playground.’ Drawing on dozens of personal interviews and painstaking archival research, he reveals long-forgotten details about the people on whose backs the gambling mecca was built and offers a wide-ranging survey of the accomplishments of more recent generations.  A portion of the sales of The Northside will be split between United Way of Atlantic County and the Boys and Girls Club of Atlantic City, according to publisher Plexus Publishing, Inc.”

Click here to watch Atlantic City Weekly’s two-part video series on the “African-American Experience,” featuring a panel of six local historians and authors, filmed during the viewing party of the premiere of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire at Caesars Atlantic City on Sept. 19, 2010. Visit Atlantic City Weekly’s Boardwalk Empire Notes page here.

According to NORAD, Santa is due to hit Istanbul, Turkey pretty soon.

Although the Atlantic City Weekly office is closed for the holiday weekend, we have also been told by NORAD that the final webisode in the 13-part Conversations & Storytelling Atlantic City history video series has finally been stuffed in the AC Weekly stocking and it’s ready for a-viewing. The topic this week is Gambling (Legal or Otherwise), and it follows five other topics discussed (in two parts each), including The Boardwalk, Entertainment & Nightlife, The African-American Experience and Nucky Johsnon.

To watch the final Webisode, click here.

To watch the first 12 webisodes in this video series, visit our Boardwalk Empire page here or click here.

Happy holidays.