Culture & Community | Dixwell | NXTHVN | Public art | Arts & Culture | Arts & Anti-racism | Goffe Street Park
Top: The Williamson Family. Bottom: Lailah Kindred, Mike Downing, Jr., a mentor at the Boys & Girls Club, and Aaliyah Kindred.
Aaliyah Kindred dribbled the basketball, shifting her weight to her left foot. She moved forward, gliding for a second. Her fingers tapped the ball, then let it soar to a teammate. Beneath her feet, the courts glowed green and red. A flat, wide eyeball, placed right at the center, looked as if it was watching her every move.
“Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!” shouted referee Tyrone Grant. Somewhere in the clouds, John Williamson was dribbling along, waiting with bated breath. “Take the layup! Yesssss!”
Saturday, the Goffe Street Courts remained in constant use for the first ever "Super" John Williamson Basketball Tournament, honoring Williamson’s legacy just hours before Father’s Day and within a mile of the Ashmun Street housing projects where he grew up. The brainchild of his daughters Kali and Shareebah Williamson, the tournament marked a year since NXTHVN and the Williamson family officially inaugurated the court, designed by the artist Tschabalala Self after input from several New Haveners.
Connecticut Sun Manager of Youth Development Falecia Porter leads the youth clinic.
“It feels amazing,” said Shareebah, praising NXTHVN Creative Director John Dennis for getting the project over the finish line, and assisting with the tournament. “It’s been a long time coming. To see it come to life right now, just in time for Father’s Day, is amazing. I think he’s smiling down on us.”
As Williamson family members gathered beneath a welcome tent, the courts heated up with a pre-tournament youth basketball clinic from the Boys & Girls Club of New Haven and the Connecticut Sun Academy, the youth mentorship arm of the eponymous WNBA team. There for the first time, 12-year-old twins Lailah and Aaliyah Kindred lined up with a group, ready to play.
As young players paired off for crossovers, their eyes stayed on the ball, an orange orb soaring through the air. Aaliyah, who started playing when she was seven, burst into a wide smile as she stepped up to take her turn, and sailed across the court. She threw the ball to Lailah, leaning forward with her arms and shoulders, and she could have been auditioning for Swan Lake or Coppélia.
The Kindred twins do their thing.
“It’s doing what I love most,” she said. Growing up between New Haven and Lexington, South Carolina, she’s honed her skills both at school and on courts in both states, including her summertime visits to family in New Haven. She loves the way the sport encourages team members to lift each other up, an aspect of the sport that carries over to everything she does.
“It felt good” to play, she said. She added that the clinic, which had been a welcome surprise in her weekend, helped her work on her dribble, crossover, and baskets.
Across an expanse of red and green, NXTHVN Fellow and artist Adrian Armstrong took a break from his studio practice to shoot hoops. Born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, “I always wanted to be creative, but I didn’t know being an artist was a thing until high school,” Armstrong said. In college, he began to focus more closely on Black identity, a precursor to current work that centers and celebrates Black joy.
As he expands his practice at the Henry Street incubator, the nearby courts give him a chance to step away from his work and clear his mind. Until Saturday, however, he hadn’t known much about their history. “It’s a good court!” he said with a smile, adding that he was excited to learn about Super John, before returning to shooting hoops.
Lloyd: “I was dribbling a basketball since I came out the womb."
Across the court from him, lifelong New Havener Taija Lloyd praised the tournament as finally giving Williamson his due—and teaching New Haveners about some of the basketball greatness to come out of the city. Growing up in New Haven, Lloyd fell in love with basketball when she was just four, and joined a game at Farnam Neighborhood House in the city’s Fair Haven neighborhood. Saturday, she was trying to snag a last-minute place on one of the eight teams competing.
“I was dribbling a basketball since I came out the womb,” she joked. Within years, she was playing at a summer skills camp at Ross Woodward Classical Studies Magnet School. She began to work with Coach Tharon Mayes, a former player for the Philadelphia 76ers and Los Angeles Clippers, and hone her skills as a member of the Savin Rock Ballerz.
Basketball became her passport, she remembered. As a player for Georgia Highlands College, where she has averaged 21 points per game, she traveled to “literally every state,” including favorite stops in California, New Jersey, Illinois, Texas. This year, she finally received the offer to play for a Division I university (she did not want to comment on the school), a next step in her basketball journey that will begin this fall.
“I just feel free [when I’m playing],” she said.
Top: Brothers In Arms members Jayvon Chapman, Darric Myers, and Roger Hamlet. Bottom: Tyrone Grant leads part of the youth clinic.
Back on the court, Connecticut Sun Manager of Youth Development Falecia Porter was on a roll. As players dribbled their way to the hoop on the far left side of the court, her eyes followed every move, darting back and forth as her ponytail swished through the warm air. At one point, she brought students in, so that they formed a loose circle around her.
“One thing I want to add is better energy in your lines!” she said. Players nodded, listening closely, and then lined up to shoot another round of baskets.
Over at the Williamson family tent, the party was just getting started. As cousins Jazmine and Nylah Williamson handed out color-coded t-shirts to teams that had started trickling in, Kali leaned back in a lawn chair, taking it all in. For over a year, she’s been battling ovarian and small cell cervical cancer that spread through her body, including to her brain.
Despite recent surgery and trips to and from the hospital, “I couldn’t miss this,” she said. “My dad meant so much to me. At the start of this, my sister and I didn’t know anything about basketball, but we pitched in and we made it work. We wanted my dad’s name to tell people in this community that you can do something productive. You can be something positive.”
This summer is a sort of beta run, she added: she and Shareebah plan to hold the tournament every year on Father’s Day weekend, and to incorporate as a 501c3 dedicated to basketball this year. As they prepared to celebrate “Super” John’s legacy, the family made matching shirts, printed with a photo of Williamson playing for the New Jersey Nets. On the tent, they hung his Number 23 Jersey over two new Williamson Tournament trophies. By 11 a.m., family members were firing up the grills and trying out a bounce house.
“It’s a beautiful thing,” said Brandi Marshall, who is married to Kali Williamson and follows basketball more avidly than her wife. Growing up in the Florence Virtue Homes, “this was always the place where I played,” Marshall said. After watching the Williamsons’ fight for recognition, Saturday felt like a full-circle moment. Even Williamson’s doctor had come out for a few hours to celebrate, she said.
Jerome Williamson, the youngest and last surviving brother in the family, called it an amazing tribute to his big brother. Growing up, Jerome looked up to John, who was 13 years older. As a kid, he watched him play basketball past dark on the Ashmun Street Courts, which were later torn down to make space for the Yale Health Plan and Farmington Canal Heritage Trail. In the winter, he would watch John shovel snow off the courts so he could play, then run up East Rock with weights on his ankles and wrists in the spring.
Williamson's brother, Jerome, and his sister, Mina.
When John made it to the ABA, Williamson’s mom would pack up several of the siblings in the car, and head to games in Nassau County, where the Nets were playing. Jerome would sit in the floor seats, close to his big brother and the other members of the team. He was constantly star-struck, he remembered. “It was a sight and time for me,” he said. “He was one of the best ball players to ever play, and this is amazing.”
“It means a lot to me,” chimed in his sister, Mina Williamson, who was the fourth eldest of 10. “We’re here to represent and remember my brother, who started here. This is a great honor for him.
At the tent, players had started to trickle in. Three, from the team Brothers In Arms, gently joshed around with each other, hiding the nimble skills that would go on to dominate the afternoon. The team later won the tournament.
A lifelong New Havener, Montese Gilliams carefully read a waiver, then collected an orange t-shirt with information on his team. Raised in the Dwight/Kensington neighborhood, Gilliams said he can still remember a basketball tournament in Goffe Street Park “back in the day,” but said it hasn’t happened for years.
“I think it’s important to show respect to New Haven natives,” he said. “It’s a connection to the community. It’s important to give back.”