TT scribe laments passing of Village Voice mentor
Mayor Ed Koch, Peter Noel and Rev. Al Sharpton. Peter Noel
Caribbean Life, Dec. 31,2021-Jan. 6, 2022 11
By Vinette K. Pryce
When John John native Peter
Noel heard about the untimely
passing of Village Voice writer
Greg Tate on Dec. 7, he became
distraught with grief.
A former student at Bethlehem
Boy’s Roman Catholic
School, Minerva College and
The Caribbean Union College
in Trinidad & Tobago, from age
10 aspired to path a career Tate
seemed to easily traverse.
Allegedly at that same age
Noel often told his teachers of his
dreams of becoming a journalist.
When bacchanal called pannist
to the steel drums and masqueraders
dreamt of carnival revelry,
Noel set his sights on writing.
Fact is by the time he celebrated
his teen years, he boldly
walked into the offices of
the national newspaper, the
Express, and announced that
he was ready to write.
He now recalls that he did
not know how to use a typewriter,
but was convinced his
longhand reports would suffice.
Apparently, the intuitive
editors at the popular newspaper
ignored his precocious
assumption, one in particular
encouraged him to submit
ideas with the provision that he
invested in typing lessons.
Before long, Noel perfected
a two-finger technique with
speed that rivalled those of
secretaries who boasted enviable
skill recording competitive
words per minute.
The quick learning youth
was hired to work at the Sun,
a subsidiary afternoon publication
owned by the Express.
Noel migrated soon afterwards
and within months of
arrival in the USA earned a
journalism scholarship to
write for the Amsterdam News.
There, at the reputed, Harlembased,
national Black weekly,
the immigrant cub reporter
distinguished himself among
venerable scribes of the time.
His career came full circle
when he wrote for The City
Sun, an alternative publication
that voiced viewpoints from a
Black perspective.
For more than a decade his
candid and often controversial
perspective irked a segment
unaccustomed to reading probing
stories about community
leaders. Ultra-liberals, conservatives,
politicians, police and
rival newspaper reporters vilified
his audacity to investigate.
“They considered me a pariah,”
Noel said, “but Greg said
I was the kind of reporter who
should be writing for the Voice.”
Considered one of the handful
of Black scribes reporting
from the liberal and perhaps
most popular weekly, print,
outlet, Tate held sway at the
Village Voice. Eventually, Noel
was tasked with reporting from
Greenwich Village’s progressive
newspaper – The Village Voice.
“I never intended to work for
traditional media, I felt I could
do more working in the Black
press.” “But Tate. Yes it was
Tate who convinced me…”
While Tate’s cultural criticisms
stirred the sensibilities
of creatives, intellectuals and
grassroots readers, Noel agitated
and irritated many of the
same individuals focusing on
his Black Advocacy Journalism,
a term he owns and dedicates
to his pursuit of social change.
Noel’s repute as an investigative
journalist swelled to
spawn radio stints as host of
the Peter & Schmuley Show at
WWRL where Noel and Jewish
Rabbi Schmuley Boteach provided
daily counterpoint talk.
In addition to countless VV
articles, Tate’s legacy includes
books he penned titled “Flyboy
in the Buttermilk,” “Everything
But the Burden,” “Midnight
Lightning; Jimmy Hendrix and
the Black Experience.”
He was a co-founder of the
Black Rock Coalition, rock n
roll and hip-hop promoter and
unapologetic champion of Black
culture. Harlem’s premiere
showplace celebrated that legacy
lighting the Apollo Theater
marquee in Tate’s honor.
Born in Dayton, Ohio, the
Howard University graduate
was 64 years old. May they
those we lost in 2021 rest in
perpetual peace.
Happy New Year to all readers
and supporters of this column.
With God’s will in 2022
I’ll…Catch You On The Inside!
Inside Life
By Vinette K. Pryce