Gilliard-Green started charities for Hunts Point’s needy
Twana “Tweet” Gilliard-Green, a grassroots activist and longtime member of Community Board 2, died on Oct. 31. She was 42.
Gilliard-Green suffered from lupus for close to a decade. When her family returned home to their Longwood apartment after she had died at Staten Island Hospital on Halloween night, they found about 100 people gathered outside with candles.
“How the news spread that quickly, it blew my mind,” said her mother, Patricia Gilliard.
“Everyone loved her,” said Paula Fields, who served beside her on Community Board 2. “She was always the first person to volunteer to help with something.”
As a board member, Gilliard-Green fought for affordable housing, improvements to public schools and safer streets. She organized food drives, children’s celebrations, fundraising walks to fight diseases and holiday parties where “she invited everyone, even the man who slept on the bench,” said her sister, Kia Gilliard-Waring.
“She made sure everyone was okay before she was,” said her son, Tyquan Gilliard, 22.
Born in Soundview in 1973, Gilliard-Green grew up helping others. Her family said she would return home from school and tell her parents about classmates she worried about. She tutored her peers who struggled academically, and, realizing a talent in hairstyling, she made house visits to do perms, weaves and braids for friends and neighbors.
In 1991, Gilliard-Green enrolled at Monroe College, but left soon after when she became pregnant. By 23, she had two sons, whom she raised on her own. Noting that many kids in the neighborhood were growing up without a father, she began an annual BBQ to honor dads.
“She wanted to give recognition to the ones that were stepping up to the plate,” said Gilliard-Waring.
When an intersection at a nearby school, P.S. 60, became a magnet for accidents, Gilliard-Green demanded the city add crossing guards; when they didn’t, she stood in the street herself to direct traffic.
In 2005, Gilliard-Green began working at The Children’s Aid Society, where she would meet and soon marry Ronald Green.
“She took me off the street corner and turned me into the man I am today,” said Green, who described his life before he met Twana as a back and forth between selling drugs and doing time.
Soon after their marriage, Gilliard-Green developed lupus. Although the illness advanced and weakened her considerably, she continued to help people.
Rarely did she miss a community meeting.
“We’d see in her face how tired she was, and even after stays in the hospital, she’d show up to the meetings,” said Joyce Campbell-Culler, the chairwoman of the housing committee Gilliard-Green served on.
In 2007, she and her husband founded Goodfellaz Autoclub, through which they established charities to serve Hunts Point’s needy. When she met the owner of a nearby McDonalds through the organization, she asked him to hire some of the men who lived in her building.
“Based on just her speaking, and saying ‘please give them a chance,’ he did,” said Gilliard-Waring.
Whenever there was a knock on the door, family members said they always knew it would be someone seeking Twana for help or advice.
“I went to her for advice for everything,” said Carlos Santiago, president of Infamous Ryders, another community group comprised of motorcyclists.
“You know that neighborhood mommy that everyone goes to? That was Twana,” said Judy Gilliard.
Gilliard-Green returned to Monroe College, and would graduate at 38 with a 4.0 average. Earlier this year, she and her husband renewed their wedding vows.
Mildred Colon, another member of Community Board 2, recalled speaking to Gilliard-Green in the hospital two days before she died.
“The first thing she said to me was: ‘How are you? How is the community board? I’ll be back soon.”