New York Beacon

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New York Beacon

New York
Beacon
website:
NewYorkBeacon.net
Vol. 19 No. 15
Showing the Way to Truth and Justice
E-Mail
newyorkbeacon@yahoo.com
75 Cents
April 15, 2012 - April 18, 2012
END OF AN ERA
Gil Noble told
it ‘Like It Is’ in
groundbreaking
kind of way
(See story on page 18)
Gil Noble, gone but not forgotten
Tulsa race slay
duo is held on
$9 million bond
(See story on page 3)
Jake England
Alvin Watts
Skipping Trayvon grand jury could lead to arrest of shooter
(See Story On Page 3)
HHC and Grenada university enter
partnership to train medical doctors
NEW YORK BEACON, April 15, 2012 - April 18, 2012 newyorkbeacon.net
2
Justice Clarence Thomas
Thomas chides colleagues
for too many questions
Maybe it’s Southern courtesy
or his introverted nature that
keeps him from interrupting attorneys during oral arguments,
Supreme Court Justice Clarence
Thomas said Thursday evening.
Whatever the reason, the
Georgia native had a blunt assessment about the rapid-fire
questioning from his colleagues
during recent hearings on the
nation’s health care law. The
queries weren’t helpful to him in
deciding the case, he said.
And Thomas suggested his
loquacious colleagues should do
more listening and less talking.
“I don’t see where that advances anything,” he said of the
questions. “Maybe it’s the
Southerner in me. Maybe it’s the
introvert in me, I don’t know. I
think that when somebody’s talking, somebody ought to listen.”
His remarks drew applause
from the audience that heard
Thomas’ insights on the court
during a 90-minute appearance
at the University of Kentucky.
Thomas has gained a reputa-
tion for staying silent during oral
arguments before the high court.
He said the lawyers presenting
their cases are capable and don’t
need guidance from the justices: “I
don’t need to hold your hand, help
you cross the street to argue a
case. I don’t need to badger you.”
Thomas was asked specifically
about the plethora of questions
during three days of oral arguments
as the justices decide whether to
kill or keep President Barack
Obama’s health care overhaul. But
Thomas said it’s become habit for
justices to interrupt lawyers.
“We have a lifetime to go back in
chambers and to argue with each
other,” he said. “They have 30, 40
minutes per side for cases that are
important to them and to the country. They should argue. That’s a
part of the process.
“I don’t like to badger people.
These are not children. The court
traditionally did not do that. I have
been there 20 years. I see no need
for all of that. Most of that is in the
briefs, and there are a few questions around the edges.”
Deputy Mayor for Health and
Human Services, Linda I. Gibbs;
Health and Hospitals Corporation
President Alan D. Aviles and St.
George’s University Chancellor
Dr. Charles Modica have announced the CityDoctors medical scholarship program that will,
over the next five years, provide
tuition based scholarships worth
more than $11 million to New York
City residents who aspire to become doctors.
Those who commit to give
back to the community by practicing primary care medicine at an
HHC hospital will be eligible for a
scholarship. The first class of
CityDoctors scholarships will be
awarded this summer and fall to
25 New Yorkers who have demonstrated academic excellence
and financial need. President
Aviles, Chancellor Modica and
St. George’s University graduates celebrated the announcement at Metropolitan Hospital in
Manhattan .
“ New York City ’s public hospitals and clinics serve over one
million New Yorkers each year and
are critical providers of culturally
competent, patient-centered primary care in this city,” said
Deputy Mayor Gibbs. “This program will help draw some of the
best and brightest to our system,
addressing a pending shortfall of
talent and ensuring that the patients who rely on us will have
dedicated providers for decades
to come.”
“Primary care providers are
the main source of healthcare for
many New Yorkers. Yet not
enough medical school graduates
are choosing a career path in family medicine, pediatrics or internal medicine, and are often lured
into higher paying specialties.
TheCityDoctors scholarships will
serve as a great incentive to ensure the public hospitals can secure a pool of outstanding primary care physicians who not
Linda I. Gibbs
only share our mission to increase
access to preventive care and
keep New Yorkers healthy, but
also have real ties to the communities we serve,” said HHC President Alan D. Aviles.
“Graduates of St. George’s
University , with their international
outlook and training, are uniquely
suited to serve the city’s diverse
population and these scholarships
ensure that the best and truly committed physicians are tapped to
help alleviate the shortage of primary care physicians in New York
,” said Dr. Charles Modica, St.
George’s University Chancellor.
“These students will leave our
University with the skills needed
to return home and serve their fellow New Yorkers in the largest
municipal healthcare system in the
United States .”
To kick off the first year of the
CityDoctors program, five New
Yorkers will receive full-tuition
scholarships valued at approximately $216,000 each, and another
20 recipients will receive half-tuition scholarships for a medical degree from St. George’s University
Medical School, Grenada, and then
jumpstart their careers at HHC. St.
George’s University will also award
the value of two full-tuition scholarships every year for the next four
years for each HHC hospital that
provides at least 24 clerkships – an
additional $8 million in scholarships
based on the five HHC hospitals that
currently meet that standard. In return, each student will commit to give
back to the City of New York one
year of service per year of free tuition by working as a primary care
attending physician at an HHC hospital. Students will also have to meet
at least one of the following criteria:
graduated from a NYC high school,
have five years of residency in NYC,
have a parent employed by HHC or
the City of NY, or be employed by
HHC or the City of NY for at least
five years.
“SGU’s diverse student body
and faculty are uniquely suited to
prepare students for clinical training
in New York City - and all of this together is perfect training for a primary care doc in NYC. This scholarship is right on target,” said Dr. Ira
Jay Bleiweiss, Chief of Anatomical
& Surgical Pathology at Mt. Sinai
Medical Center and Professor of Pathology at Mt. Sinai Medical School
. “Personally speaking, while I am a
specialist involved in breast cancer,
I do, however, recognize the important role of breast screening and
breast imaging as a critical part of
primary care. Screening both finds
breast cancer when still treatable and
curable, and plays a role in preventing it. I see this in my work literally
everyday.”
“This partnership creates amazing opportunities and benefits for
SGU medical students and New Yorkers,” said Dr. Tita Castor, SGU Alumni
and Medical Director of Palliative
Care at Elmhurst Hospital . “I have
dedicated my career to geriatric primary care and know first hand how
important it is for patients to have a
primary care physician. I only wish I
had this amazing scholarship oppor(CONTINUED ON PAGE 15)
NAN annual national convention slated for Washington this week
Rev. Al Sharpton and National
Action Network will convene in
Washington, DC for NAN’s annual national convention from
April 11-14 at the Walter E.
Washington Convention Center
featuring a who’s who in politics, civil rights, education, business, the church, Corporate
America and much more.
The four day event honors
the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. and will consist of a
series of plenary sessions, panels and special events. Featured
Plenary speakers and special
guests include: the Attorney
General of the U.S. Eric Holder,
Harvard University Professor
Dr. Charles Ogletree, U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis,
Congresswoman
Eleanor
Holmes Norton, U.S. Secretary
of Health and Human Services
Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan,
David Gregory (NBC’s Meet the
Press Moderator), U.S. Secretary
of Education Arne Duncan, EPA
Administrator Lisa P. Jackson and
more.
Each year NAN hosts the national convention to bring together
influential leaders in civil rights,
government, business, and media
and within the church to focus on
the issues most important in civil
rights that year including voting
rights, education, jobs, healthcare,
youth violence and social justice.
The convention will close with
a televised symposium taking
place at Howard University entitled: “Measuring the Movement:
Black Leadership’s 12-Month Action Plan” featuring Black leaders
of constituencies across the country. For the third year, leaders will
assess where we are and what they
and their respective organizations
will pledge to do over a 12-month
time-frame to further critical issues
impacting people of color including, but not limited to, education
reform, unemployment, health care
Rev. Al Sharpton
and more.
The collective will discuss the
real problems and how we will not
only hold the President and Administration of the United States
accountable, but how we will
hold ourselves accountable and
tangibly measure our movement
over a 12-month period to enact
change.
The week after the convention,
NAN will host its 14th Annual
Keepers of the Dream Awards on
Wednesday, April 18 in New York
City at Cipriani on Wall Street.
The awards - given each year in
April to mark the anniversary of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s death
— honor those who have continued to advocate for the principles
for which Dr. King gave his life.
The Keepers of the Dream
awards are given by members of
the civil rights community who
have committed themselves to
fairness and racial harmony.
Among the honorees this year
are: Denzel & Pauletta Washing-
ton, Karla Ballard, Chief of Strategic Development, Media and National Partnerships One Economy,
Richard Parsons, chairman of
Citigroup and the former chairman
and CEO of Time Warner, and Doug
Morris CEO of Sony Music Entertainment. There will be special remarks by Bill Cosby.
Last year NAN’s 20th Anniversary convention was highlighted by
a keynote address by President
Barack Obama, and in years before,
NAN has featured Vice President
Joseph Biden, President Bill
Clinton, Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton, Secretary of Health and
Human Services Kathleen Sebelius,
Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development Shaun Donovan, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
and many others.
For Media inquiries: Rachel
Noerdlinger
rachel@noerdlingermedia.com For
More information and to register for
media credentials:
www.nationalactionnetwork.net
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By George E. Curry
NNPA Editor-in-Chief
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
World Bank likely to
tap Nigerian woman
candidate for top job
Special to the NNPA from the GlN but those countries have not enjoyed equal voting power around
Western media pundits have all the very policies that affect them
but crowned Ms. Ngozi Okonjo- most,” noted Desné Masie, writIweala of Nigeria for the position ing in the blog African Arguof World Bank president. If se- ment.
lected, she would be the first Afri“There is no guarantee that
can to hold the position tradition- with Okonjo-Iweala as figureally held by a U.S. citizen.
head, reform and fairness in the
Nearly buried among the enco- Bank’s policies would be submiums, are the views of skeptics stantive. To clamor for a World
that doubt that Ms. Okonjo-Iweala Bank president from an emergwould bring enlightenment to an ing market is a hollow exercise
institution more known for sad- altogether,” Masie asserts.
dling developing countries with
U.S. based educator Ikhide R.
debt and structural adjustment Ikheloa adds: “As an institution,
plans that put millions of public the World Bank is an ancient buservice employees out of work.
reaucratic relic whose time has
“Not only has the World Bank come and gone. Now it is mostly
failed poor countries, with structural adjustment and other genteel
forms of developmental quackery, (CONTINUED ON PAGE 22)
NY College to honor Don King
Don King, the self-proclaimed
“world’s greatest promoter,” is being honored for his humanitarian
efforts over the years by New
York College of Health Professions, which will present him with
an Honorary Doctorate of Humane
Letters on Sunday, May 6, at its
2012 Commencement Ceremony.
Mr. Don King will become Dr.
Don King, and will be the commencement speaker for New
York College, a world leader in
holistic health education for
more than 30 years, joining a
notable series of speakers including Shirley MacLaine, Al
Roker, Jerry Vale, Nick
Bollietieri, and other well known
celebrities
The announcement by Special
Prosecutor Angela Corey on Monday that she will not use a grand
jury to determine if criminal
charges should be brought
against George Zimmerman for killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla. may lead to a
quicker arrest of Zimmerman than
having regular citizens decide his
fate as grand jurors.
Prosecutors in many high-profile cases often convene grand
juries to determine whether criminal indictments are issued against
a suspect, thus sparing themselves from any public fallout from
unpopular decisions.
In deciding to scrap the planned
grand jury scheduled for Tuesday,
Corey made it clear that she and
she alone will decide if Zimmerman
is culpable in the Black teenager’s
death on Feb. 26. Under Florida
law, only first-degree murder cases
require the use of grand juries to
determine if there is probably
cause to charge a defendant.
Corey’s decision to bypass the
grand jury route does not necessarily mean she will bring charges
against Zimmerman.
The state attorney for Duval,
Nassau and Clay counties, based
in Jacksonville, was appointed
special prosecutor by Florida Gov.
Rick Scott.
In a statement issued by her of-
Angela Corey
Trayvon Martin
fice on Monday, Corey cautioned,
“The decision should not be considered a factor in the final determination of the case.” The statement
explained, “At this time, the investigation continues and there will be
no further comment. From the moment she was assigned, Ms. Corey
noted she may not need a Grand
Jury.”
Benjamin Crump, an attorney for
Trayvon’s parents, issued a statement saying, “We are not surprised
by this announcement and, in fact,
are hopeful that a decision will be
reached very soon to arrest George
Zimmerman and give Trayvon
Martin’s family the simple justice
they have been seeking all along.”
He added, “The family has been
patient throughout this process and
asks that those who support them
do the same during this very important investigation.”
Trayvon was killed while walking
back to a townhome he was visiting
after making a trip to a nearby 7-11
store to pick up a bag of Skittles and
a can of Arizona iced tea. After calling 911 to report a suspicious Black
male walking in the gated community, Zimmerman, a neighborhood
watch captian, was told not to follow him. Zimmerman ignored that
instruction, continued to follow
Trayvon, and ended up in a fight
with him.
The unarmed youth was killed by
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 22)
Tulsa shooting suspects charged,
bond is set at $9.1 million each
Two Tulsa men arrested in connection with a shooting spree that
left three black men dead and two
critically injured were charged
with murder this morning and ordered by a judge to be held on
$9.1 million bonds each.
Jake England, 19, and Alvin
Watts, 32, were arraigned today
in an Oklahoma court via a closed
circuit video from the Tulsa
County Jail, according to ABC
News’ Tulsa affiliate KTUL.
Neither man had an attorney
present and police have not yet
determined which man was the alleged shooter, according to KTUL.
Both men were charged with
three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of shooting with
the intent to kill and one count of
possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
Tulsa shooting suspects held on
bonds of $9.1 million
The suspects have not been
charged with hate crimes, although
all of the victims are black.
England and Watts were arrested at a house north of Tulsa
around 2 a.m. on Sunday after a
series of deadly shootings on Friday that left three black pedestrians dead and two critically
wounded.
The five men were shot early Friday morning in four separate incidents during a span of less than
two hours on the same side of
town and not far from one another,
police said.
Police identified the dead men as
Dannaer Fields, 49, Bobby Clark, 54,
and William Allen, 31. There was no
connection between the suspects
and victims, police said at a news
conference on Sunday.
Two males were critically
wounded in the shooting spree. All
of the victims were targeted while
they were out walking, and apparently did not know each other.
“We have not been able to find
any commonality between the victims other than they were walking
on the street,” Sgt. Dave Walker of
the Tulsa Police Department said.
One of the victims who survived
the attack described the shooter as
a white male in a white pick-up truck,
Latest jobs report offers little hope for Blacks
working to find work, the Bureau
By Freddie Allen
NNPA Washington Correspon- of Labor Statistics was releasing
its monthly jobs report, a report
dent
that showed that Black employNorman Jones, woke up last Fri- ment for March stood at 14 perday, got dressed and went to the cent, virtually unchanged from
District of Columbia Department of the 14.1 percent rate in February.
Employment Services (DOES) for The overall unemployment rate
a job pre-screening session in in March was 8.2 percent. It was
hopes of landing employment that 7.3 percent for Whites and 10.3
has eluded him since last year. percent for Latinos.
The unemployment gap beJones was not alone – more than
100 people also stood in line, all tween Blacks and Whites has
existed for more than 50 years.
seeking employment.
On the same Friday that the Dis- And even though a myriad of
trict of Columbia residents were factors affect who gets hired and
who doesn’t, the role that race
plays in the process cannot be
ignored.
“Blacks are still largely subject
to separate and unequal neighborhoods and schools,” said
Algernon Austin, director of the
Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy
program at the Economic Policy
Institute. “They still face discrimination in the labor market, our
criminal justice policies still disproportionately impact Blacks beyond rates of offending.”
Steven Pitts, a labor policy specialist at the Center of Labor Re-
search and Education at the University of California-Berkeley, supports a novel approach to eliminate
discriminatory hiring.
“You have to ask the question,
‘Who decides who gets hired?’”
Pitts said. “For example, if a major
food chain wants to develop in an
community and public money is
involved, you can require them to
hire employees from that community through a third party.”
That third party would, in turn,
require applicants to meet certain
educational and training requirements. Under this scenario, once
those requirements were met, the
food chain employer would have to
hire those applicants.
By eliminating the employer from
the hiring process, it effectively
takes away their ability to discriminate against applicants based on
race, Pitts explained. He said, “We
have to find ways to empower
people to address those issues.”
Although the Black employment
rate is nearly twice that of Whites,
there are gender variations among
African-Americans as well. Black
3
Skipping a Trayvon grand jury
could lead to arrest of shooter
Saudi cleric issues fatwa to demolish
all Christian churches in Saudi Arabia
4
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Liberia president’s son
sues over ‘nepotism’ claims
One of the sons of Liberia’s
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
has reacted angrily to claims that
he is benefiting financially from
public positions he has been appointed to.
Robert Sirleaf is the president’s
third son and her senior adviser.
She recently made him chairman of the National Oil Company
of Liberia.
He wants $8m in damages from
the local Independent newspaper over a story about newly-discovered oil titled “Sirleaf’s oil or
Liberian oil?”
President Sirleaf was awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this
year, shortly before being reelected. She is Africa’s first
elected female head of state.
In his petition, the president’s
son describes the article as “diabolical” and “unsubstantiated”,
saying it was meant simply to
bring his office into public and
international ridicule.
He is also taking action
against Jefferson Kogie, an opposition politician, over an article
he wrote in The Analyst news-
paper.
That piece criticized President
Sirleaf’s decision to give her son
the oil company job, shortly after
making another of her sons deputy
governor of Liberia’s central bank.
‘Dinner table’
Mr Kogie’s article also suggested that Robert Sirleaf was on
the verge of becoming Liberia’s
first billionaire from the oil industry, and that the current political
arrangement could lead to major
decisions being taken around the
family’s dinner table.
Mr Kogie is being sued for $1m
and the newspaper for $2m..
Mr Sirleaf says that by publishing the political activist’s article
against the Sirleaf family, the paper had “failed to exercise the degree of responsibility associated
with the field of journalism.”
The BBC’s correspondent in
Liberia, Jonathan Paye-Layleh,
says the affair is embarrassing for
the president, who came to power
six years ago promising to end “an
imperial style of presidency” that
had become the norm in the West
African country.
Saudi Arabia’s top Muslim
leader recently issued a religious
decree calling for all Christian
churches on the Arabian peninsula to be demolished, a move that
elicited protests from the U.S. government and undermines recent
efforts in the kingdom to promote
interfaith tolerance.
Saudi Grand Mufti Sheikh
Abdulaziz Al al-Shaikh issued the
fatwa, or Muslim religious decree,
on March 11, although government-controlled media in the country so far have not reported it.
A U.S. official said the mufti’s
fatwa is causing embarrassment
for King Abdullah because alShaikh is said to be closely aligned
to the king and ruling royal family.
Some observers note that the
fatwa could put the mufti at odds
with the monarch.
Also, King Abdullah recently
sought to develop interfaith dialogue centers in Europe. The antiChristian edict is undermining
those efforts.
Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton raised the issue of the
fatwa during a meeting with the
king March 30.
A State Dept. official declined
to comment when asked if the
fatwa was raised during the meetings, but said “issues of religious
freedom and tolerance were raised
in the secretary’s bilateral meetings in Riyadh.”
According to State Department
officials who briefed reporters on
the March 30 meeting between
Clinton and the king, Clinton discussed the plight of women in
Saudi Arabia during her 1 hour and
40 minute talk.
The meetings included discussion of sanctions on Iran over its
nuclear defiance, Syria’s revolution, Yemen, oil, and “reform in the
Kingdom, including the role of
women,” a senior State Depart-
Muslim leader
ment official said after the meet- bishops in Germany, Austria, and
ing.
Russia criticized the cleric’s edict as
According to Arabic press re- a denial of human rights and reliports, the mufti made the com- gious freedom to millions of foreign
ments to members of Kuwait’s par- workers in the Persian Gulf.
liament, stating that building any
Archbishop Mark of
new churches in the Arabian Pen- Yegoryevsk, head of the Russian
insula is forbidden under Islamic Orthodox department for churches
law. He then went on to state that abroad, described the fatwa as
all existing churches in the region “alarming” in a statement March 20.
should be demolished, according The criticism by mainstream Christo Kuwait’s Arabic newspaper Al- tian leaders of their Islamic counterAnba.
parts is rare.
The comments followed a KuAustrian bishops also asked the
waiti government official’s call for Saudi government to explain the
ban on construction of new fatwa because of King Abdullah’s
churches.
plans to open a center for interfaith
The Muslim cleric’s edict is dialogue in Austria.
The grand mufti is the most selikely to cause a further rupture
with the West, which widely views nior religious law official in the Sunni
Saudi Arabia as a breeding ground Muslim kingdom. He also heads the
for Muslim terrorists. Fifteen of the Supreme Council of Ulema, or Is19 suicide aircraft hijackers who lamic scholars, and the Standing
carried out the September 11 at- Committee for Scientific Research
and Issuing of Fatwas.
tacks were Saudi nationals.
The mufti’s remarks followed an
According to reports from the
region, Christian leaders in Europe announcement on Twitter by Kuhave condemned the fatwa and waiti parliamentarian Osama Alcalled on Riyadh to explain the religious ruling.
Reuters reported that Christian
City opens first 8 innovative senior’ new model services centers
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
and Department for the Aging
Commissioner Lilliam BarriosPaoli have announced that the
City’s first eight Innovative Senior Centers are now open for the
City’s senior population.
Innovative Senior Centers offer a new model of centers for
older New Yorkers by providing
enhanced programming, including robust wellness programs,
additional access to health care
services, arts and cultural programs, as well as new technological and volunteer opportunities.
The innovative senior centers
also go beyond the offerings of
the traditional senior center to
include flexible and expanded
hours on evenings and weekends, and café-style flexible meal
times.
These centers include the
opening of the nation’s first ever
senior centers with programming
specifically for the LGBT and visually impaired communities.
Later this year, two additional Innovative Senior Centers are expected to open in Brooklyn .
Mayor Bloomberg made the
announcement at one of the
City’s eight new innovative senior centers– the Selfhelp Ben
Rosenthal Prince Street Senior
Center in Flushing, Queens . This
center will open alternate Saturdays, and for the first time offers
vegetarian meals on those days for
Flushing ’s underserved Hindu
community.
The Ben Rosenthal Center,
which serves over 400 seniors a
day, is also adding an Arthritis
Management program, expanding
its technology infrastructure to
help homebound seniors and creating new recreational and social
activities to further bolster its Saturday programming. The Mayor
and Commissioner were joined by
Stuart Kaplan, CEO of Selfhelp
Community Services
“We have charged our new senior center models with not simply
expanding their programs and services, but with re-imagining centers for the 21st century senior,” said
Mayor Bloomberg. “Our Administration will take on this challenge
as we have always done, by focusing on innovation, demanding
accountability, measuring results
and consistently improving to
meet the needs of our City’s older
New Yorkers and make ours truly a
‘City for all Ages.’”
“These innovative senior centers showcase the administration’s
commitment to an age-friendly
New York City ,” said Deputy
Mayor for Health and Human Services Linda Gibbs. “These spaces
not only provide services but also
engage older New Yorkers’ creativity and resourcefulness in a
way that builds support systems,
revitalizes individuals and
strengthens our community.”
“We are proud to partner with
Selfhelp as they are a pioneer in
using technology to improve the
well-being of its members and enable them to live independently
and securely in the privacy and
comfort of their own homes,” said
Aging Commissioner BarriosPaoli. “One of their first technology ventures was the Virtual Senior Center enabling homebound
seniors to participate in senior center classes and activities through
two-way video. They have expanded that program and added
Tele-Health kiosks, which are used
to help members monitor their own
health.”
Creating an enhanced senior
center model to better serve the
New York ’s more active and diverse senior population is a key
part of creating a more agefriendly city. While still providing
meals and opportunities to socialize with their peers, Innovative
Senior Centers are held accountable for producing vibrant pro-
grams, high participation rates and
better health outcomes for older
New Yorkers. Created in partnership with the Council of Senior
Centers and Services, Innovative
Senior Centers aim to reach a
larger population of older New
Yorkers and will work with individual center members to obtain
baseline health information upon
enrollment and will measure critical health outcomes over time.
Examples of specialized programming by the Innovative Senior
Centers:
Bronxworks ( Bronx )
* Community gardening through
the City’s Green Thumb program;
* Nutrition programs to help seniors who may have nutrition-related health issues; and
· Expansion of the Chronic Disease
Self-Management Program (both
English and Spanish versions);
and
* Geriatric mental health programming.
Lenox Hill ( Manhattan )
* Vegetarian and locally sourced
organic meals;
* Access to a swimming pool for
activities like a “Watercize” class
and an underwater photography
class, and a garden club that is
creating a rooftop garden;
* Pro-bono legal clinics; and
* Depression and alcohol screenings.
YM-YWHA ( Manhattan )
* Dinner cafe with self-service options;
* Programs such as classes on
Skype communication and bird
watching; and
* NY Public Library “Satellite
branch” to sign seniors up for library
cards and run a monthly book club.
Selfhelp Ben Rosenthal Senior Center ( Queens )
* Using technology in health and
wellness programs, including that
which helps improve cognitive acuity;
* Tele-Health kiosks to help members monitor their own health;
* Virtual senior center programming
enabling homebound seniors to participate in senior center classes and
activities through webcams; and
* Wellness coaching.
SNAP( Queens )
* Vegetarian meals;
* Specialty programming for the Indian immigrant community;
* Volunteer-run morning”Coffee
Club”
* Guest chef program—prominent
members of community preparing
favorite meals;
· Expanded mental health services
5
6
Editorial
The poverty industrial complex
New York
By Harry C. Alford
Beyond the Rhetoric
Beacon
Walter Smith: Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
Miatta Haj Smith: Co-Publisher & Executive Editor
William Egyir: Managing Editor
Clinton’s loose war talk
By Sheldon Richman
When President Obama spoke
before the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee some weeks
ago, he admonished those who
engaged in “loose talk of war”
about Iran. Apparently, his secretary of state, Hillary Rodham
Clinton, didn’t get the memo.
The Associated Press reported this week, U.S. Secretary
of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
made clear Saturday that time is
running out for diplomacy over
Iran’s nuclear program and said
talks aimed at preventing Tehran
from acquiring a nuclear weapon
would resume in mid-April. With
speculation over a possible U.S.
or Israel military attack adding
urgency to the next round of discussions in Istanbul set for April
13, Clinton said Iran’s “window
of opportunity” for a peaceful
resolution “will not remain open
forever.”
She also expressed doubt
about whether Iran has any intention of negotiating a solution that
satisfies the U.S., Israel and other
countries that believe Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons.
That’s another memo Clinton
seems not to have received. Both
American and Israeli intelligence
say that Iran has neither started
to build a nuclear weapon nor
even decided to do so in the future. Both also regard the Iranian
government as a “rational actor.”
(The American news media occasionally reports this, but then
goes back to stating, as though it
were uncontroversial, that Iran is
building a nuclear arsenal.)
So why the conflicting signals
from the U.S. government? This
conflict can be seen in Obama’s
own statements. While he calls for
diplomacy and warns against
loose war talk, he has imposed
harsh economic sanctions that
make the daily lives of average Iranians miserable, has rejected “containment,” and boasted that he
doesn’t “bluff.”
If Iran is not building a nuclear
bomb, if it has not decided to do
so, and if Obama wants to use diplomacy to discuss Iran’s uraniumenrichment program (which its
government says is for peaceful
purposes), why is he pushing
sanctions designed to bring the
Iranian economy down? Wouldn’t
it make more sense, if there is really something to negotiate about,
for Obama to treat the Iranian regime with respect?
The saber rattlers will say that
sanctions are needed to get Iran
to the negotiating table. But that’s
an evasion. The official experts, as
well as others, say no bomb is being built. Iran is doing what it is
free to do under the Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty — enriching
uranium for medical and energy
purposes. It is subjected to inspections and its uranium is under seal by the International
Atomic Energy Agency.
There is no constructive purpose to the sanctions and war talk.
Clinton aggravates an already
dangerous situation when she
talks ominously about windows
closing and clocks running. She
sounds bent on war, with Obama
just a bit less so.
Why?
Two reasons suggest themselves. It’s an election year. The
Republican presidential candidate
(unless it’s Ron Paul) can be expected to portray Obama as insufficiently bloodthirsty. Mitt Romney hopes we’ll ignore Obama’s
expansion of the criminal drone
war in Pakistan and Somalia, his
due-process-free assassination of
Americans in Yemen, his autocratic intervention in Libya, his
continuation of the brutal occupation of Afghanistan, and his
signing legislation to codify the
president’s power to detain even
American citizens indefinitely without charge or trial.
Romney’s foreign-policy
team are some of the same people
It’s time for us to figure this all
out. A giant scourge is in our pockets draining us of our precious
money. Our federal income tax revenue amounts to trillions of dollars. Yet, there is an evil system
out there that “sucks” at a trillion
of those dollars from us in various
ways. You hear about the Military
Industrial Complex that reaps its
federal dollars from the Departments of Defense, Energy, NASA
and others. But few realize the activities of the Poverty Industrial
Complex. Some critics refer to
these activities as “poverty pimping” but do not look at its origins
or what makes it exist and, in fact,
continually grow.
Poverty is real big business.
The more people we have living in
poverty, the more money is made
from the benefactors of other
people’s misery. The federal agencies that oversee these activities
include the Departments of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD), Health and Human Services, Labor, Justice and Agriculture. Silent and equally important
partners are the drug industry and
illegal immigration which creates
despair, violence and poverty in
many communities and also feed
our prison systems and jails with
20 percent of all the incarcerated
people in the world. These prisoners create a high demand for taxpaid law enforcement and judicial
employees. They also leave behind families who will be dependent on tax-funded welfare entities just to live and be housed.
Contrary to what they tell you, no
one in the Poverty Industrial Complex wants to decrease poverty or
even stabilize it. They want it increased and out of control. That
means more money. People in poverty are indeed “cash cows”.
Let me go through just one example of how this Poverty Industrial Complex works. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development gets about $50 billion
a year of your federal tax dollars.
Most of this money is distributed
to communities through Community
Development Block Grants and
housing money known as HOME
and HOPE VI to assist residents of
public housing. Section 8 certificates and low cost housing programs are also at play. All of this
money is subject to Section 3 of the
HUD Act (24CFR Part 135). Section
3 says that 30 percent of all new jobs
coming from HUD funding should
be given to people living in public
housing or below the poverty line.
Ten percent of all contracts coming
from HUD should go to Section 3
businesses (firms that hire Section
3 residents). In essence, millions of
new jobs for people living in poverty and billions of dollars in contracts going to the businesses that
hire them every year. Sounds beautiful right? There is one big problem
– it is not enforced. No recipient of
HUD money enforces this poverty
eliminator. Thus, the poverty grows.
Section 3 was created in 1968 by
HUD Secretary George Romney
(Mitt Romney’s father) as an answer
to street violence in Black neighborhoods such as the 1965 Watts riot.
It was strengthened in 1993 by HUD
Secretary Jack Kemp after the
Rodney King incident in Los Angeles. That is 53 years of missed opportunities. Administrations after
administrations have come and
gone without even chipping away
at poverty via Section 3 of the HUD
Act.
The Chicago Housing Authority is a typical example of noncompliance of Section 3. I have just received a copy of an audit done by
HUD of this housing authority,
Alvin Boutte: An unsung business hero
By William Reed
Business Exchange
Many African Americans don’t
even know a single Black entrepreneur. Most American Blacks
are unaware of the roles or accomplishments of Black entrepreneurs. So, the passing of one of
the country’s most influential
contemporary Black businessman
should be duly noted. Earlier this
month, Alvin Boutte Sr. died in his
home in Hazel Crest, Ill., outside
Chicago. He was 82.
Boutte fits the mold of a successful Black entrepreneur. He
was born in Lake Charles, La., and
earned a degree in pharmacy from
New Orleans’ historically-Black
Xavier University. When he later
moved to Chicago, the pharmacy
profession gave him a foothold
in the city’s business community.
Boutte started owning and operating his own drugstore, which
later grew into a chain of stores.
Boutte took pride, and identified with, his family’s Creole heritage. Maybe because of his orientation and family bonds, throughout his life Boutte was alert to
business opportunity and success
and was known as “tremendously
ambitious.” Boutte’s successes
offer proof of the advantages of
Blacks working together. In his
dealings with Chicago’s Black
businesspeople, Boutte became
acquainted with George Johnson,
purveyor of Ultra Sheen and Afro
Sheen hair products, and the two
started the Independence Bank,
which became the largest blackowned bank in the U.S. Independence was the first Black-owned
bank to purchase a substantial
White-owned bank when it acquired Drexel National Bank.
Boutte is to be emulated for the
way he “thought and acted
Black.” Chicago’s ground-breaking Black business community
also included John H. Johnson,
publisher of Jet and Ebony magazines. “When people talk about
Chicago being the Mecca for
Black business, it was because of
that generation of African-American leaders who showed the way,”
said John Rogers, chief executive
officer of Ariel Investments.
When Martin Luther King Jr.’s
civil rights campaign needed
funds to bankroll the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC), Boutte convened a meeting of Chicago’s Black business
leaders to raise $55,000. “He invited Dr. King to Chicago … he
was fundamental to those movements for justice,” said Jesse Jackson. A unique blend of businessman and activist, Boutte understood how success in business
and political progress are both
critical to the growth of Black communities. Boutte said that while
he never thought of himself as one
who would leave a legacy and
“hopes that people will remember
him as honest and successful.”
The spirit of Boutte continues
in the actions and deeds of a select few in Black enclaves. Between
2002 and 2007, the number of
Black-owned businesses in the
U.S. increased to 1.9 million. Blackowned firms saw their receipts rise
to $137.5 billion during those years.
The average revenue at those
businesses was $72,000 a year,
compared to an average of
$490,000 at those owned by
Whites.
For African Americans that
came of age during the civil rights
movement, much introspective on
our roles and relationships to capitalism is required. Integration distracted Blacks in the 1960s and 70s
from building our own businesses
and financial infrastructures. Too
many Blacks are ignorant of the
fact that the majority of new jobs
and opportunities are created in
the nation’s small business sector. Since 1987 the number of
Black-owned businesses soared. In
1987 America’s first Black corporate
billionaire, the late Reginald F.
Lewis, stood atop the Black Enterprise 100 Industrial/Service list. That
year his TLC Beatrice International
Holdings, an international food
company, had revenue of $1.8 billion.
Alvin Boutte and Robert
Maynard both enhanced the profile
and recognition of Black entrepreneurs. Each has now passed on, but
the Robert C. Maynard Institute for
Journalism Education’s legacy is still
being written. The Institute is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to expanding opportunities for minority
journalists at the nation’s newspapers. Robert Maynard became the
editor of the Oakland Tribune and
bought it in 1983, becoming the first
African-American to own a major
metropolitan newspaper.
William Reed is publisher of
Who’s Who in Black Corporate
America.
7
Trayvon Martin was standing his ground
By George E. Curry
NNPA Columnist
Most people are asking
whether Florida’s ‘Stand Your
Ground’ law should apply to
George Zimmerman, the 28-yearold neighborhood watch captain
who killed an unarmed Trayvon
Martin. That’s the wrong question. A better one is, given the circumstances, did the law protect
Trayvon when he physically confronted Zimmerman?
In a word, yes.
Looking at the 2005 law from a
different perspective – through
the eyes of 17-year-old Trayvon
instead of Zimmerman – is critical
because the debate over what
happened on Feb. 26 in Sanford,
Fla. is being misframed.
Some facts are undisputed:
Trayvon was walking home from
a nearby 7-Eleven store, where he
had purchased a bag of Skittles
and a can of Arizona iced tea,
when he was spotted by
Zimmerman, who was driving a
SUV. Zimmerman dialed 911 and
reported seeing a suspicious
Black male in the gated
townhouse community.
Though he had no proof,
Zimmerman claimed that Trayvon
appeared to be high on drugs.
When Zimmerman confirmed that
he was following Trayvon, the 911
operator specifically told him to
stop following Trayvon and that
police officers were on their way
to the scene. Instead of following
instructions, Zimmerman continued to follow Trayvon.
What happened next is unclear
because we are left only with
Zimmerman’s version of events.
We do know that shortly before
he was shot to death, Trayvon had
been talking on his cell phone with
his girlfriend. She later told
Trayvon’s family lawyer that he
told her he was being followed by
a strange White man. She urged
him to run away from him.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, Zimmerman told police he lost
sight of Trayvon and got out of
his SUV to follow him on foot.
Zimmerman said he was returning
to his vehicle when Trayvon allegedly approached him from the rear.
The two exchanged words and
began fighting. The neighborhood
watch captain claimed Trayvon
knocked him to the ground with a
punch in the nose. Zimmerman said
Trayvon climbed on top of him and
began slamming his head into the
sidewalk.
Zimmerman told police that he
began yelling for help, but two
voice experts hired by the Sentinel concluded that the voice heard
screaming for help on the 911
tapes was not that of the neighborhood watch captain. During
the scuffle, Zimmerman pulled his
9 millimeter semi-automatic handgun and fatally shot Trayvon
once in the chest.
Police said that when they arrived, Zimmerman was bleeding
from the nose, had a swollen lip
and had cuts on the back of his
head.
Those details were leaked by
police to the Orlando newspaper
in hopes of bolstering
Zimmerman’s case. However, even
if everything Zimmerman said is
true – which is doubtful – he was
clearly the aggressor, not the victim. He was the one who pursued
Trayvon against the advice of the
911 dispatcher. And with police
officers en route, he decided to
leave his SUV and hunt for
Trayvon.
Even supporters of Florida’s
Stand Your Ground law don’t believe Zimmerman should be al-
lowed to hide behind the controversial legislation.
State Rep. Dennis Baxley, the
Ocala Republican who sponsored
the bill in the House, told the
Tampa Bay Times, “They got the
goods on him [Zimmerman]. They
need to prosecute whoever shot
the kid. He has no protection under my law.”
Jeb Bush, who signed the bill
into law when he was governor of
Florida, agrees.
“This law does not apply to this
particular circumstance,” he said.
“Stand your ground means stand
your ground. It doesn’t mean
chase after somebody who’s
turned their back.”
Florida statute 776.013(3),
known as the Stand Your Ground
law, says, in part:
(a) person who is not engaged
in an unlawful activity and who is
attacked in any other place where
he or she has a right to be has no
duty to retreat and has the right to
stand his or her ground and meet
force with force, including deadly
force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to
prevent death or great bodily harm
to himself or herself or another or
to prevent the commission of a
forcible felony.
Trayvon was clearly operating
within those boundaries when he
faced-off against Zimmerman. He
was a guest in one of the
townhouses and therefore had an
undeniable reason to be in the neighborhood. He had no duty to retreat
simply because Zimmerman was the
aggressor. And Trayvon had every
right to believe that the person who
had been stalking him was intent
on inflicting great bodily harm.
Regardless of how Zimmernan’s
family tries to spin the facts, it was
Trayvon Martin who had the clear
right to stand his ground. Whatever
he did to Zimmerman was totally
justified. And Zimmerman had no
right to kill a 17-old-old youth carrying only a bag of candy and iced
tea.
George E. Curry, former editorin-chief of Emerge magazine, is editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News
Service and editorial director of
Heart & Soul magazine. He is a keynote speaker, moderator, and media
coach. Curry can be reached
through his Web site:
www.georgecurry.com You can also
follow him at:
www.twitter.com/currygeorge.
Young Blacks more optimistic about race relations
By Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr.
NNPA Columnist
Over the past 11 years, I have
had the opportunity to work
closely with the Godfather of HipHop, Russell Simmons. We cofounded the Hip-Hop Summit
Action Network (HSAN) in 2001.
We have convened more than 75
Hip-Hop Summits across the
United States, Canada, and in
South Africa, all dealing with such
empowerment issues as education, financial literacy, civic engagement, housing and cultural
transformation.
Summits that ranged in themes
from “Get Your Money Right” to
“Get Your House Right” drew
thousands of young people. One
of the essential findings that we
experienced in those youth summits was that young African
Americans today who consider
themselves to be in the hip-hop
generation see the question of
race from a more transcendent
and optimistic perspective than
from the views of their parents or
from generations the past.
Consequently, it was not surprising that a recent study by
CNN found that African-American children were more optimistic
on the issue of race than White
children of the same age categories. Although the study that was
commissioned by CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 was widely distributed through the news media,
it was strange to hear that somehow the “groundbreaking” results provided some new revela-
tions about racial progress in
America. The timing of the release
of this study was ironic given the
latest national divide on the issue
of race in the wake of the killing of
Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla.
How a 6-year-old child feels
about race or how a teenager or a
young adult understands the significance of race in society is often determined at a very early age
by what the child experiences or
observes from parents and others
who interact with them.
According to the study, “A
white child and a black child look
at the exact same picture of two
students on the playground but
what they see is often very different and what they say speaks volumes about the racial divide in
America. The pictures, designed to
be ambiguous, are at the heart of a
groundbreaking new study on children and race commissioned by
CNN. White and black kids were
asked: ‘What’s happening in this
picture?’ ‘Are these two children
friends?’ and ‘Would their parents
like it if they were friends?’”
The study concluded that there
was a significant “chasm” and difference between the racial perspectives of the youth involved in the
study who were as young as age
6.
CNN reported, “Overall, black
first-graders had far more positive
interpretations of the images than
white first-graders. In fact, only
38% of black children had a negative interpretation of the pictures,
whereas almost double – a full 70%
of white kids – felt something nega-
tive was happening.”
The study also revealed that by
the time Black children reach the
age of 13, their views about race
become much more pessimistic,
similar to the views of White children their age. An explanation was
offered by the study’s author,
Melanie Killen of the University
of Maryland: “Experiences of rejection and the harsh realities of
race relations most likely explain
the trend.”
The burden of eliminating racism and the ideology of White supremacy from the institutions of
this society and from the mindset
of people is not consigned to one
racial group versus another racial
group. In a multiracial society,
there has to be a full commitment
and serious responsibility for all
people to work together to bridge
the nation’s complex racial divide.
There is no question that we
have made racial progress during
the past 100 years in the United
States. There is also no question
that we have not overcome yet.
Our youth are intelligent and conscious of the ways that race still
is a discriminating factor that can
determine ones quality of life.
All youth, not African American
youth alone, have to rise to the
historical and contemporary challenges that must be faced and
transformed.
That is why, from my vantage
point, it is healthy for so many
young people to become energized in response to the tragedy
of Trayvon Martin. We all must
remain vigilant and active. There
is much more progress to be accomplished.
The 2012 national elections, the
reform of the educational system,
the upcoming Supreme Court rulings on health care, the attempts
in 30 or more states to suppress
the Black vote, and other issues
that will impact how our young
people and others can have a better life are all matters of urgent
concern. Let’s avoid cynicism and
fear of change. Let’s make social
change occur as the result of our
collective determination and
struggle for freedom, justice,
equality and empowerment. Our
race and our blackness are not a
curse. We are a blessed people with
a great future ahead, but we must
not relent or retreat in the face of
the resurgence of racial discrimination. Let’s continue to push forward
and make our nation and world a
better place for all.
Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. is president of the Hip-Hop Summit Action
Network and Education Online
Services Corporation and serves as
the national director for Occupy
the Dream. He can be reached at
drbenjamin.chavis@gmail.com
Suicide as a political act
By Julianne Malveaux
NNPA Columnist
Dimitris Christoulas was a retired pharmacist whose neighbors said he had enormous dignity.
At 77 years old, he looked forward to a life. He had saved during his 35-year career and did not
expect government to be involved in his pension.
But the austerity budget that
Greece has imposed on its citizens reduced Christoulas’ pension. So he killed himself after
writing in a suicide note that he
would rather have “a decent end”
than forage thorough garbage to
find enough “rubbage to feed
myself.”
Neighbors say he wanted to
send a political message. They
say the law-abiding man was a
committed leftist who was so meticulous that he paid his condo
fees ahead before taking his life.
The Christoulas suicide has mobilized many in Greece, some of
whom describe his act as one of
fortitude, not simply despair. Some
describe it as a “political act” because it took place in a public
square during the morning rush
hour. Generally, Greece has a lower
level of suicide than the rest of the
countries in the European Union,
but last year suicides rose by 45
percent, giving it one of Europe’s
highest rates.
Many attribute the increase in
suicides to the economic crisis.
Anecdotal cases are reported: of
the anchorman who killed himself
when his contract was not renewed, and of a man who set himself on fire when a bank foreclosed
on his home.
Opinion
8
African Scene
Mali President Toure resigns
in deal with coup leaders
Attacks in the area over Easter had been threatened by the Islamist
group Boko Haram
Nigerian Easter bomb
kills many in Kaduna
At least 38 people have died in
a car bombing in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna, officials
said.
Many others were injured in the
attack, which took place when
officials stopped the vehicle as it
approached a church.
Just hours afterwards, a bomb
exploded in the central city of Jos,
injuring several people.
No-one has admitted carrying
out the bombings, but suspicion
has fallen on Boko Haram, a militant group which had warned of
attacks over Easter.
Kaduna lies on the dividing line
between Nigeria’s largely Christian south and Muslim north.
The area has been the scene of
a religious conflict in recent years
that has claimed hundreds of
lives.
The blast in Kaduna took place
on a busy road in a central area
near restaurants and a hotel.
Witnesses say debris was
thrown dozens of metres from the
centre of the blast. Many of the
dead are thought to be motorcycle
taxi drivers and beggars.
Kaduna police commissioner,
Mohammad Jinjiri Abubakar, said
police had been pursuing a ve-
hicle when it collided with another
car and caused an explosion.
According to residents, the car
had been travelling towards a
church when it was turned away
at a roadblock, and then followed
by police.
“A suicide bomber in a vehicle
was moving towards the ECWA
Church and the All Nations Christian Assembly,” said Tony Udo, a
Kaduna resident, told Reuters
news agency.
“Security agents accosted and
repelled him. While he was driving away, the bomb went off at
Junction Road, near the Stadium
roundabout, killing the bomber
and some commercial motorcyclists,” he added.
“We were in the holy communion service and I was exhorting my
people and all of a sudden, we
heard a loud noise that shattered
all our windows and doors, destroyed our fans and some of our
equipment in the church,” Pastor
Joshua Raji said.
Meanwhile, security forces
helped evacuate those injured after an explosion in the Tudan
Wada area of Jos, a spokesman for
the national emergency management agency (NEMA) said.
President Amadou Toumani
Toure of Mali has formally resigned as part of a deal with coup
leaders to end the crisis gripping
the West African state.
International mediator Djibril
Bassole, Burkina Faso’s foreign
minister, confirmed a letter of resignation had been submitted.
The resignation paves the way
for the coup leaders to step aside
and the parliamentary speaker to
take over.
Mali has been grappling with a
separatist uprising in the north.
It intensified after the coup by
army officers on 22 March.
Mr Bassole, who represents
the West African regional bloc
Ecowas, met Mr Toure in the
Malian capital, Bamako.
“We have just received the formal letter of resignation from
President Amadou Toumani
Toure,” he told reporters.
“We will now contact the competent authorities so that the vacancy of the presidency would
be established and so that they
take the appropriate measures.”
Under the agreement, the
Malian parliamentary speaker,
Dioncounda Traore, will take
over as interim president and
govern with a transitional administration until elections are held.
Once he has been sworn in, Mr
Traore has 40 days to organize
this poll, the deal stipulates.
Mr Traore, who has been in
Burkina Faso since the coup was
launched, said as he left for
Bamako: “I am leaving for Mali
with my heart full of hope.
“My country has known enormous difficulties, but I am leaving with the hope the people of
Mali will come together to face
this adversity head-on.”
Ecowas has lifted sanctions it imposed after the coup and an amnesty has been agreed for the
Mali’s ousted President Amadou Toumani Toure was seen for the first
time since the coup
he was killed.
coup leaders.
The latter has started to impose
The coup, led by Capt Amadou
Sanogo, took place amid accusa- Sharia law in some towns.
Among the towns to have fallen
tions from the army that the government had not done enough to to the Tuaregs is Timbuktu, the
supress the insurrection in the 1,000-year-old desert city which is
now a Unesco World Heritage site.
north.
Unesco warned that the fighting
Since the coup, key towns in
northern Mali have fallen to could damage Timbuktu’s historic
Tuareg separatist rebels and their structures.
Human rights group Amnesty InIslamist allies.
The Tuaregs have called for ternational has warned of a major
their newly-named territory of humanitarian disaster in the wake
Azawad to be recognized as inde- of the rebellion.
Meanwhile, Ecowas is preparing
pendent, although this has been
rejected by the international com- a force of up to 3,000 soldiers which
could be deployed to stop the rebel
munity.
There are two main groups be- advance.
The Tuaregs, who inhabit the Sahind the rebellion: the secular National Movement for the Libera- hara Desert in the north of Mali, as
tion of Azawad (MNLA) and Ansar well as several neighbouring countries, have fought several rebellions
Dine, an Islamist group.
The MNLA is made up partly of over the years.
They complain they have been
Tuaregs who had fought in Libya
on the side of Col Muammar ignored by the authorities in
Gaddafi and returned to Mali after Bamako.
Malawi’s new president sacks police chief Mukhito
Malawi’s new President Joyce
Banda has sacked the country’s
police chief Peter Mukhito, state
media have reported.
Ms Banda was sworn into office on Saturday following the
death last week of President Bingu
wa Mutharika.
She had been vice-president
since 2009, but had fallen out with
Mr Mutharika and left his ruling
party.
No reason was given for Mr
Mukhito’s removal, but a BBC reporter says he had been accused
of mishandling anti-government
riots last year.
Mr Mutharika, 78, went into cardiac arrest on Thursday, although
his death was not confirmed until
Saturday.
He governed Malawi for eight
years, but was recently accused
of mismanaging the economy and
becoming increasingly autocratic.
Last year Mr Mutharika fell out
with the UK, the former colonial
power, which withdrew its direct
aid, accusing the Malawian government of mishandling the
economy and of failing to uphold
human rights.
Who is Joyce Banda?
* 1950: Born
* 2009: Elected vice-president
* 2011: Fell out with President
Bingu wa Mutharika but he failed
to have her removed from her post
* 2012: Sworn in as president after
Mr Mutharika’s death
* Southern Africa’s first female
head of state
* Has large charity to help educate and empower women
* Her father was a well-known musician; her sister was hired to work
The ex-police chief sat by Joyce Banda as she formally announced
Mr Mutharika’s death
in pop star Madonna’s school
in Blantyre says the former inspecThe country has suffered tor general of police first gained
shortages of fuel and foreign cur- notoriety last year when he quesrency since the UK and other do- tioned a lecturer over comparisons
nors cancelled aid.
he made between the uprisings in
The BBC’s Raphael Tenthani Tunisia and Egypt and the fuel cri-
sis in Malawi. The row eventually
led to the closure of the University
of Malawi’s Chancellor College.
Last July, at least 19 people were
shot dead by police during anti-government protests over the worsening economy. Following the
president’s death, there was speculation that Mr Mutharika’s inner
circle was trying to circumvent
Malawi’s constitution to prevent Ms
Banda from taking over and instead
install his brother, Foreign Minister
Peter Mutharika.
Officials say preparations are
being made to bring President
Mutharika’s body back from South
Africa, where he was taken after his
cardiac arrest.
Malawi is one of the poorest
countries in the world, with an estimated 75% of the population living
on less than $1 (60p) a day.
BOOK REVIEW
In his new book, private investigator William Dear claims to have
circumstantial evidence that suggests O.J. Simpson did not kill
Nicole Brown or Ron Goldman.
It’s often said that the only certainties in life are death and taxes.
But you can add “rehashing of
the O.J. Simpson case” to that list
— at least for the last 18 years
So it should come as no surprise that a new book has been
published about the 1994 murders
of Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole
Brown Simpson, and her friend,
Ron Goldman.
In 1995, a California jury acquitted O.J. Simpson of the killings. A
civil lawsuit, later filed by the victims’ families, resulted in a 1997
judgment finding Simpson liable
for the deaths and ordering him
to pay $33.5 million in damages.
The latest installment in the
Simpson library is not another “If
I Did It,” in which the former gridiron great speculated on how he
might have killed his former wife.
Instead, the new book points the
finger of guilt away from Simpson
and lays the blame on his son,
Jason Simpson.
“Everything we have in the
book is documented. It is not
theory or hypothesis. It is fact,”
renowned private investigator
William C. Dear told The
Huffington Post about his book,
“O.J. Is Innocent and I Can Prove
It.”
Dear’s 576-page “true account,”
according
to
Amazon.com, hit the shelves today, retailing at $18 for the hardcover edition.
In the investigation into the
murders of Brown and Goldman,
Jason Simpson was never considered a suspect or a person of interest. The 41-year-old lives in
Miami, where he reportedly works
as a chef. HuffPost was unable to
reach Simpson for comment Monday because his phone had been
disconnected.
But Dear said he has spent nearly
two decades looking into the case
and assembled a mountain of circumstantial evidence, which, he
said, suggests that O.J. Simpson
O.J. Simpson tries on the gloves that freed him from jail.
had nothing to do with the murders
of Brown and Goldman.
“I flew out two weeks after the
murders,” he said. “I climbed over
the back gate and walked the walkway to the front door, and that’s
when I realized O.J. could not have
done it. But he was there. He was
either there at the time or there afterwards [and] became part of the
crime.”
n his book, Dear claims that he
has the knife used in the murders,
along with photos and other evidence that suggest the true killer
was Jason Simpson, O.J.’s son with
his first wife.
“When I tell you we have the
weapon — we found the weapon in
Jason’s storage facility that he failed
to make payments on. We know he
carried it — his initials were
carved in the leather sheath,”
Dear said.
“We have emails from his
former roommates that were in
college with him. We have our
suspect’s diaries. We have his
forged time card, and we have the
vehicle he was driving on the
night of the murders,” said Dear.
The private investigator also
claims to have photos of Jason
Simpson wearing the knit cap that
was found at the murder scene.
But why? Why would Jason
Simpson kill Brown and
Goldman?
During O.J. Simpson’s trial,
prosecutors alleged that the defendant was obsessed with his
ex-wife, that he was prone to jeal-
ous rages and that he would stalk
her. Dear contends that Jason
Simpson has his own demons and
suffers from “intermittent rage disorder.”
“Our suspect at the time was
5’11" and 235 pounds,” Dear said.
“He was 24 years old, and he was
on probation for assaulting his
previous employer with a knife. In
addition to that, he’s had three attempted suicides and has been in
a psychiatric unit.”
O.J. Simpson Trial Quiz: Have
You Got What It Takes To Be A
Detective?
On the day of the murders —
June 12, 1994 — O.J. Simpson and
Nicole Brown attended a dance recital for their daughter. Dear alleges
that Jason Simpson was working
as a chef in a Beverly Hills restaurant and had put together a special
meal for the family. Brown, however,
did not attend.
“You’re dealing with a young man
who just weeks prior had checked
into a hospital where he said he was
out of his medication and was about
to rage,” Dear said. “I have no doubt
he had no intention of killing her,
but [he] confronted her and, as a
result, something happened.”
Dear said the diaries he obtained,
which were allegedly written by Jason Simpson, refer to the young
man’s obsession with knives and
the problems he was purportedly
dealing with.
One entry allegedly reads, “It’s
the year of the knife for me. I cut
away my problems with a knife. Anybody touches my friends — I will
kill them. I’m also tired of being Dr.
Jekyll [and] Mr. Hyde.”
O.J. Simpson was unavailable for
comment at the Lovelock Correctional Center in Lovelock, Nev.,
where he is serving a 33-year prison
sentence. In 2008, he was found
guilty of armed robbery and kidnapping for taking sports memorabilia
from a dealer at gunpoint.
While the book’s bombshell
claims have not been proved — authorities in California have yet to
comment on them — Dear insisted
he can back up every allegation.
“I have been inducted into the
Police Officer Hall of Fame as a private investigator, so my credentials
are not [that of] some idiot guy just
throwing it out there. My reputation is important to me. I would not
say any of this without a great deal
of backup,” Dear said.
Dear also contended that he has
managed to convince others that his
theory has merit.
“I recently did a speech in front of
533 law enforcement investigators
and prosecutors,” he said. “The first
statement I made was ‘How many
of you believe O.J. was guilty?’ and
everyone raised their hand. When
[my speech] was over, I asked the
same thing and only three people
voted guilty. So when you get law
enforcement and all these people to
take that position, that’s a pretty
strong position.”
Time running out to file claim in Black farmers discrimination case
in the Pigford II case.
By John Zippert
In December 2010, Congress apSpecial to the NNPA from the
propriated $1.25 billion to settle this
Greene County Democrat
case. Farmers who are successful
“Time is running out for Black in the case are eligible to receive a
farmers who want to make a claim $50,000 payment and a payment to
in the Pigford II – Black Farmers IRS to cover Federal income taxes
Class Action Discrimination Law- on the settlement. Depending upon
suit against the U. S. Department the number of successful claims the
of Agriculture. As of this Friday, amount of the payment made be reMarch 30, there are only six weeks duced on a prorated basis. As many
(42 days) left in the 180 day claims as 90,000 Black farmers may be eliperiod, which ends May 11, 2012 gible to receive this settlement.
The claims facilitator in Portland
” said Ralph Paige, Executive Director of the Federation of South- Oregon, EPIQ, has a list of all perern Cooperatives, a leading orga- sons who met the original “late claim
deadline” of September 15, 2000 and
nization of Black farmers.
The Pigford II claims process has been sending them an individuis for Black farmers who believe alized, bar-coded claim form, to use
they were discriminated against in making their claim.
Farmers who have not received a
by USDA and made a “late” claim
in the original case (Pigford I) by claim form should contact the fathe deadline of September 15, cilitator at 877-810-8110, to request
2000. Other farmers who have their individualized claim form.
proof they made a request to file Many farmers have changed their
a late claim between September addresses in the decade since 2000
16, 2000 and June 18, 2008, may and that may be the reason why
be able to file a “late-late” claim they have not received a form.
Many of the original claimants in the case are now deceased. There are provisions in
the settlement for their next of kin
or heirs to file a claim on their behalf. Persons filing on behalf of a
deceased relative must furnish a
death certificate for the claimant
and must know the details and
circumstances of their farming
operation and USDA loan or
non-loan program denial.
Other farmers did not officially
make a timely late claim petition
and therefore are not included on
this EPIQ list. If you are not on
the list you must have some kind
of written documentation that
you did request to file a late claim,
from an official in the Pigford
case, between September 16,
2000 and June, 18 2008 or you will
not be included in the class of
claimants for this lawsuit.
Once a Black farmer receives
his or her claim form, it is recommended that you contact the
class counsel lawyers through
the same phone number-877-8108110 – to make an appointment to
fill out your claim. The class counsel lawyers will help fill out your
claim at no cost. There is a list of
times and places where the class
counsel lawyers will assist with
claims on the website:
www.blackfarmercase.com
You can fill out your own claim
if you wish, you can utilize your
own lawyer and you can get help
from community advocates, like
the staff of the Federation and
other farmers groups in the Network of Black Farm Organizations.
Do not pay anyone to fill out your
form. The Class Counsel has
agreed to provide lawyers at no
cost to fill out these forms. If someone offers to charge you to get
into the case, fill out forms, or help
in other ways for payment – please
report them to Class Counsel or
community organizations.
The claim form asks the farmer a
set of questions about the years
they farmed or attempted to farm
(this lawsuit applies only to the 15
year period from 1981 through
1996); the size, location and type of
their farm or farms; the crops and or
livestock they raised or intended to
raise; the USDA loan(s) or other
non-loan programs or services they
were seeking from Farmers Home
Administration or Farm Service
Agency; the discriminatory treatment they received from USDA;
and whether they complained about
their treatment and to whom.
“Many farmers are under the impression that they have already
made a claim”, said Ralph Paige,
Executive Director of the Federation
of Southern Cooperatives. “This is
not the case. We have been fighting for ten years for late claimants
to have their cases heard on their
merits. Farmers will now get that
chance and have the opportunity
to make their case on their claim
form. Our staff will be available to
New book says O.J. Simpson did not kill his wife, Ron Goldman
9
10
AUDREY'S Luminous nights at Metropolitan Museum hosted
SOCIETY by Multicultural Audience Development Initiative
WHIRL
By Audrey J. Bernard
Lifestyles & Society Editor
The Multicultural Audience
Development Initiative (MADI) is
an integral part of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. MADI reflects the Museum’s founding
mission to educate and inspire by
reaching out to all of its constituencies, including the many diverse communities that comprise
the tri-state area. MADI’s objectives are to heighten awareness
of the Museum’s collections and
programs, to increase participation in its activities, and to diversify its visitorship and membership.
From day one, MADI hit the
ground running by hosting many
diverse events and programming.
Some of those electrifying events
have included lion dancers performing in the Great Hall to celebrate Lunar New Year; a mariachi
band serenading in the Vélez
Blanco Patio; and a beautiful
dance interpretation of the story
of Diwali.
This year started off with a
bang! MADI hosted three exhilarating events that included a fabulous reception featuring fine finger food, cheese, fruit, wine and
entertainment.
On Tuesday, January 24, 2012,
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
four-star staff — director & CEO
Thomas P. Campbell, president
Emily K. Rafferty, senior vice
president for external affairs
Harold Holzer, chief audience development officer Donna Williams
— and MADI’s dynamic development advisory committee presented a private viewing and reception for the Galleries for
Paintings, Sculpture, and Decorative Arts and the completion of
The New American Wing that officially opened on Monday, January 16, 2012.
The expanded, reconceived,
and dramatic new galleries
marked the third and final phase
of the mega renovation project
comprising 25 renovated and enlarged galleries for the Museum’s
collection of American art – “one
of the finest and most comprehensive in the world.”
The refurbished American
Wing provides visitors with a rich
and captivating experience of the
history of American art from the
18th through the early 20th century. The suite of elegant new galleries encompasses 30,000 square
feet for the display of the
Museum’s superb collection. The
centerpiece of the new installation
is Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze’s
monumental and iconic painting
The centerpiece of the new installation is Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze’s monumental and iconic painting Washington Crossing the Delaware.
Era of the Revolution
Portraiture in the Grand Manner
Washington Crossing the Dela- 2012, MADI partnered with
Yvonne Y.F. Chan, Henry Tang,
ware.
The range of elegant new gal- Alexander Tsui, and Bonnie Wong
leries will provide visitors with to host a private viewing of Chitwenty-one galleries featuring the nese Art in an Age of Revolution:
exceptional collection of American Fu Baoshi (1904-1965) and a repaintings including such masters ception in honor of Lunar New
as Gilbert Stuart, Frederic Edwin Year: The Year of the Dragon. The
Church, Winslow Homer, Thomas exhibition runs to April 15, 2012 at
Eakins, and John Singer Sargent. the Galleries for Chinese Painting
Other captivating collections and Calligraphy, 2nd floor, north
include American sculptures, no- wing. Fu Baoshi is perhaps the
tably the work of Augustus Saint- most original figure painter and
Gaudens. In addition, three other landscapist of China’s modern pegalleries, along with a grand pre- riod. The artist created indelible
revolutionary New York interior, images celebrating his homeland’s
will feature 18th-century American cultural heritage while living
decorative arts, principally trea- through one of the most devastatsures of colonial furniture and sil- ing periods in Chinese history.
ver. In the Henry R. Luce Center
He was eight years old in 1912
for the Study of American Art, a when China’s last imperial dynasty
concurrent renovation includes was overthrown and the Chinese
additional casework, touch-screen Republic was established. He subcase labels, and upgraded com- sequently witnessed the divisive
puter access.
warlord era and Communist rebelOn Wednesday, February 1, lion of the 1920s, the Japanese in-
Faces of the Young Republic
The Metropolitan Museum of Art executives-(Left to Right) Thomas P.
Campbell, Donna Williams, Emily K. Rafferty, Harold Holzer
(Photo by Don Pollard-Metropolitan Museum of Art).
vasion and occupation of eastern China from 1937 to 1945, and
the Communist Revolution and
establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Over the
last 15 years of his life, his art
reflected China’s political transformation under Mao Zedong.
This exhibition presents Fu’s
40-year career with some 70 paintings, including many of the
artists’s recognized masterpieces, drawn from the preeminent holdings of the Nanjing Museum. The exhibition, augmented
by superb works from a local private collection, is the most comprehensive treatment of the
artist’s oeuvre ever presented.
On Monday, March 19, 2012,
MADI hosted a very special
evening to celebrate Women’s
History Month themed. MADI
hosted Independent Identities:
Women Artists in the New American Wing. Following remarks by
Thayer Tolles, Curator; H. Barbara
Weinberg, Alice Pratt Brown Curator of American Paintings and
Sculpture guests viewed Portraits
in Miniature in the New American
Wing that included: Mrs.
Beckington, Beauty Revealed;
Daphne; A Young Mother; Girl
Dancing; Girl Skating; Head of a
Spanish Peasant; Lilacs in a Window (Vase de Lilas a la Fenetre);
Mother and Child (The Oval Mirror); and Lady at the Tea Table.
“The Multicultural Advisory
Committee, made up of local executives and community leaders from a
range of diverse organizations, is
crucial to the success of this Museum,” stated Campbell. “With their
help and guidance, we are able to
make all New York City citizens feel
welcome and at home at the Met,
and know that we can all trace our
heritage back to the art in our grand
and encyclopedic permanent collection.” (Photos courtesy MMA)
11
Fashion, Beauty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .& Stuff
By Audrey Adams
Consciously indulge in feeling good
Audrey Adams
Does this sound like you?
The week’s not even over and
you’re already stressed about
your weekend chores: washing,
ironing, cooking and cleaning,
errands, family obligations and
preparing for the next week
(such as planning for what you
couldn’t get done over the weekend). You know the drill. So, it’s
no surprise that you are feeling
a bit frazzled, and wishing for
some, “Calgon take me away”
downtime. And don’t feel guilty;
it’s okay to take a few precious
minutes for weekend self indulgence.
Manicures, pedicures, facials, getting your hair done, dinner at a nice restaurant and the
like are great—and might help
you look and feel better—but
they are fleeting moments. So
how about thinking of another
way to indulge? You can still do
the regular stuff but, what I am
about to suggest is just an additional component, another perspective; one that may actually
have longer-lasting results in
making you feel better and
“beautiful” in spite of your
stress.
First start by counting your
blessings, then assess how significant your problems really are. We
all go through stressful times, but
regardless of what you are experiencing, you won’t have to look far
to find someone who has is less fortunate.
At least you are able to consider
spending a couple of bucks on yourself to do something. Look beyond
yourself and do something completely selfless for someone else.
Skip your manicure, pedicure or facial, and instead give it as a gift certificate to someone who has never
received one or who is going
through personal or financial hard
times.
There is also something else you
can give to others, and it’s free—a
smile, that’s right, smile with a love
that comes from your heart! It may
sound corny, but as the old song
goes, “What the world needs now
is love sweet love.” You are an integral part of the world environment,
so contribute your love to it. Then
you will see how the joy of giving
to others will make you glow from
the inside out in a way that no cosmetic treatment ever could. Your
true beauty will radiate from that internal glow—a radiance that no lipstick, moisturizer, hairstyle or facial
could ever duplicate. Basically, think
of my suggestion of feeling better
and beautiful through “selfless indulgence” as in the old make-up
rule: “Before you apply foundation,
your face (e.g. your spirit), should
be a clean canvas.” Think about it.
Visit my website,
THEADAMSREPORT.com and
checkout my online radio show,
Talk! with Audrey for a series
of interviews that will inform,
motivate and inspire you. Discover your personal power and
use it to create the life you want.
Tune in to listen to a live broadcast of TALK! with AUDREY . . .
every Tuesday from 6:00 to 7:00
P.M. on Harlem ’s WHCR 90.3
FM.
RADIO ON DEMAND:
This week’s features on
THEADAMSREPORT.com
This week on TALK! with
AUDREY: Just in case you
hadn’t noticed . . . Motherhood
and women have changed! So
why are we still trying to fulfill
the old expectations of being a
mom, wife and woman?
Jennifer Pate and Barbara
Machen authors of THE MOTHERS OF REINVENTION: Reclaim Your Identity, Unleash
Your Potential, Love Your Life
join me on TALK! with AUDREY
to talk about what it means to
be a woman and a mother in
today’s world and how to
change the dynamics of your
career and life in the process. To
listen anytime visit:
www.theadamsreport.com
Audrey Adams, former director of corporate public relations and fashion merchandising for ESSENCE continues to
motivate and inspire women
through her syndicated columns and motivational speaking engagements. E-mail your
fashion, beauty and lifestyle
questions or comments to her
at:
Audrey@THEADAMSREPORT.com
Rev. Jamal Bryant
Black Church Initiative
urges justice for Trayvon
The National Black Church
Initiative (NBCI), a faith-based
coalition of 34,000 churches
comprised of 15 denominations
and 15.7 million African Americans morally pleads with Attorney General Eric Holder to bring
justice to this egregious, racially
motivated crime.
The Black Church calls on
those in power to recognize that
a threat to American democracy
is at hand unless George
Zimmerman is arrested and prosecuted for murder. To not arrest
George Zimmerman is to undermine the rule of law and to call
Lady Justice a moral liar. Is justice blind or not?
“America has to make a decision here - whether it is going
to embrace justice and fight to
erase the racial tensions that
continue to divide our nation.”
says Rev Anthony Evans, president of NBCI. “The government
must decide or whether it will
idly stand by while African
Americans continue to be the
targets of unjustified violence
and profiling. Bring justice to
Trayvon and his family.”
The Black community has risen
up in outrage over the killing of
Trayvon Martin, an innocent child
who was shot down because he
was simply a young black man in
a hooded sweatshirt. Trayvon
Martin was racially profiled, but
no one saw or understood the
righteousness of his soul.
Trayvon Martin has exposed the
dirty secret that we are not in a
post racial America simply because we have elected Barack
Obama to the presidency. Trayvon
Martin is all of our 17 year old
boys, whether black, white, Latino
or other.
The legal community has not
moved with alacrity to find justice for Trayvon Martin. George
Zimmerman represents the worst
of the American soul because he
arbitrarily took a life when he had
no authority to do so, thus undermining God’s intention for
Trayvon Martin’s life, and lighting a powder keg of racial division not seen since the ‘60’s. He
thought that he would be hailed
as a hero for killing a young black
thug, thus realizing his wicked and
a sick notion of himself.
HSA founder’s day celebrations to honor institution’s founder
On April 21 from 12 p.m. until
4p.m., Harlem School of the Arts
(HSA) www.hsanyc.org located
at the corner of 141st Street and
St. Nicholas Avenue, will host
Founder’s Day honoring the life
and prestigious career of the
institution’s founder. Dorothy
Maynor was an internationally
acclaimed soprano who performed at the inaugural ceremonies of Presidents Harry S.
Truman in 1949 and Dwight D.
Eisenhower in 1953, making her
the first African American to ever
sing at a presidential inauguration.
The celebration, which will
commemorate the day that HSA
was incorporated, will be an afternoon filled with free class demonstrations, HSA student performances, tours of the 37,000
square foot building, street fair
and family entertainment. In addition, there will be appearances
by celebrity guest artists and a
live remote broadcast with
WQXR’s Terrance McKnight.
”We are really excited about
HSA’s Founder’s Day because
it’s a long overdue opportunity
to let everyone know about the
historical contributions that Dorothy Maynor made to the arts,
including creating this institution
which has transformed the lives and
dreams of more than 50,000 young
people through the power of the arts
for nearly 50 years,” says Yvette
Campbell, President & CEO of The
Harlem School of the Arts.
HSA has been a cornerstone of
the Harlem community since 1947
when Maynor first opened its doors,
then known as School of the Arts
of the St. James Community Center,
Inc. and later renamed Harlem
School of the Arts. What began as
piano classes with approximately 20
students in the basement of the St.
James Presbyterian Church has
since grown into a 37,000 square
foot facility offering world-class arts
training in all four disciplines: music, dance, theatre, and the visual
arts. Today, HSA continues to push
the envelope with the addition of
programs such as the HSA Family
Enrichment Series, as well as partnerships with Third Street Music
School Settlement’s Philharmonia
Orchestra and the Disney Theatrical Group, creating the first ever official children’s version of Disney’s
landmark musical phenomenon,
The Lion King.
“Throughout the year, we at HSA
take the opportunity to open our
doors to everyone because we want
people throughout New York City
to know about us and to experience
first-hand what we have to offer,”
says Campbell. “What makes this
Founder’s Day special is that we
pay tribute to a woman who was a
pioneer and trailblazer, who committed her life, after performing around
the world, to providing arts education to the young people of Harlem.”
On May 12th, Maynor will receive the ultimate honor as the corner of St. Nicholas Avenue at 141st
Street will be officially named Dorothy Maynor Place, forever reminding the residents of and visitors to
Harlem about HSA and the woman
whose legacy continues to live on
in the young people who enter the
building’s doors as students and
leave as emerging artists who seek
to make their own marks in the world.
For nearly a half-century, The
Harlem School of the Arts (HSA)
has transformed the lives of tens of
thousands of young people ages 418 through world-class training in
the arts. HSA stands unique among
community arts institutions in New
York City, as the sole provider of
arts education in four disciplines
(music, dance, theater and visual
arts) under one roof-our award-winning 37,000 square foot facility.
HSA’s mission empowers young
people mainly from under-served
Dorothy Maynor
THE ADAMS REPORT
12
Beacon On The Scene
Figure Skating in Harlem celebrates
th
milestone 15 anniversary benefit gala
By Audrey J. Bernard
In 1997 Figure Skating in
Harlem (FSH) began with a
handful of girls from East
Harlem who wanted to figure
skate. Now some fifteen years
later, the organization is comprised of 200 girls and still going strong.
As a full-fledged education,
fitness and mentoring program
preparing these girls for higher
education, healthy lifestyles
and the skills to achieve their
highest aspirations, this exceptional pioneering not-for-profit
organization continues to use
the discipline and artistry of ice
skating combined with the
power of education to inspire
generations of young women
to succeed in all aspects of life.
On Monday, April 2, 2012,
more than 600 guests strapped
up their skates and joined FSH
for the milestone celebration at
its signature benefit event
Skating with the Stars at the
Wollman Rink in Central Park
in New York City.
The spectacular skating soiree included a night of ice skating, autographs, photos, dinner and star watching. The
stellar benefit gala raised approximately $700,000. This
amount will increase favorably
once the Skating with the Stars
auction – that runs through
April
17,
2012
at
www.charitybuzz.com/fsh —
officially closes.
Auctioneers will be able to
bid on such unique items as a
chance to meet President William “Bill” Clinton, Vera Wang,
Soledad O’Brien, Carson
Kressley, Brian Boitano, Watch
What Happens Live host Andy
Cohen, Sophie & Katherine
from DC Cupcakes, and many,
many more.
The festive evening honored
international fashion designer
Vera Wang and dynamic Figure
Skating in Harlem patron Ellen
Lowey and Harlem artist and
entrepreneur Rhonda RossKendrick.
Rhonda who received the
coveted star leadership award
was cheered on by her legendary mother Diana Ross, her
husband, jazz musician Rodney
Kendrick, their son Raif-Henok
Emmanuel Kendrick, her father
Robert Ellis Silberstein, and her
Aunt Dr. Barbara Ross-Lee.
Funds raised from the event
will benefit FSH’s innovative
academics and fitness program
for underserved girls, transforming the lives of these 618year-olds and helping them
to grow in confidence, leadership, and academic success.
Through its unique programming, FSH empowers young
girls by combining educational,
artistic, and fitness opportuni-
Rodney Kendrick, Diana Ross, Vera Wang, Rhonda RossKendrick holding son Raif Kendrick, Robert Ellis Silberstein,
Dr. Barbara Ross-Lee
Figure Skating in Harlem Students performing at gala
Scott Hamilton, Vera Wang
b michael, Tamara Tunie
Courtney Oliver, Sharon Cohen, Soledad OBrien, Candace Matthews
Rod Gilbert, Paul Wylie
ties through the discipline of skating. Proceeds from the gala are
vital and will provide continued
support of FSH which is constantly
growing to meet the needs of the
girls it serves as it expands into its
new Leading Edge Academic Center and plans for the creation of a
home ice rink of its own to anchor
in the community.
“FSH is a vital resource for girls
in some of the most under-served
communities in New York City. We
are continuing to expand our programs as we plan for a future home
ice rink of our own with state-ofthe-art educational facilities to an-
Allison Schnierov Fisch, Stephen & Kimberly Bollenbach, Sharon
Cohen, Candace Matthews
Kenneth Cole, Neil Cole, Terry Lundgren, Jeff
Tweedy
chor in the community,” commented FSH’s founder and executive director Sharon Cohen.
The event attracted the crème
de la crème of movers and shakers including designers Kenneth
Cole, and b michael, business
moguls Donald Trump, Terry
Lundgren and Stephen Bollenbach,
and television personalities
Soledad O’Brien, Tamara Tunie,
Jake T. Austin, Rebecca Budig,
BD Wong, Harry Smith, Kevin &
Dani Jonas, Emme, New York
Rangers legend Rod Gilbert, and
Celebrity Apprentice stars Dee
Snider and Dayana Mendoza.
Tina & Terry Lundgren, Ellen Lowey
FSH students with Adam Rippon and Dr. William King
Throughout the evening,
guests skated with Olympic legend Scott Hamilton, reigning
Olympic Champion Evan
Lysacek, and many more Olympic and world-class skaters; as
well as the entire 2012 United
States World Team.
Donald Trump and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star and
FSH board chair emerita Tamara
Tunie served as honorary chairs.
Allison Schneiroy Fisch, partner,
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher &
Flom LLP, Candace S. Matthews,
chief marketing officer, Amway,
and Teresa A. Teague, partner,
Goldman Sachs, served as cochairs. Kimberly & Stephen
Bollenbach and Terry & Tina
Lundgren served as event chairs.
This year’s celebrity benefit
committee included Lorraine
Bracco, Gloria Gaynor, Rod Gilbert,
Whoopi Goldberg, Carson
Kressley, Christopher Meloni,
Phylicia Rashad, Montel Williams,
and many more. An inaugural gala
dinner celebrating 15 years of FSH
was held at the famed Central Park
Boathouse following the skating
portion of the night.
(Photos courtesy Figure Skating
in Harlem)
13
THEATER with Second Night Reviewer Audrey J. Bernard
14
Tracie Bennett stars as Judy Garland in
acclaimed bio-drama End of the Rainbow
End of the Rainbow Marquee
at Belasco Theatre (Photo by
Walter McBride)
End of the Rainbow made its
Broadway premiere Monday
night, April 2, 2012 at the Belasco
Theatre, 111 West 44th Street,
Times Square, New York City to
rave reviews. Starring two-time
Oliver Award-winner Tracie
Bennett as Judy Garland with
Michael Cumpsty, Tom
Pelphrey, and Jay Russell, the
play is already being touted as a
Tony favorite. Bennett is joined
onstage by a tremendously talented trio — Michael Cumpsty,
Tom Pelphrey and Jay Russell.
Playwright Peter Quilter’s
acclaimed bio-drama about the
legendary Garland is poignantly
directed by the Tony Award winning Terry Johnson who will
have you laughing and crying at
the same time.
The setting is December 1968,
and Judy Garland is about to
make her comeback... again. In a
London hotel room preparing for
a series of concerts, with both
her new young fiancé and her
adoring accompanist, Garland
struggles to get “beyond the
rainbow” with her signature
cocktail of talent, tenacity, and
razor-sharp wit. This comedic
drama offers unique insight into
the inner conflict that inspired
and consumed one of the most
beloved figures in American
popular culture.
Bennett’s interpretation of
Garland is so transformative that
you will click your heels together
when you leave the theatre and
wish to go home so that you can
spread the word about this “must
see” play and Bennett’s performance of a lifetime.
Bennett’s got every nuance of
the famed actress down to perfection – whether delivering lines
with razor sharp wit or performing any one of Garland’s signature songs, to her bout with demonic drugs.
The acting is so believable
that you’ll find yourself feeling
her pain and rooting for her to
triumph over her need for drugs.
To be a victor . . . not a victim.
Garland died of an accidental
drug overdose at 47. You know,
I couldn’t help but think about
the recent loss of Whitney Houston who also died from drugs at
the tender age of 48. Now they
both have eased on down a road
travelled by stars that have
transitioned much too soon.
The creative team of End of
the Rainbow includes William
Dudley (scenic & costume design), Christopher Akerlind
(lighting design), Gareth Owen
(sound design), Charles G.
LaPointe (hair & wig Design),
Chris Egan (orchestrations),
Gareth Valentine (musical ar-
Rainbow Curtain Call-Jay Russell, Tom Pelphrey, Tracie Bennett, Michael Cumpsty (Photo by Walter McBride)
rangements), Jeffrey Harris (musical director), and Seymour Red
Press (music coordinator). O&M
is the press representative.
Following the show, guests attended a fabulous post party celebration at The Plaza hosted by
the show’s proud producers Lee
Dean, Laurence Myers, Joey
Parnes, Ellis Goodman, Chase
Mishkin, Shadowcatcher Entertainment/Alhadeff Productions,
National Angels U.S. Inc.,
Charles Diamond/Jenny Topper,
Rainbow poducers Lee Dean, Hilary Williams
and Joey Parnes with Tracie Bennett
Rainbow producer
John Johnson with
wife Kristen
Myla Lerner/Barbara & Buddy
Freitag, Spring Sirkin/Candy
Gold, Hilary Williams; and S.D.
Wagner and John Johnson in association of Guthrie Theater.
(Party Photos by Bruce Glikas/
Broadway.com)
Molly Ranson (Carrie), Montego
Glover (Memphis)
Rainbow curtain call-Tracie
Bennett (Photo by Walter
McBride)
Rainbow musical director Jeffrey Saver
(r), Jay Russell
Rainbow Music coordinator Seymour Red
Press and his wife
Tracie Bennett kisses playwright Peter Quilter
Rainbow director Terry Johnson,
Tracie Bennett, Nick Cunningham
Rainbow 4-star cast: Jay Russell, Tom Pelphrey, Tracie Bennett,
Michael Cumpsty
Tracie Bennett with sister Debra
Birstwistle and mother Marjorie
Michael Cumpsty with partner Falk
John Diaz
Compiled by Audrey J. Bernard
The Tisch School of the Arts
at New York University expects a
distinguished list of alums to attend their annual gala, Ordinary
Miraculous: Celebrating Vision,
on Thursday, April 19, 2012 at the
New York Marriott Marquis in
Times Square, New York City.
The event will attract famous
alumni such as Martin Scorsese
and Alec Baldwin. For the past
two decades, Dean Mary Schmidt
Campbell has served as a pioneer
in arts education. This year’s gala
event will applaud her transformational leadership and celebrate
what my education gave me and
has given others and why I enjoy
giving back,” said Martin Scorsese.
“I have watched Dean Campbell
strengthen and grow this extraordinary school over the last 20
years and am honored to join with
Alec and others on April 19th to
celebrate her accomplishments
and her leadership.”
Ordinary Miraculous is a celebration
of the Tisch community
Martin Scorsese
Mary Schmidt Campbell
Alec Baldwin
that has altered the cultural landthe school’s faculty, students and I could make movies, I also un- scape and the future change makalumni.
derstood that I needed to. There ers who will continue that legacy.
“When I walked into film school was no going back. NYU’s Tisch The red carpet event will include
at Washington Square College in School of the Arts, especially the
1960, everything changed. Not faculty, has helped thousands to
only did I understand quickly that believe in themselves. That is
a champagne reception, live performances and a star studded tribute to Tisch. The evening will be
pro duced and directed by Bill
Castellino.
“I am honored to be part of this
special celebration of Dean
Campbell’s 20th year leading Tisch
School of the Arts,” said Alec
Baldwin. “As many of you know, I
owe a great deal to this school.
Graduating from Tisch was one of
the most meaningful experiences of
my career. Throughout its history,
this school has had a profound impact on our cultural landscape.”
Innovative senior’ new
Struggling waitress to keep $12G model services center
tip seized by police, says attorney
(from Page 4)
Police in Moorhead, Minnesota, will return a $12,000 tip they
seized from a struggling local waitress, her attorney said on Thursday.
Stacy Knutson, a server at the
Fryn’ Pan Restaurant in
Moorhead, got the tip back in
November from a customer who
left a takeout box inside the restaurant.
Knutson followed the customer
out to parking lot and tried to give
her the box but the woman told
her to keep it. When Knutson
opened it, she found $12,000 in
cash.
Knutson, a mother of five, called
local police and turned in the cash
as lost property.
At first, police said the cash
would be hers if it remained unclaimed for 60 days, according to
the lawsuit Knutson filed against
the department.
At the end of the 60 days, however, the department told Knutson
she would have to wait another 30
days to get the money.
Then police told her she would
not receive the money at all because it smelled of marijuana and
had been seized under a state law.
Police offered Knutson a $1,000
as a reward for turning the cash in.
She refused the reward and filed
and linkages with larger community developing a network of care;
and
· “Breakfast for Your Brain” and
other cognitive wellness programs
JCCof Staten Island
· Unique health promotion program utilizing JCC ’s fully
equipped and staffed fitness center—including an Olympic-size
swimming pool.
SAGE (Citywide)
· First of its kind center providing
congregate and social services to
NYC’s LGBT seniors;
· Healthy meals program includes
nutritional counseling, green market initiatives, food pantry, and
frozen take-home weekend meals;
and
· Mental health programming designed specifically for the LGBT
population.
Visions (special populations/
Citywide)
United States. Israel-partisans in · Services designed to provide a
the U.S. media routinely channel
Netanyahu’s war talk to the AmeriHHC and Grenada university enter partnership
can public in order to build sympathy for the nonexistent Iranian
with their medical school loans.
(from Page 2)
threat to Israel.
Seventy-eight percent of U.S. mediObama says he wants peace not
cal students have a student loan
war. When will he begin to act like
debt of $100,000 or greater. In 2010,
it?
tunity when I was a medical stu- medical students graduated from
Sheldon Richman is senior fel- dent.”
public institutions with an average
low at The Future of Freedom
According to the Association debt of $148,222 and $172,422 from
Foundation (www.fff.org).
of American Medical Colleges private institutions.
Remove my name from all future (AAMC), the U.S. could face a
The CityDoctorsscholarships
email correspondence
shortage of 90,000 physicians by are part of a renewed five year
2020 and the overall shortage agreement effective January 2012
could worsen as the physician between SGU and HHC to support
workforce ages and retires just as a medical clerkship program. As
more Americans will need care. The HHC’s exclusive international medidemand for primary-care physical school affiliation partner, SGU
cians –general practitioners, inter- future payments to HHC for the
nists, family physicians and pe- training of third and fourth year
tion,” the most recent State De- diatricians –will be even greater medical students is expected to expartment religious freedom report as a result of the growth of Ameri- ceed the $6,000,000 paid in 2011.
To apply for the
says. “This freedom is also lim- cans over 65 years old, and under
ited in other ways, including the the new federal healthcare reform CityDoctorsscholarships, appligovernment’s hindering of the law which aims to expand health cants must submit an essay explainestablishment and maintenance of insurance to an additional 32 mil- ing why they should be awarded
non-Sunni places of worship.”
lion Americans and ties reimburse- this scholarship and how they will
Additionally, the report said, ments to improved health out- contribute to the health care of New
“Sunni clerics, who received gov- comes and better coordination of York City using their attending position in primary care at an HHC
ernment stipends, occasionally care for each patient.
used anti-Semitic, anti-Christian,
The AAMC says part of the hospital. Applicants who wish to
and anti-Shiite language in their reason for this shortage is that pri- be considered for Fall semester
sermons.” The report also noted mary care clinicians earn less than scholarships should submit their
that the government’s official half of what the top two earning application before June 1, 2012. For
policy of allowing private reli- specialties make. Medical stu- more information and to complete
gious worship for all, including dents often choose to enter the a scholarship application, visit the
non-Muslims, is not followed in higher-paying specialties, rather CityDoctorsNYC Scholarship
practice.
than primary care, when faced website, www.citydoctors.com.
suit.
In affidavits filed as part of the
lawsuit, Knutson and two other
restaurant employees said they
detected no odor at all.
On Thursday, Craig Richie,
Knutson’s attorney, said the department had changed its mind
and will return the $12,000 to her.
Richie said it was known around
Moorhead that Knutson and her
husband were having financial
problems raising their five children. He said he believed the
money was intended as a gift to
the family. “Stacy is a very religious woman and this is the will
of God,” he said on Thursday.
Clinton’s loose war talk
(from Page 6)
who gave us the lie-based invasion of Iraq, which was responsible for the deaths of well over a
million people and the creation of
more than four million refugees.
Word is that the presumptive candidate plans to hammer Obama on
his handling of foreign affairs.
According to the Washington
Post, “In his speeches, Romney
has proposed a more confrontational approach to China, Russia,
Iran and other countries.”
The Obama campaign may
have calculated that they can’t afford to look weak on Iran. Yet this
is not the only reason. Israel’s top
officials appear to have decided
that an attack on Iran is imperative.
But without U.S. help, Israel’s air
force can do no more than set
Iran’s (peaceful) nuclear program
back for a brief time. Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues his threatening talk, supported by the Israel lobby in the
Saudi cleric issues fatwa to demolish
all Christian churches in Saudi Arabia
(from Page 4)
Munawer that he planned to submit a draft law that would ban all
churches in the country. AlMunawer later clarified the comment by saying existing churches
should be permitted to remain but
that a ban should be imposed on
the building of new, non-Islamic
houses of worship.
The banning of Christian
churches and destruction of the
existing ones would represent a
more extreme form of Islam than
existed in the past when Christians and Jews were free to prac-
tice their faith openly in the region.
There are large numbers of
Christians in Egypt and Lebanon.
Hardline Islamists are demanding that only Islam be allowed in
the region. The State Department’s
annual report on religious liberty
said there were no comprehensive
numbers of Christians in Saudi
Arabia, but that at least 1 million
Roman Catholics reside in the
country, mainly among the estimated 12 million foreign workers.
“Freedom of religious assembly is
severely limited [in Saudi Arabia],
because the government does not
allow individuals to publicly assemble based on religious affilia-
vast number of workshops for seniors who are blind or visually impaired, including adaptive technology, Braille and various education
programs;
· Health and wellness programming
focused specifically on issues related to seniors who are blind or
visually impaired, including diabetes, mental health, etc.; and
· Off-site meal voucher program.
The establishment of Innovative
Senior Centers is the cornerstone
of Age-friendly NYC, a set of 59
city-sponsored and related initiatives announced by the Bloomberg
Administration, the New York City
Council and the New York Academy of Medicine in 2009 to make
New York City more livable for the
City’s growing population of older
adults. The City’s senior population—today at 1.3 million older New
Yorkers—is expected to grow by
46 percent in the next 25 years. A
$3.5M investment by the City will
be supplemented with philanthropic dollars to support evaluation efforts.
15
Tisch School of the Arts alum Martin Scorsese
and Alec Baldwin salute Mary Schmidt Campbell
16
Bookin’ It
First Black prima ballerina, Janet
Collins’s life subject of new book
By Lisa Fulton
Guest Scribe
When you look at professional dance companies today, it
is sad that you rarely see Black
ballerinas with white companies.
You wonder where the Black ballerinas are, and you might also
wonder who was the first to break
through to grace the stage with
a white company. Have you ever
wondered who made it possible
for African Americans, especially
women, to point their foot and
walk through the door of a professional dance company?
book is written in two acts, and in
Act One, Collins is actually the
author. The two chapters in this
section are from an unfinished autobiography she had begun to
write.
It is mesmerizing to read these
chapters because Collins’s voice
is very friendly and inviting. She
shares details from her childhood
and her family life and addresses
the reader as “friend.” You will
read how she couldn’t find a ballet school that would accept her.
And, though a teenager, she
was determined to find a school
to attend and kept looking until
Janet Collins; “Night’s Dancer: The Life of Janet Collins book cover
Well, there is a book out by she came to the Arnold Tamon
Yaël Tamar Lewin that identifies School of Ballet, where Charlotte
who opened this door, and that Tamon agreed to give her private
person was Janet Collins. lessons for a small fee.
Lewin’s book, “Night’s Dancer:
Collins found herself teaching
The Life of Janet Collins” dance to the neighborhood chil(Wesleyan University Press, dren so that she could earn the
2011), goes into detail about how money to pay for her private lesthis gifted dancer and choreog- sons.
rapher was the first Black prima
She also tells of one of the most
ballerina to dance with a profes- hurtful experiences of her young
sional white company, namely, life, when she was denied memthe Metropolitan Opera Ballet. bership in the Ballet Russe de
She made her debut in 1951.
Monte Carlo only because she
Lewin gives the reader a total was Black. She was told by the
picture of Collins and does so company’s dancer, choreograwith Collins’s assistance. The pher, and director, Léonide
Massine, “You are strong. You
will make a fine character dancer.
I could train you…. In order to
train you and take you into the
company, I would have to put
you onstage with the ballet
corps first in performances—and
I would have to paint you white.”
This was something Collins refused to do.
As you continue into Act
Two, Collins still has a constant
voice because Lewin, who interviewed Collins extensively, often
quotes this great talent. She allows you to hear Collins’s reaction to everything in her life, such
as realizing that she was not only
a dancer but also an artist with a
natural gift as a painter, as well
as that she was very much an
individual. She liked doing things
in her own special way.
The reader also gets to know
the high and lows of Collins’s
personal and professional life.
Lewin includes the names of the
dance greats that Collins learned
from and performed for, such as
Lester Horton and Katherine
Dunham. What is very captivating about this book is that Lewin,
who is also a dancer, handles
Collins’s life with such reverence
and respect.
She also includes the wonderful reviews that Collins received
throughout her career as a ballet
dancer, choreographer, modern
dancer, and painter.
She makes sure to reveal the
whole person as she examines
and shares Collins’s connection
with her Catholic faith and how
especially in her later years, after a career that spanned decades, she turned to her faith and
created dances and paintings to
honor that faith.
The story of Collins’s life is
an amazing read, and it lets all
see what goes on in the life of a
dancer and someone who was a
fascinating human being, who
could be a tough teacher but a
humorous person and friend. The
biography also features lovely
photos of Collins performing in
various productions and images
of her oil paintings.
You learn that Collins was
Poetry Corner
Hungry Soul
By Patricia Arthur
9/5/2010
May I spoonfeed you my words of love? Will you let them slip into your ears, seep into your
mind and slide into your soul where there’s a hole that hasn’t been whole since before you met
me. Your poor soul wasn’t being loved and nourished like it ought to be. It was treated like
unclaimed property. No lease, no caretaker and no release.
No viable signs of life residing within. Hence, love don’t live there no more. It either never
did or departed like the rejected and lonely-hearted since it wasn’t being loved and nourished
like it ought to be. It was treated like unclaimed property. No lease, no caretaker and no release.
So, may I spoonfeed you my words of love? Will you let them slip into your ears, seep into
your mind, slide into your soul. Ya know, into that hole in your soul that ain’t been whole since
before you met me. Are you hungry now?
Prima Ballerina Janet Collins made Metropolitan Opera Ballet debut
in 1951
someone who struggled through strength through her faith and her
traumas that would have com- dancing to always come back and
pletely broken another person, thrive. “Night’s Dancer: The Life of
but that she managed to find the Janet Collins” is an inspiring read.
By Victoria Horsford
LEGENDS/ANCESTORS
New York Sundays at noon
will not be the same now that the
Gil Noble, the great chronicler of
Black Americana and the African
Diaspora, has died. Noble’s LIKE
IT IS was my Sunday sermon. It
was my graduate and post graduate study into the Black experience. He was a journalist and
documentarian who distilled info
about Black culture and its interface with the rest of the world. Gil,
80, was comfortable interviewing an assortment of disparate
newsmakers like Dr. Jesse Jackson, Percy Sutton, Charlie Rangel,
Rev. Calvin Butts, and Charles
Barron; scholars Dr. Ben, John
Henrik Clark and Rex Nettleford
and Adelaide Sanford; heads of
state Jamaican PM Michael
Manley, Mr Mugabe Zimbabwe
President as he was with Max
Roach, Sonny Rollins; and Black
teenagers talking about the dangers of urban America’s mean
streets. A fair and equitable journalist, he invited many progressive white voices to tell it like it
was on his show. It would be hard
to place a value on his LIKE IT IS
archives. Les Payne’s essay, “Gil
Noble: The Man Who Told It Like
It Is” posted at theroot.com. tells
the Noble story best.
The Noble family has finalized
funeral arrangements. The wake
(4/12 at 7 pm) and the funeral, Friday, 4/13 at 10 am) will be held at
Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist
Church on West 137 Street between Lenox and Seventh Avenues.
Elizabeth Catlett, 96, one of
the 20th Century’s most prominent
fine artists, died last week. The
sculptress and printmaker, married
art with social consciousness
with results that are visually spellbinding, lived most of her life in
Mexico. I saw Catlett’s face in
many of her sculptures.
HARLEM CHRONICLES
The Lenox Social, a restaurant on Lenox Avenue at 126
Street, opened in mid March sans
marketing fanfare and became an
overnight sensation, attracting
African Americans and whites
alike, especially BUPPIES and
GenXers. Menu boasts items like
Hot Bread Kitchen Nachos, Buttermilk Fried Oysters, Meatloaf
Sandwich, Social Vegetable
Burger and Braised Pork Belly.
Business life has been blissful for
Lenox Social owner Anahi
Angelone until Al Reed, Lenox
Lounge (located two blocks
south) sent reps to tell her that
Lenox Social “constituted a trademark infringement,” according to
a NY Crain’s story. Ms. Angelone,
eager to avoid confrontation,
plans to host a name-changing
party in a week. How does one
business corner the title market
for Lenox Avenue aka Malcolm X
Boulevard which spans 1 ½ mile.
Even in the court of public opinion this makes no sense. Recent
media pieces indicate that Mr. Reed
will not renew his Lenox Lounge
lease when it expires this spring.
Landlord plans to double the rent
to $20,000 monthly.
EDUCATION/EMPLOYMENT
OPS
WANTED: President of the
Empire State College, a State University of (NY SUNY) campus,
headquartered in Saratoga
Springs. Vacancy has to be filled
by September 2012.
WANTED: Applicants for the
National Action Council For Minorities In Engineering
NACME Pre-engineering Scholarships which are available to African American, Latino and American Indian HS seniors who participate in pre-college programs which
focus on math, science and engineering, who have a 3.0 plus GPA,
and who have been accepted at
One of the 47 NACME partner colleges, which includes
HBCUs. Scholarship application
deadline is 4/23. For more info call
914.539.4010 or visit www.
nacme.org.
President Joyce Banda
estranged father and revisit some of
his past missteps, but ultimately
emerges triumphant. Cast includes
Egypt Sherrod, Terri J. Vaughn and
Tami Roman.
Imagine Beyonce, Lady Gaga,
Mary J. Blige, and Patti LaBelle performing on the same stage, and its
not the Grammys. Mary Flowers Entertainment presents those divas and
more, well sorta/kinda, in a Vegasstyle show billed as FABULOUS
FAKES, which is a female impersonation extravaganza - equal parts Jewel
Box Revue, La Cage Aux Folles and
Paris is Burning. Fabulous Fakes
comes front stage center at the world
renown Apollo Theater on April 28 at
7 pm. Tickets are $30-$60.
The peripatetic, New York based filmmaker Mariette Monpierre’s feature
film ELZA, is part of the 2012 AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL configuration.
ELZA, a story about young Black
Parisian woman who visits the Caribbean to meet her estranged father, is
the first narrative film by a
Guadeloupian woman. The Festival
opens on 4/11 at Lincoln
Center….visit www.africanfilmny.org.
For ELZA info visit
www.elzathemovie.com;facebook.lebonheuredelza;
Tweeter: elzathemovie
SPRING EVENTS CALENDAR
OUT OFAFRICA
Last month President Obama
nominated South Korea-born Dr.
Jim Yong Kim, as the next president of the World Bank, an organization which lends monies to low
and middle income nations. Normally, the US President’s nominee
is the one! Not this year. President
Obama has already made history
with the nomination, a non-white
man. Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala,
Nigeria’s Minister of Finance has
a large group of backers who support her candidacy for the World
Bank Presidency. Both the conservative Economist Magazine and
the Financial Times support her.
Columbia economist Jose Antonio
Ocampo is another WB presidential candidate with support among
South America and beyond. It
seems like the voting numbers do
not crunch for anyone other than
President Obama’s nominee. We
will find out before April 21.
Joyce Banda was sworn in as
Malawi President last Saturday
following the death of President
Bingu wa Matharika. President
Banda is Africa’s second female
president, in the modern history.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the Liberia
President.
An earlier column reference to
the SHARED INTEREST Annual
Awards Dinner Gala, which will be
held on April 23, neglected to mention the organization’s mission.
Founded in 1994, SHARED INTEREST is a New York based nonprofit,
a microfinancing group, which
helps South African small business culture, which is predominantly
Black.Visit
sharedinterest.org.
The AFRICA TRAVEL ASSOCIATION convenes its 37th Annual
World Congress in Victoria Falls,
Zimbabwe from May 18-22. Hosted
by the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, the ATA 2012 World Congress
theme is “Africa Tourism:
Partnering for the Future.”
World Congress will be headquar-
Gil Noble
Mary J. Blige
tered at the Elephant Hill Resort ther of actress Sheryl Lee Ralph,
and South African Airways is the died.
official airlines. Early registration
discounts are available until April
THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT
30. Call 212.447.1357 or visit
africatravelassociation.org
LIFE, LOVE, SOUL, an independent feature film, winner of the
PEOPLE IN THE NEWS
2011 UrbanWorld Film Festival
hits the big screen on Friday, April
BEVERLY ALSTON, super- 13 in NY, NJ, Atlanta, Washingintendent of the Shirley Chisholm ton, DC, Chicago, Baltimore, and
State Office Building in Brooklyn Los Angeles. NY theaters are
adds another feather in her pro- AMC at 234 West 42 Street and
fessional cap. She is the AMC Magic Johnson Theater in
RiverBend
Housing Harlem.. The story centers on a
Corporation’s new President of talented your man, coping with
the Board of Directors.
the loss of his mother and
RIP: STANLEY RALPH, fa- brother, who has to live with his
APRIL 12: The Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health hosts its 18th
Annual Black Tie Gala Sports Ball
2012 and the Inaugural Title IX Trailblazer Award at the Chelsea Piers, Pier
60. Financial Adviser Gail Marquis,
former US Olympian and basketball
player, is one of the honorees, who
include Dr. Moreel Avian; Frank Cooper; Lorna and Lowell Hawthorne,
Golden Crust. NY Times writer William Rhoden and NY1 anchor Cheryl
Wills are co-hosts. Multi-tiered event
includes reception, dinner program
and dancing.
Thru April 15: The 2012 New
York International Auto Show at the
Jacob Javits Convention Center,
Manhattan, an expo that attracts
thousands of auto buffs. The 4/5
Dealer Preview Party was a benefit
for the Bronx-based East Side House
Settlement, a nonprofit which serves
African Americans and Latinos. For
more info, visit autoshowny.com
APRIL 18: The Global Language
Project hosts its 1st Annual MY
DREAM SPEAKS Awards Benefit
fundraiser reception and will honor
Ayann and Idyl Mohallim, founders,
Mataano Fashion Brand , 6:30 pm to
10 pm, at the Helen Mills Theater at
137-39 West 26 Street. Manhattan.
Event will be catered by Chef Ali
Roble, of Bravo TV. Tickets start at
$150. The Global Language Project
(GLP) is an innovative educational
movement created to enable disadvantaged public school students
with language skill sets necessary to
compete in today’s global village. .
Event Goal is to raise $20,000 to underwrite the world language program
at Harlem’s PS 368, where 150 students are learning Spanish, Chinese
and Arabic. For tickets call
646.65678075 or
visit: mydreamspeaks.org.
Visit:www.globallanguageproject.org.
email Elijah.matthews@glpnyc.org.
A management consultant,
Victoria Horsford is also a New York
based journalist and pop culture historian:
victoriahorsford@yahoo.com
WHAT’S GOING ON
17
18
NNPA Award Winner
Enter tainment
By Don Thomas
Remembering
Pioneering TV icon Journalist Gil Noble
Compiled by Don Thomas
New York broadcasting legend Gil Noble, producer and
host of WABC-TV’s groundbreaking public affairs program “Like It Is,” passed away
peacefully after a long illness.
Born in Harlem on February
22, 1932, Noble spent his life
serving the community he
loved. He was recognized locally and nationally as a dedicated journalist whose work
brought attention to the African-American struggle for advancement.
“Gil Noble’s life and work
had a profound effect on our
society and culture,” said
WABC-TV President and General Manager Dave Davis. “His
contributions are a part of history and will be remembered
for years to come. Today, our
hearts are with Gil’s family, his
wife Jean and their five children and we thank them for so
lovingly sharing him with the
world all these years.”
Noble, whose career in television news and programming
spanned over five decades,
joined WABC-TV as a reporter
in July 1967, and was named
anchor of the station’s Saturday and Sunday night newscasts in January 1968. Later
that year he became host of
“Like It Is.”
Debuting amid the nation’s
racial turmoil in the 1960s,
“Like It Is” created the largest
body of programs and documentaries on African-Americans in the country. Noble
dedicated long hours of research and investigation to
ensure a consistently high
quality for the program. He often said he learned as much
doing the show as his viewers
did watching it.
Noble felt it was his mission
to reunite African-Americans
with the untold stories of their
history, and he believed “Like
It Is” offered a rare opportunity for viewers of all races to
look at events through an African-American perspective.
Throughout his career, Noble
interviewed many national and
international luminaries, including heads of state President
Nelson Mandela of South Africa
Arthur Ashe and political notables from Jesse Jackson to
Louis Farrakhan.
Noble also created documentaries on W. E. B. Du Bois,
Malcolm X, Martin Luther
King, Jr. and Charlie Parker,
Noble’s great love for the piano fueled a passion for jazz,
which he considered the root of
American music. He was an avid
supporter of The Jazz Foundation of America and served on
its Board of Directors. Noble
Association of Black Journalists
(NABJ), and 5 honorary doctorates.
Here is a comprehensive list
of notable interviews and documentaries from Gil Noble’s illustrious career: Heads of State:
Nelson Mandela (South Africa),
Sekou Toure (Guinea), Robert
Mugabe (Zimbabwe), Julius
Nyerere (Tanzania), Michael
Manley and P.J. Patterson (Jamaica), Maurice Bishop (Grenada),
Sam Nujoma (Namibia), Kenneth
Legendary Gil Noble was the recipient of more than 650 community service awards, including 7 Emmys,
a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Black Journalist (NABJ), and 5 Honorary Doctorates.
and President Robert Mugabe
of Zimbabwe; entertainment
i c o n s B i l l C o s b y, H a r r y
Belafonte and Lena Horne,
sports stars Muhammad Ali and
among many other notables. In
1977, he wrote, produced and
directed the first documentary
on Paul Robeson entitled “The
Tallest Tree in Our Forest.”
was the recipient of more than
650 community awards, numerous industry awards including
7 Emmys, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National
Kaunda (Zambia), and Thomas
Sankara (Burkina-Faso).
Entertainment: Bill Cosby,
Harry Belafonte, Erroll Garner,
Sarah Vaughan, Sammy Davis,
J r. , D i z z y G i l l e s p i e , O s c a r
Peterson, Carmen McRae,
Aretha Franklin, Nancy Wilson,
Sidney Poitier, Nipsey Russell,
Lena Horne, Wynton Marsalis,
Milt Jackson and Jackie McLean.
Sports: Muhammad Ali, Sugar
Ray Leonard, Arthur Ashe, and
Jim Brown. Politics/Leaders:
Jesse Jackson, David Dinkins,
H a r o l d Wa s h i n g t o n , L o u i s
F a r r a k h a n , A n d r e w Yo u n g ,
Stokely Carmichael (Kwame
Ture), Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.,
and Bruce Wright.
Documentaries:
“W.E.B. Du Bois,” “Malcolm X,”
“Paul Robeson,” “Fannie Lou
Hamer,” “Ella Baker,” “Martin
L u t h e r K i n g , J r. ” , “ A d a m
C l a y t o n P o w e l l , J r. ” , “ J a c k
Johnson,” “Charlie Parker,”
“Decade of Struggle” and “Essay
on Drugs.”
Gil Noble’s acclaimed career
came to an end in July 2011 after
he suffered a devastating stroke.
The family will announce plans
for a funeral service when arrangements are confirmed.
The family ask that, in lieu
of flowers, donations be made
to the Gil Noble Archives, P.O.
Box 43138, Upper Montclair,
NJ 07043. Proceeds will be
used to preserve the archives so
that Noble’s mission of educating the community about its
culture and history will continue.
COLLECTER’S POSTER: Gil Noble posed for groundbreaking
poster promoting his world renowned “Like It Is” public affairs television talk show, which he produced and hosted for 5 decades.
Gil Noble (center) is flanked by (L-R) Heather Zahra and Margaret Wade-Lewis
MERCEDES-BENZ New York Fashion Week by Fashion & Beauty Editor Audrey J. Bernard
VENEXIANA designer
Kati Stern
Kati Stern Venexiana Fall 2012 collection shown during the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week
had something for everyone. Her fall/winter seductive show consisted of 70 glam looks satisfying
the temptress in all of us. From glorious sweeping gowns to sexy cocktail dresses, the show was
heavily inspired by the Italian Renaissance. With such a plethora of pleasurable designs, it was
hard to select a favorite. It’s like asking a parent who their favorite child is. However, the
Garden of Eden selections with special mention to the reptile scaled serpent dresses and ivy vine
primavera gowns were irresistibly delish. Her line went from high society to punk rock to
garden fresh; and was made from an array of exciting fabrics that included lace, tulle, satin,
velvet, organza, crystals and sequins that could light up the Empire State Building. Deliciously
dazzling. (Photos courtesy Venexiana by Kati Stern)
Kati Stern Venexiana Fall
2012 collection shows 70 looks
19
20 Flick
Chat
The New York African Film Festival
returns to Film Society of Lincoln Center
President Barack Obama
Compiled by Don Thomas
The Film Society of Lincoln
Center (FSLC) and African Film
Festival, Inc. (AFF) have again
joined forces to present the 19th
New York African Film Festival
(NYAFF). The Festival kicks off
at the Film Society of Lincoln
Center’s Walter Reade Theater at
165 W. 65 th Street, (between
Broadway and Amsterdam Avenues), Plaza Level, from
Wednesday, April 11 through
Tuesday April 17, then heads to
Columbia University’s Institute of
African Studies on Thursday,
April 19 for a daylong, free public
program exploring the themes of
the festival.
It picks up on Friday, May 4
and 5 at the Maysles Cinema Institute in Harlem and culminates
over Memorial Day Weekend at
the Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAMcinématek—part of the
dance and music festival
DanceAfrica. Presented under the
theme “21st Century: The Homecoming,” this year’s festival will
explore the modern notion of
home and homeland, from the
legacy of music legend Miriam
Makeba—subject of the Opening
Night Film “Mama Africa“— to
Diasporic visions like the New
York-set “Restless City.” The
NYAFF will also mark the 100th anniversary of the African National
Congress (ANC) and the 50th anniversary of independence for Algeria, Burundi, Jamaica, Rwanda
and Uganda, as well as give a
unique look into the life of President Obama through a film on his
half-sister, “The Education of
Auma Obama.”
The NYAFF will run from
Wednesday, April 11 through
Tuesday, April 17 at Film Society
of Lincoln Center, and throughout April and May at The Jerome
L. Greene Performance Space, Columbia University’s Institute of
African Studies, Maysles Cinema
Institute and the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s BAMcinématek.
“This is a continuation of the
discussion about the shape of Africa that has taken place since Independence and that is now not
being embraced by the younger
generation,” said Mahen Bonetti,
executive director of African Film
Festival, Inc. “Though these
young people have not in many
ways been thrown a lifeline as
post-Independent
conflict
emerged, they have somehow
managed, through technology, to
craft their own narrative, unconsciously drawing on the past and
Legendary Miriam Makeba
creating something new and very
modern without having disavowed the past.”
Special events and highlights
include the Opening Night film
“Mama Africa” by Mika
Kaurismäki (Special Jury Recognition—Documentary at the 2012
Pan African Film Festival) on April
11, and the centerpiece film “Relentless” by Andy Amadi
Okoroafor, starring Nigerian-German hip hop and soul singer
Nneka, on Friday, April 13.
With the election year in full
swing, the NYAFF will present a
film that offers a window into the
African family of President Barack
Obama and insight into his father,
with “The Education of Auma
Obama” by Branwen Okpako; the
film won the Viewers’ Choice
Award at the 2011 Africa International Film Festival and the Festival Founders’ Award at the 2012
Pan African Film Festival. The film
“How to Steal 2 Million” by Charlie
Vundla features the top South African actors, Rapulana Seiphemo,
Terry Pheto and John Kani.
“African cinema was born in
the same year as the New York
Film Festival—1963—and it’s always been a source of great pleasure and pride for me that for 50
years our programs have pro-
vided a vital showcase for the best
in African filmmaking,” said Richard Pena, director of Film Society
of Lincoln Center Program. “We
also salute our dear friends and
partners at the New York African
Film Festival, which for almost 20
years has worked successfully to
make African cinema a reality
around the United States.”
The popular blog Africa is a
Country (africasacountry.com) will
present “Africa is a Country: Talking Media and Russian Archives,”
a free panel discussion, on Saturday, April 14 from 1:30 pm to 4 pm
in the Frieda and Roy Furman Gallery at the Walter Reade Theater.
Featured bloggers and special
guest will examine the relationship
between Africa and the Soviet
Union in the 1960s and 1970s, as is
evidenced by Russia’s extensive
film archive of the continent, and
then explore the relationship between film and social media movements on the continent (e.x. Tahrir
revolutionary cinema, which documented the Egyptian Revolution in
Tahrir Square, and Kony 2012).
“Africans in the Diaspora: Expatriates and the Homecoming,” a
free festival preview will take place
at The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space on April 15 at 6pm to
welcome audiences to the 19th edi-
tion of the NYAFF; the event, moderated by renowned journalist Femi
Oke, will include a special performance by popular artist-emcee DJ
Spooky in which he rescores Father
of African Cinema Ousmane
Sembene’s Borrom Sorret, filmmaker-scholar Yemane Demissie and
music and African cinema critic
Beatiz Leal.
The programs of AFF are made
possible by the generous support
of the National Endowment for the
Arts, The Andy Warhol Foundation
for the Visual Arts, New York State
Council on the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, International
Organization of La Francophonie,
Domenico Paulon Foundation, New
York Foundation for the Arts, Divine
Chocolate, New York Times Community Affairs Department, The Ford
Foundation, Bradley Family Foundation, South African Consulate
General, SN Brussels, French Cultural Services, Bloomberg, Lambent
Foundation, Columbia University’s
Institute of African Studies, WNYC,
57 Main St. Wine Company, South
African Airways, Heineken USA,
Hudson Hotel, Putumayo World
Music, Flavorpill, Giant Step and
Omnipak Import Enterprises, Inc.
For details, visit African Film Festival online at:
www.africanfilmny.org.
YOU GO, GIRL!
21
Edited by Audrey J. Bernard
McDonald’s USA recently announced that the winningest
coach ever Beverly “Bev”
Kearney will join the judging
panel for the company’s first
Happy Meal Chefs, a contest seeking top inspiring stories from parent-and-child teams who enjoy
cooking with wholesome ingredients at family mealtime.
The contest, which is part of
McDonald’s renewed emphasis
on children’s wellbeing, will award
10 kids a trip to the London 2012
Olympic Games as part of the
company’s Global Champions of
Play program where they will join
kids from around the world to celebrate balanced eating and fun
play. Two Grand Prize Winners
will become honorary “Happy
Meal Chefs” and experience a
one-of-a-kind apprenticeship with
McDonald’s executive chef Dan
Coudreaut.
Through April 18, 2012
McDonald’s Happy Meal Chefs
is looking to reward top kids’ stories of nutritious fun at family
mealtime. Kearney, head coach
for The University of Texas (UT)
women’s track and field and cross
country teams and 2012 recipient
of the BET Honors education
award, will join five-time U.S.
Olympic Swimmer and McDonald’s
Global Champions of Play Ambassador Dara Torres and nutrition
experts Dr. Keith Ayoob and
Sylvia Klinger on the contest’s
judging panel.
Now in her 18th coaching season at UT, Kearney was the first
African-American head coach for
the university. She has led the
team to six national titles and is a
member of the U.S. Track and
Field and Cross Country Coaches
Association’s Hall of Fame. In
2002, an auto accident, which
proved fatal for two of her friends,
caused a spinal cord injury and
left her paralyzed.
Kearney dismissed doctors’
claims that she’d never walk again
and conquered paralysis. Today,
she has the highest number of
national championship wins
among African American coaches
in an all-collegiate Division I
sport.
Kearney, who is one of the
most successful and decorated
coaches across all collegiate athletics, will help the panel review
the contest’s video submissions
and select the 10 finalists.
“The importance of nutrition
should be emphasized at an early
age,” said Kearney. “In some
cases, health issues that impact
adults, such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes, partially result
from a lack of nutrition education
in childhood. I am honored to
work with McDonald’s as a judge
for Happy Meal Chefs because as
an African American athlete and
coach, I know many of these issues are more prevalent in my
community, and I believe strongly
that by placing a positive emphasis on children’s wellbeing, the
contest will help promote healthier
Coach Beverly “Bev” Kearney
“I am honored to work with McDonald’s as a judge for Happy Meal Chefs because as an African
American athlete and coach, I know many of these issues are more prevalent in my community, and
I believe strongly that by placing a positive emphasis on children’s wellbeing, the contest will help
promote healthier communities.” – Coach Bev Kearney
communities.”
Parents or legal guardians with
kids ages eight to 11 are eligible
to enter online at the Happy Meal
Chefs contest page. Participants
must answer a brief questionnaire
and submit a short video online
that creatively showcases their
family mealtime. They’re also encouraged to learn about and feature recommended food groups
from the USDA’s MyPlate, the
balanced-eating symbol based on
federal dietary guidelines.
“Every day in McDonald’s executive kitchen, my menu team
and I aspire to come up with new,
nutrition-minded menu choices
that kids will love,” Coudreaut
said. “The Happy Meal Chefs
contest is inviting families to join
in our team’s effort to make wholesome food fun.”
Kearney added: “A number of
my personal and professional accomplishments were attainable
because of health, wellness, teamwork, family and community –
many of the values I cherish.
Happy Meal Chefs is a great contest with an even better message.
I encourage all families to embrace
it and submit entries. After all,
that’s the only way to win.”
There is no purchase necessary
to enter the contest that is open
to U.S. residents 18 yrs+ who are
parent/legal guardian of a child 811 yrs. Contest ends 4/18/12; subject to official rules. See official
rules at:
happymealchefs.mcdonalds.com/
rules for info, deadlines and complete details. Void where prohibited.
About Coach Kearney
Every once in a while the universe lends us a star to illuminate
the path that is already there.
Sport coach, life skills coach, motivational speaker, mentor and
founder of Pursuit of Dreams,
Beverly Kearney, affectionately
known as “Bev” is one of those
rare stars. Her passion and gift for
coaching and mentoring has inspired successful businesses executives, entertainers and international athletes to achieve their
greatest successes.
Recognized as one of the most
successful coaches in the history
of track and field Bev was inducted
into the prestigious International
Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. Her
record of seven national championships is the highest among African American coaches in all
colligate Division 1 Sports, and
second among women coaches.
She has coached twelve Olympians winning seven Olympic
medals, three of which were gold.
Bev has been the head coach of
the University of Texas Women’s
Track and Field for nineteen years.
She also served as the head coach
at University of Florida and University of Toledo and Assistant
Coach at University of Tennessee
and Indiana State University.
The men and women she has
coached throughout her 31-year
career stand out as America’s best
Athletes with over a 97.5% graduation rate and a total of 300 AllAmerican’s calling her their coach.
Bev’s many titles do little justice
for her ability to motivate, empower and realize matchless goals
repeatedly and consistently.
The revered coach’s career
achievements and honors includes: BET most prestigious 2012
Bet Honors for Education award;
and the “Lifetime Achievement
Award” for Auburn University
making her the first African American in history to receive the
award and the second woman to
receive it.
In 2009 Woman’s Day magazine named her as one of their “50
Women on a Mission” along with
such notables as Michelle
Obama, Hilary Clinton, and
Angelina Jolie. In 2006, the
Buoniconti Foundation honored
her as a Great Sports Legend joining other alumni legends like
Michael Jordan and Muhammad
Ali. In addition, she was honored with several awards by the
United States Track and Field
Hall of Fame in 2008.
Bev has been deemed as a
coach with high expectations and
uncompromising faith in her
athlete’s ability which results in
her being viewed as a tough
coach, however she believes in
love first, both tough love and
self- love. Her mantra is “believe
it, speak it, do it.”
She believes intensely that one
must commit to, and become fully
invested in, one’s own dreams
and the realization of one’s personal, spiritual and physical
goals and has shared her winning
principles nationally and internationally as a speaker on all of the
major television networks including HBO and ESPN.
She has been featured repeatedly in newspapers, magazines
and journals including The New
York Beacon, People, USA Today,
Black Enterprise, and Women’s
Health. Bev has also been an
honored guest at The White
House. Her incredible life story
has been optioned for a movie
and has a book deal pending.
Beyond her work as a UT head
coach, Bev founded Pursuit of
Dreams, a non-profit organization
providing intervention resources,
motivation, and guidance; which
has allowed her to draw on her philosophy and use her skills to expand
beyond the athletic arena.
The organization has launched
several successful programs including a motivational mentoring and
networking program entitled “Intimate Conversations with Greatness.” The program utilizes trailblazers in athletics, business, politics
and the entertainment community to
help people, especially youth and
those in transition, achieve nothing
less than greatness.
Bev, herself, is no stranger to transition and crisis. In her senior year
of high school, she lost her mother
and was homeless by the age of 17.
Having survived an abusive environment, she never let circumstances deter her as she forged on
through college and graduate
school as a standout athlete and
academic scholar. Bev has devoted
her life to helping people, who desire to help themselves to discover
their potential for greatness. She
believes passionately that everybody can be successful.
Coach Bev lives this model every
day through wins and losses, triumphing gracefully through obstacles of all kinds. To call this remarkable woman a “survivor”
would be a gross understatement
in describing the woman who triumphed over a near fatal automobile accident. The accident left her
in a wheelchair with repeated diagnoses that she would never walk
again.
However, anointed with His favor,
she persisted with the spirit of a lioness in pursuit. She continued to
coach from a wheelchair and then
from a walker and now on a cane,
ultimately adding two more national
championships to her record.
Coach Bev is a living example that
greatness is still possible despite
extreme obstacles. Through the
sheer power of faith, she has come
to realize that a positive spirit can
outweigh and outlive the most impossible physical or mental circumstances. Her achievements are a
luminous star presently admired
with awe and wonder, yet she is indisputably a living legend with the
fine points of her legacy still evolving.
About McDonald’s
McDonald’s USA, LLC, is the
leading foodservice provider in the
United States offering a variety of
wholesome foods made from quality ingredients to more than 26 million customers every day. Nearly
90 percent of McDonald’s 14,000
U.S. restaurants are independently
owned and operated by local businessmen and women. Customers
can now log online for free at any of
the 11,500 participating Wi-Fi enabled McDonald’s U.S. restaurants.
For more information, visit
www.mcdonalds.com, or follow us
on Twitter (@McDonalds) and
Facebook
(Facebook.com/
McDonalds) for updates on our
business, promotions and menu
items.
Coach “Bev” Kearney joins judging panel
for McDonald’s USA happy meal chefs
22
Time running out to file claim
(from Page 9)
advise and assist people in this
process.”
Since there is a finite sum of
money for the settlement, $1.25
billion, which must be used to pay
all legal, notice and administrative
expenses of the settlement, as well
as pay the farmers, the Judge has
ruled that no funds for successful claims will be distributed until
after the 180 day claims period and
the evaluation of all claims. This
means that funds will not be distributed until late in 2012 or early
in 2013.
Ralph Paige also indicated that
there are many farmers who paid
people and organizations to get
into the Pigford I lawsuit. “We feel
many of these people will be disappointed to learn that their late
claim petitions or paperwork they
filled out were not turned in to the
correct and official offices in this
case.”
“Only six weeks or less remain
in the claims process and farmers
must get busy if they want to be
included in this historic settlement.
Farmers should be warned not to
pay people who say that they can
get you a claim form or get you into
the case if you have not filed anything up to this time. You should
report those people to the lawyers
in the case so they can be prosecuted for fraud, “ said Paige.
Paige indicated, “Many people
have given up, others have died
in the process, but this is another
milestone on the long road to justice for discrimination by USDA
against Black farmers.”
For more information on the
Pigford II settlement from the Federation, contact: 800/503-5678 (nationwide) or 205/652-9676 in Alabama or see their website at:
www.federation.coop.
Latest jobs report offers little hope for Blacks
(from Page 3)
male unemployment peaked at 17.5
percent in June 2009, at the official end of the Great Recession,
before falling to 15.4 percent in
February of this year and to14.8
percent in March.
Meanwhile, unemployment
among Black females became
more vexing. It stood at 8.1 percent at the beginning of the recession in December 2007. By
June 2009, at the end of the Great
Recession, it had reached 12.7
percent. While Black male unem-
ployment was inching down, the
rate for Black females was increasing to 13 percent in January and
13.3 percent in March.
Why the disparity?
Pitts offers one possible explanation: “There were large amounts
of layoffs in the public sector and
because Black women are more
likely to be employed in the public
sector that could affect their rate.”
Austin of EPI said it will take
more than spreading women
throughout non-public sector jobs
to reduce or eliminate the gender
disparities.
He said, “We need public-sector jobs targeted to high-unemployment communities even after
the national economy is fully recovered.”
Many unemployed Blacks, like
Jones, 37, are worried that a college degree – he graduated from
the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore – and past job experience will not insulate them from a
sluggish job market. Jones moved
back in with his parents eight
months ago to save money.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “It’s not
fun at all.”
Tulsa shooting suspects charged
(from Page 3)
a detail that proved critical in finding and arresting the suspects.
Police say their investigation
will include Jake England’s racially
charged Facebook postings, although they say it’s premature to
describe the incident as a hate
crime.
The shootings occurred nearly
two years to the day after a black
man shot England’s father to
death, according to his Facebook
posting.
“I’m just really amazed at how
quickly we were able to apprehend
these two subjects,” Task force
commander Maj. Walter Evans said
at a news conference Sunday. “But
there are still a whole lot of unanswered questions that we have to
have answered.”
The FBI’s James Finch, who was
part of the task force handling the
case, called it “very premature to
talk about hate crimes. We have yet
to analyze all the information to understand the motivations of the
subjects in this case.”
Although police were reluctant
to call the killings a hate crime,
others were less so.
“Somebody that committed
these crimes were very upset with
black people,” Tulsa Councilman
Jack Henderson said on Sunday.
“That person happened to be a
white person. The people they
happened to kill and shoot were
black people. That fits the bill for
me. That’s a personal feeling.”
England and Watts are scheduled to be back in court on April
16.
Skipping a Trayvon grand jury
(from Page 3)
a single bullet to the chest fired
from Zimmerman’s 9 millimeter
automatic handgun. Citing the
state’s controversial Stand Your
Ground law, Zimmerman claimed
to be acting in self-defense. He
was questioned by Sanford, Fla.
police and released without being charged.
Former prosecutor Sunny
Hostin, a legal analyst for CNN
and HLN, its sister network,
praised the decision by the special
prosecutor not to convene a grand
jury.
“As a former prosecutor, I typically made my own charging decisions,” she stated. “…Many, many
seasoned prosecutors use their
judgment and make charging decisions, don’t necessarily punt the
ball to lay people, to a grand jury.”
In a statement posted on the National Action Network Web site, Al
Sharpton said, “The special
prosecutor’s decision to forego
brining the Trayvon Martin
shooting death before a grand
jury vindicates the position that
we have taken all along – that is
you do not need a grand jury to
make an arrest of George
Zimmerman on probably cause. It
does not necessarily mean, however, that this arrest will be made
immediately.
Therefore, we intend to keep the
pressure on as we remain cautiously optimistic that this will
lead to an arrest.”
Nigerian woman candidate for top job
(from Page 3)
a mean cudgel for meeting the
West’s imperial needs in developing countries, aided by many of
Africa’s intellectual and political
elite.”
Ms. Okonjo-Iweala also faces
questions over a Wikileaks cable
by the U.S. Ambassador on the
matter of corruption. According to
the cable, the World Bank nominee steered public contracts to her
brother worth up to $50 million.
She denies the charge.
Finally, as Minister of Finance
she supported the disastrous lifting of subsidies on Jan. 1. This
sparked the nation’s largest mass
movement when 5 million Nigeri-
ans rallied and marched to oppose the move.
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is
scheduled to be interviewed first
for the job on April 9, followed by
Colombia’s Jose Antonio Ocampo
and America’s Jim Yong Kim. A
formal announcement is expected
almost immediately, according to
an inside source at the Bank.
The poverty industrial complex
(from Page 6)
dated January 5, 2012 (Oh, I know
they are upset that I have this). In
the audit it was determined that
CHA for the fiscal years of 2008,
2009 and 2010 had received $1.3
billion in HUD funding and had
not delivered one contract to a
Section 3 business nor hired one
Section 3 resident. That is a rip
off of $130 million (10 percent) and
more than 13,000 new jobs for the
residents of CHA. Oh what this
money and job growth could have
done for the housing residents
and local businesses. It would be
a game changer and the fact that
it is the law and not enforced is
the biggest tragedy of all. Poverty
would decrease and the quality of
life in our neighborhoods would be
increasing. However, the Poverty
Industrial Complex forbids this and
will not let it happen.
HUD will write up noncompliance reports on these entities but
nothing happens beyond that. They
won’t enforce the law nor cease
funding noncompliant entities,
which is just about all of them. Case
in point: The city of Jacksonville,
Fla. was found noncompliant in 1993.
It is now 2012 and they still are
noncompliant and HUD just looks
at them and keeps providing annual
funding. Poverty lives!
Harry Alford is the co-founder,
president/CEO of the National Black
Chamber of Commerce®. Website:
www.nationalbcc.org. Email:
halford@nationalbcc.org .
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High School Yearbooks 1900-1988.
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Yearbookusa@yahoo.com or 972- SUPREME COURT OF THE
STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY
768-1338
OF BRONX INDEX NO. 380532/
07 THE PARKCHESTER SOUTH
Wanted
CONDOMINIUM, INC., on behalf
CASH for Coins! Buying ALL Gold of its unit owners of the
& Silver. Also Stamps & Paper Parkchester South Condominium,
Money, Entire Collections, Es- Plaintiff, - against - EMMANUEL
tates. Travel to your home. Call BANDOH, et. al., Defendants. Pursuant to a Judgment dated SeptemMarc Near NYC 1-800-959-3419
ber 1, 2010, I will sell at public auction on May 7, 2012, at 2:00 p.m. in
Room 600 of the Bronx County
Courthouse, 851 Grand Concourse,
Bronx, New York, the Condominium unit in the Parkchester
South Condominium known as
apartment 5B, in the building
known as S-3 a/k/a 9, and by street
address 1555 Unionport Road,
Bronx, New York, and designated
as Tax Lot 2612, in Block 3938 of
Section 15 on the tax map of the
Borough of Bronx, together with
an undivided .0099 percent interest in the common elements of the
Parkchester South Condominium.
The amount due under the Judgment is $17,308.07, with interest,
costs, etc. Sale subject to terms of
sale and provisions of the Judgment herein, including being subject to a mortgage made to
Deutsche Bank Trust Company
Americas f/k/a Bankers Trust Company, as Trustee and Custodian,
in the original principal sum of
$63,200.00 with interest. Index No.
380532/07. LENORE KRAMER,
ESQ., Referee ROY, MONDELLO,
LAROCCA & RISOTTO, ESQS.
Attorneys for Plaintiff 828 South
Broadway – Suite 100 Tarrytown,
New York 10591 (914) 591-7722
Subscribe and Advertise
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The New York Beacon, 237 W. 37th Street,
Suite 203 New York, New York 10018
Tel: (212) 213-8585
CLASSIFIED
23
24
BEACON
Marc Rasbury
SPORTS
Amazing New York Mets push their record 4-0
There was only one real complaint after the Mets recorded the
most magical of their four straight
victories to open the season
Monday night, and it came from
two-way hero Daniel Murphy.
It was that Justin Turner
slammed him with shaving cream,
Murphy griped with a grin, rather
than sweet whipped cream during his triumphant postgame TV
interview.
Such are the rare problems encumbering the Mets as they continue to be the surprise talk of
baseball — and finally for the right
reasons.
They used an important home
run from rookie Kirk Nieuwenhuis,
more stellar work from their overhauled bullpen and a crazy ninthinning rally — capped by
Murphy’s walkoff single to right
— for an uplifting 4-3 win over
the Nationals at Citi Field.
“Everybody’s excited about the
start,” Terry Collins said after the
Mets pushed their record to 4-0
for the first time since 2007. “We
talked about it in the first meeting
in spring training, the importance
of getting off to a good start out
of the gate.
“We know it’s a long year. We
know it’s four games. But I think
we want to show our fans that we
say that maybe there’s some truth
to it — that we’re a better team
than people give us credit for.”
The Mets actually trailed for
the first time this season, 3-0, as
Mike Pelfrey coughed up three
runs over the first three innings.
But the lanky righty encouragingly
cranked his fastball back up to 95
mph and departed a tie game after
5 2/3 innings.
Pelfrey doubled and scored on
David Wright’s two-out single in
the third and Nieuwenhuis
clubbed Nats starter Edwin Jackson for a two-run blast in the
fourth. The home run clanged off
the Modell’s sign in right, making
it the Mets’ second blast aided by
the reconfigured fences and the
first of Nieuwenhuis’ career.
Sandy Alderson’s overhauled
bullpen took it from there, posting
zeroes on the scoreboard. Miguel
Batista recorded a key strikeout to
spare Pelfrey more runs in the sixth,
Newcomer Ramon Ramirez got
Batista out of trouble by inducing
a double-play grounder to end the
seventh. And 6-foot-11 setup man
Jon Rauch recorded the final six
outs, including a backhanded dive
by Murphy up the middle for a
force at second to close out the
top of the ninth.
“Dan Murphy, what can I say”
Every minute of every game, he’s
all-out. He’s max-out,” Collins said.
All of that set up a wacky gamewinning uprising in the bottom
half against reliever Henry
Rodriguez.
Pinch-hitter Mike Baxter led off
with a walk, before Ruben Tejada
got down a sacrifice bunt with two
strikes. Rodriguez fielded the ball
score easily on the play as Espinosa
hobbled after the ball down the line,
but then third base coach Tim
Teufel threw up a stop sign with the
Archbishop Molloy product about
halfway home.
“The last thing I wanted to do
there was have the first out at
home,” Teufel explained.
Baxter, who also had stumbled
coming around second base,
stopped short and slipped to the
grass before barely scrambling back
to third.
“I took some grass there, but it
worked out well. I’m just glad I got
back in time,” Baxter said.
“I’m not really sure I can tell you
what I said in the dugout when I
saw him fall,” Collins said. “But Teuf
got down the line really far and really made a good read on it.”
That sequence brought up
Murphy, who told himself “not to
hyperventilate” with runners on
second and third after watching the
craziness from the previous play
from the on-deck circle. Murphy
calmly flared a 1-0 pitch for a single
in front of Jayson Werth in right to
set off a mob scene on the infield
dirt.
“We’re not even in that spot if
not for all the other guys … and it’s
nice to know we’re not going to give
in when we’re down,” Murphy said.
THE PIE — Daniel Murphy gets hit with a celebratory pie by Justin “I figured they would pitch to me
Turner after his game-winning hit (below) Monday night.
even with the base open with David
but skipped it past second Tejada to scamper as far as pos- (Wright) on deck … so I’m just glad
I was able to relax right there and
baseman Danny Espinosa cover- sible on the basepaths.
It appeared as if Baxter would come through.”
ing at first, freeing Baxter and
Yankees avoid fourth 0-4 start with win over Orioles
BALTIMORE — Joe Girardi’s
message to his team following
Sunday’s sweep at the hands of
the Rays was simple and straightforward: It’s only three games.
Girardi told his players to relax,
play their game and things would
be just fine. Monday night, that
proved to be the case.
Ivan Nova put his dreadful
spring behind him with seven
strong innings, leading the Yankees to a 6-2 win over the Orioles
to land the Bombers in the win
column for the first time in 2012.
“It’s nice to shake hands
again,” Mark Teixeira said. “You
go all winter, and in spring training not many of us are there in the
ninth inning to shake hands, so
it’s nice to go through the line
again.”
The Yankees avoided the fourth
0-4 start in their history; the last
was in 1973. As the Yankees were
congratulating each other on their
first win of the season, Russell
Martin was busy jawing with Baltimore second baseman Robert
Andino.
Martin declined to get into specifics, but according to a source,
Martin thought Andino was relaying signs to hitters from second
base after doubling against
Mariano Rivera in the ninth, a big
pet peeve of the catcher’s.
“A little yapping session towards the end,” said Martin, who
accused the Blue Jays of doing the
same thing in Toronto last season.
“Nothing crazy. It’s fun. It’s baseball, there’s emotions flying and
stuff.”
The incident didn’t escalate beyond some loud words, but it
wouldn’t be surprising to see it
extend into Tuesday’s game in
some fashion.
“Boys were being boys,” Girardi
said.
Six different Yankees drove in
runs as they dealt the upstart Orioles their first loss of the season.
Derek Jeter was one of them, going 4-for-4 with his first RBI of the
year.
“A lot of times the first of everything is the most difficult to get in
a season,” Jeter said. “Whether it’s
the first hit, first RBI, first win.”
Nova, who posted an 8.06 ERA
during spring training, appeared to
discover the fastball command that
had deserted him during the past
five weeks. He allowed two runs
on 10 hits in seven innings, striking out seven without walking a
batter. “You always want to get
that first one out of the way and I
thought Nova pitched well, especially when he got in trouble,”
Girardi said. “He gave up some hits
but he got some big outs when he
Mark Teixeira
Nova said. “To start the season
needed to.”
The win was the 13th in a row with three losses in a row and win
in the regular season for Nova our first game of the year, it feels
dating back to last June 10, the really good.” Teixeira gave the
longest winning streak by any Yankees a lead with an RBI single
pitcher in baseball. Nova is only in the first, but Matt Wieters
the fourth Yankees pitcher in his- evened the score in the second
tory to win 13 consecutive deci- with a blast off Nova.
Orioles starter Brian Matusz
sions, joining Roger Clemens (16),
Whitey Ford (14) and Ron Guidry seemed to settle down after giving up the early run, posting ze(13).
“Everything was working,” roes in the second and third, but
the Yankees wore him out in the
fourth, taking advantage of one-out
walks to Curtis Granderson and
Andruw Jones.
Martin singled in Granderson,
while Jones moved to third base on
an error by left fielder Nolan Reimold.
Eduardo Nunez’s sacrifice fly
pushed the lead to 3-1, then Jeter
doubled in Martin, giving the Yankees a three-run lead while ending
Matusz’s night after four innings.
“We don’t always have to be station-to-station,” Girardi said. “Some
of the guys are a little bit more station-to-station than the others, but
we do have speed and we can do
some things.”
Nova got some help from Nunez
in the fourth when the third baseman
made an acrobatic diving catch on a
Wilson Betemit line drive, saving a
run. Nova stranded two runners in
the sixth, then Jones belted a solo
homer to stretch the Yankees’ lead
to 6-1 in the seventh.
Nova allowed a run in the seventh, but he finished the inning to
hand a four-run lead to the bullpen,
as Dave Robertson and Mariano
Rivera closed out the win. “I thought
our guys were pretty loose today,
and that’s what I want,” Girardi said.
“I want our guys relaxed and playing the game the way it’s supposed
to be played. But I’m sure everyone
exhaled a little bit.”

New York Beacon

Transcription

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