June 12, 2022
GREATER HOUSTON EDITION
African-American News&Issues
“Addressing Current & Historical Realities Affecting Our Community”
Vol. 27, Issue 21
Sometimes you have to f ight the people you’re f ighting for. - Roy Douglas Malonson
THE TONY AWARD GOES TO
Roshunda Jones-Koumba
Cont. on Pg. 3
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June 5, 2022
EDITORIAL
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Partin’ the Waters By Omowale Luthuli-Allen
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GREATER HOUSTON EDITION
It happened. My neighbor’s house is on fire and their disabled son is trapped inside. Good Samaritan instinct kicks in an I run to the back yard. Mommie says get my boy. As I attempt to enter the house, the roof collapses. Oxygen pours in and produces an inferno. A fireman arrives with a helmet and protective suit with a respirator supplied with oxygen. The fireman uses an axe, pulverizes the door, and disappears into suffocating smoke. Ninety seconds later, he comes out with a 170-pound sack of humanity on his shoulder. Pay that man. Fireman took an oath and when it was time to perform, he grossly overperformed. Often, other oath bound professionals underperform. He decided without waiting on a sergeant. Big caliber weapons are being fired at first graders in Uvalde while they pray and call 911. First responders know that to save lives the active shooter must be stopped. Training has mandated that you can’t wait 75 minutes to
go in. When paralysis sets in for first responder oath keepers, the grim reaper is free to snatch bodies of innocents. Lifeguards must often enter currents that the strongest swimmers cannot survive, to save a life. Their job is to bring swimmers in distress to safety. Pay that man. This is what they signed on for. Therefore, you have a direct deposit. The challenge is hard, but it is easier when you can decide at a decision point. Do what you have been trained to do. Do what our tax dollars have equipped and trained you for. Put on tax dollar mylar protective vests and shield. Go get the anti-social personality. Send the million-dollar robot-cop to get the rebel killer. Our elected representatives must stop denying the people FALSE FLAGG laws, whereby we can seize weapons from those that advertise their pending crimes on FACEBOOK and Instagram. Our elected representatives must produce laws that keep weapons of war, AR 15 automatic and semiautomatic weapons out of the hands of sociopaths. Kudos to Rep. Dutton who attempted to pass a law in Texas to prohibit weapons of For more visit war in 1989. aframnews.com
Food for Thought Oscar Blayton
ARE AMERICAN CLASSROMS PRODUCING MASS SHOOTERS? Let’s face it. With all the mass shootings in America today, it is difficult to tease out the various motivations that prompt murderers to unleash their automatic weapons on unsuspecting and innocent individuals they do not even know. This country being awash in guns is certainly a major contributor to the constant carnage. But a theory of “one size fits all” does not apply to these killings. Some shooters suffer from mental illness. Others have a fixation on attacking people because of their sexual orientation or religion. And then there are those who attack people because of their race or ethnicity. We need to find ways of bringing an end to all types of shootings. But to do so, we need to understand and address the underlying factors that drive the perpetrators to commit their heinous acts. While we must address all forms of hate, I want to speak to one specific piece
of this puzzle – race-based slaughter. First, I want us to recall Dylann Roof, a 21-yearold white male living in Eastover, South Carolina, who drove 98 miles to Mother Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston and killed nine African Americans he did not know on June 17, 2015. Next, I want to bring your attention to the murders that took place Aug. 3, 2019, when 21-year-old Patrick Crusius of Allen, Texas, drove more than 600 miles to kill 23 Latinx strangers at an El Paso Walmart. Finally, on May 14, 2022, Payton Gendron, an 18-year-old white kid drove more than 200 miles from his home in Conklin, New York, and killed 10 random African American shoppers in a Buffalo supermarket. Identifying only these three mass shootings is not to take away from the horror of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting that took place just 10 days after Gendron went on his rampage; the San Ysidro McDonald’s massacre of 1984 in San Diego, California; the Columbine High School shooting on April 20, 1999 in Colorado; or any of the other horrific mass murders our politicians are content to For more visit endure. aframnews.com
GREATER HOUSTON EDITION
June 5, 2022
AFRAMNEWS.COM 3
LOCAL
The Tony Award GOES TO By: Chelsea Davis-Bibb, Ed.D.
HOUSTON-Originally from Wharton, Texas, growing up, Roshunda Jones-Koumba had a “well-rounded childhood.” Her mother and father always supported her creative outlet, so she participated in many different organizations in school, particularly theater and band. Her passion for teaching developed as a young child, and her aunt was a big inspiration in her life due to her career as an educator. “I always wanted to be a teacher like her.” Jones-Koumba would spend her summers in Longview, Texas where her mother was from and would visit her aunt, her grandmother, and all her cousins. At her aunt’s
school, they had yearround schooling, and she would let Jones-Koumba help in the classroom, mentor, and tutor students. Jones Koumba graduated from Wharton High School in 1999. After high school, she attended Prairie View A &M University. She originally wanted to major in English, but she couldn’t get away from theater. She then met theater professor Clarance Lee Turner at Prairie View. Reflecting on that time she mentioned how “he changed so many lives and has produced so many artists in the state of Texas and beyond.” During her first semester, she had a conversation with him, and he asked, “Why don’t you teach something that
you absolutely love.” His words resonated with her, and she switched her major to theater with a minor in English. She then received her teaching certification right after she graduated from Prairie View A&M University. When speaking about her love for theater, she discussed how inclusive theater is. “It can involve everyone, and it teaches you teamwork, help with self-esteem, and can help you understand people. When you understand people, you’re just better human beings.” When it comes to teaching, she loves seeing students reach their fullest potential. “When a student comes in for the first day and they’re shy and may
be to afraid to speak up, but by the end of the year, they have blossomed, and their confidence level grows, and they’ve learned so much about themselves and that’s what theater teaches you.” She further described theater as a self-study where you learn about yourself, grow, and then you can go out and tackle the world. Her teaching career started at Eisenhower High School as a student
teacher. Shortly after, she became a full-time teacher at Shotwell Middle School. She then taught at Shotwell Middle School for a year and then moved to G.W. Carver Magnet High School where she currently serves as the director of G.W. Carver Theatre. She has worked at G.W. Carver Magnet High School for 17 years and just completed her 18th Tony Award cont year in education. pg. 4
4 AFRAMNEWS.COM Tony Award cont’d
Recently, JonesKoumba became the recipient of the 2022 Excellence in Theatre Education Award presented by the Tony Awards and Carnegie Mellon University. The Tony Awards were named in honor of the actress and producer Antoinette Perry and was “established in 1947 by the American Theatre Wing and are intended to recognize excellence in plays and musicals staged on Broadway.” Jones-Koumba had no idea that she had been nominated for the award, let alone a finalist. When she found out, she had “an over sense of gratitude for what she does and was incredibly grateful. “I’m just thankful and honored. This is the highest award that you can get in the theater profession and its truly an honor.” When people watch her work, she wants people to be entertained, enlightened, inspired, and in some cases, she wants people to be motivated to go out and make a change. She believes that a lot of times theater is about life, and how you can learn a lesson by watching something, so she likes for some shows to be a call of action for people to go out and do something. As a Black woman in theater, it has not been an easy road for Jones-Koumba, or for just being a person of color. She mentioned, “Breaking into a profession that sometimes overlooks you is a challenge. I truly believe that representation is important. Even though it may be a challenge, I’m going to continue to keep pushing through because I want every environment that I work in to be diverse, inclusive, and I want to be an example to my students that anything is possible, and we all deserve to have a seat at the table.” When she is not teaching at G.W. Carver Magnet High School, she’s a teaching artist
June 5, 2022 for TUTS Humphreys School of Musical Theatre, the Ensemble Theatre, and works as an actor, director, and theatre consultant. She has done great work and has won numerous awards, which include the Stephen Schwartz Musical Theatre Teacher of the Year Award and the International Thespian Society Inspirational Theatre Educator of the Year Award. She was also inducted into the Texas Thespians Hall of Fame and received the inaugural Arts Educator of the Year from the TUTS Leading Ladies organization. As the director of the Panther Players Troupe #6753, the troupe has been successful on the state and national level at the UIL One Act Play contest, Tommy Tune Awards, Texas Thespians State Festival, and International Thespian Festival. Jones-Koumba currently serves on the chapter board for Texas Thespians, UIL OAP Advisory Committee Chair Elect, board of directors for Texas Educational Theatre Association and president for the C. Lee Turner’s Black Theatre Educators’ Caucus. In addition, she was the director of the Litefooter youth program at the Plaza Theatre for eleven years where she was part of the board of directors for four. She also holds many directional credits. Jones-Koumba obtained her B.A. in Theatre and a Master of Education in Administration from Prairie View A&M University. She has achieved so much thus far, and has made a lasting impact in education. When discussing legacy, Jones-Koumba wants to be remembered as “someone who was fiercely passionate about the youth and making a difference and being an advocate for people couldn’t advocate for themselves.” The Tony Awards will be held in New York City on June 12, 2022.
GREATER HOUSTON EDITION
GREATER HOUSTON EDITION
June 5, 2022
EDUCATION
ArM The TeACherS By: Laisha Harris
innocent lives are at stake. From HOUSTON-As of June 8, 2022, my understanding on the role of there have been more than 250 incidents of mass shootings in the police, disarming gunmen is their job, not the role of teachers. United States – 29 in Texas. Since Ciara Smith, a history teacher the shooting at Uvalde Elementary School, the Department of Justice who has taught for ten years discussed how teachers shouldn’t has opened an investigation and be armed because it “won’t solve state representatives are making the problem, but only create their suggestions to citizens. a larger one.” While the issue She further of gun violence mentioned that, is on the rise, “A teacher’s focus lawmakers have should not be suggested that on guns and arming teachers bullets, it should could be a be focused on solution. the learning “There are so environment and many things curriculum for that can go our scholars.” horribly wrong Ms. Shaw by permitting asked, “How firearms on do you expect school grounds,” to arm teachers says Houston with guns and educator ammunition Ms. Sarah Ciara Smith when we literally Taylor. “What stock, decorate if a student and fund events somehow gets access to it? What if it accidentally for our classrooms out of our own pockets? How do you expect discharges? Who’s going to pay to train teachers in how to use for it? Who’s going to train me? weapons when we’re barely What if I’m too scared to actually trained on our own content?” use it and it ends up costing my These are very valid questions: children, or me, our lives? It’s not how are bulletproof backpacks realistic.” going to stop someone from As a former educator, the committing a school shooting? suggestion that educators should How would arming be armed in order to be able adults with weapons to address active shooters on in a classroom full school property is deflecting of children going responsibility. I pay taxes to to combat the issue “train” individuals who are of gun supposed to be competent in violence? handling situations where an For more visit armed gunman is involved, and aframnews.com
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June 5, 2022
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
AnderSon MUSIC PIAno reCITAL By: Lela Anderson
Milton Dennis, Edyn Simon, Miles Starkey, La’Miracle Johnson, Johnny Kelley
HOUSTON– The Anderson Music Studio recently held its annual recital featuring students who are studying piano. The students presented individual virtual programs featuring music studied during the 2021-2022 calendar year. The Anderson studio encourages the study of all genres of music including classical, sacred, popular, folk songs, gospel, along with television and movie themes. In addition, students develop skills in music improvisation and composition. Music publishing is also an aspect of music business the students learn about. Awards and recognitions were given to the students for their accomplishments in music theory, technic, and performance. Students who performed in this year’s recital are Miles Starkey, Edyn Simon, Johnny Kelley, Milton Dennis, and La’Miracle Johnson. These students earned awards in “Recital Performance”, “Composition,” along with nominations for a “Star Composer” award. Kelley earned a “Theory Award.” Starkey and Kelley earned “Star Composer’ awards. Starkey also earned the award of being “Pianist of The Year.
Studio owner/instructor Lela Anderson has taught music at the public school and collegiate levels. In her studio, she works virtually with students of all ages from kindergarten to senior citizens. Music teachers and adults of all ages and professions are also part of her list of clients in the Anderson Music Studio. In addition, Anderson is a composer, who is published by companies such as Oxford University Press. She has been honored for her work as a teacher, composer, and musician by numerous organizations, which include, Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers, Aldine ISD, Houston ISD, The DeBose National Piano Foundation of Southern University-Baton Rouge, National Women of Achievement, Gospel Music Workshop of America, Jerusalem Baptist Church-Third Ward/Houston, New Jerusalem Baptist Church-Garden City/ Houston, Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church-Houston, the Houston Chronicle, the Houston Ebony Opera Guild, and Billboard For more visit Magazine. aframnews.com
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