A&E
business news:
inside this week:
MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUP PERFORMS A WOODEN TREE. pg 14
Smarter in the City selects start-ups. pg 10
Chinatown group forms community land trust . pg 3
plus Lee Daniels’ life reflected in TV’s Empire. pg 16 Freedom Bound. pg 17 Thursday, January 29, 2015 • FREE • GREATER BOSTON’S URBAN NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1965 • CELEBRATING 50 YEARS
Questions linger on Olympics Calls for more open process
www.baystatebanner.com
U. Dream College Fair — See Boston Scenes, page 12
By SANDRA LARSON Even after a public presentation by Boston 2024, the private group organizing Boston’s bid to host the 2024 Olympics Summer Games, not everyone is convinced the process is sufficiently transparent. “I have more questions now than I did before that are not answered,” said state Rep. Liz Malia. “I’m more convinced than ever that we need a very transparent process. Communities involved don’t seem to have been on the receiving end of any information.” Malia, who had declined to comment for an earlier Banner story, preferring to wait until after the Boston 2024 presentation, said she is firmly in the skeptics’ corner at this point.
A call for voter weigh-in
Evan Falchuk, 2014 gubernatorial candidate and founder of the new United Independent Party, is calling for a statewide referendum on the Olympic bid that would appear on ballot in November 2016. If not an up-or-down vote on the bid itself, the ballot question would allow voters to forbid the use of state tax money for the Olympics. “The Olympic backers have been saying this isn’t going to use taxpayer money,” said Falchuk in a phone interview this week. “I and a lot of other people are not sure that’s really going to happen.” After attending a Jan. 21 presentation in Boston by the Boston 2024 group, Falchuk issued a list of still-unanswered questions, among them, How much will this cost taxpayers; Why hasn’t the group released the actual presentation they made to the U.S. Olympic Committee; Do the Olympics make money; and, How does an unelected group get to set the agenda for our elected representatives and all Massachusetts voters? It’s not about the merit of the games, he said, but rather the lack
See OLYMPICS, page 7
COURTESY SWK PHOTO
The BASE held its 2nd Annual U. Dream College Fair on Saturday, January 17th. More than 30 colleges and universities were present to share information about their schools with high school students at the recent event.
BHA seeks nonprofit partners HUD budget cuts jeopardize repair funding By YAWU MILLER After two decades of declining federal funding for the 63 developments in its portfolio, the Boston Housing Authority is looking for new funding sources to help maintain and, if possible, expand the number of affordable housing units available
to low- and moderate-income Boston residents. Last year the agency issued a request for qualifications, seeking ideas from forprofit and nonprofit development entities on how “to optimize the value of BHA sites in high-market neighborhoods, as a means to preserve or expand existing affordable units.” The agency’s RFQ process for
Boston public housing developments comes at the suggestion of the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, which provides the majority of the funding for the BHA and other housing authorities across the commonwealth and across the nation. “HUD is moving housing authorities in the direction of public-private partnerships,” said
BHA Director Bill McGonagle. “I’m convinced that the funding for public housing as we know it is gone, and it’s not coming back.” McGonagle noted that the BHA is not planning to sell any of its property, reduce the number of public housing units in its portfolio, or relocate any of the units to other areas of the city. “My intention is to find a way to preserve over the long term the public housing units in the
See BHA, page 8
Panel discusses solutions to police abuse problem By YAWU MILLER Harvard Law Professor Ron Sullivan sees ending police profiling as a win-win scenario, given that blacks don’t want to be profiled, and police don’t want ineffective policing strategies. “In every jurisdiction that has kept data on stop-and-frisk, two things are important,” he said, speaking during a forum on police brutality at Roxbury
Community College. “Blacks are stopped disproportionately and blacks are not found to have contraband at greater rates than whites. Often it’s lower.” While Boston police deny they have a stop-and-frisk policy — a point Police Superintendent in Chief William Gross repeated during the forum last week — forum participants and audience members repeatedly recounted
See POLICE, page 6
BANNER PHOTO
Community activist Elizabeth Miranda makes a point during a panel discussion on police abuse at Roxbury Community College. Looking on are (l-r) Colin Marts, Ron Sullivan, William Gross, Michael Curry and Steve Tompkins.
2 • Thursday, January 29, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER
Mass. lawmakers propose criminal justice reforms By YAWU MILLER When Massachusetts legislators got tough on crime in the late ’80s and early ’90s, they passed laws that doled out longer mandatory sentences for lowlevel drug offenders. Now, after the percentage of – the state’s population living behind bars has quadrupled and prison costs have risen by an estimated $2.7 billion, legislators and policy makers are
re-thinking the state’s punitive drug laws and mandatory sentencing. State Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz (D–Jamaica Plain) and Rep. Mary Keefe (D–Worcester) are co-sponsoring legislation that would repeal mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes, reduce certain low-level felonies to misdemeanors and reinvest the savings from those reforms into job training, youth jobs and other programs aimed at workforce development.
“What we’re trying to do with this bill is to think about how we as a state can reform criminal justice and save money that can be used to reinvest into communities,” Keefe said. “If we continue at the current rate of growth, we will be spending an additional $2 billion on new prisons.” Chang-Diaz said the impetus for the bill came from constituents who are concerned about the state’s growing prison population and the cost of incarcerating an
Auditor sworn in
PHOTO COURTESY OFFICE OF THE STATE AUDITOR
Auditor Suzanne Bump, with the Conservatory Lab Charter School Dudamel Brass Ensemble. Students from the Conservatory Lab Charter School of Dorchester provided musical performances including the National Anthem for Bump’s swearing-in ceremony. First elected in 2010, Bump is the 25th State Auditor and is the first woman to hold the position.
increasing number of Massachusetts residents at $47,000 per inmate per year. “People are asking why we’re spending $47,000 per year locking people up, but there’s only one social worker among 16 schools,” she said. Groups including the Worcester-based Ex-Prisoners and Prisoners Organizing for Community Advancement, the Boston Workers Alliance and Youth Against Mass Incarceration have highlighted both the rising costs of incarceration and the disparate rates of incarceration among communities of color. ChangDiaz cited legal scholar Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow, as an example of the increased awareness of racial disparities in the criminal justice system. “There’s a bright light shining on the issues of racial disparities in the criminal justice system,” she said. African Americans make up 8 percent of the state’s population and 28 percent of those in Department of Corrections custody. Latinos are 10 percent of the state’s population and 25 percent of those incarcerated. In addition to repealing mandatory minimum sentences, the bill also would end the automatic five-year driver’s license suspensions for people convicted of drug crimes. The money saved by reducing the state’s prison population would be redirected to community-based programs, including those offering job training,
transitional jobs and apprenticeship programs, youth jobs, job creation and programs that help young people stay in school. “Thousands of people would be impacted by these reforms,” Chang-Diaz said. Keefe and Chang-Diaz filed the legislation Jan. 16, and currently are seeking co-sponsors for the bill. The legislation received an endorsement from at least one politician outside the building. “I thank Sen. Chang-Diaz and Rep. Keefe for having the courage to take a stand on these important issues,” said Suffolk County Sheriff Tompkins in a press statement. “The truth is, we put far too many people in jail who should be remanded to diversionary, substance abuse or mental health programs. Restoring judicial discretion to drug sentencing would allow judges to determine the best punishment on a case-by-case basis.”
BY THE NUMBERS YEARLY COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH CURRENT MASSACHUSETTS SENTENCING GUIDELINES: $1.5 billion for incarcerating offenders for longer sentences (relative to 1990) $900 million for incarcerating more drug offenders (relative to 1985) $160 million for moving inmates to higher security facilities (relative to 1990) $200 million in uncollected taxes from lost wages (relative to 1987)
* Source: MassInc Report: Crime, Cost and Consequences, 2013.
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Thursday, January 29, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER • 3
Chinatown group forms community land trust By SANDRA LARSON A group of community residents and advocates in Boston’s Chinatown have formed the city’s first new community land trust in over 25 years in an effort to preserve affordable housing in the neighborhood in the face of increasing development pressure. About 250 community land trusts exist nationwide, but the Chinatown Community Land Trust, which held its kick-off meeting Jan. 14, is the first one to form in Boston since 1989, when Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative established Dudley Neighbors Inc. in Roxbury. Community land trusts operate as nonprofit community boards, acquiring land in order to ensure community control of development. Residents can still own or lease the buildings on CLT land, but the trust owns the land. CLTs have authority to designate housing as permanently affordable or deed-restricted to keep rents and resale prices from shooting up with a rising market. Homebuyers can accumulate some equity and benefit from greater stability and less vulnerability to predatory lending practices and foreclosures during housing boom-and-bust cycles. “The idea of the land trust is the community owns it, and can preserve it for long term affordability,” said Suzanne Lee, former principal of the Josiah Quincy Elementary School, a Chinatown resident and a board member of the new land trust. “It’s a tool we can use to preserve our neighborhood.” Community control over affordable rents and deed restrictions helps curb the loss of low- and middle-income residents that often comes with the gentrification of formerly low-cost neighborhoods — a key concern in Chinatown. According to the Chinese Progressive Association, which helped incubate CCLT, the number of housing units in Chinatown has nearly doubled since 2000, but the lion’s share of the increase has been in the
form of high-end market-rate units. The encroachment of luxury developments is leaving few options for lower-income Chinatown residents, said Karen Chen, CPA’s organizing director, and threatens the very fabric of the community. “If working families and new immigrants can’t settle here, then it’s meaningless to have a Chinatown,” Chen said. Of particular concern to the Chinatown trust are the neighborhood’s old brick row houses. These modest buildings, many of them owned by Chinese families, have traditionally provided housing for low-income workers. They have fallen into disrepair, causing untenable expenses for some owners, and they are starting to catch the eye of developers. CCLT board member Lawrence Cheng, an architect and planner involved in Chinatown community master plans as far back as 1980, said the row houses were late in receiving attention. “We’ve always been working to keep affordable housing in Chinatown, but in 2000 and 2010, we didn’t think enough about preserving these row houses,” he said. “[Now,] with development pressure around Chinatown, we feel we need to act.” He added, “Someone with a good heart could buy [the row houses] and rent them out at an affordable rate — but we haven’t seen that happening, so we think CCLT is a way to achieve that.” Lee, Cheng and others said Dudley Neighbors Inc. has been a key source of help and advice in how to form a CLT. The two CLTs are starting out in quite different circumstances, however. When DNI was formed 25 years ago, Roxbury contained a large number of vacant land parcels, neglected and in some cases arson-ravaged. The land had little monetary value, and the city granted DNI eminent domain to acquire more than 30 acres of land in the Dudley Triangle, which it still controls today, along with a few more
parcels added over the years. DNI has filled once-blighted lots in the Dudley Triangle area with playgrounds, a farm, gardens and affordable housing, including owner-occupied, cooperatively owned and rental units. By contrast, for CCLT in 2015 the challenge will be to acquire land bit by bit in a densely-built, increasingly-pricey area. A big task right off the bat will be reaching out to row house owners to educate them on the option of selling to the land trust or partnering with CCLT to finance home renovation. Many owners are first generation immigrants wanting to make a good profit and pass the money along to the next generation. In other cases, the buildings have been inherited by second or third generation family members who no longer live in Boston or who can’t afford needed repairs. Jeff Hovis, a Chinatown homeowner and president of the CCLT board, explained that the CCLT aims to offer row house owners a competitive price. “We are hoping the math can work, where we can make a deal favorable for both the land trust and for the current owner,” Hovis said. “They would be helping to preserve Chinatown, as well as getting a fair price.” As of now, the fledgling land trust owns no land. There is some seed money to start acquiring property, but much funding is still needed. CCLT tried recently to buy a row house on Hudson Street. But when
the sellers, who had been struggling for some time with repairs ordered by city inspectors, held an open house, a developer walked in with a cash offer and the sellers took it. This loss of opportunity underscores the uphill battle a CLT faces in a hot market with developers eager to swoop in. “We just have to keep learning, and work to make our offers faster,” said Cheng, who said CCLT’s offer had actually been slightly higher than the developer’s cash offer. Over time, if CCLT succeeds in acquiring a good number of properties, the hope is that Chinatown could hold onto a core of middleand low-income housing and remain
a place for new immigrants and low-income workers to gain a foothold and raise families. For Karen Chen at CPA, that dream can’t come soon enough. “Something needs to happen right away,” she said last week, exhausted after spending a good part of several days assisting and calming the alarmed Chinese-speaking tenants of the Hudson Street row house, who see the new owner’s representatives and workers coming in and out of the building and worry they will soon have to move. Chen continued, “It’s hard to be patient when someone is literally about to be thrown out, or facing a huge rent increase. We’re seeing this on an everyday basis.”
BANNER PHOTO
Chinatown’s lower-rent brick rowhouses have often provided new immigrants and lower-income residents a chance to gain a foothold in the neighborhood.
Corporate and Community Education
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• Offered through a partnership between RCC and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights & Economic Justice. • Geared towards individuals who are formalizing a business idea and ready to get started with starting their own business. The 9-week handson seminar covers all aspects from getting your personal finances in order, planning for business finances, writing a business plan, how to do business accounting, marketing and social media, legal issues, and networking. It also provides access to information on licensing, permits, free legal counsel, and access to capital.
Do you have 2 hours each week to play with young homeless children (0-6) in one of our statewide shelter-based Playspaces? Are you fun-loving, dependable and looking for a way to make a difference in Roxbury, Dorchester, or Mattapan? Help a homeless child learn, play, and thrive:
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• 3-month program for enthusiastic and mature kids who are interested in being part of a stage production. Parts for both confident young actors and those looking to break out of their comfort zones. • Directed by RCC’s own Marshall Hughes, director of our fantastic Media Arts Center. • Kids must interview and audition first; limited spots so call us at (617) 933-7410 to schedule your child’s audition this week!
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Email: lifelonglearning@rcc.mass.edu Roxbury Community College | 1234 Columbus Ave, Roxbury, MA 02120 | www.rcc.mass.edu
4 • Thursday, January 29, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER
EDITORIAL
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INSIDE: ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, 14-18 • BUSINESS, 10-11 • COMMUNITY CALENDAR, 19 • CLASSIFIEDS, 21-23
Established 1965
The perennial practice of police abuse The movie Selma is now playing to great critical acclaim at theaters across the country. However, people inconvenienced by the obstruction of the Edmund Pettus Bridge by protesters back then on Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965 were undoubtedly not so understanding. Their response was similar to the angry reaction of commuters who expressed hostility over the disruption on Interstate 93 recently by those supporting the “Black Lives Matter” protest. Critics have referred to the demonstrators as anarchists for having delayed by about one hour the privilege of an uncomplicated commute. During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s, those campaigning for the elimination of racial discrimination were often branded as communists. That was a very powerful epithet during that era when America was in the Cold War conflict with the Russian Empire. There is no indication as yet that the nation acknowledges the severity of the problem of police abuse of blacks. Criticism of grand jury decisions that exonerate the police for killing unarmed black men has been countered by the publication of complimentary news stories and op-ed pieces about the heroism and stellar performance of the police. Except for the young, like those who dare to disrupt highway traffic in protest, public reaction is similar to the lack of interest in the anti-lynching laws. Before the Civil Rights Movement of the ‘50s, black leaders tried for decades to pass anti-lynch laws. The effort never succeeded because lynching was treated as a murder case to be tried in state court. Yet those who lynched black men were never convicted in the South. Blacks argued that lynching victims were
denied their constitutional rights, essentially those provided by the 14th Amendment, so such cases should have federal jurisdiction. However, since the lynching cases proceeded under the color of law in the state courts, most Americans had little interest in the matter, and no anti-lynch law was ever passed by Congress. Even though an estimated 3,446 blacks were lynched between 1882 and 1968, members of Congress believed that the preservation of states’ rights was more important. It now appears that history repeats itself. The objective today is to protect the police and the grand jury system regardless of its flaws. Public support for the grand jury system provides an unjust protection for abusive police officers. As in the general failure to support the anti-lynching laws, the color of law passivity about grand juries leads to injustice. The decisions of grand juries that favor the police cause one to wonder whether there are any reasonable limits on police conduct. Police violence has been a perennial problem. When British noblemen challenged the authority of the crown 800 years ago, they included directives in the Magna Carta to mollify the conduct of law enforcement officers. That historic document stated “justiciaries, constables, sheriffs or bailiffs” in order to be appointed, must “know the laws of the land, and [be] well disposed to observe them.” The Magna Carta, executed at Runnymede, England in 1215, was the precedent for the Bill of Rights and the right of judicial review that are so critical to Anglo-American jurisprudence. Yet protests against police violence in America continue 800 years later.
“That policy is 800 years old, and the police still can’t get it together.” USPS 045-780
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Parallels between presidents and films Once upon a time an Ivy League educated, former college professor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who happened to be President of the United States, screened a film at the White House about “race relations” in the American South. Many of the depictions in the film were raw, ugly, painful and
strongly resented by thousands who felt that their “own kind” was grievously miscast and even historic political figures, dear to them, were misrepresented. No, I’m not thinking of President Barack Obama and the film “Selma” screened at the White House on January 16, 2015, but of President Woodrow Wilson and the film “Birth of a Nation” screened there on March 21, 1915.
INDEX BUSINESS NEWS ………………………………...................... 10-11 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT …………………...................... 14-18 COMMUNITY CALENDAR …………………........................ 19 BOSTON SCENES …………………..................................... 12 CLASSIFIEDS ……………………………………....................... 21-23
Incidentally, “Birth of a Nation” attempted to ennoble the KKK and the Confederate “Lost Cause.” Oh, what a century can—or cannot—do in our country. The French captured my thoughts about change that isn’t really change, with their evergreen phrase: Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
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Thursday, January 29, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER • 5
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Citizens United will stifle business innovation
What do you think police can do to foster better community relations?
By DAVID LEVINE
Five years after the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Citizens United v. FEC, the United States is still feeling its ill effects. The 2012 election cycle proved to be the most expensive cycle in history, with an estimated $6 billion in spending on federal races; 2014, meanwhile, was the most expensive midterm election cycle in history. In all likelihood, future election cycles will eclipse those marks. This isn’t just a problem for good government advocates. It’s a problem for businesses too. All economic activity exists within a marketplace that is defined by laws enacted through the democratic process. If our democratic institutions are not healthy, the structures of our markets cannot be healthy and our economy will suffer. We see this in other nations where concentration of power leads to pervasive corruption and self-dealing across the economy. This stifles innovation, inhibits entrepreneurship, and causes extremes of wealth and poverty that destabilize society. The greatest menace to election integrity in America today is how easily unlimited money, cloaked in secrecy, is brought into the system. That money buys votes in elections, influences elected officials, and disables the regulatory process by dangling irresistible job offers and consulting contracts in front of officials charged with regulating vital economic activity. Our democratic system of government – and our world-leading business innovation and entrepreneurship – thrive when elections are open and fair, when all citizens can fully participate, and when special interests are not allowed to corrupt the system or exert undue influence. According to polling commissioned by the American Sustainable Business Council, two-thirds of small business owners view the Citizens United decision as bad for business, compared to only nine percent who view it favorably. Nearly 90 percent have a negative view of the role money plays in politics overall. And remarkably, half of the respondents were self-identified Republicans. The reason is simple: Most businesses prefer to invest money in their companies rather than trying to buy elections. These are funds they believe are better spent on upgrading their technology or hiring the best talent, business decisions that are good for their bottom line and the communities they serve. Instead, the Citizens United decision has enabled a minority of large corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money on elections in complete secrecy. If corporations with the deepest pockets can have this undue influence on our elections, then the priorities of the small and medium businesses that make our economy grow will be pushed aside. Most business owners believe that this is bad distortion of a free market. There’s certainly a role for businesses to play in the policy process. It’s important for policymakers to understand the concerns that businesses have, and that’s a role organizations like ASBC play in bringing business owners and policymakers together. At the same time, there is a growing response to Citizens United. Shareholders have called for full disclosure of corporate contributions. More than a third of US senators and representatives - and more than a third of the states - have called for a constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United. A half dozen proposed amendments were introduced in the last Congress – and one of them got the support of 54 senators. We need to return to a focus on rebuilding our infrastructure, investing in new technologies and other initiatives to build a strong U.S. economy. That is why business leaders are speaking out in favor of overturning the Citizens United decision. It’s important that members of Congress realize that their constituents – including small businesses – want them to get hidden and unrestricted money out of politics. It won’t be easy; the same big money interests whom Citizens United has helped will continue to use that paid access as a means to drive policies for their benefit alone. But it’s something that has to be done – and that small business owners across the country, and across both sides of the aisle, want to see. Five years later, Citizens United is still bad for business. It’s past time we did something about it.
“
The reason is simple: Most businesses prefer to invest money in their companies rather than trying to buy elections”
David Levine is CEO of the American Sustainable Business Council, which with its member organizations represents more than 200,000 U.S. businesses.
It would be nice if they could hire people from this community. People don’t have a lot of trust for the police.
People from the police department should meet with the community on a regular basis. People need to be able to tell them how they’re feeling about police harassment.
Bob Marshall
Darlene Vaughn
Jeffrey Williams
Animal Technician Roxbury
Unemployed Roxbury
They need to give us more respect. They expect respect, but you have to give it to get it.
They need more training, like corporations would do. Send them to sensitivity trainings run by the people they’re dealing with.
There’s nothing you can do with the Boston police. It’s a racist city. It’s never going to change.
Louise Marvel
Trae Pendleton
Community Activist Roxbury
Unemployed Roxbury
They need to understand that not everybody is into negative things. We’re not all committing crimes.
Michelle
Marketing Dorchester
Certified Nursing Assistant Roxbury
England, having served as Director of the Environmental Justice and Brownfields Programs for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, where she was the principal author of Massachusetts’ Environmental Justice Policy. She also served as the Executive Director of the Roxbury-based environmental justice advocacy organization, Alternatives for Com-
munity and Environment. Eady has held appointments on several faculties, including Europe-Viadriana University in Germany, Tufts University Fordham Law School, and Stanford Law School. She is the former chair of the EPA’s federal advisory committee for environmental justice, the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
IN THE NEWS
VERONICA EADY Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) announced today that it has named Veronica Eady as Vice President and Director of its Massachusetts Advocacy Center. Eady first joined CLF in 2013 as Vice President and Director of the Healthy Communities and Environmental Justice Program. “Veronica has a strong sense of community and has been the architect of groundbreaking environmental legal policies,” said Sean Mahoney, Executive Vice President, Conservation Law Foundation. “Her leadership will be critical to how we advance our mission in Massachusetts and how we connect our work to all people throughout the region.” Eady joined CLF after spending nearly five years in Berlin, where she specialized in global and national environmental justice and human rights issues. Eady was also the Associate General Counsel and Director of Environmental Justice at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, a nonprofit civil rights law firm. Eady has deep ties to New
6 • Thursday, January 29, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER
police panel continued from page 1
instances of being unfairly targeted for police stops. The forum, sponsored by the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and the Myrtle Baptist Church, drew a large audience to RCC’s Media Arts Center auditorium to hear from five panelists, including Sullivan, Harvard junior Colin Marts, community organizer Elizabeth Miranda, Boston Branch NAACP President Michael Curry and Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkins. The RCC event comes as there is increasing conversation at the national level on police reforms in the wake of high-profile police killings of unarmed blacks, including Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York and Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio. The killings, coupled with subsequent decisions by grand juries not to indict the officers involved, have added fuel to a national Black Lives Matter movement and sparked demonstrations in nearly every major U.S. city.
Deeply-rooted bias
At the heart of the community’s problems with police, Curry said, are preconceived notions of black men and criminality. He questioned whether police would react differently to seeing a white man running out of a house with knife in his hand than they would seeing a black man in Dorchester under the same circumstances. “When you enter our communities, you’re going to pull the trigger that much faster,” Curry said. “What’s at the bottom is this notion of race as a proxy for criminality,” Sullivan said. “It’s bad policing, it makes no sense whatsoever, but race so insinuates itself into our daily existence that we
can’t even see past it.” Panelists and audience members shared stories of what many said were instances of police profiling. Sullivan said he was stopped by Cambridge police as an undergraduate at Harvard while carrying a book bag and “looking like the picture of a student.” Sullivan focused his comments on the needs for police reforms, including independent investigations of police-involved shootings and police misconduct. The current system, where the police themselves and the district attorneys who work with the police investigate misconduct, does not work, he said. “We are in an atmosphere where the fox is guarding the hen house,” he commented. Curry agreed. “The reality is that the system is weighted toward the officer,” he said. Curry said the Boston Police Department has a long way to go in rooting out racism among its ranks, pointing out the January 5 incident where an off-duty Boston police officer used racial epithets on a Latino Uber driver and an African American man who intervened to stop the officer from beating the driver. “Chief Gross is in a tough position,” Curry said. “That’s alright,” Gross responded. “My ancestors fought for me to be here.”
Legislative solutions
Sullivan stressed that it is important for communities that are affected by racial profiling and police abuse to become involved in the legislative process. “The problem with the Trayvon Martin case was not the verdict,” he said. “The problem was three years before, nobody came out to fight the Stand Your Ground
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Community members listened at Roxbury Community College as a panel discussed police-community relations. legislation.” Vigilante George Zimmerman invoked Florida’s controversial Stand Your Ground law in his defense while on trial for shooting Trayvon Martin, an unarmed teenager who died clutching a packet of Skittles he had just purchased from a variety store. “There was a Stand Your Ground Law proposed here in Massachusetts,” Sullivan noted. “It was only because of Trayvon Martin that it did not go forward.” Massachusetts Legislative Black and Latino Caucus members filed a number of bills in January aimed at curbing police abuse, including a laws that would require police to disclose data on the race
of pedestrians and drivers they stop and the reasons for stopping them, and laws that would mandate an independent inspector general to investigate officer-involved shootings. None of the panelists commented directly on the legislation advanced by the Caucus. Tompkins commented on the anti-police abuse demonstrations, singling out the January 15 protest, in which 29 demonstrators were arrested for shutting down traffic on Interstate 93. “It got attention,” he said. “We have to do things that get attention.” Curry suggested police need better training on how to recognize
their own hidden prejudices. “Every officer needs to get alone in a room and face their own implicit biases,” he said. Gross agreed that police and communities of color have work to do in forging better relationships, and cited dialogues with youth as an example. “We’ve moved forward as a department and we’re willing to move forward as a community, because we’re part of the community,” he said. “We have to change the perception that all police officers are the same,” he said later during the discussion. It’s incumbent on us as a department to change that perception.”
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Olympics continued from page 1
of disclosure and public process. “I’m a sports fan. I like the Olympics,” he told the Banner. “This is about the democratic process. It’s difficult for me to understand when they say, ‘We want to do this in a democracy, we just don’t want voting to happen.’” Falchuk noted that normally, when local economic development is proposed, there’s a large degree of local control and conversation along the way. “It’s remarkable that with this, they’re not doing any of that,” he said. “The process that has existed so long is being completely trampled.” A Jan. 20 MassINC/WBUR poll found that while 51 percent of Greater Boston residents support the Olympic bid, three-quarters of respondents said residents of Boston and surrounding towns should be able to vote on the decision to host the games. A majority of residents in the Greater Boston area thought taxpayer funds would be required, despite organizers’ statements that the event would rely on private funding.
Newmarket displacement?
Early design renderings show the games could take place in numerous existing and new venues in and around Boston, including some in Roxbury. The Banner previously reported on concerns by Franklin Park advocates that if the park is tapped as an equestrian events site, the surrounding community might lose access to the park during advance preparations as well as during the actual events. The siting of a new stadium at
Widett Circle (redubbed “Midtown” in the proposal documents) could impact Roxbury’s Newmarket area. Sue Sullivan, executive director of the Newmarket Business Association, expressed frustration that her business members had not been involved in the plans, even though a new stadium could displace area establishments, including the New Boston Food Market, which includes 21 businesses employing 750 people. “Looking at their plans, they’re taking a lot of area where there are existing businesses,” Sullivan said. “We really need to be a part of the process, and to this date, we really haven’t been. They have not engaged the business community or the business associations.” Sullivan bristled at portrayals she has seen of the area eyed for the stadium as “deserted.” Reports and statements that businesses in the New Boston Food Market have been looking to sell or move are “just not true,” she said. Boston City Councilor-at-Large Michelle Wu has urged Boston 2024 and government leaders to provide full transparency and accountability. In an op-ed piece for WGBH News, Wu wrote, “Meaningful conversation requires informed participation, with full access to budgets and plans, and full knowledge of interested parties that stand to benefit.” She called for an approval process of city council votes in each city or town affected, and for the nonprofit Boston 2024 to be held to stringent standards of scrutiny regarding finances and donor lists. Reached by phone this week, Wu spoke of ensuring that if the Olympics come to Boston, local businesses feel the effects in a positive way.
Be sure to check out our website and mobile site www.baystatebanner.com HOW CAN TRANSPORTATION CONNECT US BETTER? WHAT’S YOUR QUESTION?
Super Bowl send-off at City Hall
MAYOR’S OFFICE PHOTO BY ISABEL LEON
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady greets fans on City Hall Plaza. Mayor Martin Walsh welcomed the team to the Plaza Monday for a pep rally and sendoff to Super Bowl XLIX in Glendale, Arizona.
“My research tells me that small businesses [in a host city] suffer during the time the games are there,” she said, “whether it’s because people leave town, or traffic, or because contracts are already spoken for. There a lot of opportunities along the way. There is a
tremendous amount of talent here, but it’s a matter of connecting the dots and keeping local benefit as a top priority.” Even after the Boston 2024 presentation, Wu feels there is still much the public needs to see. “Transparency needs to be one
of the top priorities moving forward,” she said, “not only about the venues and details, but making sure the process pieces are available to the public as well. For instance, who will get procurement contracts? Local residents know best what the impact would be.”
BPE is proud to partner with the Boston Public Schools to operate the Dearborn STEM Academy starting in September, 2015. We look forward to working with the Dearborn community to build on the great efforts of the teachers, leaders, and community members. We are holding an upcoming meeting for Dearborn families with others to follow later: Sunday, February 8 from 2:00 – 4:00 pm St. Peter’s Teen Center, 278 Bowdoin St., Dorchester
We hope Dearborn families will join us at this meeting as we begin our work to improve the Dearborn. DONATE YOUR QUESTION ABOUT GETTING AROUND BOSTON IN THE FUTURE: goboston2030.org
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For more information about BPE, please see www.bpe.org or contact Teresa Rodriguez at 617-275-0757
8 • Thursday, January 29, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER
BHA
continued from page 1 city,” he said. The BHA is working under the auspices of HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration program, the agency’s national program to encourage public-private partnerships. Currently HUD provides subsidies for 1.2 million public housing development units nation-wide. HUD officials estimate housing developments across the country have a backlog of $25.6 billion in needed repairs. While HUD historically has funded both the rental subsidies and repair costs for public housing developments, in recent years congressional budget cutting has forced the agency to pull back. McGonagle says the BHA is not currently in danger of losing any of the units in its developments due to repair needs, but the agency has been underfunded to the tune of $79 million over the last 20 years, according to its most recent annual report. Although the BHA has received funds for renovations at several of its major developments – including Mission Main, Orchard Gardens and West Broadway – through its HOPE VI program, and is applying for funds to redevelop the Whittier Street development through the new HUD Choice Communities program, McGonagle says he doesn’t foresee the agency having the means to adequately maintain all 12,623 units in its developments in the coming years. “Congress is not going to bring HUD funding back to the previous levels,” he said. In addition to funding for
repairs, HUD has cut funding for security, community services and other areas, notes US Rep. Michael Capuano, whose 8th Congressional District includes several major public housing developments in Boston, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett and Somerville. “It’s not going to get any better in the short term,” he said of the HUD budget. “The country has shifted to the right. HUD, like everyone else, is trying to figure out the direction the country is going in.” But Capuano notes that public-private partnerships are not new to HUD. “Most public housing was built by private developers with public funds,” he said. McGonagle stressed that the agency does not have set notions about what the public-private partnerships might look like. Nonprofits, like community development corporations, have access to a wider range of funding options for renovating buildings, like federally-funded low-income tax credits. For-profit developers could potentially build market rate units or commercial space on parcels currently occupied by BHA developments, using revenue from the new development to subsidize or expand existing units. McGonagle had not read any of the RFQs submitted by last week’s deadline, when reached by phone, but said the agency received “a bunch.” One community development corporation that did submit an RFQ, Dudley Square-based Nuestra Comunidad, submitted ideas for four Lower Roxbury developments, according to Executive Director David Price. Price would not disclose the
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The Orchard Gardens public housing development. The Boston Housing Authority is seeking ideas on how to partner with developers and nonprofits to preserve affordability in its developments. ideas or developments, but said he thinks rising real estate values and rents in Boston could work to the BHA’s advantage. “The closer you are to the South End, the greater the possibility of creating market rate units that subsidize affordability,” he said. McGonagle said the BHA is in the preliminary stages of considering ideas. “If we do want to move forward with a request for proposals, it will be very limited,” he said. “It will not be wholesale. We will not move forward without extensive input from public housing residents and the greater community as well. It would be an exhaustive and inclusive process. Our primary goal is preserving public housing. And I think it’s possible that we could create more affordable housing units.”
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The BHA’s Cathedral development sits on prime South End real estate.
Thursday, January 29, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER • 9
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10 • Thursday, January 29, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER
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Lab gears up for 2nd class of startups Smarter in the City programs aid small businesses By MARTIN DESMARAIS
BLAKE PATTERSON
Companies large and small ignore the growing importance of mobile technologies at their peril.
Mobile apps increasingly seen as essential tool Businesses take gamble by not adopting new technology By MARTIN DESMARAIS While recent studies have shown that using mobile technologies — such as apps that help consumers connect with a business over handheld devices — can significantly increase revenue, other experts say businesses that don’t use mobile technologies will eventually wither and die. Harsh or not, the truth is that consumers are adopting mobile technologies at a rapid clip, and the day is already dawning when any business, large or small, that does not recognize the importance of mobile technologies is playing a fool’s game. Margaret Rimmler, vice president of marketing at Kinvey, a Boston-based company that provides backend systems support for mobile applications, says the mobile technology market is very powerful and growing even more critical for any business. “If you don’t have a mobile app to engage your customers it is like you don’t even have a website anymore,” Rimmler said. “You will just be kind of left in the dust because your competitors will have great ways to engage their customers.” A big mistake businesses make
is assuming if their business is not technology-based they don’t need to worry about mobile apps, according to Rimmler. Kinvey has some big clients, including Aetna, Bayer and Nascar, that are not providing technology services as a main product, but have recognized the need to offer the most up-to-date mobile tech options to their customers.
New demand
Though these larger companies may have the revenue and capital to invest in mobile technologies, companies like Kinvey are making it possible for smaller businesses to keep up by providing all the systems and support needed to develop and run mobile apps with little overhead. Businesses such as Rexnord Bearings, Flooring America and Schneider Electric are using Kinvey to provide mobile apps to their customers in some of the oldest industries in this country. These industries have operated almost the same way for hundreds of years, but now the demand for mobile technology from consumers has made them change their tune. “Even if you are an old school company you at least need to figure out how to deliver your
website in a meaningful way for a smart device or people are just not going to go there,” Rimmler said. There are also plenty of small startup companies that are using mobile technology to get a foothold in industries that have been dominated by the same companies for years. Perhaps the most well-known example is Uber, a mobile app company that has turned the traditional taxi industry on its head by giving anyone with its app the ability to put the days of standing on the corner waving down a taxi behind them and simply order up a ride with a few taps on a mobile device. Uber’s use of private cars and rideshares with individuals has left decades-old cab companies on the outside looking in at an industry they once totally dominated.
Trillion-dollar impact
Rimmler expects mobile technologies to continue to impact businesses across the board, which is reflected in the wide range of clients Kinvey has. “We only have picked the top of the surface of what these companies can do,” she said. “All of these guys are being able to reach customers or redefine process or cut costs or reach new customers.”
A recent report from the Boston Consulting Group, titled The Mobile Revolution: How Mobile Technologies Drive a Trillion-Dollar Impact, indicated that the mobile technologies industry generated revenues of almost $3.3 trillion worldwide in 2014 and is directly responsible for 11 million jobs. The industry also saw $1.8 trillion in research and development from 2009 to 2013 as companies scrambled to secure a piece of the exploding market. Examining consumer trends in six countries — the U.S., Germany, South Korea, Brazil, China and India — the report also highlighted the growing importance of mobile technologies and the willingness for customers to shell out cash for the newest products. In the U.S., Germany and South Korea consumers valued mobile technologies at approximately $6,000 per year, or 12 percent of their income. In China and India, consumers were willing to spend more than 40 percent of their annual income on mobile technologies. The majority of the consumers also said they were willing to give up dining out or going on
See TECHNOLOGY, page 11
Smarter in the City, a business incubator in Dudley Square, is continuing to build on its early success and has selected the second group of local startup companies it will support for a fivemonth period starting next month. Seven area entrepreneurs and their startup companies will be given free office space at Smarter in the City’s Warren Street location. The companies will benefit from shared business amenities — printers, copy machines, kitchens, meeting rooms — as well as access to mentors and a program of business development education that is designed to help develop the startups into viable business. The companies are also provided a stipend during the five-month stay at Smarter in the City to allow the entrepreneurs to devote their time and effort to develop their startups. Also crucial to Smarter in the City’s support are several networking functions designed to showcase the startups and connect the entrepreneurs with potential investors and partners. The startups taking up residency at Smarter in the City next month are: Beacon Lab Partners, founded by Jamila Smith and Annamaria Lusardi; Door to the Outdoors, founded by Stanley O. King II; Dreamers, founded by Chris Castro, Matt Burke, Alex Bou-Rhodes and Emaad Ali; Fittus, founded by Joel Edwards; Loadlytics, founded by Rashad Sanders and Matthew Shannon; Techtrition, founded by Brandon Ransom and Katia Powell; and Tech Connection, founded by Melissa James.
National recognition
Launched last summer, Smarter in the City has been lauded for its early work to boost the startup economy outside of traditional Boston innovation hubs such as Kendall Square or the Seaport District, focusing on entrepreneurs from Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan and other Boston neighborhoods. While there have been other business incubators or startup accelerators that emerged with a similar mission — notably Start Up Lab and Fields Corner Business Lab — Smarter in the City has helped bring efforts to boost urban entrepreneurs in Boston national exposure and
See STARTUPS, page 11
Thursday, January 29, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER • 11
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technology
startups
vacation for a year in order to keep their mobile phone. With the high value that consumers put on mobile devices growing, the report also examined the impact of this on small- and medium-sized businesses. Notably, Boston Consulting Group found that small businesses that adopt advanced mobile technologies increase revenues up to two times faster and add jobs up to eight times faster than small businesses that don’t. In the six countries surveyed by the report, this is estimated to lead to 7 million more jobs added for these companies. In the United States, the mobile technologies sector now pumps more into the economy than longtime big industries such as entertainment, transportation, automobiles, hospitality and agriculture. With just the tip of the iceberg in mobile technology advancement in view so far, the future for the industry — and small businesses that engage it — is extremely bright. “Mobile has been a huge driver of economic growth — creating jobs and improving consumers’ lives,” said David C. Michael, a senior partner at Boston Consulting Group and a coauthor of the report. “But much more innovation is still needed.”
recognition when it beat out over 800 applicants last fall to become one of 50 business incubators to receive $50,000 from the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Growth Accelerator Fund. Gilad Rosenzweig, founder and executive director of Smarter in the City, is thrilled about the newest group of entrepreneurs his organization is working with. He expects the second goround to build on the success of the first and hopefully improve the experience. For one, Smarter in the City shortened the stay from six months to five months for the second group of companies — the intent being to establish a more focused and intense period of development. “You can accomplish in five months the same thing you can accomplish in six months, you just work harder and faster,” Rosenzweig said. “It is not a question of having more time — it is to be more effective with the time you have.” The startup entrepreneurs are also going to start working with mentors almost immediately — another way to make their time at Smarter in the City more effective. “We will be having a slightly more intense mentor interaction right at the beginning. This is
continued from page 10
continued from page 10
COURTESY OF DOOR TO THE OUTDOORS
COURTESY OF BEACON LAB
Stanley King, founder of Door to the Outdoors
Jamila Smith, co-founder of Beacon Lab Partners at Smarter in the City, but they are not just being cut loose. Some have received, or are close to receiving, additional funding to support their businesses and will move out on their own. “It definitely doesn’t mean that at the end of the accelerator period [you’re done] ,” Rosenzweig said. “You are always part of the network. You always continue with us. Some of the teams will continue to work here too. But we do definitely make room for the next.” The entrepreneurs behind Smarter in the City’s newest startups are excited about the opportunity in front of them. “Being accepted into Smarter in The City is an opportunity for me to finally work toward a
something that we have learned. The more that your ideas can be questioned right from the start the better off you are at not going down the wrong path for too long — to make the mistakes early in your business,” said Rosenzweig. “Every business has to test ideas. You have to test your market you have to test if what you are doing is right, if it will be received. And there are lots of great people who have done this already in the city who are really willing to share their knowledge and advice.” The first group of startups Smarter in the City supported — KillerBoomBox, Post Game Fashion, Mbadika, Practice Gigs and Headthought — may have reached the end of their program
life-long dream of building my own business,” said Rashad Sanders, co-founder of Loadlytics, which is developing a web-based dispatch management system that allows trucking companies to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of operations. “Our plan is to really take advantage of every opportunity presented to us.” Dreamers CEO Chris Castro says being part of Smarter in the City will give his company the early resources needed to accomplish the goal of developing webbased education tools to help immigrant populations qualify for job training, advanced education and improved health. “It’s fantastic to see Smarter in the City foster innovation and entrepreneurship in Roxbury’s growing economy. Our goal is to encourage collaboration and bold thinking that inspire positive change,” Castro said. Jamila Smith, co-founder of Beacon Lab Partners, a financial wellness firm developing a platform for businesses, public institutions and nonprofits to increase the financial literacy of their employees, looks forward to working alongside other like-minded entrepreneurs. “We, at Beacon Lab Partners, feel that great ideas are transcendent, and look forward to working with a talented group of people who understand that,” Smith said.
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The BASE held its 2nd Annual U. Dream College Fair on Saturday, January 17th More than 30 colleges and universities were present to share information about their schools with high school students at the recent event.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF SWK PHOTO
Clockwise, from top: (l-r) Elizabeth Spellacy, Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the MBA Sport Business & Leadership Program at Assumption College in Worcester, Robert Lewis, Jr. of The BASE, Brian Guerrero, former student athlete at The BASE who now attends Assumption College, and Governor Baker, along with other Assumption college students enrolled in the MBA program for Sport Business & Leadership and Ronald L. Walker, II, BASE Board Chair; A student athlete from the BASE learns about job training opportunities at the National Aviation Academy; Members of the BASE’s new G.L.A.M. (Girls Leadership & Academic Mentoring) program watch Brianna Forde, Director of Student Success address the crowd at U. Dream.
The New West Enders and Other Green Monsters opens Photographers, Hakim Raquib, Keitha ‘Llyn’ Hassell, Lou Jones, and Don West joined, Lolita Parker, Jr at the opening of her latest show, The New West Enders and Other Green Monsters, at the West End Museum. PROPHET PARKER-MCWHORTER PHOTO
I Have A Dream celebration at Blackstone In memory and celebration of Dr. King “I have a dream” Students at the Blackstone collaborated through ARCK Boston on an art project and literacy with visiting author Laurie Collins and Margie Florini illustrator of the book “Pajamas of my Dreams” A special thank you to Suzanne Schultz of Canvas Fine Arts for bringing this project on. Students enjoyed making their pajamas of their dreams and commemorated Dr. King.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF ARCK BOSTON
Thursday, January 29, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER • 13
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ARTS& ENTERTAINMENT THIS WEEK: LEE DANIELS’ EMPIRE • FREEDOM BOUND COMES TO BOSTON
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A Wooden Tree Mark Morris Dance Group performs at Institute of Contemporary Art
ELAINE MAYSON
Scene from “A Wooden Tree” performed by Mark Morris Dance Group.
S
By SUSAN SACCOCCIA
ince their start in the 1980s, choreographer Mark Morris and his company, the Mark Morris Dance Group, have performed often in Boston. Over the years, Morris has come to be regarded as the greatest choreographer of his time, but his Boston venues still include intimate concert halls as well as the city’s largest theaters. Last week, Morris and his company performed five nights in the intimate setting of the Institute of Contemporary Art’s 325-seat theater. All of the qualities that have earned Morris his renown were on display in the program of four works: musicality, humor and above all, humanity, as well as a taste for mixing moments of surpassing beauty with a willingness to break the conventions of dance and create beauty from awkward, unexpected and visibly difficult moves. The company performed with live music provided by its own musicians, pianist Colin Fowler and violinist Georgy Valtchev, who performed on stage. The program opened with Italian Concerto, performed by five dancers as Colin Fowler played the
music that inspired it: Bach’s Italian Concerto in F Major. The lighting, costumes and choreography shift with the tone and tempo of each movement in the composition. The opening movement, Allegro, is a brightly lit scene that accents the orange and red costumes of the dancers, Lauren Grant and Aaron Loux, whose quick, playful dancing includes athletic gestures such as clenched fists. The next movement, Andante, unfolds slowly on a darkened stage. Taking the role that Morris danced in the 2007 premier of the piece, Sam Black performed a solo wearing black body-fitting garb. He
stretched, pulled and pushed his limbs as if the space surrounding him had weight, reflecting the contemplative mood of the music. In the third movement, Presto, the tempo quickens and light returns as Rita Donahue and Brian Lawson execute a duo with baroque playfulness and athletic energy. All five dancers come together in the finale. Each performs his or her signature movements, but in unison, as members of an ensemble, embodying the harmony in the Bach composition. Next, an ensemble of eight dancers performed A Wooden Tree, a suite of 14 short dances Morris
created in 2012 to a recording by Scottish composer, singer, and humorist Ivor Cutler (1923-2006). Cutler introduces himself as an oblique musical philosopher” and fan of old fashioned entertainment. He hand-pumps a harmonium to accompany his array of tunes, from a tribute to a loyal friend entitled Stick Out Your Chest to a playful nonsense rhyme, Cockadoodledon’t. Morris responds to the oddity and droll humor of the songs with choreography to match. Wearing outfits that could have come from a thrift shop — argyle socks, plaid pants, knit caps, sweater vests for the men and flared, girly dresses in bright colors for the women — the dancers appear to be having a ball as they execute frolicking but precise movements in tune with Cutler’s slightly surreal tales.
Somber tension
In contrast to this light-hearted romp, the program’s third piece is inspired by a somewhat somber classical composition, Suite for Violin and Piano, by pioneering American modernist composer
Henry Cowell (1897-1965). Morris entitled the work Jenn and Spencer, for the two dancers who first performed it. Violinist Valtchev and pianist Fowler accompanied Jenn Weddel and Brandon Randolph as their duo mined the composition’s tension, quicksilver tempo and riptides of passion. The violinist’s sustained lyrical flow provided a counterpoint to the pianist’s occasional descent into edgy chords and dissonant passages. Both the music and dancing were intense, making the ebb and flow of human connection visible. Weddel, in a diaphanous, bare backed dress, and Randolph, wearing a dress shirt and body-fitting black pants, conveyed in their dancing the urgency and sensuousness of a newly intimate couple exploring and testing their relationship. Circling each other, they begin with a demure, even courtly interplay, but as they interlock, they wind and unwind around each others’ limbs, mirror one another’s moves, and use hands, feet, legs and faces to connect with each other. Echoing the fraught undertones
See WOODEN TREE, page 18
Thursday, January 29, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER • 15
16 • Thursday, January 29, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER
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Q&A
Director Lee Daniels’ life reflected in Empire characters By KAM WILLIAMS After directing and/or producing such successful feature films as The Butler, Monster’s Ball [for which Halle Berry won an Academy Award], and Precious [for which Mo’Nique won hers], twotime Oscar-nominee Lee Daniels [for Precious] has set his sights on TV for the first time. Here, he talks about directing the new nighttime soap opera Empire, co-starring Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson.
Kam Williams: What was the source of inspiration for Empire? Lee Daniels: My partner, Danny Strong, came to me with this idea of telling a story about my life, and merging that with music and the Hip-Hop world. He wrote The Butler and originally wanted to do Empire also as a movie.
KW: I had no idea it was semiautobiographical. Why TV, as opposed to the big screen? LD: What happened was we decided that’s enough with movies, let’s do it for television so that we could bring this to life
for America on a weekly basis. It picks up, historically, where The Butler left off, and deals with race relations. It’s a little bit like my family, a little like some friends of mine with money, their world, and a little like some of my friends without money, their world. I think it’s the African American experience.
KW: Which character are you? Lucious Lyon [played by Terrence Howard]? LD: I’m Lucious… I’m Jamal… I’m all of the characters. My sister and my cousins are Cookie [played by Taraji P. Henson]. Cookie’s little bit of all of them.
KW: How do film actors like Terrence and Taraji make the transition from the big screen to the small screen? LD: That’s a very good question and a very complicated one, because with film we get the luxury of time. It works at a different pace. It’s nice and slow. As a film director and as film actors, you get used to a certain rhythm that’s slow. But with TV, it’s hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry. It’s a different pace. So, it’s about adjusting to the pace. It’s not meant for everybody.
KW: Has the frenetic pace frustrated you? LD: No, I think it’s made me a better director, because I have to think fast. I no longer have the luxury of taking my time.
KW: Did you consider other actors or did you always envision Taraji and Terrence for the lead roles? LD: I always considered Taraji, but even though Terrence and I are very good friends and had worked together on The Butler and were thinking about doing The Marvin Gaye Story. But I didn’t know if he’d do TV. I was thinking of Wesley Snipes for the role, but word on the street was that Taraji wasn’t feeling it anymore. Then she told me, “I’ll do it, but only if Terrence does it.” I went, “girl, you ain’t even got the job yet.” And I was like, “Terrence ain’t going to do TV.” But then he said he would, and there you go.
KW: Most writers avoid dealing with homosexuality within the black community. What made you choose that path? Unlike your counterpart, Shonda Rhimes, who has depicted white males in a passionate relationship, perhaps to target a whiter audience, you’ve put two
CREATIVE COMMONS
Director Lee Daniels.
males of color in a gay relationship. Why did you choose to do so? LD: I did it because I think it’s time to destroy a myth in the black community about gay men. When I was doing research for Precious, I went to the Gay Men’s Health Crisis here in New York
City, because the movie dealt with AIDS. What I expected to see was gay men, but what I found were African-American women and children who’d been infected with HIV by black men
See DANIELS, page 18
Thursday, January 29, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER • 17
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Freedom Bound: Musical play arrives in Boston Performance will be at Timilty Middle School By J. COTTLE It is the dead of night in Mechanicsburg, Ohio, 1856. A black slave is hiding in the upstairs loft owned by a white abolitionist, surrounded by a squadron of U.S. Marshals led by his old slave master, threatening to take him back to the plantation he had fought so desperately to escape. This is not the plot of another Quentin Tarantino movie. This is historical fact. On Saturday, Jan. 31, from 4 to 5 p.m. at the Timilty Middle School, Madison Park Development Corporation will present Mad River Theater Works’ production of Freedom Bound, a theater and music hybrid that tells the story of Addison White, Udney and Amanda Hyde, and a town that stood up to the government to protect a fugitive deserving of freedom. Mad River Theater Works incorporated as a non-profit ensemble in 1978, in western rural Ohio, and primarily focuses on telling the stories of extraordinary people not often heard of. According to Chris Westhoff, managing
COURTESY OF MAD RIVER THEATER WORKS
Bob Lucas as Udney Hyde and Charles Lattimore as Addison White in Freedom Bound. director of Mad River Theater Works and tour manager for the current national tour of Freedom Bound, playwright Jeff Hooper was looking for a story about the Underground Railroad local to the community and came across the tale of Addison White and the Hyde Family. Addison White was enslaved in Fleming County, Kentucky. After getting into a physical altercation
with his master, Daniel White, Addison ran on the Underground Railroad towards freedom, and away from the capital punishment that awaited him on the White farm. He escaped to Ohio and was taken in by Udney Hyde, a bedridden abolitionist, and his daughter Amanda Hyde. The story that follows is a timely one that explores freedom, how it’s won, and the necessary transcendence of color and
creed when fighting against bigotry. In a time rife with apathy and insistence that we live in a post-racial society where institutions like Black History Month are at times deemed unnecessary, Westhoff believes in the relevancy of Freedom Bound and pieces like it. “We don’t live in a post-racial society, and the race issue is just another example of human bigotry,” he said. “The relevance is
that it’s a story that digs into the rock and hard place of humanity, and it just happens to be a story of an African American trying to be free. It’s super relevant to talk about these things.” As mature as these themes are, Freedom Bound is still a piece meant for the whole family to share and enjoy. As a theatrical
See FREEDOM, page 18
FINAL WEEKS! MUST END FEB 15
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A&E presents.....
Our Story
Celebrating the History of the African American Experience through Spoken Word, Music & Dance
Friday, February 6 Saturday, February 7 7:00 p.m. Roxbury Community College Mainstage Theater 1234 Columbus Avenue Roxbury, MA 02119
continued from page 17 art piece the play wields a certain power in regard to educating young people in a way that is lasting and impactful. Westhoff cites powerhouse music, a wonderful cast and an impressive pedigree as reasons to bring the family out next Saturday afternoon. “To see a show like this in Roxbury is really remarkable,” he said. “We’ve played it at the Smithsonian, The Kennedy Center, some of the greatest theaters in the country, so
Daniels
continued from page 16
Written & Directed by Shaumba-Yandje Dibinga & Anthony Robinson
$20 Advance/$25 Door
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Freedom
Sponsorship & Student Matinée Info: Call: (617) 522-3900 or email: musau@originationinc.org
on the down-low. They were on the d-l because their pastor says, because their minister says, because their neighbor says, and their homeboy says, “You can’t be gay.” Black men on the d-l are killing our women. I can’t hate the men on the d-l, I only hate that they’re on the d-l, because our people forced them to be. So, this is really dedicated to educating. This is the civil rights movement of our generation.
KW: You are working on a Richard Pryor biopic. What does he mean to you? LD: The more research I do, the more I uncover not only his brilliance, but how
WESHALLOVERCOMEYESWECANWECAN’TBREATHEWESHALLOVERCOME
Wooden Tree continued from page 14
of their connection, each gets a brief, peaceful solo free of dissonant piano chords. Weddel’s hair is long and loose like her dress, which becomes a prop as Randolph disappears within its folds. The two encircle each other like leaves spinning in the wind. Weddel falls back, demonstrating trust that Randolph will catch her, and he does.
Enchantment
Concluding the program was Words, a 2014 work for 18 dancers (17 performed it here) set to Songs Without Words, a series of short lyrical piano pieces by Romantic composer Felix Mendelssohn. Written between 1829 and 1845, the enchanting compositions became popular right away because they appealed to master pianists but were also within the reach
for Madison Park Development Corporation to sponsor this for the community is a total gift.” Mad River Theater Works receives support from The National Endowment for the Arts, The Ohio Arts Council, Honda of America, and the Columbus Foundation. Freedom Bound can be seen next Saturday, Jan. 31 at 4 p.m. in the Timilty Middle School auditorium. The school is located at 205 Roxbury Street in John Eliot Square. Tickets are free and all are welcome. No RSVP is necessary for this event. much of a pioneer he was at a time that was harder on African Americans than it is right now, if that’s imaginable. His experience as a black American was very similar to mine. We both come from troubled backgrounds. He was very open about his sexuality, and what he did, and he spoke the truth. And he fought for the truth for everybody. And because he was so tormented, he was a drug addict, and so was I. Our similarities are strangely connected. So, he speaks to me. He was ahead of his time, and he didn’t even know that he was changing the world through humor. He was uniting African American and white Americans through his humor. He didn’t know, and I hope to do him justice. of amateur musicians. Morris echoes these qualities in the choreography, using a seemingly simple set of movements in endlessly inventive combinations that paralleled the phrases of the music. As the pianist, Fowler, and violinist, Valtchev, performed the songs, the dancers’ movements flowed in synch with the music, which varied from a Venetian gondolier’s song to a folk melody. Outfitted in V-neck T-shirts and shorts in a rainbow of warm colors from pink to scarlet, the dancers executed countless variations of basic dance phrases. Marking the transitions between one song and another, two dancers came out bearing a portable screen, behind which dancers would change places, some moving to the sidelines as others stepped forward to begin a new song. In the intimate setting of the ICA’s black-box concert hall, Morris and his dancers conjured a world of enchantment.
Coming to Art is Life itself! Thu Jan 29 - Master Storytellers & Musicians Sumner & Linda McLaine & Linda King, “Celebrating the Life & Family of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” & Fran Smith presents “A Discussion about the Future of Transportation” Led by GoBoston’s Fran Smith + Open Mic Thu Feb 5 Jazz and Chess featuring Fulani Haynes and the Jazz Collaborative + Open Mic Thu Feb 12 Pre-Valentine’s Day: “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” Seitu and Love Poems + Open Mic Program starts at 7pm; Come early for dinner!
Coming Events at HHBC: Join us Fri Jan 30 at 6:30pm for Dinner & A Movie, featuring 3 short films: Maestra/The No Name Painting Association/Cowboys Of Color: A Multi-Cultural Legacy Tickets available at BrownPaperTickets.com For further info about these events, go to: https://www.facebook.com/haleyhousebakerycafe/events Haley House Bakery Cafe - 12 Dade Street - Roxbury 617 445 0900 - www.haleyhouse.org/cafe
Thursday, January 22, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER • 19
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THURSDAY PEDIATRIC HEALTH DISPARITIES: PROVIDING CROSS-CULTURAL FAMILY-CENTERED CARE Please join us for the annual Disparities Solutions Center and Multicultural Affairs Office Film Series. The goal of the series is to raise awareness of health disparities and cross-cultural care through the screening of popular documentary films, followed by an expert panel discussion and audience Q&A. This event will focus on the topic of disparities in pediatric health care, with an emphasis on cross-cultural family-centered care. This event will feature a segment from the highly acclaimed documentary series, Worlds Apart, which follows the story of Justine Chitsena, a four year old from Laos with an atrial septal defect, a congenital heart abnormality. This film depicts the dilemma of Justine’s mother, Bouphet Chitsena, who is caught between the recommendation of Justine’s providers to surgically repair the defect and the opposition of Justine’s grandmother, who fears the scar from the operation will damage the girl’s soul. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Oscar J. Benavidez, MD, MPP, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Cardiology and Alexy Arauz-Boudreau, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and MGHfC Associate Director of Population Health. Sponsored by the Disparities Solutions Center and the Multicultural Affairs Office at Massachusetts General Hospital. Thursday, January 29, 1-2pm, Haber Auditorium, Blake Building, 1st Floor, Massachusetts General Hospital. All film series events are free and open to the public, and members of local health care communities are encouraged to attend. RSVP to disparitiessolutions@partners.org with the subject line “1.29.15 Film Series Event.” *A light lunch will be available from 12:30-1pm outside the auditorium.
SUNDAY BLUE HILLS RESERVATION February 1, Moderate walk, hilly terrain, 3.5+ miles. Wolcott Path to Eustis Trail and Base Path, return via Hancock Hill Path. Meet at the Blue Hills Headquarters staff parking lot at 695 Hillside St. in Milton. Sunday, February 1, 1pm. The Southeastern Massachusetts Adult Walking Club meets each weekend on either a Saturday or Sunday at 1:00 for recreational walks. This club is open to people of 16 years of age and older, and there is no fee to join. Walks average 2 to 5 miles. New walkers are encouraged to participate. The terrain can vary: EASY (mostly level terrain), MODERATE (hilly terrain), DIFFICULT (strenuous & steep). Walks will be led by a park ranger or a Walking Club volunteer leader. Occasionally, the Walking Club meets at other DCR sites. Some DCR sites charge a parking fee. The rangers recommend wearing hiking boots and bringing drinking water on all hikes.
TUESDAY RHYTHMS OF A FAITHFUL JOURNEY: VERSES FROM SLAVERY TO PRESIDENCY African-American artist, educator, poet and author Robin Joyce Miller will present a
slideshow and an exhibit of 14 mixed-media collage quilts at 7pm, Tuesday, February 3, in the Borgia Gallery at Elms College, 291 Springfield St., Chicopee, Mass. The framed pieces in this exhibit are approximately 35 inches x 46 inches. Twelve of them illustrate African-American history events or periods accompanying poetry from the book. Recitations of poems that accompany these works of art will be included in the presentation. The slideshow, Restoring My African Soul, is a personal narrative of the journey to restoration and healing through faith, art, poetry and photography. Miller co-authored “Rhythms of a Faithful Journey” with her husband, James Walter Miller, who also will read some poems at the event. This event is free and open to the public. Information: 413-594-2761. The exhibit will be open 8:30am - 4:30pm daily, February 4-23. Sponsored by the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts, the Institute of Theology and Pastoral Studies, and the Office of Intercultural Programming.
UPCOMING UBIQUITOUS Simmons College presents Ubiquitous, a mixed media installation of work by Michelle Lougee, from February 4-March 5 at the Trustman Art Gallery, located on the fourth floor, Main College Building, 300 the Fenway in Boston. A reception from 5-7 PM. will be held on Thursday, February 5. The exhibit and reception are free and open to the public. Trustman Art Gallery hours are 10am - 4:30pm, Monday through Friday. The Gallery is free, open to the public and wheelchair accessible. For more information, contact Marcia Lomedico at 617-521-2268, or visit our website at www.simmons.edu/trustman and like us on Facebook.
OUSMANE SEMBENE’S BLACK GIRL (LA NOIRE DE...) ArtsEmerson: The World on Stage announcing a special free screening of Ousmane Sembene’s BLACK GIRL (La Noire De...). 8pm Introduction by Dr. Samba Gadjigo and Dr. Claire Andrade-Watkins , 8:10pm Black Girl Film Screening (65 mintues), 9:15pm Q & A with Dr. Samba Gadjigo and Dr. Claire Andrade-Watkins. Emerson/Paramount Center’s Bright Family Screening Room, 559 Washington St, Boston, Friday, February 6 at 8pm. Admission is free with reservation by calling 617-824-8400. Snow date: Friday, February 13. For more information visit www.artsemerson.org.
THE SAM CORNISH PROJECT: AN APRON FULL OF BEANS Join our celebration of Black History Month at First Parish of Lexington Unitarian Universealist! “The Sam Cornish Project: An Apron Full of Beans” is an hour-long performance on Saturday February 7 at 2pm in the Parish Hall. Boston’s former Poet Laureate Sam Cornish joins forces with Roxbury Repertory Theater to create a moving performance piece from selected poems and prose. Gathered from his collection “An Apron Full of Beans,” Cornish’s eloquent and witty words are set to movement and music. The poetry touches
SATURDAY, JANUARY 31
SNOW FESTIVAL
Franklin Park Snow Festival - Saturday, January 31 1-4pm. Meet at the Franklin Park Golf Clubhouse, One Circuit Drive, Dorchester. Bring your sled or borrow one of ours. Build a snowperson! Hot Chocolate and board games in the clubhouse to warm up. 2pm special cross country ski tour, you’ll need your own skis but will love the spectacular Olmsted landscape. More info: 617-442-4141 / www.franklinparkcoali tion.org. Free.
on voices past and addresses the poet’s thoughts on family, race, music, and civil rights among other topics. Woven together as echoes of ancestors and experiences, “Apron” is a thought-provoking quilt that gives a glimpse of African-American experiences as told through a multi-racial, multi-generational cast of professional actors and musicians. Tickets are $10 at the door. For more information or reservations, please call 617-541-7465.
BORDERLAND STATE PARK Easy walk, 3 miles. Along the Pond Walk Trail that loops around Leech Pond. Meet at Borderland State Park Visitor Center at 259. Massapoag Avenue in North Easton. $2 per car parking fee. Sunday, February 8, 1 pm. The Southeastern Massachusetts Adult Walking Club meets each weekend on either a Saturday or Sunday at 1:00 for recreational walks. This club is open to people of 16 years of age and older, and there is no fee to join. Walks average 2 to 5 miles. New walkers are encouraged to participate. The terrain can vary: EASY (mostly level terrain), MODERATE (hilly terrain), DIFFICULT (strenuous & steep). Walks will be led by a park ranger or a Walking Club volunteer leader. Occasionally, the Walking Club meets at other DCR sites. Some DCR sites charge a parking fee. The rangers recommend wearing hiking boots and bringing drinking water on all hikes.
NEW YEAR, NEW YOU: YOUR CAREER Employment expert Hakim Cunningham of Cunningham Consulting Services shows you how to take your career to the next level by exploring area employers, training opportunities, what to do if you have a CORI, and more. Saturday, March 21, 2pm and 3pm. Session 1 takes place at 2pm and Session 2 begins at 3pm Each session covers the same information. Registration is required. RSVP for your preferred session by phone (617-298-9218), email (jidakaar@bpl.org), or online registration form (http://bit.ly/newyeary ourcareer). Refreshments will be served. Mattapan Branch of the Boston Public Library 1350 Blue Hill Ave. www.bpl.org.
ONGOING NANCY DEWEY A PERUVIAN QUEST The Multicultural Arts Center will be hosting Nancy Dewey’s “A Peruvian Quest” from through February 6. The exhibition will include Dewey’s photographs depicting the transformation of life from 1979 to 2013 in the rural Peruvian town of Tinta. Bailarinas en las Ruinas Pisaq — Dancers at Pisaq Ruins For 10 months, 35 years ago, Dewey
lived in the town of Tinta (meaning dye or color) to gain an understanding of a rural lifestyle and learn from the locals of the village. She spent her time weaving, spinning, cooking, dancing, and most importantly, celebrating the highly ritualized Altiplano life. Dewey also spent her time documenting, keeping a record of the way people lived at that time. Years later, Dewey returned to the same town, reconnected with familiar faces, and once again documented life in Tinta. She found many differences from 1979 to 2013 — shepherds using cell phones, men child rearing, cars driving on now paved roads — but the ideals of the people still shined through. These photographs transport the viewer straight to Peru for a view on the way years can change a place. The images of Tinta show Dewey’s deep understanding and love of the people and they’re traditions. Join us in experiencing Dewey’s Peruvian Quest. At Multicultural Arts Center, Lower Gallery, 41 2nd St., Cambridge. www.multiculturalartscenter. org/gal leries.
CYNTHIA BRODY THE SUBJECT OF WOMEN Through February 6, The Multicultural Arts Center will be hosting the colorful, surreal works of artist Cynthia Brody. Through mixed media, Brody creates a multi-faceted world full of various textures, colors, and cultures to entice the viewer into looking past the surface and delve deeper into the intricacies of both the art and subject matter. Brody has been exhibiting work for 35 years and has recently joined the Boston art scene. Her interest in the inner workings of women is also reflected in her work as a family therapist. The magnificence of Brody’s artwork lies in the diversity of each piece’s components. By using mediums such as photographs, acrylic, copper, and gold leaf Brody is able to layer each element to tell a story of women whether it be a story of struggle or of beauty. The women in her art often resemble icons across different cultures. The women featured appear pensive and strong amidst their surroundings, speaking to the complexity and beauty of the female experience. At Multicultural Arts Center, Lower Gallery, 41 2nd St., Cambridge. www.multicul turalartscenter.org/galleries.
STAR GAZING AT THE OBSERVATORY The Public Open Night at the Observatory is a chance for people to observe the night sky through telescopes and binoculars and see things they otherwise might not get to see, and learn some astronomy as well. Wednesday nights from 8:309:30pm, weather permitting, Coit Observatory at Boston University, located at 725
Commonwealth Ave., Boston, right above the Astronomy Department. The stairwell to the Observatory is on the fifth floor right next to room 520. More Info: Call (617) 353-2630 for any questions.
FREE ADULT COMPUTER CLASSES Times: Monday & Wednesday - 12:302:30pm and 6-8pm, Tuesday & Thursday 12:30-2:30pm and 6:30-8:30pm. For more information contact: Owen Corbin at 617635-5213. The John Shelburne Community Center is located at: 2730 Washington St., Roxbury.
SHELBURNE COMMUNITY CENTER TEEN PROGRAM: “FREE” for teens ages 13 to 17 years old. Homework Assistant, Computer Classes, Rock Wall Climbing, Field Trips, Sports and Recreation and much more. Hours: Monday - Thursday 2:30-7pm, Fridays 2:30-9pm. For more information contact: Ricky Lambright or Tomeka Hall at 617-635-5213. The John Shelburne Community Center is located at: 2730 Washington St., Roxbury.
THE ART OF THE HUTCHINS CENTER Join Dr. Sheldon Cheek, Senior Curatorial Associate for The Image of the Black Archive & Library, as he leads a guided tour of The Art of the Hutchins Center. Our collection includes work by Isaac Julien, Romare Bearden, Lyle AshtonHarris, Suesan Stovall, Charles White, and Hale Woodruff, and an extensive assortment of black film posters. The tour ends with a visit to the Hiphop Archive & Research Institute, a vital and unique space at Harvard. Fridays at 1pm. 104 Mount Auburn St., Floor 3R, Cambridge. Tours begin in the reception area on floor 3R.
1-3 YEAR OLD PLAYGROUPS With free play, circle time, and parent discussion, Playgroups are a wonderful place for you and your toddler to connect with each other and with other families. Your child will develop social and emotional skills, early literacy, gross and fine motor skills, and experience art and sensory materials. This group is for parents and their children ages 1-3 years. Thursdays 9:30-11:30am, Georgetowne Homes Community Room, 400A Georgetowne Dr., Hyde Park. More Info: Visit http:// familynurturing.org/dropins/1-3-year-oldplaygroup-1; For more times and locations, visit http://familynurturing.org/programs/ parent-child-playgroups.
The Community Calendar has been established to list community events at no cost. The admission cost of events must not exceed $10. Church services and recruitment requests will not be published. THERE IS NO GUARANTEE OF PUBLICATION. To guarantee publication with a paid advertisement please call advertising at (617) 261-4600 ext. 7799 or email ads@bannerpub.com. NO LISTINGS ARE ACCEPTED BY TELEPHONE, FAX OR MAIL. NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE. Deadline for all listings is Friday at noon for publication the following week. E-MAIL your information to: calendar@bannerpub.com. To list your event online please go to www.baystatebanner.com/ events and list your event directly. Events listed in print are not added to the online events page by Banner staff members. There are no ticket cost restrictions for the online postings.
20 • Thursday, January 29, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER
Supreme Court’s latest race case: housing discrimination Many fear Texas case could gut the Fair Housing Act By NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES, ProPublica Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court took up one of the most important civil rights cases of the last decade. If you’ve never heard of Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project, you have company. The issue of housing segregation has never captivated the nation’s attention like affirmative action or voting rights. But two days after the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, the court heard arguments in the Texas case that many fear could gut the Fair Housing Act, the landmark 1968 law that was passed just days after King’s assassination. “This case has as broad of a reach as anything the court has decided in the last 10 years,” said Myron Orfield, director of the Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity at the University of Minnesota Law School, because housing segregation is the foundation of racial inequality in the United States. The case concerns whether the Fair Housing Act, which sought to end the longstanding segregation of America’s neighborhoods, should be read to only bar intentional discrimination. For four decades, federal courts have held that the law should be interpreted more broadly, ruling again and again that if the policies of governmental agencies, banks or private real estate companies unjustifiably perpetuate segregation, regardless of their intent, they could be found in violation of the Fair Housing Act. All 11 of the federal circuit courts that have considered the question have seen it that way. As well, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the agency charged with administering the act, issued a regulation enshrining the principle in 2013. The nation’s highest court does not typically intervene in cases unless there’s been disagreement in the lower courts. But this court has been determined to have its say on the housing issue and the legal theory that has come to be known as “disparate impact.” The Texas case marks the third effort in as many years by the current justices to consider the intent and reach of the housing act. The other two cases were withdrawn or settled in deals reached before oral arguments, as fair housing advocates feared they would lose before the Roberts Court. “It is unusual for the Court to agree to hear a case when the law is clearly settled. It’s even more unusual to agree to hear the issue three years in a row,” said Ian Haney López, a University of California, Berkeley law professor. The Texas case involves a nonprofit organization that works to promote integrated communities and the Texas state housing authority. The nonprofit, Inclusive Communities, showed that nearly all the affordable housing tax credits approved by the Texas housing agency had been assigned to Dallas’ black neighborhoods and almost none of it to white neighborhoods. A federal judge did not
find intentional discrimination on the part of Texas officials, but held that the outcome unacceptably increased housing segregation and that the housing agency could have taken steps to ensure that affordable housing units were allotted more equally. Texas appealed the ruling, raising the stakes when it decided to challenge whether the Fair Housing Act allowed such “disparate impact” rulings at all.
Potential setback
For many, the Supreme Court’s persistence signals a determination to install intentional discrimination alone as the standard for such cases. The Roberts Court is considered by a host of scholars and others to be the most conservative since the 1930s, and so such an outcome would be consistent with its more narrow interpretations of laws governing voting rights and school segregation. “Those who care about eradicating housing discrimination have to be very concerned about the Supreme Court taking this case,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California School of Law, where he is a constitutional scholar. Elizabeth Julian, president of the Inclusive Communities Project and the former Assistant Secretary of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at HUD, is among those who are worried. “Reversing essentially four decades of case law would send a message that is very concerning,” Julian said. A few generations ago, most housing discrimination was overt. Banks openly refused to lend to black homebuyers. Public housing officials used to announce that certain developments were for white residents, others for Latinos. But the nature of housing segregation has evolved over the years, and the fight against it has had to change as well. Today, banks may well charge higher loan rates in certain communities, but they can also insist it has nothing to do with those neighborhoods being black or Latino. Local planning boards can concede that most affordable housing efforts have been placed in black neighborhoods, but maintain that it was not by malicious design. The theory of disparate impact, then, has often been the only tool to address ongoing housing discrimination. Landlords or lenders who implement policies or practices that disproportionately impact racial minorities can be found in violation of civil rights law if they cannot justify those practices – even if no one can show they acted out of racial animus. The U.S. Department of Justice has used disparate impact to win record settlements from banks that charged higher rates to black and Latino borrowers with similar credit histories as white borrowers, but could not justify the practice. A fair housing group used disparate impact to topple a “blood relative” ordinance passed by nearly all-white St. Bernard’s Parish in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The ordinance barred homeowners from renting to anyone who was not kin.
Civil rights lawyers were convinced officials passed this law to keep out black renters, but could not prove racist motivations. But when St. Bernard’s Parish could not come up with a plausible justification for the ordinance, a court struck it down. This tool, for the first time, is in real jeopardy. The Supreme Court has been weakening many civil rights protections for decades. The Rehnquist Court, for instance, was known for getting the courts out of the business of addressing racial inequities. But the Roberts Court has gone a critical step further, severely curbing efforts undertaken by Congress and the executive branch to address our nation’s long history of discrimination.
Other curbs
In 2007, the Roberts Court came down against two school districts that were trying to maintain gains in integration. In 2009, the court ended the attempts of New Haven, Conn., officials to ensure that the city’s promotion practices were fair after no black firemen passed a promotion exam, saying the efforts discriminated against white firefighters. In 2013, it held that a key provision of the Voting Rights Act intended to address the disenfranchisement of black voters had expired. And last year, it upheld Michigan voter-approved ban on affirmative action. “The Supreme Court is newly aggressive in the area of race,” said Haney López. It is targeting efforts by other branches of society
to remedy segregation and is striking them down.” Strikingly, if it ultimately rules against Inclusive Communities, in under a decade the Roberts Court will have limited pivotal protections in each of the three landmark civil rights laws passed in the 1960s: the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the 1968 Fair Housing Act. The Court’s aggressive tack has been welcomed by conservative groups, who believe the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, intended to ensure former slaves equality under the law, requires strict legal colorblindness.
Disparate impact at risk
The Pacific Legal Foundation, an advocacy organization that promotes individual rights, has long looked forward to a showdown over the Fair Housing Act. It filed an amicus brief in support of the Texas housing agency.. Ralph Kasarda, a lawyer at the Pacific Legal Foundation, said that disparate impact puts an unfair burden on landlords, lenders and local governments. He gives this example. A landlord requires a certain credit score for renters in order to ensure that they will pay their rent. For a host of societal reasons, African Americans and Latinos tend to have lower credit scores. The landlord could find himself defending against a fair housing suit for a race-neutral policy. “The problem that I have is imposing liability on someone for doing something without any intent to harm someone,” Kasarda said. Of course, even under the legal theory of disparate impact, legitimate business practices that can be justified do not violate the law even if they lead to different results among different racial groups. But the Pacific Legal Foundation’s chief gripe is race
consciousness itself. In order for Texas housing officials to ensure they were allotting subsidized housing in a racially balanced way, they would have had to take into account the racial makeup of the communities where the housing was to go. Kasarda and others argue that race-conscious policies designed to help racial minorities are no better than those designed to harm them. “You have the case where a government or organization might resort to race-based decisions to avoid disparate impact,” he said. “The Pacific Legal Foundation believes that is unconstitutional.” Julian, of Inclusive Communities, doesn’t buy the conservative argument. The Fair Housing Act was designed to address the effects of racial segregation, she said. “It doesn’t require getting into the hearts and minds of people and motives of individuals because at the end of the day the motives don’t matter. It’s the perpetuation of segregation that is the harm,” Julian said. She offered an analogy: Say a driver is texting and hits someone with her car and puts them in the hospital. “The fact that you did not mean to is beside the point,” Julian said. “No, you didn’t mean to hit them, but you are going to be held accountable because you engaged in behavior that you knew could cause harm, and you did it anyway.” The end of disparate impact policies and cases, she argued, would severely hamper advocates’ ability to go after systemic housing discrimination in a nation where the segregation of black Americans has barely budged in many cities and where it is growing for Latinos. “It would be taken as a greenlight to say you can do anything you want, as long as you do not have the offending email.”
Sun Life Fit To Win
ALYSSA GREENBERG
(l-r) Ed Milano, VP of Marketing for Sun Life Financial U.S., Boston Celtics legend Dana Barros, and former Celtic Leon Powe join young participants with YMCA to help launch “Fit To Win,” the Celtics’ and Sun Life Financial’s rewards-based youth activity program at the Thomas M. Menino YMCA in Hyde Park. The program harnesses Bostonians’ love for the green team, and provides children in grades 3-6 with a fun way to learn about maintaining a nutritious diet and healthy lifestyle.
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Thursday, January 29, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER • 21
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250 Mount Vernon Street | Dorchester, MA | (617) 288∙1140 | ount Vernon Street | Dorchester, MA | (617) 288∙1140 | www.hhsi.us 250 Mount Vernon Street | Dorchester, MA | (617) 288∙1140 |
Conveniently located at the JFKLEGAL Station
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LEGAL
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Conveniently located 250 Mount Vernon Street | Dorchester, MA | (617) at the JFK288∙1140 Station| www.hhsi.us
INVITATION TO BID
a.m. at 121 Riverside Avenue, Medford, MA 02155.
The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority is seeking bids for the following: BID NO.
DESCRIPTION
DATE
WRA-3976
Supply and Delivery of Ten (10) 02/11/15 Back Pressure Regulators for the Deer Island Treatment Plant
WRA-3977
Inspection and Refurbish/ Overhaul on Primary and Secondary Scum Mixers at the Deer Island Treatment Plant
TIME
The work performed under this contract is subject to the requirements of Section 3 of the MHA and the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968.
12:30 p.m.
250 Mount Vernon Street | Dorchester, MA AA/EOE | (617) 288∙1140 | 02/11/15 2:30 p.m.
To obtain bid documents please contact the MWRA’s Document Distribution Office at 617.788.2575 or MWRADocumentDistribution@mwra.com.
Commonwealth of Massachusetts The Trial Court Probate and Family Court Department SUFFOLK Division
Docket No. SU08P1153AD1
LEGAL NOTICE
Citation on Petition for Order of Complete Settlement of Estate
REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS
Estate of: Elizabeth Ammons Date of Death: 05/20/2008
The MASSACHUSETTS PORT AUTHORITY (Authority) is soliciting consulting services for MPA CONTRACT NO. A362 FY15-17 Term Building Information Modeling (BIM) Consulting Services The Authority is seeking qualified multidiscipline consulting firm or team, with proven experience in providing BIM implementation and support services on an on-call, as needed basis. These services are expected to be provided at ALL Massport facilities. Consultant must be able to work closely with the Authority and other interested parties in order to provide such services in a timely and effective manner. A Supplemental Information Package will be available starting January 30, 2015 on the Capital Bid Opportunities webpage of Massport http://www. massport.com/doing-business/_layouts/CapitalPrograms/default.aspx as an attachment to the original Legal Notice, on COMMBUYS (www.commbuys. com) in the listings for this project or by contacting Susan Brace at Capital Programs SBrace@massport.com The Supplemental Information Package will provide detailed information about Scope of Work, Selection Criteria and Submission Requirements. The Authority expects to select one (1) consultant. However, the Authority reserves the right to select a different number if it is deemed in its best interest to do so. Each consultant shall be issued a contract in an amount not to exceed FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS ($500,000). The services shall be authorized on a work order basis. The selection shall involve a two-step process including the shortlisting of a minimum of three firms based on an evaluation of the Statements of Qualifications received in response to this solicitation, followed immediately by a final selection of the consultant(s) by the Authority. By responding to this solicitation, consultants agree to accept the terms and conditions of Massport’s standard work order agreement, a copy of the Authority’s standard agreement can be found on the Authority’s web page at www.massport.com. The Consultant shall specify in its cover letter that it has the ability to obtain requisite insurance coverage. This submission, including the litigation and legal proceedings history in a separate sealed envelope as required shall be addressed to Houssam H. Sleiman, PE, CCM, Director of Capital Programs and Environmental Affairs and received no later than 12:00 Noon on Thursday, February 26, 2015 at the Massachusetts Port Authority, Logan Office Center, One Harborside Drive, Suite 209S, Logan International Airport, East Boston, MA 021282909. Any submission which is not received in a timely manner shall be rejected by the Authority as non-responsive. Any information provided to the Authority in any Proposal or other written or oral communication between the Proposer and the Authority will not be, or deemed to have been, proprietary or confidential, although the Authority will use reasonable efforts not to disclose such information to persons who are not employees or consultants retained by the Authority except as may be required by M.G.L. c.66. MASSACHUSETTS PORT AUTHORITY THOMAS P. GLYNN CEO AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Medford Housing Authority Request for Designer Services (RFS) The Medford Housing Authority (MHA) is requesting proposals for a Building Moisture-Infiltration Remediation Design, and Construction Management of Remediation Project, for the Saltonstall and Weldon Gardens Developments. Qualifying firms must provide full basic services from investigation and initial design through preparation of contract documents, bidding and construction contract administration. The person charged with this project, including project management, must be an Architect or Engineer registered in Massachusetts. The Construction Estimate cost is $400,000.00. The Fee for A&E and investigative services is estimated to be $40,000.00. Copies of the RFS’s can be picked up at 121 Riverside Avenue, Medford, MA, 02155, or mailed, by calling 781-396-7200 Ext. 140, or by e-mailing Bernie Kirstein at bkirstein@medfordhousing.org after 01/28/15. RFS bid documents must be submitted to the above address by February 11, 2015 @ 10:00 a.m. A pre-bid conference will be held on February 3, 2015 @ 10:00
file a written response, you need to:
File the original with the Court; and Mail a copy to all interested parties at least five (5) business days before the hearing.
3.
Counsel for the Minor: The minor (or an adult on behalf of the minor) has the right to request that counsel be appointed for the minor.
4.
Presence of the Minor at Hearing: A minor over age 14 has the right to be present at any hearing, unless the Court finds that it is not in the minor’s best interests.
www.hhsi.us
THIS IS A LEGAL NOTICE: An important court proceeding that may affect your rights has been scheduled. If you do not understand this notice or other court papers, please contact an attorney for legal advice.
Commonwealth of Massachusetts The Trial Court Probate and Family Court Department
To all interested persons: A petition has been filed by Guadalesa Rivera of Los Angeles, CA requesting that an Order of Complete Settlement of the estate issue including to approve an accounting and other such relief as may be requested in the Petition. For the Amended Second Account. You have the right to obtain a copy of the Petition from the Petitioner or at the Court. You have a right to object to this proceeding. To do so, you or your attorney must file a written appearance and objection at this Court before 10:00 a.m. on 02/12/2015. This is NOT a hearing date, but a deadline by which you must file a written appearance and objection if you object to this proceeding. If you fail to file a timely written appearance and objection followed by an Affidavit of Objections within thirty (30) days of the return date, action may be taken without further notice to you. WITNESS, HON. Joan P. Armstrong, First Justice of this Court. Date: January 09, 2015 Felix D. Arroyo Register of Probate Commonwealth of Massachusetts The Trial Court Probate and Family Court Department Docket No. SU15C0015CA
SUFFOLK Division
Ann Marie Passanisi Register of Probate
Date: November 20, 2014
SUFFOLK Division
Docket No. SU14P2897PO Trust Citation
JB Johnson Funeral Home Trust In the matter of: To all interested persons: A petition has been filed by Linda A Fisher of Dorchester, MA and Holland B Hudson of Goldsboro, NC requesting remove the Trustee and Appoint a successor Trustee to serve without sureties on the bond. You have the right to obtain a copy of the Petition from the Petitioner or at the Court. You have a right to object to this proceeding. To do so, you or your attorney must file a written appearance and objection at this Court before 10:00 a.m. on 02/19/2015. This is NOT a hearing date, but a deadline by which you must file a written appearance and objection if you object to this proceeding. If you fail to file a timely written appearance and objection followed by an Affidavit of Objections within thirty (30) days of the return date, action may be taken without further notice to you. WITNESS, HON. Joan P Armstrong, First Justice of this Court. Date: January 14, 2015 Felix D. Arroyo Register of Probate
In the matter of Ilona Henriko Pleinyte and Alireza Zarifiannazarlo, Both of Mattapan, MA NOTICE OF PETITION FOR CHANGE OF NAME To all persons interested in a petition described: A petition has been presented by Ilona H. Pleinyte requesting that Ilona Henriko Pleinyte and Alireza Zarifiannazarlo be allowed to change their name as follows: Ilona Pleinyte-Zeinswood Allen Zeinswood IF YOU DESIRE TO OBJECT THERETO, YOU OR YOUR ATTORNEY MUST FILE A WRITTEN APPEARANCE IN SAID COURT AT BOSTON ON OR BEFORE TEN O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING (10:00 AM) ON 02/12/2015. WITNESS, HON. Joan P. Armstrong, First Justice of this Court. Date: January 12, 2015 Felix D. Arroyo Register of Probate Commonwealth of Massachusetts The Trial Court Probate and Family Court Department SUFFOLK Division
Docket No. SU02P1192GM2
In the interests of Robert T Barrett Scott Formerly of Roxbury, MA And Now of Mattapan, MA Minor NOTICE AND ORDER: Petition for Resignation or Petition for Removal of Guardianship of a Minor 1.
2.
NOTICE TO ALL INTERESTED PARTIES Hearing Date/Time: A hearing on a Petition to Resign as Guardian of a Minor or Petition for Removal of Guardian of a minor filed by Lorraine Barrett of Taunton, MA on 11/19/2014 will be held 02/10/2015 09:00 AM Guardianship of Minor Hearing Located at 24 New Chardon Street, 3rd floor, Boston, MA 02114, Probation Department. Response to Petition: You may respond by filing a written response to the Petition or by appearing in person at the hearing. If you choose to
REAL ESTATE LINCOLN SCHOOL APARTMENTS Elderly Housing NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS»
Studio, One, and Two Bedroom Apartment Homes in a convenient residential location in Hingham, MA, close to Hingham Center and Hingham Harbor. Elevator building set within beautifully landscaped grounds. Applications can be obtained by mail or in person at the Rental Office. Located @ 86 Central Street, Hingham, MA, Phone: 781-749-8677 MAXIMUM INCOME LIMITS 1 Person: $47,450 2 Persons: $54,200 3 Persons: $61,000 4 Persons: $67,750 Waiting List Preference for Applicants Over Age 62 Accepting Applications From: 2/2/15 7:00AM 3/2/15 3:00PM
Office Hours Monday–Thursday 7:00am-3:00pm TTY: 800-439-2370/Connect to Lincoln School 781-7498677 Professionally managed by Corcoran Management Company
22 • Thursday, January 29, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER
BANNER CLASSIFIEDS
REAL ESTATE
REAL ESTATE
HARTWELL TERRACE APARTMENTS Dorchester, Massachusetts
Applications are now being accepted for: 1 and 2 BR Market Rent Apartments from January 29, 2015 through February 6, 2015.
OFFICE SPACE
Wollaston Manor
DORCHESTER/ MILTON
Senior Living At It’s Best
91 Clay Street Quincy, MA 02170
1st Class Office Space Corner of Gallivan Blvd and Washington St ample parking.
With convenient location, featuring wall to wall carpeting, dishwasher, garbage disposal, laundry room, MBTA accessibility, off street parking, convenient shopping center within walking distance; 24 hr. emergency maintenance. Rent includes heat and hot water - voucher holders are welcome.
A senior/disabled/ handicapped community
Applications will be disbursed from January 29 thru February 6, 2015 from 9:30 A.M. to 2:00 P.M.
$650/mo. $695/mo. $1500/mo.
0 BR units = $1,027/mo 1 BR units = $1,101/mo All utilities included.
For information and application, call 617-541-5510 or visit us at 530 Warren Street, Dorchester, MA
OWNER
Call Sandy Miller,
617-835-6373
#888-691-4301
heated
Program Restrictions Apply.
Parker Hill Apartments
HAMILTON GREEN APARTMENTS 311 Lowell Street Andover, Massachusetts 01810
Brand New Renovated Apartment Homes Stainless Steel Appliances New Kitchen Cabinets Hardwood Floors Updated Bathroom Custom Accent Wall Painting Free Parking Free Wi-Fi in lobby Modern Laundry Facilities
Waitlist now open for 1&2 bedroom units. 3 BEDROOM WAITLIST IS CLOSED AND HAS A 1.5 YEAR WAIT AT THIS TIME. 2 Bedroom 80% units available for immediate occupancy. Rental Amounts and Minimum and Maximum Income Limits as of 1/1/2015 Household Size
1
2
3
4
5
6
50% $790
1BD Min Max
$25,170 $31,350
$25,170 $35,800
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
$942
2BD Min Max
N/A
$30,210 $35,800
$30,210 $40,300
$30,210 $44,750
N/A
N/A
80% $1,169
1BD Min Max
$36,540 $45,500
$36,540 $52,000
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
$1,397
2BD Min Max
N/A
$43,860 $52,000
$43,860 $58,500
$43,860 $65,000
N/A
N/A
CHELSEA APARTMENT
4+ bdrms Newly renovated, 2000+ sq ft apt in 3 fam, no smkng/pets, hrdwd flrs, eat-in kit, pantry, lg master bedroom, din and lv rm, laundry rm, enclosed frnt/bck prchs, off street prkng, T access, min to Bost. Sec 8 OK
617-283-2081
Axis at Lakeshore Bridgewater, MA
Property Manager
Brokers Welcome
Rent
REAL ESTATE
Two Bedrooms Starting at $2200 888-842-7945
ADVERTISE
Tenants pay for Electricity only – Utility Allowances are as follows: 1BR - $49; 2BR - $65; 3BR - $80
your classifieds with THE BAY STATE BANNER
*Minimum income requirements do not apply to Section 8 Voucher holders. All utilities, except electricity are included in rent. Voucher holders are eligible. Applications are available at the property daily between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday – Friday or call Lisa Perez @ 978-623-8155, TTY:711 or 800-439-0183.
(617) 261- 4600 x 7799
ads@bannerpub.com
1BRs @ $1,196*, 2BRs @ $1,325*, 3BRs @ $1,468* No Utilities included except water and sewer *Rents subject to change with the HUD’s release of the 2015 Area Median Incomes
Axis at Lakeshore is a community that will be two five-story elevator buildings with 192 units and includes a state of the art clubhouse outfitted with a fitness center, meeting space, swimming pool, theater room, and Wi-Fi Café. Units feature spacious floor plans with 9’ ceilings, in-unit laundry, and central air. The units will also be accented with designer kitchens featuring granite counters and Clean Steel appliances. The first units will be ready in May 2015. 48 of the units will be rented to households with annual incomes not exceeding 80% of Area Median Income (AMI) adjusted for family size as determined by HUD. The 80% AMI Income Limits are as follows: $44,750* (1 person), $51,150* (2 people), $57,550* (3 people), $63,900* (4 people), $69,050* (5 people), $74,150* (6 people) *Income Limits are subject to change upon HUD publication of 2015 AMI A Public Information Session will be held at 6 pm on February 9th 2015 in the Little Meeting Room at Bridgewater Public Library (15 South St) Completed Applications may be mailed, faxed, emailed, or delivered in person. Completed Applications and Required Income Documentation must be received by 2:00 PM on March 12th, 2015. The Lottery will be held on April 1st at 6 PM in same location as the info session above. For Applications and Details on the Lottery or for reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities, call 617.782.6900 or go to www.s-e-b.com/lottery. For TTY Services dial 711. Free translation available. Applications and Info Packets also available in the Bridgewater Public Library (15 South St.) Hours: M-W 9-8, Th 10-5, F-Sa 10-2
Pier 4 Apartments
142 Northern Avenue, South Boston MA
Affordable Housing Lottery
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER
@baystatebanner
32 New Affordable Apartments For Rent # of Units
Type
Rent*
Approx Sqft
Income Limit
1
Studio
$1,166
562 sqft
Up to 80%
13
1BR
$1,361
756 sqft
Up to 80%
5
2BR
$1,555
1,237 sqft
Up to 80%
9
1BR
$2,042
688 sqft
Between 80% and 120%
4
2BR
$2,334
1,216 sqft
Between 80% and 120%
*Rent is subject to change when the BRA publishes the annual rents. The Maximum Income Limits for Households for the Moderate Income Units (80% AMI) is as follows: 1 Person - $52,700*; 2 Person - $60,200*; 3 Person - $67,750*; 4 Person - $75,300* The Maximum Income Limits for Households for the Middle Income Units (120% AMI) is as follows: 1 Person - $79,050*; 2 Person - $90,350*; 3 Person - $101,650*; 4 Person - $112,900* *Income Limits subject to change when the BRA publishes the annual Income Limits From Feb 10th to Feb 17th applications can be requested by phone (617.782.6900) or email (seb.housing@gmail.com). Applications may also be picked up at the South Boston Branch of the Boston Public Library (646 East Broadway, South Boston) Tuesday Feb 10th (1 pm to 6 pm) and Thursday Feb 12th (4 pm to 8 pm) and Saturday Feb 14th (10 AM to 2 PM) Completed applications can be dropped off to the SEB Office between 10 AM and 4 PM on March 2nd and March 3rd. The deadline for application drop off at the SEB Office is 4 pm on March 3rd, 2015. Completed applications can also be mailed to the SEB Office but must be postmarked by March 3rd, 2015. The SEB Office is on 165 Chestnut Hill Ave #2, Brighton, MA 02135. Selection by lottery. Asset, Use & Occupancy Restrictions apply. Minimum income limits apply. Disabled households have preference for 5 accessible units. Preference for Boston Residents. Preference for Households with at least one person per bedroom. Pier 4 is a smoke free community For more information or reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities, call 617.782.6900
HELP WANTED
CropCircle Kitchen seeks an Executive Director CropCircle Kitchen (CCK) seeks an Executive Director to lead our organization through a period of dynamic growth and change. Since 2009, CCK has operated greater Boston’s only non-profit shared-use commercial kitchen and food business incubator. We operate two fully-equipped, shared-use commercial kitchen facilities and provide licensed production space to start-up and emerging wholesale and retail food businesses. We offer business technical assistance services; and operate a small-batch value-added food manufacturing and catering business. The Executive Director will lead the effort to grow our dynamic organization, strengthen its financial base, and diversify its business. S/he will supervise approximately 10 people and manage an operating budget of around $1.1 million. Our ideal candidate will have: an entrepreneurial, action-oriented, adaptable and innovative approach to business; a passion for creating a local food hub; and experience leading a complex organization through growth and change. Submit a cover letter, detailing your salary requirements, and a resume to: CCKExecutiveDirector@gmail.com. CCK is an equal opportunity employer.
ADVERTISE YOUR CLASSIFIEDS WITH THE BAY STATE BANNER (617) 261-4600 x 7799 • ads@bannerpub.com — Rate information at www.baystatebanner.com/advertise
Thursday, January 29, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER • 23
BANNER CLASSIFIEDS
HELP WANTED
HELP WANTED
HELP WANTED
GET READY FOR
Administrative Assistant
A Great Office Job! Train for Administrative, Financial
Services, Health Insurance Customer Service & Medical Office jobs.
Emmanuel Gospel Center, Inc. (EGC) EGC is currently seeking a full-time Administrative Assistant (AA). The AA shall perform duties as receptionist and administrator of the main office, including: greeting and assisting guests & staff, answering the telephone, monitoring EGC parking lot, supervising office volunteers, managing inventory of office supplies, and supporting the Director of Operations and the Bookkeeper.
Work in hospitals, colleges, insurance agencies, banks, businesses, government offices, health insurance call centers, and more! YMCA Training, Inc. is recruiting training candidates now! BOS038785B 2015 We will help you apply for free training. Job1placement assistance provided. Critical Qualities: No prior experience necessary, but must have HS diploma or GED. JWBTFT0203 NCAPONE Free YMCA membership for you and your 1. Strong communication Experimental College Bay State Banner family while enrolled in YMCA Training, Inc.
BAY STATE BANNER 3.222 x 5” jts
and excellent hospitality skills
Call today to schedule an Information Session: 617-542-1800 2.
Are you interested in a
Healthcare CAREER? Project Hope, in partnership with Partners HealthCare is currently accepting applications for a FREE entry level healthcare employment training program. Program eligibility includes: • • • • •
Have a high school diploma or equivalent Have a verifiable reference of 1 year from a former employer Pass assessments in reading, language, and computer skills Have CORI clearance Be legally authorized to work in the United States
For more information and to register for the next Open House please visit our website at www.prohope.org/openhouse.htm or call 617-442-1880 ext. 218.
Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer Reports to: Executive Committee of Board of Directors Primary Site: Agency Headquarters – 520 Dudley Roxbury, MA 02119
Summary The Agency Executive Director is a dynamic and visionary leader with a strong commitment to support the process of creating a shared vision and implementation of our mission. The agency’s mission is to provide high quality services to economically disadvantaged infants, children, adolescents and their families, thereby promoting and strengthening family life and individual growth. The agency works throughout Massachusetts in partnership with families and in collaboration with public and private health, human service, education and other government agencies to improve the lives of families that may be at risk.
Tufts University Experimental College Medford, MA
The Experimental College of Tufts University in Medford, MA is seeking part-time instructors during the Spring 2015 semester. Applicants are asked to design and then – if selected – teach small, discussion-based courses that promote active learning and that engage Tufts undergraduates in an exploration of ideas and experiences shaping the world today. While the majority of our courses are taught in a classroom setting at the Tufts Medford campus, proposals for online courses will also be given serious consideration. Classes that offer critical, and quite often, interdisciplinary contexts form the core of the Experimental College’s curriculum. Our mission is to challenge an already motivated set of students and get them thinking in new ways about such important subjects areas as cultural studies, technology, current affairs, race and gender, the law, media, world religions, environmental concerns, business, healthcare, and ethics. Twenty courses will be chosen from a very competitive pool. The semester begins Tuesday, September 8, 2015, and runs through Friday, December 11, 2015. Classes meet in the evening, once or twice a week, for a total of 2.5 contact hours per week, over what comes out to thirteen teaching weeks. For more information and an application packet, go to: www.excollege.tufts.edu/apply.asp For specific questions, call 617-627-3384, or email us at excollege@tufts.edu. Deadline to apply: Monday, March 9, 2015.
Tufts University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employer. We are committed to increasing the diversity of our faculty. Members of underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged to apply.
Skills/Knowledge: 1.
Demonstrated leadership skills, 4. someone who can bring the Agency together under the Agency mission. 5.
2.
Demonstrated leadership in strategic planning, ability to develop a vision for the Agency and develop long range plans to implement that vision.
3.
Understanding of social change and the role of community based organizations
6.
Knowledge of family services and family dynamics. Understanding of all of the programs offered by the Agency, including behavioral health, homeless services, foster care, child care centers, shelter services, and substance abuse. Knowledge of the Massachusetts community and the State’s human service network, understanding of local and state politics and how they affect state agencies.
Education/Training: Master’s degree preferred from an accredited school. For more information regarding this and/or other employment opportunities, Please visit our website at www.csrox.org and send your resume to Children’s Services of Roxbury, Inc. 520 Dudley St. Roxbury, MA 02119 Attn: Human Resource Department or email to svilleda@csrox.org NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE
Exemplary work ethic, and proficiency in multi-tasking within highly active setting
4.
Pass a criminal background check (CORI) on an annual basis
Familiarity with Microsoft 5. Office (Word and Excel), email, and Google apps
Mature Christian faith, with a passion for EGC’s mission and principles
EGC seeks to understand and nurture the vitality of urban churches and communities (www.egc.org). Interested candidates: please send a cover letter and résumé to: operations@egc.org
BSC Group, Inc., a consulting engineering firm located in the South Boston Seaport District, is looking to fill the following full-time positions: Bookkeeping Clerk – to process A/P invoices, A/R statements, perform basic bookkeeping tasks and data entry. Requires excellent organizational and communication skills, proficiency with MicroSoft Word and Excel, and experience working in a business environment. Marketing Communications Coordinator – to develop, coordinate, and manage the production of proposals and qualifications statements for public sector and private clients; assist with social media campaigns, prepare press releases and public relations pieces. Requires a BA in Marketing or related field and 1-3 years in the marketing writing field. Sr. Structural Engineer – with a minimum of 10-15 years of relevant industry experience, preferably with public sector projects. Responsibilities include oversight and direction of bridge structural designs. Requires MA PE registration and BS in Civil or Structural engineering. A Master’s Degree is preferred.
Qualified candidates should send, fax or e-mail cover letter and resume to: Human Resources Department, BSC Group, Inc., 15 Elkins Street, Boston, MA 02127; Fax no: (617) 896-4301; e-mail: info@bscgroup.com. No telephone calls, no recruiters, please. BSC Group is an AA/EEO employer.
The Executive Director will function with authority from the Board of Directors and will be involved in all decisions within the responsibilities of the position. The Board of Directors actively partners with the Executive Director by providing the authorization, resources, affirmation, involvement and empowerment necessary for the successful realization of the responsibilities of the position. This working relationship is reviewed as part of the annual performance review. The Executive Director is responsible for overall management of the day-to-day operations of the organization within the parameters of the Board’s Policies and Strategic Plan as agreed upon by the Board.
3.
We Help People Get and Succeed at Good Jobs
Free job-search and career development help: • Most people who complete our 60hour job-search workshop qualify for free, individual job-search help. • We refer people to jobs that pay $20,000 — $30,000 and offer benefits. • We mentor people who accept jobs through our referrals for two years. If you are a low-income adult who is: • Looking for a full-time permanent job; • Willing to participate in our twoyear mentoring program; • Age 22 to 55; • Legal to work in the U.S.; • Able to succeed in an English-speaking workplace, then… Orientation Every Thursday, 1:00 PM. Call us to see if you qualify at (617) 4246616. • You will need to bring your résumé • If you do not have a résumé, bring a list of: 4 Jobs and military service since high school; 4 Education and training. 4 Be sure to include month and year; be sure that all dates are correct. We look forward to working with you!
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“Need health coverage? Now’s the time.” Queyron Nolberto, Navigator
Greater Lawrence Community Action Council
It’s Open Enrollment time at the Massachusetts Health Connector. If you have health insurance through the Health Connector or the temporary MassHealth program, you must submit a new application to maintain coverage through the Commonwealth. If you buy your own insurance, you can apply online to renew or get insurance for the first time. The Health Connector is the only place where you can get help paying for your health insurance, and is a great place to compare and choose health and dental plans from leading insurers. Sign up online at MAhealthconnector.org, or call 1-877-MA-ENROLL, or visit the website to find free help signing up from trained assisters around the state.
Open Enrollment ends February 15. Sign up today. A message from the Health Connector and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
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