inside this week:
A&E
business news:
Radius building, five acres of Roxbury land to be auctioned pg 3
NNENNA FREELON WILL PERFORM AT THE CAMBRIDGE JAZZ FESTIVAL pg 10
Entrepreneur bakes up business success pg 8
plus R&B duo Floetry reunites for concerts pg 10 Review: Cirque du Soleil at Agganis Arena pg 11 Thursday, July 23, 2015 • FREE • GREATER BOSTON’S URBAN NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1965 • CELEBRATING 50 YEARS
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BRA seeks support for renewal
Agency asking state to extend urban renewal plans By YAWU MILLER For many Bostonians, the phrase urban renewal conjures up images of long-destroyed neighborhoods: the West End, the New York Streets section of the South End, Castle Square, Madison Park. So the Boston Redevelopment Authority has its work cut out for it, embarking on a citywide campaign to gain support for the re-designation of its urban renewal districts — a process that requires approval from the Boston City Council. Top of the list for the agency is to persuade Boston residents to get past the negative history associated with urban renewal. “I wish we could call it something else,” said BRA Senior Urban Designer/Architect Corey Zehngebot, speaking during a meeting with Roxbury residents. “You hear it, and immediately you have a visceral reaction.” In some ways, Zehngebot may have engaged one of the agency’s toughest audiences in bringing
ON THE WEB BRA urban renewal:
www.bostonredevelopmentauthority.org/planning/urban-renewal/overview BRA operational review:
www.bostonredevelopmentauthority.org/ news-calendar/news-updates/2015/07/16/ bra-releases-findings-of-independent-operational-r the urban renewal conversation to Roxbury, where in decades past the program was referred to as “Negro removal.” But the fact that the conversation around urban renewal is even happening underscores a shift in the BRA and how it does business. Ten years ago, when the agency sought its decennial renewal of urban renewal designations, BRA officials did so largely out of the public eye, pressing city councilors for support in secret meetings that violated state open meeting laws. “This year, we’re approaching different neighborhoods to have a genuine process,” Zehngebot said.
See BRA, page 7
PHOTO: DON WEST
U.S. Rep. John Lewis spoke about the importance of protecting voting rights during Monday’s appearance at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in Dorchester.
Rep. Lewis cites attacks on Voting Rights Act Congressman speaks at Edward M. Kennedy Institute By KELLEY CHUNN At age 75, the mind of Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis (D-Georgia) is still on freedom. He recently appeared before a packed crowd at the Edward M. Kennedy (EMK) Institute in Boston to talk about the 50th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. “We have made a lot of
progress but we are not there yet,” Lewis said. “We should make voting simple and easy. Forces in our country want us to stand still. But we must move forward. We must open up the voting process for the people.” Lewis cited the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965, which he said today is under siege. In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of the historic law and ruled that parts of the act are
unconstitutional. Supreme Court Justice Roberts explained the decision by saying, “our country has changed for the better.” Lewis said the court put “a dagger in the heart of the Voting Rights Act.” Last month, Lewis joined other congressional Democrats in filing legislation called the Voting Rights Advancement Act to update and fix the law. Sponsors
See LEWIS, page 14
A presidential perspective on race Obama savors victories, makes case for racial justice By CAITLIN YOSHIKO KANDIL
WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BY PETE SOUZA
President Barack Obama speaks with a group of young civil rights leaders in a recent meeting. The president has been more outspoken on racial issues this year than in the past.
It was a remarkable week for President Obama: On Monday he commuted the sentences of 46 nonviolent drug offenders; on Tuesday he called for sweeping criminal justice reform in an address to the NAACP; and on Thursday he became the first sitting president to visit a federal prison. His message was clear: The United States locks up too many people for too long; African Americans and Latinos are disproportionately stopped, arrested,
charged and imprisoned; many communities are suffering as a result; and reform is vital. “Mass incarceration makes our country worse off, and we need to do something about it,” he said. “It’s shocking and surprising to see this kind of vision coming from the White House,” said David Harris, managing director of Harvard’s Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice. “I can’t imagine any other president having the breadth of knowledge that he displayed. … To the extent that other presidents have used crime as a code for race, this
president actually named some of the racial disparities that impact our communities in ways that others haven’t.”
Bold on black
Obama’s candid remarks on the country’s broken criminal justice system are the latest example of the bolder stance on race the president has taken recently, particularly since last month’s killing of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina. Two days after the shooting,
See OBAMA, page 13
2 • Thursday, July 23, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER
NAACP and URBAN Boston host Olympic bid and community goals discussion By JULE PATTISON-GORDON
Last week, activists and community residents from Dorchester, Roxbury and Jamaica Plain were joined by officials from the Olympic organizing committee Boston 2024 and from the opposition group No Boston Olympics in an open discussion about what the games could mean for Boston. The meeting, titled “The Boston Olympic Bid, Communities of Color and the Future of Our City” was sponsored by the Boston Branch of the NAACP and URBAN Boston, a research group, and gave residents the opportunity to air concerns about the games, which would use Franklin Park, Widett Circle and other venues in Boston neighborhoods to host sporting events. “The Olympics themselves are not as important for Boston as the opportunity to develop development priorities for the city,” said Michael Johnson of URBAN Boston, who ran the meeting. He discouraged members from using the time to promote or protest supporting the Olympics bid. Attendees took seats around rectangular tables, laid out with discussion questions and blank nametags. Partway through, the presentation broke for group discussion, then each table’s facilitator presented their group’s ideas. Suggestions for getting value from the Olympics included ways to get the most from new physical structures created for the games. One group proposed letting school sports teams use the left-over stadiums, and another said that as new infrastructure got built, they wanted to see the city become more accessible to people with disabilities.
Collateral gains
Many cited more affordable housing as a major goal to be pushed for, whether or not the Olympic bid goes through.
BANNER PHOTO
The Rev. Paul Ford, executive director of the Boston Workers Alliance, makes a point during a NAACP Boston Branch-sponsored meeting on Boston’s bid for the 2024 Olympic games at the Freedom House in Grove Hall. Others looked at various ways in which communities could benefit from the games themselves. Care should be taken to ensure local businesses get sponsorship opportunities and are not locked out by larger companies, said one group. For instance, if McDonalds were to take certain food sponsorship roles, it would prevent neighborhood restaurants from doing the same. This group proposed offering training sessions to business to explain the processes for getting involved. The Olympics preparation was also seen as a chance to create new decision-making processes for Boston. “I think the Olympics could definitely catapult the progression of Boston,” said Terrance Moreau, a sales and leasing agent
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with Century 21, who saw potential for the games to boost to the city as a whole. “I personally feel as though it can be beneficial as far as a business plan for the city and the city growing.” Some regarded the Olympics as a double-edged sword, with the potential both to heighten problems and provide opportunities. Debbie Chen, a city planner from Chinatown, expressed worries that increased traffic from tourists could worsen already high pollution rates in the neighborhood. However, she also saw the Olympics debate as an opportunity to put clean air on the agenda. Phil Reason of Community Labor United said he was unaware of any previous example in which the Olympics had made a positive
impact on the local community. “Olympics have been happening forever,” he said. “As far as my understanding, they’re not working anywhere. They come in and destroy cities and they leave, and people of color historically do not benefit.”
Long-term vision, voice
The discussion surfaced many concerns, including potential loss of homes, disruption of communities and increased gentrification and displacement due to rising property values or the land takings by eminent domain. “If the Olympics come, it’s going to bid up the property values even more,” said Becky Pierce of Dorchester People for Peace “The vision is the city of Boston will take over control from people who live here.”
Some attendees expressed doubt that community voices would be heard or taken seriously. Chris Ho of Jamaica Plain said that once the host city agreement is signed, the Olympics organizing committee will no longer be obligated to listen. “It [the agreement] creates an Olympic organizing committee that has to have the power to sign contracts and everything on behalf of the host city. It is independent of any oversight,” he said. “So if the mayor signs this it’s over. There is no more process. Rich Davey can promise what they want, but they don’t have to be accountable. This committee — Olympics oversight committee — supersedes all others.” A number of attendees also said they did not feel their communities were sufficiently represented in the Olympics discussion or that enough facts had been provided about the bid to allow them to make informed decisions. URBAN Boston and the NAACP representatives emphasized the need for more research and for basing action on data. Michael Curry of the NAACP said that data is critical both for providing hard evidence of issues that need to be resolved and for understanding what opportunities might be seized. “If we don’t understand what the pie looks like, we don’t get to ask for it,” he said. “If we don’t even know what the opportunities are, we can’t even come into the room and negotiate some opportunities for our community.” The organizations are assembling a volunteer team of researchers and community members to investigate how the Olympics could impact visions for the communities. They plan to conduct research over the summer with a community follow-up held in the fall.
ON THE WEB For more information about URBAN Boston, visit: http://www.bostoncreates.org/ For more information about Boston NAACP, visit: www.bostonnaacp.org.
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Thursday, July 23, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER • 3
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The former Radius Specialty Hospital on Townsend Street is due to be sold at auction Aug. 13. Neighborhood residents say they want to see housing developed on the five-acre site.
Radius bldg., 5 acres of Rox land to be auctioned By YAWU MILLER
A court-appointed receiver for the former Radius Hospital on Townsend Street is seeking bidders for an August 13 auction to sell the 159,000-square-foot facility and the five acres of prime Roxbury land on which it sits. Possible uses for the site include a health care facility, a school, dormitory space or housing. “It’s a great site,” said real estate broker Sharif Abdal Khallaq, who lives one block over on Elmore Street. “It has basically everything you need for housing.” Fur ther down Townsend Street, at the corner of Warren Street, the former Roxbury Comprehensive Community Health Center, also in receivership, was purchased recently by the Bridge Charter School. Abdal Khallaq said it may be possible to repurpose the existing complex of attached buildings as housing. And with 4.96 acres of land, a developer also could tear down the existing buildings and construct a new housing complex. Garrison Trotter Neighborhood Association Chairman Louis Elisa is in favor of a new housing development.
SOURCE: GOOGLE EARTH
An image of the Radius site from Google Earth shows the building complex and its parking lots. A rock ledge separates the hospital from the adjacent Academy Homes development. “It should be a planned urban development of mixed housing, with affordable and market-rate home ownership,” he said. The Radius Hospital buildings and three adjoining parking lots are surrounded by housing,
including the Academy Homes public housing development. Zoning for the area precludes commercial uses for the site. While institutional uses, including group care facilities, also are a possibility, last November the
administration of Mayor Martin Walsh angered abutters with a proposal to relocate drug treatment programs formerly housed at the now-closed Long Island shelter to the Radius building. The Walsh administration backed off
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that proposal in December. Abutters say they remain opposed to drug treatment programs on the site. “I would like to see housing there,” said real estate broker Radhy Pena, whose Townsend Street house is directly opposite the hospital building. “Definitely no rehab clinics.” The court-appointed receiver, New York-based Keen Summit Capital Partners LLC, charged with auctioning off the property while Radius Hospital goes through bankruptcy proceedings, is currently seeking bidders for the property, according to Heather Milazzo, spokeswoman for the firm. Bidders will be required to submit proof of their ability to complete the transaction by August 10. The pre-qualified bidders will then participate in the Aug. 13 auction. Formerly the Jewish Memorial Hospital, the building complex was purchased by Radius in 2006. A spokesman for the company told the Boston Globe last year that the Roxbury facility had never been profitable. The 350 employees at both the Roxbury and Radius’s Quincy site were laid off in September of last year when the hospitals closed.
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4 • Thursday, July 23, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER
EDITORIAL
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INSIDE: ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, 10-13 • BUSINESS, 8-9 • CLASSIFIEDS, 14-15
Established 1965
Racial conflict obscures common concern over wealth Removal of the Confederate battle flag from its honored position in front of the South Carolina state capitol has had an uplifting effect even beyond Columbia. A new optimism has been generated among advocates of civil rights, at least for a time. There is a sense that race relations are improving. Nonetheless, the erratic progress in equal rights raises the question about what were the real intentions of the Founding Fathers. Since the 13th Amendment to the Constitution ended the legality of slavery in 1865, it is easy to forget that 41 of the 57 men who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 were slave holders. What were the slavers thinking when they confirmed with their signature that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal?” They certainly did not intend for “all men” to include women as full participants in the body politic. The constitutional right for women to vote was not established until 1920. Also, in many states, only white men with property were formerly granted the franchise. Indeed, it was not expected then that slaves would be able to vote. Representatives to the Continental Congress who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, an event Americans celebrate every Fourth of July, were members of the colonial elite. About half of the European immigrants to America in the 17th and 18th century came as indentured servants, a class similar to slavery except that it ended after a term of years. Whether or not they were slaves, or freed men, blacks were at the bottom of the social order. In the 1857 Dred Scott case, Roger B. Taney, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, expressed a common sentiment when he described blacks as “beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” The citizenship denied
by Taney was ultimately granted in 1868 to anyone born in the U.S. regardless of race or former condition of servitude. Even after slavery was outlawed in 1865, and citizenship was granted in 1868, and the right to vote was constitutionally approved in 1870 by the 15th Amendment, the effort to demean African Americans never ceased. In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Plessy v. Ferguson that racial segregation was lawful as long as conditions are separate but equal. This remained the law of the land until 1954 when it was overturned in the school desegregation case, Brown v. Board of Education. South Carolina was a leader of the Dixiecrat secession. In fact, the Civil War began on Apr. 12, 1861 at Fort Sumter in that state. In the battles which followed, some with names now part of American history — Manassas, Bull Run, Antietam and Gettysburg — an estimated 490,309 Confederate soldiers lost their lives. Many impoverished Southern men died so that wealthy plantation owners would have the right to require slaves to work on their farms. Civilized nations do not usually embrace the enslavement and persecution of racial groups as memorable elements of their heritage. Conservatives in South Carolina raised the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Civil War that was fought to preserve slavery and, according to some, to oppose the civil rights advances being made by African Americans. The Confederate flag was removed in Columbia on July 10, 2015. At that time the wealth and income disparity in America was as great as during the Great Depression of the 1930s and, with their greater population, the number of white Americans living in poverty was almost twice the number of blacks. Let the fall of the flag mark the date when Americans of limited income began to work together for the general good.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR U.S. deports, too As disturbing as it is to see Dominicans rounding up Haitian migrants to send them back to a country many of them have little connection to, the silence of the international community is even more so. What’s behind that silence is a tacit admission that no country in this hemisphere would be willing to take on the population of Haitians displaced by economic hardship that the Dominican Republic has taken on. The government’s ploy to deport Haitians flies in the face of the economic realities on the island. The Dominican economy is nothing like that in the United States, but
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there are still jobs in the agricultural sector few Dominicans really want to work in. Jobs like cutting sugar cane. And the Dominican businesses that need cheap labor, are what bring Haitians streaming across the border in the first place. Quiet as it’s kept, Dominicans, too, face discrimination when they move to Puerto Rico. There they open businesses or work menial jobs and are looked down on by that island’s population. And Puerto Ricans have long been looked down on by United States’ citizens, who hold dear the one-drop rule: Anyone with a drop of African blood is not a member of the white race. Those who enjoy white
INDEX
“With the flag issue behind us, let’s work together and close the wealth gap.”
skin privilege here guard that privilege against undeserving colored people. Now, as the United States deports record numbers of immigrants, including Dominicans, we’re seeing the ball rolling back downhill. At the bottom of that hill are the Haitians, who are effectively trapped in a country which lacks the infrastructure to provide them with housing, clean water, jobs, education or health care. The heartlessness we’re seeing in the Dominican Republic also shows up in our system of detention and deportation. One day, I hope, we’ll find a way to extend opportunity for everyone, everywhere in our hemisphere. — Terrence
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Thursday, July 23, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER • 5
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White racism costs whites, too
What do you think can be done to reduce the income gap?
By LEE A. DANIELS
Although Richard H. Poff forged a distinguished career as a ten-term Republican Congressman from the early 1950s to the early 1970s, and later as a judge on his state’s Supreme Court, many people coming across his name would likely note his achievements with a mental salute, and then quickly move on. Unless those people happened to know that in October of 1971 Representative Richard H. Poff informed President Richard M. Nixon that he did not wish to be nominated for a seat on the Supreme Court of the United States. Then they might come to realize Poff ’s story illuminates a reality of American society that’s rarely discussed: the high cost of white racism as experienced from the white side of the Color Line. I’ve been pondering that point since the murder of the Emanuel AME Church Nine drew an immediate outpouring of sympathy from many whites in the South and elsewhere — and propelled the widespread public outrage against the display of the Confederate Flag on public property. That that interracial call for change has followed the interracial protests of the last two years against questionable police killings of black and Hispanic Americans suggests that more and more whites and other people of color understand the “cost” of white racism affects them, too. It’s that development, amid the conservative movement’s continual race-mongering, the GOP’s reflexive opposition to every Obama proposal, and especially the sordid anti-Latino demagoguery of fake-GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, that makes Richard H. Poff ’s story worth considering. Poff, a Republican who represented a district in western Virginia, had been a Congressional rarity — a Republican from a state of the Old Confederacy — when first elected in 1952. A decorated World War II bomber pilot, he had ridden the political coattails of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s landslide election to the Presidency into office. Over time he compiled a solid record as a moderate Republican conservative. But like nearly every other Southern Senator and Representative of the 1950s and 1960s Poff had marched in lockstep with the white South’s campaign of “massive resistance” to the Civil Rights Movement. He wasn’t one of the demagogues who delighted in disparaging black Americans and denouncing civil rights legislation. He just went quietly along with those who did. In 1971, six years after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 had changed the South’s and the nation’s political calculus, civil rights groups declared the cost to him of that past: their unyielding opposition. Less than a fortnight later, Poff withdrew his name. Poff never directly stated why he had done so. But three months earlier he had given a remarkably candid interview to a local Virginia newspaper, in which he discussed his anti-civil rights record. Among the things he said was this: “I can only say that segregation is wrong today, it was wrong yesterday. Segregation was never right. But it is one of the most lamentable frailties of mankind that when one’s wrong is most grievous, his self-justification is most passionate, perhaps in the pitiful hope that the fervor of his self-defense will somehow prove him right. But this doesn’t make it so. And he doesn’t fool himself.” One needn’t cry for Richard H. Poff. As already mentioned, the next year he took a seat on the Virginia State Supreme Court and served there with distinction until his retirement in 1988. Further, his personal setback pales into insignificance compared to what the inaction of the white Southern elite cost their fellow Southerners, black and white, during those years. Nonetheless, if I’m correct in reading his incisive and poignant words as regret for his moral cowardice on the civil rights issues of the day, then let’s consider a what-if: What if Poff, by all accounts an honorable, thoughtful man, had resisted the demagogues of the day in the 1950s and 1960s — and had been joined by some of the other Congressional Southerners? Would that have made a difference in that era’s fight for democracy in the South and across the country? Would America have seen then a visible cohort of white Southerners standing up against bigotry and for tolerance similar to what has occurred in the last six weeks in some areas of the South? A final question: Is America still paying the cost of the inaction of too many white people like Richard H. Poff ?
Lee A. Daniels’ collection of columns, Race Forward: Facing America’s Racial Divide in 2014, is available at www.amazon.com
I think we need to come up with a bold, innovate way to make education accessible to anyone who wants it. Education is the key.
The best way would be through taxes. Tax the rich more.
Walter Smith
Leodis Thompson
Job Developer Dorchester
Secretary Salem
They should raise the minimum wage.
Larry McCoy
Provide a fair playing field. Provide better opportunities for inner city youth. That’s all that’s needed. Opportunity.
Minimum wage should be at least $15 an hour. How can a man feed his family on $9 an hour?
Walter Farrell Retired Dorchester
We need to create more businesses and more jobs. Put young people to work.
Kevin Simmons
Frank Simmons
Chef Roxbury
Retired Dorchester
that of Eastern Bank.” At Liberty Mutual, Alexander spearheaded all corporate brand marketing, advertising, communications, public relations, event strategy, and major sports sponsorships. He negotiated and secured Liberty Mutual’s firstever global sponsorship, Liberty Seguros Brazil’s sponsorship of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, as well as Liberty Mutual’s sponsorship of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams. He was also recognized as “Financial Marketer of the Year” in 2011 by the Financial Communications Society. Prior to joining Liberty Mutual, Alexander spent 6 years as Vice President of Global Advertising and Design for the Campbell Soup Company, and before Campbell’s, he spent 15 years at Procter & Gamble as a Director of Advertising Development and a Brand Manager – 12 years in Cincinnati, Ohio and 3 years in London, England. Active in the community, Alexander is a member of Myrtle Bap-
tist Church in West Newton and serves on the Board of Directors of several non-profit organizations including The Partnership, Inc., the Museum of Fine Arts (Board of Overseers), and CityStrings United. Alexander earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and his undergraduate degree in government and political science from Harvard College.
Retired Brookline
IN THE NEWS
PAUL ALEXANDER Eastern Bank, a full-service commercial bank headquartered in Boston, today announced the appointment of Paul Alexander as Chief Marketing & Communications Officer. Alexander, who most recently served as Chief Communications Officer for Liberty Mutual Insurance, brings more than 30 years of experience at Fortune 500 global companies, including Time Inc., Procter & Gamble, and Campbell’s Soup, to Eastern Bank. He will report directly to Eastern Bank President & Chief Operating Officer Bob Rivers and joins Eastern’s 14-member Management Committee. “Paul is a talented marketing professional with a proven track record for launching big-picture ideas that drive bottom-line business results, brand equity, and employee engagement,” said Rivers. “His success in growing the world’s biggest and most recognizable brands will serve us well, as we continue to elevate
6 • Thursday, July 23, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER
OBITUARY
Dexter Eure, 91, fought for inclusion in media By BRIAN WRIGHT O’CONNOR
Dexter Dillard Eure Sr., a longtime Boston Globe executive who fiercely advocated for greater integration of newsrooms, died July 2 of complications from dementia. He was 91. During a July 10 funeral service at the Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury, Eure was remembered as an outspoken champion for increasing the ranks of people of color in editorial and executive suites and making reporting more accurately reflect communities little understood or covered by the mainstream media. Carmen Fields, a well-known former print and broadcast journalist, said in her eulogy that Eure used his position as a director of community relations at the Globe to castigate and cajole colleagues into changing not just the complexion of those reporting the news but their mindset as well. Recalling his unique style, Fields said Eure’s familiar gaptoothed smile came at times with a bark and a bite, demanding, in earthy utterances, both action and accountability from those he expected to embrace social justice. “Over and over he recalled scenes of demonstrations or the sixties riots all over the country.
He quoted the Kerner Commission report on the effects of media that illustrated how the lack of diversity and balanced reporting about African Americans affected the nation. We were taught our obligation to take that charge seriously. And how could we do so effectively if we had no connection or knowledge of the people, our institutions, our
issues and our communities at our best and worst,” said Fields. Shortly after riots swept urban communities in the wake of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination in 1968, Boston Globe editor Tom Winship handed Eure a column to add an alternate voice to the paper’s coverage. Both in the column and in his community relations role, which he
assumed in 1971, Eure pushed for greater hiring of black, Asian and Latino reporters and served as the paper’s link to Boston’s growing ethnic communities. Philip Eure, an attorney serving as inspector general of the New York City Police Department, said many of the issues his father pushed in his column are still relevant today. “He was talking about racial injustice, the underrepresentation of minorities in positions of power and tensions with the police. He wasn’t afraid to call out his own employer. He even took liberals in Newton to task over housing issues. He held
DON WEST
Former Boston Globe Community Relations Director Dexter Eure advocated for inclusion inside the newsroom and on the broadsheet’s pages.
everyone’s feet to the fire,” he said. Eure, an only child born in Suffolk, Va., never knew his father, and his mother died when he was 12. Dividing his youth between family members in Suffolk and Philadelphia, he graduated from high school in the City of Brotherly Love and earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from West Virginia State College. After a short stint working in store advertising at Macy’s in New York City, Eure moved to Boston to work at Stop & Shop. Drafted during the Korean War, he was stationed at Fort Hood in Texas, where he met his future wife, Marjorie Ann Lowe. They moved to Sharon, Mass., where they raised their three sons. Eure joined the Globe’s circulation department in 1963 after working as a commercial artist and running his own advertising business. He retired from the paper in 1988 but retained a seat on the board of the Boston Globe Foundation. “My father had a passion for life and social justice and that was very apparent in discussions about politics and current events,” said Philip Eure. “He brought home six daily papers a day. That was a big part of our lives growing up.” Eure is survived by his former wife and three sons: Dexter Jr., a customer relations executive with Delta Airlines who lives in Sharon; David, a professional musician living in Natick; and Philip. He also is survived by two grandsons. Interment was in Mount Hope Cemetery.
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Thursday, July 23, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER • 7
BRA
continued from page 1 In addition to Roxbury, the BRA plans to have urban renewal meetings in the South End, Downtown and Chinatown. This year’s push for public support comes as BRA Director Brian Golden released the results of an independent operational review of the agency, which found it lacked a cohesive vision, placed too little emphasis on planning, spread itself thin with an incongruous mix of property management, zoning and development management and failed to maintain adequate financial controls. Golden has pledged to use the audit as a blueprint for reforming the agency. He and Mayor Martin Walsh have pledged to make the BRA more open, transparent and fair. “We have embraced the challenge that comes with improving the way we do business, and this latest review provides the information we need to create a robust and positive plan for the future of the BRA,” Golden said in a press statement. “Change is already underway, and we are intent on delivering upon the rest of the action plan.” Earlier this year, BRA officials announced its first major planning initiative in 50 years. The initiative, called Boston 2030, will work with residents to create development plans for each neighborhood in the city, and stitch together the individual plans into a cohesive city-wide plan. The agency will hire at least five new planners to help drive the process. The BRA’s planning initiative comes in the midst of one of the city’s largest-ever building booms. Walsh has pledged that the city will facilitate the construction of 53,000 new units of housing by 2030 to accommodate Boston’s growing population and ease pressure on the city’s rental and real estate markets, which make Boston one of the most expensive places to rent and buy in the nation. Under Walsh’s plan, the luxury developments going up in downtown Boston, the South End and the Fenway would be complemented by the construction of moderate- and low-income housing in the neighborhoods, drawing from the city’s supply of over 300 buildable lots. At-large City Councilor Ayanna Pressley said the report on the
BRA is an important first step for agency reform. “I commend the mayor for doing the review,” she said. “The results confirm what we have known and experienced for some time.” Pressley said she has been pushing for the BRA to increase its inclusionary zoning requirements, which require developers of projects with more than 10 housing units to set aside at least 15 percent as affordable units or pay into an affordable housing trust fund. She would also like to see the agency standardize its community benefits requirements for development projects, rather than requiring developers of large projects to negotiate new deals every time they build. But Pressley said the most important fixes to the BRA will be for the agency to operate in a more transparent manner. “Before we bring new initiatives online, we have to make sure that they’re operating in a structure that is open and transparent and accountable,” she said. As for urban renewal, Pressley is one of 13 councilors who needs convincing. “I have grave concerns about eminent domain,” she said. “They have their work cut out for them.”
Good intentions
Urban renewal began in the 1950s as a federally-funded program through which cities could clear sections of neighborhoods deemed blighted for redevelopment. As was the case in many cities, the BRA used urban renewal to clear neighborhoods that were working class and inhabited by blacks. While some clearances led to new developments, as was the case in Madison Park, Castle Square and in the New York Street area, which became the headquarters for the Boston Herald, many sections of Roxbury cleared through urban renewal are still vacant 50 years later. In the early 1970s, HUD stopped funding urban renewal, moving control over the program to states. Boston is one of 31 cities and towns in Massachusetts with active urban renewal districts. Boston has 3,000 acres of land under that designation in parts of Charlestown, the Fenway, Chinatown, the South End, Roxbury, the Downtown Waterfront, the West End, North Station area, and Government Center. At last week’s meeting, Zehngebot told Roxbury residents that
Suffolk County Sheriff Steven W. Tompkins statement on President Obama’s speech on criminal justice reform:
“I applaud President Obama's willingness to forcefully talk about Criminal Justice Reform! Accordingly, I ask you to join me in the fight to keep residents of Boston and the Commonwealth out of the criminal justice system; advocate for more resources to address substance abuse and mental health and engage in a concerted discussion about how we can work collaboratively to strengthen families. As the leaders of the free world let's raise our voices and demonstrate leadership on the important issues of Education, Employment, Health Care and Housing!” - Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkins
BANNER PHOTO
Boston Redevelopment Authority Deputy Director for Community Economic Development Dana Whiteside makes a point during a meeting on urban renewal at the Shelburne Community Center in Roxbury. Looking on are Senior Planner Hugues Monestime and Senior Urban Designer/Architect Corey Zehngebot. urban renewal designations give the BRA tools it needs to facilitate development projects. In an urban renewal district, the agency can use the power of eminent domain to force private owners to sell land to the agency in order to assemble smaller parcels of land into a large buildable lot. The BRA used eminent domain to acquire the land and buildings in Dudley Square that are now part of the Bruce Bolling Municipal Building. Urban renewal status also enables the BRA to clear titles for parcels of land. Because the city’s records of land ownership go back to the 17th century, it often can be difficult to establish who owns a particular piece of land. Title
clearance allows the BRA to take possession of unclaimed land and turn it over to developers. Zehngebot said the days of massive land takings are long gone. “The BRA is no longer in the business of taking land,” she said. “We’re in the business of disposing of land to incentivize development.” Despite Zehngebot’s assurances, Roxbury residents expressed deep misgivings about the extension of urban renewal designations. Roxbury resident Derrick Evans pointed out that the city’s renewed investment in Roxbury comes as many long-term Roxbury residents are being priced out of the neighborhood.
“We are looking at the largest socioeconomic and racial displacement of people of color in the last 50 years,” he said. “People are moving to Brockton, Fall River and elsewhere in New England where, frankly, there isn’t this level of capital investment. Now we’re at the point on history where the alarm clock has gone off. Where all these people [downtown] say Roxbury is ripe.” Evans echoed a refrain repeated by meeting participants last week, urging the BRA to “put people first.” “At the core, we’re trying to create spaces for people,” Zehngebot responded. “We have to ask, ‘How does this make a neighborhood better for people.’ ”
8 • Thursday, July 23, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER
BUSINESSNEWS Baking up business success CHECK OUT MORE BUSINESS NEWS ONLINE: BAYSTATEBANNER.COM/NEWS/NEWS/BUSINESS
Entrepreneur leaves marketing to open baking startup By MARTIN DESMARAIS Tia Jackson has been working her recipe for success with Tia’s Cakes & Pastries for a couple of years, but now her small business is really starting to rise. The 30-year-old Hyde Park resident has combined success in the baking industry with a knack for pleasing customers with custom cake designs, as well as pastries and cupcakes. Tia’s Cakes & Pastries specializes in the kind of cakes you can find at weddings or special events. The options are mouthwatering, from basic flavors such as vanilla and chocolate to her signature collection featuring chocolate caramel, pineapple guava and apple pie. Other pastry offerings range from pies, brownies, and cookies to dessert specialties such as cake pops, chocolate covered strawberries and cake jars. Many of the cake flavors can be packed into bite-sized morsels, alongside their bigger, cupcake brethren. Jackson, who grew up in Hyde Park and Dorchester and learned to bake watching her mother and grandmother in the kitchen, says that she bakes all her goods from scratch and that the collaborative customer approach she takes affects flavor, as well as look and design. She says her baking is inspired by the Southern and Caribbean flavors used by her mother, who grew up in South Carolina, and her grandmother, who is from Cuba. You would think that in the baking business, taste would triumph above all else, but Jackson said that with custom cakes, look and design often mean more. But not so with Tia’s Cakes & Pastries — she wants her customers to have their cake and eat it too. “It is hard to find a good bakery that makes things that look good and taste good. That is something that people are struggling to find,” Jackson added. While her passion for making the best baked goods is evident, Jackson credits the current growth of the business to her realization that even that wasn’t enough. She knew that people liked her baked goods, but she needed a better business plan to go to the next level. A 2008 graduate of Lasell College in Newton, Jackson studied fashion merchandising as an undergraduate, capping her Lasell studies with a master’s degree in marketing in 2009. After graduating, she put her marketing expertise to work with jobs at Catholic Charities, the town of Westwood and, most recently, Nizhoni Health Systems. Throughout that time, she also worked nights and weekends for an event planning company called One Life Events, eventually becoming certified as an international event and wedding planner. Her creative impulse found
See TIA’S CAKES, page 9
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BIZ BITS TIP OF THE WEEK
Social media and job-hunting Whether you are a recent graduate or a seasoned professional, at some point you’ll likely find yourself searching for a new job. And as you start your job search, it’s important to understand the impact your use of social media may have on your career. The hard truth: You can’t be too cautious when it comes to participating in social media. According to a CareerBuilder.com survey, 37 percent of employers check sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter in their research of candidates. And the employer scrutiny of social media takes on a whole new dimension for many once on the job as a growing number of employers are establishing policies about the use of social media on and off the clock for their employees. The clash between employee use of social media and employers has come to a head with the dramatic rise in the number of legal cases involving employees and their use of the Internet both on and off the job, according to FindLaw.com, the nation’s leading website for free legal information. “The photos and comments you post on social media websites can follow your career for years to come,” says Solomon Gresen, an employment law attorney with the Law Offices of Rheuban & Gresen in Los Angeles. “When you start posting online, you create a digital trail that’s available for all to see — including current and future employers. And, in many ways, what you post remains forever.” In one case, an employee was fired when she posted photos of herself dancing and throwing a Frisbee at a festival on her Facebook profile. Why? She was on a temporary leave and claimed she was in severe pain from an old back injury. — Brandpoint
BBB WATCH
PHOTOS: LUCAS MULDER
Tia Jackson founder and head chef of Tia’s Cakes & Pastries.
A scam email that orders recipients to appear in court has resurfaced. The Better Business Bureau is issuing an alert to consumers regarding spam emails that claim to come from local Court Systems. The emails generally have a subject heading with the recipient’s name and the title “Notice to Appear in Court.” The message states that they are to appear in court to answer to “unspecified” charges. The message may also instruct the recipients to bring documents and witnesses with them. They are warned that the case will proceed without them and that they may be sanctioned if they don’t appear. There is a supposed “court notice” attached to the email, which will likely download malware onto your computer if you click it. Once loaded onto your computer the malware can trick consumers into purchasing fake virus protection as well as find important personal information such as passwords and other personal or financial information. “Unless you have supplied the Clerk of the Courts with an email address, they would not use that method of contact,” said Steve J.Bernas president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau serving Chicago and Northern Illinois. “If you have any concerns about issues with the court, do not click on the attachment. Contact the Clerk’s Office directly.” Here are the red flags to look for in these types of emails: n There has been no U.S. mail correspondence n There is no court room number listed n The name does not appear in the email — BBB.org
22 • Thursday, July 2, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER
Thursday, July 23, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER • 9
BUSINESSNEWS CHECK OUT MORE BUSINESS NEWS ONLINE: BAYSTATEBANNER.COM/NEWS/NEWS/BUSINESS
Tia’s Cakes continued from page 8
expression as she started to experiment with cake making for One Life Events. In time, Jackson decided to focus on baking, in addition to her fulltime day job. In the summer of 2012, she posted an online picture of one of her cake creations and was surprised to get several inquiries about making another one. As the number of inquiries grew, her reputation did, as well. That’s when she realized there might be a business in cake making. “I just have kind of experimented as I went along and it has grown,” Jackson said. “My orders just kept increasing and increasing.” By late 2014, Jackson — also a mother of two young children — just didn’t have enough time to manage her baking business and a fulltime job. She also realized that working out of her home wasn’t enough to truly succeed.
Armed with a $5,000 microloan from Accion, an organization that lends to small business, she turned to CommonWealth Kitchen in Dorchester, a food startup incubator that provides small businesses with kitchen and refrigerator space that can be rented only when used. Jackson said that when she moved her baking operations there in February, her capacity to handle orders increased from roughly five to ten cakes per week. That’s what Tia’s Cakes & Pastries typically produces these days. In addition to space and materials, Jackson took advantage of the CommonWealth Kitchen’s educational offerings on topics such as writing a business plan and handling company finances. Her time there also has helped her develop a corporate catering business. She also was able to secure a deal with Savvor Restaurant and Lounge in Downtown Boston to provide selections for its dessert menu. Both her corporate
catering and restaurant business continues to grow. Last month Jackson made the biggest move of all. After securing another small business loan from Eastern Bank, she left her job at Nizhoni Health Systems to focus on her baking business fulltime. The loan provides her with the working capital to really have a go at it. Jackson is most encouraged by the growing corporate catering business. She hopes to expand into catering breakfast meetings by adding additional breakfast items to her menu, including pastries, muffins, scones and quiche. Down the road, Jackson also hopes to move on from CommonWealth Kitchen into a local storefront location. “This is just my stepping stone, because I do want to have a specialty bakery in the future,” she said. “I want to make it last. I want to make it work. But it is just perseverance and working to make happen. … I am excited for what is to come in the future.”
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10 • Thursday, July 23, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER
ARTS& ENTERTAINMENT FIND OUT WHAT’S HOT IN THE CITY THIS WEEKEND: BAYSTATEBANNER.COM/NEWS/ENTERTAINMENT — CLICK WHAT’S HOT IN THE CITY
Nnenna Freelon
returns home to perform at Cambridge Jazz Festival By COLETTE GREENSTEIN
I
t’s a homecoming of sorts for jazz singer Nnenna Freelon. The world-renowned composer, arranger, producer and actress, who was born and raised in Cambridge, performs at the second annual Cambridge Jazz Festival this Sunday, July 26 at University Park on Sidney Street, near MIT. The free music festival returns with a sizzling lineup that includes the Ron Savage Trio accompanying Freelon on stage, Latin percussionist Eguie Castrillo and the Latin Jazz Connection, jazz pianist Joanne Brackeen, the Laszlo Gardony Saxtet and The Tóth Brothers. A graduate of Simmons College, Freelon has toured with some of music’s greats, including Ray Charles, Al Jarreau, Aretha Franklin, Diana Krall, Herbie Hancock, George Benson and Earl Klugh. A television appearance on the program In Performance at the White House: Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz caught the eye of one of the producers of the AMC television hit Mad Men, which led to the appearance of one of her songs on that show. In 2012 Freelon had her first collaboration with legendary pianist Ramsey Lewis. The six-time Grammy nominee spoke to the Banner recently about her theatrical project The Clothesline Muse, set to perform at the 14th biennial National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on August 7 and 8. In the conversation, she talked about her passion for arts education and upcoming performance at the Cambridge Jazz Festival.
What was the inspiration for creating The Clothesline Muse? Nnenna Freelon: I think I can begin with my mother. She passed on in 2011. She lived all her adult life in Cambridge, and so her life story is my inspiration for The Clothesline Muse. We are in an era now called the information age and it seems we are more divided intergenerationally than ever. People are creating their own worlds through the social media and all the technology that we have available. We’re not talking to each other as much. We’re not sharing stories. The older generation — their stories, their trials, their tribulations, their glory, their grace — is not available in a way that
See FREELON, page 12
Nnenna Freelon PHOTO: JAG ENTERTAINMENT
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Floetry ‘Says Yes’ to reunion
R&B duo will perform at the Wilbur Theatre By COLETTE GREENSTEIN On July 24, fans once again can enjoy the art of the English neo soul duo Floetry, performing together after disbanding several years ago. That surely will please those who have connected to their music and experiences on deep and emotional levels. That bond was on display recently in a performance that seemingly transcended thunderstorms, as Floetry — a.k.a. Marsha Ambrosius and Natalie Stewart — closed out the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans over the Fourth of July weekend. Now in their early 30s, Stewart and Ambrosius created Floetic in 2002. That’s when Marsha Ambrosius (“the songstress”) and Natalie Stewart (“the floacist”) debuted their sultry R&B album Floetic. The album featured singles “Floetic,” “Say Yes” and “Getting Late,” and garnered the group four Grammy nominations, including one for Best Contemporary R&B album and one for Best R&B Performance By a Duo or Group with Vocal. In a recent chat with the Banner, Ambrosius recalls, “Nat and I were just saying, it was so long ago. We were 21 and 22, respectively, when we wrote these
See FLOETRY, page 12
IF YOU GO WHAT: Floetry WHERE: The Wilbur Theatre WHEN: Friday at 8 p.m. TICKETS: $39.50-$45.00 and are available at
The Wilbur box office by calling 617.248.9700 and online at www.ticketmaster.com.
PHOTO COURTESY THE WILBUR THEATRE
Floetry
Thursday, July 23, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER • 11
ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT CHECK OUT MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS ONLINE: BAYSTATEBANNER.COM/NEWS/ENTERTAINMENT
Cirque du Soleil brings ‘Varekai’ to Boston Circus troupe performed six shows at Agganis Arena By SUSAN SACCOCCIA Cirque du Soleil first brought its pioneering vein of circus arts enchantment from Québec to Boston in 1993. Under a big top, its international cast and animal-free circus offered astonishing aerial stunts, acrobatics and clowns, and a delicate, spellbinding beauty that held audiences in thrall. Since then, Cirque du Soleil, which started in the ‘80s as a band of 20 stilt-walking and juggling street performers, has grown into a global entertainment juggernaut reaching more than 40 countries. Its repertoire of shows suits varied settings—from big tops and resident venues (five in Las Vegas alone) to places such as the Agganis Arena at Boston University, where last Thursday through Sunday it performed six shows. The troupe restaged a 15-yearold production entitled “Varekai, Tales of the Forest” that is engineered to suit such a space, where seating for 7,200 accommodates a crowd almost threefold larger than an audience for big top shows. But bigger, as they say, is not always better. Instead of the nonstop wonders of smaller-scale shows, in this production, running about two hours with a 20-minute intermission, the pleasures peak in particular episodes, wherein the superb performers can engage the audience despite a barrage of high wattage sound and lights. “Varekai” has a story, but it is no more than a loose framework for the show: A young man, Icarus, in a white body suit and great white wings, descends from the ceiling onto a set that suggests Middle Earth, peopled by surreal, semi-human creatures that slither, hop and swing across the stage using mats, aerial devices and a ceiling-high web of trees. Like most Cirque du Soleil shows, “Varekai” is international in its circus art traditions, music and cast. With a cast of 50 from 19 countries, at its core, the show is a review. Icarus encounters a world of varied creatures, and the production sags or peaks with the intimacy and energy of each encounter. Meanwhile, an off-stage band of seven musicians perform the score, an eclectic mix of world music.
PHOTO: MARTIN GIRARD/SHOOTSTUDIO.CA
Cirque du Soleil performs with costumes by Eiko Ishioka. picked up by 16th-century Commedia dell’arte troupes and revived in our era by Nobel-winning Italian actor, playwright, director and set designer Dario Fo. High points in Icarus’s wanderings include a traditional martial arts dance by a trio of acrobats from the Republic of Georgia, an aerial duet by a pair of blackwigged gymnasts, a synchronized tumbling act by a five-member troupe from Japan, and Arisa Tanaka’s rotating sticks, which whirl like shooting sparks. The show’s clown couple also injects an enlivening human touch. Steven Bishop plays a debonair but hapless magician whose giddy partner (Emily Carragher), wearing a blond wig and short bouffant dress, scoops up a male audience member and puts him through a slapstick disappearing act. Even better, Bishop returns as a crooner running around to stay
in an ever-moving spotlight, even scaling the arena’s steep stairs, all the while mouthing a recording of a tender French ballad. Among the creatures Icarus meets is a girl who becomes his love interest, an encounter that precipitates the show’s two sublime solos. As the girl’s mother, Kerren Mckeeman gives her blessing on their union in an astonishing trapeze performance, at one point supporting her entire curved body by the back of her neck. Before the finale, a sort of wedding celebration in which an ensemble of 12 acrobats hurl themselves across the stage between two trampolines and pair in midair, Shenea Booth, as the bride, performs a solo. Balancing herself on a cane upside down as she shifts her weight and turns her legs from side to side, she fuses dance and acrobatics to perform a wordless aria of love.
“SHOCKING!” THE GUARDIAN
“GRIPPING!” BUZZFEED
“CHILLING!” GRANTLAND
SUMMERTIME FUN
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FAMILY NIGHTS
Sweet and saucy or hot and spicy, we have catering packages for every occasion, big and small. And we can serve them up with a side of live music to kick your summertime party up a notch.
SUNDAYS, TUESDAYS & WEDNESDAYS 5-7 PM · ALL JULY AND AUGUST CHILDREN UNDER 6 EAT FOR FREE! The adults can relax with our signature cocktails and southern inspired dishes, while the kids can choose Chicken Strips & Fries, Mac & Cheese or Pasta served with butter or marinara sauce.
BARBECUE TO GO 15+ Guests ($19.95/person*) Chicken, Ribs & Catfish Strips Includes Choice of 3 Sides: Collard Greens, Green Beans, Sweet Potatoes, Baked Macaroni & Cheese, Garden Salad, Red Beans & Rice or Black Eyed Peas & Rice and Corn Muffins *Delivery and service charges may apply
Dialect and aerial delight
Instead of an actual script, the cast often speaks in gibberish when they have something to say. The technique has its roots in the medieval practice known as “Grammelot,” used by traveling satirical troupes in Europe. Communicating by mime and a made-up language that mimicked a local dialect, they could insult corrupt politicians and clergy but evade censors. The technique was
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Q&A w/Lucia McBath, mother of Jordan Davis, on Sunday 7/26, after the 2pm show
the intersection of friends, food, and music
604 Columbus Avenue · Boston, MA 02118 617.536.1100 · DCBKBoston.com
12 • Thursday, July 23, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER
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ICA exhibit piques viewers’ imaginations Freelon
continued from page 10 it used to be when we relied on sharing. Clothesline Muse is at its heart a collection of stories. We’re using the clothesline itself as the inspiration. We’re “pinning up” stories on-line. The whole evening is an evening of stories and each article of clothing in the basket that my character Grandma Blu pulls out holds a story. My granddaughter Mary thinks everything she looks at is junk and not important, so she’s ready to cast away everything she sees. The evening is about packing and unpacking.
By SUSAN SACCOCCIA “Arlene Shechet: All at Once” is a captivating exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art/ Boston through Sept. 7 that unfolds as a series of surprises. At first glance, its introductory gallery does little to raise expectations. As if wandering into an elementary school art workshop, the visitor encounters a roomful of rough-hewn, white plaster figures. On the walls are framed blue and white works on paper that call to mind tie-dyed T-shirts from the ‘60s. But walk around and a sense of calm slowly grows as you view the plaster figures, Buddhas of various shapes and sizes mounted on a multi-tiered platform evoking a temple in a Himalayan hill town. The framed works become meditative tools too, mandalas with circular forms echoing the cycle of life, death and rebirth in Buddhist teaching. Each work on paper is a design for a stupa, a space for meditation. Inducing the visitor to walk around and view the various works, Shechet’s room-size installation itself is a stupa. Created between 1993 and 2000, these are early works in this loosely chronological 20-year oeuvre of Shechet, a New Yorkbased sculptor. They were inspired by the artist’s formative visit a decade earlier to 9th-century Buddhist temples in Indonesia. Organized by Jenelle Porter, ICA senior curator who also developed its catalog, the exhibition presents more than 150 objects that follow Shechet’s interwoven
Floetry
continued from page 10 songs. Now, having lived so much life in-between, it’s almost like we had crystal balls and we were talking to our future selves. I hadn’t really had a deeper relationship in Getting Late just yet, but having lived life and experienced it, it’s like ‘Wow, that absolutely has new meaning!’”
Organic realignment
In 2007 Ambrosius and Stewart parted ways, moving on
You’re a writer, a composer, and obviously a singer. You’re doing The Clothesline Muse. Are you looking forward to just singing when you come to the Cambridge Jazz Festival? PHOTO: CHARLES MAYER
Above, ICA/Boston installation view, of “Arlene Shechet: All at Once.” Below, a sculpture from the exhibit. turns her materials — plaster, glass, porcelain, paper pulp and clay — into solid objects. Improvisational in her approach, Shechet has over the past decade been drawn to clay, enjoying its responsiveness to hands-on kneading as a “mushy substance” before it hardens into an object.
Surface and soul interests and influences along with her exploration of Western and Eastern traditions. Shechet orchestrated the entire exhibition piece by piece and room by room, a form of installation art that invites visitors to share her discoveries as she
As visitors progress through the exhibition, the works trigger an ever-increasing sense of joy and lightness. Interested in shaping space as well as objects, Shechet allows ample room to move around the works and peer into their folds and curves. Mounting works on wood, metal, kiln bricks and other materials
to record solo albums. It wasn’t until December 2014 that the two briefly reunited when Ambrosius invited Stewart on stage to perform with her during a London concert. Ambrosius describes that moment as “amazing”. “It was really over the Christmas period, it was from there that we got back on stage. I knew how I felt. That’s been the part that has been second nature. We can get on stage and we can close our eyes and really know where we’re going musically. It’s that energy, that synergy that we
have through music.” Stewart adds to the sentiment. “With regards to Marsha and I being back on stage, it’s very natural. It’s a very natural alignment that Marsha and I have created. That’s probably because long before we were even doing Floetry, we were friends as kids growing up. We’ve known each [perhaps] double the time that people have known Floetry. It’s a very organic alignment.” That’s the chemistry that has fans excited about Floetry’s current reunion tour. “Being at
Coming to the CoffeeHouse: THU July 23 - Cafe Cypher featuring Natural Bliss and guest performers THU July 30 - Youth Again Mass Incarceration (YAMI) Presentation and discussion regarding solutions to Mass Incarceration Program starts at 7pm - Come Early for Dinner! Join us for the Third Annual Outdoor Community Tables on Saturday July 25 at 5pm! A Pay-What-You-Can outdoor feast!
of varied heights, the installation coaxes people to look up and down as well as walk around as they examine the sculptures. Shechet’s semi-abstract figures loosely resemble other things, conjuring both personal memories and shared histories. Her artmaking tools include not only physical materials but also words. Like whispered asides, her titles nudge associations and let a viewer in on the jokes. In the second gallery, a raised shelf displays rows of cast porcelain vases in varied shades of black and white. Entitled “Building” (2003), the installation, a 9/11 memorial, resembles a miniature city of cremation urns.
See SHECHET, page 13 Essence again, having done the simple lounges for that many years leading up to what was then our first main stage appearance, I think our only issue was trying to keep our set list to a strict 45 minutes at least,” says Ambrosius. “We’re used to doing close to two hours. Yet it still feels like no time at all [because] we have so much music. But it was so much fun to do, and the crowd was loving it. We had the crazy thunderstorm that day but it was a wonderful reception, very well-received. We were just having fun up there.”
Bill Blumenreich Presents
BILL BLUMENREICH PRESENTS
FLOETRY JULY 24
LAVELL CRAWFORD AUGUST 15
MICHAEL BLACKSON AUGUST 22
RAHEEM DEVAUGHN & LEELA JAMES OCT 21
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NF: [Laughs] Yes ma’am! Just one job, not 50. It’s a thrill to come home and support the second annual Jazz Festival. Ron Savage, one of the co-founders, is a long-time friend, and was in one of my very first touring bands when I was just a very, very inexperienced young singer way, way back in the day. It is such a thrill to be coming full circle and seeing him teaching at Berklee and running this Jazz Festival. It’s like, Who would have thought that many years ago that we would meet again in this kind of way? I’m thrilled.
You’ve been deeply involved in arts education. Why has it been so important to you? NF: My personal feeling is that an educated person is a person who’s educated in culture and in the arts. I don’t think you can divide education into neat little packages that say chemistry, biology, social sciences and leave the arts out. The arts are one of the places where we learn to create community, where we learn collaboration, not competition, where we learn blending and not sort of rising to the top without your partner. In choir that can be looked at as a thrill, as something you can do without. But the life skills that you learn in choir are life skills that you can apply to a variety of areas in your life, like concentration, collaboration, blending, sharing. Even the chutzpah to stand up and solo. That takes a lot of guts. Those life skills are applicable to whatever you do, whether you go on to become a singer as your primary career or not. So I think when we cut these things out of our educational diet, we starve the part of us that’s human, the part of us that can be compassionate. If we don’t teach creativity in school, I don’t know how the kids in school are going to get it.
JANE
IF YOU GO The Cambridge Jazz Festival returns for its second year at University Park Commons, Sidney Street, Cambridge MA. The free concert line-up will take place 12 noon-6 p.m. Sunday, July 26. For more information, visit www.cambridgejazzfestival.org.
ON THE WEB The Clothesline Muse:
http://theclotheslinemuse.com/ National Black Theater Festival:
www.nbtf.org/
APR
Thursday, July 23, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER • 13
Obama
continued from page 1 Obama told comedian Marc Maron that the United States still is “not cured” of racism. “It’s not just a matter of it not being polite to say nigger in public,” he said. “That’s not the measure of whether racism still exists or not. It’s not just a matter of overt discrimination. Societies don’t overnight completely erase everything that happened 200-300 years prior.” The following week, during his eulogy for the slain Charleston church pastor Clementa Pinckney, Obama spoke out against the Confederate flag. “Removing the flag from this state’s capitol would not be an act of political correctness; it would not be an insult to the valor of Confederate soldiers,” he said. “It would simply be an acknowledgment that the cause for which they fought — the cause of slavery — was wrong — the imposition of Jim Crow after the Civil War, the resistance to civil rights for all people was wrong.” Later in his sermon-like eulogy, the president broke into the spiritual Amazing Grace. With only a year and a half left in the White House, no more elections to win and growing national anger over violence against African Americans, Obama seems to be foregoing the cautiousness around race that marked his first six years in office.
More autonomy
Mark Anthony Neal, professor of African American Studies at Duke University, said that more than current events, it’s Obama’s new political reality that has allowed him to be so forthright. “There’s no
Shechet
continued from page 12 Sharing the gallery is a group of Shechet’s mouth-blown crystal works, stacked cylindrical vessels that resemble lanterns. Shechet made the first of these pieces in 2004. Then, turning to clay, she continued to explore breath as a tool to shape objects. In the next gallery, which extends the entire length of the ICA’s fourth floor exhibition space, 25 sculptures are on display. The first group suggest clouds, smoke and other airborne forms. Some are coated with thick, shimmering glazes. Apertures protrude, inviting closer inspection, along with shiny folds glistening with liquid-like pigment. Colors vary from unpainted surfaces to sunny, iridescent pastels laden with glitter. Textures, seldom smooth, may evoke volcanic lava or sea foam. Making the innards of her workmanship visible, Shechet works kiln bricks and other studio apparatus into her sculptures.
Shapes and icons
In later works, Shechet piles and wraps braided coils of clay into organic shapes. Some mimic natural elements, such as “Because of the Wind” (2010). Coated with a finish that resembles suede, its bundle of coils and pigment-speckled kiln bricks intertwine into a wind-swept figure. The flabby, flesh-toned “No Noise” (2013) resembles a bagpipe. Other works suggest cultural icons. Shechet’s tilting sculpture “My Balzac” (2010) parallels the backward-leaning 1898 bronze
question that the deaths in Charleston had a dramatic — if not traumatic — impact on the president that forced him to go some place he hadn’t gone before,” said Neal. “But also from a political standpoint, I imagine that at some point in the last six months — probably in the last six weeks — when the president woke up, he realized he wasn’t running for reelection again, that he wasn’t trying to keep the Senate or win the House anymore, and decided that he’s free.” In addition, said Neal, a string of recent political victories on all fronts — the Supreme Court upholding healthcare reform and affirming gay marriage, the Iran nuclear deal and Loretta Lynch’s confirmation as attorney general — has given Obama a new confidence to speak out on a variety of issues.
Sisters in the Brotherhood community service project
Forging consensus
In the same way, Neal said that Obama’s new outspokenness on race and criminal justice reform fits into a certain presidential politics. The cause of criminal justice reform is “not only something that he believes in and is passionate about, but is also something that can be a win for him because there’s already on-the-ground bipartisan support” from the Koch brothers and Newt Gingrich to the ACLU. Harvard’s Harris said that Obama’s latest comments on race, while bolder than the previous six years of his presidency, don’t necessarily represent new views. “He has a perspective on these issues that mirrors his time as a community organizer,” he said. “If you go back to his speech in Philadelphia before he was elected, and you look at his analysis of how we got to where we are, it’s a systemic analysis.” Harvard Law professor Charles
figure by Auguste Rodin of revered French novelist Honoré de Balzac. Exalting humble materials in her semi-abstract works, the exhibition also includes a gallery of framed bas-relief works in painted paper pulp, including the sublime “Worldview” (2012), a masterful mingling of color, texture and form. In a small side gallery resides an elegant salon that showcases works from Shechet’s yearlong residency at the Meissen Porcelain Manufactory in Germany. Founded in 1710, Meissen introduced lifelike porcelain to Europe and quickly gained renown for its baroque figurines and dinnerware. Just as Shechet deconstructs the elements of her studio process, inserting bricks, molds and studio flotsam into finished works, her Meissen projects turn the factory’s molds and shards into finished works. While flaunting an off-kilter free spirit, Shechet’s pieces are as highly refined as the historic originals also on display in the gallery. Ornate flowers and fragments cling like barnacles to her fantastical ivory vase. Feet painted with gilded flowers peak from an upside down ballerina’s skirt along with a flower, a snake and a bird. At the entrance to this jewel of a gallery, which gently spoofs the porcelain display rooms of 18th-century gentry, a 100-year-old black and white silent film shows costumed performers and their dog posing as figurines. Here and throughout the exhibition, Shechet’s works demonstrate that art gains life not as a static object but rather in the mingling of imaginations between artist and viewer.
PHOTO: TONY IRVING
Sisters in the Brotherhood conducted its first volunteer Women’s Carpentary Community Service project for the Hawthorne Youth Community Center in Roxbury. l to r: Barbara Surujbally, Liz Skidmore, Rohan Surujbally, Travis Anderson, Placetailor, Laura Boyce, Placetailor, Marcia Williams-White, Founder WCCS, Rosemary Boynton, Viviane Alemao.
Ogletree, who has known Obama since he was a law student, agreed that the last month has been about the president finally showing his true self. “His sermon in South Carolina was right on time,” said Ogletree. “He was saying what he has believed all along. Now he can open up and be free. That’s what 2015 and 2016 is all about: The real Barack Obama. Before he leaves the White House in 2016, we are expecting him to say the things he’s been talking about before he was elected.”
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Boston Water and Sewer Commission (BWSC) 980 Harrison Avenue Boston, MA 02119 WATER MAIN FLUSHING NOTICE
Boston Water and Sewer Commission will begin Water Main Flushing around the Roxbury and Dorchester area starting: July 27, 2015 through September 11, 2015 The boundaries for the areas being flushed are: Harrison Avenue and Interstate 93 to the north, Mount Vernon Street and Morrissey Blvd to the east, Dorchester Avenue and Parkman Street to the south and Dudley Street and Stoughton Street to the west. The purpose of the Water Main Flushing Program is to improve drinking water quality for residents and businesses. Water Main flushing will take place between the hours of
10:00 P.M. and 6:00 A.M.
The flushing process may cause discolored water and a reduction in pressure. The discoloration of the water will be temporary and is not harmful. If the condition persists, please contact BWSC’s 24 Hour Service at (617) 989-7000. BWSC appreciates your patience as we work to improve the quality of drinking water we will provide to the residents and businesses of Boston. If you have any questions, contact BWSC’s Night Operations Manager at (617) 989-7000 or visit our website @ www.bwsc.org.
14 • Thursday, July 23, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER 14 • Thursday, July 23, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER
BANNER CLASSIFIEDS ON THE WEB Lewis REAL ESTATE continued from page 1
say the companion bills in the House and Senate target “voting practices known to suppress the voting rights of minorities and the disabled.” In North Carolina, the U.S. Justice Department is suing the state over broad election changes passed two years ago. A key provision of that law narrowed the early voting period, which had resulted in a surge of minority voters. The outcome of the federal case now underway in North Carolina could impact voting rights across the country — particularly in light of the 2016 presidential election. In conversation with Boston Globe columnist Adrian Walker at the EMK Institute, Lewis said if the feds lose the case in North Carolina, it could go back to the Supreme Court. He noted that supporters of the new congressional voting rights bill will meet in early August in Atlanta
Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate
www.emkinstitute.org to strategize ways to move the new legislation forward. For Lewis, this is the latest round in the fight for voting rights. He was among some 600 civil rights marchers beaten on “Bloody Sunday,” March 7, 1965 at the Edmund Pettus Bridge as they tried to make their way from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, demonstrating for voting rights. At that bridge, state and local lawmen attacked them with billy clubs, tear gas and dogs, driving them back to Selma. Two days later, Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. led a “symbolic” march to the bridge. Then the civil rights leaders got a court order allowing them to march. On Sunday, March 21, some 3,200 marchers set out for Montgomery. By the
time they reached Montgomery on Thursday, March 25, Lewis said, the marchers were 35,000 strong. A few months later in August, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law. Lewis commended the late Senator Edward Kennedy for supporting the bill. Visitors to the new EMK Institute at Harbor Point will see the written roll call of the senate vote on the legislation with the signatures of both Senators Edward and Robert Kennedy. Among those listening to Lewis were students from several Boston public schools including NAACP summer interns, UMass Boston Project Reach, Upward Bound and Urban Scholars. For those young people sitting in the EMK Institute’s stunning replica of the U.S. Senate Chamber, Lewis’ story was both an inspiring history lesson and a cautionary tale about the importance of the ongoing struggle for civil rights.
REAL ESTATE
Festival Betances inREAL the South End ESTATE
MAYOR’S OFFICE PHOTO BY DON HARNEY
Inquilinos Boricuas en Accion Executive Director Vanessa Calderon Rosado, City Councilor Bill Lineha, Health and Human Services Chief Felix G. Arroyo, Mayor Martin Walsh and Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkins celebrate Festival Betances, along with residents of the South End walking in a parade through the neighborhood.
BANNER CLASSIFIEDS HELP LEGAL WANTED MASSACHUSETTS PORT AUTHORITY NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS
HELP LEGAL WANTED
HELP LEGAL WANTED
from the Capital Programs Department Office at the Massachusetts Port Authority. The right is reserved to waive any informality in or reject any or all proposals.
NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS CLASSIFIED LEGAL ADVERTISEMENT COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS EXECUTIVE OFFICE FOR ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE DIVISION OF CAPITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT & MAINTENANCE (DCAMM)
Sealed General Bids for MPA Contract No. AP1530-C1, FY15-17 AUTHORITYWIDE TERM DOOR REPLACEMENT, BOSTON, BEDFORD AND WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS will be received by the Massachusetts Port Authority at the Capital Programs Department Office, Suite 209S, Logan Office Center, One Harborside Drive, East Boston, Massachusetts 02128-2909, until 11:00 A.M. local time on WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2015 immediately after which, in a designated room, the bids will be opened and read publicly.
MASSACHUSETTS PORT AUTHORITY THOMAS P. GLYNN CEO & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
NOTE: PRE BID CONFERENCE WILL BE HELD AT THE CAPITAL PROGRAMS DEPARTMENT (ABOVE ADDRESS) AT 11:00 A.M. LOCAL TIME ON TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2015.
The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority is seeking bids for the following:
Sealed proposals submitted on a form furnished by the Division of Capital Asset Management & Maintenance (DCAMM) and clearly identified as a bid, endorsed with the name and address of the bidder, the project and contract number, will be received at the Division of Capital Asset Management & Maintenance, One Ashburton Place, 1st Floor, Room 107, Boston, MA 02108, no later than the date and time specified and will forthwith be publicly opened and read aloud.
BID NO.
DESCRIPTION
TIME
General Bids at 2:00 PM:
The work includes PROVISION OF ALL EQUIPMENT, MATERIALS, LABOR AND SUPERVISION NECESSARY TO REPLACE MANUAL PASSAGE DOORS AT ALL MASSACHUSETTS PORT AUTHORITY FACILITIES ON AN AS NEEDED BASIS OVER A TWO (2) YEAR PERIOD.
*WRA-4075
Purchase of One – 50 HP, 509 8/3/15 Frame Motor, & One – 400 HP, 5011 Frame Motor for Nut Island Odor Control
11:00 a.m.
Every General Bidder must be certified by the Division of Capital Asset Management & Maintenance for the category of work and for no less than the bid price plus all add alternates of this project.
*WRA-4072
One Year Contract for Supply 8/5/15 and Delivery of HydroFluorosilicic acid for the John J. Carroll Water Treatment Plant
3:30 p.m.
This project bid in accordance with M.G.L. Chapter 30 Section 39M.
Provide all labor and equipment 8/7/15 to perform exterior cleaning services for a two million gallon water storage tank at the Deer Island Treatment Plant
3:00 p.m.
Bid documents will be made available beginning THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2015. Bid Documents in electronic format may be obtained free of charge at the Authority’s Capital Programs Department Office, together with any addenda or amendments, which the Authority may issue and a printed copy of the Proposal form. In order to be eligible and responsible to bid on this contract General Bidders must submit with their bid a current Certificate of Eligibility issued by the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance and an Update Statement. The General Bidder must be certified in the category of DOORS AND WINDOWS. The estimated contract cost is ONE HUNDRED SEVENTYFIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS ($175,000). Bidding procedures and award of the contract and sub contracts shall be in accordance with the provisions of Sections 44A through 44J inclusive, Chapter 149 of the General Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A proposal guaranty shall be submitted with each General Bid consisting of a bid deposit for five (5) percent of the value of the bid; when sub bids are required, each must be accompanied by a deposit equal to five (5) percent of the sub bid amount, in the form of a bid bond, or cash, or a certified check, or a treasurer’s or a cashier’s check issued by a responsible bank or trust company, payable to the Massachusetts Port Authority in the name of which the Contract for the work is to be executed. The bid deposit shall be (a) in a form satisfactory to the Authority, (b) with a surety company qualified to do business in the Commonwealth and satisfactory to the Authority, and (c) conditioned upon the faithful performance by the principal of the agreements contained in the bid. The successful Bidder will be required to furnish a performance bond and a labor and materials payment bond, each in an amount equal to 100% of the Contract price. The surety shall be a surety company or securities satisfactory to the Authority. Attention is called to the minimum rate of wages to be paid on the work as determined under the provisions of Chapter 149, Massachusetts General Laws, Section 26 to 27G, inclusive, as amended. The Contractor will be required to pay minimum wages in accordance with the schedules listed in Division II, Special Provisions of the Specifications, which wage rates have been predetermined by the U. S. Secretary of Labor and / or the Commissioner of Labor and Industries of Massachusetts, whichever is greater. The successful Bidder will be required to purchase and maintain Bodily Injury Liability Insurance and Property Damage Liability Insurance for a combined single limit of $1,000,000. Said policy shall be on an occurrence basis and the Authority shall be included as an Additional Insured. See the insurance sections of Division I, General Requirements and Division II, Special Provisions for complete details. No filed sub bids will be required for this contract. This Contract is also subject to Affirmative Action requirements of the Massachusetts Port Authority contained in the Non Discrimination and Affirmative Action article of Division I, General Requirements and Covenants, and to the Secretary of Labor’s Requirement for Affirmative Action to Ensure Equal Opportunity and the Standard Federal Equal Opportunity Construction Contract Specifications (Executive Order 11246). The General Contractor is required to submit a Certification of Non Segregated Facilities prior to award of the Contract, and to notify prospective subcontractors of the requirement for such certification where the subcontract exceeds $10,000. Complete information and authorization to view the site may be obtained
INVITATION TO BID
*WRA-4073
DATE
Mass. State Project No.
*To access and bid please go to the MWRA supplier Portal at www.mwra.com. MASSACHUSETTS BAY TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY 100 SUMMER ST., SUITE 1200 BOSTON, MA 02110 NOTICE TO BIDDERS Electronic proposals for the following project will be received through the internet using Bid Express until the date and time stated below, and will be posted on www.bidx.com forthwith after the bid submission deadline. No paper copies of bids will be accepted. Bidders must have a valid digital ID issued by the Authority in order to bid on projects. Bidders need to apply for a digital ID with Bid Express at least 14 days prior to a scheduled bid opening date. Electronic bids for MBTA Contract No. R20CN01, WORK PLATFORMS FOR RIVERSIDE CARHOUSE, Newton, Massachusetts (CLASS 1, GENERAL TRANSIT CONSTRUCTION AND PROJECT VALUE - $2,730,630.00), can be submitted at www.bidx.com until two o’clock (2:00 p.m.) on August 20, 2015. Immediately thereafter, in a designated room, the Bids will be opened and read publicly. Work consists of: Four work platforms (with associated structural supports, fire protection, lighting, power, and compressed air), toilet room renovations, HPCU room ventilation, and various other associated items of work This Contract is subject to a financial assistance Contract between the MBTA and the Federal Transit Administration of U.S. Department of Transportation. FTA Participation – 20 percent. Bidders’ attention is directed to Appendix 1, Notice of Requirement for Affirmative Action to Insure Equal Employment Opportunity; and to Appendix 2, Supplemental Equal Employment Opportunity, Anti-Discrimination, and Affirmative Action Program in the specifications. In addition, pursuant to the requirements of Appendix 3, Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Participation Provision, Bidders must submit an assurance with their Bids that they will make sufficient and reasonable efforts to meet the stated DBE goal of 10 percent. Additional information and instructions on how to submit a bid are available at http://www.mbta.com/business_center/bidding_solicitations/cur rent_solicitations/ On behalf of the MBTA, thank you for your time and interest in responding to this Notice to Bidders Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Francis A. DePaola, P.E. Interim General Manager of the MBTA July 20, 2015
AUGUST 13, 2015
DDS1405 Contract No. HC2
Utility Cut & Cap – Fernald Development Center Waltham, Massachusetts E.C.C: $558,297 This project is scheduled for 60 calendar days to substantial completion and in general includes: The project consists of cutting and capping of sewage and potable water mains. And installation of sections of potable water mains and appertenances. The pre-bid meeting will be held on Thursday, July 30, 2015 @12:00 pm at Fernald Development Center, Administration Building Lobby, 200 Trapelo Road, Waltham, MA. Minimum rates of wages to be paid on the project have been determined by the Director of the Department of Labor Standards under the provisions of the Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 149, Sections 26 to 27H. Wage rates are listed in the contract form portion of specification book. Each general bid proposal must be secured by an accompanying deposit of 5% of the total bid amount, including all alternates, in the form of a bid bond, in cash, a certified, treasurer’s, or cashier’s check issued by a responsible bank or trust company made payable to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The bidding documents may be examined at the Division of Capital Asset Management & Maintenance Bid Room, One Ashburton Place, 1st Floor, Room 107, Boston, MA 02108 Tel (617) 727-4003. Copies may be obtained by depositing a company check, treasurer’s check, cashier’s check, bank check or money order in the sum of $50.00 payable to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. No personal checks or cash will be accepted as deposits. Refunds will be made to those returning the documents in satisfactory condition on or before AUGUST 27, 2015 (ten business days after the opening of General Bids) otherwise the deposit shall be the property of the Commonwealth. WE DO NOT MAIL PLANS AND SPECIFICATIONS. Messenger and other type of pick-up and delivery services are the agents of the bidder and the Division of Capital Asset Management & Maintenance assumes no responsibility for delivery or receipt of the documents. Bidders are encouraged to take advantage of a rotating credit plans and specifications deposit program initiated by the Division of Capital Asset Management & Maintenance to encourage the easy accessibility of documents to contractors. Carol W. Gladstone COMMISSIONER
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Thursday, July 23, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER • 15
BANNER CLASSIFIEDS
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Framingham Affordable Housing Two 3 Bedroom Attached Condos Price: $190,400
Clark’s Hill Village Clarks Hill Lane Public Information Meeting 6:30 p.m., Monday, August 10, 2015 Framingham Town Hall Ablondi Room Application Deadline September 10, 2015
MAX INCOME 1—$48,800 2—$55,800 3—$62,750
4—$69,700 5—$75,300 6—$80,900
Assets to $75,000 Units by lottery
For Info and Application: Pick Up: Framingham Town Hall, Board of Selectmens Office or Public Lib. Phone: (978) 456-8388 Email: lotteryinfo@mcohousingservices.com
Open House Saturday August 29, 2015 11:00—1:00 Unit 4
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91 Clay Street Quincy, MA 02170
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A senior/disabled/ handicapped community 0 BR units = $1,027/mo 1 BR units = $1,101/mo All utilities included.
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Services, Health Insurance Customer Service & Medical Office jobs.
Application available online at: www.mcohousingservices.com
Attractive and Affordable This beautiful privately owned apartment complex with subsidized units for elderly and disabled individuals is just minutes from downtown Melrose. Close to Public Transportation • Elevator Access to All Floors • On Site Laundry Facilities Heat Included • 24 Hour Closed Circuit Television • On Site Parking Excellent Closet and Storage Space • 24 Hour Maintenance Availability On site Management Office • Monthly Newsletter • Weekly Videos on Big Screen T.V. Resident Computer Room • Bus Trips • Resident Garden Plots
Call for current income guidelines Joseph T. Cefalo Memorial Complex
245 West Wyoming Avenue, Melrose, MA 02176 Call our Office at (781) 662-0223 or TDD: (800) 545-1833, ext. 131 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday through Friday for an application
Affordable Rental Housing Opportunity / Selection by Lottery - 1 , 2 & 3 Bedroom Apts.
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Work in hospitals, colleges, insurance agencies, banks, businesses, government offices, health insurance call centers, and more! YMCA Training, Inc. is recruiting training candidates now! We will help you apply for free training. Job placement assistance provided. No prior experience necessary, but must have HS diploma or GED. Free YMCA membership for you and your family while enrolled in YMCA Training, Inc.
Call today to schedule an Information Session: 617-542-1800
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.
Join the team at Boston’s premier youth writing center! 826 Boston seeks a highly organized relationship builder for a full-time Volunteer Manager and a skilled writing instructor for a full-time In-School Programs Manager. Visit 826boston.org for further details and to apply online. Application deadline: August 15, 2015. Questions? Get in touch - hiring@826boston.org.
call (617) 261-4600 • baystatebanner.com
850 State Rd., Dartmouth, MA 02747
Rents*: # of Program Type Type Apts. Rents 60% $612 1BR 4 Applications pick-up from Southworth 30% $276 Library, 732 Dartmouth St.; N. Dartmouth 1BR 1 1BR 3 PBV Rent** 30% CBH** Library, 1383 Tucker Rd.; Town Clerk’s 60% $722 Office, Town Hall, Rm 203, 400 Slocum Rd.; 2BR 24 60% $824 3BR 4 Online PeabodyProperties.com; or by phone 781.794.1000
HELP WANTED FULL-TIME PEER ADVOCATE
Heat & Hot Water Included
Info Session: 7/29/15 - 4 & 6PM Lottery Drawing - 9/17/15 - 11AM Both events held at Rachel’s Lakeside 950 State Rd., Dartmouth
HELP WANTED
Wollaston Manor
Two Bedrooms Starting at $2200 888-842-7945
**Rent share determined by PHA based on income of applicant. Applicants for CBH units also require MRC certification.
Income Limits (as of 3/6/15)*: 30% AMI 60% AMI Mail completed application to: Peabody #HH 1 $13,000 $26,040 Properties, c/o LP Lottery, 536 Granite 2 $15,930 $29,760 St., Braintree, MA 02184; or email to 3 $20,090 $33,480 lincolnpark@peabodyproperties.com; 4 $24,250 $37,140 or fax: 781.794.1001 5 $28,410 $40,140 Deadline: Postmarked by 9/8/15 6 $32,570 $43,140 *Rents & income limits based on HUD guidelines & subject to change. Please inquire in advance for reasonable accommodation. Info contained herein subject to change w/o notice.
ADVERTISE YOUR CLASSIFIEDS (617) 261-4600 x 7799 • ads@bannerpub.com Find rate information at www.baystatebanner.com/advertise
DEPUTY DIRECTOR SOUGHT Metro West Collaborative Development (Metro West CD) seeks a Deputy Director. S/he will work closely with the Executive Director to: grow the organization, develop an affordable housing project pipeline, implement real estate development projects, and support community partners’ initiatives to improve neighborhoods and to strengthen communities and the region. Metro West CD was formed in 1991 to address the shrinking supply of affordable housing in communities west of Boston. Our ideal candidate will be passionate about affordable housing in smaller and suburban communities, and interested in growing with a regional scale nonprofit. S/he will be a hands-on team player who brings experience in community development, non-profit management or community organizing. See www. metrowestcd.org. Submit a cover letter along with a resume to: Ann L Silverman Consulting, MetroWestDeputyDirector@gmail. com. No phone calls or letters please. Metro West CD is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer.
The EVA Center, designed to assist women in exiting out of commercial sexual exploitation (prostitution, trafficking), is looking for survivors with knowledge and experience in advocacy to become part of our growing team and further our mission of ending sexual exploitation. Since 2006 we have worked with hundreds of women, offering comprehensive, holistic services, information and resources. We are a growing program in the process of merging with Casa Myrna Vazquez, an organization working to end domestic violence. Survivor advocates are a vital component of our program and essential in developing needed policies combating trafficking and all forms of exploitation. Advocates will be responsible for working directly with women, providing peer support and assisting them in developing their own exit plans. This position is based out of the Family Justice Center of Boston but will require local travel and some evenings and weekends. Qualified candidates should have an understanding of women’s issues within a human rights based and social justice framework. To apply please send a resume and a cover letter explaining your interest in being part of this project to: cherie@evacenter.org
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Thursday, July 23, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER • 16
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The French Cultural Center’s Bastille Day Party returned to Marlborough Street on Friday, July 10th and transported the area to Paris with authentic music, food, drinks and atmosphere. Bastille Day, France’s national holiday, commemorates the storming of the Bastille prison during the French Revolution of 1789. This year’s 40th anniversary celebration was completely sold out with over 2,000 tickets sold. The line-up, programmed by World Music/ CRASHarts, showcased two stellar francophone acts: Paris Combo, a piquant Parisian band mixing French pop, jazz, cabaret, gypsy, Latino and Middle Eastern rhythms and The Hot Sardines, a Franco-American sensation with dazzling and inventive sounds who will electrify the crowds with their hot jazz.
Clockwise, from top: Roxbury residents Mark Schafer and Marjorie Salvodon, with daughter Marie-Carmel Schafer, celebrate the 40th annual Bastille Day bloc party, hosted by the French Cultural Center on Marlborough Street last Friday night, July 10th.; Doug Harris looking the part; Checking out the photo booth are, (l to r) Manal Qureshi, Sara Awan, Neishay Ayub, and Mariya Qureshi; Natalie Gardiner & John Hambright, dancing on the sidewalk; From Les Zigomates restaurant, (l to r) Chef Andres Correa, Melissa Latta, Baily Reynolds, and Sydney Eastman; More stripes…Tom Rising & Andrea Saksek; Celine Schillinger, Alexandra Rosenfeld, Heather Hagerty, and Ginger Dagli; French Cultural Center’s president and executive director Catheline van den Branden poses with chanteuse Belle du Berry, lead singer for the popular band “Paris Combo,” that headlined the Bastille Day Party.; Bastille Day Party volunteers Michelle Cheung & Mithu Lahiri. PHOTOS BY ROGER FARRINGTON EVENT PHOTOGRAPHY