Bay State Banner 11-28-13

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Trayvon Martin’s mother visits Cambridge for forum..................pg. 3

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Senate votes to hike minimum wage to $11 Yawu Miller

more important, however, is what it means for the more than With labor activists planning 500,000 workers and their famia ballot referendum to raise the lies who would see their wages go state’s minimum wage underway, up under this change.” the state Senate passed a bill that Massachusetts business leadwould raise minimum wage from ers have indicated they would the current $8 an hour to $11 by not oppose a bill increasing the 2016. minimum wage if the legislation Speaker Robert DeLeo indi- includes reforms to the state’s uncated that the House would likely employment insurance system, support and increase in the mini- which is one of the most expensive mum wage, telling reporters that in the country. legislators will likely tie a wage DeLeo told reporters the hike to reforms to the state’s un- House will likely take up the employment insurance program. issue, when the legislative sesWith the sion resumes prospect of an in January. increase likely, House Ma“Research shows minimum jority Whip w a g e w o r k - the benefits to our Byron Rushers in Massaing says he’s communities and chusetts may confident the likely see the businesses that come Legislature can first increase with a restored come up with in wages since a compromise 2008. The $11 minimum wage, as that’s acceptwage proposed more money enters able to business

by Senate Presleaders. ident Therese our local economy.”

“I have no Murray would doubt that — Sonia there are ways boost the yearly earnings Chang-Diaz we can tighten of minimum up unemploywage workers m e n t i n s u rfrom the current $16,000 a year to ance,” he commented. $22,000. Murray’s bill would also Under the state’s current unindex minimum wage to inflation, employment insurance system, guaranteeing automatic raises. workers are eligible to collect inSecond Suffolk District Sen. surance after they’ve worked 15 Sonia Chang-Diaz, who has con- weeks. In most states, workers sistently sponsored legislation to can only collect after 20 weeks. raise the minimum wage, said the The state also pays benefits to the increase would benefit communi- unemployed for 30 weeks. Most ties across Massachusetts. other states cut off benefits after “Research shows the benefits 26 weeks. to our communities and busiBecause the cost of living — nesses that come with a restored rent, utilities, food, consumer minimum wage, as more money goods — is constantly increasenters our local economy,” she ing, the value of the minimum Wage, continued to page 14 said in a press statement. “Far

Mayor-elect Marty Walsh has proposed a “Fourteen-Point Plan for Economic Development in Boston” that includes large changes to the Boston Redevelopment Authority, including the creation of a Boston Economic Development Authority. (Yawu Miller photo)

BRA on the chopping block; Walsh’s plans critical to city Martin Desmarais Mayor-elect Marty Walsh says he will make sweeping changes to the Boston Redevelopment Authority, moving development planning to a separate agency and making the development process more transparent and accountable to neighborhood residents.

The changes are at the heart of Walsh’s “Fourteen-Point Plan for Economic Development in Boston,” which would restructure the BRA for the first time in more than 50 years.

The highlights of Walsh’s plan include the creation of the Boston Economic Development Authority, an entity sep-

arate from the BRA that would be responsible for planning, research. The new agency would have its own manager and board and be subject to oversight by the Boston City Council.

Boston City Councilor Felix Arroyo, a co-chairman of Walsh’s transition team, said he wholly supports the mayor-elect’s call for more transparency in the development process.

“What comes up from residents and developers is the same and that is more transparency,” Arroyo told the Banner. “Everyone wants to be very clear about the process and what it takes.”

A key step toward greater transparency is a requirement

that the BRA give greater explanation of why decisions are made and make sure that all projects that are approved are done so based on merit, Arroyo said.

“Right now, frankly, it feels like it isn’t clear what the community process always is and how much input the community has on a project,” he said.

From a developer’s perspective, according to Arroyo, the feeling is the process of getting a project done from start to finish is not clear and they do not have confidence in exactly what they have to do to make sure their proposals become a reality.

While Walsh’s call for separating BRA, continued to page 7

First in the nation: memorial, park honor Puerto Rican veterans Yawu Miller

The bronze monument unveiled in the South End, depicting male and female Puerto Rican soldiers, is the first in the nation dedicated to Puerto Rican soldiers. (Yawu Miller photo)

When the curtain came off the nation’s first-ever memorial to Puerto Rican veterans, it was the culmination of 14 years of effort by a pair of Vietnam veterans determined to see their fellow soldiers honored for their service to their country.

Puerto Rican community members, veterans and elected officials turned out last week for the unveiling of the 15-foot tall bronze monument in the newly-named Puerto Rican Veterans Park at West

Happy Holidays!

Dedham and Washington streets in the in South End. “Today is a great day for Puerto Ricans in the city of Boston,” said state Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez. “It’s a day when we can celebrate who we are.”

The effort to construct the monument began in earnest in 1999, after Vietnam veterans Tony Molina and Jaime Rodriguez secured the triangular plot of land from the city and installed a plaque honoring the 65th Regiment, a Puerto Rican force that Memorial, continued to page 13

2 • Thursday, November 28, 2013 • BAY STATE BANNER

Relocated to Maine, Somalis farm to support community Laura McCandlish When a persistent infection put farmer Batula Ismail in and out of the hospital this summer, her rows of carrots became consumed with weeds. In another town, her plot might have stayed that way. But Ismail farms collectively with more than a dozen recent Somali Bantu immigrants in Lewiston, Maine.

And her colleagues put off their own needy fields to crouch down together and hand-weed

city. That they’ve come to embrace farming as exalted work is significant, given the ethnic minority’s history. Farming was about the last thing Somali Bantus expected to do after fleeing their country, which collapsed into civil war in 1991 — especially in the U.S., where some 13,000 of them were resettled from Kenyan refugee camps by 2007.

For 200 years, the Bantus had toiled as subsistence farmers along the fertile floodplains of the Juba Valley in Somalia, where they had

“We have a wave of people coming to Maine, with a history in farming, who really see farming as a way to make a home here and a way to give back to the place that’s been able to welcome them.”

— Daniel Ungier until Ismail’s frilly carrot tops emerged. As Ismail convalesced, her eldest daughter, a new mother herself, assumed daily farm tasks while Ismail’s eldest son delivered her Community Supported Agriculture shares and manned her farmers’ market booths.

Ismail and her fellow Somali Bantu refugees refused to let the weeds overtake their hard-won fields near the blue-collar town of Lewiston, Maine’s second largest

been brought as slaves from Tanzania, Mozambique and Malawi.

“In Somalia, farming is lowcaste,” says Daniel Van Lehman, a Bantu expert who worked as a U.N. field officer in the Kenyan refugee camps and assisted early U.S. efforts to resettle the persecuted group here. “It’s like the untouchables in India — oh, let the Bantus do the farming. They did it because they had to. They were forced to do it by the Omanis, by

the Italians, by the nomadic ruling Somalis and they’re forced to do it again today by the Al-Shabab warlords.”

In Maine, however, Ismail and her fellow refugees found farmers revered as community pillars.

Ismail, who is around 42 (Somali Bantus don’t traditionally track their age or date of birth) is a grandmother of six and single mother of nine.

She came to Maine, by way of Baltimore, alone, as resettlement terms separated her from her husband, who had three other wives.

Others flocked here from Atlanta, Dallas and Syracuse, drawn by affordable housing, good schools and, importantly, access to land.

Now Somali Bantus farm and garden around the country, but perhaps nowhere as intensively as in Maine, where one of the greatest concentrations of Somalis — roughly 5,000 (about 1,500 Bantus) — resettled in Lewiston housing projects and abandoned multiplexes.

Even in a patriarchal, polygynous culture, Bantu women had long farmed in Somalia. They often controlled their own fields, accessed through landowning sons or husbands. But what is revolutionary now, here in the U.S., says Colby College anthropologist Catherine Besteman, is for such a low-income population to consume such an abundance of fresh vegetables they grew them-

Maine’s New America Sustainable Agriculture Project has helped nearly 100 recent immigrants grow from community gardeners into managers of a 30-acre incubator on a land trust-protected, 400-acre family farm. (Amy Temple photo) selves, since the health of refugees generally declines under the influence of cheap fast food.

Resettlement agencies gradually realized farming could help these otherwise low-skilled refugees (who didn’t know how to drive and lacked literacy even in their native dialects) learn some English while improving their physical and mental health.

There’s now a whole resettlement movement focused on agriculture, with scores of programs around the country since the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement started funding such efforts in 1998. In 2004, the USDA signed a joint memorandum to significantly fund these programs (though money for such beginning and socially-disadvantaged farmers lapsed when the Farm Bill expired last fall).

And in Maine, women such as Ismail — who, unlike men, lacked job options outside the home — were among the first to enlist.

Maine’s New America Sustainable Agriculture Project, or NASAP, is a movement leader.

Conceived in 2002, they have helped nearly 100 recent immigrants (primarily Somali Bantu but also South Sudanese, Guatemalan and Mexican) grow from community gardeners into managers of a 30-acre incubator on a land trust-protected, 400-acre family farm. The scope broadened in 2009, when NASAP merged with Portland youth gardening nonprofit Cultivating Community.

The farmers, who collaboratively market as Fresh Start Farms, sold more than $150,000 of produce this season to 300 CSA customers, at 20 Maine farmers’ markets and to several restaurants. As the first group of farmers — nine of them, including Ismail — graduate from the program this fall, they’ll still lease land together and receive technical and business support.

“It’s really a great resource for people to be in a community of other farmers,” says NASAP director Daniel Ungier. “We try to be aware of the fact that sustainable agriculture is moving towards

‘interdependence.’ We don’t want to push them in the opposite direction by asking people to do it on their own.”

A decade ago, no one could have anticipated the rock star treatment the farmers received at their recent graduation, which took place in a repurposed Portland church. The standing roomonly crowd of 150 included young girls sporting jaunty headscarves, art school hipsters and graying retirees.

Cultivating Community was selling its new locally-designed “Beyond the Vegetable” cookbook, featuring photographer Amy Temple’s vivid color portraits and recipes for farmer Hawa Ibrahim’s stewed spinach and green beans, farmer Seynab Ali’s sambusas and her son Hussein Muktar’s collards with onions and tomatoes.

The Somali women hung back as one of their male compatriots took to the stage, telling his migration story through Muktar, the farm’s translator, who mastered English attending school in the refugee camps. “We’re so proud to be here,” Muktar relays. “We couldn’t have this opportunity without your support, and we appreciate it.”

Agriculture in Maine is at a crossroads. Some 250,000 acres of farmland could change hands as aging farmers retire in the coming decade. The graduating class makes space for 50 new farmers at Cultivating Community. Many, including recent Congolese refugees, desire land to plant African crops such as amaranth leaves, spinach-like molokia and, especially, their beloved staple dried corn.

“There’s so much energy and enthusiasm around local agriculture, but there’s going to be a big change, too,” Ungier said at the graduation. “We’re so fortunate that we have a wave of people coming to Maine, with a history in farming, who really see farming as a way to make a home here and a way to give back to the place that’s been able to welcome them.”

New American Media

Thursday, November 28, 2013 • BAY STATE BANNER • 3

Trayvon Martin’s mother visits Cambridge for forum

(l-r) Harvard Law School Professor Charles Ogletree, Trayvon Martin’s mother Sybrina Fulton and Martin family attorney Daryl D. Parks talk at a Nov. 17 forum on Martin’s case at the St. Paul African Methodist Church in Cambridge. (Bobby Shakes photo) Shanice Maxwell Issues of racial profiling and violence against black youth were front and center in a recent Cambridge forum with the mother of shooting victim Trayvon Martin and her attorney at St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church.

The event, which was attended by 200 people, included Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin’s mother and Daryl D. Parks, the Martin family attorney, and was moderated by Professor Charles Ogletree of Harvard Law School and executive director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice.

Organized by the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute, the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal

Church and the Cambridge Black Pastor’s Alliance, the goal of the forum was to have a community conversation around the issues that arose since 17-year-old Trayvon Martin lost his life and a not guilty verdict was delivered at the trial of George Zimmerman, who shot him.

The forum focused on the implications of the case for the future as well as what young black males must currently contend with. There was also much discussion about the “Stand Your Ground” laws implemented in 46 states, gun laws and gun control, increasing local violence, safety and race relations.

The forum ended with an audience question and answer portion.

“Trayvon Martin’s death started the debate about violence against black youth and is a reminder

of how the nation reacted to the brutal murder of Emmett Till in 1955 and the acquittal of his killers, which became a national story.

The Trayvon Martin case has once again propelled race relations and racial profiling into the national and international spotlight,” said Professor Ogletree.

Sentiments of a painful past of racism and discrimination are relived for many community members at mention of Trayvon’s name. For younger generations, stories told became ever real with the injustices surrounding the circumstances of his death.

“One thing you have to remember about this case was when you get this question so often: What made Trayvon so special? I kind of hate that question — it’s as if the life of this young black man could not be worth anything, so what’s all the fuss about?” said Parks as he began to retell the events leading up to the trial.

He declined to comment on much of the trial, though he was very vocal in his critique of the jury selection process.

Parks also discussed gun issues and safety after Ogletree pointed out that there are 310 million guns in America — just about one for every citizen — which illustrates a cultural fascination with weapons.

Parks said he does not believe that the issue is gun rights, but gun safety and the need to reduce violence, as well as reduce stereotyp-

ing, improve neighborhood watch education and establishing human rights as an issue of greater concern.

“We have to start seeing people as people,” Parks said.

At times the atmosphere of the forum was reminiscent of a church service as audience members nodded, swayed, clapped and offered feedback with words and grunts of agreement and disapproval to statements made.

The talk was very personal with Parks and Ogletree using clergy terms and drawing lots of parallels to racial experiences numerous people of color have had, like being pulled over for “driving while black,” and so on. Lighthearted jokes and comments were made as well. The air was heavy given the topic at hand though, simultaneously, compassion and love enveloped the room.

“What was Trayvon like?” asked one audience member to begin the Q&A segment. As all eyes turned to his mother Fulton, silence blanketed the room and her mostly solemn, painful expression changed to a warmer one. She had been mostly quiet but attentive as Parks entertained the legal questions. After describing Trayvon as a playful kid, her words: “He had to be close to me,” resonated with the crowd.

Her affable nature came out as she opened up, divulging information about Trayvon and the state of her family since the barrage of media attention has subsided.

“He was very playful and he liked to have a good time. He liked to listen to music, go to the mall, dress nice and he had started getting into colognes he wanted me to buy him,” Fulton said.

When asked what songs remind her of Trayvon, Fulton replied,

“Two songs. One song that keeps me going is ‘Encourage Yourself.’

Then the song that I hear when I think about him is ‘Ribbon in the Sky’ by Stevie Wonder.”

Other questions included: • How important is it for people of color to participate in jury duty and vote in all elections?

• What can young people do so this doesn’t happen again?

• How is Trayvon’s dad doing?

• How can people utilize their local legislature to ignite change?

• What are the do’s and don’t’s for youth when interacting with law officials • How can members of the audience support the Martin family?

Those in attendance at the forum connected greatly with what was said.

“I just think for me and perhaps for many in the room, when they hear that song driving in their car or when they’re in a store they will connect to Trayvon because he has to be part of moving all of us — every nationality, every color — forward. We have to get past this,” said Andrea Gardiner, 52, of Cambridge.

“I took a bus for three hours to come … It was a great experience, I enjoyed it. I got to meet his mom and see her in person but to actually see the pain and at the same time the passion is inspiring to me,” said Clinton McKinnis, 33, of New York.

To end, a video on the Trayvon Martin Foundation was shown as people offered monetary donations to support the effort created in Trayvon’s honor.

“Trayvon will forever be before us. We can never let him go … Name streets, schools and places to eat after him. Don’t let his life be in vain,” said Ogletree.

4 • Thursday, November 28, 2013 • BAY STATE BANNER

Established 1965

The essence of Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is more than a time for family reunion. It is also a time to give thanks. Many Americans are aspiring, ambitious, aggressive and acquisitive. This is an inappropriate disposition to be truly thankful. They can be exuberantly enthusiastic over a victory, such as the closing of a business deal, but they are insensitive to the subtle blessings that brought them to victory.

Contentment is essential for profound thankfulness. Desire is its nemesis. How can one be truly thankful when so many desires are still unfulfilled?

The attainment of unfettered thankfulness is an exalted state. Those with abundant financial resources find it especially difficult to rid the mind of interest in new acquisitions. Only when one’s mind is free of want will Thanksgiving attain its spiritual significance.

Bloomberg cannot thwart reversal of decision on stop and frisk policy New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is determined to end his political career without the police department constrained by a federal court order.

The city attorney filed suit to reverse the ruling of Federal District Court Judge Shira A. Scheindlin that the police stop-and-frisk policy is constitutionally defective as administered by the New York City Police Department.

A three judge panel of the Second Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals removed Scheindlin from the case but did not overturn the ruling. An appeal to the full court essentially left the ruling in place.

With Bill de Blasio elected as the new mayor, the court was aware it is likely that he will withdraw the suit when he takes office.

Bloomberg’s extraordinary efforts to deny constitutional protections to black and Latino citizens of New York confirm that the stop-and-frisk policy could be improperly applied. Citizens complained of feeling powerless and disrespected by obtrusive police intervention.

It is quite unsettling to be pulled over by the police even for a petty driving violation. Therefore, it is easy to understand the humiliation of becoming a victim of New York’s stop-and-frisk policy. With your hands up, the police pat you down for guns and drugs as passersby witness a believed apprehension of another dangerous felon.

Prior to 1968 the police needed “probable cause,” a fairly rigorous standard, to conduct such a search.

Now all that is needed is a reasonable belief that the person “may be armed and dangerous.” According

to their reports, New York police officers determine their quarry fits that description because of their “furtive movements” or “being fidgety, changing directions, walking in a certain way, grabbing at a pocket or looking over one’s shoulder.”

As might be expected from such broad justifications the number of stop and frisks in New York exploded. There were 4.43 million stops between 2004 and mid-2012. More than 90 percent of the victims were released without further police action.

However, the stops were found to be racially discriminatory because 83 percent of those stopped were black or Latino while only 50 percent of the city’s population belonged to that group.

Stop-and-frisk is a very intrusive practice that seemed to be employed indiscriminately, 4.43 million times in 8.5 years. It is no wonder that the people objected. However, Bloomberg and his police commissioner Raymond Kelly have concluded that the policy as practiced was essential to maintaining law and order.

Citizens filed a case in Federal District Court where Judge Shira A. Sheindlin ruled that the arbitrary searches violated the 4th Amendment protection against “unreasonable searches and seizures,” and the disproportionate targeting of blacks and Latinos is racial profiling in violation of the 14th Amendment. She ordered a modification of the policy to make it constitutionally compliant.

Stop-and-frisk is an essential law enforcement practice, but New Yorkers expect it to be constitutionally applied during the de Blasio administration.

LETTERSto the Editor

‘Children of people in transit’ not granted citizenship in Dominican Republic

Unlike the United States, the Dominican Republic does not grant citizenship to all those born within its jurisdiction. In fact, the United States is one of the few nations that maintains this practice. In most countries, it is the norm that citizenship be obtained by origin or conferred under certain conditions. Since 1929, the Constitution of the Dominican Republic has established that “the children of people in transit,” a temporary legal status, are not eligible for Dominican citizenship.

Like other nations with a significant immigrant population, the Dominican Republic has a legitimate interest in regulating immigration and having clear rules for acquisition of citizenship. This does not only ensure the internal stability of the country, but it also ensures adequate protection of its immigrants. The Dominican Republic should not be pressured by outside actors and other countries to implement measures contrary to its own

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Constitution and that would be unacceptable to most other nations facing similar immigration pressures.

The Dominican government recognizes its obligations to the international community and the plight of the children of illegal Haitian migrants born in the country who lack identity documents.

This does not, however, render them stateless. As your article says, Haiti’s Constitution bestows citizenship on any person born of Haitian parents anywhere in the world. This means that a person born to foreign parents in Haiti, is not eligible for Haitian citizenship.

The Dominican Republic and Haiti may have a fractious history. Recent events, including the solidarity shown by Domin-

ican society after the earthquake of 2010, have shown, however, that for the most part the countries are looking to the future, engaged in the hard task of finding joint solutions to common challenges.

ANÍBAL DE CASTRO Ambassador of the Dominican Republic Washington

Editor’s note: The United Nations Human Rights Council in a 2005 report noted that the Dominican Republic had enshrined jus soli (birthright citizenship), but maintains immigration laws that in its constitution discriminate against Haitians.

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Thursday, November 28, 2013 • BAY STATE BANNER • 5

ROVINGCamera

OPINION On Thanksgiving: Gratitude for champions of civil rights

What are you thankful for?

Walter Earl Fluker

Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer than recollects, longer than knowing even wonders.

—William Faulkner, “Light in August” Thanksgiving is a composite of memories. For some, memories of the table where they gather will take them to places and spaces inscribed in a nostalgic past of the warmth and intimacy of home and nation. For others, Thanksgiving is laden with memories that they would rather forget; and, no doubt, for some there are not any memories at all. My memories of Thanksgiving are of the former — of family, friends and food; moments of joy and of sadness, but moments nonetheless that I cherish because they help me believe in The Welcome Table.

This Thanksgiving, I will remember the fallen prince of our nation, the handsome and erudite John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States who was assassinated 50 years ago. He was family. In almost every African American home of the ‘60s and ‘70s, his picture was on the wall in commemoration, not so much for his brilliance and commitment to civil rights — but because of his absence. Those pictures on the walls were sites of memory. I think most Americans of that era had a deep respect and abiding reverence for the office of president. I am not so sure now.

The dangerous incivility and racist innuendoes hurled at President Obama convince me that though seasons have changed, still most Americans find it easier to revere our fallen heroes than to honor and believe in the possibility of the present ones.

On this Thanksgiving, I will also remember another picture that was on the wall in our homes — the picture of another fallen martyr, too frail and human to worship, but too good and courageous to forget. I will give thanks for the memory of Martin Luther King Jr. and for The dangerous incivility his American Dream. He was and racist innuendoes hurled at President Obama also family.

On Aug. 28 of this year, my convince me that though wife and I joined the throng of seasons have changed, still thousands who returned to the most Americans find it Lincoln Memorial, another site easier to revere our fallen of memory, to celebrate the heroes than to honor and 50th Anniversary of Dr. King’s believe in the possibility of “I Have a Dream” speech. I the present ones. could not help but reflect on the progress that we have made towards the realization of that dream, but also on how far we still must go “if America is to become a great nation” as King so eloquently proclaimed. King, more than Kennedy, invited America to “sit down at the Table of brotherhood (and sisterhood).” He helps me to believe.

We sat there in the shadows of the Great Emancipator, commemorating Martin and so many others, during the controversy surrounding the George Zimmerman verdict in the killing of Trayvonn Martin, a 17-year-old teenager in Sanford, Fla. President Obama’s remarks that “Trayvon could have been me 35 years ago” came as a source of encouragement for many mass protests of righteous indignation and cries for justice from citizens around the nation. On the other hand, many felt that he had inserted the proverbial race-card into an already volatile situation of fractured race relations in this country. Some conservative pundits blamed him for acting as the “Racist-in-Chief” while critics within the black community felt that he said too little, too late — that his statement was like “pre-sweetened Kool-Aid” suggesting that it was palliative at best and failed to address the deep structural issues at stake for the poor and black and hopeless masses who need his engaged and embodied leadership in this case and others.

One has to ask why this continued public harassment of President Obama appears to be intensifying as Supreme Court rulings carefully and effectively seek to dismantle the hard-fought gains of the Civil Rights Movement (the Voting Rights Act and affirmative action) in the year of the 50th Anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic speech?

This Thanksgiving, I will give thanks at the table for John and Martin and so many others who fought these hard won battles. I will also give thanks for Barack. He helps me to believe.

Walter Earl Fluker is the Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Ethical Leadership and editor of the Howard Washington Thurman Papers at Boston University.

The Banner welcomes your opinion.

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yawu@bannerpub.com ­Letters must be signed. Names may be withheld upon request.

I’m thankful to be alive, to have the people in my life that I have and that I have a job. You can’t take the little things for granted.

I’m thankful to be alive, that the Lord wakes me up every morning.

Working. There’s a lot of people who don’t have jobs. They’re not easy to come by.

Leah

Robert Cope

Teddy St. Fleur

Assistant School Teacher Jamaica Plain

Being alive. I’m always thankful.

Gabriel Goncalves Maintenance Dorchester

Cook Dorchester

I’m thankful for life, period.

Carmen Mason

Child Support Enforcement Dorchester

Auto Technician Dorchester

I’m thankful for being alive.

Sheyla Rosario Student Dorchester

INthe news

Keith Motley

J. Keith Motley, chancellor of at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, was honored by Community Change Inc. on Nov. 22 at the organization’s “Looking Back …

Moving Forward” 45th anniversary celebration. Motley was given the Drylongso Leadership Award for Challenging Structural Racism during the event, which was held at UMass Boston.

Established in 1989, the Drylongso Awards honor ordinary people doing extraordinary anti-racism work in Greater Boston.

The Drylongso Awards are inspired by the book “Drylongso: A Self-Portrait of Black America.”

In that book, anthropologist John Langston Gwaltney details the daily struggles of drylongso, or ordinary African Americans fighting racism.

Motley is the eighth chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Boston. He leads an institution with nearly 16,000 undergraduate and graduate students, a full-time and part-time faculty of more than 1,000, and a $323 million annual budget. Under his leadership the

university has earned recognition by the Princeton Review as one of the 150 “Best Value Colleges” in the United States.

Prior to his appointment as chancellor on July 1, 2007, Motley served as vice president for business, marketing, and public affairs at the University of Massachusetts President’s Office. Prior to joining the President’s Office, he was the interim chancellor of the University of Massachusetts, Boston, where he previously had served as vice chancellor for student affairs,

following more than 20 years in higher education administration that included 10 years as dean of student services at Northeastern University.

Community Change is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote racial justice and equity by challenging systemic racism and acting as a catalyst for anti-racist learning and action. The organization focuses particularly on involving white people in understanding and confronting systemic racism and white privilege.

6 • Thursday, November 28, 2013 • BAY STATE BANNER

Boston to hand over $1M in budgeting to city’s youth

session for high school teens and youth advocates will be held on Dec. 10 at 5:45 p.m. at City Hall.

An important part of the youth participatory budgeting process will be designating a youth organizer to lead efforts and work to engage Boston’s youth, as well as work with PBP and the mayor’s administration staff.

“Participatory budgeting is a real school of democracy,” said Josh Lerner, executive director of PBP. “Young people across Boston will learn democracy by doing — and decide how to spend $1 million on concrete improvements to their communities. I’m excited to work with the city and other community partners to

The Boston-based Youth Jobs Coalition is comprised of 40 youth and community groups from across Massachusetts that work together to create more employment opportunities for teens.

The coalition works very closely with and supports the Dorchester Bay Economic Development Committee’s Youth Force.

According to Lazerow, youth organizers with the Youth Jobs Coalition are familiar with budgeting processes and in fact have secured over $50 million of funding for youth jobs since the organization was started in 2009.

Every year, youth coalition members come together to meet with legislators and propose spend-

“Having young people learn how a city budget works and how a budget is allocated is really important and valuable.”

— Vanessa Snow

Boston’s youth have been involved in issues surrounding budgeting processes through demonstrations with organizations such as the Youth Jobs Coalition. Now, Boston is giving youth direct access with The Participatory Budgeting Project, which will allow youth to allocate $1 million in the city’s budget. (Photo courtesy of the Youth Jobs Coalition) Martin Desmarais on how to spend the money. voices are heard when it comes to The program will be a col- improving their neighborhoods.

The city of Boston is join- laborative effort between PBP, This process puts the power in ing forces with The Participa- the Mayor’s Youth Council and their hands, and will show them tory Budgeting Project to launch Boston Centers for Youth & Fam- what kind of impact they can a youth participatory budgeting ilies. make on our city.” process and has set aside $1 mil“Our most important collecBoston youth, community orlion to be allocated through the tion of talent lies in our young ganizations and youth advocates program. Youth involved in the people,” Mayor Thomas Menino will come together in a steering program will identify projects to said. “It is so important to have committee to begin to discuss the improve their communities, ex- our young people engaged in gov- design and execution of the budamine the best options and vote ernment, and to make sure their geting process. An information

build this groundbreaking new model for youth engagement and empowerment.”

Participatory budgeting can be traced back to Brazil in 1989 and has been used successfully in other U.S. cities including New York and Chicago. There are currently about 1,500 participatory budgets around the world, most at the city level. Participatory budgeting has also been used for counties, states, housing authorities, schools and school systems, universities, coalitions, and other public agencies.

PBP was launched to focus on the U.S. and Canada in 2005.

Members of the Mayor’s Youth Council are already at work talking to Boston teens about how the $1 million could be spent through the youth participatory budgeting process to make Boston a better place for youth.

“We are going to get a chance to identify items that are important to us, to have our voices heard, and to see projects that will benefit the city for a long time to come,” said Kayla Knight, a Roxbury representative on the Mayor’s Youth Council.

Dylan Lazerow, an organizer with the Youth Jobs Coalition, said Boston’s youth participatory budgeting process is a tremendous opportunity for youth to be involved in the Boston budgeting process and other matters of civic engagement.

“It is really important that young people are taking control of their own lives and understanding how government functions and, more than just understanding it, having an impact on it,” Lazerow said. “We find it crucial and vital to our success and our teens’ leadership development and growth.”

ing in Massachusetts budget line items that support youth jobs.

The Youth Jobs Coalition offers training to youth members to learn to about the budgeting process and Lazerow believes the success they have had illustrates that programs such as the new Boston youth participatory budgeting process can be tremendously successful.

“We have teens that understand this enough that they are teaching others about it,” Lazerow said. “It is a really empowering experience for the youth.”

Vanessa Snow, manager of organizing and policy initiatives for the Hyde Square Task Force, which supports youth and their families, said that Boston’s youth participatory budgeting process sounds like a great opportunity for youth to see firsthand where tax money goes and to become involved in public service.

“I was really happy to hear about his initiative,” Snow said.

“Mayor Menino has done a great job of looking for ways to have young people involved in city processes.

“Having young people learn how a city budget works and how a budget is allocated is really important and valuable,” she added.

“It is a great learning experience.”

According to Snow, the Hyde Square Task Force is an organization that believes youth should be involved in the decision making process for things affect their life and their community. As such, she expects the youth participatory budgeting process to be a big success.

“There should be a teen voice on the policies that impact them the most,” she said.

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Thursday, November 28, 2013 • BAY STATE BANNER • 7

BRA

continued from page 1

the planning function at the BRA from development worries some, Arroyo maintains that neighborhood activists are in support of the move.

“This needs to be fixed — that is the perception in the neighborhoods and the only way to deal with that perception is to actually fix it,” Arroyo said.

He emphasizes that people want to see change happen — they don’t want to just hear politicians continue to talk about changing the BRA and the development process without some kind of structure change in the way things are done.

Lydia Lowe, director of the Chinese Progressive Association, says that her organization’s work with development projects in Chinatown have long resulted in a call for change to the way BRA does business.

“I definitely think the BRA needs either elimination or reform,” Lowe said. “I think there has been major problems with the lack of transparency.”

Lowe said that with all the development pressure on Chinatown, the community and her organization are constantly involved in feedback on proposed or planned development, but the feeling is that their comments fall on deaf ears even when it comes through public meetings set up specifically to hear what the community has to think about development.

“I definitely think the BRA needs either elimination or reform.”

— Lydia Lowe “None of it really matters to the BRA,” she said. “They go about doing want they want anyway.”

Lowe is encouraged that Mayor-elect Walsh has promised to address the issues with the BRA and she does believe something will get done. She called the establishment of such a new agency — especially one with greater accountability — very “promising.”

“I think that the mayor-elect is sincere in wanting to see reform,” she said. “He is sincere and like us he is concerned about how to stabilize working class neighborhoods in the city.”

However, she does not expect the change to come overnight and recognizes that much of what Walsh is suggesting will take time and legislation. She expects it would take at least a year to see a new organization established, such as the Boston Economic Development Authority that Walsh is proposing.

In the short run, she would like to see more immediate changes and better efforts with neighborhoods and communities in the development process.

“There still is a lot that could be done that could make the process more democratic in the immediate future,” she said.

For now, though, she said her organization can do little but hope Walsh delivers on his campaign promise in regards to the BRA and

development. “A lot of people are in a wait and see mode,” she added.

Samuel Tyler, president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, cautions against too much dramatic change in the BRA and the current development process.

In September, his organization released a report on the importance of development in Boston, which pointed out that the city’s “heavy reliance on property tax makes development a high priority.”

According to the report, Boston relied on the property tax for 66.5 percent of its operating revenue in fiscal year 2013 and points out that new growth has driven the average annual increase in the property tax levy to 4.8 percent from 2008 to 2013.

“Under these conditions, the city’s fiscal health and its ability to balance the budget and finance new programs or initiatives relies, in good part, on new growth — new development, major rehabilitation, conversion of a property from tax-exempt to taxable status, and personal property tax growth,” the report stated.

It also pointed out that “new commercial development generates additional revenue for affordable housing and job training. These properties also impose less of a

Students from Smith Leadership Academy Charter Public School recently volunteered with theMOVE at City Growers, an urban farm off Blue Hill Avenue, in celebration of National Food Day. TheMOVE is a nonprofit organization that facilitates farm workdays for Metro Boston area children, teens and adults to inform deeper understandings of the food system.

(Maureen White photo)

cost burden for city services such as schools, public works, and parks.”

Tyler said he agrees with calls for greater transparency in the planning and development process, but cautions against moves that would

slow down the process of getting development projects through, arguing that developers could turn away from Boston if the process becomes slower or more complicated.

“It if gets slower the calculation

may be that those who are funding those projects will put their money in other cities,” he said. “There is a bigger perspective that needs to be put on the changes and what is involved.”

8 • Thursday, November 28, 2013 • BAY STATE BANNER

Thursday, November 28, 2013 • BAY STATE BANNER • 9

10 • Thursday, November 28, 2013 • BAY STATE BANNER

Heart & Sole Roxbury native mixes passion, artistry in shoe business

Roxbury resident Theodore Green (l) works with a variety of leathers and said he likes to create shoes that resemble his taste.

Green began experimenting with hand crafting shoes in 2006 and launched his shoe-making company in 2006. (r) The shoemaking process begins with a shoe last that Green custom orders after measuring a client’s foot. On occasion, after receiving the order, Green has to manipulate the shoe last using leather to better fit the customer.

(Photos courtesy of Theodore Green) Kassmin Williams Roxbury artist Theodore Green has made it his business to explore a variety of mediums throughout his career, gaining expertise in many art forms including drawing, painting, illustration and sculpting.

Today, the Massachusetts College of Arts alumnus combines the

skills he has gained throughout the years in a new trade.

Green spends much of his day between four yellow walls in the back room of his Centre Street home constructing leather shoes and boots from scratch for his 3-year-old company.

He starts with a shoe last that he custom orders to match the foot

size of his client and he builds with his hands, a number of tools and some machinery until he has a finished product.

The process takes about two weeks, Green says.

Green has always had an interest in shoemaking and became more intrigued during a trip to Italy.

While touring Florence,

Green noticed a number of small shops and decided to stop in one.

While there, he noticed a man in a backroom hammering away to make shoes.

“I asked some questions, [but] they talked to me in complete Italian and I was frustrated coming back home,” Green said. “For many years, I didn’t know how to

do anything but over time I started to cut leather, find tools and equipment and build piece-by-piece. I was doing this every day.”

Green began learning how to make shoes from his living room, reading books and connecting with experts who became mentors to him.

Shoes, continued to page 12

Thursday, November 28, 2013 • BAY STATE BANNER • 11

Negro spirituals give root to American musical identity Kevin C. Peterson Negro spirituals evolved within American culture at a time when all seemed lost for the people who invented them.

Treated like work animals, American slaves possessed neither full human status nor citizenship in the country where they toiled.

Yet over centuries of oppression, slaves forged a distinct identity from which emerged new aesthetic insights and a musical perspective unique only to blacks in the United States.

The grandeur of the Negro spirituals were in full auditory effect recently at the African Meeting House in Boston, which sits on the northern slope of Beacon Hill — a now tony neighborhood once home to Boston’s black community and a major stop on the Underground Railroad where escaping slaves from the South would arrive with the spirituals and freedom on their minds.

Some mournful and melodic, evoking sad suffering sounds, others upbeat and auspiciously hopeful, the spirituals communicate a wide-range of sacred musical innovation.

Giving witness to the vast hymnody of the spirituals at the African Meeting House were the New England Conservatory’s African American Roots Ensemble and Earth Tones, both highly-polished groups led by the charismatic, Nedelka Prescod.

Each group performed splendidly, giving harmonic interpre-

tive accounts of the plaintive, ultimately optimistic songs that slaves created even in the midst of their human misery.

“Elijah Rock,” was performed to an upbeat, aggressive, mellifluous cadence. The song references the Old Testament prophet of the Talmud whom God favored for his fastidious religious practice.

According to scriptures, Elijah raised the dead and foretold the coming of the Messiah — characteristics the American slave admired immensely and so casted his legacy into tonal form.

The 10-minute rendition of “Elijah Rock,” arranged by Jester Hairston, featured dramatic vocal scoring that tested the soprano and tenor ranges of the performers and included repeated, elongated, mesmerizing chants that were intended as part of the original worship song.

“The Negro spiritual literally had to do with the African-American singing a line over and over and over again until folks were in a trance. It was about bringing down a spirit,” said Prescod, a former New York City public school music teacher, who founded both ensembles which comprise students only.

The ensemble’s repertoire also includes precedents to the spirituals such as “works songs” invented on the cotton, rice and tobacco plantations of the deep south and bracing “field hollas,” music that was part complaint but also purposeful affirmation of the slave’s relentless efforts to search out the

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road to emancipation.

Hall Johnson’s “I’ve Been ‘Buked,” is one of the earliest Negro spirituals written in the post-slavery era. The grandson of a slave, Johnson wrote numerous spirituals that were inspired by songs handed down through oral transmission, usually at the local church. The ensemble’s version of “‘Buked” is contemplative and measured with an intensity that speaks to the slave having faith in the face of incalculable odds.

Tapping into the roots of the spirituals, the groups also recited religious and secular folk songs from such countries as Kenya, Nigeria and regions of South Africa, giving insight to the rhythmic foundations that would later support the music styles of such greats as jazz vocalist Billie Holliday, bluesman Robert Johnson, saxophonist Lester Young and gospel artist Mahalia Jackson.

The event, attended by nearly 100 listeners at the renovated church, was a fitting occasion for the African Meeting House, which, under the direction of Beverly Morgan Welch and Lynn Duval Luse, has been celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, the freeing of American slaves.

Nedelka Prescod, doctoral student and faculty member, leads the African American Roots Ensemble, comprised of New England Conservatory students, in a MAAH Music concert at the Museum of African American History. (Photo courtesy New England Conservatory)

12 • Thursday, November 28, 2013 • BAY STATE BANNER

Theodore Green has found success with his shoemaking business in Roxbury, impressing his clientele with his passion for the craft and willingness to go the extra mile to find specific leathers. (Photo courtesy of Theodore Green)

Shoes

continued from page 10

Green says the year 2008 was when everything started to “click” for him and in 2010 he launched his company, Theodore Green, specializing in high-end leather men’s shoes.

Green fulfills standard and custom requests for his customers, he said.

The transition from learning and experiment to developing a business came organically, according to Green.

“It was just kind of a natural progression,” he says. “I was really motivated about pushing my abilities and learning new technique. I always wanted to learn how to build shoes and when I got there, I wanted it to be more so that motivation kind of kept me going and I guess that’s kind of how I kept developing.”

Green says he’s connected to the Italian model of design, which is a combination of simplicity and elegance.

“Personally, I create footwear that I would enjoy wearing myself,” he comments. “I have a taste for luxury in my product.”

The shoemaking process can seem more like a craft than art and for some shoemakers it is, ac-

cording to New England Leather Company shoe finder Alex Stathopoulos, who provides some materials for Green.

Stathopoulos said Green is more particular and creative in his detail work than most shoemakers he has come across in his 20-plus years in the shoe business.

“His skills as far as putting everything together — I haven’t seen anything better than that. He’s very creative,” Stathopoulos said.

Being an artisan shoemaker in today’s world has its fair share of challenges, according to both Stathopoulos and Green who mentioned the difficulty in finding certain leather and hand tools.

Sometimes, Green has to make tools himself or have them made, he said.

“Finding tools and materials is a common task and requires research most times,” Green says.

Despite the scarce amount of tools that are openly available to hand-make shoes, Green has plans to continue creating shoes.

In the future, Green hopes to build partnerships with showrooms and retailers, he says, and will continue to develop his brand through trunk shows and presentation.

To view Theodore Green’s current selection, visit theodore green.com.

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Memorial continued from page 1

distinguished itself in the Korean War. From then on, the pair would come once or twice a week to clear litter and weeds from the park, cut the grass and maintain the plantings.

It was a simple memorial, with flagpoles for the U.S., Puerto Rican and Massachusetts flags, but then — as now — it was the sole monument to Puerto Rican fighters in the United States.

Molina and Rodriguez embarked on a fundraising campaign, hitting up corporations, hospitals and other institutions in the Boston area, often with disappointing results.

“We sent 21 proposals for funding to major banks in Boston,” Rodriguez says. “We got $500.”

In the end, Stuart Health Care donated $25,000, for the monument and park, which cost $400,000 to develop. The Red Sox gave $5,000.

Elected officials were able to bring in more. Sanchez and state Sen. Sonia Chang Diaz were able to secure $100,000 in state funding. Gov. Deval Patrick brought in $50,000 in state funding. Mayor Thomas Menino tapped the city’s Brown Fund for an additional $100,000.

Mayor-elect Marty Walsh told the gathering at last week’s unveiling he would work with the veterans to close the funding gap.

“We’ll figure out the $50,000,” he told the gathering last week.

The monument stands at an intersection that was the center of

the Puerto Rican community when Molina and Rodriguez moved to Boston in the late 1960s. The park is opposite the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, where many in the Puerto Rican community celebrated mass.

It also stands in front of the Villa Victoria housing development, which was built in the ‘70s after Puerto Rican tenants in the South End protested the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s decision to raze the apartment buildings where they lived.

Heading up the unveiling ceremony was Vanessa Calderon Rosado, executive director of Iquilinos Boricuas En Accion, the agency which built the Villa Victoria development who’s father Carmelo Calderon fought in Korea in the 65th Regiment.

“This monument will be the gateway for our beloved Villa Victoria community,” she said.

The park has been professionally landscaped with new trees planted and decorative grasses. The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department has agreed to maintain the park, according to Rodriguez.

First visited by Christopher Columbus on Nov. 19, 1493, Puerto Rico was colonized by Spain in 1508. Puerto Rican colonists fought in the American Revolution and in every U.S. war since then, according to Rodriguez, but have rarely been recognized for the service.

“We’ve put a lot of work into this,” he said. “This is a monument for Puerto Ricans. Not a plaque, but a monument. We’ve fulfilled a promise to our people.”

Villa Victoria resident Elisa Soltren sings the National Anthem during the unveiling of the Puerto Rican Veterans monument in the South End last week. (Yawu Miller photo)

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Kuumba Singers celebrate spirituality and history

The Kuumba Singers were formed at Harvard University in 1970. The choir performs songs that celebrate the richness of the music, dance and poetry of black culture and history. (Photos courtesy of Kuumba Singers) Ada Lin “Sankofa,” the young woman proclaims, as her voice reverberates through the hall, “means go back and take.”

These words echo through Memorial Church in Harvard Yard on a windy winter night in December as hundreds of listeners gather to celebrate the richness of the music, poetry, and dance of the black diaspora at the Kuumba Singers’ annual Dr. S. Allen Counter Christmas Concert.

For the Kuumba Singers, “sankofa,” which is a word in the Akan language of Ghana that refers to the reclaiming a history, has a special meaning. Founded in 1970, the Kuumba Singers of Harvard College was established as a safe space for black students at Harvard and on neighboring campuses during a period of racial tension at both the university and in the nation.

At times, the small community of black students found themselves among a student body and administration that was less than welcoming.

Wage

continued from page 1

wage has declined steadily since 1968, when it was the equivalent of $10.72 an hour in 2013 dollars.

The Kuumba Singers, led by director Sheldon K.X. Reid, will hold its annual Dr. S. Allen Counter Christmas Concert on Dec. 6 and Dec. 7 at the Memorial Church in Cambridge.

The performance is titled, “Go Tell It!” Boston communities.

Referencing both the African American spiritual, Go Tell It on the Mountain, as well as James Baldwin’s 1953 novel of the same name, “Go Tell It” will feature energetic spoken word pieces, praise dance and joyful and powerful singing. As Langston Hughes wrote in his poem, “Spirituals,” “Rocks and the firm roots of trees. The rising shafts of mountains. Something strong to put my hands on. Sing, O Lord Jesus! Song is a strong thing.”

The Kuumba Singers’ annual

Dr. S. Allen Counter Christmas Concert will be held on Friday, Dec. 6 and Saturday, Dec. 7 at the Memorial Church in Harvard Yard. Both concerts will be held at 8 p.m. Tickets are free and available at the Harvard Box Office or through Jasmine Gipson at business.manager@kuumbasingers. org. For more information visit www. kuumbasingers.org.

By 1968, the African American studies movement had reached Harvard and the university’s burgeoning program featured a class on African American music, taught by a young lecturer named Hubert Walters. Two of his students, Dennis Wiley and Fred Lucas, began to imagine that a choir could provide the kind of political and creative solidarity that the college’s black community had been seeking, and established the Kuumba Singers, with the mission of celebrating the creativity and spirituality of the music of the African diaspora.

For them, establishing an enduring venue for this mission was a deeply political act. The early years of Kuumba were not easy for the tireless founding members.

Distrust and lack of support from the university led the choir to be largely itinerant, moving from location to location to find a place where they could sing.

They spent late nights stacking and laying out chairs in the cafeteria of the Radcliffe Union, and held rehearsals in their rooms,

with their director, Robert Winfrey, sitting in a place of honor on a dorm room bed. After futile efforts to attain a permanent rehearsal space, they even moved off campus for a time in search of support outside of Harvard.

Although Kuumba, which is quickly approaching its 45th anniversary, now has a permanent space in which the choir rehearses, proclaiming, “sankofa,” still resonates with the historical memory of the early political struggles of the organization and of its fight for recognition and dignity.

The choir is now more ethnically, racially and religiously diverse than it was in 1970, but there is no doubt that it is just as committed to the unapologetic celebration of a music and tradition that has often struggled to achieve true recognition for its artistic achievement.

Led by its current director, Sheldon K.X. Reid, Kuumba’s Christmas 2013 concert is themed, “Go Tell It!” in reference to the choir’s mission to share its powerful history and mission with the Harvard and

Over its history, the Kuumba Singers have performed in many venues on Harvard’s campus, including outside on the university’s grounds.

“We’re talking about bringing the minimum wage back to where it was,” Rushing says. “We’re not even talking about a living wage.”

A living wage in Massachusetts — the amount a single adult needs to meet basic needs without sub-

sidies — is $28,500, according to the Crittenton Women’s Union’s yearly Massachusetts Economic Independent Index. In Suffolk County, which includes Boston, Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop and has higher rents than the rest of the

state — and most of the United States — an individual needs $33,216 to live without subsidies, according to the organization.

The labor-backed group organizing a ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage, Raise Up

Ada Lin is a Harvard Senior and serves as Director of Publicity for the Kuumba Singers.

Massachusetts, is advocating increasing the minimum wage to $10.50 an hour. The group has collected 275,000 signatures, more than enough to place the question on the ballot for a statewide vote next year.

Subscribe to the Banner call: 617-261- 4600

Commonwealth of Massachusetts The Trial Court Probate and Family Court Department SUFFOLK Division

Docket No. SU12C0365CA In the matter of Latarsha Mae Porter of Roxbury, MA

NOTICE OF PETITION FOR CHANGE OF NAME To all persons interested in a petition described: A petition has been presented by Latarsha M Porter requesting that Latarsha Mae Porter be allowed to change her name as follows: Kamar Marlon Porter IF YOU DESIRE TO OBJECT THERETO, YOU OR YOUR ATTORNEY MUST FILE A WRITTEN APPEARANCE IN SAID COURT AT BOSTON ON OR BEFORE TEN O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING (10:00 AM) ON 12/19/2013.

WITNESS, HON. Joan P. Armstrong, First Justice of this Court.

Date: November 14, 2013 Patricia M. Campatelli Register of Probate Commonwealth of Massachusetts The Trial Court Probate and Family Court Department

SUFFOLK Division

Docket No. SU13D2361DR

Commonwealth of Massachusetts The Trial Court Probate and Family Court Department

Divorce Summons by Publication and Mailing Josefina Figueroa Cuevas

vs.

Rafael A Cuevas

To the Defendant: The Plaintiff has filed a Complaint for Divorce requesting that the Court grant a divorce for irretrievable breakdown of the marriage pursuant to G.L. c. 208, Section 1 B.

SUFFOLK Division

Docket No. SU13C0330CA

In the matter of Zaria Monet Johnson-Kirkland of Dorchester, MA NOTICE OF PETITION FOR CHANGE OF NAME

The Complaint is on file at the Court.

To all persons interested in a petition described:

An Automatic Restraining Order has been entered in this matter preventing you from taking any action which would negatively impact the current financial status of either party. SEE Supplemental Probate Court Rule 411.

A petition has been presented by Samone Johnson requesting that Zaria Monet Johnson-Kirkland be allowed to change her name as follows:

You are hereby summoned and required to serve upon: Josefina Figueroa Cuevas, 51 Whitten St 2, Dorchester, MA 02122 your answer, if any, on or before 01/16/2014. If you fail to do so, the court will proceed to the hearing and adjudication of this action. You are also required to file a copy of your answer, if any, in the office of the Register of this Court.

Witness, Hon. Joan P. Armstrong, First Justice of this Court.

Date: NOVEMBER 4, 2013 Patricia M. Campatelli Register of Probate

Skylaa Zaria-Monet Kirkland IF YOU DESIRE TO OBJECT THERETO, YOU OR YOUR ATTORNEY MUST FILE A WRITTEN APPEARANCE IN SAID COURT AT BOSTON ON OR BEFORE TEN O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING (10:00 AM) ON 12/05/2013.

WITNESS, HON. Joan P. Armstrong, First Justice of this Court.

Date: November 1, 2013 Patricia M. Campatelli Register of Probate

Thursday, November 28, 2013 • BAY STATE BANNER • 15

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heated

781.246.1350

OWNER

TTD: 711 National Voice Relay

617-835-6373 Brokers Welcome

Medical Office Building For Sale

435 Warren Street, Roxbury, Massachusetts

Sec 8 OK

617-283-2081

Flanders Hill at Westborough Affordable Apartments Flanders Hill at Westborough is in Metro West Boston, surrounded by shopping, dining and minutes from Routes 495, 90 and 9.

One & Two Bedroom Apartments now available

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One beds $999 Two beds $1,099 Includes water, sewer, and trash Maximum Income Guidelines 1 person $45,100 2 persons $51,550 3 persons $58,000 4 persons $64,400

www.flandershillatwestborough.com Call for more information 508-366-8001

ADVERTISE YOUR CLASSIFIEDS (617) 261-4600 x 7799 • ads@bannerpub.com

This offering consist of three parcels as described below: Parcel #1 435 Warren Street The property is a modern medical facility built in 1974, and consist of a two story brick structure containing medical dental suites and a four story structure housing executive and administrative offices including records storage in the basement area. The two structures are attached by a three-story glass enclosed atrium containing approx.

39,100 sq. ft of space.

10 Hazelwood Street This property consist of 4,756 sq. ft. lot of land currently use for parking.

Parcel #2 244 Townsend Street This property contains 18,808 sq. ft. of land with a 12,191 sq. ft. house which is structurally deficient currently used for storage.

Parcel #3 Townsend Street This property contains 36,562 sq. ft. of unimproved land formally used for ancillary parking.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL Ronald Mackey (617) 947-6090

TAYLOR SMITH

Commercial Real Estate

SENIOR COMMUNITY ORGANIZER

We Help People Get and Succeed at Good Jobs Free job-search and career development help: • Most people who complete our 60hour job-search workshop qualify for free, individual job-search help.

• We refer people to jobs that pay $20,000 — $30,000 and offer benefits.

• We mentor people who accept jobs through our referrals for two years.

If you are a low-income adult who is: • Looking for a full-time permanent job; • Willing to participate in our two-year mentoring program; • Age 22 to 55; • Legal to work in the U.S.; • Able to succeed in an English-speaking workplace, then…

Orientation Every Thursday, 1:00 PM. Call us to see if you qualify at (617) 424-6616.

• You will need to bring your résumé • If you do not have a résumé, bring a list of: 4 Jobs and military service since high school; 4 Education and training.

4 Be sure to include month and year; be sure that all dates are correct.

We look forward to working with you!

The Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC) is a non profit community development organization committed to revitalizing the Jamaica Plain neighborhood.

JPNDC seeks a Senior Community Organizer to provide organizing support, organize campaigns to win significant community improvements, and build power for JPNDC constituents, contributing to the revitalization of the neighborhood.

Send resume to JPNDC, 31 Germania Street, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130 or email jgonzalez@jpndc.org.

Administrative Support/Financial Assistant The Central Transportation Planning Staff (CTPS) of the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is seeking an Administrative Support/Financial Assistant.

This individual will be contributing to all administrative and financial activities of this 60 person organization.

For more details about this position, please visit www.bostonmpo.org. Resume and cover letter to Deputy Executive Director, CTPS, 10 Park Plaza, Ste. 2150, Boston, MA 02116, or recruitment@ctps.org Applicants must have the legal status for working in the U.S. AA/EOE

SUBSCRIBE TO THE BANNER call (617) 261-4600

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Full-charge Bookkeeper

(full-time, non-exempt) To Apply: Send your resume titled “your last name-first initial-resume” (e.g.

“SMITH J RESUME”) and a detailed cover letter titled “your last name-first initial-cover” (e.g. “SMITH J COVER”) to careers@clf.org.

No phone calls please.

Application materials must be received no later than December 13, 2013. www.clf.org